Prevention and management of CVD in LMICs: why do ethnicity, culture, and context matter?

BACKGROUND: Low- and middle-income countries now experience the highest prevalence and mortality rates of cardiovascular disease. MAIN TEXT: While improving the availability and delivery of proven, effective therapies will no doubt mitigate this burden, we posit that studies evaluating cardiovascular disease risk factors, management strategies and service delivery, in diverse settings and diverse populations, are equally critical to improving outcomes in low- and middle-income countries. Focusing on examples drawn from four cardiovascular diseases - coronary artery disease, stroke, diabetes and kidney disease - we argue that ethnicity, culture and context matter in determining the risk factors for disease as well as the comparative effectiveness of medications and other interventions, particularly diet and lifestyle interventions. CONCLUSION: We believe that a host of cohort studies and randomized control trials currently being conducted or planned in low- and middle-income countries, focusing on previously understudied race/ethnic groups, have the potential to increase knowledge about the cause(s) and management of cardiovascular diseases across the world

Deindividuation in Social Media

Deindiviuation in social media is increasing as more social media applications, such as Yik Yak, allow you to post anonymously. The deindividuation theory suggests that people who are anonymous in a group setting tend to act more aggressively than if their identity was known. It is important to understand why people do such actions while they are anonymous versus if their identity were known. For this study, Yik Yak posts from college students who attend Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University were collected to analyze. Seven participants were then given an Excel spreadsheet to sort and categorize each Yik Yak post into Content Categories and Intent Categories. Each participant had to then choose from a subset of categories within the Content and Intent Categories. The subset of Content Categories includes: aggression, charity, academic dishonesty, crime, escapism, political activities, sexual behavior, social disruption, interpersonal spying and eaves dropping, travel, and miscellaneous. The subset of Intent Categories includes: prosocial (helps others), antisocial (hurts others), nonnormative (violating social norms without hurting or helping others), and neutral (meeting none of the other three categories). The results suggested that most of the people using Yik Yak were most likely not experiencing deindividuation. We concluded this because more than half of the posts were categorized as Miscellaneous . If the Yik Yak users were experiencing deindividuation, most of the posts should have fallen into the Aggression or another violent category

The Impact of Technology on Adolescent Identity Development

This paper explores how technology use in adolescence facilitates adult identity achievement and presents evidence that technological objects, such as smartphones have become adolescent transitional objects. Early and late adolescents were surveyed about technology use and feelings associated with technology. Among older adolescents, anxiety level was related to smart phone use, such that higher anxiety was associated with greater smart phone use. The feelings and behaviors associated with use of the preferred device are consistent with feelings and behaviors associated with use of a transitional object. In contrast, younger adolescents did not appear to use technology as a transitional object. This difference may be that older adolescents are in an active phase of transition, developmentally, with movement to a university. Understanding how technology is viewed by adolescents provides insight into how technology can be used in critical environments, such as schools and homes, to facilitate a healthy transition to adulthood

Microarrays Reveal Early Transcriptional Events during the Termination of Larval Diapause in Natural Populations of the Mosquito, Wyeomyia smithii

overwinters in a larval diapause that is initiated, maintained and terminated by day length (photoperiod). We use a forward genetic approach to investigate transcriptional events involved in the termination of diapause following exposure to long-days. is up-regulated under long-day response conditions, is located under a QTL for critical photoperiod and is associated with critical photoperiod after 25 generations of recombination from a cross between extreme phenotypes. as a gene either involved in the photoperiodic switch mechanism or very tightly linked to a gene that is. We conclude that continued forward genetic approaches will be central to understanding not only the molecular basis of photoperiodism and diapause, but also the evolutionary potential of temperate and polar animal populations when confronted with rapid climate change

The prevalence and impact of low back pain in pre-professional and professional dancers: a prospective study

Objectives To determine the prevalence of low back pain (LBP) in pre-professional and professional dancers and its impact on dance participation, care-seeking and medication use. Design Prospective cohort study. Setting One pre-professional ballet school, two pre-professional university dance programs, and a professional ballet company. Participants Male and female classical ballet and contemporary dancers. Main outcome measures An initial questionnaire collected demographic and LBP history data. The monthly prevalence of LBP (all episodes, activity limiting episodes and chronic LBP) and impact (activity limitation, care-seeking, and medication use) was collected over a nine-month period. Results 119 dancers participated, which represented 54% of those invited. Activity limiting LBP was reported by 52% of dancers, while chronic LBP was reported by 24%. Seventeen percent of all episodes of LBP resulted in some form of dance activity being completely missed. One-third of the sample reported care-seeking and one-fifth of the sample used medication. A history of LBP was associated with activity limiting LBP (p < 0.01; adjusted odds ratio: 3.98; 95% confidence interval: 1.44, 11.00). Conclusions LBP in dancers was common and had multiple impacts. This study reinforces the need for dancer access to healthcare professionals with expertise in evidence-based LBP prevention and management

Deindividuation in Anonymous Social Media: Does Anonymous Social Media Lead to an Increase in Non-Normative Behavior?

This research presents several aspects of anonymous social media postings using an anonymous social media application (i.e., Yik Yak) that is GPS-linked to college campuses. Anonymous social media been widely criticized for postings containing threats/harassment, vulgarity and suicidal intentions. However, little research has empirically examined the content of anonymous social media postings, and whether they contain a large quantity of negative social content. To best understand this phenomenon an analysis of the content of anonymous social media posts was conducted in accordance with Deindividuation Theory (Reicher, Spears, & Postmes, 1995). Deindividuation Theory predicts group behavior is congruent with group norms. Therefore, if a group norm is antisocial in nature, then so too will be group behavior. In other words, individuals relinquish their individual identity to a group identity, while they are a part of that group. Since the application used in this study is limited to a radial distance around specific college campuses, we predicted the anonymous social media users would identify as students, and behave closer to the norms expected of a student. Our results confirm that while deindividuation did occur among the college students, it did not exceed what is considered normal behavior for the social identity of a student

A widespread family of serine/threonine protein phosphatases shares a common regulatory switch with proteasomal proteases

PP2C phosphatases control biological processes including stress responses, development, and cell division in all kingdoms of life. Diverse regulatory domains adapt PP2C phosphatases to specific functions, but how these domains control phosphatase activity was unknown. We present structures representing active and inactive states of the PP2C phosphatase SpoIIE from Bacillus subtilis. Based on structural analyses and genetic and biochemical experiments, we identify an a-helical switch that shifts a carbonyl oxygen into the active site to coordinate a metal cofactor. Our analysis indicates that this switch is widely conserved among PP2C family members, serving as a platform to control phosphatase activity in response to diverse inputs. Remarkably, the switch is shared with proteasomal proteases, which we identify as evolutionary and structural relatives of PP2C phosphatases. Although these proteases use an unrelated catalytic mechanism, rotation of equivalent helices controls protease activity by movement of the equivalent carbonyl oxygen into the active site

Circadian clock genes, ovarian development and diapause

Insects, like most organisms, have an internal circadian clock that oscillates with a daily rhythmicity, and a timing mechanism that mediates seasonal events, including diapause. In research published in BMC Biology, Ikeno et al. show that downregulation of the circadian clock genes period and cycle affects expression of ovarian diapause in the insect Riptortus pedestris. They interpret these important results as support for Erwin Bünning's (1936) hypothesis that the circadian clock constitutes the basis of photoperiodism. However, their observations could also be the result of pleiotropic effects of the individual clock genes

Multi-segment spine kinematics: Relationship with dance training and low back pain

Background: Spine posture, range of motion (ROM) and movement asymmetry can contribute to low back pain (LBP). These variables may have greater impact in populations required to perform repetitive spine movements, such as dancers; however, there is limited evidence to support this. Research question: What is the influence of dance and LBP on spinal kinematics? Methods: In this cross-sectional study, multi-segment spinal kinematics were examined in 60 female participants, including dancers (n = 21) and non-dancers (n = 39) with LBP (n = 33) and without LBP (n = 27). A nine-camera motion analysis system sampling at 100 Hz was used to assess standing posture, as well as ROM and movement asymmetry for side bend and trunk rotation tasks. A two-way ANOVA was performed for each of the outcome variables to detect any differences between dancers and non-dancers, or individuals with and without LBP. Results: Compared to non-dancers, dancers displayed a flatter upper lumbar angle when standing (p  0.05) or movement asymmetry (p > 0.05). There was no main effect for LBP symptoms on any kinematic measures, and no interaction effect for dance group and LBP on spinal kinematics (p > 0.05). Significance: Female dancers displayed a flatter spine posture and increased spine ROM compared to non-dancers for a select number of spine segments and movement tasks. However, the overall number of differences was small, and no relationship was observed between LBP and spinal kinematics. This suggests that these simple, static posture, ROM, and asymmetry measures often used in clinical practice can provide only limited generalisable information about the impact of dance or LBP on spinal kinematics

Identification of an elaborate complex mediating postsynaptic inhibition

Inhibitory synapses dampen neuronal activity through postsynaptic hyperpolarization. The composition of the inhibitory postsynapse and the mechanistic basis of its regulation, however, remains poorly understood. We used an in vivo chemico-genetic proximity-labeling approach to discover inhibitory postsynaptic proteins. Quantitative mass spectrometry not only recapitulated known inhibitory postsynaptic proteins, but also revealed a large network of new proteins, many of which are either implicated in neurodevelopmental disorders or are of unknown function. CRISPR-depletion of one of these previously uncharacterized proteins, InSyn1, led to decreased postsynaptic inhibitory sites, reduced frequency of miniature inhibitory currents, and increased excitability in the hippocampus. Our findings uncover a rich and functionally diverse assemblage of previously unknown proteins that regulate postsynaptic inhibition and might contribute to developmental brain disorders