Looks Matter Felice C.FrankelAngela H.DePaceVisual Strategies: A Practical Guide to Graphics for Scientists and Engineers2012Yale University PressNew Haven, CT, USA153 pp. $35.00

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High School Students’ Stereotypic Images of Scientists in South Korea

This study explored stereotypical images of scientists held by tenth-grade students at three different gender organized institutions. The three institutions included an all-male, an all-female, and a co-educational high school located in South Korea. A total of 393 tenth-grade students from these three respective schools participated in a Draw-A-Scientist-Test (DAST), which was designed to reveal students’ perceptions about what scientists look like. After initial assessment of the DAST results, small numbers of students from each school were selected for follow-up focus group interviews. A mixed methods technique was used in order to analyse the DAST scores and data from the transcribed interviews. Quantitative results indicated that the groups from the three different types of schools were significantly different in terms of their stereotypical images of scientists in that the male and female students from the co-ed school had significantly fewer stereotypical images of scientists versus students in the all-male school. Qualitative results from analysis of selected students at the all-male, the all-female, and the co-ed schools corroborated the quantitative findings. Additional discussions address possible ways to improve equitable learning opportunities in South Korea

Sashimi plots: Quantitative visualization of RNA sequencing read alignments

We introduce Sashimi plots, a quantitative multi-sample visualization of mRNA sequencing reads aligned to gene annotations. Sashimi plots are made using alignments (stored in the SAM/BAM format) and gene model annotations (in GFF format), which can be custom-made by the user or obtained from databases such as Ensembl or UCSC. We describe two implementations of Sashimi plots: (1) a stand-alone command line implementation aimed at making customizable publication quality figures, and (2) an implementation built into the Integrated Genome Viewer (IGV) browser, which enables rapid and dynamic creation of Sashimi plots for any genomic region of interest, suitable for exploratory analysis of alternatively spliced regions of the transcriptome. Isoform expression estimates outputted by the MISO program can be optionally plotted along with Sashimi plots. Sashimi plots can be used to quickly screen differentially spliced exons along genomic regions of interest and can be used in publication quality figures. The Sashimi plot software and documentation is available from: http://genes.mit.edu/burgelab/miso/docs/sashimi.htmlComment: 2 figure

Collapse arrest and soliton stabilization in nonlocal nonlinear media

We investigate the properties of localized waves in systems governed by nonlocal nonlinear Schrodinger type equations. We prove rigorously by bounding the Hamiltonian that nonlocality of the nonlinearity prevents collapse in, e.g., Bose-Einstein condensates and optical Kerr media in all physical dimensions. The nonlocal nonlinear response must be symmetric, but can be of completely arbitrary shape. We use variational techniques to find the soliton solutions and illustrate the stabilizing effect of nonlocality.Comment: 4 pages with 3 figure

Susceptibility of streptozotocin-induced diabetic rat retinal function and ocular blood flow to acute intraocular pressure challenge.

PURPOSE. To consider the hypothesis that streptozotocin (STZ)-induced hyperglycemia renders rat retinal function and ocular blood flow more susceptible to acute IOP challenge. METHODS. Retinal function (electroretinogram [ERG]) was measured during acute IOP challenge (10-100 mm Hg, increments of 5 mm Hg, 3 minutes per step, vitreal cannulation) in adult Long-Evans rats (6 weeks old; citrate: n ¼ 6, STZ: n ¼ 10) 4 weeks after citrate buffer or STZ (65 mg/kg, blood glucose >15 mM) injection. At each IOP, dim and bright flash (À4.56, À1.72 log cd.s.m À2 ) ERG responses were recorded to measure inner retinal and ON-bipolar cell function, respectively. Ocular blood flow (laser Doppler flowmetry; citrate: n ¼ 6, STZ: n ¼ 10) was also measured during acute IOP challenge. Retinas were isolated for quantitative PCR analysis of nitric oxide synthase mRNA expression (endothelial, eNos; inducible, iNos; neuronal, nNos). CONCLUSIONS. STZ-induced diabetes increased functional susceptibility during acute IOP challenge. This functional vulnerability is associated with a reduced capacity for diabetic eyes to upregulate eNos expression and to autoregulate blood flow in response to stress. (Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. RESULTS. STZ-induced diabetes increase

Identifying cell class specific losses from serially generated electroretinogram components

Purpose. Processing of information through the cellular layers of the retina occurs in a serial manner. In the electroretinogram (ERG), this complicates interpretation of inner retinal changes as dysfunction may arise from “upstream” neurons or may indicate a direct loss to that neural generator. We propose an approach that addresses this issue by defining ERG gain relationships. Methods. Regression analyses between two serial ERG parameters in a control cohort of rats are used to define gain relationships. These gains are then applied to two models of retinal disease. Results. The to gain is unity whereas the to and to gains are greater than unity, indicating “amplification” (). Timing relationships show amplification between to and compression for to and to , (). Application of these gains to -3-deficiency indicates that all timing changes are downstream of photoreceptor changes, but a direct pSTR amplitude loss occurs (). Application to diabetes indicates widespread inner retinal dysfunction which cannot be attributed to outer retinal changes (). Conclusions. This simple approach aids in the interpretation of inner retinal ERG changes by taking into account gain characteristics found between successive ERG components of normal animals

Using the electroretinogram to understand how intraocular pressure elevation affects the rat retina

Intraocular pressure (IOP) elevation is a key risk factor for glaucoma. Our understanding of the effect that IOP elevation has on the eye has been greatly enhanced by the application of the electroretinogram (ERG). In this paper, we describe how the ERG in the rodent eye is affected by changes in IOP magnitude, duration, and number of spikes. We consider how the variables of blood pressure and age can modify the effect of IOP elevation on the ERG. Finally, we contrast the effects that acute and chronic IOP elevation can have on the rodent ERG

Insights from a Rheumatic Heart Disease Registry in a Tertiary Centre in Sabah

Introduction Rheumatic heart disease is still endemic in developing countries and among the indigenous population in developed countries. However, there is no comprehensive data on rheumatic heart disease patients in Malaysia. The Cardiology Department of Queen Elizabeth ll Hospital (QEH ll), Sabah started this hospital-based registry in 2010. The objective of this analysis was to report the demographic profile, severity of disease, types of valve involvement and the practice of secondary prophylaxis among these patients. Methods This was a retrospective record review involved a three-year review of patients registered under the rheumatic heart disease registry in QEH ll, Sabah from December 2010 to November 2013. It included patients who attended the cardiology clinic who were diagnosed with rheumatic heart disease. Results A total of 627 rheumatic heart disease patients were registered over a period of three years. Mean age was 41 (16.2) year old, 67.5% were female, and 51.2% of the patients had severe valvular dysfunction with mitral regurgitation as the commonest valve affected (67.3%). There was an increasing trend in the percentage of patients receiving secondary prophylaxis (oral and intra-muscular) from the year 2010 to the year 2013 (23.2% and 67.6% respectively). Abnormal ECG, pulmonary regurgitation and not on any secondary prophylaxis were found to be associated with severe rheumatic heart disease. Conclusions Rheumatic heart disease is prevalent in Sabah. Most patients had severe form of valve dysfunction when diagnosed. Awareness and advocacy on secondary prophylaxis warrant immediate improvement

Leveraging electronic health records to support chronic disease management: the need for temporal data views

Background The ageing population worldwide is increasingly acquiring multiple chronic diseases. The complex management of chronic diseases could be improved with electronic health records (EHRs) tailored to chronic disease care, but most EHRs in use today do not adequately support longitudinal data management. A key aspect of chronic disease management is that it takes place over long periods, but the way that most EHRs display longitudinal data makes it difficult to trend changes over time and slows providers as they review each patient's unique course. Methods We present five clinical scenarios illustrating longitudinal data needs in complex chronic disease management. These scenarios may function as example cases for software development. Outputs For each scenario, we describe and illustrate improvements in temporal data views. Two potential solutions are visualisation for numerical data and disease-oriented text summaries for non-numerical data. Conclusions We believe that development and widespread implementation of improved temporal data views in EHRs will improve the efficiency and quality of chronic disease management in primary care

Structure-function study of maize ribosome-inactivating protein: implications for the internal inactivation region and the sole glutamate in the active site

Maize ribosome-inactivating protein is classified as a class III or an atypical RNA N-glycosidase. It is synthesized as an inactive precursor with a 25-amino acid internal inactivation region, which is removed in the active form. As the first structural example of this class of proteins, crystals of the precursor and the active form were diffracted to 2.4 and 2.5 Å, respectively. The two proteins are similar, with main chain root mean square deviation (RMSD) of 0.519. In the precursor, the inactivation region is found on the protein surface and consists of a flexible loop followed by a long α-helix. This region diminished both the interaction with ribosome and cytotoxicity, but not cellular uptake. Like bacterial ribosome-inactivating proteins, maize ribosome-inactivating protein does not have a back-up glutamate in the active site, which helps the protein to retain some activity if the catalytic glutamate is mutated. The structure reveals that the active site is too small to accommodate two glutamate residues. Our structure suggests that maize ribosome-inactivating protein may represent an intermediate product in the evolution of ribosome-inactivating proteins. © 2007 The Author(s).published_or_final_versio