Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccine: Understanding Individuals Not Vaccinating in the South Using 2016 National Immunization Survey-Teen Data (NIS-Teen)

INTRODUCTION: Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) is a highly contagious virus known to cause many cancers in men and women. Vaccination for HPV has been available since 2006 but coverage levels remain low with initiation rates at 60% and only 43% completion. The lowest vaccination rates are found in the South. AIM: This study aims to use data from the 2016 National Immunization Survey-Teen to evaluate parental reasons for not vaccinating their teen for HPV among respondents in the South. The study evaluated the demographic correlations of the top four reasons reported for not vaccinating against HPV. METHODS: Mantel-Haenszel χ2 test was done to assess possible differences for individuals initiating HPV vaccination and those who had not by sociodemographic factors. Logistic regression done evaluated several sociodemographic factors for top reasons for not vaccinating. Analysis of the data was done using Statistical Analysis Systems 9.4. RESULTS: The top four reasons given for not vaccinating for HPV were: 1) vaccine is not needed/not necessary; 2) vaccine was not recommended; 3) concerns about vaccine safety/side effects and 4) lack of knowledge about vaccine. Mother’s education, mother’s age, race of teen, and gender were significantly associated with the top four reasons. DISCUSSION: The results of this study imply specific sociodemographic factors are associated with the top four reasons for declining HPV vaccine. Highly educated mothers were significantly associated with the top four reasons for declining vaccine

Adaptasi 8 Imperatives pada Usulan Strategi dan Kebijakan Teknologi Informasi di Sekolah Nasional Plus 'X'

Eight Imperatives for Leaders in the Networked World, which arestrategies for the government leaders in the USA, were adapted in theinformation technology strategies and policies of a national plus school.In the adaptation of the strategies, the writer is also considering theorganization culture of the school in order to formulate an appropriate ITstrategy

Intramolecular pi-pi stacking interactions in 2-substituted N,N-dibenzylaziridinium ions and their regioselectivity in nucleophilic ring-opening reactions

The ring opening of 2-substituted N,N-dibenzylaziridinium ions by bromide is known to occur exclusively at the Substituted aziridine carbon atom via ail S(N)2 mechanism, whereas the opposite regioselectivity has been observed as the main pathway for ring opening by fluoride. Similarly, the hydride-induced ring opening of 2-substituted N,N-dibenzylaziridinium ions has been shown to take place solely at the less hindered position. To gain insight into the main factors causing this difference in regioselectivity, a thorough and detailed computational analysis was performed on the hydride- and halide-induced ring openings of l-benzyl-l-(alpha-(R)-methylbenzyl)-2(S)-(phenoxymethyl)aziridinium bromide. Intramolecular pi-pi stacking interactions in the aziridinium System were investigated at a range of levels that enable a proper description of dispersive interactions; a T-stacking conformer was found to be the most stable. Ring-opening mechanisms were investigated with it variety of DFT and high level ab initio methods to test the robustness of the energetics along the pathway in terms of the electronic level of theory. The necessity to utilize explicit solvent molecules to solvate halide ions was clearly shown; the potential energy surfaces for nonsolvated and solvated cases differed dramatically. It was shown that in the presence of a kinetically viable route, product distribution will be dictated by the energetically preferred pathway; this was observed in the case of hard nucleophiles (both hydride donors and fluoride). However, For the highly polarizable soft nucleophile (bromide), it was shown that in the absence of a large energy difference between transition states leading to competing pathways, the formation of the thermodynamic product is likely to be the driving force. Distortion/interaction analysis on the transition states has shown a considerable difference in interaction energies for the solvated fluoride case, pointing to the fact that sterics plays a major role in the outcome, whereas for the bromide this difference was insignificant, suggesting bromide is less influenced by the difference in sterics

Competitive pathways for peptide deamidation

Asparagine (Asn) residues spontaneously – yet non-enzymatically – deamidate to form aspartate under physiological conditions, causing time-dependent changes in the conformation of proteins, limiting their lifetime [1]. The 'molecular clocks' hypothesis [2], suggests that deamidation is a biological molecular timing mechanism that could be set to any desired time interval by genetic control of the protein structure and the immediate environment of the Asn residue. The fact that deamidation occurs over a wide range of biologically relevant time intervals suggests that different mechanisms may be at play. To date deamidation is believed to occur over a succinimide-mediated pathway [3]. A novel route leading to the succinimide intermediate via tautomerization of the Asn side chain amide functionality was recently proposed [4,5]. The current study introduces a new 'competing' route for the deamidation of asparagine residues. The aim is to comparatively analyze the feasibility of this new mechanism against the traditional succinimide route, taking into account the catalytic effect of the solvent environment. For this purpose, QM dynamics and meta-dynamics calculations were performed on a model peptide placed in a periodic water box. These results will identify the lowest energy pathway for asparagine deamidation and will serve as a stepping stone for QM/MM calculations of Asn deamidation in proteins

Trait mindfulness at baseline predicts increases in telomerase activity over time

Introduction Preliminary investigations of cross-sectional samples have linked trait mindfulness with measures related to the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA)-mediated stress response and to the inflammatory system, suggesting that this is one potential pathway linking mindfulness based interventions and health. However, no previous studies explored the association between the trait mindfulness construct and markers of cellular ageing. Methods In the current study we examined in a sample of healthy mothers (n = 92) of a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder (i.e. women showing high levels of chronic psychological stress) the prospective associations between a multidimensional scale of trait mindfulness, the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), and telomerase activity (TA), a marker of cellular ageing and telomere homeostasis. Participants’ trait mindfulness and TA were assessed at baseline as well as 9 and 18 month follow-up. Results Analysis showed that higher levels of baseline mindfulness on FFMQ observation and describe subscales were related to increase in TA from baseline to 9 month (r = 0.27, P = 0.03 and r = 0.24, P = .04, respectively). Additionally, the FFMQ Describe subscale was related to increase in TA from baseline to 18 month (r = .30, P = .02). Results are reported following covariate adjustment of age, BMI, ethnicity, and education. Discussion Our results showed that higher levels of baseline mindfulness are associated with higher increases in TA after 9 months and 18 months, with increased TA reportedly being associated with decreased oxidative damage, increased telomere length and overall more functional cellular physiology. These findings support a role of mindfulness-related interventions to increase general and mental health

Baseline Shifts do not Predict Attentional Modulation of Target Processing During Feature-Based Visual Attention

Cues that direct selective attention to a spatial location have been observed to increase baseline neural activity in visual areas that represent a to-be-attended stimulus location. Analogous attention-related baseline shifts have also been observed in response to attention-directing cues for non-spatial stimulus features. It has been proposed that baseline shifts with preparatory attention may serve as the mechanism by which attention modulates the responses to subsequent visual targets that match the attended location or feature. Using functional MRI, we localized color- and motion-sensitive visual areas in individual subjects and investigated the relationship between cue-induced baseline shifts and the subsequent attentional modulation of task-relevant target stimuli. Although attention-directing cues often led to increased background neural activity in feature specific visual areas, these increases were not correlated with either behavior in the task or subsequent attentional modulation of the visual targets. These findings cast doubt on the hypothesis that attention-related shifts in baseline neural activity result in selective sensory processing of visual targets during feature-based selective attention