Customizing Message Content to Facilitate Decisions about Participating in Genomics Research: A Reasoned Action Approach

According to the doctrine of informed consent, research participants have a right to voluntarily decide whether to enroll in a study and to do so with an adequate understanding of what participation entails (Beauchamp & Childress, 2009). Mirroring these rights, investigators have a moral obligation to give people the facts that are most critical to their choices (Fischhoff, 2011). Yet, theory-based analytical tools for determining which information is likely to have the largest impact on participation decisions are underdeveloped. Lacking a basis to prioritize elements of disclosure for distinct audiences, the length and complexity of consent documents has increased over time. Ironically, these improvements may have hindered comprehension and people\u27s access to the information they need to make informed choices. According to the reasoned action model (Fishbein & Ajzen, 2010), decisions to participate in genomics research--like any other behavior--are driven by a limited number of factors. In this dissertation, consequences of participating that readily came to mind for respondents were expected to have a larger impact on attitudes and intentions to participate in genomics research than were nonsalient consequences. Moreover, customized messages designed to target salient versus nonsalient beliefs were expected to have larger effects on attitude and intention. Based on media priming theory (e.g., Price & Tewksbury, 1997), plausible downstream effects on belief salience resulting from message exposure were also explored, as was the conditional effect of salience on belief change (Jaccard, 1981). An open-ended belief elicitation in Study 1 revealed audience segments with different motivations for participating in a genetic biobank. Contributing to the greater good was especially salient for some respondents, while receiving personal test results was salient for others. In Study 2, an experimental design was used to test the conditional effects of segment-targeted messages on belief strength, attitudes and intentions toward participating in a fictional genomic research project. Both studies suggested that salient behavior-related beliefs had a larger influence on people\u27s participation decisions. Results from Study 2 further indicated that salient beliefs might also be more difficult to change. Theoretical and practical implications for fostering informed consent in large-scale genomic research are discussed

A nonlinear transformation of the dispersive long wave equations in (2+1) dimensions and its applications

A nonlinear transformation of the dispersive long wave equations in (2+1) dimensions is derived by using the homogeneous balance method. With the aid of the transformation given here, exact solutions of the equations are obtained

Supporting Parental Decisions About Genomic Sequencing for Newborn Screening: The NC NEXUS Decision Aid

Advances in genomic sequencing technology have raised fundamental challenges to the traditional ways genomic information is communicated. These challenges will become increasingly complex and will affect a much larger population in the future if genomics is incorporated into standard newborn screening practice. Clinicians, public health officials, and other stakeholders will need to agree on the types of information that they should seek and communicate to parents. Currently, few evidence-based and validated tools are available to support parental informed decision-making. These tools will be necessary as genomics is integrated into clinical practice and public health systems. In this article we describe how the North Carolina Newborn Exome Sequencing for Universal Screening study is addressing the need to support parents in making informed decisions about the use of genomic testing in newborn screening. We outline the context for newborn screening and justify the need for parental decision support. We also describe the process of decision aid development and the data sources, processes, and best practices being used in development. By the end of the study, we will have an evidenced-based process and validated tools to support parental informed decision-making about the use of genomic sequencing in newborn screening. Data from the study will help answer important questions about which genomic information ought to be sought and communicated when testing newborns

Stereochemical outcomes of C-F activation reactions of benzyl fluoride

NK and DOH acknowledge support from the University of St Andrews, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC, Grant No.: EP/L017911/1), and the EPSRC UK National Mass Spectrometry Facility at Swansea University. This work was also supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the FRQNT Centre in Green Chemistry and Catalysis (CGCC), and the Université Laval.In recent years, the highly polar C-F bond has been utilised in activation chemistry despite its low reactivity to traditional nucleophiles, when compared to other C-X halogen bonds. Paquin's group has reported extensive studies on the C-F activation of benzylic fluorides for nucleophilic substitutions and Friedel-Crafts reactions, using a range of hydrogen bond donors such as water, triols or hexafluoroisopropanol (HFIP) as the activators. This study examines the stereointegrity of the C-F activation reaction through the use of an enantiopure isotopomer of benzyl fluoride to identify whether the reaction conditions favour a dissociative (SN1) or associative (SN2) pathway. [2H]-Isotopomer ratios in the reactions were assayed using the Courtieu 2H NMR method in a chiral liquid crystal (poly-γ-benzyl-L-glutamate) matrix and demonstrated that both associative and dissociative pathways operate to varying degrees, according to the nature of the nucleophile and the hydrogen bond donor.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Mode of action of antimicrobial peptides: long and short amphipathic alpha-helixes use different mechanisms

1 pag. -- 58th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical-Societ

Two States in the Holy Land?: International Recognition and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

How do states decide to extend or withhold international recognition in cases of contested sovereignty? We focus on how religion shapes the incentives of states in making this decision, both at the domestic level through religious institutions and at the international level through religious affinities. States with transnational religious ties to the contested territory are more likely to extend recognition. At the domestic level, states that heavily regulate religion are less likely to extend international recognition. We test these conjectures, and examine others in the literature, with two new data sets on the international recognition of both Palestine and Israel and voting on the United Nations resolution to admit Palestine as a non-member state observer, combined with global data on religious regulation and religious affinities. In cases of contested sovereignty, the results provide support for these two mechanisms through which religion shapes foreign policy decisions about international recognition

In Situ mechanical effects of a specific neurodynamic mobilization of the superficial fibular nerve: A cadaveric study

Context: A specific neurodynamic mobilization for the superficial fibular nerve (SFN) has been suggested in the reference literature for manual therapists to evaluate nerve mechanosensitivity in patients. However, no biomechanical studies examined the ability of this technique to produce nerve strain. Therefore, mechanical specificity of this technique is not yet established. Objective: The aim of our study was to test whether this examination and treatment technique was producing nerve strain in the fresh frozen cadaver and the contribution of each motion to total longitudinal strain. Design: Quantitative original research, controlled laboratory study Methods: A differential variable reluctance transducer was inserted in ten SFN from six fresh cadavers to measure strain during the mobilization. A specific sequence of plantar flexion (PF), ankle inversion (INV), straight leg raise (SLR) position and 30{degree sign} of hip adduction (ADD) was applied to the lower limb. The mobilization was repeated at 0°, 30°, 60° and 90° of Straight Leg Raise (SLR) position to measure the impact of hip flexion position. Findings: Compared to a resting position, this neurodynamic mobilization produced a significant amount of strain in the SFN (7.93% ± 0.51 P < 0.001). PF (59.34% ± 25.82) and INV (32.80% ± 21.41) accounted for the biggest proportion of total strain during the mobilization. No significant difference was reported between different hip flexion positions. Hip ADD did not significantly contribute to final strain (0.39% ± 10.42 P> 0,05) although high subject variability exists. Conclusion: Ankle motions should be considered the most important during neurodynamic assessment of the SFN for distal entrapment. These results suggest that this technique produces sufficient strain in the SFN and could therefore be evaluated In Vivo for correlation with mechanosensitivit

Scale-free memory model for multiagent reinforcement learning. Mean field approximation and rock-paper-scissors dynamics

A continuous time model for multiagent systems governed by reinforcement learning with scale-free memory is developed. The agents are assumed to act independently of one another in optimizing their choice of possible actions via trial-and-error search. To gain awareness about the action value the agents accumulate in their memory the rewards obtained from taking a specific action at each moment of time. The contribution of the rewards in the past to the agent current perception of action value is described by an integral operator with a power-law kernel. Finally a fractional differential equation governing the system dynamics is obtained. The agents are considered to interact with one another implicitly via the reward of one agent depending on the choice of the other agents. The pairwise interaction model is adopted to describe this effect. As a specific example of systems with non-transitive interactions, a two agent and three agent systems of the rock-paper-scissors type are analyzed in detail, including the stability analysis and numerical simulation. Scale-free memory is demonstrated to cause complex dynamics of the systems at hand. In particular, it is shown that there can be simultaneously two modes of the system instability undergoing subcritical and supercritical bifurcation, with the latter one exhibiting anomalous oscillations with the amplitude and period growing with time. Besides, the instability onset via this supercritical mode may be regarded as "altruism self-organization". For the three agent system the instability dynamics is found to be rather irregular and can be composed of alternate fragments of oscillations different in their properties.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figur

Hunger Artists: Yeast Adapted to Carbon Limitation Show Trade-Offs under Carbon Sufficiency

As organisms adaptively evolve to a new environment, selection results in the improvement of certain traits, bringing about an increase in fitness. Trade-offs may result from this process if function in other traits is reduced in alternative environments either by the adaptive mutations themselves or by the accumulation of neutral mutations elsewhere in the genome. Though the cost of adaptation has long been a fundamental premise in evolutionary biology, the existence of and molecular basis for trade-offs in alternative environments are not well-established. Here, we show that yeast evolved under aerobic glucose limitation show surprisingly few trade-offs when cultured in other carbon-limited environments, under either aerobic or anaerobic conditions. However, while adaptive clones consistently outperform their common ancestor under carbon limiting conditions, in some cases they perform less well than their ancestor in aerobic, carbon-rich environments, indicating that trade-offs can appear when resources are non-limiting. To more deeply understand how adaptation to one condition affects performance in others, we determined steady-state transcript abundance of adaptive clones grown under diverse conditions and performed whole-genome sequencing to identify mutations that distinguish them from one another and from their common ancestor. We identified mutations in genes involved in glucose sensing, signaling, and transport, which, when considered in the context of the expression data, help explain their adaptation to carbon poor environments. However, different sets of mutations in each independently evolved clone indicate that multiple mutational paths lead to the adaptive phenotype. We conclude that yeasts that evolve high fitness under one resource-limiting condition also become more fit under other resource-limiting conditions, but may pay a fitness cost when those same resources are abundant