116 research outputs found
Recommended from our members
Direction of visual apparent motion driven solely by timing of a static sound
In temporal ventriloquism, auditory events can illusorily attract perceived timing of a visual onset [1,2,3]. We investigated whether timing of a static sound can also influence spatio-temporal processing of visual apparent motion, induced here by visual bars alternating between opposite hemifields. Perceived direction typically depends on the relative interval in timing between visual left-right and right-left flashes (e.g., rightwards motion dominating when left-to-right interflash intervals are shortest [4]). In our new multisensory condition, interflash intervals were equal, but auditory beeps could slightly lag the right flash, yet slightly lead the left flash, or vice versa. This auditory timing strongly influenced perceived visual motion direction, despite providing no spatial auditory motion signal whatsoever. Moreover, prolonged adaptation to such auditorily driven apparent motion produced a robust visual motion aftereffect in the opposite direction, when measured in subsequent silence. Control experiments argued against accounts in terms of possible auditory grouping, or possible attention capture. We suggest that the motion arises because the sounds change perceived visual timing, as we separately confirmed. Our results provide a new demonstration of multisensory influences on sensory-specific perception [5], with timing of a static sound influencing spatio-temporal processing of visual motion direction
Training highly qualified health research personnel: The Pain in Child Health consortium
Background and Objectives: Pain in Child Health (PICH) is
a transdisciplinary, international research training consortium. PICH has
been funded since 2002 as a Strategic Training Initiative in Health
Research of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, with contributions
from other funding partners and the founding participation of five
Canadian universities. The goal of PICH has been to create a community
of scholars in pediatric pain to improve child health outcomes.
Methods: Quantitative analyses enumerated PICH faculty, trainees,
training activities and scientific outputs. Interviews with PICH stakeholders
were analyzed using qualitative methods capturing perceptions of the
programâs strengths, limitations, and opportunities for development and
sustainability.
Results : PICH has supported 218 trainee members from 2002 through
2013, from 14 countries and more than 16 disciplines. The faculty at the
end of 2013 comprised nine co-principal investigators, 14 Canadian
coinvestigators, and 28 Canadian and international collaborators. Trainee
members published 697 peer-reviewed journal articles on pediatric pain
through 2013, among other research dissemination activities including
conference presentations and webinars. Networks have been established
between new and established researchers across Canada and in 13 other
countries. Perceptions from stakeholders commended PICH for its positive
impact on the development of pediatric pain researchers. Stakeholders
emphasized skills and abilities gained through PICH, the perceived impact
of PICH training on this research field, and considerations for future training
in developing researchers in pediatric pain.
Conclusions: PICH has been successfully developing highly qualified
health research personnel within a Canadian and international community
of pediatric pain scholarship
Pictorial gaze cues do not enhance long tailed macaquesâ performance on a computerised object location task
The perception of pictorial gaze cues was examined in long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis). A computerised object location task was used to explore whether the monkeys would show faster response time to locate a target when its appearance was preceded with congruent as opposed to incongruent gaze cues. Despite existing evidence that macaques preferentially attend to the eyes in facial images and also visually orient with depicted gaze cues, the monkeys did not show faster response times on congruent trials either in response to schematic or photographic stimuli. These findings coincide with those reported for baboons tested with a similar paradigm in which gaze cues preceded a target identification task (Fagot and Deruelle 2002). When tested with either pictorial stimuli or interactants, non human primates readily follow gaze but do not seem to use this mechanism to identify a target object; there seems to be some mismatch in performance between attentional changes and manual responses to gaze cues on ostensibly similar tasks
Sensitive and selective amplification of methylated DNA sequences using helper-dependent chain reaction in combination with a methylation-dependent restriction enzyme
We have developed a novel technique for specific
amplification of rare methylated DNA fragments in
a high background of unmethylated sequences that
avoids the need of bisulphite conversion. The
methylation-dependent restriction enzyme GlaI is
used to selectively cut methylated DNA. Then
targeted fragments are tagged using specially
designed âhelperâ oligonucleotides that are also
used to maintain selection in subsequent amplification
cycles in a process called âhelper-dependent
chain reactionâ. The process uses disabled primers
called âdriversâ that can only prime on each cycle if
the helpers recognize specific sequences within
the target amplicon. In this way, selection for the
sequence of interest is maintained throughout the
amplification, preventing amplification of unwanted
sequences. Here we show how the method can be
applied to methylated Septin 9, a promising biomarker
for early diagnosis of colorectal cancer.
The GlaI digestion and subsequent amplification
can all be done in a single tube. A detection sensitivity
of 0.1% methylated DNA in a background of
unmethylated DNA was achieved, which was
similar to the well-established Heavy Methyl
method that requires bisulphite-treated DNA.Funding for open access charge: Commonwealth Scientific
and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia.
National Health & Medical Research Counci
Training Highly Qualified Health Research Personnel: The Pain in Child Health Consortium
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Pain in Child Health (PICH) is a transdisciplinary, international research training consortium. PICH has been funded since 2002 as a Strategic Training Initiative in Health Research of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, with contributions from other funding partners and the founding participation of five Canadian universities. The goal of PICH has been to create a community of scholars in pediatric pain to improve child health outcomes
Comparing comorbidity measures for predicting mortality and hospitalization in three population-based cohorts
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Multiple comorbidity measures have been developed for risk-adjustment in studies using administrative data, but it is unclear which measure is optimal for specific outcomes and if the measures are equally valid in different populations. This research examined the predictive performance of five comorbidity measures in three population-based cohorts.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Administrative data from the province of Saskatchewan, Canada, were used to create the cohorts. The general population cohort included all Saskatchewan residents 20+ years, the diabetes cohort included individuals 20+ years with a diabetes diagnosis in hospital and/or physician data, and the osteoporosis cohort included individuals 50+ years with diagnosed or treated osteoporosis. Five comorbidity measures based on health services utilization, number of different diagnoses, and prescription drugs over one year were defined. Predictive performance was assessed for death and hospitalization outcomes using measures of discrimination (<it>c</it>-statistic) and calibration (Brier score) for multiple logistic regression models.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The comorbidity measures with optimal performance were the same in the general population (<it>n </it>= 662,423), diabetes (<it>n </it>= 41,925), and osteoporosis (<it>n </it>= 28,068) cohorts. For mortality, the Elixhauser index resulted in the highest <it>c</it>-statistic and lowest Brier score, followed by the Charlson index. For hospitalization, the number of diagnoses had the best predictive performance. Consistent results were obtained when we restricted attention to the population 65+ years in each cohort.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The optimal comorbidity measure depends on the health outcome and not on the disease characteristics of the study population.</p
A âWear and Tearâ Hypothesis to Explain Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is the leading cause of death among USA infants under 1 year of age accounting for ~2,700 deaths per year. Although formally SIDS dates back at least 2,000 years and was even mentioned in the Hebrew Bible (Kings 3:19), its etiology remains unexplained prompting the CDC to initiate a sudden unexpected infant death case registry in 2010. Due to their total dependence, the ability of the infant to allostatically regulate stressors and stress responses shaped by genetic and environmental factors is severely constrained. We propose that SIDS is the result of cumulative painful, stressful, or traumatic exposures that begin in utero and tax neonatal regulatory systems incompatible with allostasis. We also identify several putative biochemical mechanisms involved in SIDS. We argue that the important characteristics of SIDS, namely male predominance (60:40), the significantly different SIDS rate among USA Hispanics (80% lower) compared to whites, 50% of cases occurring between 7.6 and 17.6 weeks after birth with only 10% after 24.7 weeks, and seasonal variation with most cases occurring during winter, are all associated with common environmental stressors, such as neonatal circumcision and seasonal illnesses. We predict that neonatal circumcision is associated with hypersensitivity to pain and decreased heart rate variability, which increase the risk for SIDS. We also predict that neonatal male circumcision will account for the SIDS gender bias and that groups that practice high male circumcision rates, such as USA whites, will have higher SIDS rates compared to groups with lower circumcision rates. SIDS rates will also be higher in USA states where Medicaid covers circumcision and lower among people that do not practice neonatal circumcision and/or cannot afford to pay for circumcision. We last predict that winter-born premature infants who are circumcised will be at higher risk of SIDS compared to infants who experienced fewer nociceptive exposures. All these predictions are testable experimentally using animal models or cohort studies in humans. Our hypothesis provides new insights into novel risk factors for SIDS that can reduce its risk by modifying current infant care practices to reduce nociceptive exposures
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