Testing the Limits of Antidiscrimination Law: The Business, Legal, and Ethical Ramifications of Cultural Profiling at Work

While courts have rarely ruled in favor of plaintiffs bringing discrimination claims based on identity performance, legal scholars have argued that discrimination on the basis of certain cultural displays should be prohibited because it creates a work environment that is heavily charged with ethnic and racial discrimination. Drawing upon empirical studies of diversity management, stereotyping, and group dynamics, we describe how workplace cultural profiling often creates an unproductive atmosphere of heightened scrutiny and identity performance constraints that lead workers (especially those from marginalized groups) to behave in less authentic, less innovative ways in diverse organizational settings

The ENIGMA Stroke Recovery Working Group: Big data neuroimaging to study brain–behavior relationships after stroke

The goal of the Enhancing Neuroimaging Genetics through Meta‐Analysis (ENIGMA) Stroke Recovery working group is to understand brain and behavior relationships using well‐powered meta‐ and mega‐analytic approaches. ENIGMA Stroke Recovery has data from over 2,100 stroke patients collected across 39 research studies and 10 countries around the world, comprising the largest multisite retrospective stroke data collaboration to date. This article outlines the efforts taken by the ENIGMA Stroke Recovery working group to develop neuroinformatics protocols and methods to manage multisite stroke brain magnetic resonance imaging, behavioral and demographics data. Specifically, the processes for scalable data intake and preprocessing, multisite data harmonization, and large‐scale stroke lesion analysis are described, and challenges unique to this type of big data collaboration in stroke research are discussed. Finally, future directions and limitations, as well as recommendations for improved data harmonization through prospective data collection and data management, are provided

The Epoxygenases CYP2J2 Activates the Nuclear Receptor PPARα In Vitro and In Vivo

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) are a family of three (PPARalpha, -beta/delta, and -gamma) nuclear receptors. In particular, PPARalpha is involved in regulation of fatty acid metabolism, cell growth and inflammation. PPARalpha mediates the cardiac fasting response, increasing fatty acid metabolism, decreasing glucose utilisation, and is the target for the fibrate lipid-lowering class of drugs. However, little is known regarding the endogenous generation of PPAR ligands. CYP2J2 is a lipid metabolising cytochrome P450, which produces anti-inflammatory mediators, and is considered the major epoxygenase in the human heart.Expression of CYP2J2 in vitro results in an activation of PPAR responses with a particular preference for PPARalpha. The CYP2J2 products 8,9- and 11-12-EET also activate PPARalpha. In vitro, PPARalpha activation by its selective ligand induces the PPARalpha target gene pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase (PDK)4 in cardiac tissue. In vivo, in cardiac-specific CYP2J2 transgenic mice, fasting selectively augments the expression of PDK4.Our results establish that CYP2J2 produces PPARalpha ligands in vitro and in vivo, and suggests that lipid metabolising CYPs are prime candidates for the integration of global lipid changes to transcriptional signalling events

Role of Soluble Epoxide Hydrolase in Postischemic Recovery of Heart Contractile Function

Cytochrome P450 epoxygenases metabolize arachidonic acid to epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs) which are converted to dihydroxyeicosatrienoic acids (DHETs) by soluble epoxide hydrolase (Ephx2, sEH). To examine the functional role of sEH in the heart, mice with targeted disruption of the Ephx2 gene were studied. Hearts from sEH null mice have undetectable levels of sEH mRNA and protein and cannot convert EETs to DHETs. sEH null mice have normal heart anatomy and basal contractile function, but have higher fatty acid epoxide:diol ratios in plasma and cardiomyocyte cell culture media compared with wild type (WT). sEH null hearts have improved recovery of left ventricular developed pressure (LVDP) and less infarction compared with WT hearts after 20 minutes ischemia. Perfusion with the putative EET receptor antagonist 14,15-epoxyeicosa-5(Z)-enoic acid (10 to 100 nmol/L) before ischemia abolishes this cardioprotective phenotype. Inhibitor studies demonstrate that perfusion with phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase (PI3K) inhibitors wortmannin (200 nmol/L) or LY294002 (5 μmol/L), the ATP-sensitive K+ channel (KATP) inhibitor glibenclamide (1 μmol/L), the mitochondrial KATP (mitoKATP) inhibitor 5-hydroxydecanoate (100 to 200 μmol/L), or the Ca2+-sensitive K+ channel (KCa) inhibitor paxilline (10 μmol/L) abolishes the cardioprotection in sEH null hearts. Consistent with increased activation of the PI3K cascade, sEH null mice exhibit increased cardiac expression of glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK-3β) phospho-protein after ischemia. Together, these data suggest that targeted disruption of sEH increases the availability of cardioprotective EETs that work by activating PI3K signaling pathways and K+ channels

Aortic stiffness in lone atrial fibrillation: A novel risk factor for arrhythmia recurrence

BACKGROUND Recent community-based research has linked aortic stiffness to the development of atrial fibrillation. We posit that aortic stiffness contributes to adverse atrial remodeling leading to the persistence of atrial fibrillation following catheter ablation in lone atrial fibrillation patients, despite the absence of apparent structural heart disease. Here, we aim to evaluate aortic stiffness in lone atrial fibrillation patients and determine its association with arrhythmia re currence following radio-frequency catheter ablation. METHODS We studied 68 consecutive lone atrial fibrillation patients who underwent catheter ablation procedure for atrial fibrillation and 50 healthy age- and sex-matched community controls. We performed radial artery applanation tonometry to obtain central measures of aortic stiffness: pulse pressure, augmentation pressure and augmentation index. Following ablation, arrhythmia recurrence was monitored at months 3, 6, 9, 12 and 6 monthly thereafter. RESULTS Compared to healthy controls, lone atrial fibrillation patients had significantly elevated peripheral pulse pressure, central pulse pressure, augmentation pressure and larger left atrial dimensions (all P<0.05). During a mean follow-up of 2.9±1.4 years, 38 of the 68 lone atrial fibrillation patients had atrial fibrillation recurrence after initial catheter ablation procedure. Neither blood pressure nor aortic stiffness indices differed between patients with and without atrial fibrillation recurrence. However, patients with highest levels (≥75th percentile) of peripheral pulse pressure, central pulse pressure and augmentation pressure had higher atrial fibrillation recurrence rates (all P<0.05). Only central aortic stiffness indices were associated with lower survival free from atrial fibrillation using Kaplan-Meier analysis. CONCLUSION Aortic stiffness is an important risk factor in patients with lone atrial fibrillation and contributes to higher atrial fibrillation recurrence following catheter ablation procedure.Dennis H. Lau, Melissa E. Middeldorp, Anthony G. Brooks, Anand N. Ganesan, Kurt C. Roberts-Thomson, Martin K. Stiles, Darryl P. Leong, Hany S. Abed, Han S. Lim, Christopher X. Wong, Scott R. Willoughby, Glenn D. Young, Jonathan M. Kalman, Walter P. Abhayaratna, Prashanthan Sander

Acute mountain sickness.

Acute mountain sickness (AMS) is a clinical syndrome occurring in otherwise healthy normal individuals who ascend rapidly to high altitude. Symptoms develop over a period ofa few hours or days. The usual symptoms include headache, anorexia, nausea, vomiting, lethargy, unsteadiness of gait, undue dyspnoea on moderate exertion and interrupted sleep. AMS is unrelated to physical fitness, sex or age except that young children over two years of age are unduly susceptible. One of the striking features ofAMS is the wide variation in individual susceptibility which is to some extent consistent. Some subjects never experience symptoms at any altitude while others have repeated attacks on ascending to quite modest altitudes. Rapid ascent to altitudes of 2500 to 3000m will produce symptoms in some subjects while after ascent over 23 days to 5000m most subjects will be affected, some to a marked degree. In general, the more rapid the ascent, the higher the altitude reached and the greater the physical exertion involved, the more severe AMS will be. Ifthe subjects stay at the altitude reached there is a tendency for acclimatization to occur and symptoms to remit over 1-7 days

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead