A longitudinal analysis of the development of infant facial expressions in responses to acute pain: Immediate and regulatory expressions

Facial expressions during infancy are important to examine as infants do not have the language skills to describe their experiences. This is particularly vital in the context of pain where infants depend solely on their caregivers for relief. The objective of the current study was to investigate the development of negative infant facial expressions in response to immunization pain over the first year of life. Infant facial expressions were examined longitudinally using a subsample of 100 infants that were each videotaped during their 2-, 4-, 6-, and 12-month routine immunization appointments. Infant facial expressions were coded using BabyFACS for the first minute after a painful needle prick. Facial expressions were examined with a catalogue of the most commonly occurring facial expressions. Results demonstrated that clear differences were seen over ages. Infants display a variety of facial expressions with some of the components of adult pain expressions immediately after the needle and abate shortly after. However, infants did not display adult expressions of discrete negative emotions. Instead, infants display a variety of generalized pain and distress faces aimed at gaining caregiver aid. The development of non-verbal communication in infants, particular facial expressions, remains an important area of inquiry. Further study into accurately measuring infant negative emotions, pain, and distress is warranted

Complex hybrid origin of genetic caste determination in harvester ants

Caste differentiation and division of labour are the hallmarks of insect societies and at the root of their ecological success. Kin selection predicts that caste determination should result from environmentally induced differences in gene expression, a prediction largely supported by empirical data. However, two exceptional cases of genetically determined caste differentiation have recently been found in harvester ants. Here we show that genetic caste determination evolved in these populations after complex hybridization events. We identified four distinct genetic lineages, each consisting of unique blends of the genomes of the parental species, presumably Pogonomyrmex barbatus and P. rugosus. Crosses between lineages H1 and H2 and between J1 and J2 give rise to workers, whereas queens develop from within-lineage matings. Although historical gene flow is evident, genetic exchange among lineages and between lineages and the parental species no longer occurs. This unusual system of caste determination seems to be evolutionarily stable

Databases for Congenital Heart Defect Public Health Studies Across the Lifespan

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/139106/1/jah31841_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/139106/2/jah31841.pd

Human-based approaches to pharmacology and cardiology: an interdisciplinary and intersectorial workshop.

Both biomedical research and clinical practice rely on complex datasets for the physiological and genetic characterization of human hearts in health and disease. Given the complexity and variety of approaches and recordings, there is now growing recognition of the need to embed computational methods in cardiovascular medicine and science for analysis, integration and prediction. This paper describes a Workshop on Computational Cardiovascular Science that created an international, interdisciplinary and inter-sectorial forum to define the next steps for a human-based approach to disease supported by computational methodologies. The main ideas highlighted were (i) a shift towards human-based methodologies, spurred by advances in new in silico, in vivo, in vitro, and ex vivo techniques and the increasing acknowledgement of the limitations of animal models. (ii) Computational approaches complement, expand, bridge, and integrate in vitro, in vivo, and ex vivo experimental and clinical data and methods, and as such they are an integral part of human-based methodologies in pharmacology and medicine. (iii) The effective implementation of multi- and interdisciplinary approaches, teams, and training combining and integrating computational methods with experimental and clinical approaches across academia, industry, and healthcare settings is a priority. (iv) The human-based cross-disciplinary approach requires experts in specific methodologies and domains, who also have the capacity to communicate and collaborate across disciplines and cross-sector environments. (v) This new translational domain for human-based cardiology and pharmacology requires new partnerships supported financially and institutionally across sectors. Institutional, organizational, and social barriers must be identified, understood and overcome in each specific setting

Ion energy distribution functions behind the sheaths of magnetized and non magnetized radio frequency discharges

The effect of a magnetic field on the characteristics of capacitively coupled radio frequency discharges is investigated and found to be substantial. A one-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation shows that geometrically symmetric discharges can be asymmetrized by applying a spatially inhomogeneous magnetic field. This effect is similar to the recently discovered electrical asymmetry effect. Both effects act independently, they can work in the same direction or compensate each other. Also the ion energy distribution functions at the electrodes are strongly affected by the magnetic field, although only indirectly. The field influences not the dynamics of the sheath itself but rather its operating conditions, i.e., the ion flux through it and voltage drop across it. To support this interpretation, the particle-in-cell results are compared with the outcome of the recently proposed ensemble-in-spacetime algorithm. Although that scheme resolves only the sheath and neglects magnetization, it is able to reproduce the ion energy distribution functions with very good accuracy, regardless of whether the discharge is magnetized or not

Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research.Peer reviewe

Programmed DNA Damage and Physiological DSBs: Mapping, Biological Significance and Perturbations in Disease States

DNA double strand breaks (DSBs) are known to be the most toxic and threatening of the various types of breaks that may occur to the DNA. However, growing evidence continuously sheds light on the regulatory roles of programmed DSBs. Emerging studies demonstrate the roles of DSBs in processes such as T and B cell development, meiosis, transcription and replication. A significant recent progress in the last few years has contributed to our advanced knowledge regarding the functions of DSBs is the development of many next generation sequencing (NGS) methods, which have considerably advanced our capabilities. Other studies have focused on the implications of programmed DSBs on chromosomal aberrations and tumorigenesis. This review aims to summarize what is known about DNA damage in its physiological context. In addition, we will examine the advancements of the past several years, which have made an impact on the study of genome landscape and its organization

Mapping the breakome reveals tight regulation on oncogenic super-enhancers

DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) could be deleterious and lead to age-related diseases, such as cancer. Recent evidence, however, associates DSBs with vital cellular processes. As discussed here, genome-wide mapping of DSBs revealed an unforeseen coupling mechanism between transcription and DNA repair at super-enhancers, as means of hypertranscription of oncogenic drivers

Kruzof and Baranof Islands Integrated Natural Resource Management Assessment

The Kruzof and Baranof Islands Integrated Natural Resource Management Assessment evaluates and offers recommendations for current management initiatives while identifying strategies for future management, restoration, and outreach plans for the U.S. Forest Service Sitka Ranger District. The project report is divided into three main focus areas: Community Engagement, Restoration, and Education. The community engagement component aims to assess the perceptions and opinions of area residents and stakeholders regarding natural resource management within the study area, utilizing community surveys, participatory GIS (Geographic Information Systems), and extensive stakeholder interviewing. The restoration component evaluates restoration efforts that have been implemented since 1980 on Kruzof and Baranof Islands, by assessing the success of past restoration and gathering baseline information to provide monitoring data and better understand the natural succession after clear-cut harvest disturbances. The education component is geared towards creating awareness of marine invasive species through the creation of lessons and encouraging future monitoring through the development of field labs. Integrated project recommendations for future land management include: (1) limited future old-growth harvesting, (2) thinning of the riparian canopy where stem-exclusion is occurring, (3) increased restoration monitoring, (4) a trial-period of young-growth subsistence firewood opportunities, (5) utilization of hands on educational curriculum, and (6) improved signage and increased restoration and maintenance work on Kruzof Island.Master of ScienceNatural Resources and EnvironmentUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/111004/1/Kruzof_and_Baranof_MP_2015.pd