Indirect Traumatic Optic Neuropathy in Mild Chronic Traumatic Brain Injury

PURPOSE. To analyze the clinical presentation and optical coherence tomography (OCT) findings in indirect traumatic optic neuropathy (ITON) in veterans with chronic mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). METHODS. This retrospective study is the first to describe the OCT pattern of subclinical to mild ITON in veterans with chronic mTBI. The thicknesses of the macular ganglion cell layer (mGCL), peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (pRNFL), and subfoveal choroidal layer were analyzed in young veterans who had mTBI of >6 months' duration and either blunt head injury or improvised explosive device (IED) concussions. RESULTS. Three major OCT findings were demonstrated: (1) temporal pRNFL thinning was associated with subclinical TON in the eyes of chronic mTBI patients compared with controls; within mTBI subjects, nasal mGCL thinning at the 3-mm modified Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study circle diameter distance from the fovea correlated with the corresponding temporal retinal nerve fiber layer thinning; (2) inner (1 mm) superior thinning was greater than that of the temporal mGCL in blunt head injury and could potentially distinguish it from IED concussive head trauma; and (3) subfoveal choroidal thinning was significantly worse in eyes of mTBI patients compared with those of controls. CONCLUSIONS. These OCT findings may contribute to the understanding of the spectrum of visual injuries resulting from head trauma.Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute grant at University of California, San Francisco; Kuen Lau Research FoundationOpen access journalThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Gut Microbiome: Profound Implications For Diet And Disease

The gut microbiome plays an important role in human health and influences the development of chronic diseases ranging from metabolic disease to gastrointestinal disorders and colorectal cancer. Of increasing prevalence in Western societies, these conditions carry a high burden of care. Dietary patterns and environmental factors have a profound effect on shaping gut microbiota in real time. Diverse populations of intestinal bacteria mediate their beneficial effects through the fermentation of dietary fiber to produce short-chain fatty acids, endogenous signals with important roles in lipid homeostasis and reducing inflammation. Recent progress shows that an individual’s starting microbial profile is a key determinant in predicting their response to intervention with live probiotics. The gut microbiota is complex and challenging to characterize. Enterotypes have been proposed using metrics such as alpha species diversity, the ratio of Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes phyla, and the relative abundance of beneficial genera (e.g., Bifidobacterium, Akkermansia) versus facultative anaerobes (E. coli), pro-inflammatory Ruminococcus, or nonbacterial microbes. Microbiota composition and relative populations of bacterial species are linked to physiologic health along different axes. We review the role of diet quality, carbohydrate intake, fermentable FODMAPs, and prebiotic fiber in maintaining healthy gut flora. The implications are discussed for various conditions including obesity, diabetes, irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, depression, and cardiovascular disease

Automatic Detection of Modality with ITGETARUNS

In this paper we present a system for modality detection which is then used for Subjectivity and Factuality evaluation. The system has been tested lately on a task for Subjectivity and Irony detection in Italian tweets , where the performance was 10th and 4th, respectively, over 27 participants overall. We will focus our paper on an internal evaluation where we considered three national newspapers Il Corriere, Repubblica, Libero. This task was prompted by a project on the evaluation of press stylistic features in political discourse. The project used newspaper articles from the same sources over a period of three months, thus including latest political 2013 governmental crisis. We intended to produce a similar experiment and evaluate results in comparison with previous 2011 crisis. In this evaluation, we focused on Subjectivity, Polarity and Factuality which include Modality evaluation. Final graphs at the end of the paper will show results confirming our previous findings about differences in style, with Il Corriere emerging as the most atypical

Atmospheric Acetaldehyde: Importance of Air-Sea Exchange and a Missing Source in the Remote Troposphere.

We report airborne measurements of acetaldehyde (CH3CHO) during the first and second deployments of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Atmospheric Tomography Mission (ATom). The budget of CH3CHO is examined using the Community Atmospheric Model with chemistry (CAM-chem), with a newly-developed online air-sea exchange module. The upper limit of the global ocean net emission of CH3CHO is estimated to be 34 Tg a-1 (42 Tg a-1 if considering bubble-mediated transfer), and the ocean impacts on tropospheric CH3CHO are mostly confined to the marine boundary layer. Our analysis suggests that there is an unaccounted CH3CHO source in the remote troposphere and that organic aerosols can only provide a fraction of this missing source. We propose that peroxyacetic acid (PAA) is an ideal indicator of the rapid CH3CHO production in the remote troposphere. The higher-than-expected CH3CHO measurements represent a missing sink of hydroxyl radicals (and halogen radical) in current chemistry-climate models

A heteroskedastic error covariance matrix estimator using a first-order conditional autoregressive Markov simulation for deriving asympotical efficient estimates from ecological sampled Anopheles arabiensis aquatic habitat covariates

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Autoregressive regression coefficients for <it>Anopheles arabiensis </it>aquatic habitat models are usually assessed using global error techniques and are reported as error covariance matrices. A global statistic, however, will summarize error estimates from multiple habitat locations. This makes it difficult to identify where there are clusters of <it>An. arabiensis </it>aquatic habitats of acceptable prediction. It is therefore useful to conduct some form of spatial error analysis to detect clusters of <it>An. arabiensis </it>aquatic habitats based on uncertainty residuals from individual sampled habitats. In this research, a method of error estimation for spatial simulation models was demonstrated using autocorrelation indices and eigenfunction spatial filters to distinguish among the effects of parameter uncertainty on a stochastic simulation of ecological sampled <it>Anopheles </it>aquatic habitat covariates. A test for diagnostic checking error residuals in an <it>An. arabiensis </it>aquatic habitat model may enable intervention efforts targeting productive habitats clusters, based on larval/pupal productivity, by using the asymptotic distribution of parameter estimates from a residual autocovariance matrix. The models considered in this research extends a normal regression analysis previously considered in the literature.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Field and remote-sampled data were collected during July 2006 to December 2007 in Karima rice-village complex in Mwea, Kenya. SAS 9.1.4^®was used to explore univariate statistics, correlations, distributions, and to generate global autocorrelation statistics from the ecological sampled datasets. A local autocorrelation index was also generated using spatial covariance parameters (i.e., Moran's Indices) in a SAS/GIS^®database. The Moran's statistic was decomposed into orthogonal and uncorrelated synthetic map pattern components using a Poisson model with a gamma-distributed mean (i.e. negative binomial regression). The eigenfunction values from the spatial configuration matrices were then used to define expectations for prior distributions using a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm. A set of posterior means were defined in WinBUGS 1.4.3^®. After the model had converged, samples from the conditional distributions were used to summarize the posterior distribution of the parameters. Thereafter, a spatial residual trend analyses was used to evaluate variance uncertainty propagation in the model using an autocovariance error matrix.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>By specifying coefficient estimates in a Bayesian framework, the covariate number of tillers was found to be a significant predictor, positively associated with <it>An. arabiensis </it>aquatic habitats. The spatial filter models accounted for approximately 19% redundant locational information in the ecological sampled <it>An. arabiensis </it>aquatic habitat data. In the residual error estimation model there was significant positive autocorrelation (i.e., clustering of habitats in geographic space) based on log-transformed larval/pupal data and the sampled covariate depth of habitat.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>An autocorrelation error covariance matrix and a spatial filter analyses can prioritize mosquito control strategies by providing a computationally attractive and feasible description of variance uncertainty estimates for correctly identifying clusters of prolific <it>An. arabiensis </it>aquatic habitats based on larval/pupal productivity.</p

Empathy: a review of the concept

The inconsistent definition of empathy has had a negative impact on both research and practice. The aim of this article is to review and critically appraise a range of definitions of empathy and, through considered analysis, to develop a new conceptualisation. From the examination of 43 discrete definitions, 8 themes relating to the nature of empathy emerged: “distinguishing empathy from other concepts”; “cognitive or affective?”; “congruent or incongruent?”; “subject to other stimuli?”; “self/other distinction or merging?”; “trait or state influences?”; “has a behavioural outcome?”; and “automatic or controlled?” The relevance and validity of each theme is assessed and a new conceptualisation of empathy is offered. The benefits of employing a more consistent and complete definition of empathy are discussed

Advancing Research on the Complex Interrelations Between Atrial Fibrillation and Heart Failure A Report From a US National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Virtual Workshop

The interrelationships between atrial fibrillation (AF) and heart failure (HF) are complex and poorly understood, yet the number of patients with AF and HF continues to increase worldwide. Thus, there is a need for initiatives that prioritize research on the intersection between AF and HF. This article summarizes the proceedings of a virtual workshop convened by the US National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to identify important research opportunities in AF and HF. Key knowledge gaps were reviewed and research priorities were proposed for characterizing the pathophysiological overlap and deleterious interactions between AF and HF; preventing HF in people with AF; preventing AF in individuals with HF; and addressing symptom burden and health status outcomes in AF and HF. These research priorities will hopefully help inform, encourage, and stimulate innovative, cost-efficient, and transformative studies to enhance the outcomes of patients with AF and HF

Greenland and Canadian Arctic ice temperature profiles database

Here, we present a compilation of 95 ice temperature profiles from 85 boreholes from the Greenland ice sheet and peripheral ice caps, as well as local ice caps in the Canadian Arctic. Profiles from only 31 boreholes (36 %) were previously available in open-access data repositories. The remaining 54 borehole profiles (64 %) are being made digitally available here for the first time. These newly available profiles, which are associated with pre-2010 boreholes, have been submitted by community members or digitized from published graphics and/or data tables. All 95 profiles are now made available in both absolute (meters) and normalized (0 to 1 ice thickness) depth scales and are accompanied by extensive metadata. These metadata include a transparent description of data provenance. The ice temperature profiles span 70 years, with the earliest profile being from 1950 at Camp VI, West Greenland. To highlight the value of this database in evaluating ice flow simulations, we compare the ice temperature profiles from the Greenland ice sheet with an ice flow simulation by the Parallel Ice Sheet Model (PISM). We find a cold bias in modeled near-surface ice temperatures within the ablation area, a warm bias in modeled basal ice temperatures at inland cold-bedded sites, and an apparent underestimation of deformational heating in high-strain settings. These biases provide process level insight on simulated ice temperatures