We use neural reinforcement learning concepts including Pavlovian versus instrumental control, liking versus wanting, model-based versus model-free control, online versus offline learning and planning, and internal versus external actions and control to reflect on putative conflicts between short-term temptations and long-term goals.
Intimate partner violence (IPV) refers to acts of physical/sexual violence, emotional/psychological abuse and controlling behaviour by a current or former intimate partner. Understanding the attitudes and perspectives of adolescents towards IPV can help in its prevention. The study aimed to assess the knowledge about various domains of IPV and self-reported prediction of perpetrating IPV among adolescents in Madurai city, South India. Students pursuing engineering, medicine and humanities were recruited conveniently. A structured self-administered questionnaire developed to cater to the objectives was used. After descriptive analysis, a modified Poisson regression with robust variance estimation was used to identify factors associated with one's self-reported prediction of becoming an IPV perpetrator and adjusted relative risks [0.95 confidence interval (CI)] were calculated. The project was approved by the Institute's Ethics Committee. Of the 369 students, 40% were aware of IPV prevalence among women in India. About 85% agreed with societally prescribed gender roles. More males than females found gender roles manifesting as IPV acceptable (p = 0.003). Only 6.8%, more females than males (p = 0.01), believed that no violence is permissible in intimate relationships. About 55% definitely did not foresee themselves becoming IPV perpetrators. Belief in gender roles [odds ratio (OR) = 3.85; 95% CI: 1.26, 11.74] and being a professional course student (2.48; 1.25, 4.91) were significantly associated with foreseeing oneself as an IPV perpetrator. Knowledge about IPV and its redressal mechanisms among adolescents is poor. A significant proportion of them believe in gender roles and perceive violence within an intimate relationship as acceptable. Positively influencing adolescents' beliefs in gender roles may help to control IPV and nurture healthier relationships.
Early-stage chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) challenges specialized management and follow-up. We developed and validated a prognostic index to identify newly diagnosed patients without need of treatment (CLL-WONT) by a training/validation approach using data on 4708 patients. Composite scores derived from weighted hazards by multivariable analysis defined CLL-WONT risk groups. Age (>65 years: 1 point), Binet stage (B: 2 points), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) (>205 U/L: 1 point), absolute lymphocyte count (15-30 × 109 /L: 1 point; >30 × 109 /L; 2 points), β2-microglobulin (>4 mg/L: 1 point), IGHV mutation status (unmutated: 1 point), and 11q or 17p deletion (1 point) were independently associated with shorter time to first treatment (TTFT). Low-risk patients demonstrated 5-year TTFT of 2% by internal validation, but 7-19% by external validation. Including all patients with complete scores, the 5-year TTFT was 10% for the 756 (39%) CLL-WONT low-risk patients, and the 704 (37%) patients who were both CLL-WONT and CLL-IPI low risk demonstrated even lower 5-year TTFT (8%). We have adopted the CLL-WONT at an institution covering 1 800 000 individuals to allow patients with both low-risk CLL-WONT and CLL-IPI to be managed by primary healthcare providers, thereby prioritizing specialized hematology services for patients in dire need.
Approximately half of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) will never require treatment; nonetheless, they are recommended life-long specialized follow-up (sFU). To prioritize health care resources, local hospital management implemented ending sFU in asymptomatic patients with CLL International Prognostic Index (CLL-IPI) and CLL without need of treatment (CLL-WONT) low-to-intermediate risk, who were covered by universal health care. To evaluate the feasibility and safety of ending sFU, we investigated 3-year clinical outcomes among 112 patients selected by clinical assessment to end sFU as compared with 88 patients selected to continue sFU. Patients who ended sFU were older, but otherwise lower risk compared with patients continuing sFU. Overall survival (OS) was similar in patients ending and continuing sFU (3-year OS, 87% and 80%, respectively; P = .16). Hospital visits per patient-year were lower (median 0.7 vs 4.3, P < .0001) and time to first infection was longer (P = .035) in patients ending sFU compared with those who continued sFU, including shorter in-hospital antimicrobial treatment (median 4 vs 12 days, respectively; P = .026). Finally, 1 in 6 patients were rereferred, including 4 patients meeting international workshop on CLL criteria for need of treatment. This also resulted in a lower 3-year first treatment rate for patients ending sFU compared with patients continuing sFU (4% vs 23%, respectively; P < .0001). In conclusion, it is feasible and safe to end sFU for patients with CLL who have low-to-intermediate risk CLL-IPI and CLL-WONT scores upon thorough clinical evaluation before ending sFU.
Tissue engineering scaffolds require complex networks for nutrient diffusion and cell attachment. They must have specific surface area and curvature, and often need a multimaterial composition, demanding advanced micro-fabrication methods. 3D extrusion bioprinting offers versatility to manufacture different scaffold, and strategies for multimaterial printing have been introduced. We propose a method to fabricate scaffolds based on gyroid-helical-patterned microfibers, providing a platform to study the effect of the gyroid minimum curvature on cellular processes, since the geometry wont be layer-by-layer approximated. The pattern is obtained by mixing inks using a gyroid-helix shaped rotational mixer, modifying the extruder of a conventional 3D printer. The mixer was simulated using computational fluid dynamics tools, varying the volumetric flow to obtain different gyroid-thickness. Due to its surface area minimization, it shows lower energy requirements than state-of-art fluid mixers, with a pressure drop of 1.7%, a power number of 39, and a rotation-induced shear stress of ∼400 Pa, enabling the use of cell-embedded bioinks.
During slow freezing, spermatozoa undergo membrane alterations that compromise their ability of fertilizing. These alterations are cause either by cold shock or by the use of cryoprotectants known to be cytotoxic. However, little is known about the membrane changes that occurred during freezing. Here, we combined Generalized Polarization (GP), Time-resolved Fluorescence and laurdan fluorescence properties to investigate the changes in membrane fluidity and dynamics during slow freezing of bull sperm. We successfully demonstrated that laurdan may be distributed in three different local environments that correspond to different membrane lipid composition. These environments wont behave the same way when the cells will be subjected to either a chemical treatment (adding the cryoprotectants) or a physical treatment (freezing).
Sore throat is most commonly caused by viruses, but when caused by bacteria, the most important is group A streptococcus (GAS). The aim of these guidelines is to determine optimal treatment for streptococcal sore throat and reasonable indications for tonsillectomy, as well as recommend how to differentiate streptococcal infection for which antibiotics are justified, from numerous other sore throats where antibiotics wont have a significant effect on disease course, but might contribute to bacterial resistance to antibiotics. The development of the guidelines was initiated by the Interdisciplinary Section for Antibiotic Resistance Control (ISKRA) of the Croatian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in accordance with the principles of AGREE (Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation) methodology which means that the guidelines are the result of consensus between all interested professional societies and institutions. For streptococcal sore throat diagnostics, the Working Group recommends evaluation of clinical presentation according to Centor criteria and for patients with Centor score 0-1, antibiotic therapy is not recommended nor bacteriological testing, while for patients with Centor score 2-4 bacteriological testing is recommended (rapid test or culture) as well as antibiotic therapy in case of positive result. The drug of choice for the treatment of streptococcal tonsillopharyngitis is oral penicillin taken for ten days (penicillin V) or in case of poor patient compliance benzathine penicillin G can be administered parenterally in a single dose. Other antibiotics (macrolides, clindamycin, cephalosporins, co-amoxiclav) are administered only in case of hypersensitivity to penicillin or in recurrent infections. Tonsillectomy is a widely accepted surgical procedure that decreases the number of sore throats in children and should be performed only if indications for this procedure are established. Absolute indications include five or more streptococcal infections per year, tonsillitis complications, permanent respiratory tract obstruction, obstructive sleep apnea syndrome and suspected tonsillar malignancy. Relative indications include chronic tonsillitis and occlusion disturbances.
During the 1930s the United States Government poured significant funds into malaria control, via a variety of New Deal agencies. These projects were largely confined to drainage of mosquito-producing wetlands. Malaria had diminished significantly by the early 1940s, and this paper queries whether that reduction was due to the control projects of the thirties, and, if so, whether such projects should be a model for the current developing world, where malaria is a growing problem today. Malaria statistics from the 1930s and 1940s are unreliable, making this assessment, from the outset, complex. Further, the so-called "malaria projects" from the 1930s were, in fact, poorly planned "make-work" enterprises promoted by the Works Projects Administration and its ilk for the creation of unskilled, ditch-digging jobs. The drainage work lacked the oversight of competent engineers (many of them proving, in fact, that water wont's run uphill), and little of the work had permanent impact as the ditches were not maintained. Further, the work was not necessarily concentrated in malarious areas, since the unemployed's distribution did not overlap that of greatest mosquito density. Of the conflicting goals--unemployment relief and malaria control--the former consistently dominated the latter. The results were predictable. The author suggests that the depopulation of the rural south in the late 1930s had more of an impact (albeit indirect and unintended) on the malaria rates than did the large sums spent allegedly for the purpose of malaria control.
The evolutionary foundations of helping among nonkin in humans have been the object of intense debates in the past decades. One thesis has had a prominent influence in this debate: the suggestion that genuine altruism, strictly defined as a form of help that comes at a net fitness cost for the benefactor, might have evolved owing to cultural transmission. The gene-culture coevolution literature is wont to claim that cultural evolution changes the selective pressures that normally act to limit the emergence of altruistic behaviours. This paper aims to recall, however, that cultural transmission yields altruism only to the extent that it relies on maladaptive mechanisms, such as conformist imitation and (in some cases) payoff-biased transmission. This point is sometimes obscured in the literature by a confusion between genuine altruism, maladaptive by definition, and mutualistic forms of cooperation, that benefit all parties in the long run. Theories of cultural altruism do not lift the selective pressures weighing on strictly altruistic actions; they merely shift the burden of maladaptation from social cognition to cultural transmission.
The authors aim is to find out the most common dosages, roads of administration and the effect of 15-Methyl PgF2a (Prostin 15 M) during the treatment of postpartal uterine hypotony 1 to 3 amp. Of Prostin 15 M-1 ml. (250 mg Carboprost) were used deeply muscular, intracervical or intramyometrial, by 51 patients with postpartal hypotony. The most common risk factors associated with the development of postpartal haemorrhage are PIH, prolonged labour, the general anaesthesis and higli multiparity. The adequate treatment with Prostin 15 M woned reduse the life threatening complication in the Labour room. The most efficient is the intracervical way of administration, a good effect could be achieved even with 1 amp. Prostin 15 M when it is applied after the conventional methods and manipulations. The lacu of effect grow Prostin 15 M (in 5.88% in this study) shows that there is another pathology responsible for postpartal hemorrhage and life threatening hemorrhage and this usually requires Laparotomy. We offer every Obstetric Clinic to have 3 amp. Prostin 15 M available and these would spare a lot of negative feelings or emotions and it wont supply a better obstetric outcomes.
The pressure of scientists has the aim that the society considers smoking in public an intolerable act and that public administrations forbid any tobacco advertisement. Prohibition of tabacco wont destroy 100 million jobs because it does seem possible either look for a different use for this plant other than being shewed or smoked nor replace tobacco by another kind of crop. Advertising a product that kills 4 million people each year, being it legal or not, will always be any way immoral.
Should physicians really be polishing up their CVs or preparing to enter another line of work? In a word: No. What a recent survey makes clear is that, while managed care is driving physicians from some markets, jobs are still available in other markets traditionally underserved by physicians. This is not to suggest that the physician employment market has gone unchanged. Many physicians, particularly specialists, have taken income hits, and some specialists truly are in need of work. Primary care physicians, however, have seen their stars rise and are now in a position to work wherever they want. Physicians may no longer be able to practice within 50 miles of where they were raised or where they were trained, as has been their wont. Instead, they will have to do what other professionals have long done--go where job opportunities take them. In short, they will have to add a career strategy to their scientific mindset, and that means an aggressive job search, coupled with a strong consumer orientation.
As Jackie Gleason was wont to say: "How sweet it really is!" And--reflecting on the 1940s-1980s, when studies of microbial nutrition revealed exciting structure-function relationships of the B-complex vitamins with relevance to metabolism in humans--it really is. A chemistry degree from Beloit College and a doctorate in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin set the stage for my life's work at Lederle Laboratories, the University of Illinois, and Vanderbilt University. At Lederle my research contributed to folic acid chemistry: coenzyme forms and function; antimetabolites and cancer chemotherapy. My subsequent university studies centered on lysine biosynthesis and metabolism, e.g. its precursor role in carnitine and in indolizidine alkaloids of physiological interest. There were also many opportunities to reach out and give something back to the system via teaching and diverse service activities, all of which has led to a happy, fulfilling career, one for which I am ever thankful.
The goal of many vaccination programs is to attain the population immunity above which pathogens introduced by infectious people (e.g., travelers from endemic areas) will not cause outbreaks. Using a simple meta-population model, we demonstrate that, if sub-populations either differ in characteristics affecting their basic reproduction numbers or if their members mix preferentially, weighted average sub-population immunities cannot be compared with the proportionally-mixing homogeneous population-immunity threshold, as public health practitioners are wont to do. Then we review the effect of heterogeneity in average per capita contact rates on the basic meta-population reproduction number. To the extent that population density affects contacts, for example, rates might differ in urban and rural sub-populations. Other differences among sub-populations in characteristics affecting their basic reproduction numbers would contribute similarly. In agreement with more recent results, we show that heterogeneous preferential mixing among sub-populations increases the basic meta-population reproduction number more than homogeneous preferential mixing does. Next we refine earlier results on the effects of heterogeneity in sub-population immunities and preferential mixing on the effective meta-population reproduction number. Finally, we propose the vector of partial derivatives of this reproduction number with respect to the sub-population immunities as a fundamentally new tool for targeting vaccination efforts.
The ability to design and confer control over the kinetics of theprocesses involved in the mechanisms of artificial molecular machines is at the heart of the challenge to create ones that can carry out useful work on their environment, just as Nature is wont to do. As one of the more promising forerunners of prototypical artificial molecular machines, chemists have developed bistable redox-active donor-acceptor mechanically interlocked molecules (MIMs) over the past couple of decades. These bistable MIMs generally come in the form of [2]rotaxanes, molecular compounds that constitute a ring mechanically interlocked around a dumbbell-shaped component, or [2]catenanes, which are composed of two mechanically interlocked rings. As a result of their interlocked nature, bistable MIMs possess the inherent propensity to express controllable intramolecular, large-amplitude, and reversible motions in response to redox stimuli. In this Account, we rationalize the kinetic behavior in the ground state for a large assortment of these types of bistable MIMs, including both rotaxanes and catenanes. These structures have proven useful in a variety of applications ranging from drug delivery to molecular electronic devices. These bistable donor-acceptor MIMs can switch between two different isomeric states. The favored isomer, known as the ground-state co-conformation (GSCC) is in equilibrium with the less favored metastable state co-conformation (MSCC). The forward (kf) and backward (kb) rate constants associated with this ground-state equilibrium are intimately connected to each other through the ground-state distribution constant, KGS. Knowing the rate constants that govern the kinetics and bring about the equilibration between the MSCC and GSCC, allows researchers to understand the operation of these bistable MIMs in a device setting and apply them toward the construction of artificial molecular machines. The three biggest influences on the ground-state rate constants arise from (i) ground-state effects, the energy required to breakup the noncovalent bonding interactions that stabilize either the GSCC or MSCC, (ii) spacer effects, where the structures overcome additional barriers, either steric or electrostatic or both, en route from one co-conformation to the other, and (iii) the physical environment of the bistable MIMs. By managing all three of these effects, chemists can vary these rate constants over many orders of magnitude. We also discuss progress toward achieving mechanostereoselective motion, a key principle in the design and realization of artificial molecular machines capable of doing work at the molecular level, by the strategic implementation of free energy barriers to intramolecular motion.
Medical journals in Australia between 1856 and 1884 were wont to publish many references to forms of local anaesthesia, probably because this form of pain relief was of assistance to lone practitioners in isolated country towns. Some of these methods are described, as is the first use of cocaine by A. S. Gray and J. T. Rudall on January 19, 1885. As in journals elsewhere there followed a spate of articles reporting various aspects of cocaine and its usage, including an abortive attempt to find an alternative agent.