Editorial [to] Themed issue on sustainability in energy and buildings, part 1

This themed issue includes the selected papers from the proceedings of the seventh International Conference on Sustainability and Energy in Buildings 2015 (SEB15), which was successfully held in the vibrant city of Lisbon, Portugal and was organised by the Universidade Nova de Lisbon (New University of Lisbon) in partnership with KES International. Annually, the conference brings together researchers and government and industry professionals to discuss the future of energy in buildings, neighbourhoods and cities from a theoretical, practical, implementation and simulation perspective

User-defined challenges and desiderata for robotics and autonomous systems in health and social care settings

We report the needs and challenges identified by health and social care professionals and service users for robotics and autonomous systems that are of importance to researchers and policymakers. To this end, we held eight workshops in different locations across Cornwall (UK) in which we raised awareness of the applications and opportunities of assistive robots. The 223 participants could interact physically with four robots, watched a multimedia presentation including video and use-case scenarios and then took part in 33 focus groups. Content analysis was carried out based on summaries written by facilitators during the focus groups. The focus groups produced 163 challenges that may have digital solutions including 78 suitable for robotic assistive technology, in three main areas: maintaining independence at home, social isolation, and rurality. Although further research is needed with technology and its implementation, this study shows that health and social care professionals, patients, carers, and students are willing to consider using robotics and autonomous systems in health and social care settings

Reciprocal relationship between expression of hypoxia inducible factor 1α (HIF-1α) and the pro-apoptotic protein Bid in ex vivo colorectal cancer

Hypoxia inducible factor 1 (HIF-1) represses the transcription of pro-apoptotic bid in colorectal cancer cells in vitro. To assess the clinical relevance of this observation, HIF-1α and Bid were assessed in serial sections of 39 human colorectal adenocarcinomas by immunohistochemistry. In high HIF-1α nuclear-positive cell subpopulations, there was a significant reduction in Bid expression (ANOVA, P=0.04). Given the role of Bid in drug-induced apoptosis, these data add impetus to strategies targeting HIF-1 for therapeutic gain

Visual attention and action: How cueing, direct mapping, and social interactions drive orienting

Despite considerable interest in both action perception and social attention over the last 2 decades, there has been surprisingly little investigation concerning how the manual actions of other humans orient visual attention. The present review draws together studies that have measured the orienting of attention, following observation of another’s goal-directed action. Our review proposes that, in line with the literature on eye gaze, action is a particularly strong orienting cue for the visual system. However, we additionally suggest that action may orient visual attention using mechanisms, which gaze direction does not (i.e., neural direct mapping and corepresentation). Finally, we review the implications of these gaze-independent mechanisms for the study of attention to action. We suggest that our understanding of attention to action may benefit from being studied in the context of joint action paradigms, where the role of higher level action goals and social factors can be investigated

Structure and dynamics of the shark assemblage off recife, northeastern Brazil

Understanding the ecological factors that regulate elasmobranch abundance in nearshore waters is essential to effectively manage coastal ecosystems and promote conservation. However, little is known about elasmobranch populations in the western South Atlantic Ocean. An 8-year, standardized longline and drumline survey conducted in nearshore waters off Recife, northeastern Brazil, allowed us to describe the shark assemblage and to monitor abundance dynamics using zero-inflated generalized additive models. This region is mostly used by several carcharhinids and one ginglymostomid, but sphyrnids are also present. Blacknose sharks, Carcharhinus acronotus, were mostly mature individuals and declined in abundance throughout the survey, contrasting with nurse sharks, Ginglymostoma cirratum, which proliferated possibly due to this species being prohibited from all harvest since 2004 in this region. Tiger sharks, Galeocerdo cuvier, were mostly juveniles smaller than 200 cm and seem to use nearshore waters off Recife between January and September. No long-term trend in tiger shark abundance was discernible. Spatial distribution was similar in true coastal species (i.e. blacknose and nurse sharks) whereas tiger sharks were most abundant at the middle continental shelf. The sea surface temperature, tidal amplitude, wind direction, water turbidity, and pluviosity were all selected to predict shark abundance off Recife. Interspecific variability in abundance dynamics across spatiotemporal and environmental gradients suggest that the ecological processes regulating shark abundance are generally independent between species, which could add complexity to multi-species fisheries management frameworks. Yet, further research is warranted to ascertain trends at population levels in the South Atlantic Ocean.State Government of Pernambuco, Brazil; Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia, Portugal [SFRH/BD/37065/2007]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The impact of signal-to-noise ratio, diffusion-weighted directions and image resolution in cardiac diffusion tensor imaging - insights from the ex-vivo rat heart

Background: Cardiac diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is limited by scan time and signal-to-noise (SNR) restrictions. This invariably leads to a trade-off between the number of averages, diffusion-weighted directions (ND), and image resolution. Systematic evaluation of these parameters is therefore important for adoption of cardiac DTI in clinical routine where time is a key constraint. Methods: High quality reference DTI data were acquired in five ex-vivo rat hearts. We then retrospectively set 2 ≤ SNR ≤ 97, 7 ≤ ND ≤ 61, varied the voxel volume by up to 192-fold and investigated the impact on the accuracy and precision of commonly derived parameters. Results: For maximal scan efficiency, the accuracy and precision of the mean diffusivity is optimised when SNR is maximised at the expense of ND. With typical parameter settings used clinically, we estimate that fractional anisotropy may be overestimated by up to 13% with an uncertainty of ±30%, while the precision of the sheetlet angles may be as poor as ±31°. Although the helix angle has better precision of ±14°, the transmural range of helix angles may be under-estimated by up to 30° in apical and basal slices, due to partial volume and tapering myocardial geometry. Conclusions: These findings inform a baseline of understanding upon which further issues inherent to in-vivo cardiac DTI, such as motion, strain and perfusion, can be considered. Furthermore, the reported bias and reproducibility provides a context in which to assess cardiac DTI biomarkers

Consumers of natural health products: natural-born pharmacovigilantes?

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Natural health products (NHPs), such as herbal medicines and vitamins, are widely available over-the-counter and are often purchased by consumers without advice from a healthcare provider. This study examined how consumers respond when they believe they have experienced NHP-related adverse drug reactions (ADRs) in order to determine how to improve current safety monitoring strategies.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with twelve consumers who had experienced a self-identified NHP-related ADR. Key emergent themes were identified and coded using content analysis techniques.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Consumers were generally not comfortable enough with their conventional health care providers to discuss their NHP-related ADRs. Consumers reported being more comfortable discussing NHP-related ADRs with personnel from health food stores, friends or family with whom they had developed trusted relationships. No one reported their suspected ADR to Health Canada and most did not know this was possible.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Consumers generally did not report their suspected NHP-related ADRs to healthcare providers or to Health Canada. Passive reporting systems for collecting information on NHP-related ADRs cannot be effective if consumers who experience NHP-related ADRs do not report their experiences. Healthcare providers, health food store personnel, manufacturers and other stakeholders also need to take responsibility for reporting ADRs in order to improve current pharmacovigilance of NHPs.</p

Amino Acid Similarity Accounts for T Cell Cross-Reactivity and for “Holes” in the T Cell Repertoire

Background: Cytotoxic T cell (CTL) cross-reactivity is believed to play a pivotal role in generating immune responses but the extent and mechanisms of CTL cross-reactivity remain largely unknown. Several studies suggest that CTL clones can recognize highly diverse peptides, some sharing no obvious sequence identity. The emerging realization in the field is that T cell receptors (TcR) recognize multiple distinct ligands. Principal Findings: First, we analyzed peptide scans of the HIV epitope SLFNTVATL (SFL9) and found that TCR specificity is position dependent and that biochemically similar amino acid substitutions do not drastically affect recognition. Inspired by this, we developed a general model of TCR peptide recognition using amino acid similarity matrices and found that such a model was able to predict the cross-reactivity of a diverse set of CTL epitopes. With this model, we were able to demonstrate that seemingly distinct T cell epitopes, i.e., ones with low sequence identity, are in fact more biochemically similar than expected. Additionally, an analysis of HIV immunogenicity data with our model showed that CTLs have the tendency to respond mostly to peptides that do not resemble self-antigens. Conclusions: T cell cross-reactivity can thus, to an extent greater than earlier appreciated, be explained by amino acid similarity. The results presented in this paper will help resolving some of the long-lasting discussions in the field of T cel

A Comparison of Different Approaches to Unravel the Latent Structure within Metabolic Syndrome

Background: Exploratory factor analysis is a commonly used statistical technique in metabolic syndrome research to uncover latent structure amongst metabolic variables. The application of factor analysis requires methodological decisions that reflect the hypothesis of the metabolic syndrome construct. These decisions often raise the complexity of the interpretation from the output. We propose two alternative techniques developed from cluster analysis which can achieve a clinically relevant structure, whilst maintaining intuitive advantages of clustering methodology. Methods: Two advanced techniques of clustering in the VARCLUS and matroid methods are discussed and implemented on a metabolic syndrome data set to analyze the structure of ten metabolic risk factors. The subjects were selected from the normative aging study based in Boston, Massachusetts. The sample included a total of 847 men aged between 21 and 81 years who provided complete data on selected risk factors during the period 1987 to 1991. Results: Four core components were identified by the clustering methods. These are labelled obesity, lipids, insulin resistance and blood pressure. The exploratory factor analysis with oblique rotation suggested an overlap of the loadings identified on the insulin resistance and obesity factors. The VARCLUS and matroid analyses separated these components and were able to demonstrate associations between individual risk factors. Conclusions: An oblique rotation can be selected to reflect the clinical concept of a single underlying syndrome, howeve