Molecular Gas in Spiral Galaxies

In this review, I highlight a number of recent surveys of molecular gas in nearby spiral galaxies. Through such surveys, more complete observations of the distribution and kinematics of molecular gas have become available for galaxies with a wider range of properties (e.g., brightness, Hubble type, strength of spiral or bar structure). These studies show the promise of both interferometers and single-dish telescopes in advancing our general understanding of molecular gas in spiral galaxies. In particular, I highlight the contributions of the recent BIMA Survey of Nearby Galaxies (SONG).Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure. To appear in the proceedings of the 4th Cologne-Bonn-Zermatt-Symposium, "The Dense Interstellar Medium in Galaxies", which was held in Zermatt, Switzerland in September 200

CAM therapies among primary care patients using opioid therapy for chronic pain

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is an increasingly common therapy used to treat chronic pain syndromes. However; there is limited information on the utilization and efficacy of CAM therapy in primary care patients receiving long-term opioid therapy.</p> <p>Method</p> <p>A survey of CAM therapy was conducted with a systematic sample of 908 primary care patients receiving opioids as a primary treatment method for chronic pain. Subjects completed a questionnaire designed to assess utilization, efficacy and costs of CAM therapies in this population.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Patients were treated for a variety of pain problems including low back pain (38.4%), headaches (9.9%), and knee pain (6.5%); the average duration of pain was 16 years. The median morphine equivalent opioid dose was 41 mg/day, and the mean dose was 92 mg/day. Forty-four percent of the sample reported CAM therapy use in the past 12 months. Therapies utilized included massage therapy (27.3%, n = 248), chiropractic treatment (17.8%, n = 162), acupuncture (7.6%, n = 69), yoga (6.1%, n = 55), herbs and supplements (6.8%, n = 62), and prolotherapy (5.9%, n = 54). CAM utilization was significantly related to age female gender, pain severity income pain diagnosis of neck and upper back pain, and illicit drug use. Medical insurance covered chiropractic treatment (81.8%) and prolotherapy (87.7%), whereas patients primarily paid for other CAM therapies. Over half the sample reported that one or more of the CAM therapies were helpful.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study suggests CAM therapy is widely used by patients receiving opioids for chronic pain. Whether opioids can be reduced by introducing such therapies remains to be studied.</p

Information transmission in oscillatory neural activity

Periodic neural activity not locked to the stimulus or to motor responses is usually ignored. Here, we present new tools for modeling and quantifying the information transmission based on periodic neural activity that occurs with quasi-random phase relative to the stimulus. We propose a model to reproduce characteristic features of oscillatory spike trains, such as histograms of inter-spike intervals and phase locking of spikes to an oscillatory influence. The proposed model is based on an inhomogeneous Gamma process governed by a density function that is a product of the usual stimulus-dependent rate and a quasi-periodic function. Further, we present an analysis method generalizing the direct method (Rieke et al, 1999; Brenner et al, 2000) to assess the information content in such data. We demonstrate these tools on recordings from relay cells in the lateral geniculate nucleus of the cat.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures, to appear in Biological Cybernetic

Matrix theory origins of non-geometric fluxes

We explore the origins of non-geometric fluxes within the context of M theory described as a matrix model. Building upon compactifications of Matrix theory on non-commutative tori and twisted tori, we formulate the conditions which describe compactifications with non-geometric fluxes. These turn out to be related to certain deformations of tori with non-commutative and non-associative structures on their phase space. Quantization of flux appears as a natural consequence of the framework and leads to the resolution of non-associativity at the level of the unitary operators. The quantum-mechanical nature of the model bestows an important role on the phase space. In particular, the geometric and non-geometric fluxes exchange their properties when going from position space to momentum space thus providing a duality among the two. Moreover, the operations which connect solutions with different fluxes are described and their relation to T-duality is discussed. Finally, we provide some insights on the effective gauge theories obtained from these matrix compactifications.Comment: 1+31 pages, reference list update

Large-scale associations between the leukocyte transcriptome and BOLD responses to speech differ in autism early language outcome subtypes.

Heterogeneity in early language development in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is clinically important and may reflect neurobiologically distinct subtypes. Here, we identified a large-scale association between multiple coordinated blood leukocyte gene coexpression modules and the multivariate functional neuroimaging (fMRI) response to speech. Gene coexpression modules associated with the multivariate fMRI response to speech were different for all pairwise comparisons between typically developing toddlers and toddlers with ASD and poor versus good early language outcome. Associated coexpression modules were enriched in genes that are broadly expressed in the brain and many other tissues. These coexpression modules were also enriched in ASD-associated, prenatal, human-specific, and language-relevant genes. This work highlights distinctive neurobiology in ASD subtypes with different early language outcomes that is present well before such outcomes are known. Associations between neuroimaging measures and gene expression levels in blood leukocytes may offer a unique in vivo window into identifying brain-relevant molecular mechanisms in ASD

Factors associated with herbal use among urban multiethnic primary care patients: a cross-sectional survey

BACKGROUND: The use of herbal supplements in the United States has become increasingly popular. The prevalence of herbal use among primary care patients varies in previous studies; the pattern of herbal use among urban racially/ethnically diverse primary care patients has not been widely studied. The primary objectives of this study were to describe the use of herbs by ethnically diverse primary care patients in a large metropolitan area and to examine factors associated with such use. The secondary objective was to investigate perceptions about and patterns of herbal use. METHODS: Data for a cross-sectional survey were collected at primary care practices affiliated with the Southern Primary-care Urban Research Network (SPUR-Net) in Houston, Texas, from September 2002 to March 2003. To participate in the study, patients had to be at least 18 years of age and visiting one of the SPUR-Net clinics for routine, nonacute care. Survey questions were available in both English and Spanish. RESULTS: A total of 322 patients who had complete information on race/ethnicity were included in the analysis. Overall, 36% of the surveyed patients (n = 322) indicated use of herbs, with wide variability among ethnic groups: 50% of Hispanics, 50% of Asians, 41% of Whites, and 22% of African-Americans. Significant factors associated with an individual's herbal use were ethnicity other than African-American, having an immigrant family history, and reporting herbal use by other family members. About 40% of survey respondents believed that taking prescription medications and herbal medicines together was more effective than taking either alone. One-third of herbal users reported using herbs on a daily basis. More Whites (67%) disclosed their herbal use to their health-care providers than did African-Americans (45%), Hispanics (31%), or Asians (31%). CONCLUSIONS: Racial/ethnic differences in herbal use were apparent among this sample of urban multiethnic adult primary care patients. Associated factors of herbal use were non-African-American ethnicity, immigrant family history, and herbal use among family members. Whereas Hispanics and Asians reported the highest rates of herbal use, they were the least likely to disclose their use to health-care professionals. These findings are important for ensuring medication safety in primary care practices

Highly Sensitive Detection of Individual HEAT and ARM Repeats with HHpred and COACH

BACKGROUND:HEAT and ARM repeats occur in a large number of eukaryotic proteins. As these repeats are often highly diverged, the prediction of HEAT or ARM domains can be challenging. Except for the most clear-cut cases, identification at the individual repeat level is indispensable, in particular for determining domain boundaries. However, methods using single sequence queries do not have the sensitivity required to deal with more divergent repeats and, when applied to proteins with known structures, in some cases failed to detect a single repeat. METHODOLOGY AND PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:Testing algorithms which use multiple sequence alignments as queries, we found two of them, HHpred and COACH, to detect HEAT and ARM repeats with greatly enhanced sensitivity. Calibration against experimentally determined structures suggests the use of three score classes with increasing confidence in the prediction, and prediction thresholds for each method. When we applied a new protocol using both HHpred and COACH to these structures, it detected 82% of HEAT repeats and 90% of ARM repeats, with the minimum for a given protein of 57% for HEAT repeats and 60% for ARM repeats. Application to bona fide HEAT and ARM proteins or domains indicated that similar numbers can be expected for the full complement of HEAT/ARM proteins. A systematic screen of the Protein Data Bank for false positive hits revealed their number to be low, in particular for ARM repeats. Double false positive hits for a given protein were rare for HEAT and not at all observed for ARM repeats. In combination with fold prediction and consistency checking (multiple sequence alignments, secondary structure prediction, and position analysis), repeat prediction with the new HHpred/COACH protocol dramatically improves prediction in the twilight zone of fold prediction methods, as well as the delineation of HEAT/ARM domain boundaries. SIGNIFICANCE:A protocol is presented for the identification of individual HEAT or ARM repeats which is straightforward to implement. It provides high sensitivity at a low false positive rate and will therefore greatly enhance the accuracy of predictions of HEAT and ARM domains

Reduction in downstream test utilization following introduction of coronary computed tomography in a cardiology practice

To compare utilization of non-invasive ischemic testing, invasive coronary angiography (ICA), and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) procedures before and after introduction of 64-slice multi-detector row coronary computed tomographic angiography (CCTA) in a large urban primary and consultative cardiology practice. We utilized a review of electronic medical records (NotesMD®) and the electronic practice management system (Megawest®) encompassing a 4-year period from 2004 to 2007 to determine the number of exercise treadmill (TME), supine bicycle exercise echocardiography (SBE), single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) myocardial perfusion stress imaging (MPI), coronary calcium score (CCS), CCTA, ICA, and PCI procedures performed annually. Test utilization in the 2 years prior to and 2 years following availability of CCTA were compared. Over the 4-year period reviewed, the annual utilization of ICA decreased 45% (2,083 procedures in 2004 vs. 1,150 procedures in 2007, P < 0.01) and the percentage of ICA cases requiring PCI increased (19% in 2004 vs. 28% in 2007, P < 0.001). SPECT MPI decreased 19% (3,223 in 2004 vs. 2,614 in 2007 P < 0.02) and exercise stress treadmill testing decreased 49% (471 in 2004 vs. 241 in 2007 P < 0.02). Over the same period, there were no significant changes in measures of practice volume (office and hospital) or the annual incidence of PCI (405 cases in 2004 vs. 326 cases in 2007) but a higher percentage of patients with significant disease undergoing PCI 19% in 2004 vs. 29% in 2007 P < 0.01. Implementation of CCTA resulted in a significant decrease in ICA and a corresponding significant increase in the percentage of ICA cases requiring PCI, indicating that CCTA resulted in more accurate referral for ICA. The reduction in unnecessary ICA is associated with avoidance of potential morbidity and mortality associated with invasive diagnostic testing, reduction of downstream SPECT MPI and TME as well as substantial savings in health care dollars