Older adults experiences of rehabilitation in acute health care

Rehabilitation is a key component of nursing and allied healthcare professionals’ roles in most health and social care settings. This paper reports on stage 2 of an action research project to ascertain older adult's experience of rehabilitation. Twenty postdischarge interviews were conducted and the interview transcripts were analysed using thematic content analysis. All older adults discharged from an acute older acute rehabilitation ward to their own homes in the community were eligible to participate. The only exclusion criterion was older adults who were thought to be unable to give consent to participate by the nurse in charge and the researcher. Whilst 92 older adults were eligible to participate in this research study, only 20 were interviewed. The findings from this study suggest that older adults valued communication with health professionals but were aware of their time constraints that hindered communication. This study suggests that both nurses and allied health professionals are not actively providing rehabilitative services to promote health and well-being, which contradicts the focus of active ageing. Furthermore, there was evidence of unmet needs on discharge, and older adults unable to recall the professions that were involved in their interventions and the rationale for therapy input. It is suggested that further research is needed to explore the effectiveness of allied health rehabilitation in the acute setting. This study highlights the need for further research into older adults’ perceptions of the rehabilitation process in the acute setting

Population-Based Precision Cancer Screening: A Symposium on Evidence, Epidemiology, and Next Steps

Precision medicine, an emerging approach for disease treatment that takes into account individual variability in genes, environment, and lifestyle, is under consideration for preventive interventions, including cancer screening. On September 29, 2015, the National Cancer Institute sponsored a symposium entitled “Precision Cancer Screening in the General Population: Evidence, Epidemiology, and Next Steps”. The goal was two-fold: to share current information on the evidence, practices, and challenges surrounding precision screening for breast, cervical, colorectal, lung, and prostate cancers, and to allow for in-depth discussion among experts in relevant fields regarding how epidemiology and other population sciences can be used to generate evidence to inform precision screening strategies. Attendees concluded that the strength of evidence for efficacy and effectiveness of precision strategies varies by cancer site, that no one research strategy or methodology would be able or appropriate to address the many knowledge gaps in precision screening, and that issues surrounding implementation must be researched as well. Additional discussion needs to occur to identify the high priority research areas in precision cancer screening for pertinent organs and to gather the necessary evidence to determine whether further implementation of precision cancer screening strategies in the general population would be feasible and beneficial

In the eye of the beholder: Eye-tracking assessment of social information processing in aggressive behavior

# The Author(s) 2009. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Abstract Acording to social information processing theories, aggressive children are hypersensitive to cues of hostility and threat in other people’s behavior. However, even though there is ample evidence that aggressive children over-interpret others ’ behaviors as hostile, it is unclear whether this hostile attribution tendency does actually result from overattending to hostile and threatening cues. Since encoding is posited to consist of rapid automatic processes, it is hard to assess with the selfreport measures that have been used so far. Therefore, we used a novel approach to investigate visual encoding of social information. The eye movements of thirty 10–13 year old children with lower levels and thirty children with higher levels of aggressive behavior were monitored in real time with an eyetracker, as the children viewed ten different cartoon series of ambiguous provocation situations. In addition, participants answered questions concerning encoding and interpretation. Aggressive children did not attend more to hostile cues, nor attend less to non-hostile cues than non-aggressive children. Contrary, aggressive children looked longer at non-hostile cues, but nonetheless attributed more hostile intent than their non-aggressive peers. These findings contradict the traditional bottom-up processing hypotheses that aggressive behavior would be related with failure to attend to non-hostile cues. The findings seem best explained by topdown information processing, where aggressive children’s pre-existing hostile intent schemata (1) direct attention towards schema inconsistent nonhostile cues, (2) prevent further processing and recall of such schema-inconsistent information, and (3) lead to hostil

Do Synesthetes Have a General Advantage in Visual Search and Episodic Memory? A Case for Group Studies

BACKGROUND: Some studies, most of them case-reports, suggest that synesthetes have an advantage in visual search and episodic memory tasks. The goal of this study was to examine this hypothesis in a group study. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In the present study, we tested thirteen grapheme-color synesthetes and we compared their performance on a visual search task and a memory test to an age-, handedness-, education-, and gender-matched control group. The results showed no significant group differences (all relevant ps>.50). For the visual search task effect sizes indicated a small advantage for synesthetes (Cohen's d between .19 and .32). No such advantage was found for episodic memory (Cohen's d<.05). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The results indicate that synesthesia per se does not seem to lead to a strong performance advantage. Rather, the superior performance of synesthetes observed in some case-report studies may be due to individual differences, to a selection bias or to a strategic use of synesthesia as a mnemonic. In order to establish universal effects of synesthesia on cognition single-case studies must be complemented by group studies

Vaccination with DNA plasmids expressing Gn coupled to C3d or alphavirus replicons expressing Gn protects mice against rift valley fever virus

Background: Rift Valley fever (RVF) is an arthropod-borne viral zoonosis. Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) is an important biological threat with the potential to spread to new susceptible areas. In addition, it is a potential biowarfare agent. Methodology/Principal Findings: We developed two potential vaccines, DNA plasmids and alphavirus replicons, expressing the Gn glycoprotein of RVFV alone or fused to three copies of complement protein, C3d. Each vaccine was administered to mice in an all DNA, all replicon, or a DNA prime/replicon boost strategy and both the humoral and cellular responses were assessed. DNA plasmids expressing Gn-C3d and alphavirus replicons expressing Gn elicited high titer neutralizing antibodies that were similar to titers elicited by the live-attenuated MP12 virus. Mice vaccinated with an inactivated form of MP12 did elicit high titer antibodies, but these antibodies were unable to neutralize RVFV infection. However, only vaccine strategies incorporating alphavirus replicons elicited cellular responses to Gn. Both vaccines strategies completely prevented weight loss and morbidity and protected against lethal RVFV challenge. Passive transfer of antisera from vaccinated mice into naïve mice showed that both DNA plasmids expressing Gn-C3d and alphavirus replicons expressing Gn elicited antibodies that protected mice as well as sera from mice immunized with MP12. Conclusion/Significance: These results show that both DNA plasmids expressing Gn-C3d and alphavirus replicons expressing Gn administered alone or in a DNA prime/replicon boost strategy are effective RVFV vaccines. These vaccine strategies provide safer alternatives to using live-attenuated RVFV vaccines for human use. © 2010 Bhardwaj et al

Cinteny: flexible analysis and visualization of synteny and genome rearrangements in multiple organisms

BACKGROUND: Identifying syntenic regions, i.e., blocks of genes or other markers with evolutionary conserved order, and quantifying evolutionary relatedness between genomes in terms of chromosomal rearrangements is one of the central goals in comparative genomics. However, the analysis of synteny and the resulting assessment of genome rearrangements are sensitive to the choice of a number of arbitrary parameters that affect the detection of synteny blocks. In particular, the choice of a set of markers and the effect of different aggregation strategies, which enable coarse graining of synteny blocks and exclusion of micro-rearrangements, need to be assessed. Therefore, existing tools and resources that facilitate identification, visualization and analysis of synteny need to be further improved to provide a flexible platform for such analysis, especially in the context of multiple genomes. RESULTS: We present a new tool, Cinteny, for fast identification and analysis of synteny with different sets of markers and various levels of coarse graining of syntenic blocks. Using Hannenhalli-Pevzner approach and its extensions, Cinteny also enables interactive determination of evolutionary relationships between genomes in terms of the number of rearrangements (the reversal distance). In particular, Cinteny provides: i) integration of synteny browsing with assessment of evolutionary distances for multiple genomes; ii) flexibility to adjust the parameters and re-compute the results on-the-fly; iii) ability to work with user provided data, such as orthologous genes, sequence tags or other conserved markers. In addition, Cinteny provides many annotated mammalian, invertebrate and fungal genomes that are pre-loaded and available for analysis at . CONCLUSION: Cinteny allows one to automatically compare multiple genomes and perform sensitivity analysis for synteny block detection and for the subsequent computation of reversal distances. Cinteny can also be used to interactively browse syntenic blocks conserved in multiple genomes, to facilitate genome annotation and validation of assemblies for newly sequenced genomes, and to construct and assess phylogenomic trees

Comparative analysis and visualization of multiple collinear genomes

Abstract Background Genome browsers are a common tool used by biologists to visualize genomic features including genes, polymorphisms, and many others. However, existing genome browsers and visualization tools are not well-suited to perform meaningful comparative analysis among a large number of genomes. With the increasing quantity and availability of genomic data, there is an increased burden to provide useful visualization and analysis tools for comparison of multiple collinear genomes such as the large panels of model organisms which are the basis for much of the current genetic research. Results We have developed a novel web-based tool for visualizing and analyzing multiple collinear genomes. Our tool illustrates genome-sequence similarity through a mosaic of intervals representing local phylogeny, subspecific origin, and haplotype identity. Comparative analysis is facilitated through reordering and clustering of tracks, which can vary throughout the genome. In addition, we provide local phylogenetic trees as an alternate visualization to assess local variations. Conclusions Unlike previous genome browsers and viewers, ours allows for simultaneous and comparative analysis. Our browser provides intuitive selection and interactive navigation about features of interest. Dynamic visualizations adjust to scale and data content making analysis at variable resolutions and of multiple data sets more informative. We demonstrate our genome browser for an extensive set of genomic data sets composed of almost 200 distinct mouse laboratory strains

Random-phase approximation and its applications in computational chemistry and materials science

The random-phase approximation (RPA) as an approach for computing the electronic correlation energy is reviewed. After a brief account of its basic concept and historical development, the paper is devoted to the theoretical formulations of RPA, and its applications to realistic systems. With several illustrating applications, we discuss the implications of RPA for computational chemistry and materials science. The computational cost of RPA is also addressed which is critical for its widespread use in future applications. In addition, current correction schemes going beyond RPA and directions of further development will be discussed.Comment: 25 pages, 11 figures, published online in J. Mater. Sci. (2012

Genome-Wide Association Studies of Cognitive and Motor Progression in Parkinson's Disease

BACKGROUND: There are currently no treatments that stop or slow the progression of Parkinson's disease (PD). Case-control genome-wide association studies have identified variants associated with disease risk, but not progression. The objective of the current study was to identify genetic variants associated with PD progression. METHODS: We analyzed 3 large longitudinal cohorts: Tracking Parkinson's, Oxford Discovery, and the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative. We included clinical data for 3364 patients with 12,144 observations (mean follow-up 4.2 years). We used a new method in PD, following a similar approach in Huntington's disease, in which we combined multiple assessments using a principal components analysis to derive scores for composite, motor, and cognitive progression. These scores were analyzed in linear regression in genome-wide association studies. We also performed a targeted analysis of the 90 PD risk loci from the latest case-control meta-analysis. RESULTS: There was no overlap between variants associated with PD risk, from case-control studies, and PD age at onset versus PD progression. The APOE ε4 tagging variant, rs429358, was significantly associated with composite and cognitive progression in PD. Conditional analysis revealed several independent signals in the APOE locus for cognitive progression. No single variants were associated with motor progression. However, in gene-based analysis, ATP8B2, a phospholipid transporter related to vesicle formation, was nominally associated with motor progression (P = 5.3 × 10-6 ). CONCLUSIONS: We provide early evidence that this new method in PD improves measurement of symptom progression. We show that the APOE ε4 allele drives progressive cognitive impairment in PD. Replication of this method and results in independent cohorts are needed. © 2020 The Authors. Movement Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. on behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society

Role of Duplicate Genes in Robustness against Deleterious Human Mutations

It is now widely recognized that robustness is an inherent property of biological systems [1],[2],[3]. The contribution of close sequence homologs to genetic robustness against null mutations has been previously demonstrated in simple organisms [4],[5]. In this paper we investigate in detail the contribution of gene duplicates to back-up against deleterious human mutations. Our analysis demonstrates that the functional compensation by close homologs may play an important role in human genetic disease. Genes with a 90% sequence identity homolog are about 3 times less likely to harbor known disease mutations compared to genes with remote homologs. Moreover, close duplicates affect the phenotypic consequences of deleterious mutations by making a decrease in life expectancy significantly less likely. We also demonstrate that similarity of expression profiles across tissues significantly increases the likelihood of functional compensation by homologs