Investigations of the relationship betw een disease and airborne (1→3)-β-D-glucan in buildings

Studies on the relationship between symptoms in indoor air and the amount of airborne (1→3)-β-D-glucan were reviewed. Relationships were found for symptoms and objective tests of airways inflammation. The data suggest that (1→3)-β-D-glucan could be a causative agent

The Talking Points Tool: A Brief Intervention to Support Predoctoral Student and Faculty Advisor Communication

Excellent relationships between predoctoral students and faculty supervisors can lay the foundation for a satisfying degree program and productive future. Contrarily, poor relationships can frustrate both students and supervisors. We examined mentoring experiences focused on career development. Students desired enhanced career mentoring but were uncomfortable approaching their supervisors with these concerns. Faculty advisors reported willingness to support students’ career development, yet expected students to initiate those conversations. Responding to this communication disconnect, we developed a brief intervention to facilitate conversations—a Talking Points Tool (TPT). In this paper, we examine whether the TPT influenced students’ career conversations and development.Cockrell School of Engineerin

The serotonin system: a potential target for anti-dyskinetic treatments and biomarker discovery.

L-DOPA-induced dyskinesia is a major problem in the treatment of Parkinson's disease. Today there are few anti-dyskinetic treatments available for the patients, and all of them have major limitations. Recent findings have revealed an important role of the serotonin system in L-DOPA-induced dyskinesia. In the parkinsonian brain, serotonin axon terminals can compensate for the dopamine loss by converting L-DOPA into dopamine and releasing it as a false neurotransmitter. However, the terminals represent an aberrant source of dopamine release, increasing the risk for dyskinesia. In line with this, a relatively high density of serotonin axon fibres in striatum has been reported in dyskinetic animals and patients. Furthermore, serotonin can influence dyskinesia by modulating glutamate or GABA signalling in the basal ganglia via receptors located on non-serotonergic neurons. Through either mechanism, modulation of certain serotonin receptors has been shown to reduce the severity of dyskinetic movements. The serotonin system represents an interesting target for developing anti-dyskinetic treatments. Future therapies may take advantage of the synergistic effect produced by the modulation of different serotonin receptors or pursue a region-specific modulation of certain receptors. Moreover, morphological or biochemical features of the serotonin system could be used to develop biomarkers for patient stratification in clinical trials of anti-dyskinetic compounds

Questions and Answers in a Chinese as a Foreign Language Speech Event

This paper reports the analysis of a stretch of classroom discourse using a Conversation Analysis (CA) approach to uncover the nature of how participants produce and respond to a particular question type - yes/no interrogatives (YNI) - within a student-led presentation. In this speech event, the analysis reveals how YNI, as proposed by Raymond (2003), produce constraints as well as expectations on the answers they structure. Using the basic CA unit of analysis, the turn-taking structure (where first pair parts make conditionally relevant elements within second pair parts), the data reveal that when non-type conforming responses are produced they are done so for cause - generally as a signal of some type of troublesome condition set by the YNI formation. In addition, non-type conforming responses are fashioned so as to provide accounts. Data support Raymonds view of type-conformity set by YNI as shown within a classroom speech event