A retrospective analysis of the health and social situation of homeless people in Berlin: study protocol

Background: Homelessness is often described as both a driver and a consequence of poor health, social exclusion and economic marginalisation. The present protocol provides a detailed description of the study Examining the health situation of homeless people in Berlin: a retrospective analysis of data from the health centre for the homeless of the Jenny De la Torre Foundation from 2006 to 2020 (GIG study). The primary objective of the GIG study is to describe and analyse the social and health situation of homeless people in Berlin. Methods: A retrospective secondary data analysis of an anonymous full census of medical records for the years 2006 until 2020 from a health centre for homeless people will be carried out. The main outcome is the description and analysis of the social and health situation of homeless people in Berlin. Total and cross-sectional sample characteristics will be presented in a descriptive analysis using Chi-Square Test, Mann-Whitney-U-Test or independent t-Test as appropriate to test (sub) group differences. Further, outcomes will be analysed using finite mixture modelling in order to distinguish different types of social and health conditions. Latent variable regressions will be applied in order to identify sociodemographic and disease-related factors associated with decreasing health conditions. Discussion: Given the high number of homeless individuals in Germany, it is of great importance to examine their social and health situation in order to gain a better understanding of challenges and needs of homeless people and work on new approaches and solutions to effectively address these. Trail registration: The study was prospectively registered with the German Clinical Trials Register (trial registration number: DRKS00021172). Registered 26 June 2020

CAOS software for use in character-based DNA barcoding

Author Posting. © The Authors, 2008. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Blackwell Publishing for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Molecular Ecology Resources 8 (2008): 1256-1259, doi:10.1111/j.1755-0998.2008.02235.x.The success of character based DNA barcoding depends on the efficient identification of diagnostic character states from molecular sequences that have been organized hierarchically (e.g., according to phylogenetic methods). Similarly, the reliability of these identified diagnostic character states must be assessed according to their ability to diagnose new sequences. Here, a set of software tools is presented that implement the previously described Characteristic Attribute Organization System for both diagnostic identification and diagnostic-based classification. The software is publicly available from http://sarkarlab.mbl.edu/CAOS

The Barcode of Life Data Portal: Bridging the Biodiversity Informatics Divide for DNA Barcoding

With the volume of molecular sequence data that is systematically being generated globally, there is a need for centralized resources for data exploration and analytics. DNA Barcode initiatives are on track to generate a compendium of molecular sequence–based signatures for identifying animals and plants. To date, the range of available data exploration and analytic tools to explore these data have only been available in a boutique form—often representing a frustrating hurdle for many researchers that may not necessarily have resources to install or implement algorithms described by the analytic community. The Barcode of Life Data Portal (BDP) is a first step towards integrating the latest biodiversity informatics innovations with molecular sequence data from DNA barcoding. Through establishment of community driven standards, based on discussion with the Data Analysis Working Group (DAWG) of the Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL), the BDP provides an infrastructure for incorporation of existing and next-generation DNA barcode analytic applications in an open forum

Visual adaptation alters the apparent speed of real-world actions

The apparent physical speed of an object in the field of view remains constant despite variations in retinal velocity due to viewing conditions (velocity constancy). For example, people and cars appear to move across the field of view at the same objective speed regardless of distance. In this study a series of experiments investigated the visual processes underpinning judgements of objective speed using an adaptation paradigm and video recordings of natural human locomotion. Viewing a video played in slow-motion for 30seconds caused participants to perceive subsequently viewed clips played at standard speed as too fast, so playback had to be slowed down in order for it to appear natural; conversely after viewing fast-forward videos for 30seconds, playback had to be speeded up in order to appear natural. The perceived speed of locomotion shifted towards the speed depicted in the adapting video (‘re-normalisation’). Results were qualitatively different from those obtained in previously reported studies of retinal velocity adaptation. Adapting videos that were scrambled to remove recognizable human figures or coherent motion caused significant, though smaller shifts in apparent locomotion speed, indicating that both low-level and high-level visual properties of the adapting stimulus contributed to the changes in apparent speed

PCR Primers for Metazoan Mitochondrial 12S Ribosomal DNA Sequences

Background: Assessment of the biodiversity of communities of small organisms is most readily done using PCR-based analysis of environmental samples consisting of mixtures of individuals. Known as metagenetics, this approach has transformed understanding of microbial communities and is beginning to be applied to metazoans as well. Unlike microbial studies, where analysis of the 16S ribosomal DNA sequence is standard, the best gene for metazoan metagenetics is less clear. In this study we designed a set of PCR primers for the mitochondrial 12S ribosomal DNA sequence based on 64 complete mitochondrial genomes and then tested their efficacy. Methodology/Principal Findings: A total of the 64 complete mitochondrial genome sequences representing all metazoan classes available in GenBank were downloaded using the NCBI Taxonomy Browser. Alignment of sequences was performed for the excised mitochondrial 12S ribosomal DNA sequences, and conserved regions were identified for all 64 mitochondrial genomes. These regions were used to design a primer pair that flanks a more variable region in the gene. Then all of the complete metazoan mitochondrial genomes available in NCBI’s Organelle Genome Resources database were used to determine the percentage of taxa that would likely be amplified using these primers. Results suggest that these primers will amplify target sequences for many metazoans. Conclusions/Significance: Newly designed 12S ribosomal DNA primers have considerable potential for metazoa

BioNames: linking taxonomy, texts, and trees

BioNames is a web database of taxonomic names for animals, linked to the primary literature and, wherever possible, to phylogenetic trees. It aims to provide a taxonomic “dashboard” where at a glance we can see a summary of the taxonomic and phylogenetic information we have for a given taxon and hence provide a quick answer to the basic question “what is this taxon?” BioNames combines classifications from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and GenBank, images from the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL), animal names from the Index of Organism Names (ION), and bibliographic data from multiple sources including the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) and CrossRef. The user interface includes display of full text articles, interactive timelines of taxonomic publications, and zoomable phylogenies. It is available at http://bionames.org

Repetition, expectation, and the perception of time

Prior experience with a stimulus profoundly affects how it is processed, perceived, and acted upon. One striking finding is that repeated items seem to last for less time than novel or rare ones. This link between the processing of stimulus identity and the perception of stimulus duration has important implications for theories of timing, and for broader accounts of the organization, purpose, and neural basis of perception. Here, we examine the nature and basis of the repetition effect on subjective duration. Contrary to unitary accounts which equate repetition effects with implicit expectations about forthcoming stimuli, new work suggests that first-order repetition and second-order repetition?expectations differentially affect the perception of time. We survey emerging evidence from behavioural studies of time perception and neuroscientific studies of stimulus encoding which support this view, and outline key questions for the future

Positioning pharmacists’ roles in primary health care: a discourse analysis of the compensation plan in Alberta, Canada

Abstract Background A comprehensive Compensation Plan for pharmacy services delivered by community pharmacists was implemented in Alberta, Canada in July 2012. Services covered by the Compensation Plan include care planning services, prescribing services such as adapting prescriptions, and administering a drug or publicly-funded vaccine by injection. Understanding how the Compensation Plan was framed and communicated provides insight into the roles of pharmacists and the potential influence of language on the implementation of services covered by the Compensation Plan by Albertan pharmacists. The objective of this study is to examine the positioning of pharmacists’ roles in documents used to communicate the Compensation Plan to Albertan pharmacists and other audiences. Methods Publicly available documents related to the Compensation Plan, such as news releases or reports, published between January 2012 and December 2015 were obtained from websites such as the Government of Alberta, Alberta Blue Cross, the Alberta College of Pharmacists, the Alberta Pharmacists’ Association, and the Blueprint for Pharmacy. Searches of the Canadian Newsstand database and Google identified additional documents. Discourse analysis was performed using social positioning theory to explore how pharmacists’ roles were constructed in communications about the Compensation Plan. Results In total, 65 publicly available documents were included in the analysis. The Compensation Plan was put forward as a framework for payment for professional services and formal legitimization of pharmacists’ changing professional roles. The discourse associated with the Compensation Plan positioned pharmacists’ roles as: (1) expanding to include services such as medication management for chronic diseases, (2) contributing to primary health care by providing access to services such as prescription renewals and immunizations, and (3) collaborating with other health care team members. Pharmacists’ changing roles were positioned in alignment with the aims of primary health care. Conclusions Social positioning theory provides a useful lens to examine the dynamic and evolving roles of pharmacists. This study provides insight into how communications regarding the Compensation Plan in Alberta, Canada positioned pharmacists’ changing roles in the broader context of changes to primary health care delivery. Our findings may be useful for other jurisdictions considering implementation of remunerated clinical services provided by pharmacists