Links among inflammation, sexual activity and ovulation Evolutionary trade-offs and clinical implications

Background and objectives: We examined a mechanism that may coordinate trade-offs between reproduction and immune response in healthy women, namely, changes in inflammation across the ovarian cycle. Methodology: We investigated C-reactive protein (CRP), an inflammation marker, across two consecutive ovarian cycles in 61 Bolivian women. Participants provided saliva samples every other day, and dried blood spots on 5–6 days spread across weeks 2–3 of each cycle. Cycles were characterized as ovulatory/ anovulatory based on profiles of reproductive hormones. Participants also reported whether they were sexually partnered with a male or sexually abstinent during the study. Results: High early-cycle, but not late-cycle, CRP was associated with anovulation. High inflammation at the end of one cycle was not associated with anovulation in the subsequent cycle. Among ovulatory cycles, women with sexual partners had significantly lower CRP at midcycle, and higher CRP at follicular and luteal phases; in contrast, sexually abstinent women had little cycle-related change in CRP. In anovulatory cycles, partnership had no effect on CRP. CRP varied significantly with socioeconomic status (higher in better-off than in poorer women). Conclusions and implications: These findings suggest that the cycle-specific effect of inflammation on ovarian function may be a flexible, adaptive mechanism for managing trade-offs between reproduction and immunity. Sociosexual behavior may moderate changes in inflammation across the ovarian cycle, suggesting that these shifts represent evolved mechanisms to manage the trade-offs between reproduction and immunity. Clinically, these findings support considering both menstrual cycle phase and sexual activity in evaluations of pre-menopausal women’s CRP concentrations

Local Gram-Schmidt and Covariant Lyapunov Vectors and Exponents for Three Harmonic Oscillator Problems

We compare the Gram-Schmidt and covariant phase-space-basis-vector descriptions for three time-reversible harmonic oscillator problems, in two, three, and four phase-space dimensions respectively. The two-dimensional problem can be solved analytically. The three-dimensional and four-dimensional problems studied here are simultaneously chaotic, time-reversible, and dissipative. Our treatment is intended to be pedagogical, for publication in Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Computation and for use in an updated version of our book on Time Reversibility, Computer Simulation, and Chaos. Comments are very welcome.Comment: 25 pages with 12 figures; New Figures 9-12 based on two billion timesteps rather than the two hundred million used in Version 1; Electronic publication in Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Computation scheduled for 1 July 201

Characterization of the blue emission of Tm/Er co-implanted GaN

Comparative studies have been carried out on the cathodoluminescence (CL) and photoluminescence (PL) properties of GaN implanted with Tin and GaN co-implanted with Tin and a low concentration of Er. Room temperature CL spectra were acquired in an electron probe microanalyser to investigate the rare earth emission. The room temperature CL intensity exhibits a strong dependence on the annealing temperature of the implanted samples. The results of CL temperature dependence are reported for blue emission (similar to 477 nm) which is due to intra 4f-shell electron transitions ((1)G(4)-> H-3(6)) associated with Tm3+ ions. The 477 nm blue CL emission is enhanced strongly as the annealing temperature increases up to 1200 degrees C. Blue PL emission has also been observed from the sample annealed at 1200 degrees C. To our knowledge, this is the first observation of blue PL emission from Tin implanted GaN samples. Intra-4f transitions from the D-1(2) level (similar to 465 nm emission lines) of Tm3+ ions in GaN have been observed in GaN:Tm films at temperatures between 20-200 K. We will discuss the temperature dependent Tm3+ emission in both GaN:Tm,Er and GaN:Tm samples

Rim Pathway-Mediated Alterations in the Fungal Cell Wall Influence Immune Recognition and Inflammation

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We acknowledge Jennifer Lodge, Woei Lam, and Rajendra Upadhya for developing and sharing the chitin and chitosan MTBH assay. We thank Todd Brennan of Duke University for providing MyD88-deficient mice. We acknowledge Neil Gow for providing access to the Dionex HPAEC-PAD instrumentation. We also acknowledge Connie Nichols for critical reading of the manuscript. These experiments were supported by an NIH grant to J.A.A. and F.L.W., Jr. (R01 AI074677). C.M.L.W. was supported by a fellowship provided through the Army Research Office of the Department of Defense (no. W911NF-11-1-0136 f) (F.L.W., Jr.). J.W., L.W., and C.M. were supported by the Wellcome Trust Strategic Award in Medical Mycology and Fungal Immunology (097377) and the MRC, Centre for Medical Mycology (MR/N006364/1). FUNDING INFORMATION MRC Centre for Medical MycologyMR/N006364/1 Carol A. Munro HHS | NIH | National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) https://doi.org/10.13039/100000060R01 AI074677J. Andrew Alspaugh Wellcome https://doi.org/10.13039/100010269097377 Carol A. Munro DOD | United States Army | RDECOM | Army Research Office (ARO) https://doi.org/10.13039/100000183W911NF-11-1-0136 f Chrissy M. Leopold WagerPeer reviewe

THE COST OF SHARING: THE EFFECT OF SHARING INCLINATION ON INFORMATION OVERLOAD

Current research on social media emphasizes that sharing information comes with great benefits to the individual who shares. In this paper, we adopt a different perspective by arguing that individuals with a high inclination to share information through social media also incur substantial cognitive costs. In particular, we hypothesize that during two phases of the sharing process, information appraisal and asynchronous interactivity, the sharer is confronted with information processing requirements that con-siderably draw on his or her limited cognitive capacity and thus increase the likelihood of experiencing information overload. We furthermore argue that this effect is more pronounced for individuals with a high compared to low need for cognition because they feel particularly motivated to process infor-mation. Our hypotheses are supported by a large survey-generated dataset (n=30,392) from six coun-tries. We additionally find a positive direct effect of need for cognition on information overload. We discuss contributions to conversations on information sharing, information overload, and need for cog-nition research in the context of social media and we highlight managerial implications of our findings

Protein Sequence Annotation Tool (PSAT): a centralized web-based meta-server for high-throughput sequence annotations

The EC2KEGG output for the RV1423 analysis sorted in ascending order by the FDR value. (XLSX 58 kb

Severe Preeclampsia and Maternal Self-Report of Oral Health, Hygiene, and Dental Care

Maternal periodontal disease diagnosed by a detailed oral health examination is associated with preeclampsia. Our objective was to measure the association between maternal self-report of oral symptoms/problems, oral hygiene practices, and/or dental service utilization prior to or during pregnancy and severe preeclampsia

Opponent-Pruning Paranoid Search

This paper proposes a new search algorithm for fully observable, deterministic multiplayer games: Opponent-Pruning Paranoid Search (OPPS). OPPS is a generalization of a state-of-the-art technique for this class of games, Best-Reply Search (BRS+). Just like BRS+, it allows for Alpha-Beta style pruning through the paranoid assumption, and both deepens the tree and reduces the pessimism of the paranoid assumption through pruning of opponent moves. However, it introduces

Oral hygiene practices and dental service utilization among pregnant women: An in vitro study

Daily oral hygiene and regular dental visits are important components of oral health care. The authors’ objective in this study was to examine women's oral hygiene practices and use of dental services during pregnancy

Flattening the curve in 52 days: characterisation of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Principality of Liechtenstein - an observational study.

BACKGROUND The principality of Liechtenstein had its first COVID-19 case at the beginning of March 2020. After exponential growth, the pandemic’s first wave was contained, with the last case being diagnosed 52 days after the initial occurrence. AIM To characterise the COVID-19 pandemic in Liechtenstein. METHODS All patients diagnosed in Liechtenstein were followed up until recovery and again 6–8 weeks after symptom onset. They were contacted every 2 days to record their clinical status until the resolution of their symptoms. The diagnosis of COVID-19 was based on clinical symptoms and molecular testing. Household and close workplace contacts were included in the follow-up, which also comprised antibody testing. In addition, public health measures installed during the pandemic in Liechtenstein are summarised. RESULTS During the first wave, 5% of the population obtained a reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction test. A total of 95 patients (median age 39 years) were diagnosed with COVID-19 (82 who resided in Liechtenstein), resulting in an incidence in Liechtenstein of 0.211%. One patient, aged 94, died (mortality rate 1%). Only 62% of patients could retrospectively identify a potential source of infection. Testing the patients’ household and close workplace contacts (n = 170) with antibody tests revealed that 25% of those tested were additional COVID-19 cases, a quarter of whom were asymptomatic. Those households which adhered to strict isolation measures had a significantly lower rate of affected household members than those who didn’t follow such measures. The national public health measures never restricted free movement of residents. Masks were only mandatory in healthcare settings. The use of home working for the general workforce was promoted. Gatherings were prohibited. Schools, universities, certain public spaces (like sports facilities and playgrounds), childcare facilities, nonessential shops, restaurants and bars were closed. Social distancing, hygienic measures, solidarity and supporting individuals who were at risk were the main pillars of the public health campaigns. CONCLUSION The close collaboration of all relevant stakeholders allowed for the complete workup of all COVID-19 patients nationwide. A multitude of factors (e.g., young age of the patients, low-threshold access to testing, close monitoring of cases, high alertness and adherence to public health measures by the population) led to the early containment of the first wave of the pandemic, with a very low rate of serious outcomes. Antibody testing for SARS-CoV-2 revealed a substantial proportion of undiagnosed COVID-19 cases among close contacts of the patients