User-generated online health content: A survey of internet users in the United Kingdom

This is the final version. Available on open access from JMIR Publications via the DOI in this recordThe production of health information has begun to shift from commercial organizations to health care users themselves. People increasingly go online to share their own health and illness experiences and to access information others have posted, but this behavior has not been investigated at a population level in the United Kingdom. Objective: This study aims to explore access and production of user-generated health content among UK Internet users and to investigate relationships between frequency of use and other variables. Methods: We undertook an online survey of 1000 UK Internet users. Descriptive and multivariate statistical analyses were used to interpret the data. Results: Nearly one-quarter of respondents (23.7%, 237/1000) reported accessing and sharing user-generated health content online, whereas more than 20% (22.2%, 222/1000) were unaware that it was possible to do this. Respondents could be divided into 3 groups based on frequency of use: rare users (78.7%, 612/778) who accessed and shared content less than weekly, users (13.9%, 108/778) who did so weekly, and superusers (7.5%, 58/778) who did so on a daily basis. Superusers were more likely to be male (P<.001) and to be employed (P<.001), but there were no differences between the groups with respect to educational level (P=.99) or health status (P=.63). They were more likely to use the Internet for varied purposes such as banking and shopping (P<.001). Conclusions: Although this study found reasonably widespread access of user-generated online health content, only a minority of respondents reported doing so frequently. As this type of content proliferates, superusers are likely to shape the health information that others access. Further research should assess the effect of user-generated online content on health outcomes and use of health services by Internet users. © Martin Duracinsky, Christophe Lalanne, Cécile Goujard, Susan Herrmann, Christian Cheung-Lung, Jean-Paul Brosseau, Yannick Schwartz, Olivier Chassany.Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS)European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC)European Commission Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG Connect

The enzymes LSD1 and Set1A cooperate with the viral protein HBx to establish an active hepatitis B viral chromatin state

Indexación: Web of ScienceWith about 350 million people chronically infected around the world hepatitis B is a major health problem. Template for progeny HBV synthesis is the viral genome, organized as a minichromosome (cccDNA) inside the hepatocyte nucleus. How viral cccDNA gene expression is regulated by its chromatin structure; more importantly, how the modulation of this structure impacts on viral gene expression remains elusive. Here, we found that the enzyme SetDB1 contributes to setting up a repressed cccDNA chromatin state. This repressive state is activated by the histone lysine demethylase-1 (LSD1). Consistently, inhibiting or reducing LSD1 levels led to repression of viral gene expression. This correlates with the transcriptionally repressive mark H3K9 methylation and reduction on the activating marks H3 acetylation and H3K4 methylation on viral promoters. Investigating the importance of viral proteins we found that LSD1 recruitment to viral promoters was dependent on the viral transactivator protein HBx. Moreover, the histone methyltransferase Set1A and HBx are simultaneously bound to the core promoter, and Set1A expression correlates with cccDNA H3K4 methylation. Our results shed light on the mechanisms of HBV regulation mediated by the cccDNA chromatin structure, offering new therapeutic targets to develop drugs for the treatment of chronically infected HBV patients.http://www.nature.com/articles/srep2590

Effect of Study Circle on Moral Attitudes of Filipino College Students

The study sought to find out the effect of study circle on the moral values of Filipino psychology students of Samar State University, to identify probable external factors, and to develop an improved study circle material to use in this inquiry. The study is anchored on the interrelated theories of cognitive, affective and social potentials as a way to achieve moral and social learning set forth by Kohlberg, Fraenkel, Raths, and Durkheim that occurs spontaneously within the individual. Utilizing the method of triangulation composed of qualitative and quantitative approaches to research, the study examined the process of participation in religious scripture-based study material resulting in the transformation of the person’s moral attitude. The findings revealed that participants in the study circle developed better moral attitudes and perception from moderate to strong moral attitude. It also showed that attendance and profile variates of age, sex, family income, occupation, and religion did not correlate to the moral attitude level of the respondents. This implied that participation in the study circle and the usage of the study material were the only factors that caused the significant difference in the mean score, and consequently, the leveling up of participants’ moral attitude. The number of participants in the discussions and activities from start to the last session improved from few to almost all, and the qualitative data generated through focus group discussion (FGD) and observation revealed highly favorable comments by respondents on various elements of the program

Modified (A)dS Schwarzschild black holes in Rainbow spacetime

A modified (Anti-)de Sitter Schwarzschild black hole solution is presented in the framework of rainbow gravity with a cosmological constant. Its thermodynamical properties are investigated. In general the temperature of modified black holes is dependent on the energy of probes which take the measurement. However, a notion of intrinsic temperature can be introduced by identifying these probes with radiation particles emitted from black holes. It is interesting to find that the Hawking temperature of this sort of black holes can be reproduced by employing the extended uncertainty principle and modified dispersion relations to the ordinary (A)dS Schwarzschild black holes.Comment: 11 pages. The version to appear in CQ

Imaging Active Infection in vivo Using D-Amino Acid Derived PET Radiotracers.

Occult bacterial infections represent a worldwide health problem. Differentiating active bacterial infection from sterile inflammation can be difficult using current imaging tools. Present clinically viable methodologies either detect morphologic changes (CT/ MR), recruitment of immune cells (111In-WBC SPECT), or enhanced glycolytic flux seen in inflammatory cells (18F-FDG PET). However, these strategies are often inadequate to detect bacterial infection and are not specific for living bacteria. Recent approaches have taken advantage of key metabolic differences between prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms, allowing easier distinction between bacteria and their host. In this report, we exploited one key difference, bacterial cell wall biosynthesis, to detect living bacteria using a positron-labeled D-amino acid. After screening several 14C D-amino acids for their incorporation into E. coli in culture, we identified D-methionine as a probe with outstanding radiopharmaceutical potential. Based on an analogous procedure to that used for L-[methyl-11C]methionine ([11C] L-Met), we developed an enhanced asymmetric synthesis of D-[methyl-11C]methionine ([11C] D-Met), and showed that it can rapidly and selectively differentiate both E. coli and S. aureus infections from sterile inflammation in vivo. We believe that the ease of [11C] D-Met radiosynthesis, coupled with its rapid and specific in vivo bacterial accumulation, make it an attractive radiotracer for infection imaging in clinical practice

Impact of a basic mathematics course on the performance of college students in algebra subject

A common problem for universities is the lack of knowledge and mathematical skills of new students because this deficiency creates difficulties in their studies throughout their career, which can cause their dropout. The aim of this paper is to describe the impact of a basic mathematics course on the performance of college student in algebra subject. This is a 32-hour course which is developed in 16 sessions in parallel to the algebra classes and is mainly offered to students: a) identified with low performance on mathematics component of national highschool test, and b) remitted by the subject teacher. The main findings are: a) the pass rate for students who attended to more than half of the sessions of the course if 95%, and b) the average grade of the subject tends to increase as with the attendance level to the course of the students. Consequently, these results lead to the conclusion that the course has a positive effect on the students' performance

Factors that promote positive attitudes towards mathematics in higher education students

The purpose of this review article is to explain the importance of understanding attitudes towards teaching and learning mathematics in higher education students. For that, we start from the premise that attitudes are related to performance towards learning mathematics, bearing in mind that what directly influences their success are the feelings of possessing competencies to understand their contents and not the feelings of difficulty towards them. In essence, at first, we describe the different attitudes towards mathematics. Next, we examine how attitudes influence math learning and finally identify the factors that foster positive attitudes toward math. From this, we suggest teaching practices that can be carried out to foster positive attitudes towards mathematics and propose new lines of research in this field

RELAP5 Simulation of PKL Facility Experiments under Midloop Conditions

Nuclear power plant risk has to be quantified in full power and in other modes of operation. This latter situation corresponds to low power and shutdown modes of operation in which the residual heat removal (RHR) system is required to extract the heat generated in the core. These accidental sequences are great contributors to the total plant risk. Thus, it is important to analyze the plant behavior to establish the accident mitigation measures required. In this way, PKL facility experimental series were undertaken to analyze the plant behavior in other modes of operation when the RHR is lost. In these experiments, the plant configurations were changed to analyze the influence of steam generators secondary side configurations, the temperature inside the pressurizer, and the inventory level on the plant behavior. Moreover, different accident management measures were proposed in each experiment to reach the conditions to restart the RHR. To understand the physical phenomena that takes place inside the reactor, the experiments are simulated with thermal-hydraulic codes, and this makes it possible to analyze the code capabilities to predict the plant behavior. This work presents the simulation results of four experiments included in PKL experimental series obtained using RELAP5/Mod3.3

Candidate gene variant effects on language disorders in Robinson Crusoe Island

Robinson Crusoe Island is a geographically and socially isolated settlement located over 600km west of the Port of Valparíso, Chile. An unusually high incidence (30%) of the Chilean equivalent of developmental language disorder (TEL) has been reported in Islander children, with 90% of these affected children found to be direct descendants of a pair of original founder-brothers, therefore strongly suggesting a shared genetic basis. Here we utilise whole-genome sequencing to investigate potential underlying variants in a panel of thirty-four genes known to play a role in language disorders, in seven TEL affected and ten unaffected islanders. We use this targeted approach to look for rare, shared variants that may underlie the diagnosis of TEL in a Mendelian genetic model. We go on to test whether the overall burden of rare variants is enriched in individuals affected by TEL or with Islanders related to the founder-brother lineage. In the absence of explanatory rare variants, we further investigate these candidate genes within a complex model of inheritance, where inheriting a small number of moderate impact common variants may increase susceptibility of developing TEL. We examine if any variants segregate with affection status or with founder-brother-related status, and therefore may increase risk of developing a language disorder. Finally, we perform a pooled, gene-based tests to evaluate relationships between combined variation across candidate genes and TEL affection status. Here we report a comprehensive examination of genes directly implicated in language-related mechanisms to identify ‘low hanging fruit’ of causative monogenic Mendelian variants, and complex association model of increased susceptibility in developmental language disorder found on Robinson Crusoe Island