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Sample records for significant population-level right-handedness

  1. Handedness of a motor program in C. elegans is independent of left-right body asymmetry.

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    Joanna C Downes

    Full Text Available Complex animals display bilaterally asymmetric motor behavior, or "motor handedness," often revealed by preferential use of limbs on one side. For example, use of right limbs is dominant in a strong majority of humans. While the mechanisms that establish bilateral asymmetry in motor function are unknown in humans, they appear to be distinct from those for other handedness asymmetries, including bilateral visceral organ asymmetry, brain laterality, and ocular dominance. We report here that a simple, genetically homogeneous animal comprised of only ~1000 somatic cells, the nematode C. elegans, also shows a distinct motor handedness preference: on a population basis, males show a pronounced right-hand turning bias during mating. The handedness bias persists through much of adult lifespan, suggesting that, as in more complex animals, it is an intrinsic trait of each individual, which can differ from the population mean. Our observations imply that the laterality of motor handedness preference in C. elegans is driven by epigenetic factors rather than by genetic variation. The preference for right-hand turns is also seen in animals with mirror-reversed anatomical handedness and is not attributable to stochastic asymmetric loss of male sensory rays that occurs by programmed cell death. As with C. elegans, we also observed a substantial handedness bias, though not necessarily the same preference in direction, in several gonochoristic Caenorhabditis species. These findings indicate that the independence of bilaterally asymmetric motor dominance from overall anatomical asymmetry, and a population-level tendency away from ambidexterity, occur even in simple invertebrates, suggesting that these may be common features of bilaterian metazoans.

  2. Non-right-handedness and mental health problems among adolescents from the general population : The Trails Study

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    van der Hoorn, Anouk; Oldehinkel, A.J.; Ormel, J.; Bruggeman, R; Uiterwaal, C.S.P.M.; Burger, Huib

    2010-01-01

    To determine whether the association between non-right-handedness and mental problems among adolescents is specific for psychotic symptoms, we included a group of 2096 adolescents with a mean age of 14 years from the general population. Mental health problems were assessed using the parent,

  3. How right is left? Handedness modulates neural responses during morphosyntactic processing.

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    Grey, Sarah; Tanner, Darren; van Hell, Janet G

    2017-08-15

    Most neurocognitive models of language processing generally assume population-wide homogeneity in the neural mechanisms used during language comprehension, yet individual differences are known to influence these neural mechanisms. In this study, we focus on handedness as an individual difference hypothesized to affect language comprehension. Left-handers and right-handers with a left-handed blood relative, or familial sinistrals, are hypothesized to process language differently than right-handers with no left-handed relatives (Hancock and Bever, 2013; Ullman, 2004). Yet, left-handers are often excluded from neurocognitive language research, and familial sinistrality in right-handers is often not taken into account. In the current study we used event-related potentials to test morphosyntactic processing in three groups that differed in their handedness profiles: left-handers (LH), right-handers with a left-handed blood relative (RH FS+), and right-handers with no reported left-handed blood relative (RH FS-; both right-handed groups were previously tested by Tanner and Van Hell, 2014). Results indicated that the RH FS- group showed only P600 responses during morphosyntactic processing whereas the LH and RH FS+ groups showed biphasic N400-P600 patterns. N400s in LH and RH FS+ groups are consistent with theories that associate left-handedness (self or familial) with increased reliance on lexical/semantic mechanisms during language processing. Inspection of individual-level results illustrated that variability in RH FS- individuals' morphosyntactic processing was remarkably low: most individuals were P600-dominant. In contrast, LH and RH FS+ individuals showed marked variability in brain responses, which was similar for both groups: half of individuals were N400-dominant and half were P600-dominant. Our findings have implications for neurocognitive models of language that have been largely formulated around data from only right-handers without accounting for familial

  4. Extreme right-handedness, older brothers, and sexual orientation in men.

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    Bogaert, Anthony F

    2007-01-01

    Two of the most consistent correlates of sexual orientation in men are handedness and fraternal birth order (i.e., number of older brothers). In the present study, the relationship among handedness, older brothers, and sexual orientation was studied in 4 samples of heterosexual and gay or bisexual men (N = 944). Unlike previous studies, which have only observed an increased rate of non-right-handedness in gay or bisexual men relative to heterosexual men, an elevated rate of extreme right-handedness was found in gay or bisexual men relative to heterosexual men. The results also demonstrated that older brothers moderate the relationship between handedness and sexual orientation. Specifically, older brothers increase the odds of being gay or bisexual in moderate right-handers only; in both non-right-handers and extreme right-handers, older brothers do not affect (or decrease) the odds of being gay or bisexual. The results have implications for an early neurodevelopmental origin to sexual orientation in men. (c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved.

  5. Fraternal Birth Order, Handedness, and Sexual Orientation in a Chinese Population.

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    Xu, Yin; Zheng, Yong

    2017-01-01

    We examined the relationship between handedness, fraternal birth order, and sexual orientation in a Chinese population, and analyzed the influence of the components assessing sexual orientation and criteria classifying individuals as homosexual on this relationship. A large sample of heterosexual, bisexual, and homosexual men and women participated in a web-based survey. Our results showed that homosexual women are more likely to be non-right-handed than heterosexual women, regardless of how sexual orientation was defined, whereas bisexual women are more likely to be non-right-handed than heterosexual women when sexual orientation was assessed via sexual attraction and sexual identity. Bisexual men are more likely to be non-right-handed than heterosexual men when sexual orientation was assessed via sexual attraction. We found neither a fraternal birth-order effect nor an interaction between sibling sex ratio, handedness, and sexual orientation. The small number of siblings may be the reason why we could not replicate the fraternal birth-order effect in this Chinese population, which highlights the importance of cultural differences in the understanding of handedness, fraternal birth order, and sexual orientation.

  6. Atypical handedness in mesial temporal lobe epilepsy.

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    Doležalová, Irena; Schachter, Steven; Chrastina, Jan; Hemza, Jan; Hermanová, Markéta; Rektor, Ivan; Pažourková, Marta; Brázdil, Milan

    2017-07-01

    The main aim of our study was to investigate the handedness of patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE). We also sought to identify clinical variables that correlated with left-handedness in this population. Handedness (laterality quotient) was assessed in 73 consecutive patients with MTLE associated with unilateral hippocampal sclerosis (HS) using the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory. Associations between right- and left-handedness and clinical variables were investigated. We found that 54 (74.0%) patients were right-handed, and 19 (26%) patients were left-handed. There were 15 (36.6%) left-handed patients with left-sided seizure onset compared to 4 (12.5%) left-handed patients with right-sided seizure onset (p=0.030). Among patients with left-sided MTLE, age at epilepsy onset was significantly correlated with handedness (8years of age [median; min-max 0.5-17] in left-handers versus 15years of age [median; min-max 3-30] in right-handers (p<0.001). Left-sided MTLE is associated with atypical handedness, especially when seizure onset occurs during an active period of brain development, suggesting a bi-hemispheric neuroplastic process for establishing motor dominance in patients with early-onset left-sided MTLE. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  7. Factor structure of the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory versus the Fazio Laterality Inventory in a population with established atypical handedness.

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    Fazio, Rachel L; Cantor, James M

    2015-01-01

    The Edinburgh Handedness Inventory (EHI) has consistently remained the most used handedness inventory despite its limitations. The psychometric properties of handedness inventories, however, are increasingly important due to their use in matching groups for neuroimaging research. This study compared the performance of the EHI and the Fazio Laterality Inventory (FLI) in a population with atypical handedness. Whereas the EHI demonstrated a single-factor loading in this population, the FLI's previously demonstrated single factor dissociated into two factors: fine motor/ballistic movements and expressive/instrumental movements. This dissociation is similar to that seen when tests of cognitive constructs--which tend to load on a single factor in intact populations--dissociate when administered to populations with difficulties in the assessed domain. This pattern of performance lends further support for the use of the FLI to more accurately assess handedness. Future research in other populations with atypical laterality may illuminate additional factors of the FLI.

  8. More than 500,000 years of right-handedness in Europe.

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    Frayer, David W; Lozano, Marina; Bermúdez de Castro, José M; Carbonell, Eudald; Arsuaga, Juan Luis; Radovčić, Jakov; Fiore, Ivana; Bondioli, Luca

    2012-01-01

    Considerable research supports the high frequency of right-handedness in living Homo sapiens, with worldwide rates of approximately nine right- for every one left-hander. Right-handedness appears to be a uniquely human trait, as no other primate species, no matter how proficient in tool use, shows frequencies even close to the strong right bias typical of humans (Cashmore, Uomini, & Chapelain, 2008; McGrew & Marchant 1997; Steele & Uomini, 2009). Here we review our research on human fossils from Sima de los Huesos (Atapuerca, Spain) and their likely descendants, the European Neandertals. We document hand preference in fossils by scratch patterns that occur on the labial (lip) face of incisors and canines, and contend that these patterns provide a reliable means for identifying predominant hand use in these samples. Manipulatory marks on the anterior teeth show a persistent pattern of right-handed actions, implying that the modern human pattern of dominant right-handedness extends deep into the European past.

  9. [Current aspects of handedness].

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    Reiss, M; Reiss, G

    1999-12-23

    Handedness is one example of many forms of behavioural lateralization seen in humans. Left-handedness has existed in a small subset of the human population, approximately 8%, since the origin of man. The incidence of left-handedness is usually reported to be consistent among human populations. Sinistrality is more common in males than in females. A vast range of testing techniques have been used to assess handedness. There are preference and performance tests. Writing hand and self-report are two of the most popular techniques. There is a strong evidence that the dominance of language functions in the cerebral cortex is different in left-handed from that in right-handed people. An understanding of handedness may provide valuables clues as to how the brain becomes organized the way it is. Several theories have been advanced over the years to explain the genesis of handedness and, in particular, left-handedness. Theories have ranged from genetic models to socio-cultural theories. Other authors suggested a pathological origin of left-handedness in man. Left-handedness runs in families and adoption studies suggests a genetic rather than an environmental origin. However, monozygotic twins appear to be substantially discordant. A polygenetic explanation which takes environmental influences into consideration is probably called for.

  10. Fraternal Birth Order and Extreme Right-Handedness as Predictors of Sexual Orientation and Gender Nonconformity in Men.

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    Kishida, Mariana; Rahman, Qazi

    2015-07-01

    The present study explored whether there were relationships between number of older brothers, handedness, recalled childhood gender nonconformity (CGN), and sexual orientation in men. We used data from previous British studies conducted in our laboratory (N = 1,011 heterosexual men and 921 gay men). These men had completed measures of demographic variables, number and sex of siblings, CGN, and the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory. The results did not replicate the fraternal birth order effect. However, gay men had fewer "other siblings" than heterosexual men (even after controlling for the stopping-rule and family size). In a sub-sample (425 gay men and 478 heterosexual men) with data available on both sibling sex composition and handedness scores, gay men were found to show a significantly greater likelihood of extreme right-handedness and non-right-handedness compared to heterosexual men. There were no significant effects of sibling sex composition in this sub-sample. In a further sub-sample (N = 487) with data available on sibling sex composition, handedness, and CGN, we found that men with feminine scores on CGN were more extremely right-handed and had fewer other-siblings compared to masculine scoring men. Mediation analysis revealed that handedness was associated with sexual orientation directly and also indirectly through the mediating factor of CGN. We were unable to replicate the fraternal birth order effect in our archived dataset but there was evidence for a relationship among handedness, sexual orientation, and CGN. These data help narrow down the number of possible neurodevelopmental pathways leading to variations in male sexual orientation.

  11. PCSK6 VNTR Polymorphism Is Associated with Degree of Handedness but Not Direction of Handedness.

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    Larissa Arning

    Full Text Available Although the left and right human cerebral hemispheres differ both functionally and anatomically, the mechanisms that underlie the establishment of these hemispheric specializations, as well as their physiological and behavioral implications, remain largely unknown. Since cerebral asymmetry is strongly correlated with handedness, and handedness is assumed to be influenced by a number of genetic and environmental factors, we performed an association study of LRRTM1 rs6733871 and a number of polymorphisms in PCSK6 and different aspects of handedness assessed with the Edinburgh handedness inventory in a sample of unrelated healthy adults (n = 1113. An intronic 33bp variable-number tandem repeat (VNTR polymorphism in PCSK6 (rs10523972 shows a significant association (significance threshold: p<0.0025, adjusted for multiple comparisons with a handedness category comparison (P = 0.0005 and degree of handedness (P = 0.001. These results provide further evidence for the role of PCSK6 as candidate for involvement in the biological mechanisms that underlie the establishment of normal brain lateralization and thus handedness and support the assumption that the degree of handedness, instead the direction, may be the more appropriate indicator of cerebral organization.

  12. Aetiological factors in left-handedness

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    Milenković Sanja M.

    2005-01-01

    Full Text Available Lateralisation associates the extremities and senses of one side of the body, which are connected by afferent and efferent pathways, with the primary motor and sensory areas of the hemisphere on the opposite side. Dominant laterality denotes the appearance of a dominant extremity or sense in the performance of complex psychomotor activities. Laterality is manifested both as right-handedness or left-handedness, which are functionally equivalent and symmetrical in the performance of activities. Right-handedness is significantly more common than left-handedness. Genetic theory is most widely accepted in explaining the onset of lateralisation. According to this theory, the models of brain organisation asymmetry (anatomical, functional, and biochemical are strongly, genetically determined. However, the inability to clearly demonstrate the association between genetic factors and left-handedness has led researchers to investigate the effects of the environment on left-handedness. Of particular interest are the intrauterine environment and the factors influencing foetal development, of which hormones and ultrasound exposure are the most significant. It has been estimated that an extra five cases of nonright-handed lateralisation can be expected in every 100 males who were exposed to ultrasound in utero compared to those who were not. Socio-cultural pressure on left-handed individuals was much more severe in the past, which is confirmed by scientific findings that left-handedness is present in 13% of individuals in their twenties, while in less than 1% of individuals in their eighties.

  13. Handedness and "Open-Earedness": Strong Right-Handers Are Less Likely to Prefer Less Popular Musical Genres

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    Christman, Stephen D.

    2013-01-01

    Research shows that strong right-handedness is associated with decreased cognitive flexibility and decreased tendencies to update beliefs, arising from decreased interhemispheric interaction. In the current study, strong right-handedness was associated with decreased overall liking of less popular musical genres (with the specific genres of…

  14. Good phonetic errors in poor spellers are associated with right-handedness and possible weak utilisation of visuospatial abilities.

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    Eglinton, Elizabeth; Annett, Marian

    2008-06-01

    Poor spellers in normal schools, who were not poor readers, were studied for handedness, visuospatial and other cognitive abilities in order to explore contrasts between poor spellers with and without good phonology. It was predicted by the right shift (RS) theory of handedness and cerebral dominance that those with good phonology would have strong bias to dextrality and relative weakness of the right hemisphere, while those without good phonology would have reduced bias to dextrality and relative weakness of the left hemisphere. Poor spellers with good phonetic equivalent spelling errors (GFEs) included fewer left-handers (2.4%) than poor spellers without GFEs (24.4%). Differences for hand skill were as predicted. Tests of visuospatial processing found no differences between the groups in levels of ability, but there was a marked difference in pattern of correlations between visuospatial test scores and homophonic word discrimination. Whereas good spellers (GS) and poor spellers without GFEs showed positive correlations between word discrimination and visuospatial ability, there were no significant correlations for poor spellers with GFEs. The differences for handedness and possibly for the utilisation of visuospatial skills suggest that surface dyslexics differ from phonological dyslexics in cerebral specialisation and perhaps in the quality of inter-hemispheric relations.

  15. The prehistory of handedness: archaeological data and comparative ethology.

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    Uomini, Natalie T

    2009-10-01

    Homo sapiens sapiens displays a species wide lateralised hand preference, with 85% of individuals in all populations being right-handed for most manual actions. In contrast, no other great ape species shows such strong and consistent population level biases, indicating that extremes of both direction and strength of manual laterality (i.e., species-wide right-handedness) may have emerged after divergence from the last common ancestor. To reconstruct the hand use patterns of early hominins, laterality is assessed in prehistoric artefacts. Group right side biases are well established from the Neanderthals onward, while patchy evidence from older fossils and artefacts indicates a preponderance of right-handed individuals. Individual hand preferences and group level biases can occur in chimpanzees and other apes for skilled tool use and food processing. Comparing these findings with human ethological data on spontaneous hand use reveals that the great ape clade (including humans) probably has a common effect at the individual level, such that a person can vary from ambidextrous to completely lateralised depending on the action. However, there is currently no theoretical model to explain this result. The degree of task complexity and bimanual complementarity have been proposed as factors affecting lateralisation strength. When primatology meets palaeoanthropology, the evidence suggests species-level right-handedness may have emerged through the social transmission of increasingly complex, bimanually differentiated, tool using activities.

  16. Relationships between intestinal parasitosis and handedness.

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    Uslu, Hakan; Dane, Senol; Uyanik, M Hamidullah; Ayyildiz, Ahmet

    2010-07-01

    The aim of the study was to investigate if there is a possible relation between intestinal parasitosis and handedness in patients with suspected intestinal parasitosis. Hand preference was assessed on the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory. Stool samples were examined microscopically for the presence of parasite. In the present study right-handers had many more helminth infections and left-handers had many more protozoon infections. Lower rate of helminth infections in the present study, and higher asthma incidences in the left-handed population in literature, may be associated with different immune machinery in left-handed people than in right-handed ones.

  17. Etiological aspect of left-handedness in adolescents.

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    Dragović, Milan; Milenković, Sanja; Kocijancić, Dusica; Zlatko, Sram

    2013-01-01

    Lateralization of brain functions such as language and manual dominance (hand preferences and fine motor control) are most likely under genetic control. However, this does not preclude the effect of various environmental factors on functional brain lateralization. A strong association of non-right-handedness (left- and mixed-handedness) with various neurodevelopmental conditions (e.g. schizophrenia, autism, Rett syndrome) implies that in some cases, non-right-handedness may be acquired rather than inherited (i.e., pathologically determined). The aim of the study was: (a) re-investigation of several known risk factors for left-handedness (age of mother and/or father, twin pregnancies, and birth order), and (b) examination of hitherto uninvestigated factors (type of birth, Apgar score, maternal smoking during pregnancy). Putative, causative environmental agents for this shift in manual distributions are explored in a sample of 1031 high school students (404 males and 627 females) from Belgrade. Both pre-existing (age of parents, twin pregnancy, and birth order) and new (Apgar score, maternal smoking, type of birth) putative agents are examined. We found that maternal smoking and low Apgar score (2-6) can significantly increase risk for left-handedness (p=0.046 and p=0.042, respectively).The remaining factors showed no significant association with left-handedness in adolescents. Our study clearly demonstrates that left-handedness may be related to maternal smoking during pregnancy and a low Apgar score on birth.

  18. Brief Report: Non-Right-Handedness within the Autism Spectrum Disorder

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    Rysstad, Anne Langseth; Pedersen, Arve Vorland

    2016-01-01

    A larger distribution of left-handedness in the population of Autism Spectrum Disorder has been repeatedly reported. Despite of this, the sample sizes in the individual study's are too small for any generalization to be made. Using both description-based and citation-based searches, the present review combines the individual results in order to…

  19. Segregating polymorphisms of FOXP2 are associated with measures of inner speech, speech fluency and strength of handedness in a healthy population.

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    Crespi, Bernard; Read, Silven; Hurd, Peter

    2017-10-01

    We genotyped a healthy population for three haplotype-tagging FOXP2 SNPs, and tested for associations of these SNPs with strength of handedness and questionnaire-based metrics of inner speech characteristics (ISP) and speech fluency (FLU), as derived from the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire-BR. Levels of mixed-handedness were positively correlated with ISP and FLU, supporting prior work on these two domains. Genotype for rs7799109, a SNP previously linked with lateralization of left frontal regions underlying language, was associated with degree of mixed handedness and with scores for ISP and FLU phenotypes. Genotype of rs1456031, which has previously been linked with auditory hallucinations, was also associated with ISP phenotypes. These results provide evidence that FOXP2 SNPs influence aspects of human inner speech and fluency that are related to lateralized phenotypes, and suggest that the evolution of human language, as mediated by the adaptive evolution of FOXP2, involved features of inner speech. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  20. Affective imposition influences risky choice: handedness points to the hemispheres.

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    McElroy, Todd; Corbin, Jonathan

    2010-07-01

    The study of risk preference has become a widely investigated area of research. The current study is designed to investigate the relationship between handedness, hemispheric predominance and valence imposition in a risky-choice decision task. Research into the valence hypothesis (e.g., Ahern & Schwartz, 1985; Davidson, 1984) has shown that the left hemisphere is more active in processing positively valenced stimuli, whereas the right hemisphere is more active in processing negatively valenced stimuli. A total of 520 individuals (343 female, 117 male) participated in a self-imposed framing task and took a degree of handedness questionnaire. The results of the framing task and handedness questionnaire showed that participants' degree of handedness significantly influenced the positive/negative valence they imposed onto the framing task as well as their level of risk preference.

  1. Etiological aspect of left-handedness in adolescents

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    Dragović Milan

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Introduction. Lateralization of brain functions such as language and manual dominance (hand preferences and fine motor control are most likely under genetic control. However, this does not preclude the effect of various environmental factors on functional brain lateralization. A strong association of non-right-handedness (left- and mixed-handedness with various neurodevelopmental conditions (e.g. schizophrenia, autism, Rett syndrome implies that in some cases, non-right-handedness may be acquired rather than inherited (i.e., pathologically determined. Objective. The aim of the study was: (a re-investigation of several known risk factors for left-handedness (age of mother and/or father, twin pregnancies, and birth order, and (b examination of hitherto uninvestigated factors (type of birth, Apgar score, maternal smoking during pregnancy. Methods. Putative, causative environmental agents for this shift in manual distributions are explored in a sample of 1031 high school students (404 males and 627 females from Belgrade. Both pre-existing (age of parents, twin pregnancy, and birth order and new (Apgar score, maternal smoking, type of birth putative agents are examined. Results. We found that maternal smoking and low Apgar score (2-6 can significantly increase risk for left-handedness (p=0.046 and p=0.042, respectively. The remaining factors showed no significant association with left-handedness in adolescents. Conclusion. Our study clearly demonstrates that left-handedness may be related to maternal smoking during pregnancy and a low Apgar score on birth.

  2. Left-handedness and health

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    Milenković Sanja

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available Hand dominance is defined as a proneness to use one hand rather than another in performing the majority of activities and this is the most obvious example of cerebral lateralization and an exclusive human characteristic. Left-handed people comprise 6-14% of the total population, while in Serbia, this percentage is 5-10%, moving from undeveloped to developed environments, where a socio-cultural pressure is less present. There is no agreement between investigators who in fact may be considered a left-handed person, about the percentage of left-handers in the population and about the etiology of left-handedness. In the scientific literature left-handedness has been related to health disorders (spine deformities, immunological disorders, migraine, neurosis, depressive psychosis, schizophrenia, insomnia, homosexuality, diabetes mellitus, arterial hypertension, sleep apnea, enuresis nocturna and Down Syndrome, developmental disorders (autism, dislexia and sttutering and traumatism. The most reliable scientific evidences have been published about the relationship between left-handedness and spinal deformities in school children in puberty and with traumatism in general population. The controversy of other results in up-to-now investigations of health aspects of left-handedness may partly be explained by a scientific disagreement whether writing with the left hand is a sufficient criterium for left-handedness, or is it necessary to investigate other parameters for laterality assessment. Explanation of health aspects of left-handedness is dominantly based on Geschwind-Galaburda model about 'anomalous' cerebral domination, as a consequence of hormonal disbalance. .

  3. [Left-handedness and health].

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    Milenković, Sanja; Belojević, Goran; Kocijancić, Radojka

    2010-01-01

    Hand dominance is defined as a proneness to use one hand rather than another in performing the majority of activities and this is the most obvious example of cerebral lateralization and an exclusive human characteristic. Left-handed people comprise 6-14% of the total population, while in Serbia, this percentage is 5-10%, moving from undeveloped to developed environments, where a socio-cultural pressure is less present. There is no agreement between investigators who in fact may be considered a left-handed person, about the percentage of left-handers in the population and about the etiology of left-handedness. In the scientific literature left-handedness has been related to health disorders (spine deformities, immunological disorders, migraine, neurosis, depressive psychosis, schizophrenia, insomnia, homosexuality, diabetes mellitus, arterial hypertension, sleep apnea, enuresis nocturna and Down Syndrome), developmental disorders (autism, dislexia and sttutering) and traumatism. The most reliable scientific evidences have been published about the relationship between left-handedness and spinal deformities in school children in puberty and with traumatism in general population. The controversy of other results in up-to-now investigations of health aspects of left-handedness may partly be explained by a scientific disagreement whether writing with the left hand is a sufficient criterium for left-handedness, or is it necessary to investigate other parameters for laterality assessment. Explanation of health aspects of left-handedness is dominantly based on Geschwind-Galaburda model about "anomalous" cerebral domination, as a consequence of hormonal disbalance.

  4. From mouth to hand: gesture, speech, and the evolution of right-handedness.

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    Corballis, Michael C

    2003-04-01

    The strong predominance of right-handedness appears to be a uniquely human characteristic, whereas the left-cerebral dominance for vocalization occurs in many species, including frogs, birds, and mammals. Right-handedness may have arisen because of an association between manual gestures and vocalization in the evolution of language. I argue that language evolved from manual gestures, gradually incorporating vocal elements. The transition may be traced through changes in the function of Broca's area. Its homologue in monkeys has nothing to do with vocal control, but contains the so-called "mirror neurons," the code for both the production of manual reaching movements and the perception of the same movements performed by others. This system is bilateral in monkeys, but predominantly left-hemispheric in humans, and in humans is involved with vocalization as well as manual actions. There is evidence that Broca's area is enlarged on the left side in Homo habilis, suggesting that a link between gesture and vocalization may go back at least two million years, although other evidence suggests that speech may not have become fully autonomous until Homo sapiens appeared some 170,000 years ago, or perhaps even later. The removal of manual gesture as a necessary component of language may explain the rapid advance of technology, allowing late migrations of Homo sapiens from Africa to replace all other hominids in other parts of the world, including the Neanderthals in Europe and Homo erectus in Asia. Nevertheless, the long association of vocalization with manual gesture left us a legacy of right-handedness.

  5. Medea genes, handedness and other traits

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    Hatfield, Jeffrey

    2015-01-01

    Medea factors or genes are maternal-effects mechanisms, found in many species, in which the mother's body selectively kills embryos of a certain genotype.Humans have a similar genetic mechanism, the gene RHD which produces Rh-factor involved in blood type.Recently I proposed that RHD acts as a maternal-effects gene that determines handedness (i.e., right handed or non-right handed) in individuals of our species. Here, I argue that RHD functions as a Medea gene as well.The handedness gene (and also RHD itself in some cases) has been implicated in autism spectrum disorders (ASD), bipolar disorder, cerebral laterality (i.e., right-brained or left-brained speech laterality), hair-whorl rotation, schizophrenia, sexual orientation, and speech dyslexia.Identifying the gene or genes that determine handedness or cerebral laterality may help uncover the mechanisms underlying these behavioral phenotypes in our species.A relatively simple test of the handedness hypothesis has been proposed:In a sample of humans for whom handedness has been evaluated, we would need to genotype for RHD by determining whether Rh+ individuals have one or two copies of the dominant allele. If RHD and perhaps also an interaction with RHCE are involved in sexual orientation, it explains how selection could favor a gene or genes which cause some people to become non-heterosexual.The literature on Medea genes provides the explanation:A Medea allele must increase in frequency, sometimes to fixation (i.e., 100% frequency) even if it reduces fecundity (e.g., birth rate).In addition, treatment for RHD maternal-fetal genotype incompatibility, which allows more fetuses to survive to term now, may be one explanation for why ASD appears to be increasing in frequency in some populations, if RHD is indeed the handedness gene, although many other mechanisms have also been suggested. One wonders if bipolar disorder and the other alternative phenotypes are also increasing in frequency.

  6. Neuronal control of locomotor handedness in Drosophila.

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    Buchanan, Sean M; Kain, Jamey S; de Bivort, Benjamin L

    2015-05-26

    Genetically identical individuals display variability in their physiology, morphology, and behaviors, even when reared in essentially identical environments, but there is little mechanistic understanding of the basis of such variation. Here, we investigated whether Drosophila melanogaster displays individual-to-individual variation in locomotor behaviors. We developed a new high-throughout platform capable of measuring the exploratory behavior of hundreds of individual flies simultaneously. With this approach, we find that, during exploratory walking, individual flies exhibit significant bias in their left vs. right locomotor choices, with some flies being strongly left biased or right biased. This idiosyncrasy was present in all genotypes examined, including wild-derived populations and inbred isogenic laboratory strains. The biases of individual flies persist for their lifetime and are nonheritable: i.e., mating two left-biased individuals does not yield left-biased progeny. This locomotor handedness is uncorrelated with other asymmetries, such as the handedness of gut twisting, leg-length asymmetry, and wing-folding preference. Using transgenics and mutants, we find that the magnitude of locomotor handedness is under the control of columnar neurons within the central complex, a brain region implicated in motor planning and execution. When these neurons are silenced, exploratory laterality increases, with more extreme leftiness and rightiness. This observation intriguingly implies that the brain may be able to dynamically regulate behavioral individuality.

  7. Left preference for sport tasks does not necessarily indicate left-handedness: sport-specific lateral preferences, relationship with handedness and implications for laterality research in behavioural sciences.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Florian Loffing

    Full Text Available In the elite domain of interactive sports, athletes who demonstrate a left preference (e.g., holding a weapon with the left hand in fencing or boxing in a 'southpaw' stance seem overrepresented. Such excess indicates a performance advantage and was also interpreted as evidence in favour of frequency-dependent selection mechanisms to explain the maintenance of left-handedness in humans. To test for an overrepresentation, the incidence of athletes' lateral preferences is typically compared with an expected ratio of left- to right-handedness in the normal population. However, the normal population reference values did not always relate to the sport-specific tasks of interest, which may limit the validity of reports of an excess of 'left-oriented' athletes. Here we sought to determine lateral preferences for various sport-specific tasks (e.g., baseball batting, boxing in the normal population and to examine the relationship between these preferences and handedness. To this end, we asked 903 participants to indicate their lateral preferences for sport-specific and common tasks using a paper-based questionnaire. Lateral preferences varied considerably across the different sport tasks and we found high variation in the relationship between those preferences and handedness. In contrast to unimanual tasks (e.g., fencing or throwing, for bimanually controlled actions such as baseball batting, shooting in ice hockey or boxing the incidence of left preferences was considerably higher than expected from the proportion of left-handedness in the normal population and the relationship with handedness was relatively low. We conclude that (i task-specific reference values are mandatory for reliably testing for an excess of athletes with a left preference, (ii the term 'handedness' should be more cautiously used within the context of sport-related laterality research and (iii observation of lateral preferences in sports may be of limited suitability for the

  8. Left preference for sport tasks does not necessarily indicate left-handedness: sport-specific lateral preferences, relationship with handedness and implications for laterality research in behavioural sciences.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Loffing, Florian; Sölter, Florian; Hagemann, Norbert

    2014-01-01

    In the elite domain of interactive sports, athletes who demonstrate a left preference (e.g., holding a weapon with the left hand in fencing or boxing in a 'southpaw' stance) seem overrepresented. Such excess indicates a performance advantage and was also interpreted as evidence in favour of frequency-dependent selection mechanisms to explain the maintenance of left-handedness in humans. To test for an overrepresentation, the incidence of athletes' lateral preferences is typically compared with an expected ratio of left- to right-handedness in the normal population. However, the normal population reference values did not always relate to the sport-specific tasks of interest, which may limit the validity of reports of an excess of 'left-oriented' athletes. Here we sought to determine lateral preferences for various sport-specific tasks (e.g., baseball batting, boxing) in the normal population and to examine the relationship between these preferences and handedness. To this end, we asked 903 participants to indicate their lateral preferences for sport-specific and common tasks using a paper-based questionnaire. Lateral preferences varied considerably across the different sport tasks and we found high variation in the relationship between those preferences and handedness. In contrast to unimanual tasks (e.g., fencing or throwing), for bimanually controlled actions such as baseball batting, shooting in ice hockey or boxing the incidence of left preferences was considerably higher than expected from the proportion of left-handedness in the normal population and the relationship with handedness was relatively low. We conclude that (i) task-specific reference values are mandatory for reliably testing for an excess of athletes with a left preference, (ii) the term 'handedness' should be more cautiously used within the context of sport-related laterality research and (iii) observation of lateral preferences in sports may be of limited suitability for the verification of

  9. Handedness and anxiety in normal and clinical populations

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Merckelbach, H.; de Ruiter, C.; Olff, M.

    1989-01-01

    Previous research has yielded inconclusive evidence as to the relationship between handedness and anxiety. In order to further examine this relationship, two studies were carried out. In the first study, university students (N = 167) completed the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory, the Fear

  10. Dermatoglyphics, handedness, sex, and sexual orientation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mustanski, Brian S; Bailey, J Michael; Kaspar, Sarah

    2002-02-01

    Both handedness and dermatoglyphic asymmetry reflect early, prenatal influences and both have been reported to be associated with male sexual orientation; handedness has been related to female sexual orientation as well. Neurohormonal and developmental perturbation are two competing hypothesis that attempt to explain these connections. We attempted to replicate these associations and to extend dermatoglyphic asymmetry findings to women. Dermatoglyphic directional asymmetry and fluctuating asymmetry were unrelated to sexual orientation. Homosexual women, but not homosexual men, had highly significant increases in non-right-handedness compared with same-sex heterosexual controls. Although this pattern of results does not allow resolution of the two competing models, it does lend additional support to a biological basis of sexual orientation.

  11. The Impact of Handedness, Sex, and Cognitive Abilities on Left–Right Discrimination: A Behavioral Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Constant, Martin; Mellet, Emmanuel

    2018-01-01

    The present study examined the relationship between left–right discrimination (LRD) performance and handedness, sex and cognitive abilities. In total, 31 men and 35 women – with a balanced ratio of left-and right-handers – completed the Bergen Left–Right Discrimination Test. We found an advantage of left-handers in both identifying left hands and in verifying “left” propositions. A sex effect was also found, as women had an overall higher error rate than men, and increasing difficulty impacted their reaction time more than it did for men. Moreover, sex interacted with handedness and manual preference strength. A negative correlation of LRD reaction time with visuo-spatial and verbal long-term memory was found independently of sex, providing new insights into the relationship between cognitive skills and performance on LRD. PMID:29636718

  12. Left Preference for Sport Tasks Does Not Necessarily Indicate Left-Handedness: Sport-Specific Lateral Preferences, Relationship with Handedness and Implications for Laterality Research in Behavioural Sciences

    Science.gov (United States)

    Loffing, Florian; Sölter, Florian; Hagemann, Norbert

    2014-01-01

    In the elite domain of interactive sports, athletes who demonstrate a left preference (e.g., holding a weapon with the left hand in fencing or boxing in a ‘southpaw’ stance) seem overrepresented. Such excess indicates a performance advantage and was also interpreted as evidence in favour of frequency-dependent selection mechanisms to explain the maintenance of left-handedness in humans. To test for an overrepresentation, the incidence of athletes' lateral preferences is typically compared with an expected ratio of left- to right-handedness in the normal population. However, the normal population reference values did not always relate to the sport-specific tasks of interest, which may limit the validity of reports of an excess of ‘left-oriented’ athletes. Here we sought to determine lateral preferences for various sport-specific tasks (e.g., baseball batting, boxing) in the normal population and to examine the relationship between these preferences and handedness. To this end, we asked 903 participants to indicate their lateral preferences for sport-specific and common tasks using a paper-based questionnaire. Lateral preferences varied considerably across the different sport tasks and we found high variation in the relationship between those preferences and handedness. In contrast to unimanual tasks (e.g., fencing or throwing), for bimanually controlled actions such as baseball batting, shooting in ice hockey or boxing the incidence of left preferences was considerably higher than expected from the proportion of left-handedness in the normal population and the relationship with handedness was relatively low. We conclude that (i) task-specific reference values are mandatory for reliably testing for an excess of athletes with a left preference, (ii) the term ‘handedness’ should be more cautiously used within the context of sport-related laterality research and (iii) observation of lateral preferences in sports may be of limited suitability for the

  13. Social aspects of left-handedness

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Belojević Goran

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available Throughout human history left-handedness has been considered as sinful. It has been associated with the devil, weakness, female gender, unhealthiness, evil, something that has to be turned to a “good” - right side by force. Left-handedness is being more and more acceptable at rational level, but in everyday life it is still considered to be unusual if someone writes with the left hand. Lessening of the number of lefthanders is associated with ageing. There are about 13% lefthanders among people in twenties and less than 1% lefthanders among those in eighties. This finding may be explaned with more pronounced socio-cultural pressure on left-handed people in the past, compared to nowadays. On the other hand, this may also support the hypothesis about a reduced life span of lefthanded people. With cross-exercising of left-handedness, certain typical characteristics and behavioral patterns appear in these people. This was a sort of provoked behavior and an attack on the integrity of an emotional attitude toward oneself. Stuttering may also appear as a consequence of unsuccessful cross-exercising of left-handedness. The hypothesis about left-handedness as an advantage is supported with the reports about relatively more lefthanders in some specific groups such as: mathematicians, sculptors, architects, painters, musicians, actors, tennis players, as well as famous army commanders and rulers.

  14. Handedness and phenotypic characteristics of the head and face

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cvetković Milena

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Craniofacial characteristics are used to identify similarities and differences between human populations or within a single population. The aim of this study is to provide data on the differences/similarities between two groups of subjects, left-handed and right-handed children, based on the parameters that determine the phenotypic characteristics of the head and face: head dimensions, face dimensions, hair color, eye color and earlobe shape. The study participants included 1354 students aged 7 to 15 years from regular schools of southeastern Serbia. The instruments used include: the Edinburgh Handedness Questionnaire for handedness determination, the cephalometer, and the questionnaire. 135 students (9.97% were identified as left-handed, and the differences in the observed parameters were recorded between left-handed and right-handed girls in relation to the cephalic index, nasal index, head breadth, face breadth, and eye color.

  15. Framing effects: the influence of handedness and access to right hemisphere processing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stein, Jeannette M

    2012-01-01

    Changing how information is framed, such that the same critical information is cast in a positive or negative light, has a powerful impact on judgements and decision making. Research indicates that the influence of frames may be driven by participants' initial affective response and that the right hemisphere is sensitive to the emotional connotation of stimuli. While previous research tested the effects of hemispheric differences on framing effects by inducing asymmetrical activation, the current study explored how stable brain differences may account for differences in susceptibility to framing effects. Because mixed degree of handedness is associated with increased access to right hemisphere processes, mixed-handed participants were expected to be more susceptible to the effects of framing than strong-handed participants. Participants responded to the Asian disease problem and completed as assessment of handedness. Although mixed- and strong-handed participants were affected differently, the results were not consistent with the hypothesis. Mixed-handed participants conformed to risky choice framing effects when options were framed negatively and showed no effect of the positive frame. Strong-handed participants conformed to positively framed options and showed no effect of the negative frame. Possible explanations are discussed.

  16. Medial Position and Counterclockwise Rotation of the Parietal Scalp Hair-Whorl as a Possible Indicator for Non-Right-Handedness

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Heinrich Schmidt

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available The objective of our study was to assess the association between position and swirling direction of the parietal whorl (PW and handedness. In 519 patients of a pediatric practice, PWs were located and the swirling direction determined. Of those patients, handedness could be specified in 217. The right-sided PW (n = 347; 70.8% and the clockwise (CW swirling type (n = 411; 83.9% of all participants were predominant in children with one PW. Non-right-handedness (NRH was found in 40 (18.4%. Medial position of the whorl per se increases the chance for NRH, indifferent of the swirling direction. In patients with counterclockwise (CCW swirling, the chance of NRH increased 3.5-fold for the right-sided, 5.4-fold for the left-sided, and 12.9-fold for the medial-positioned whorl. We conclude that NRH is associated with the position (medial! and the swirling direction (CCW! of the PW.

  17. Sexual orientation, handedness, sex ratio and fetomaternal tolerance-rejection

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carlos Y Valenzuela

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available Fraternal birth order (FBO appears as a prenatal cause of 15% of homosexual males (gays through mnemonic maternal anti-male factors. Non-right-handed men seem to be protected from homosexuality. Four hypotheses are proposed: (1 androgenic factors of non-right-handedness neutralize anti-male factors; (2 non-right-handedness and homosexuality are lethal or produce mental impairment; (3 non-right-handed male embryos are insensitive to anti-male factors; (4 mothers of non-right-handed fetuses do not produce anti-male factors. Studies of the sex ratio (SR of older and younger siblings show: (1 a significant heterogeneity in the SR of siblings of right or non-right handed heterosexual men and women; (2 lesbians are born among siblings with high SR; (3 siblings of right-handed gays show a higher SR than non-right-handed gays that present a low SR. Based on our discovery of maternal tolerance-rejection processes, associated with genetic systems (ABO, Rh, where zygotes or embryos different from their mother induce better pregnancy and maternal tolerance than do those that share antigens with their mothers, I propose a new explanation for sexual relationships, sexual orientation, handedness and sibling SR. Lesbian embryos could induce tolerance from mothers with anti-female factors. Non-right-handedness could induce maternal tolerance, or change the maternal compatibility of "gay" embryos. Alternatively, gay embryos could be poor inducers of maternal tolerance towards male traits.

  18. Sexual orientation, handedness, sex ratio and fetomaternal tolerance-rejection.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Valenzuela, Carlos Y

    2010-01-01

    Fraternal birth order (FBO) appears as a prenatal cause of 15% of homosexual males (gays) through mnemonic maternal anti-male factors. Non-right-handed men seem to be protected from homosexuality. Four hypotheses are proposed: (1) androgenic factors of non-right-handedness neutralize anti-male factors; (2) non-right-handedness and homosexuality are lethal or produce mental impairment; (3) non-right-handed male embryos are insensitive to anti-male factors; (4) mothers of non-right-handed fetuses do not produce anti-male factors. Studies of the sex ratio (SR) of older and younger siblings show: (1) a significant heterogeneity in the SR of siblings of right or non-right handed heterosexual men and women; (2) lesbians are born among siblings with high SR; (3) siblings of right-handed gays show a higher SR than non-right-handed gays that present a low SR. Based on our discovery of maternal tolerance-rejection processes, associated with genetic systems (ABO, Rh), where zygotes or embryos different from their mother induce better pregnancy and maternal tolerance than do those that share antigens with their mothers, I propose a new explanation for sexual relationships, sexual orientation, handedness and sibling SR. Lesbian embryos could induce tolerance from mothers with anti-female factors. Non-right-handedness could induce maternal tolerance, or change the maternal compatibility of "gay" embryos. Alternatively, gay embryos could be poor inducers of maternal tolerance towards male traits.

  19. Population stochasticity, random determination of handedness, and the genetic basis of antisymmetry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kamimura, Yoshitaka

    2011-12-07

    Conspicuous lateral asymmetries of organisms are classified into two major categories: antisymmetry (AS), characterized by almost equal frequencies of dextral and sinistral morphs, and directional asymmetry (DA), in which one morph dominates. I compared and characterized two types of genes, both with existing examples, in their roles in the evolutionary transitions between AS and DA for the first time. Handedness genes (HGs) determine the chirality in a strict sense, while randomization genes (RGs) randomize the chirality. A theory predicts that, in an AS population maintained by HGs under negative frequency-dependent selection, RGs harness fluctuation of the morph frequencies as their driving force and thus increase their frequency until half of the population flips the phenotype. These predictions were confirmed by simulations. Consequently, RGs mask the genetic effects of HGs, which provides a possible explanation for the apparent lack of a genetic basis for AS in empirical AS studies. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. Handedness is related to neural mechanisms underlying hemispheric lateralization of face processing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frässle, Stefan; Krach, Sören; Paulus, Frieder Michel; Jansen, Andreas

    2016-06-01

    While the right-hemispheric lateralization of the face perception network is well established, recent evidence suggests that handedness affects the cerebral lateralization of face processing at the hierarchical level of the fusiform face area (FFA). However, the neural mechanisms underlying differential hemispheric lateralization of face perception in right- and left-handers are largely unknown. Using dynamic causal modeling (DCM) for fMRI, we aimed to unravel the putative processes that mediate handedness-related differences by investigating the effective connectivity in the bilateral core face perception network. Our results reveal an enhanced recruitment of the left FFA in left-handers compared to right-handers, as evidenced by more pronounced face-specific modulatory influences on both intra- and interhemispheric connections. As structural and physiological correlates of handedness-related differences in face processing, right- and left-handers varied with regard to their gray matter volume in the left fusiform gyrus and their pupil responses to face stimuli. Overall, these results describe how handedness is related to the lateralization of the core face perception network, and point to different neural mechanisms underlying face processing in right- and left-handers. In a wider context, this demonstrates the entanglement of structurally and functionally remote brain networks, suggesting a broader underlying process regulating brain lateralization.

  1. Brain CT image and handedness of schizophrenia

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hirose, Katsutoshi; Maehara, Katsuya; Iizuka, Reiji; Mikami, Akihiro.

    1989-01-01

    Brain CT images were reviewed of 98 schizophrenic patients and 90 healthy persons in relation to handedness and aging. CT images were further reconstructed to examine morphologically subtle changes in each region. Schizophrenic patients had progressive brain atrophy and dilated lateral ventricles, especially on the left side and in the posterior part of the lateral ventricle. These findings were more marked in left-handed than in right-handed schizophrenic patients. According to age groups, there were significant differences between schizophrenic and normal persons over the age of 40. The incidence of left handedness was significantly higher in schizophrenic patients in their fourties than the age-matched normal persons (31.4% vs 15.1%). Morphological abnormality and laterality might be due to the same pathologic consequences. (N.K.)

  2. Non-right handed primary progressive apraxia of speech.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Botha, Hugo; Duffy, Joseph R; Whitwell, Jennifer L; Strand, Edythe A; Machulda, Mary M; Spychalla, Anthony J; Tosakulwong, Nirubol; Senjem, Matthew L; Knopman, David S; Petersen, Ronald C; Jack, Clifford R; Lowe, Val J; Josephs, Keith A

    2018-07-15

    In recent years a large and growing body of research has greatly advanced our understanding of primary progressive apraxia of speech. Handedness has emerged as one potential marker of selective vulnerability in degenerative diseases. This study evaluated the clinical and imaging findings in non-right handed compared to right handed participants in a prospective cohort diagnosed with primary progressive apraxia of speech. A total of 30 participants were included. Compared to the expected rate in the population, there was a higher prevalence of non-right handedness among those with primary progressive apraxia of speech (6/30, 20%). Small group numbers meant that these results did not reach statistical significance, although the effect sizes were moderate-to-large. There were no clinical differences between right handed and non-right handed participants. Bilateral hypometabolism was seen in primary progressive apraxia of speech compared to controls, with non-right handed participants showing more right hemispheric involvement. This is the first report of a higher rate of non-right handedness in participants with isolated apraxia of speech, which may point to an increased vulnerability for developing this disorder among non-right handed participants. This challenges prior hypotheses about a relative protective effect of non-right handedness for tau-related neurodegeneration. We discuss potential avenues for future research to investigate the relationship between handedness and motor disorders more generally. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  3. Handedness and corpus callosal morphology in Williams syndrome.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martens, Marilee A; Wilson, Sarah J; Chen, Jian; Wood, Amanda G; Reutens, David C

    2013-02-01

    Williams syndrome is a neurodevelopmental genetic disorder caused by a hemizygous deletion on chromosome 7q11.23, resulting in atypical brain structure and function, including abnormal morphology of the corpus callosum. An influence of handedness on the size of the corpus callosum has been observed in studies of typical individuals, but handedness has not been taken into account in studies of callosal morphology in Williams syndrome. We hypothesized that callosal area is smaller and the size of the splenium and isthmus is reduced in individuals with Williams syndrome compared to healthy controls, and examined age, sex, and handedness effects on corpus callosal area. Structural magnetic resonance imaging scans were obtained on 25 individuals with Williams syndrome (18 right-handed, 7 left-handed) and 25 matched controls. We found that callosal thickness was significantly reduced in the splenium of Williams syndrome individuals compared to controls. We also found novel evidence that the callosal area was smaller in left-handed participants with Williams syndrome than their right-handed counterparts, with opposite findings observed in the control group. This novel finding may be associated with LIM-kinase hemizygosity, a characteristic of Williams syndrome. The findings may have significant clinical implications in future explorations of the Williams syndrome cognitive phenotype.

  4. Effect of handedness on auditory attentional performance in ADHD students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Schmidt SL

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Sergio L Schmidt,1,2 Ana Lucia Novais Carvaho,3 Eunice N Simoes2 1Department of Neurophysiology, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, 2Neurology Department, Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, 3Department of Psychology, Fluminense Federal University, Niteroi, Brazil Abstract: The relationship between handedness and attentional performance is poorly understood. Continuous performance tests (CPTs using visual stimuli are commonly used to assess subjects suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD. However, auditory CPTs are considered more useful than visual ones to evaluate classroom attentional problems. A previous study reported that there was a significant effect of handedness on students’ performance on a visual CPT. Here, we examined whether handedness would also affect CPT performance using only auditory stimuli. From an initial sample of 337 students, 11 matched pairs were selected. Repeated ANOVAs showed a significant effect of handedness on attentional performance that was exhibited even in the control group. Left-handers made more commission errors than right-handers. The results were interpreted considering that the association between ADHD and handedness reflects that consistent left-handers are less lateralized and have decreased interhemispheric connections. Auditory attentional data suggest that left-handers have problems in the impulsive/hyperactivity domain. In ADHD, clinical therapeutics and rehabilitation must take handedness into account because consistent sinistrals are more impulsive than dextrals. Keywords: attention, ADHD, consistent left-handers, auditory attention, continuous performance test

  5. Genome-wide association study of handedness excludes simple genetic models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Armour, J AL; Davison, A; McManus, I C

    2014-01-01

    Handedness is a human behavioural phenotype that appears to be congenital, and is often assumed to be inherited, but for which the developmental origin and underlying causation(s) have been elusive. Models of the genetic basis of variation in handedness have been proposed that fit different features of the observed resemblance between relatives, but none has been decisively tested or a corresponding causative locus identified. In this study, we applied data from well-characterised individuals studied at the London Twin Research Unit. Analysis of genome-wide SNP data from 3940 twins failed to identify any locus associated with handedness at a genome-wide level of significance. The most straightforward interpretation of our analyses is that they exclude the simplest formulations of the ‘right-shift' model of Annett and the ‘dextral/chance' model of McManus, although more complex modifications of those models are still compatible with our observations. For polygenic effects, our study is inadequately powered to reliably detect alleles with effect sizes corresponding to an odds ratio of 1.2, but should have good power to detect effects at an odds ratio of 2 or more. PMID:24065183

  6. Sexual orientation, handedness, sex ratio and fetomaternal tolerance-rejection

    OpenAIRE

    Carlos Y Valenzuela

    2010-01-01

    Fraternal birth order (FBO) appears as a prenatal cause of 15% of homosexual males (gays) through mnemonic maternal anti-male factors. Non-right-handed men seem to be protected from homosexuality. Four hypotheses are proposed: (1) androgenic factors of non-right-handedness neutralize anti-male factors; (2) non-right-handedness and homosexuality are lethal or produce mental impairment; (3) non-right-handed male embryos are insensitive to anti-male factors; (4) mothers of non-right-handed fetus...

  7. The relation between handedness indices and reproductive success in a non-industrial society.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sara M Schaafsma

    Full Text Available The evolution of handedness in human populations has intrigued scientists for decades. However, whether handedness really affects Darwinian fitness is unclear and not yet studied in a non-industrial society where selection pressures on health and handedness are likely to be similar to the situation in which handedness has evolved. We measured both hand preference and asymmetry of hand skill (speed of fine motor control, measured by a pegboard task, and accuracy of throwing, as they measure different aspects of handedness. We investigated the associations between both the direction (left versus right and strength (the degree to which a certain preference or asymmetry in skill is manifested, independent of the direction of handedness. We analyzed to what extent these measures predict the number of offspring and self-reported illness in a non-industrial society in Papua, Indonesia. As it is known that body height and fitness are correlated, data on body height was also collected. Due to low numbers of left-handers we could not investigate the associations between direction of hand preference and measures of Darwinian fitness. We found a positive association between strength of asymmetry of hand skill (pegboard and the number of children men sired. We also found a positive association for men between strength of hand preference and number of children who died within the first three years of life. For women we found no such effects. Our results may indicate that strength of handedness, independent of direction, has fitness implications and that the persistence of the polymorphism in handedness may be ascribed to either balancing selection on strength of asymmetry of hand skill versus strength of hand preference, or sexual antagonistic selection. No relationships between health and handedness were found, perhaps due to disease related selective disappearance of subjects with a specific handedness.

  8. Effect of handedness on the occurrence of semantic N400 priming effect in 18- and 24-month-old children

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jacqueline eFagard

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available It is frequently stated that right-handedness reflects hemispheric dominance for language. Indeed, most right-handers process phonological aspects of language with the left hemisphere (and other aspects with the right hemisphere. However, given the overwhelming majority of right-handers and of individuals showing left-hemisphere language dominance, there is a high probability to be right-handed and at the same time process phonology within the left hemisphere even if there was no causal link between both. One way to understand the link between handedness and language lateralization is to observe how they co-develop. In this study, we investigated to what extent handedness is related to the occurrence of a right-hemisphere lateralized N400 event related potential in a semantic priming task in children. The N400 component in a semantic priming task is more negative for unrelated than for related word pairs. We have shown earlier that N400 effect occurred in 24-month-olds over the right parietal-occipital recording sites, whereas no significant effect was obtained over the left hemisphere sites. In 18-month-olds, this effect was observed only in those children with higher word production ability. Since handedness has also been associated with the vocabulary size at these ages, we investigated the relationship between the N400 and handedness in 18- and 24-months as a function of their vocabulary. The results showed that right-handers had significantly higher vocabulary size and more pronounced N400 effect over the right hemisphere than non-lateralized children, but only in the 18-month-old group. We propose that the emergences of right-handedness and right-distributed N400 effect are not causally related, but that both developmental processes reflect a general tendency to recruit the hemispheres in a lateralized manner. The lack of this relationship at 24 months further suggests that there is no direct causal relation between handedness and language

  9. Sex-differences, Handedness, and Lateralization in the Iowa Gambling Task

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Varsha eSingh

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available In a widely used decision-making task, the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT, male performance is observed to be superior to that of females, and is attributed to right lateralization (i.e., right hemispheric dominance. It is as yet unknown whether sex-differences in affect and motor lateralization have implications for sex-specific lateralization in the IGT, and specifically, whether sex-difference in performance in the IGT changes with right-handedness or with affect lateralization (decision valence, and valence-directed motivation. The present study (N = 320; 160 males examined the effects of right-handedness (right-handedness vs. non-right-handedness as a measure of motor lateralization, decision valence (reward vs. punishment IGT, and valence-directedness of task motivation (valence-directed vs. non-directed instructions, as measures of affective lateralization on IGT decision making. Analyses of variance revealed that both male and female participants showed valence-induced inconsistencies in advantageous decision-making; however, right-handed females made more disadvantageous decisions in a reward IGT. These results suggest that IGT decision-making may be largely right-lateralized in right-handed males, and show that sex and lateralized differences (motor and affect have implications for sex-differences in IGT decision-making. Implications of the results are discussed with reference to lateralization and sex-differences in cognition.

  10. Born to win? Testing the fighting hypothesis in realistic fights: left-handedness in the Ultimate Fighting Championship

    OpenAIRE

    Pollet, Thomas V.; Stulp, Gert; Groothuis, Ton G. G.

    2013-01-01

    Given the heritability of human left-handedness and its purported associations with fitness-lowering traits, the persistence of the minority of left-handedness in human populations is an evolutionary puzzle. The fighting hypothesis proposes that these negative fitness costs are offset by fitness gains for left-handers when involved in fights with right-handers, as being a minority would generate a surprise effect increasing the chance of winning. The finding that left-handers are overrepresen...

  11. Interaction of birth order, handedness, and sexual orientation in the Kinsey interview data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bogaert, Anthony F; Blanchard, Ray; Crosthwait, Lesley E

    2007-10-01

    Recent evidence indicates that 2 of the most consistently observed correlates of men's sexual orientation--handedness and older brothers--may be linked interactively in their prediction of men's sexual orientation. In this article, the authors studied the relationship among handedness, older brothers, and men's sexual orientation in the large and historically significant database originally compiled by Alfred C. Kinsey and his colleagues (A. C. Kinsey, W. B. Pomeroy, & C. E. Martin, 1948). The results demonstrated that handedness moderates the relationship between older brothers and sexual orientation. Specifically, older brothers increased the odds of homosexuality in right-handers only; in non-righthanders, older brothers did not affect the odds of homosexuality. These results refine the possible biological explanations reported to underlie both the handedness and older brother relationships to men's sexual orientation. These results also suggest that biological explanations of men's sexual orientation are likely relevant across time, as the Kinsey data comprise an older cohort relative to modern samples. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved).

  12. Left-Handedness Among a Community Sample of Psychiatric Outpatients Suffering From Mood and Psychotic Disorders

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jadon R. Webb

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available The human brain develops asymmetrically, such that certain cognitive processes arise predominantly from the left or right side. It has been proposed that variations in this laterality contribute to certain forms of mental illness, such as schizophrenia. A convenient measure of brain laterality is hand dominance, and prior work has found that patients with schizophrenia are more likely to be left-handed than the general population. This finding is not consistent, however, and fewer studies have directly compared handedness between psychiatric diagnoses. We assessed hand dominance in 107 patients presenting to an outpatient psychiatric clinic with diagnoses of a mood or psychotic disorder. The prevalence of left-handedness was 11% for mood disorders, which is similar to the rate in the general population. It was 40% in those with psychotic disorders (adjusted odds ratio = 7.9, p < .001. The prevalence of left-handedness was much higher in psychotic disorders compared with mood disorders in this community mental health sample.

  13. Handedness and dominant side of symptoms in Parkinson's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shi, Jie; Liu, Jie; Qu, Qiumin

    2014-02-20

    To investigate the association between handedness and the side of symptom dominance in Parkinson's disease (PD). One hundred and forty-six PD patients with symmetric symptoms (92 males and 54 females), aged 64.3 ± 9.1 years old, from a series of 247 PD patients were assessed for handedness and clinical features. The severity of PD was scored by unified Parkinson's disease rating scale (UPDRS) and Hoehn-Yahr staging on the "ON" state. Of 134 right-handed patients (91.8%), 83 (61.7%) had an initial onset on the right side (P=0.008), while of 12 left-handed patients (8.2%), 9 (75.0%) had an initial onset on the left side (P=0.013). Out of right-handed patients, 103 (76.9%) had the right-side dominance of PD symptoms (P<0.001). Among the left-handed subjects, 7 patients (58.3%) had left-sided and 5 patients (41.7%) had right-sided symptom dominance (P=0.564). In general, dominant side of symptoms was in accordance with handedness (P=0.008). In right-handed patients, rest tremor was the most common initial symptom (P<0.001), while rest tremor and rigidity-bradykinesia were initial symptoms in left-handed patients (P=0.366). PD symptoms emerge more often on the dominant hand-side, and the dominant side of symptoms is in accordance with handedness. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier España, S.L. All rights reserved.

  14. Handedness, criminality, and sexual offending.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bogaert, A F

    2001-01-01

    A very large database was used to investigate whether men with a history of criminality and/or sexual offending have a higher incidence of nonright-handedness (NRH) relative to a control sample of nonoffender men. The sample (N>8000) comprised interviews by investigators at the Kinsey Institute for Sex and Reproduction in Indiana. The general offender group and a subsample of sex offenders (e.g. pedophiles) had a significantly higher rate of NRH relative to the control (nonoffender) men. In addition, evidence was found that the general criminality/NRH relationship might result from increased educational difficulties that some nonright-handers experience. In contrast, education was unrelated to the handedness/pedophilia relationship, suggesting that there may be a different mechanism underlying the handedness/pedophile relationship than the handedness/(general) criminality relationship. Finally, as a cautionary note, it is stressed that the effects are small and that NRH should not be used as a marker of criminality.

  15. Mixed-handedness advantages in episodic memory obtained under conditions of intentional learning extend to incidental learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Christman, Stephen D; Butler, Michael

    2011-10-01

    The existence of handedness differences in the retrieval of episodic memories is well-documented, but virtually all have been obtained under conditions of intentional learning. Two experiments are reported that extend the presence of such handedness differences to memory retrieval under conditions of incidental learning. Experiment 1 used Craik and Tulving's (1975) classic levels-of-processing paradigm and obtained handedness differences under incidental and intentional conditions of deep processing, but not under conditions of shallow incidental processing. Experiment 2 looked at incidental memory for distracter items from a recognition memory task and again found a mixed-handed advantage. Results are discussed in terms of the relation between interhemispheric interaction, levels of processing, and episodic memory retrieval. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  16. A study of jet handedness in hadronic Zo decays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Muller, D.

    1994-05-01

    The authors have searched for inclusive signatures of polarization in hadronic jets from Z 0 → q bar q decays using the open-quote jet handedness close-quote method. They exploited the large polar angle asymmetry induced by the high SLC electron beam polarization to select samples of quark jets and antiquark jets, expected to be left- and right-polarized respectively. They find no evidence for jet handedness in their global sample and set a preliminary upper limit of 7% at 95% C.L. on the magnitude of the analyzing power of this technique. They have used the SLD vertex detector to exclude events containing heavy (b, c) quarks, in which the handedness is expected to be small due to the dominance of decays of spinless mesons. They find no evidence for jet handedness in this high-purity sample of light (u, d and s) quark jets, and set a preliminary upper limit of 11% on the magnitude of the analyzing power in this case. They have investigated several alternative definitions of jet handedness in an attempt to optimize the analyzing power. They find no evidence of jet handedness by any method

  17. Language, gesture, and handedness: Evidence for independent lateralized networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Häberling, Isabelle S; Corballis, Paul M; Corballis, Michael C

    2016-09-01

    Language, gesture, and handedness are in most people represented in the left cerebral hemisphere. To explore the relations among these attributes, we collected fMRI images in a large sample of left- and right-handers while they performed language tasks and watched action sequences. Regions of interest included the frontal and parietal areas previously identified as comprising an action-observation network, and the frontal and temporal areas comprising the primary areas for language production and comprehension. All of the language areas and most of the action-observation areas showed an overall left-hemispheric bias, despite the participation of equal numbers of left- and right-handers. A factor analysis of the laterality indices derived from the different areas during the tasks indicated three independent networks, one associated with language, one associated with handedness, and one representing action observation independent of handedness. Areas 44 and 45, which together make up Broca's area, were part of the language and action-observation networks, but were not included in the part of the action observation network that was related to handedness, which in turn was strongly linked to areas in the parietal lobe. These results suggest an evolutionary scenario in which the primate mirror neuron system (MNS) became increasingly lateralized, and later fissioned onto subsystems with one mediating language and the other mediating the execution and observation of manual actions. The second network is further subdivided into one dependent on hand preference and one that is not, providing new insight into the tripartite system of language, handedness, and praxis. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  18. Left handedness and spine deformities in early adolescence

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Milenkovic, Sanja; Kocijancic, Radojka; Belojevic, Goran

    2004-01-01

    The aim of this study was to investigate the relation between laterality and spine deformities in early adolescence, with special reference to sex differences. Interviews, anthropometric measurements and clinical examinations of body posture were carried out on a sample of 2546 schoolchildren, aged from 11 to 14 years, in seven elementary schools in the centre of Belgrade. Possible confounding factors (age, sex, body weight and body height) were controlled for. The overall prevalence of spine deformities (scoliosis and/or thoracic hyperkyphosis) in the investigated population was 11.8%, out of which there were 7.8% adolescents with scoliosis, 4.0% with thoracic hyperkyphosis, and 0.3% with both spine deformities. The prevalence of scoliosis was 2.7 times higher in girls compared to boys (11.7% vs. 4.3%) while the prevalence of thoracic hyperkyphosis was 1,6 higher among boys (5.0% vs. 3.2%). We found 7.6% of the schoolchildren examined to be left-handed. Left handedness was significantly related to scoliosis in girls (crude OR=1.60 and 95% confidence interval=1.01-2.54). Multivariate analysis showed that significant independent factors for scoliosis were female sex (p < 0.001), age (p=0.01) and left handedness (p=0.02). We did not find any appreciable relation between left handedness and thoracic hyperkyphosis in both sexes

  19. The leading hand in bimanual activities - A search for more valid handedness items.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Olsson, Bo; Kirchengast, Sylvia

    2016-11-01

    The aim of this pilot study is to test a new approach to handedness assessment based on the concept of the leading hand. A well-established graphomotor performance test of handedness (H-D-T) and a new test according on the concept of the leading hand were undertaken by 41 Viennese schoolchildren between 6 and 8 years of age. The new test is based on in vivo observations of bimanual activities. In detail the test battery consisted of 8 fine motor leading hand items. Participants had to open and close four small objects (one tube, three small bottles) in order to observe twisting movements and four small objects (2 matchboxes, 2 small brushes) in order to observe back-and-forth movements. It turned out that the leading hand does not correlate with the hand dominance in a graphomotor test to the degree that the handedness in unimanual items has been found to do and that right leading hand scores in bimanual items are encountered significantly less often than right hand scores in a graphomotor test. The findings of the present study suggest that tests of the leading hand in vivo may contribute to a higher validity of the assessment of handedness in examinations of the lateralization of higher cortical functions.

  20. Handedness differences in information framing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jasper, John D; Fournier, Candice; Christman, Stephen D

    2014-02-01

    Previous research has shown that strength of handedness predicts differences in sensory illusions, Stroop interference, episodic memory, and beliefs about body image. Recent evidence also suggests handedness differences in the susceptibility to common decision biases such as anchoring and sunk cost. The present paper extends this line of work to attribute framing effects. Sixty-three undergraduates were asked to advise a friend concerning the use of a safe allergy medication during pregnancy. A third of the participants received negatively-framed information concerning the fetal risk of the drug (1-3% chance of having a malformed child); another third received positively-framed information (97-99% chance of having a normal child); and the final third received no counseling information and served as the control. Results indicated that, as predicted, inconsistent (mixed)-handers were more responsive than consistent (strong)-handers to information changes and readily update their beliefs. Although not significant, the data also suggested that only inconsistent handers were affected by information framing. Theoretical implications as well as ongoing work in holistic versus analytic processing, contextual sensitivity, and brain asymmetry will be discussed. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  1. Right-handers have negligibly higher IQ scores than left-handers: Systematic review and meta-analyses.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ntolka, Eleni; Papadatou-Pastou, Marietta

    2018-01-01

    The relationship between intelligence and handedness remains a matter of debate. The present study is a systematic review of 36 studies (totaling 66,108 individuals), which have measured full IQ scores in different handedness groups. Eighteen of those studies were further included in three sets of meta-analyses (totaling 20,442 individuals), which investigated differences in standardized mean IQ scores in (i) left-handers, (ii) non-right-handers, and (iii) mixed-handers compared to right-handers. The bulk of the studies included in the systematic review reported no differences in IQ scores between left- and right-handers. In the meta-analyses, statistically significant differences in mean IQ scores were detected between right-handers and left-handers, but were marginal in magnitude (d=-0.07); the data sets were found to be homogeneous. Significance was lost when the largest study was excluded. No differences in mean IQ scores were found between right-handers and non-right-handers as well as between right-handers and mixed-handers. No sex differences were found. Overall, the intelligence differences between handedness groups in the general population are negligible. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. Study of asymmetry in motor areas related to handedness using the fMRI BOLD response Gaussian convolution model

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gao Qing [School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054 (China); School of Applied Mathematics, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054 (China); Chen Huafu [School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054 (China); School of Applied Mathematics, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054 (China)], E-mail: Chenhf@uestc.edu.cn; Gong Qiyong [Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), Department of Radiology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041 (China)

    2009-10-30

    Brain asymmetry is a phenomenon well known for handedness, and has been studied in the motor cortex. However, few studies have quantitatively assessed the asymmetrical cortical activities for handedness in motor areas. In the present study, we systematically and quantitatively investigated asymmetry in the left and right primary motor cortices during sequential finger movements using the Gaussian convolution model approach based on the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) response. Six right-handed and six left-handed subjects were recruited to perform three types of hand movement tasks. The results for the expected value of the Gaussian convolution model showed that it took the dominant hand a longer average interval of response delay regardless of the handedness and bi- or uni-manual performance. The results for the standard deviation of the Gaussian model suggested that in the mass neurons, these intervals of the dominant hand were much more variable than those of the non-dominant hand. When comparing bi-manual movement conditions with uni-manual movement conditions in the primary motor cortex (PMC), both the expected value and standard deviation in the Gaussian function were significantly smaller (p < 0.05) in the bi-manual conditions, showing that the movement of the non-dominant hand influenced that of the dominant hand.

  3. Study of asymmetry in motor areas related to handedness using the fMRI BOLD response Gaussian convolution model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gao Qing; Chen Huafu; Gong Qiyong

    2009-01-01

    Brain asymmetry is a phenomenon well known for handedness, and has been studied in the motor cortex. However, few studies have quantitatively assessed the asymmetrical cortical activities for handedness in motor areas. In the present study, we systematically and quantitatively investigated asymmetry in the left and right primary motor cortices during sequential finger movements using the Gaussian convolution model approach based on the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) response. Six right-handed and six left-handed subjects were recruited to perform three types of hand movement tasks. The results for the expected value of the Gaussian convolution model showed that it took the dominant hand a longer average interval of response delay regardless of the handedness and bi- or uni-manual performance. The results for the standard deviation of the Gaussian model suggested that in the mass neurons, these intervals of the dominant hand were much more variable than those of the non-dominant hand. When comparing bi-manual movement conditions with uni-manual movement conditions in the primary motor cortex (PMC), both the expected value and standard deviation in the Gaussian function were significantly smaller (p < 0.05) in the bi-manual conditions, showing that the movement of the non-dominant hand influenced that of the dominant hand.

  4. Comparing the Prevalence of Handedness between Normal and Congenitally Deaf Students in Age Intervals of 12 to 18 Years in Tehran

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zahra Jafari

    2007-04-01

    Full Text Available Objective: Handedness is the most prominent behavioral asymmetry in human. The term of hand preference points to prefer hand or functional asymmetry in manual tasks. The items were considered in this study were: the comparison of handedness between normal and congenitally deaf students the effects of age, sex, and pressure on using right hand for unimanual tasks on handedness the frequency of left-handers among student’s families, the influence of hand preference on English language capabilities, and the point of view of people rather to left-handers have been investigated. Materials & Methods: This cross-sectional comparative study was conducted on 760 students including 380 normal students and 380 deaf students with congenital severe or profound sensory-neural hearing loss from 12 to 18 years of age by that were selected purposefully, completing Edinburg handedness inventory in Tehran. The students didn’t have any confirmed diseases or neurological disorders, except hearing loss in deaf student. Data were gathered through the completion of the Edinburg Handedness Inventory by the students. The student’s aural records and also the confirmation of the audiologist in the deaf schools were considered in order to determine the kind and degree of hearing loss. Results: The prevalence of left-handedness among normal (9.7% and deaf (10.3% students were near to each other, and there was no significant difference between them (P=0.901, z=-1.24. The prevalence of left-handedness was higher in boys rather than girls, but there was no significant influence of sex and age on results (P>0.05. The family and/or teacher pressure for using right hand was 16.0% in normal students and 5.0% in deaf students, and they didn’t report any strict pressure or severity regard this mater. The frequency of left-handers was higher among family of normal students (22.6% than deaf students (13.2%, and the difference between them was significant statistically (P=0

  5. Androgens and cognitive abilities: Mental rotations skills and handedness in adult females with congenital adrenal hyperplasia

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ripa, Caroline P.L.; Johannsen, T.H.; Mortensen, E.L.

    2006-01-01

    Research on animal and human populations has suggested elevated spatial abilities as well as higher incidence of left-handedness in genetic females exposed to abnormally high androgen levels perinatally. However, findings in humans are inconsistent. We administered the Mental Rotations Test...

  6. Functional resting-state connectivity of the human motor network: differences between right- and left-handers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pool, Eva-Maria; Rehme, Anne K; Eickhoff, Simon B; Fink, Gereon R; Grefkes, Christian

    2015-04-01

    Handedness is associated with differences in activation levels in various motor tasks performed with the dominant or non-dominant hand. Here we tested whether handedness is reflected in the functional architecture of the motor system even in the absence of an overt motor task. Using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging we investigated 18 right- and 18 left-handers. Whole-brain functional connectivity maps of the primary motor cortex (M1), supplementary motor area (SMA), dorsolateral premotor cortex (PMd), pre-SMA, inferior frontal junction and motor putamen were compared between right- and left-handers. We further used a multivariate linear support vector machine (SVM) classifier to reveal the specificity of brain regions for classifying handedness based on individual resting-state maps. Using left M1 as seed region, functional connectivity analysis revealed stronger interhemispheric functional connectivity between left M1 and right PMd in right-handers as compared to left-handers. This connectivity cluster contributed to the individual classification of right- and left-handers with 86.2% accuracy. Consistently, also seeding from right PMd yielded a similar handedness-dependent effect in left M1, albeit with lower classification accuracy (78.1%). Control analyses of the other resting-state networks including the speech and the visual network revealed no significant differences in functional connectivity related to handedness. In conclusion, our data revealed an intrinsically higher functional connectivity in right-handers. These results may help to explain that hand preference is more lateralized in right-handers than in left-handers. Furthermore, enhanced functional connectivity between left M1 and right PMd may serve as an individual marker of handedness. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  7. Deficit or creativity: Cesare Lombroso, Robert Hertz, and the meanings of left-handedness.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kushner, Howard I

    2013-01-01

    In the first decade of the twentieth century two influential researchers attempted to explain the origin and impact of left-handedness in human history. The first, the Turin physician Cesare Lombroso, often referred to as the father of modern criminology, was nearing the end of his long distinguished career. Lombroso tied left-handedness to criminality, insanity, and feeble mindedness. According to Lombroso, these groups shared biological regressions to primitive mentalities that could not be reversed by education or training. The second, French sociologist Robert Hertz, was at the beginning of a career cut short by his death in combat during the First World War. Hertz challenged Lombroso's claims, insisting that the predominance of right-handedness, whatever its biological substrate, was ultimately a cultural artefact driven by a primitive human urge to make sense of the world by dividing it into binary oppositions in which the right was viewed as sacred and the left as profane. Ending discrimination against left-handedness would, according to Hertz, unleash access to both hands and thus both hemispheres. The results, he insisted, would allow repressed talents and creativity to flourish. The conflicting views of Lombroso and Hertz have informed investigations of the causes and consequences of left-handedness until today. While the language of the debate has been reframed in current scientific discourses, left-handedness continues to be portrayed in the contradictory ways first elaborated by Lombroso and Hertz more than a century ago as either the cause of a variety of learning disabilities or as the key that can unlock creativity and talent. The debate also exposed the extent to which other cultural concerns, particularly anti-Semitism, informed theories of handedness.

  8. Hand preferences for coordinated bimanual actions in 777 great apes

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hopkins, William D; Phillips, Kimberley A; Bania, Amanda

    2011-01-01

    Whether or not nonhuman primates exhibit population-level handedness remains a topic of considerable scientific debate. Here, we examined handedness for coordinated bimanual actions in a sample of 777 great apes including chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans. We found population......-level right-handedness in chimpanzees, bonobos and gorillas, but left-handedness in orangutans. Directional biases in handedness were consistent across independent samples of apes within each genus. We suggest that, contrary to previous claims, population-level handedness is evident in great apes but differs...

  9. Sulcal Morphology and Volume of Broca's Area Linked to Handedness and Sex

    Science.gov (United States)

    Powell, Joanne L.; Kemp, Graham J.; Roberts, Neil; Garcia-Finana, Marta

    2012-01-01

    We investigated the effect of handedness and sex on: (i) sulcal contours defining PO and PTR and (ii) volume estimates of PO and PTR subfields in 40 left- and 42 right-handers. Results show an effect of handedness on discontinuity of the inferior frontal sulcus (IFS: P less than 0.01). Discontinuity of IFS was observed in: 43% left- and 62% right…

  10. Sex differences in face processing are mediated by handedness and sexual orientation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brewster, Paul W H; Mullin, Caitlin R; Dobrin, Roxana A; Steeves, Jennifer K E

    2011-03-01

    Previous research has demonstrated sex differences in face processing at both neural and behavioural levels. The present study examined the role of handedness and sexual orientation as mediators of this effect. We compared the performance of LH (left-handed) and RH (right-handed) heterosexual and homosexual male and female participants on a face recognition memory task. Our main findings were that homosexual males have better face recognition memory than both heterosexual males and homosexual women. We also demonstrate better face processing in women than in men. Finally, LH heterosexual participants had better face recognition than LH homosexual participants and also tended to be better than RH heterosexual participants. These findings are consistent with differences in the organisation and laterality of face-processing mechanisms as a function of sex, handedness, and sexual orientation.

  11. Handedness and Lateralization of the Brain

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shohreh Teimournezhad

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available

    The present study is a review of the key concepts in relation to the nature of handedness and in line with that, the phenomenon of brain lateralization. To this end, a number of articles have been overviewed and the critical concepts such as handedness and its main features, the theoretical bases for this phenomenon, the nature and functions of lateralization, and the relationship between these two concepts have been shed light on for a better understanding. Finally, the general differences between the left-handers vs. right-handers have been drawn into consideration.

  12. Multilocus genetic models of handedness closely resemble single-locus models in explaining family data and are compatible with genome-wide association studies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McManus, I C; Davison, Angus; Armour, John A L

    2013-06-01

    Right- and left-handedness run in families, show greater concordance in monozygotic than dizygotic twins, and are well described by single-locus Mendelian models. Here we summarize a large genome-wide association study (GWAS) that finds no significant associations with handedness and is consistent with a meta-analysis of GWASs. The GWAS had 99% power to detect a single locus using the conventional criterion of P < 5 × 10(-8) for the single locus models of McManus and Annett. The strong conclusion is that handedness is not controlled by a single genetic locus. A consideration of the genetic architecture of height, primary ciliary dyskinesia, and intelligence suggests that handedness inheritance can be explained by a multilocus variant of the McManus DC model, classical effects on family and twins being barely distinguishable from the single locus model. Based on the ENGAGE meta-analysis of GWASs, we estimate at least 40 loci are involved in determining handedness. © 2013 New York Academy of Sciences.

  13. Handedness in Neandertals from the El Sidrón (Asturias, Spain): evidence from instrumental striations with ontogenetic inferences.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Estalrrich, Almudena; Rosas, Antonio

    2013-01-01

    The developed cognitive capabilities for Homo sapiens seems to be the result of a specialized and lateralized brain, and as a result of this, humans display the highest degree of manual specialization or handedness among the primates. Studies regarding its emergence and distribution within the genus Homo show that handedness is present very early. The mode in which it was articulated and spread across the different species during the course of human evolution could provide information about our own cognitive capacities. Here we report the manual laterality attributed to eleven 49,000 old Neandertal individuals from El Sidrón cave (Spain), through the study of instrumental or cultural striations on the anterior dentition. Our results show a predominant pattern addressed to right-handers. These results fit within the modern human handedness distribution pattern and provide indirect evidence for behavior and brain lateralization on Neandertals. They support the early establishment of handedness in our genus. Moreover, the individual identified as Juvenile 1 (6-8 years old at death), displays the same striation pattern as the adult Neandertals from the sample, and thereby the ontogenic development of manual laterality in that Neandertal population seems to be similar to that of living modern humans.

  14. Handedness in Neandertals from the El Sidrón (Asturias, Spain: evidence from instrumental striations with ontogenetic inferences.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Almudena Estalrrich

    Full Text Available The developed cognitive capabilities for Homo sapiens seems to be the result of a specialized and lateralized brain, and as a result of this, humans display the highest degree of manual specialization or handedness among the primates. Studies regarding its emergence and distribution within the genus Homo show that handedness is present very early. The mode in which it was articulated and spread across the different species during the course of human evolution could provide information about our own cognitive capacities. Here we report the manual laterality attributed to eleven 49,000 old Neandertal individuals from El Sidrón cave (Spain, through the study of instrumental or cultural striations on the anterior dentition. Our results show a predominant pattern addressed to right-handers. These results fit within the modern human handedness distribution pattern and provide indirect evidence for behavior and brain lateralization on Neandertals. They support the early establishment of handedness in our genus. Moreover, the individual identified as Juvenile 1 (6-8 years old at death, displays the same striation pattern as the adult Neandertals from the sample, and thereby the ontogenic development of manual laterality in that Neandertal population seems to be similar to that of living modern humans.

  15. Individual differences in personality as a function of degree of handedness: consistent-handers are less sensation seeking, more authoritarian, and more sensitive to disgust.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Christman, Stephen

    2014-01-01

    Prior research indicates that consistent-handedness is associated with decreased access to right hemisphere processing and consequent decreased cognitive flexibility. Handedness differences on three dimensions of personality related to cognitive flexibility were investigated. Experiment 1 found that consistent-handedness was associated with decreased sensation seeking. Experiment 2 found that consistent-handedness was associated with increased Right Wing Authoritarianism. Experiment 3 found that consistent-handedness was associated with increased sensitivity to disgust. Prior research has shown associations between decreased sensation seeking, increased authoritarianism, and increased disgust sensitivity, and consistent-handedness appears to underlie all of these associations. Personality researchers are encouraged to include handedness as a factor in analyses, as failure to do so can lead to systematic mis-estimation of sex differences due to the over-representation of females among consistent-handers.

  16. Increased prevalences of left-handedness and left-eye sighting dominance in individuals with Williams-Beuren syndrome

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    J.W. van Strien (Jan)

    2005-01-01

    textabstractHandedness and eye sighting dominance were assessed in a sample of 50 individuals (25 male, 25 female; aged 5 – 38 years) with Williams-Beuren syndrome (WBS). The prevalences of left-handedness and left-eyedness were compared to the normative prevalences in the general population. We

  17. Factoring handedness data: I. Item analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Messinger, H B; Messinger, M I

    1995-12-01

    Recently in this journal Peters and Murphy challenged the validity of factor analyses done on bimodal handedness data, suggesting instead that right- and left-handers be studied separately. But bimodality may be avoidable if attention is paid to Oldfield's questionnaire format and instructions for the subjects. Two characteristics appear crucial: a two-column LEFT-RIGHT format for the body of the instrument and what we call Oldfield's Admonition: not to indicate strong preference for handedness item, such as write, unless "... the preference is so strong that you would never try to use the other hand unless absolutely forced to...". Attaining unimodality of an item distribution would seem to overcome the objections of Peters and Murphy. In a 1984 survey in Boston we used Oldfield's ten-item questionnaire exactly as published. This produced unimodal item distributions. With reflection of the five-point item scale and a logarithmic transformation, we achieved a degree of normalization for the items. Two surveys elsewhere based on Oldfield's 20-item list but with changes in the questionnaire format and the instructions, yielded markedly different item distributions with peaks at each extreme and sometimes in the middle as well.

  18. Born to win? Testing the fighting hypothesis in realistic fights : left-handedness in the Ultimate Fighting Championship

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Pollet, Thomas V.; Stulp, Gert; Groothuis, Ton G. G.

    2013-01-01

    Given the heritability of human left-handedness and its purported associations with fitness-lowering traits, the persistence of the minority of left-handedness in human populations is an evolutionary puzzle. The fighting hypothesis proposes that these negative fitness costs are offset by fitness

  19. Born to win? Testing the fighting hypothesis in realistic fights: left-handedness in the Ultimate Fighting Championship

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Pollet, T.V.; Stulp, G.; Groothuis, T.G.G.

    2013-01-01

    Given the heritability of human left-handedness and its purported associations with fitness-lowering traits, the persistence of the minority of left-handedness in human populations is an evolutionary puzzle. The fighting hypothesis proposes that these negative fitness costs are offset by fitness

  20. Search for jet handedness in hadronic Z0 decays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Abe, K.; Abt, I.; Ahn, C.J.; Akagi, T.; Ash, W.W.; Aston, D.; Bacchetta, N.; Baird, K.G.; Baltay, C.; Band, H.R.; Barakat, M.B.; Baranko, G.; Bardon, O.; Barklow, T.; Bazarko, A.O.; Ben-David, R.; Benvenuti, A.C.; Bienz, T.; Bilei, G.M.; Bisello, D.; Blaylock, G.; Bogart, J.R.; Bolton, T.; Bower, G.R.; Brau, J.E.; Breidenbach, M.; Bugg, W.M.; Burke, D.; Burnett, T.H.; Burrows, P.N.; Busza, W.; Calcaterra, A.; Caldwell, D.O.; Calloway, D.; Camanzi, B.; Carpinelli, M.; Cassell, R.; Castaldi, R.; Castro, A.; Cavalli-Sforza, M.; Church, E.; Cohn, H.O.; Coller, J.A.; Cook, V.; Cotton, R.; Cowan, R.F.; Coyne, D.G.; D'Oliveira, A.; Damerell, C.J.S.; Dasu, S.; De Sangro, R.; De Simone, P.; Dell'Orso, R.; Dima, M.; Du, P.Y.C.; Dubois, R.; Eisenstein, B.I.; Elia, R.; Falciai, D.; Fan, C.; Fero, M.J.; Frey, R.; Furuno, K.; Gillman, T.; Gladding, G.; Gonzalez, S.; Hallewell, G.D.; Hart, E.L.; Hasegawa, Y.; Hedges, S.; Hertzbach, S.S.; Hildreth, M.D.; Huber, J.; Huffer, M.E.; Hughes, E.W.; Hwang, H.; Iwasaki, Y.; Jacques, P.; Jaros, J.; Johnson, A.S.; Johnson, J.R.; Johnson, R.A.; Junk, T.; Kajikawa, R.; Kalelkar, M.; Karliner, I.; Kawahara, H.; Kendall, H.W.; Kim, Y.; King, M.E.; King, R.; Kofler, R.R.; Krishna, N.M.; Kroeger, R.S.; Labs, J.F.; Langston, M.; Lath, A.; Lauber, J.A.; Leith, D.W.G.; Liu, X.; Loreti, M.; Lu, A.; Lynch, H.L.; Ma, J.; Mancinelli, G.; Manly, S.; Mantovani, G.; Markiewicz, T.W.; Maruyama, T.; Massetti, R.; Masuda, H.; Mazzucato, E.; McKemey, A.K.; Meadows, B.T.; Messner, R.; Mockett, P.M.; Moffeit, K.C.; Mours, B.; Mueller, G.; Muller, D.; Nagamine, T.; Nauenberg, U.; Neal, H.; Nussbaum, M.; Ohnishi, Y.; Osborne, L.S.; Panvini, R.S.; Park, H.; Pavel, T.J.; Peruzzi, I.; Pescara, L.; Piccolo, M.; Piemontese, L.; Pieroni, E.; Pitts, K.T.; Plano, R.J.; Prepost, R.; Prescott, C.Y.; Punkar, G.D.; Quigley, J.; Ratcliff, B.N.; Reeves, T.W.; Rensing, P.E.; Rochester, L.S.; Rothberg, J.E.; Rowson, P.C.; Russell, J.J.; Saxton, O.H.; Schalk, T.

    1995-01-01

    We have searched for signatures of polarization in hadronic jets from Z 0 →q bar q decays using the ''jet handedness'' method. The polar angle asymmetry induced by the high SLAC Linear Collider electron-beam polarization was used to separate quark jets from antiquark jets, expected to be left and right polarized, respectively. We find no evidence for jet handedness in our global sample or in a sample of light quark jets, and we set upper limits at the 95% C.L. of 0.063 and 0.099, respectively, on the magnitude of the analyzing power of the method proposed by Efremov et al

  1. Handedness helps homing in swimming and flying animals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bandyopadhyay, Promode R; Leinhos, Henry A; Hellum, Aren M

    2013-01-01

    Swimming and flying animals rely on their ability to home on mobile targets. In some fish, physiological handedness and homing correlate, and dolphins exhibit handedness in their listening response. Here, we explore theoretically whether the actuators, sensors, and controllers in these animals follow similar laws of self-regulation, and how handedness affects homing. We find that the acoustic sensor (combined hydrophone-accelerometer) response maps are similar to fin force maps-modeled by Stuart-Landau oscillators-allowing localization by transitional vortex-propelled animals. The planar trajectories of bats in a room filled with obstacles are approximately reproduced by the states of a pair of strong and weak olivo-cerebellar oscillators. The stereoscopy of handedness reduces ambiguity near a mobile target, resulting in accelerated homing compared to even-handedness. Our results demonstrate how vortex-propelled animals may be localizing each other and circumventing obstacles in changing environments. Handedness could be useful in time-critical robot-assisted rescues in hazardous environments.

  2. Intra-hemispheric intrinsic connectivity asymmetry and its relationships with handedness and language Lateralization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Joliot, M; Tzourio-Mazoyer, N; Mazoyer, B

    2016-12-01

    Asymmetry in intra-hemispheric intrinsic connectivity, and its association with handedness and hemispheric dominance for language, were investigated in a sample of 290 healthy volunteers enriched in left-handers (52.7%). From the resting-state FMRI data of each participant, we derived an intra-hemispheric intrinsic connectivity asymmetry (HICA) matrix as the difference between the left and right intra-hemispheric matrices of intrinsic correlation computed for each pair of the AICHA atlas ROIs. We defined a similarity measure between the HICA matrices of two individuals as the correlation coefficient of their corresponding elements, and computed for each individual an index of intra-hemispheric intrinsic connectivity asymmetry as the average similarity measure of his HICA matrix to those of the other subjects of the sample (HICAs). Gaussian-mixture modeling of the age-corrected HICAs sample distribution revealed that two types of HICA patterns were present, one (Typical_HICA) including 92.4% of the participants while the other (Atypical_HICA) included only 7.6% of them, mostly left-handers. In addition, we investigated the relationship between asymmetry in intra-hemispheric intrinsic connectivity and language hemispheric dominance, including a potential effect of handedness on this relationship, thanks to an FMRI acquisition during language production from which an hemispheric functional lateralization index for language (HFLI) and a type of hemispheric dominance for language, namely leftward, ambilateral, or rightward, were derived for each individual. There was a significant association between the types of language hemispheric dominance and of intra-hemispheric intrinsic connectivity asymmetry, occurrence of Atypical_HICAs individuals being very high in the group of individuals rightward-lateralized for language (80%), reduced in the ambilateral group (19%) and rare in individuals leftward-lateralized for language (less than 3%). Quantitatively, we found a

  3. Relationships between hand laterality and verbal and spatial skills in 436 healthy adults balanced for handedness.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mellet, E; Jobard, G; Zago, L; Crivello, F; Petit, L; Joliot, M; Mazoyer, B; Tzourio-Mazoyer, N

    2014-01-01

    The relationship between manual laterality and cognitive skills remains highly controversial. Some studies have reported that strongly lateralised participants had higher cognitive performance in verbal and visuo-spatial domains compared to non-lateralised participants; however, others found the opposite. Moreover, some have suggested that familial sinistrality and sex might interact with individual laterality factors to alter cognitive skills. The present study addressed these issues in 237 right-handed and 199 left-handed individuals. Performance tests covered various aspects of verbal and spatial cognition. A principal component analysis yielded two verbal and one spatial factor scores. Participant laterality assessments included handedness, manual preference strength, asymmetry of motor performance, and familial sinistrality. Age, sex, education level, and brain volume were also considered. No effect of handedness was found, but the mean factor scores in verbal and spatial domains increased with right asymmetry in motor performance. Performance was reduced in participants with a familial history of left-handedness combined with a non-maximal preference strength in the dominant hand. These results elucidated some discrepancies among previous findings in laterality factors and cognitive skills. Laterality factors had small effects compared to the adverse effects of age for spatial cognition and verbal memory, the positive effects of education for all three domains, and the effect of sex for spatial cognition.

  4. On the use (and misuse?) of the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Edlin, James M; Leppanen, Marcus L; Fain, Robin J; Hackländer, Ryan P; Hanaver-Torrez, Shelley D; Lyle, Keith B

    2015-03-01

    Researchers who study human cognition and behavior, especially from a neuroscience perspective, often measure subjects' handedness. The most common measure of handedness is the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory (EHI; Oldfield, 1971). Several potential problems with the EHI have been identified during its long history. We informally observed that individual researchers have adopted a variety of modified versions of the EHI, each addressing perceived shortcomings in its own way. To confirm this, we reviewed 899 articles reporting usage of the EHI from 1998 to 2012. For those articles reporting details of the instrument used, we coded information about test items, response format, and scheme for classifying individuals as right-handed. We found tremendous diversity in all three components of the inventory, confirming that many variants of the EHI are used in contemporary research. We furthermore report evidence that researchers who use variants may be unaware that they are not using the original instrument. Variant usage appears to be largely ad hoc and lacking any semblance of uniformity within the scientific community. We discuss how highly variable usage of the EHI may imperil efforts to produce replicable and convergent research findings, and we offer recommendations for future action. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  5. Gaussian mixture modeling of hemispheric lateralization for language in a large sample of healthy individuals balanced for handedness.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mazoyer, Bernard; Zago, Laure; Jobard, Gaël; Crivello, Fabrice; Joliot, Marc; Perchey, Guy; Mellet, Emmanuel; Petit, Laurent; Tzourio-Mazoyer, Nathalie

    2014-01-01

    Hemispheric lateralization for language production and its relationships with manual preference and manual preference strength were studied in a sample of 297 subjects, including 153 left-handers (LH). A hemispheric functional lateralization index (HFLI) for language was derived from fMRI acquired during a covert sentence generation task as compared with a covert word list recitation. The multimodal HFLI distribution was optimally modeled using a mixture of 3 and 4 Gaussian functions in right-handers (RH) and LH, respectively. Gaussian function parameters helped to define 3 types of language hemispheric lateralization, namely "Typical" (left hemisphere dominance with clear positive HFLI values, 88% of RH, 78% of LH), "Ambilateral" (no dominant hemisphere with HFLI values close to 0, 12% of RH, 15% of LH) and "Strongly-atypical" (right-hemisphere dominance with clear negative HFLI values, 7% of LH). Concordance between dominant hemispheres for hand and for language did not exceed chance level, and most of the association between handedness and language lateralization was explained by the fact that all Strongly-atypical individuals were left-handed. Similarly, most of the relationship between language lateralization and manual preference strength was explained by the fact that Strongly-atypical individuals exhibited a strong preference for their left hand. These results indicate that concordance of hemispheric dominance for hand and for language occurs barely above the chance level, except in a group of rare individuals (less than 1% in the general population) who exhibit strong right hemisphere dominance for both language and their preferred hand. They call for a revisit of models hypothesizing common determinants for handedness and for language dominance.

  6. Gaussian mixture modeling of hemispheric lateralization for language in a large sample of healthy individuals balanced for handedness.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bernard Mazoyer

    Full Text Available Hemispheric lateralization for language production and its relationships with manual preference and manual preference strength were studied in a sample of 297 subjects, including 153 left-handers (LH. A hemispheric functional lateralization index (HFLI for language was derived from fMRI acquired during a covert sentence generation task as compared with a covert word list recitation. The multimodal HFLI distribution was optimally modeled using a mixture of 3 and 4 Gaussian functions in right-handers (RH and LH, respectively. Gaussian function parameters helped to define 3 types of language hemispheric lateralization, namely "Typical" (left hemisphere dominance with clear positive HFLI values, 88% of RH, 78% of LH, "Ambilateral" (no dominant hemisphere with HFLI values close to 0, 12% of RH, 15% of LH and "Strongly-atypical" (right-hemisphere dominance with clear negative HFLI values, 7% of LH. Concordance between dominant hemispheres for hand and for language did not exceed chance level, and most of the association between handedness and language lateralization was explained by the fact that all Strongly-atypical individuals were left-handed. Similarly, most of the relationship between language lateralization and manual preference strength was explained by the fact that Strongly-atypical individuals exhibited a strong preference for their left hand. These results indicate that concordance of hemispheric dominance for hand and for language occurs barely above the chance level, except in a group of rare individuals (less than 1% in the general population who exhibit strong right hemisphere dominance for both language and their preferred hand. They call for a revisit of models hypothesizing common determinants for handedness and for language dominance.

  7. Right-handed fossil humans.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lozano, Marina; Estalrrich, Almudena; Bondioli, Luca; Fiore, Ivana; Bermúdez de Castro, José-Maria; Arsuaga, Juan Luis; Carbonell, Eudald; Rosas, Antonio; Frayer, David W

    2017-11-01

    Fossil hominids often processed material held between their upper and lower teeth. Pulling with one hand and cutting with the other, they occasionally left impact cut marks on the lip (labial) surface of their incisors and canines. From these actions, it possible to determine the dominant hand used. The frequency of these oblique striations in an array of fossil hominins documents the typically modern pattern of 9 right- to 1 left-hander. This ratio among living Homo sapiens differs from that among chimpanzees and bonobos and more distant primate relatives. Together, all studies of living people affirm that dominant right-handedness is a uniquely modern human trait. The same pattern extends deep into our past. Thus far, the majority of inferred right-handed fossils come from Europe, but a single maxilla from a Homo habilis, OH-65, shows a predominance of right oblique scratches, thus extending right-handedness into the early Pleistocene of Africa. Other studies show right-handedness in more recent African, Chinese, and Levantine fossils, but the sample compiled for non-European fossil specimens remains small. Fossil specimens from Sima del los Huesos and a variety of European Neandertal sites are predominately right-handed. We argue the 9:1 handedness ratio in Neandertals and the earlier inhabitants of Europe constitutes evidence for a modern pattern of handedness well before the appearance of modern Homo sapiens. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  8. Higher Prevalence of Left-Handedness in Twins? Not After Controlling Birth Time Confounders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heikkilä, Kauko; Vuoksimaa, Eero; Saari-Kemppainen, Aulikki; Kaprio, Jaakko; Rose, Richard J; Haukka, Jari; Pitkäniemi, Janne; Iivanainen, Matti

    2015-10-01

    Pregnancy- and birth-related factors may have an effect on handedness. Compared with singletons, twins have a lower birth weight, shorter gestational age, and are at higher risk for birth complications. We tested whether the prevalence of left-handedness is higher among twins than singletons, and if so, whether that difference is fully explained by pregnancy and birth-related differences between twins and singletons. We analyzed Finnish population-based datasets; included were 8,786 twins and 5,892 singletons with information on birth weight (n = 12,381), Apgar scores (n = 11,129), and gestational age (n = 11,811). Two twin cohorts were involved: FinnTwin12 included twins born during 1983-1987, and FinnTwin16 included twins born during 1974-1979. We had two comparison groups of singletons: 4,101 individuals born during 1986-1988 and enrolled in the Helsinki Ultrasound Trial, and 1,791 individuals who were partners of FinnTwin16 twins. We used logistic regression models with writing hand as the outcome for comparison and evaluating effects of covariates. Left-handedness was more common in twins (9.67%) than in singletons (8.27%; p = .004). However, Apgar scores were associated with handedness, and after controlling for covariates, we found no difference in the prevalence of left-handedness between twins and singletons. Increased left-handedness among twins, often reported by others, was evident in our data, but only among our older twin cohorts, and that association disappeared after removing effects of perinatal covariates.

  9. Effects of stimulation intensity, gender and handedness upon auditory evoked potentials

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Susana Camposano

    1992-03-01

    Full Text Available Left handers and women show less anatomical brain asymmetry, larger corpus callosum and more bilateral representation of specific functions. Sensory and cognitive components of cortical auditory evoked potentials (AEF have been shown to be asymmetric in right handed males and to be influenced by stimulus intensity. In this study the influence of sex, handedness and stimulus intensity upon AEP components is investigated under basal conditions of passive attention. 14 right handed males, 14 right handed females, 14 left handed males, and 14 left handed females were studied while lying awake and paying passive attention to auditory stimulation (series of 100 binaural clicks, duration 1 msec, rate 1/sec, at four intensities. Cz, C3 and C4 referenced to linked mastoids and right EOG were recorded. Analysis time was 400 msec, average evoked potentials were based on 100 clicks. Stimulus intensity and gender affect early sensory components (P1N1 and N1P2 at central leads, asymmetry is influenced only by handedness, right handers showing larger P1N1 amplitudes over the right hemisphere.

  10. Interaction Effect between Handedness and CNTNAP2 Polymorphism (rs7794745 genotype on Voice-specific Frontotemporal Activity in Healthy Individuals: An fMRI Study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michihiko eKoeda

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available Recent neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that Contactin-associated protein-like2 (CNTNAP2 polymorphisms affect left-hemispheric function of language processing in healthy individuals, but no study has investigated the influence of these polymorphisms on right-hemispheric function involved in human voice perception. Further, although recent reports suggest that determination of handedness is influenced by genetic effect, the interaction effect between handedness and CNTNAP2 polymorphisms for brain activity in human voice perception and language processing has not been revealed. We aimed to investigate the interaction effect of handedness and CNTNAP2 polymorphisms in respect to brain function for human voice perception and language processing in healthy individuals. Brain function of 108 healthy volunteers (74 right-handed and 34 non-right-handed was examined while they were passively listening to reverse sentences (rSEN, identifiable non-vocal sounds (SND, and sentences (SEN. Full factorial design analysis was calculated by using three factors: 1 rs7794745 (A/A or A/T, 2 rs2710102 (G/G or A carrier (A/G and A/A, and 3 voice-specific response (rSEN or SND. The main effect of rs7794745 (A/A or A/T was significantly revealed at the right middle frontal gyrus (MFG and bilateral superior temporal gyrus (STG. This result suggests that rs7794745 genotype affects voice-specific brain function. Furthermore, interaction effect was significantly observed among MFG-STG activations by human voice perception, rs7794745 (A/A or A/T, and handedness. These results suggest that CNTNAP2 polymorphisms could be one of the important factors in the neural development related to vocal communication and language processing in both right-handed and non-right-handed healthy individuals.

  11. Handedness and dominant side of symptoms in Parkinson's disease

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van der Hoorn, Anouk; Bartels, Anna L.; Leenders, Klaus L.; de Jong, Bauke M.

    The aim of this retrospective study was to assess the presence of a possible association between handedness and the side of symptom dominance in 963 patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). In only 287 patients the hand dominance was registered. Out of 254 right-handed patients, 158 (62%) had a

  12. Manual lateralization in macaques: handedness, target laterality and task complexity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Regaiolli, Barbara; Spiezio, Caterina; Vallortigara, Giorgio

    2016-01-01

    Non-human primates represent models to understand the evolution of handedness in humans. Despite several researches have been investigating non-human primates handedness, few studies examined the relationship between target position, hand preference and task complexity. This study aimed at investigating macaque handedness in relation to target laterality and tastiness, as well as task complexity. Seven pig-tailed macaques (Macaca nemestrina) were involved in three different "two alternative choice" tests: one low-level task and two high-level tasks (HLTs). During the first and the third tests macaques could select a preferred food and a non-preferred food, whereas by modifying the design of the second test, macaques were presented with no-difference alternative per trial. Furthermore, a simple-reaching test was administered to assess hand preference in a social context. Macaques showed hand preference at individual level both in simple and complex tasks, but not in the simple-reaching test. Moreover, target position seemed to affect hand preference in retrieving an object in the low-level task, but not in the HLT. Additionally, individual hand preference seemed to be affected from the tastiness of the item to be retrieved. The results suggest that both target laterality and individual motivation might influence hand preference of macaques, especially in simple tasks.

  13. Factoring handedness data: II. Geschwind's multidimensional hypothesis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Messinger, H B; Messinger, M I

    1996-06-01

    The challenge in this journal by Peters and Murphy to the validity of two published factor analyses of handedness data because of bimodality was dealt with in Part I by identifying measures to normalize the handedness item distributions. A new survey using Oldfield's questionnaire format had 38 bell-shaped (unimodal) handedness-item distributions and 11 that were only marginally bimodal out of the 55 items used in Geschwind's 1986 study. Yet they were still non-normal and the factor analysis was unsatisfactory; bimodality is not the only problem. By choosing a transformation for each item that was optimal as assessed by D'Agostino's K2 statistic, all but two items could be normalized. Seven factors were derived that showed high congruence between maximum likelihood and principal components extractions before and after varimax rotation. Geschwind's assertion that handedness is not unidimensional is therefore supported.

  14. "Sex differences in left-handedness: A meta-analysis of 144 studies": Correction to Papadatou-Pastou et al. (2008).

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-10-01

    Reports an error in "Sex differences in left-handedness: A meta-analysis of 144 studies" by Marietta Papadatou-Pastou, Maryanne Martin, Marcus R. Munafò and Gregory V. Jones ( Psychological Bulletin , 2008[Sep], Vol 134[5], 677-699). In the article the statistical evidence is weaker than reported for the moderating effect of writing hand compared to all the other instruments (reported finding: Q (1) = 8.36, p = .02; corrected finding: Q (1) = 3.17, p = .075). While the statistical evidence is thus somewhat weaker on this particular point, the broad conclusions of the article remain unchanged. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2008-11487-004.) Human handedness, a marker for language lateralization in the brain, continues to attract great research interest. A widely reported but not universal finding is a greater male tendency toward left-handedness. Here the authors present a meta-analysis of k = 144 studies, totaling N = 1,787,629 participants, the results of which demonstrate that the sex difference is both significant and robust. The overall best estimate for the male to female odds ratio was 1.23 (95% confidence interval = 1.19, 1.27). The widespread observation of this sex difference is consistent with it being related to innate characteristics of sexual differentiation, and its observed magnitude places an important constraint on current theories of handedness. In addition, the size of the sex difference was significantly moderated by the way in which handedness was assessed (by writing hand or by other means), the location of testing, and the year of publication of the study, implicating additional influences on its development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

  15. A snail-eating snake recognizes prey handedness.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Danaisawadi, Patchara; Asami, Takahiro; Ota, Hidetoshi; Sutcharit, Chirasak; Panha, Somsak

    2016-04-05

    Specialized predator-prey interactions can be a driving force for their coevolution. Southeast Asian snail-eating snakes (Pareas) have more teeth on the right mandible and specialize in predation on the clockwise-coiled (dextral) majority in shelled snails by soft-body extraction. Snails have countered the snakes' dextral-predation by recurrent coil reversal, which generates diverse counterclockwise-coiled (sinistral) prey where Pareas snakes live. However, whether the snake predator in turn evolves any response to prey reversal is unknown. We show that Pareas carinatus living with abundant sinistrals avoids approaching or striking at a sinistral that is more difficult and costly to handle than a dextral. Whenever it strikes, however, the snake succeeds in predation by handling dextral and sinistral prey in reverse. In contrast, P. iwasakii with little access to sinistrals on small peripheral islands attempts and frequently misses capturing a given sinistral. Prey-handedness recognition should be advantageous for right-handed snail-eating snakes where frequently encountering sinistrals. Under dextral-predation by Pareas snakes, adaptive fixation of a prey population for a reversal gene instantaneously generates a sinistral species because interchiral mating is rarely possible. The novel warning, instead of sheltering, effect of sinistrality benefitting both predators and prey could further accelerate single-gene ecological speciation by left-right reversal.

  16. Location of the handedness gene on the X and Y chromosomes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Corballis, M.C.; Lee, K. [Univ. of Auckland (New Zealand); McManus, I.C. [Univ. College London (United Kingdom); Crow, T.J. [Warneford Hospital, Oxford (United Kingdom)

    1996-02-16

    Accumulated data from five handedness surveys show that concordance for sex is slightly but reliably higher among siblings of the same handedness than among those of opposite handedness. This is consistent with Crow`s theory that the genetic locus for handedness is in an X-Y homologous region of the sex chromosomes. The small size of the effect is predicted from genetic models in which there is a substantial random component underlying phenotypic left handedness. The findings are relevant to the putative role of cerebral asymmetry in the aetiology of psychosis. 15 refs., 3 tabs.

  17. The Genetics of Asymmetry: Whole Exome Sequencing in a Consanguineous Turkish Family with an Overrepresentation of Left-Handedness

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sebastian Ocklenburg

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available Handedness is the most pronounced behavioral asymmetry in humans. Genome-wide association studies have largely failed to identify genetic loci associated with phenotypic variance in handedness, supporting the idea that the trait is determined by a multitude of small, possibly interacting genetic and non-genetic influences. However, these studies typically are not capable of detecting influences of rare mutations on handedness. Here, we used whole exome sequencing in a Turkish family with history of consanguinity and overrepresentation of left-handedness and performed quantitative trait analysis with handedness lateralization quotient as a phenotype. While rare variants on different loci showed significant association with the phenotype, none was functionally relevant for handedness. This finding was further confirmed by gene ontology group analysis. Taken together, our results add further evidence to the suggestion that there is no major gene or mutation that causes left-handedness.

  18. Individual Differences in Verbal and Spatial Stroop Tasks: Interactive Role of Handedness and Domain

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mariagrazia Capizzi

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available A longstanding debate in psychology concerns the relation between handedness and cognitive functioning. The present study aimed to contribute to this debate by comparing performance of right- and non-right-handers on verbal and spatial Stroop tasks. Previous studies have shown that non-right-handers have better inter-hemispheric interaction and greater access to right hemisphere processes. On this ground, we expected performance of right- and non-right-handers to differ on verbal and spatial Stroop tasks. Specifically, relative to right-handers, non-right-handers should have greater Stroop effect in the color-word Stroop task, for which inter-hemispheric interaction does not seem to be advantageous to performance. By contrast, non-right-handers should be better able to overcome interference in the spatial Stroop task. This is for their preferential access to the right hemisphere dealing with spatial material and their greater inter-hemispheric interaction with the left hemisphere hosting Stroop task processes. Our results confirmed these predictions, showing that handedness and the underlying brain asymmetries may be a useful variable to partly explain individual differences in executive functions.

  19. Voxel-wise grey matter asymmetry analysis in left- and right-handers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ocklenburg, Sebastian; Friedrich, Patrick; Güntürkün, Onur; Genç, Erhan

    2016-10-28

    Handedness is thought to originate in the brain, but identifying its structural correlates in the cortex has yielded surprisingly incoherent results. One idea proclaimed by several authors is that structural grey matter asymmetries might underlie handedness. While some authors have found significant associations with handedness in different brain areas (e.g. in the central sulcus and precentral sulcus), others have failed to identify such associations. One method used by many researchers to determine structural grey matter asymmetries is voxel based morphometry (VBM). However, it has recently been suggested that the standard VBM protocol might not be ideal to assess structural grey matter asymmetries, as it establishes accurate voxel-wise correspondence across individuals but not across both hemispheres. This could potentially lead to biased and incoherent results. Recently, a new toolbox specifically geared at assessing structural asymmetries and involving accurate voxel-wise correspondence across hemispheres has been published [F. Kurth, C. Gaser, E. Luders. A 12-step user guide for analyzing voxel-wise gray matter asymmetries in statistical parametric mapping (SPM), Nat Protoc 10 (2015), 293-304]. Here, we used this new toolbox to re-assess grey matter asymmetry differences in left- vs. right-handers and linked them to quantitative measures of hand preference and hand skill. While we identified several significant left-right asymmetries in the overall sample, no difference between left- and right-handers reached significance after correction for multiple comparisons. These findings indicate that the structural brain correlates of handedness are unlikely to be rooted in macroscopic grey matter area differences that can be assessed with VBM. Future studies should focus on other potential structural correlates of handedness, e.g. structural white matter asymmetries. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. Handedness is a biomarker of variation in anal sex role behavior and Recalled Childhood Gender Nonconformity among gay men.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Swift-Gallant, Ashlyn; Coome, Lindsay A; Monks, D Ashley; VanderLaan, Doug P

    2017-01-01

    Developmental theories of the biological basis of sexual orientation suggest that sexually differentiated psychological and behavioural traits should be linked with sexual orientation. Subgroups of gay men delineated by anal sex roles differ according to at least one such trait: gender expression. The present study assessed the hypothesis that handedness, a biologically determined sexually differentiated trait, corresponds to differences in subgroups of gay men based on anal sex role. Furthermore, it assessed whether handedness mediates the association between gender nonconformity and male sexual orientation. Straight and gay men (N = 333) completed the Edinburgh Inventory of Handedness and the Recalled Childhood Gender Nonconformity Scale. Gay men also completed measures of anal sex role preference. As in previous studies, gay men showed greater non-right-handedness and gender nonconformity than straight men. Also, among gay men, bottoms/versatiles (i.e., gay men who take a receptive anal sex role, or who take on both a receptive and insertive anal sex role) were more gender-nonconforming than tops (i.e., gay men who take an insertive anal sex role). In support of the hypothesis, bottoms/versatiles were more non-right-handed than tops and handedness mediated the male sexual orientation and anal sex role differences in Recalled Childhood Gender Nonconformity. Together, these findings suggest that developmental processes linked to handedness underpin variation among men in sexual orientation and gender nonconformity as well as variation among subgroups of gay men that are delineated by anal sex roles.

  1. Handedness is a biomarker of variation in anal sex role behavior and Recalled Childhood Gender Nonconformity among gay men.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ashlyn Swift-Gallant

    Full Text Available Developmental theories of the biological basis of sexual orientation suggest that sexually differentiated psychological and behavioural traits should be linked with sexual orientation. Subgroups of gay men delineated by anal sex roles differ according to at least one such trait: gender expression. The present study assessed the hypothesis that handedness, a biologically determined sexually differentiated trait, corresponds to differences in subgroups of gay men based on anal sex role. Furthermore, it assessed whether handedness mediates the association between gender nonconformity and male sexual orientation. Straight and gay men (N = 333 completed the Edinburgh Inventory of Handedness and the Recalled Childhood Gender Nonconformity Scale. Gay men also completed measures of anal sex role preference. As in previous studies, gay men showed greater non-right-handedness and gender nonconformity than straight men. Also, among gay men, bottoms/versatiles (i.e., gay men who take a receptive anal sex role, or who take on both a receptive and insertive anal sex role were more gender-nonconforming than tops (i.e., gay men who take an insertive anal sex role. In support of the hypothesis, bottoms/versatiles were more non-right-handed than tops and handedness mediated the male sexual orientation and anal sex role differences in Recalled Childhood Gender Nonconformity. Together, these findings suggest that developmental processes linked to handedness underpin variation among men in sexual orientation and gender nonconformity as well as variation among subgroups of gay men that are delineated by anal sex roles.

  2. Handedness is a biomarker of variation in anal sex role behavior and Recalled Childhood Gender Nonconformity among gay men

    Science.gov (United States)

    Swift-Gallant, Ashlyn; Coome, Lindsay A.; Monks, D. Ashley; VanderLaan, Doug P.

    2017-01-01

    Developmental theories of the biological basis of sexual orientation suggest that sexually differentiated psychological and behavioural traits should be linked with sexual orientation. Subgroups of gay men delineated by anal sex roles differ according to at least one such trait: gender expression. The present study assessed the hypothesis that handedness, a biologically determined sexually differentiated trait, corresponds to differences in subgroups of gay men based on anal sex role. Furthermore, it assessed whether handedness mediates the association between gender nonconformity and male sexual orientation. Straight and gay men (N = 333) completed the Edinburgh Inventory of Handedness and the Recalled Childhood Gender Nonconformity Scale. Gay men also completed measures of anal sex role preference. As in previous studies, gay men showed greater non-right-handedness and gender nonconformity than straight men. Also, among gay men, bottoms/versatiles (i.e., gay men who take a receptive anal sex role, or who take on both a receptive and insertive anal sex role) were more gender-nonconforming than tops (i.e., gay men who take an insertive anal sex role). In support of the hypothesis, bottoms/versatiles were more non-right-handed than tops and handedness mediated the male sexual orientation and anal sex role differences in Recalled Childhood Gender Nonconformity. Together, these findings suggest that developmental processes linked to handedness underpin variation among men in sexual orientation and gender nonconformity as well as variation among subgroups of gay men that are delineated by anal sex roles. PMID:28234947

  3. Degree of handedness and priming: Further evidence for a distinction between production and identification priming mechanisms.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Donna J. LaVoie

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available The distinction between implicit and explicit forms of memory retrieval is long-standing, and important to the extent it reveals how different neural architecture supports different aspects of memory function. Similarly, distinctions have been made between kinds of repetition priming, a form of implicit memory retrieval. This study focuses on the production-identification priming distinction, which delineates priming tasks involving verification of stimulus features as compared to priming tasks that require use of a cue to guide response retrieval. Studies investigating this dissociation in dementia or similar patient populations indicate that these forms of priming may differ in their neural bases. The current study looks at degree of handedness as a way of investigating inferred neural architecture supporting these two forms of priming. A growing body of research indicates that degree of handedness (consistent, or CH, versus inconsistent, or ICH is associated with greater interhemispheric interaction and functional access to right hemisphere processing in ICH, with superior performance seen in ICH on memory tasks reliant on this processing. Arguments about the theoretical mechanisms underlying identification and production forms of perceptual priming tasks suggest that performance on these tasks will differ as a function of degree of handedness. We tested this question in a group of CH and ICH young adults, who were asked to study lists of words prior to performing a production priming task (word stem completion, a perceptual word identification task, and a word stem cued recall task. While both handedness groups exhibited reliable priming across tasks, word stem completion priming was greater in ICH than CH participants, with identification priming not differing between groups. This dissociation supports the argument that production and identification forms of priming have different underlying neural bases.

  4. Biological markers of asexuality: Handedness, birth order, and finger length ratios in self-identified asexual men and women.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yule, Morag A; Brotto, Lori A; Gorzalka, Boris B

    2014-02-01

    Human asexuality is defined as a lack of sexual attraction to anyone or anything and it has been suggested that it may be best conceptualized as a sexual orientation. Non-right-handedness, fraternal birth order, and finger length ratio (2D:4D) are early neurodevelopmental markers associated with sexual orientation. We conducted an Internet study investigating the relationship between self-identification as asexual, handedness, number of older siblings, and self-measured finger-lengths in comparison to individuals of other sexual orientation groups. A total of 325 asexuals (60 men and 265 women; M age, 24.8 years), 690 heterosexuals (190 men and 500 women; M age, 23.5 years), and 268 non-heterosexuals (homosexual and bisexual; 64 men and 204 women; M age, 29.0 years) completed online questionnaires. Asexual men and women were 2.4 and 2.5 times, respectively, more likely to be non-right-handed than their heterosexual counterparts and there were significant differences between sexual orientation groups in number of older brothers and older sisters, and this depended on handedness. Asexual and non-heterosexual men were more likely to be later-born than heterosexual men, and asexual women were more likely to be earlier-born than non-heterosexual women. We found no significant differences between sexual orientation groups on measurements of 2D:4D ratio. This is one of the first studies to test and provide preliminary empirical support for an underlying neurodevelopmental basis to account for the lack of sexual attraction characteristic of asexuality.

  5. Handedness and gender influence blood pressure in young healthy men and women: A pilot study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rueda I

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Objective. The type and level of sex steroids influence blood pressure (BP. It has been suggested that functional brain asymmetries may be influenced by sex hormones. In addition, there are inter-arm differences in BP not yet related with handedness. In this study, we hypothesize a possible association between sex hormones, handedness, and inter-arm differences in blood pressure.

  6. Relationships among childhood sex-atypical behavior, spatial ability, handedness, and sexual orientation in men.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cohen, Kenneth M

    2002-02-01

    Moderate support was obtained in a sample of 101 gay, bisexual, and heterosexual males for the perinatal hormone theory, which hypothesizes that attenuated levels of androgens during critical periods of male fetal development fail to masculinize and defeminize the brain. Affected individuals develop female-typical sexual orientation (assessed here by a pie chart) and cerebral organization, reflected in visual-spatial abilities and gender nonconformity. Handedness, also thought to reflect in utero hormone exposure, was evaluated. Gay and bisexual males reported greater femininity and lesser masculinity than heterosexuals, with bisexuals intermediate in masculinity, suggesting a common biological mediator for homoeroticism and sex atypicality. Among bisexual males, increased masculinity was related to enhanced performance on all spatial tasks. Group mean differences in spatial ability and handedness were not found; however, among bisexuals, poorer visual-spatial performance predicted increased homoeroticism and right-handedness positively correlated with all spatial tasks. If perinatal hormones contribute to a generalized feminization of the brain, the current data indicate that it is most apparent among bisexual males. Sexing of their brains may involve several sexually dimorphic regions that are related in a continuous manner. Inferred cerebral feminization was more circumscribed among gay and heterosexual males, for whom childhood sex atypicality was most highly-distinguishing. Unspecified mechanisms responsible for homoeroticism in them may differ from those that produce same-sex attractions in bisexuals and thus have relatively little impact on other components of cerebral feminization.

  7. Asymmetric hearing loss in a random population of patients with mild to moderate sensorineural hearing loss.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Segal, Nili; Shkolnik, Mark; Kochba, Anat; Segal, Avichai; Kraus, Mordechai

    2007-01-01

    We evaluated the correlation of asymmetric hearing loss, in a random population of patients with mild to moderate sensorineural hearing loss, to several clinical factors such as age, sex, handedness, and noise exposure. We randomly selected, from 8 hearing institutes in Israel, 429 patients with sensorineural hearing loss of at least 30 dB at one frequency and a speech reception threshold not exceeding 30 dB. Patients with middle ear disease or retrocochlear disorders were excluded. The results of audiometric examinations were compared binaurally and in relation to the selected factors. The left ear's hearing threshold level was significantly higher than that of the right ear at all frequencies except 1.0 kHz (p < .05). One hundred fifty patients (35%) had asymmetric hearing loss (more than 10 dB difference between ears). In most of the patients (85%) the binaural difference in hearing threshold level, at any frequency, was less than 20 dB. Age, handedness, and sex were not found to be correlated to asymmetric hearing loss. Noise exposure was found to be correlated to asymmetric hearing loss.

  8. Is a maturational lag associated with left-handedness? A research note.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eaton, W O; Chipperfield, J G; Ritchot, K F; Kostiuk, J H

    1996-07-01

    One element of Coren and Halpern's controversial theory [Psychological Bulletin, 109, 90-106 (1991)] that left-handedness is associated with shorter lifespans is the hypothesis that sinistrality is accompanied by a developmental lag. Perinatal traumas could interfere with the normal developmental shift to right-sided lateral preferences during childhood, leading to an association between maturational lag and left-handedness. In a test of this hypothesis, we assessed current stature, predicted adult stature and relative stature, an index of physical maturity, for elementary school-aged children in three separate, large-sample studies. No relations between hand preference and the three measures of physical status were found. Repeated failures to confirm the hypothesis with pre-adolescent samples raise serious doubt about the viability of the left-handed developmental lag hypothesis.

  9. Success in Architecture: Handedness and/or Visual Thinking.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peterson, John M.; Lansky, Leonard M.

    1980-01-01

    Some data on sex and handedness in relation to academic predictors and success in architectural education were reexamined. The new variable was the notion of visual thinking, measured by the manner, "visually" or "cognitively," of executing a simple line drawing. As expected, significant differences appeared between persons using these modes.…

  10. PCSK6 is associated with handedness in individuals with dyslexia.

    OpenAIRE

    Scerri, TS; Brandler, WM; Paracchini, S; Morris, AP; Ring, SM; Richardson, AJ; Talcott, JB; Stein, J; Monaco, AP

    2011-01-01

    Approximately 90% of humans are right-handed. Handedness is a heritable trait, yet the genetic basis is not well understood. Here we report a genome-wide association study for a quantitative measure of relative hand skill in individuals with dyslexia [reading disability (RD)]. The most highly associated marker, rs11855415 (P = 4.7 x 10(-7)), is located within PCSK6. Two independent cohorts with RD show the same trend, with the minor allele conferring greater relative right-hand skill. Meta-an...

  11. The association between scalp hair-whorl direction, handedness and hemispheric language dominance: is there a common genetic basis of lateralization?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jansen, Andreas; Lohmann, Hubertus; Scharfe, Stefanie; Sehlmeyer, Christina; Deppe, Michael; Knecht, Stefan

    2007-04-01

    The hemispheres of the human brain are functionally asymmetric. The left hemisphere tends to be dominant for language and superior in the control of manual dexterity. The mechanisms underlying these asymmetries are not known. Genetic as well as environmental factors are discussed. Recently, atypical anticlockwise hair-whorl direction has been related to an increased probability for non-right-handedness and atypical hemispheric language dominance. These findings are fascinating and important since hair-whorl direction is a structural marker of lateralization and could provide a readily observable anatomical clue to functional brain lateralization. Based on data on handedness and hair-whorl direction, Amar Klar proposed a genetic model ("random-recessive model") in that a single gene with two alleles controls both handedness and hair-whorl orientation (Klar, A.J.S., 2003. Human handedness and scalp hair-whorl direction develop from a common genetic mechanism. Genetics 165, 269-276). The present study was designed to further investigate the relationship between scalp hair-whorl direction with handedness and hemispheric language dominance. 1212 subjects were investigated for scalp hair-whorl direction and handedness. Additionally, we determined hemispheric language dominance (as assessed by a word generation task) in a subgroup of 212 subjects using functional transcranial Doppler sonography (fTCD). As for the single attributes - hair-whorl direction, handedness, and language dominance - we reproduced previously published results. However, we found no association between hair-whorl direction and either language dominance or handedness. These results strongly argue against a common genetic basis of handedness or language lateralization with scalp hair-whorl direction. Inspection of hair patterns will not help us to determine language dominance.

  12. Handedness shapes children's abstract concepts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Casasanto, Daniel; Henetz, Tania

    2012-03-01

    Can children's handedness influence how they represent abstract concepts like kindness and intelligence? Here we show that from an early age, right-handers associate rightward space more strongly with positive ideas and leftward space with negative ideas, but the opposite is true for left-handers. In one experiment, children indicated where on a diagram a preferred toy and a dispreferred toy should go. Right-handers tended to assign the preferred toy to a box on the right and the dispreferred toy to a box on the left. Left-handers showed the opposite pattern. In a second experiment, children judged which of two cartoon animals looked smarter (or dumber) or nicer (or meaner). Right-handers attributed more positive qualities to animals on the right, but left-handers to animals on the left. These contrasting associations between space and valence cannot be explained by exposure to language or cultural conventions, which consistently link right with good. Rather, right- and left-handers implicitly associated positive valence more strongly with the side of space on which they can act more fluently with their dominant hands. Results support the body-specificity hypothesis (Casasanto, 2009), showing that children with different kinds of bodies think differently in corresponding ways. Copyright © 2011 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  13. Effect of initiation-inhibition and handedness on the patterns of the P50 event-related potential component: a low resolution electromagnetic tomography study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Capsalis Christos N

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Recent research recognizes the association between handedness, linguistic processes and cerebral networks subserving executive functioning, but the nature of this association remains unclear. Since the P50 event related potential (ERP is considered to reflect thalamocortical processes in association with working memory (WM operation the present study focuses on P50 patterns elicited during the performance of a linguistic related executive functioning test in right- and left-handers. Methods In 64 young adults with a high educational level (33 left-handed the P50 event-related potential was recorded while performing the initiation and inhibition condition of a modified version of the Hayling Sentence Completion test adjusted to induce WM. The manual preference of the participants was evaluated with the use of the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory (EHI. Results P50 showed greater amplitudes in left- than in right-handers, mainly in frontal leads, in the initiation condition. Reduced amplitudes in inhibition compared to initiation condition were observed in left-handers. Low Resolution Electromagnetic Tomography (LORETA analysis showed lower frontal lobe activation in the inhibition than in the initiation condition in both right- and left-handers. Also, LORETA yielded that right-handers exhibited greater activation in the inhibition condition than left-handers. Additionally, LORETA showed assymetrical hemispheric activation patterns in right-handers, in contrast to symmetrical patterns observed in left-handers. Higher P50 amplitudes were recorded in right-hemisphere of right-handers in the initiation condition. Conclusion Brain activation, especially the one closely related to thalamocortical function, elicited during WM operation involving initiation and inhibition processes appears to be related to handedness.

  14. Effects of handedness & saccadic bilateral eye movements on the specificity of past autobiographical memory & episodic future thinking.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parker, Andrew; Parkin, Adam; Dagnall, Neil

    2017-06-01

    The present research investigated the effects of personal handedness and saccadic eye movements on the specificity of past autobiographical memory and episodic future thinking. Handedness and saccadic eye movements have been hypothesised to share a common functional basis in that both influence cognition through hemispheric interaction. The technique used to elicit autobiographical memory and episodic future thought involved a cued sentence completion procedure that allowed for the production of memories spanning the highly specific to the very general. Experiment 1 found that mixed-handed (vs. right handed) individuals generated more specific past autobiographical memories, but equivalent numbers of specific future predictions. Experiment 2 demonstrated that following 30s of bilateral (horizontal) saccades, more specific cognitions about both the past and future were generated. These findings extend previous research by showing that more distinct and episodic-like information pertaining to the self can be elicited by either mixed-handedness or eye movements. The results are discussed in relation to hemispheric interaction and top-down influences in the control of memory retrieval. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  15. Left brain, right brain: facts and fantasies.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michael C Corballis

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Handedness and brain asymmetry are widely regarded as unique to humans, and associated with complementary functions such as a left-brain specialization for language and logic and a right-brain specialization for creativity and intuition. In fact, asymmetries are widespread among animals, and support the gradual evolution of asymmetrical functions such as language and tool use. Handedness and brain asymmetry are inborn and under partial genetic control, although the gene or genes responsible are not well established. Cognitive and emotional difficulties are sometimes associated with departures from the "norm" of right-handedness and left-brain language dominance, more often with the absence of these asymmetries than their reversal.

  16. Left brain, right brain: facts and fantasies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Corballis, Michael C

    2014-01-01

    Handedness and brain asymmetry are widely regarded as unique to humans, and associated with complementary functions such as a left-brain specialization for language and logic and a right-brain specialization for creativity and intuition. In fact, asymmetries are widespread among animals, and support the gradual evolution of asymmetrical functions such as language and tool use. Handedness and brain asymmetry are inborn and under partial genetic control, although the gene or genes responsible are not well established. Cognitive and emotional difficulties are sometimes associated with departures from the "norm" of right-handedness and left-brain language dominance, more often with the absence of these asymmetries than their reversal.

  17. The Relationship between Handedness and Mathematics Is Non-linear and Is Moderated by Gender, Age, and Type of Task

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sala, Giovanni; Signorelli, Michela; Barsuola, Giulia; Bolognese, Martina; Gobet, Fernand

    2017-01-01

    The relationship between handedness and mathematical ability is still highly controversial. While some researchers have claimed that left-handers are gifted in mathematics and strong right-handers perform the worst in mathematical tasks, others have more recently proposed that mixed-handers are the most disadvantaged group. However, the studies in the field differ with regard to the ages and the gender of the participants, and the type of mathematical ability assessed. To disentangle these discrepancies, we conducted five studies in several Italian schools (total participants: N = 2,314), involving students of different ages (six to seventeen) and a range of mathematical tasks (e.g., arithmetic and reasoning). The results show that (a) linear and quadratic functions are insufficient for capturing the link between handedness and mathematical ability; (b) the percentage of variance in mathematics scores explained by handedness was larger than in previous studies (between 3 and 10% vs. 1%), and (c) the effect of handedness on mathematical ability depended on age, type of mathematical tasks, and gender. In accordance with previous research, handedness does represent a correlate of achievement in mathematics, but the shape of this relationship is more complicated than has been argued so far. PMID:28649210

  18. Effects of Handedness and Saccadic Bilateral Eye Movements on Components of Autobiographical Recollection

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parker, Andrew; Dagnall, Neil

    2010-01-01

    The effects of handedness and saccadic bilateral eye movements on autobiographical recollection were investigated. Recall of autobiographical memories was cued by the use of neutral and emotional words. Autobiographical recollection was assessed by the autobiographical memory questionnaire. Experiment 1 found that mixed-handed (vs. right handed)…

  19. The contributions of handedness and working memory to episodic memory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sahu, Aparna; Christman, Stephen D; Propper, Ruth E

    2016-11-01

    Past studies have independently shown associations of working memory and degree of handedness with episodic memory retrieval. The current study takes a step ahead by examining whether handedness and working memory independently predict episodic memory. In agreement with past studies, there was an inconsistent-handed advantage for episodic memory; however, this advantage was absent for working memory tasks. Furthermore, regression analyses showed handedness, and complex working memory predicted episodic memory performance at different times. Results are discussed in light of theories of episodic memory and hemispheric interaction.

  20. Anomalous Surface Wave Launching by Handedness Phase Control

    KAUST Repository

    Zhang, Xueqian

    2015-10-09

    Anomalous launch of a surface wave with different handedness phase control is achieved in a terahertz metasurface based on phase discontinuities. The polarity of the phase profile of the surface waves is found to be strongly correlated to the polarization handedness, promising polarization-controllable wavefront shaping, polarization sensing, and environmental refractive-index sensing. © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  1. Anomalous Surface Wave Launching by Handedness Phase Control

    KAUST Repository

    Zhang, Xueqian; Xu, Yuehong; Yue, Weisheng; Tian, Zhen; Gu, Jianqiang; Li, Yanfeng; Singh, Ranjan; Zhang, Shuang; Han, Jiaguang; Zhang, Weili

    2015-01-01

    Anomalous launch of a surface wave with different handedness phase control is achieved in a terahertz metasurface based on phase discontinuities. The polarity of the phase profile of the surface waves is found to be strongly correlated to the polarization handedness, promising polarization-controllable wavefront shaping, polarization sensing, and environmental refractive-index sensing. © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  2. Your fate is in your hands? Handedness, digit ratio (2D:4D), and selection to a national talent development system.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baker, Joseph; Kungl, Ann-Marie; Pabst, Jan; Strauß, Bernd; Büsch, Dirk; Schorer, Jörg

    2013-01-01

    Over the past decade a small evidence base has highlighted the potential importance of seemingly innocuous variables related to one's hands, such as hand dominance and the relative length of the second and fourth digits (2D:4D ratio), to success in sport. This study compared 2D:4D digit ratio and handedness among handball players selected to advance in a national talent development system with those not selected. Participants included 480 youth handball players (240 females and 240 males) being considered as part of the talent selection programme for the German Youth National team. Hand dominance and digit ratio were compared to age-matched control data using standard t-tests. There was a greater proportion of left-handers compared to the normal population in males but not in females. There was also a lower digit ratio in both females and males. However, there were no differences between those selected for the next stage of talent development and those not selected on either handedness or digit ratio. These results add support for general effects for both digit ratio and handedness in elite handball; however, these factors seem inadequate to explain talent selection decisions at this level.

  3. Auditory middle latency responses differ in right- and left-handed subjects: an evaluation through topographic brain mapping.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mohebbi, Mehrnaz; Mahmoudian, Saeid; Alborzi, Marzieh Sharifian; Najafi-Koopaie, Mojtaba; Farahani, Ehsan Darestani; Farhadi, Mohammad

    2014-09-01

    To investigate the association of handedness with auditory middle latency responses (AMLRs) using topographic brain mapping by comparing amplitudes and latencies in frontocentral and hemispheric regions of interest (ROIs). The study included 44 healthy subjects with normal hearing (22 left handed and 22 right handed). AMLRs were recorded from 29 scalp electrodes in response to binaural 4-kHz tone bursts. Frontocentral ROI comparisons revealed that Pa and Pb amplitudes were significantly larger in the left-handed than the right-handed group. Topographic brain maps showed different distributions in AMLR components between the two groups. In hemispheric comparisons, Pa amplitude differed significantly across groups. A left-hemisphere emphasis of Pa was found in the right-handed group but not in the left-handed group. This study provides evidence that handedness is associated with AMLR components in frontocentral and hemispheric ROI. Handedness should be considered an essential factor in the clinical or experimental use of AMLRs.

  4. Is there any relationship between right and left hand dominance and right and left nasal airflow dominance?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Price, A; Eccles, R

    2017-10-01

    Left- or right-handedness is a common human trait, and it has been previously reported that human nasal airflow dominance correlates with hand dominance. Any relationship between hand dominance and nasal airflow dominance would be unusual. This study aimed to measure nasal airflow and look for any relationship to handedness. The modified Glatzel mirror was used to record the dominant nasal passage at 15-minute intervals over a 6-hour period in 29 healthy participants consisting of 15 left-handers and 14 right-handers. In left-handers, the percentage of time that the left nasal passage was dominant ranged from 0 to 100 per cent. In right-handers, the percentage of time that the right nasal passage was dominant ranged from 4.2 to 95.8 per cent. No correlation between nasal airflow dominance and hand dominance was identified. The results do not support the hypothesis that nasal airflow and handedness are related.

  5. THE INFLUENCE OF HANDEDNESS ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF MUSCULAR WEAKNESS OF THE ARM IN FACIOSCAPULOHUMERAL MUSCULAR-DYSTROPHY

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    BROUWER, OF; PADBERG, GW; VANDERPLOEG, RJO; RUYS, CJM; BRAND, R

    1992-01-01

    The strength of 10 muscle groups in both arms was measured using hand-held myometry to determine the influence of handedness on left-right differences of muscle strength in facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD). Two groups of subjects were studied: 24 healthy volunteers (19 right-handed),

  6. Handedness- and brain size-related efficiency differences in small-world brain networks: a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Meiling; Wang, Junping; Liu, Feng; Chen, Heng; Lu, Fengmei; Wu, Guorong; Yu, Chunshui; Chen, Huafu

    2015-05-01

    The human brain has been described as a complex network, which integrates information with high efficiency. However, the relationships between the efficiency of human brain functional networks and handedness and brain size remain unclear. Twenty-one left-handed and 32 right-handed healthy subjects underwent a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scan. The whole brain functional networks were constructed by thresholding Pearson correlation matrices of 90 cortical and subcortical regions. Graph theory-based methods were employed to further analyze their topological properties. As expected, all participants demonstrated small-world topology, suggesting a highly efficient topological structure. Furthermore, we found that smaller brains showed higher local efficiency, whereas larger brains showed higher global efficiency, reflecting a suitable efficiency balance between local specialization and global integration of brain functional activity. Compared with right-handers, significant alterations in nodal efficiency were revealed in left-handers, involving the anterior and median cingulate gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, angular gyrus, and amygdala. Our findings indicated that the functional network organization in the human brain was associated with handedness and brain size.

  7. Functional asymmetry between the left and right human fusiform gyrus explored through electrical brain stimulation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rangarajan, Vinitha; Parvizi, Josef

    2016-03-01

    The ventral temporal cortex (VTC) contains several areas with selective responses to words, numbers, faces, and objects as demonstrated by numerous human and primate imaging and electrophysiological studies. Our recent work using electrocorticography (ECoG) confirmed the presence of face-selective neuronal populations in the human fusiform gyrus (FG) in patients implanted with intracranial electrodes in either the left or right hemisphere. Electrical brain stimulation (EBS) disrupted the conscious perception of faces only when it was delivered in the right, but not left, FG. In contrast to our previous findings, here we report both negative and positive EBS effects in right and left FG, respectively. The presence of right hemisphere language dominance in the first, and strong left-handedness and poor language processing performance in the second case, provide indirect clues about the functional architecture of the human VTC in relation to hemispheric asymmetries in language processing and handedness. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. Polymorphism complexity and handedness inversion in serum albumin amyloid fibrils.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Usov, Ivan; Adamcik, Jozef; Mezzenga, Raffaele

    2013-12-23

    Protein-based amyloid fibrils can show a great variety of polymorphic structures within the same protein precursor, although the origins of these structural homologues remain poorly understood. In this work we investigate the fibrillation of bovine serum albumin--a model globular protein--and we follow the polymorphic evolution by a statistical analysis of high-resolution atomic force microscopy images, complemented, at larger length scales, by concepts based on polymer physics formalism. We identify six distinct classes of coexisting amyloid fibrils, including flexible left-handed twisted ribbons, rigid right-handed helical ribbons and nanotubes. We show that the rigid fibrils originate from flexible fibrils through two diverse polymorphic transitions, first, via a single-fibril transformation when the flexible left-handed twisted ribbons turn into the helical left-handed ribbons, to finally evolve into nanotube-like structures, and second, via a double-fibril transformation when two flexible left-handed twisted ribbons wind together resulting in a right-handed twisted ribbon, followed by a rigid right-handed helical ribbon polymorphic conformation. Hence, the change in handedness occurs with an increase in the level of the fibril's structural organization.

  9. Hand posture effects on handedness recognition as revealed by the Simon effect

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Allan P Lameira

    2009-11-01

    Full Text Available We investigated the influence of hand posture in handedness recognition, while varying the spatial correspondence between stimulus and response in a modified Simon task. Drawings of the left and right hands were displayed either in a back or palm view while participants discriminated stimulus handedness by pressing left/right keys with their hands resting either in a prone or supine posture. As a control, subjects performed a regular Simon task using simple geometric shapes as stimuli. Results showed that when hands were in a prone posture, the spatially corresponding trials (i.e., stimulus and response located on the same side were faster than the non-corresponding trials (i.e., stimulus and response on opposite sides. In contrast, for the supine posture, there was no difference between corresponding and non-corresponding trials. The control experiment with the regular Simon task showed that the posture of the responding hand had no influence on performance. When the stimulus is the drawing of a hand, however, the posture of the responding hand affects the spatial correspondence effect because response location is coded based on multiple reference points, including the body of the hand.

  10. The Handedness of Leonardo da Vinci: A Tale of the Complexities of Lateralisation

    Science.gov (United States)

    McManus, I. C.; Drury, Helena

    2004-01-01

    The handedness of Leonardo da Vinci is controversial. Although there is little doubt that many of his well-attributed drawings were drawn with the left hand, the hatch marks of the shading going downwards from left to right, it is not clear that he was a natural left-hander, there being some suggestion that he may have become left-handed as the…

  11. Long-term consequences of switching handedness: a positron emission tomography study on handwriting in "converted" left-handers.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Siebner, H.R.; Limmer, C.; Peinemann, A.; Drzezga, A.; Bloem, B.R.; Schwaiger, M.; Conrad, B.

    2002-01-01

    Until some decades ago, left-handed children who attended German schools were forced to learn to write with their right hand. To explore the long-term consequences of switching handedness, we studied the functional neuroanatomy of handwriting in 11 adult "converted" left-handers and 11 age-matched

  12. Implications of Being Left-Handed as Related To Being Right-Handed.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thomas, Jana H.

    Research indicates that there are physical and social, and possibly cognitive, differences between left-handers and right-handers. The three substantive sections of this colloquium paper cover brain functions, theories pertaining to the genesis of handedness, and cognitive development as related to handedness. Section 1 provides a brief…

  13. Birth order, sibling sex ratio, handedness, and sexual orientation of male and female participants in a BBC internet research project.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blanchard, Ray; Lippa, Richard A

    2007-04-01

    This study investigated the relations among sexual orientation, fraternal birth order (number of older brothers), and hand-preference. The participants were 87,798 men and 71,981 women who took part in a Web-based research project sponsored by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). The results yielded some evidence confirming prior findings that non-right-handedness is associated with homosexuality in men and women, that older brothers increase the odds of homosexuality in men, and that the effect of older brothers on sexual orientation is limited to right-handed men. The evidence was weaker than in previous studies, however, probably because the usual relations among the variables of interest were partially obscured by the effects of other factors. Thus, the homosexual men and women had higher rates of non-right-handedness than their heterosexual counterparts, but the strongest handedness finding for both sexes was a marked tendency for participants who described themselves as ambidextrous also to describe themselves as bisexual. The birth order data were strongly affected by a tendency for the male participants to report an excess of older sisters, and the female participants to report an excess of older brothers. Statistical analyses confirmed that this was an artifact of the parental stopping rule, "Continue having children until you have offspring of both sexes." In subsequent analyses, participants were divided into those who did and did not have younger siblings, on the grounds that the data of the former would be less contaminated by the stopping rule. In the former subsample, the right-handed homo/bisexual males showed the typical high ratio of older brothers to older sisters, whereas the non-right-handed homo/bisexual males did not.

  14. The effect of handedness on spatial and motor representation of pitch patterns in pianists.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eline Adrianne Smit

    Full Text Available This study investigated the effect of handedness on pianists' abilities to adjust their keyboard performance skills to new spatial and motor mappings. Left- and right-handed pianists practiced simple melodies on a regular MIDI piano keyboard (practice and were then asked to perform these with modified melodic contours (the same or reversed melodic contour causing a change of fingering and on a reversed MIDI piano keyboard (test. The difference of performance duration between the practice and the test phase as well as the amount of errors played were used as test measures. Overall, a stronger effect for modified melodic contours than for the reversed keyboard was observed. Furthermore, we observed a trend of left-handed pianists to be quicker and more accurate in playing melodies when reversing their fingering with reversed contours in their left-hand performances. This suggests that handedness may influence pianists' skill to adjust to new spatial and motor mappings.

  15. Orientation-Dependent Handedness and Chiral Design

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Efi Efrati

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Chirality occupies a central role in fields ranging from biological self-assembly to the design of optical metamaterials. The definition of chirality, as given by Lord Kelvin, associates chirality with the lack of mirror symmetry: the inability to superpose an object on its mirror image. While this definition has guided the classification of chiral objects for over a century, the quantification of handed phenomena based on this definition has proven elusive, if not impossible, as manifest in the paradox of chiral connectedness. In this work, we put forward a quantification scheme in which the handedness of an object depends on the direction in which it is viewed. While consistent with familiar chiral notions, such as the right-hand rule, this framework allows objects to be simultaneously right and left handed. We demonstrate this orientation dependence in three different systems—a biomimetic elastic bilayer, a chiral propeller, and optical metamaterial—and find quantitative agreement with chirality pseudotensors whose form we explicitly compute. The use of this approach resolves the existing paradoxes and naturally enables the design of handed metamaterials from symmetry principles.

  16. Psychological factors in pregnancy and mixed-handedness in the offspring

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Obel, Carsten; Hedegaard, Morten; Henriksen, Tine Brink

    2003-01-01

    Animal studies suggest that psychological factors may interfere with the development of brain asymmetry during gestation. We evaluated whether psychological exposure in pregnancy was associated with mixed-handedness in the offspring. In a follow-up design study, 824 Danish-speaking women with sin......Animal studies suggest that psychological factors may interfere with the development of brain asymmetry during gestation. We evaluated whether psychological exposure in pregnancy was associated with mixed-handedness in the offspring. In a follow-up design study, 824 Danish-speaking women...

  17. The effect of handedness on the shape of the central sulcus

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sun, Zhong Yi; Klöppel, Stefan; Rivière, Denis

    2012-01-01

    Sinistrals differ from dextrals in the size of certain cortical folds. For instance, handedness has an impact on central sulcus surface area: the sulcus is larger in the dominant left hemisphere of dextrals and vice versa for sinistrals. However, the impact of handedness on the shape of the centr...... an accumulated record of both innate biases and early developmental experience. Characterizing normal variation of cortical morphology provides a means of systematically correlating behavior with cortical development....

  18. Hemispheric specialization in affective responses, cerebral dominance for language, and handedness: Lateralization of emotion, language, and dexterity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Costanzo, Elsa Yolanda; Villarreal, Mirta; Drucaroff, Lucas Javier; Ortiz-Villafañe, Manuel; Castro, Mariana Nair; Goldschmidt, Micaela; Wainsztein, Agustina Edith; Ladrón-de-Guevara, María Soledad; Romero, Carlos; Brusco, Luis Ignacio; Camprodon, Joan A; Nemeroff, Charles; Guinjoan, Salvador Martín

    2015-07-15

    Hemispheric specialization in affective responses has received little attention in the literature. This is a fundamental variable to understand circuit dynamics of networks subserving emotion. In this study we put to test a modified "valence" hypothesis of emotion processing, considering that sadness and happiness are processed by each hemisphere in relation to dominance for language and handedness. Mood induction and language activation during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) were used in 20 right-handed and 20 nonright-handed subjects, focusing on interconnected regions known to play critical roles in affective responses: subgenual cingulate cortex, amygdala, and anterior insular cortex. We observed a consistent relationship between lateralization of affective processing, motor dexterity, and language in individuals with clear right-handedness. Sadness induces a greater activation of right-hemisphere cortical structures in right-handed, left-dominant individuals, which is not evident in nonright-handed subjects who show no consistent hemispheric dominance for language. In anterior insula, right-handed individuals displayed reciprocal activation of either hemisphere depending upon mood valence, whereas amygdala activation was predominantly left-sided regardless of mood valence. Nonright-handed individuals exhibited less consistent brain lateralization of affective processing regardless of language and motor dexterity lateralization. In contrast with traditional views on emotion processing lateralization, hemispheric specialization in affective responses is not a unitary process but is specific to the brain structure being activated. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  19. Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies among Left and Right –Handed Students: Gender and Month of Birth

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    H Zare

    2012-08-01

    Full Text Available Background & aim: Understanding the brain-behavior relationships based on gender and individual indifferences provide recommendations for more effective educational and behavioral interventions. This study was designed to compare cognitive emotion regulation strategies in left and right –handed students with the emphasis on gender and month of birth. Methods: This descriptive-comparative causal study was performed on 597 (309 girls, 288, boys high school students. Samples were chosen by cluster sampling method. Subjects completed two scales: Chapman handedness inventory and Garnefski cognitive emotion regulation strategies. Data were analyzed using t-test, Goodness of fit and Chi Square test. Results: The left handed students were reported to use rumination strategy more than right handed students, while the mean score of right handed students in refocus on planning strategy was higher than left handed students, which was statistically significant (P<0.05. Data showed that higher prevalence of left handedness in boys than girls, and results did not provide support for month of birth role on handedness. Conclusion: The results of this study provide another support for the role of lateralization in emotion regulation. The findings also have implication for designed intervention programs focused on cognitive emotion regulation strategies.

  20. Left-handedness and language lateralization in children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Szaflarski, Jerzy P; Rajagopal, Akila; Altaye, Mekibib; Byars, Anna W; Jacola, Lisa; Schmithorst, Vincent J; Schapiro, Mark B; Plante, Elena; Holland, Scott K

    2012-01-18

    This fMRI study investigated the development of language lateralization in left- and righthanded children between 5 and 18 years of age. Twenty-seven left-handed children (17 boys, 10 girls) and 54 age- and gender-matched right-handed children were included. We used functional MRI at 3T and a verb generation task to measure hemispheric language dominance based on either frontal or temporo-parietal regions of interest (ROIs) defined for the entire group and applied on an individual basis. Based on the frontal ROI, in the left-handed group, 23 participants (85%) demonstrated left-hemispheric language lateralization, 3 (11%) demonstrated symmetric activation, and 1 (4%) demonstrated right-hemispheric lateralization. In contrast, 50 (93%) of the right-handed children showed left-hemispheric lateralization and 3 (6%) demonstrated a symmetric activation pattern, while one (2%) demonstrated a right-hemispheric lateralization. The corresponding values for the temporo-parietal ROI for the left-handed children were 18 (67%) left-dominant, 6 (22%) symmetric, 3 (11%) right-dominant and for the right-handed children 49 (91%), 4 (7%), 1 (2%), respectively. Left-hemispheric language lateralization increased with age in both groups but somewhat different lateralization trajectories were observed in girls when compared to boys. The incidence of atypical language lateralization in left-handed children in this study was similar to that reported in adults. We also found similar rates of increase in left-hemispheric language lateralization with age between groups (i.e., independent of handedness) indicating the presence of similar mechanisms for language lateralization in left- and right-handed children. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  1. Stable isotopes indicate population structuring in the southwest Atlantic population of right whales (Eubalaena australis.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Morgana Vighi

    Full Text Available From the early 17th century to the 1970s southern right whales, Eubalaena australis, were subject to intense exploitation along the Atlantic coast of South America. Catches along this coast recorded by whalers originally formed a continuum from Brazil to Tierra del Fuego. Nevertheless, the recovery of the population has apparently occurred fragmentarily, and with two main areas of concentration, one off southern Brazil (Santa Catarina and another off central Argentina (Peninsula Valdés. This pattern suggests some level of heterogeneity amongst the population, which is apparently contradicted by records that traced individuals moving throughout the whole geographical extension covered by the species in the Southwest Atlantic. To test the hypothesis of the potential occurrence of discrete subpopulations exploiting specific habitats, we investigated N, C and O isotopic values in 125 bone samples obtained from whaling factories operating in the early 1970s in southern Brazil (n=72 and from contemporary and more recent strandings occurring in central Argentina (n=53. Results indicated significant differences between the two sampling areas, being δ13C and δ18O values significantly higher in samples from southern Brazil than in those from central Argentina. This variation was consistent with isotopic baselines from the two areas, indicating the occurrence of some level of structure in the Southwest Atlantic right whale population and equally that whales more likely feed in areas commonly thought to exclusively serve as nursing grounds. Results aim at reconsidering of the units currently used in the management of the southern right whale in the Southwest Atlantic Ocean. In the context of the current die-off affecting the species in Peninsula Valdés, these results also highlight the necessity to better understand movements of individuals and precisely identify their feeding areas.

  2. Inaction Inertia, the Sunk Cost Effect, and Handedness: Avoiding the Losses of Past Decisions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Westfall, Jonathan E.; Jasper, John D.; Christman, Stephen

    2012-01-01

    Strength of handedness, or the degree to which an individual prefers to use a single hand to perform various tasks, is a neurological marker for brain organization and has been shown to be linked to episodic memory, attribute framing, and anchoring, as well as other domains and tasks. The present work explores the relationship of handedness to…

  3. The handedness of historiated spiral columns.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Couzin, Robert

    2017-09-01

    Trajan's Column in Rome (AD 113) was the model for a modest number of other spiral columns decorated with figural, narrative imagery from antiquity to the present day. Most of these wind upwards to the right, often with a congruent spiral staircase within. A brief introductory consideration of antique screw direction in mechanical devices and fluted columns suggests that the former may have been affected by the handedness of designers and the latter by a preference for symmetry. However, for the historiated columns that are the main focus of this article, the determining factor was likely script direction. The manner in which this operated is considered, as well as competing mechanisms that might explain exceptions. A related phenomenon is the reversal of the spiral in a non-trivial number of reproductions of the antique columns, from Roman coinage to Renaissance and baroque drawings and engravings. Finally, the consistent inattention in academic literature to the spiral direction of historiated columns and the repeated publication of erroneous earlier reproductions warrants further consideration.

  4. Perspectives on handedness, life and physics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Axelsson, Sven

    2003-08-01

    In contrast to motion, matter will be conserved in all eternity. Structure and function will arise by the angular momentum of spinning spherical particles and their composites. Symmetry prevails in physics by equal amounts of left- and right-hand spinning entities, while life is asymmetric in this respect. Very rare deviations from the ubiquitous one-sided handedness in biology will probably explain the inert degradation resistant proteins in 'mad cow' type diseases. Velocities of physical events seems to be a most important feature and will explain for instance brain function and the true nature of neurodegenerative diseases. This biophysics of mind will in turn provide answers to many disputable aspects of physics such as the true nature of waves and gravity. Many current concepts in quantum physics will be invalidated, among them the uncertainty principle, the relativity to a fixed speed of light, the energy equation and the expansion of the Universe. Instead, decay and formation will balance each other in a continuum of matter in an intuitively cyclic Multiverse.

  5. Mixed-Handedness Advantages in Episodic Memory Obtained under Conditions of Intentional Learning Extend to Incidental Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Christman, Stephen D.; Butler, Michael

    2011-01-01

    The existence of handedness differences in the retrieval of episodic memories is well-documented, but virtually all have been obtained under conditions of intentional learning. Two experiments are reported that extend the presence of such handedness differences to memory retrieval under conditions of incidental learning. Experiment 1 used Craik…

  6. Starting off on the right foot: strong right-footers respond faster with the right foot to positive words and with the left foot to negative words.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de la Vega, Irmgard; Graebe, Julia; Härtner, Leonie; Dudschig, Carolin; Kaup, Barbara

    2015-01-01

    Recent studies have provided evidence for an association between valence and left/right modulated by handedness, which is predicted by the body-specificity hypothesis (Casasanto, 2009) and also reflected in response times. We investigated whether such a response facilitation can also be observed with foot responses. Right-footed participants classified positive and negative words according to their valence by pressing a key with their left or right foot. A significant interaction between valence and foot only emerged in the by-items analysis. However, when dividing participants into two groups depending on the strength of their footedness, an interaction between valence and left/right was observed for strong right-footers, who responded faster with the right foot to positive words, and with the left foot to negative words. No interaction emerged for weak right-footers. The results strongly support the assumption that fluency lies at the core of the association between valence and left/right.

  7. Relationship between the usage of equipment designed for right ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Research into left-handedness concurs that generally, left-handed people experience difficulties manipulating right handed tools. Specifically, left-handers face challenges associated with right handed instructional resources because of their inherent peculiarities due to their hand orientation in science classrooms. There is ...

  8. Common variants in left/right asymmetry genes and pathways are associated with relative hand skill.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    William M Brandler

    Full Text Available Humans display structural and functional asymmetries in brain organization, strikingly with respect to language and handedness. The molecular basis of these asymmetries is unknown. We report a genome-wide association study meta-analysis for a quantitative measure of relative hand skill in individuals with dyslexia [reading disability (RD] (n = 728. The most strongly associated variant, rs7182874 (P = 8.68 × 10(-9, is located in PCSK6, further supporting an association we previously reported. We also confirmed the specificity of this association in individuals with RD; the same locus was not associated with relative hand skill in a general population cohort (n = 2,666. As PCSK6 is known to regulate NODAL in the development of left/right (LR asymmetry in mice, we developed a novel approach to GWAS pathway analysis, using gene-set enrichment to test for an over-representation of highly associated variants within the orthologs of genes whose disruption in mice yields LR asymmetry phenotypes. Four out of 15 LR asymmetry phenotypes showed an over-representation (FDR ≤ 5%. We replicated three of these phenotypes; situs inversus, heterotaxia, and double outlet right ventricle, in the general population cohort (FDR ≤ 5%. Our findings lead us to propose that handedness is a polygenic trait controlled in part by the molecular mechanisms that establish LR body asymmetry early in development.

  9. Handedness and Lateralization of the Brain

    OpenAIRE

    Shohreh Teimournezhad; Parvaneh Khosravizadeh

    2011-01-01

    The present study is a review of the key concepts in relation to the nature of handedness and in line with that, the phenomenon of brain lateralization. To this end, a number of articles have been overviewed and the critic...

  10. Handedness and the fringe of consciousness: strong handers ruminate while mixed handers self-reflect.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Niebauer, Christopher Lee

    2004-12-01

    Previous research found that mixed handers (i.e., those that are more ambidextrous) were more likely than strong handers to update their beliefs (Niebauer, Aselage, & Schutte, 2002). It was assumed that this was due to greater degrees of communication between the two cerebral hemispheres in mixed handers. Niebauer and Garvey (2004) made connections between this model of updating beliefs and metacognitive processing. The current work proposes that variations in interhemispheric interaction (as measured by degree of handedness) contribute to differences in consciousness, specifically when consciousness is used in rumination versus the metacognitive task of self-reflection. Using the Rumination-Reflection Questionnaire (Trapnell & Campbell, 1999), predictions were supported such that strong handedness was associated with self-rumination; whereas, mixed handedness was associated with increased self-reflection p valuesmetacognition, updating beliefs, and self-reflection. Several studies are reviewed suggesting that mixed handers experience fringe consciousness to a greater degree than strong handers.

  11. Left-handers look before they leap: Handedness influences reactivity to novel Tower of Hanoi Tasks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lynn eWright

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available A sample of 203 task naïve left- and right-handed participants were asked to complete a combination of the three and four disk Towers of Hanoi (ToH, manipulating novelty and complexity. Self-reported state anxiety and latency to respond (initiation time were recorded before each ToH.Novelty had a major effect on initiation time, particularly for left-handers. Left-handers had a longer latency to start and this was significantly longer on the first trial. Irrespective of hand-preference, initiation time reduced on the second trial, however this was greatest for left-handers. Condition of task did not systematically influence initiation time for right handers, but did for left-handers. State anxiety was influenced by task novelty and complexity in a more complicated way. During the first trial, there was a significant handedness x number of disks interaction with left-handers having significantly higher state anxiety levels before the three-disk ToH. This suggests that the initial reaction to this task for left-handers was not simply due to perceived difficulty. On their second trial, participants completing a novel ToH had higher state anxiety scores than those completing a repeated version. Overall, left-handers had a larger reduction in their state anxiety across trials. Relating to this, the expected strong positive correlation between state and trait anxiety was absent for left-handed females in their first tower presentation, but appeared on their second. This was driven by low trait anxiety individuals showing a higher state anxiety response in the first (novel trial, supporting the idea that left-handed females respond to novelty in a way that is not directly a consequence of their trait anxiety. A possible explanation may be stereotype threat influencing the behaviour of left-handed females.

  12. Force feedback delay affects perception of stiffness but not action, and the effect depends on the hand used but not on the handedness.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leib, Raz; Rubin, Inbar; Nisky, Ilana

    2018-05-16

    Interaction with an object often requires the estimation of its mechanical properties. We examined whether the hand that is used to interact with the object and their handedness affected people's estimation of these properties using stiffness estimation as a test case. We recorded participants' responses on a stiffness discrimination of a virtual elastic force field and the grip force applied on the robotic device during the interaction. In half of the trials, the robotic device delayed the participants' force feedback. Consistent with previous studies, delayed force feedback biased the perceived stiffness of the force field. Interestingly, in both left-handed and right-handed participants, for the delayed force field, there was even less perceived stiffness when participants used their left hand than their right hand. This result supports the idea that haptic processing is affected by laterality in the brain, not by handedness. Consistent with previous studies, participants adjusted their applied grip force according to the correct size and timing of the load force regardless of the hand that was used, the handedness, or the delay. This suggests that in all these conditions, participants were able to form an accurate internal representation of the anticipated trajectory of the load force (size and timing) and that this representation was used for accurate control of grip force independently of the perceptual bias. Thus, these results provide additional evidence for the dissociation between action and perception in the processing of delayed information.

  13. Handedness, language lateralisation and anatomical asymmetry in schizophrenia - Meta-analysis

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Sommer, [No Value; Aleman, A; Ramsey, N; Bouma, A; Kahn, R

    Background Cerebral lateralisation appears to be decreased in schizophrenia. Results of studies investigating this. however, are equivocal. Aims To review quantitatively the literature on decreased lateralisation in schizophrenia. Method Meta-analyses were conducted on 19 studies on handedness. 10

  14. Computational Prediction and Rationalization, and Experimental Validation of Handedness Induction in Helical Aromatic Oligoamide Foldamers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Zhiwei; Hu, Xiaobo; Abramyan, Ara M; Mészáros, Ádám; Csékei, Márton; Kotschy, András; Huc, Ivan; Pophristic, Vojislava

    2017-03-13

    Metadynamics simulations were used to describe the conformational energy landscapes of several helically folded aromatic quinoline carboxamide oligomers bearing a single chiral group at either the C or N terminus. The calculations allowed the prediction of whether a helix handedness bias occurs under the influence of the chiral group and gave insight into the interactions (sterics, electrostatics, hydrogen bonds) responsible for a particular helix sense preference. In the case of camphanyl-based and morpholine-based chiral groups, experimental data confirming the validity of the calculations were already available. New chiral groups with a proline residue were also investigated and were predicted to induce handedness. This prediction was verified experimentally through the synthesis of proline-containing monomers, their incorporation into an oligoamide sequence by solid phase synthesis and the investigation of handedness induction by NMR spectroscopy and circular dichroism. © 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  15. Error Field Correction in DIII-D Ohmic Plasmas With Either Handedness

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Park, Jong-Kyu; Schaffer, Michael J.; La Haye, Robert J.; Scoville, Timothy J.; Menard, Jonathan E.

    2011-01-01

    Error field correction results in DIII-D plasmas are presented in various configurations. In both left-handed and right-handed plasma configurations, where the intrinsic error fields become different due to the opposite helical twist (handedness) of the magnetic field, the optimal error correction currents and the toroidal phases of internal(I)-coils are empirically established. Applications of the Ideal Perturbed Equilibrium Code to these results demonstrate that the field component to be minimized is not the resonant component of the external field, but the total field including ideal plasma responses. Consistency between experiment and theory has been greatly improved along with the understanding of ideal plasma responses, but non-ideal plasma responses still need to be understood to achieve the reliable predictability in tokamak error field correction.

  16. The association of hand preference and sensation seeking behavior.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kuderer, Sonja; Kirchengast, Sylvia

    Although the human body shows a superficial symmetry, the disparate functions and skills of both body halves lead to an asymmetrical use. As a result, lateral preferences are detectable, which also include the favoured use of one hand ('handedness'). The collection of questionnaire data on sensation seeking and the conduction of behavioral handedness tasks by 55 research participants enabled the investigation of the interaction of handedness and sensation seeking. For this procedure the age-homogeneous study population is divided according to the Handedness-Index (HI) - a calculated value, indicating the practical hand preference. The results reveal a stronger lateralization in right-handed participants as well as a difference in the mean value of hand use in the three handedness groups. Sensation seeking behavior shows significant negative correlations with age as well as with the HI. Higher scores of left-handers in Experience Seeking (ES), Sensation Seeking (SS) as well as in Thrill and Adventure Seeking (TAS) indicate a larger risk investment in this handedness group. Hence, the results of this study suggest that handedness is a strong indicator of risk behavior.

  17. The sound of one-hand clapping: handedness and perisylvian neural correlates of a communicative gesture in chimpanzees.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meguerditchian, Adrien; Gardner, Molly J; Schapiro, Steven J; Hopkins, William D

    2012-05-22

    Whether lateralization of communicative signalling in non-human primates might constitute prerequisites of hemispheric specialization for language is unclear. In the present study, we examined (i) hand preference for a communicative gesture (clapping in 94 captive chimpanzees from two research facilities) and (ii) the in vivo magnetic resonance imaging brain scans of 40 of these individuals. The preferred hand for clapping was defined as the one in the upper position when the two hands came together. Using computer manual tracing of regions of interest, we measured the neuroanatomical asymmetries for the homologues of key language areas, including the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and planum temporale (PT). When considering the entire sample, there was a predominance of right-handedness for clapping and the distribution of right- and left-handed individuals did not differ between the two facilities. The direction of hand preference (right- versus left-handed subjects) for clapping explained a significant portion of variability in asymmetries of the PT and IFG. The results are consistent with the view that gestural communication in the common ancestor may have been a precursor of language and its cerebral substrates in modern humans.

  18. Handedness- and Brain Size-Related Efficiency Differences in Small-World Brain Networks: A Resting-State Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

    OpenAIRE

    Li, Meiling; Wang, Junping; Liu, Feng; Chen, Heng; Lu, Fengmei; Wu, Guorong; Yu, Chunshui; Chen, Huafu

    2015-01-01

    The human brain has been described as a complex network, which integrates information with high efficiency. However, the relationships between the efficiency of human brain functional networks and handedness and brain size remain unclear. Twenty-one left-handed and 32 right-handed healthy subjects underwent a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scan. The whole brain functional networks were constructed by thresholding Pearson correlation matrices of 90 cortical and subcortical...

  19. Footedness is associated with self-reported sporting performance and motor abilities in the general population

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ulrich S Tran

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available Left-handers may have strategic advantages over right-handers in interactive sports and innate superior abilities that are beneficial for sports. Previous studies relied on differing criteria for handedness classification and mostly did not investigate mixed preferences and footedness. Footedness appears to be less influenced by external and societal factors than handedness. Utilizing latent class analysis and structural equation modeling, we investigated in a series of studies (total N > 15300 associations of handedness and footedness with self-reported sporting performance and motor abilities in the general population. Using a discovery and a replication sample (ns = 7658 and 5062, Study 1 revealed replicable beneficial effects of mixed-footedness and left-footedness in team sports, martial arts and fencing, dancing, skiing, and swimming. Study 2 (n = 2592 showed that footedness for unskilled bipedal movement tasks, but not for skilled unipedal tasks, was beneficial for sporting performance. Mixed- and left-footedness had effects on motor abilities that were consistent with published results on better brain interhemispheric communication, but also akin to testosterone-induced effects regarding flexibility, strength, and endurance. Laterality effects were only small. Possible neural and hormonal bases of observed effects need to be examined in future studies.

  20. Laterality and body ownership: Effect of handedness on experience of the rubber hand illusion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smit, M; Kooistra, D I; van der Ham, I J M; Dijkerman, H C

    2017-11-01

    Body ownership has mainly been linked to the right hemisphere and larger interhemispheric connectivity has been shown to be associated with greater right hemispheric activation. Mixed-handed participants tend to have more interhemispheric connectivity compared to extreme handed participants. The aim of this study was to examine whether feelings of ownership as assessed with the rubber hand illusion (RHI) are differentiated by handedness and differed between the left and right hand. Sinistrals-, dextrals-, and mixed-handed individuals (n = 63) were subjected to the RHI. Stroking was synchronously and asynchronously performed on both the participant's hand and a rubber hand. Outcome measures were an embodiment questionnaire and proprioceptive drift. In contrast to our hypotheses we show a similar experience of ownership for all groups, which may indicate no hemispheric specialization for the illusion. In addition, plasticity of ownership and body ownership are similar for the left hand and right hand in all participants, which suggests similar representations for both hands in the brain. This might be useful to maintain a coherent sense of the body in space.

  1. Activations in gray and white matter are modulated by uni-manual responses during within and inter-hemispheric transfer: effects of response hand and right-handedness.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Diwadkar, Vaibhav A; Bellani, Marcella; Chowdury, Asadur; Savazzi, Silvia; Perlini, Cinzia; Marinelli, Veronica; Zoccatelli, Giada; Alessandrini, Franco; Ciceri, Elisa; Rambaldelli, Gianluca; Ruggieri, Mirella; Carlo Altamura, A; Marzi, Carlo A; Brambilla, Paolo

    2017-08-14

    Because the visual cortices are contra-laterally organized, inter-hemispheric transfer tasks have been used to behaviorally probe how information briefly presented to one hemisphere of the visual cortex is integrated with responses resulting from the ipsi- or contra-lateral motor cortex. By forcing rapid information exchange across diverse regions, these tasks robustly activate not only gray matter regions, but also white matter tracts. It is likely that the response hand itself (dominant or non-dominant) modulates gray and white matter activations during within and inter-hemispheric transfer. Yet the role of uni-manual responses and/or right hand dominance in modulating brain activations during such basic tasks is unclear. Here we investigated how uni-manual responses with either hand modulated activations during a basic visuo-motor task (the established Poffenberger paradigm) alternating between inter- and within-hemispheric transfer conditions. In a large sample of strongly right-handed adults (n = 49), we used a factorial combination of transfer condition [Inter vs. Within] and response hand [Dominant(Right) vs. Non-Dominant (Left)] to discover fMRI-based activations in gray matter, and in narrowly defined white matter tracts. These tracts were identified using a priori probabilistic white matter atlases. Uni-manual responses with the right hand strongly modulated activations in gray matter, and notably in white matter. Furthermore, when responding with the left hand, activations during inter-hemispheric transfer were strongly predicted by the degree of right-hand dominance, with increased right-handedness predicting decreased fMRI activation. Finally, increasing age within the middle-aged sample was associated with a decrease in activations. These results provide novel evidence of complex relationships between uni-manual responses in right-handed subjects, and activations during within- and inter-hemispheric transfer suggest that the organization of the

  2. Motivation and motor control: hemispheric specialization for approach motivation reverses with handedness.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brookshire, Geoffrey; Casasanto, Daniel

    2012-01-01

    According to decades of research on affective motivation in the human brain, approach motivational states are supported primarily by the left hemisphere and avoidance states by the right hemisphere. The underlying cause of this specialization, however, has remained unknown. Here we conducted a first test of the Sword and Shield Hypothesis (SSH), according to which the hemispheric laterality of affective motivation depends on the laterality of motor control for the dominant hand (i.e., the "sword hand," used preferentially to perform approach actions) and the nondominant hand (i.e., the "shield hand," used preferentially to perform avoidance actions). To determine whether the laterality of approach motivation varies with handedness, we measured alpha-band power (an inverse index of neural activity) in right- and left-handers during resting-state electroencephalography and analyzed hemispheric alpha-power asymmetries as a function of the participants' trait approach motivational tendencies. Stronger approach motivation was associated with more left-hemisphere activity in right-handers, but with more right-hemisphere activity in left-handers. The hemispheric correlates of approach motivation reversed between right- and left-handers, consistent with the way they typically use their dominant and nondominant hands to perform approach and avoidance actions. In both right- and left-handers, approach motivation was lateralized to the same hemisphere that controls the dominant hand. This covariation between neural systems for action and emotion provides initial support for the SSH.

  3. Sex-specific asymmetries in communication sound perception are not related to hand preference in an early primate

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Scheumann Marina

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Left hemispheric dominance of language processing and handedness, previously thought to be unique to humans, is currently under debate. To gain an insight into the origin of lateralization in primates, we have studied gray mouse lemurs, suggested to represent the most ancestral primate condition. We explored potential functional asymmetries on the behavioral level by applying a combined handedness and auditory perception task. For testing handedness, we used a forced food-grasping task. For testing auditory perception, we adapted the head turn paradigm, originally established for exploring hemispheric specializations in conspecific sound processing in Old World monkeys, and exposed 38 subjects to control sounds and conspecific communication sounds of positive and negative emotional valence. Results The tested mouse lemur population did not show an asymmetry in hand preference or in orientation towards conspecific communication sounds. However, males, but not females, exhibited a significant right ear-left hemisphere bias when exposed to conspecific communication sounds of negative emotional valence. Orientation asymmetries were not related to hand preference. Conclusion Our results provide the first evidence for sex-specific asymmetries for conspecific communication sound perception in non-human primates. Furthermore, they suggest that hemispheric dominance for communication sound processing evolved before handedness and independently from each other.

  4. Inconsistent-handed advantage in episodic memory extends to paragraph-level materials.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Prichard, Eric C; Christman, Stephen D

    2017-09-01

    Past research using handedness as a proxy for functional access to the right hemisphere demonstrates that individuals who are mixed/inconsistently handed outperform strong/consistently handed individuals when performing episodic recall tasks. However, research has generally been restricted to stimuli presented in a list format. In the present paper, we present two studies in which participants were presented with paragraph-level material and then asked to recall material from the passages. The first study was based on a classic study looking at retroactive interference with prose materials. The second was modelled on a classic experiment looking at perspective taking and the content of memory. In both studies, the classic effects were replicated and the general finding that mixed/inconsistent-handers outperform strong/consistent-handers was replicated. This suggests that considering degree of handedness may be an empirically useful means of reducing error variance in paradigms looking at memory for prose level material.

  5. Right and left ventricular cardiac function in a developed world population with human immunodeficiency virus studied with radionuclide ventriculography

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lebech, Anne-Mette; Gerstoft, Jan; Hesse, Birger

    2004-01-01

    . No correlations were found between reduced cardiac function and levels of the 3 peptides measured. CONCLUSIONS: No major dysfunction of the left ventricle is present in a developed world HIV population. However, a small but significant part of this population has modestly reduced right-sided systolic function.......-associated morbidity and mortality rates. Accordingly, the prevalence of HIV-associated cardiac dysfunction may also have changed. The aim of the study was to establish the prevalence of right- and left-sided cardiac dysfunction in a Danish HIV population, most of whom were undergoing HAART, with radionuclide...... ventricular ejection fraction and 6 (7%) had a reduced right ventricle ejection fraction (0.35-0.42) compared with reference values from the age- and sex-matched reference population. Patients with HIV and reduced cardiac function did not differ in the duration of HIV, CD4 count, CD4 nadir, or HIV RNA load...

  6. Differences in cerebral cortical anatomy of left- and right-handers

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Guadalupe, T.M.; Willems, R.M.; Zwiers, M.P.; Arias Vasquez, A.; Hoogman, M.; Hagoort, P.; Fernandez, G.S.E.; Buitelaar, J.K.; Franke, B.; Fisher, S.E.; Francks, C.

    2014-01-01

    The left and right sides of the human brain are specialized for different kinds of information processing, and much of our cognition is lateralized to an extent toward one side or the other. Handedness is a reflection of nervous system lateralization. Roughly ten percent of people are mixed- or

  7. Ecological interactions affecting population-level responses to chemical stress in Mesocyclops leuckarti.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kulkarni, Devdutt; Hommen, Udo; Schäffer, Andreas; Preuss, Thomas G

    2014-10-01

    Higher tiers of ecological risk assessment (ERA) consider population and community-level endpoints. At the population level, the phenomenon of density dependence is one of the most important ecological processes that influence population dynamics. In this study, we investigated how different mechanisms of density dependence would influence population-level ERA of the cyclopoid copepod Mesocyclops leuckarti under toxicant exposure. We used a combined approach of laboratory experiments and individual-based modelling. An individual-based model was developed for M. leuckarti to simulate population dynamics under triphenyltin exposure based on individual-level ecological and toxicological data from laboratory experiments. The study primarily aimed to-(1) determine which life-cycle processes, based on feeding strategies, are most significant in determining density dependence (2) explore how these mechanisms of density dependence affect extrapolation from individual-level effects to the population level under toxicant exposure. Model simulations showed that cannibalism of nauplii that were already stressed by TPT exposure contributed to synergistic effects of biotic and abiotic factors and led to a twofold stress being exerted on the nauplii, thereby resulting in a higher population vulnerability compared to the scenario without cannibalism. Our results suggest that in population-level risk assessment, it is easy to underestimate toxicity unless underlying ecological interactions including mechanisms of population-level density regulation are considered. This study is an example of how a combined approach of experiments and mechanistic modelling can lead to a thorough understanding of ecological processes in ecotoxicology and enable a more realistic ERA. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. Human cerebral asymmetries evaluated by computed tomography

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Chang Chui, H; Damasio, A R [Iowa Univ., Iowa City (USA)

    1980-10-01

    The handedness of seventy-five persons without evidence of neurological disease, was assessed with a standardised test. An analysis of the CT scans of the same persons was performed to determine (1) presence and lateralisation of frontal and occipital 'petalia', (2) width of frontal and occipital lobes of each hemisphere, (3) direction of straight sinus deviation. Results suggest that handedness and cerebral asymmetries are independent variables. There were no significant differences between right-handers and non-right handers. Also there was no significant differences between strongly left-handed and ambidextrous individuals, nor were there differences between right-handers with or without family history of left-handedness. Irrespective of handedness, left occipital 'petalia' was more common than right (p<0.01), right frontal petalia was more common than left (p<0.01), and straight sinus deviation was more commonly toward the right. The study does not support the concept that cerebral 'symmetry' or 'reverse asymmetry' are associated with left-handedness or ambidexterity. The noted asymmetries are more likely to be direct correlates of cerebral language dominance, than of handedness. Outside forces acting on the bone may also contribute to the asymmetries. CT scan may be of value as a direct predictor of cerebral dominance.

  9. Human cerebral asymmetries evaluated by computed tomography

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chang Chui, H.; Damasio, A.R.

    1980-01-01

    The handedness of seventy-five persons without evidence of neurological disease, was assessed with a standardised test. An analysis of the CT scans of the same persons was performed to determine (1) presence and lateralisation of frontal and occipital 'petalia', (2) width of frontal and occipital lobes of each hemisphere, (3) direction of straight sinus deviation. Results suggest that handedness and cerebral asymmetries are independent variables. There were no significant differences between right-handers and non-right handers. Also there was no significant differences between strongly left-handed and ambidextrous individuals, nor were there differences between right-handers with or without family history of left-handedness. Irrespective of handedness, left occipital 'petalia' was more common than right (p<0.01), right frontal petalia was more common than left (p<0.01), and straight sinus deviation was more commonly toward the right. The study does not support the concept that cerebral 'symmetry' or 'reverse asymmetry' are associated with left-handedness or ambidexterity. The noted asymmetries are more likely to be direct correlates of cerebral language dominance, than of handedness. Outside forces acting on the bone may also contribute to the asymmetries. CT scan may be of value as a direct predictor of cerebral dominance. (author)

  10. The rapid reproducers paradox: population control and individual procreative rights.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wissenburg, M

    1998-01-01

    This article argues that population policies need to be evaluated from macro and micro perspectives and to consider individual rights. Ecological arguments that are stringent conditions of liberal democracy are assessed against a moral standard. The moral standard is applied to a series of reasons for limiting procreative rights in the cause of sustainability. The focus is directly on legally enforced antinatalist measures and not on indirect policies with incentives and disincentives. The explicit assumption is that population policy violates the fairness to individuals for societal gain and that population policies are incompatible with stringent conditions of liberal democracy. The author identifies the individual-societal tradeoff as the "rapid reproducers paradox." The perfect sustainable population level is either not possible or is a repugnant alternative. 12 ecological arguments are presented, and none are found compatible with notions of a liberal democracy. Three alternative antinatalist options are the acceptance of less rigid and still coercive policies, amendments to the conception of liberal democracy, or loss of hope and choice of noncoercive solutions to sustainability, none of which is found viable. If voluntary abstinence and distributive solutions fail, then frugal demand options and technological supply options both will be necessary.

  11. Can your country make you sick? Multi-level explorations of population health and human rights in a global perspective

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Witvliet, M.I.

    2013-01-01

    Research investigating health and human rights from a socio-epidemiological perspective is emerging. Still there is a noticeable paucity of research that empirically links population health to human rights concerns. In this thesis, three examples relevant to human rights are explored. We investigate

  12. High levels of fluctuating asymmetry in populations of Apodemus flavicollis from the most contaminated areas in Chernobyl

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Oleksyk, Taras K.; Novak, James M.; Purdue, James R.; Gashchak, Sergiy P.; Smith, Michael H.

    2004-01-01

    Random deviations from the perfect symmetry of normally bilaterally symmetrical characters for an individual with a given genotype occur during individual development due to the influence of multiple environmental factors. Fluctuating asymmetry (FA) is often used as a measure of developmental instability, and can be estimated as the variance of the distribution of differences between the left and right sides. We addressed the question of whether levels of FA were elevated in radioactively contaminated populations living around Chernobyl compared to those in reference populations of the yellow-necked mouse (Apodemus flavicollis). In addition, we studied amounts of directional asymmetry (DA) when one side is larger than the other on average. There was a significant difference among populations, including reference populations, in the amount of both FA and DA. A higher level of FA was documented for the contaminated populations in close proximity to the failed Chernobyl reactor for both the asymmetry of size and shape. The FAs of size and shape were highest in populations from the most contaminated locations in the Chernobyl exclusion zone. Although the directional asymmetry of shape was also highest in the contaminated populations, it was not significantly different from those in most of the reference populations. Populations from less contaminated areas inside the Chernobyl exclusion zone did not express FA values different from those of the reference populations outside the affected area. FA of skulls of A. flavicollis may indicate the degree to which the level of radioactive contamination affects the development of animals at Chernobyl. However, the mechanisms leading to these effects are not clear and probably vary from population to population. There were significant correlations between the overall right to left differences for the Procrustes aligned shape configurations, centroid sizes, and intramuscular 137 Cs. Detectable effects of radiation on developmental

  13. Using Population Dose to Evaluate Community-level Health Initiatives.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harner, Lisa T; Kuo, Elena S; Cheadle, Allen; Rauzon, Suzanne; Schwartz, Pamela M; Parnell, Barbara; Kelly, Cheryl; Solomon, Loel

    2018-05-01

    Successful community-level health initiatives require implementing an effective portfolio of strategies and understanding their impact on population health. These factors are complicated by the heterogeneity of overlapping multicomponent strategies and availability of population-level data that align with the initiatives. To address these complexities, the population dose methodology was developed for planning and evaluating multicomponent community initiatives. Building on the population dose methodology previously developed, this paper operationalizes dose estimates of one initiative targeting youth physical activity as part of the Kaiser Permanente Community Health Initiative, a multicomponent community-level obesity prevention initiative. The technical details needed to operationalize the population dose method are explained, and the use of population dose as an interim proxy for population-level survey data is introduced. The alignment of the estimated impact from strategy-level data analysis using the dose methodology and the data from the population-level survey suggest that dose is useful for conducting real-time evaluation of multiple heterogeneous strategies, and as a viable proxy for existing population-level surveys when robust strategy-level evaluation data are collected. This article is part of a supplement entitled Building Thriving Communities Through Comprehensive Community Health Initiatives, which is sponsored by Kaiser Permanente, Community Health. Copyright © 2018 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  14. Commentary: Left Hand, Right Hand and on the Other Hand

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parslow, Graham R.

    2011-01-01

    It was deeply ingrained in the author from his undergraduate studies of psychology and courses in learning theory that people have a rational left brain and a creative right brain. Learning theory suggested that activities needed to be tailored to develop both hemispheres. Handedness in relation to abilities has been commented on from the 1800s by…

  15. Need for cognition moderates paranormal beliefs and magical ideation in inconsistent-handers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Prichard, Eric C; Christman, Stephen D

    2016-01-01

    A growing literature suggests that degree of handedness predicts gullibility and magical ideation. Inconsistent-handers (people who use their non-dominant hand for at least one common manual activity) report more magical ideation and are more gullible. The current study tested whether this effect is moderated by need for cognition. One hundred eighteen university students completed questionnaires assessing handedness, self-reported paranormal beliefs, and self-reported need for cognition. Handedness (Inconsistent vs. Consistent Right) and Need for Cognition (High vs. Low) were treated as categorical predictors. Both paranormal beliefs and magical ideation served as dependent variable's in separate analyses. Neither set of tests yielded main effects for handedness or need for cognition. However, there were a significant handedness by need for cognition interactions. Post-hoc comparisons revealed that low, but not high, need for cognition inconsistent-handers reported relatively elevated levels of paranormal belief and magical ideation. A secondary set of tests treating the predictor variables as continuous instead of categorical obtained the same overall pattern.

  16. Undernutrition among adults in India: the significance of individual-level and contextual factors impacting on the likelihood of underweight across sub-populations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Siddiqui, Md Zakaria; Donato, Ronald

    2017-01-01

    To investigate the extent to which individual-level as well as macro-level contextual factors influence the likelihood of underweight across adult sub-populations in India. Population-based cross-sectional survey included in India's National Health Family Survey conducted in 2005-06. We disaggregated into eight sub-populations. Multistage nationally representative household survey covering 99 % of India's population. The survey covered 124 385 females aged 15-49 years and 74 369 males aged 15-54 years. A social gradient in underweight exists in India. Even after allowing for wealth status, differences in the predicted probability of underweight persisted based upon rurality, age/maturity and gender. We found individual-level education lowered the likelihood of underweight for males, but no statistical association for females. Paradoxically, rural young (15-24 years) females from more educated villages had a higher likelihood of underweight relative to those in less educated villages; but for rural mature (>24 years) females the opposite was the case. Christians had a significantly lower likelihood of underweight relative to other socio-religious groups (OR=0·53-0·80). Higher state-level inequality increased the likelihood of underweight across most population groups, while neighbourhood inequality exhibited a similar relationship for the rural young population subgroups only. Individual states/neighbourhoods accounted for 5-9 % of the variation in the prediction of underweight. We found that rural young females represent a particularly highly vulnerable sub-population. Economic growth alone is unlikely to reduce the burden of malnutrition in India; accordingly, policy makers need to address the broader social determinants that contribute to higher underweight prevalence in specific demographic subgroups.

  17. Evaluation of Human Rights Violations in Student Personnel ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    A five point Likert scale instrument, Students Legal Rights Protection Questionnaire (SLRPQ) was used for data collection and analyzed using the population (one sample t-test), at .05 level of significance. The finding was that there is significant violation of secondary school students' rights (right to dignity of human person, ...

  18. Handedness and birth stress in children and young adults with learning or behavioral difficulties

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Scheirs, J.G.M.; van Schijndel, F.A.A.

    1996-01-01

    A literature review by Searleman et al. (1989) suggested that a relationship between the presence of pre- and perinatal complications and handedness does not exist or is very small in normal subjects. Such a relationship might very well be stronger in certain diagnostic groups, however. In the

  19. Different level of population differentiation among human genes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Dong-Dong; Zhang, Ya-Ping

    2011-01-14

    During the colonization of the world, after dispersal out of African, modern humans encountered changeable environments and substantial phenotypic variations that involve diverse behaviors, lifestyles and cultures, were generated among the different modern human populations. Here, we study the level of population differentiation among different populations of human genes. Intriguingly, genes involved in osteoblast development were identified as being enriched with higher FST SNPs, a result consistent with the proposed role of the skeletal system in accounting for variation among human populations. Genes involved in the development of hair follicles, where hair is produced, were also found to have higher levels of population differentiation, consistent with hair morphology being a distinctive trait among human populations. Other genes that showed higher levels of population differentiation include those involved in pigmentation, spermatid, nervous system and organ development, and some metabolic pathways, but few involved with the immune system. Disease-related genes demonstrate excessive SNPs with lower levels of population differentiation, probably due to purifying selection. Surprisingly, we find that Mendelian-disease genes appear to have a significant excessive of SNPs with high levels of population differentiation, possibly because the incidence and susceptibility of these diseases show differences among populations. As expected, microRNA regulated genes show lower levels of population differentiation due to purifying selection. Our analysis demonstrates different level of population differentiation among human populations for different gene groups.

  20. The TSH levels and risk of hypothyroidism: Results from a population based prospective cohort study in an Iranian adult's population.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aminorroaya, Ashraf; Meamar, Rokhsareh; Amini, Massoud; Feizi, Awat; Nasri, Maryam; Tabatabaei, Azamosadat; Faghihimani, Elham

    2017-06-01

    The aim of current study was to assess the relationship between serum TSH levels and hypothyroidism risk in the euthyroid population. In a population-based cohort study, a total of 615 individuals with a normal baseline TSH, from of total population (n=2254) in 2006, were followed up for 6years. TSH, total T4, thyroid peroxidase antibody (TPOAb), and thyroglobulin antibody (TgAb) were measured. The relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence interval (95%CI) were calculated based on logistic regression. The Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis along with area under the curve (AUC) was used to prediction of future hypothyroidism. TSH level in 2006 was a significant predictor for overt hypothyroidism, in the total population (RR=3.5) and female (RR=1.37) (all, P valuehypothyroidism from euthyroid. However, this cut off was not observed when we included only negative TPO and TgAbs people in 2006. The RR of hypothyroidism increased gradually when TSH level increased from 2.06-3.6mIU/L to >3.6mIU/L in the total population and both sexes. In women, the risk of overt hypothyroidism was significantly higher in subjects with TSH above 3.6 than those subject with THS levels≤2.05 [RR: (CI95 %), 20.57(2.-207.04), P valuehypothyroidism in future. However, it was not applicable for people with negative TPOAb and negative TgAb. Copyright © 2016 European Federation of Internal Medicine. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  1. Brief communication: Hand preference for bimanual and unimanual feeding in captive gorillas: extension in a second colony of apes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lambert, Megan

    2012-08-01

    Right-hand dominance is widely considered to be a uniquely human trait. Whether nonhuman primates exhibit similar population-level hand preferences remains a topic of considerable debate. Despite extensive research focusing on laterality in nonhuman primates, our interpretation of these studies is limited due to methodological issues including the lack of a common measure of hand preference and the use of tasks that may not be reliable indicators of handedness. The use of consistent methods between studies is necessary to enable comparisons within and between species and allow for more general conclusions to be drawn from these results. The present study replicates methods used in recent research reporting population-level right-handedness in captive gorillas (Meguerditchian et al.,2010). Observational data were collected on hand preference for unimanual and bimanual feeding in 14 captive western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla). Individual-level preferences were found, primarily for bimanual feeding; however, the data reveal no group-level directional bias (contra Meguerditchian et al.). Like the study by Meguerditchian et al. (2010), though, bimanual feeding revealed significantly stronger hand preferences than unimanual reaching, and age, sex, group membership, or rearing history had no effect on hand preference. Finally, variations in diet and corresponding grip type between studies suggest that hand preferences may vary across bimanual tasks depending on grip morphology. This study aims to contribute to our existing knowledge of primate laterality by increasing the number of individuals investigated using methods that allow for comparisons with similar research. Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  2. Different level of population differentiation among human genes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhang Ya-Ping

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background During the colonization of the world, after dispersal out of African, modern humans encountered changeable environments and substantial phenotypic variations that involve diverse behaviors, lifestyles and cultures, were generated among the different modern human populations. Results Here, we study the level of population differentiation among different populations of human genes. Intriguingly, genes involved in osteoblast development were identified as being enriched with higher FST SNPs, a result consistent with the proposed role of the skeletal system in accounting for variation among human populations. Genes involved in the development of hair follicles, where hair is produced, were also found to have higher levels of population differentiation, consistent with hair morphology being a distinctive trait among human populations. Other genes that showed higher levels of population differentiation include those involved in pigmentation, spermatid, nervous system and organ development, and some metabolic pathways, but few involved with the immune system. Disease-related genes demonstrate excessive SNPs with lower levels of population differentiation, probably due to purifying selection. Surprisingly, we find that Mendelian-disease genes appear to have a significant excessive of SNPs with high levels of population differentiation, possibly because the incidence and susceptibility of these diseases show differences among populations. As expected, microRNA regulated genes show lower levels of population differentiation due to purifying selection. Conclusion Our analysis demonstrates different level of population differentiation among human populations for different gene groups.

  3. Chewing side preference - Impact on facial symmetry, dentition and temporomandibular joint and its correlation with handedness

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shreyasi Tiwari

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: Habitual unilateral chewing develops subconsciously and serves as an example for lateral preference. This study aims to assess the possible impact of chewing side preference to facial asymmetry, temporomandibular joint (TMJ and oral hygiene and existence of any link between the preferred chewing side (PCS and handedness. Materials and Methods: A 2-month cross-sectional (observational study was performed on 76 healthy dentate subjects [24 males (31.6% and 52 females (68.4%] with a mean age of 20.8 ± 1.5 years who participated in this study according to the selection criteria. Results: A total of 75 subjects out of 76 (98.6% were observed to have a PCS. Out of them, 38 chewed on their right and 37 on the left side. Of the 74 right-handed subjects, 48.6% chewed on the right, 50% on the left and 1.4% chewed equally on both the sides. Conclusion: Chewing side preference has a detrimental effect on the TMJ of the corresponding side and is also related to lateral facial asymmetry, which suggests that examination and recording of chewing side preference merit consideration in routine dental examination and treatment planning.

  4. End-state comfort trumps handedness in object manipulation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Coelho, Chase J; Studenka, Breanna E; Rosenbaum, David A

    2014-04-01

    A goal of research on human perception and performance is to explore the relative importance of constraints shaping action selection. The present study concerned the relative importance of two constraints that have not been directly contrasted: (1) the tendency to grasp objects in ways that afford comfortable or easy-to-control final postures; and (2) the tendency to grasp objects with the dominant rather than the nondominant hand. We asked participants to reach out and grasp a horizontal rod whose left or right end was to be placed into a target after a 90° rotation. In one condition, we told participants which hand to use and let them choose an overhand or underhand initial grasp. In another condition, we told participants which grasp to use and let them choose either hand. Participants sacrificed hand preference to perform the task in a way that ensured a comfortable or easy to control thumb-up posture at the time of object placement, indicating that comfort trumped handedness. A second experiment confirmed that comfort was indeed higher for thumb-down postures than thumb-up postures. A third experiment confirmed that the choice data could be linked to objective performance differences. The results point to the importance of identifying constraint weightings for action selection and support an account of hand selection that ascribes hand preference to sensitivity to performance differences. The results do not support the hypothesis that hand preference simply reflects a bias to use the dominant hand.

  5. Between-hand difference in ipsilateral deactivation is associated with hand lateralization: fMRI mapping of 284 volunteers balanced for handedness

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nathalie eTzourio-Mazoyer

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available In right-handers, an increase in the pace of dominant hand movement results in increased ipsilateral deactivation of the primary motor cortex (M1. By contrast, an increase in non-dominant hand movement frequency is associated with reduced ipsilateral deactivation. This pattern suggests that inhibitory processes support right hand dominance in right-handers and raises the issues of whether this phenomenon also supports left hand preference in left-handers, and/or whether it relates to asymmetry of manual ability in either group. Thanks to the BIL&GIN, a database dedicated to the investigation of hemispheric specialization, we studied the variation in M1 activity during right and left finger tapping tasks in a sample of 284 healthy participants balanced for handedness. An M1 fMRI localizer was defined for each participant as an 8 mm diameter sphere centered on the motor activation peak. Right-handers exhibited significantly larger deactivation of the ipsilateral M1 when moving their dominant hand than their non-dominant hand. In contrast, left-handers exhibited comparable ipsilateral M1 deactivation during either hand movement, reflecting a bilateral cortical specialization. This pattern is likely related to left-handers’ good performances with their right hand and consequent lower asymmetry in manual ability compared with right-handers. Finally, inter-individual analyses over the whole sample demonstrated that the larger the difference in manual skill across hands, the larger the difference in ipsilateral deactivation. Overall, we propose that difference in ipsilateral deactivation is a marker of difference in manual ability asymmetry reflecting differences in the strength of transcallosal inhibition when a given hand is moving.

  6. The Rapid Reproducers Paradox: Population Control and Individual Procreative Rights

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wissenburg, M.L.J.

    1998-01-01

    In this article, I consider the impact of population policies on individual rights (in a very broad sense of the word), a topic that has received disproportionately little attention in debates on the legitimacy of population rights. I first concentrate on arguments in favour of very radical

  7. Predicting farm-level animal populations using environmental and socioeconomic variables.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Andel, Mary; Jewell, Christopher; McKenzie, Joanna; Hollings, Tracey; Robinson, Andrew; Burgman, Mark; Bingham, Paul; Carpenter, Tim

    2017-09-15

    Accurate information on the geographic distribution of domestic animal populations helps biosecurity authorities to efficiently prepare for and rapidly eradicate exotic diseases, such as Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD). Developing and maintaining sufficiently high-quality data resources is expensive and time consuming. Statistical modelling of population density and distribution has only begun to be applied to farm animal populations, although it is commonly used in wildlife ecology. We developed zero-inflated Poisson regression models in a Bayesian framework using environmental and socioeconomic variables to predict the counts of livestock units (LSUs) and of cattle on spatially referenced farm polygons in a commercially available New Zealand farm database, Agribase. Farm-level counts of cattle and of LSUs varied considerably by region, because of the heterogeneous farming landscape in New Zealand. The amount of high quality pasture per farm was significantly associated with the presence of both cattle and LSUs. Internal model validation (predictive performance) showed that the models were able to predict the count of the animal population on groups of farms that were located in randomly selected 3km zones with a high level of accuracy. Predicting cattle or LSU counts on individual farms was less accurate. Predicted counts were statistically significantly more variable for farms that were contract grazing dry stock, such as replacement dairy heifers and dairy cattle not currently producing milk, compared with other farm types. This analysis presents a way to predict numbers of LSUs and cattle for farms using environmental and socio-economic data. The technique has the potential to be extrapolated to predicting other pastoral based livestock species. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  8. Within- and among-population level differences in response to chronic copper exposure in southern toads, Anaxyrus terrestris.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lance, Stacey L; Flynn, R Wesley; Erickson, Matthew R; Scott, David E

    2013-06-01

    Environmental contaminants are implicated in the global decline of amphibian populations. Copper (Cu) is a widespread contaminant that can be toxic at concentrations just above the normal physiological range. In the present study we examined the effects of chronic Cu aqueous exposure on embryos and larvae of southern toads, Anaxyrus (Bufo) terrestris. Measurable levels of Cu were found in larvae, with tissue concentrations up to 27.5 μg Cu/g dry mass. Aqueous concentrations of Cu as low as 10 μg/L significantly reduced survival to the free-swimming stage and no larvae reached metamorphosis at concentrations above 15 μg/L. Clutches from populations with prior Cu exposure had the lowest survivorship. Among several populations there was significant variation in survivorship at different levels of Cu. More data are needed to understand the underlying causes of within- and among-population resilience to anthropogenic stressors. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. Modelling population-level consequences of chronic external gamma irradiation in aquatic invertebrates under laboratory conditions

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lance, Emilie [Laboratoire de modelisation pour l' expertise environnementale (LM2E) Institut de Radioprotection et de Surete Nucleaire (IRSN), PRP-ENV, SERIS, Cadarache (France); Alonzo, Frederic, E-mail: frederic.alonzo@irsn.fr [Laboratoire d' ecotoxicologie des radionucleides (LECO) Institut de Radioprotection et de Surete Nucleaire (IRSN), PRP-ENV, SERIS, Cadarache (France); Garcia-Sanchez, Laurent [Laboratoire de biogeochimie, biodisponibilite et transferts des radionucleides (L2BT) Institut de Radioprotection et de Surete Nucleaire (IRSN), PRP-ENV, SERIS, Cadarache (France); Beaugelin-Seiller, Karine; Garnier-Laplace, Jacqueline [Laboratoire de modelisation pour l' expertise environnementale (LM2E) Institut de Radioprotection et de Surete Nucleaire (IRSN), PRP-ENV, SERIS, Cadarache (France)

    2012-07-01

    We modelled population-level consequences of chronic external gamma irradiation in aquatic invertebrates under laboratory conditions. We used Leslie matrices to combine life-history characteristics (duration of life stages, survival and fecundity rates) and dose rate-response curves for hatching, survival and reproduction fitted on effect data from the FREDERICA database. Changes in net reproductive rate R{sub 0} (offspring per individual) and asymptotic population growth rate {lambda} (dimensionless) were calculated over a range of dose rates in two marine polychaetes (Neanthes arenaceodentata and Ophryotrocha diadema) and a freshwater gastropod (Physa heterostropha). Sensitivities in R{sub 0} and {lambda} to changes in life-history traits were analysed in each species. Results showed that fecundity has the strongest influence on R{sub 0}. A delay in age at first reproduction is most critical for {lambda} independent of the species. Fast growing species were proportionally more sensitive to changes in individual endpoints than slow growing species. Reduction of 10% in population {lambda} were predicted at dose rates of 6918, 5012 and 74,131 {mu}Gy{center_dot}h{sup -1} in N. arenaceodentata, O. diadema and P. heterostropha respectively, resulting from a combination of strong effects on several individual endpoints in each species. These observations made 10%-reduction in {lambda} a poor criterion for population protection. The lowest significant changes in R{sub 0} and {lambda} were respectively predicted at a same dose rate of 1412 {mu}Gy h{sup -1} in N. arenaceodentata, at 760 and 716 {mu}Gy h{sup -1} in O. diadema and at 12,767 and 13,759 {mu}Gy h{sup -1} in P. heterostropha. These values resulted from a combination of slight but significant changes in several measured endpoints and were lower than effective dose rates calculated for the individual level in O. diadema and P. heterostropha. The relevance of the experimental dataset (external irradiation rather

  10. Significant association between parathyroid hormone and uric acid level in men

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chin KY

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available Kok-Yong Chin,1 Soelaiman Ima Nirwana,1 Wan Zurinah Wan Ngah21Department of Pharmacology, 2Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre, Kuala Lumpur, MalaysiaBackground: Previous reports of patients undergoing parathyroidectomy and of patients receiving teriparatide as antiosteoporotic treatment have suggested a plausible relationship between parathyroid hormone (PTH and uric acid. However, similar data at population level were lacking. The current study aimed to determine the relationship between PTH and uric acid in a group of apparently healthy Malaysian men.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 380 Malay and Chinese men aged 20 years and above, residing in the Klang Valley, Malaysia. Their body anthropometry was measured, and their fasting blood samples were collected for biochemical analysis. The relationship between PTH and uric acid was analyzed using regression analysis.Results: Increased serum PTH level was significantly associated with increased serum uric acid level (β=0.165; P=0.001. Increased PTH level was also significantly associated with the condition of hyperuricemia in the study population (odds ratio [OR], 1.045; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.017–1.075; P=0.002. All analyses were adjusted for age, body mass index, vitamin D, total calcium, inorganic phosphate, blood urea nitrogen and creatinine levels.Conclusion: There is a significant positive relationship between PTH level and uric acid level in Malaysian men. This relationship and its clinical significance should be further investigated in a larger longitudinal study. Keywords: hyperuricemia, Asian, cross-sectional study, uric acid, urate

  11. The genetic basis of hair whorl, handedness, and other phenotypes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hatfield, J.S.

    2006-01-01

    Evidence is presented that RHO, RHCE, and other RH genes, may be interesting candidates to consider when searching for the genetic basis of hair whorl rotation (i.e., clockwise or counterclockwise), handedness (i.e., right handed, left handed or ambidextrous), speech laterality (i.e., right brained or left brained), speech dyslexia (e.g., stuttering), sexual orientation (i.e., heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or transsexual), schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and autism spectrum disorder. Such evidence involves the need for a genetic model that includes maternal immunization to explain some of the empirical results reported in the literature. The complex polymorphisms present among the maternally immunizing RH genes can then be used to explain other empirical results. Easily tested hypotheses are suggested, based upon genotypic (but not phenotypic) frequencies of the RH genes. In particular, homozygous dominant individuals are expected to be less common or lacking entirely among the alternative phenotypes. If it is proven that RH genes are involved in brain architecture, it will have a profound effect upon our understanding of the development and organization of the asymmetrical vertebrate brain and may eventually lead to a better understanding of the developmental processes which occur to produce the various alternative phenotypes discussed here. In addition, if RH genes are shown to be involved in the production of these phenotypes, then the evolutionary studies can be performed to demonstrate the beneficial effect of the recessive alleles of RHO and RHCE, and why human evolution appears to be selecting for the recessive alleles even though an increase in the frequency of such alleles may imply lower average fecundity among some individuals possessing them.

  12. Enlarged right superior temporal gyrus in children and adolescents with autism.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jou, Roger J; Minshew, Nancy J; Keshavan, Matcheri S; Vitale, Matthew P; Hardan, Antonio Y

    2010-11-11

    The superior temporal gyrus has been implicated in language processing and social perception. Therefore, anatomical abnormalities of this structure may underlie some of the deficits observed in autism, a severe neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impairments in social interaction and communication. In this study, volumes of the left and right superior temporal gyri were measured using magnetic resonance imaging obtained from 18 boys with high-functioning autism (mean age=13.5±3.4years; full-scale IQ=103.6±13.4) and 19 healthy controls (mean age=13.7±3.0years; full-scale IQ=103.9±10.5), group-matched on age, gender, and handedness. When compared to the control group, right superior temporal gyral volumes was significantly increased in the autism group after controlling for age and total brain volume. There was no significant difference in the volume of the left superior temporal gyrus. Post-hoc analysis revealed a significant increase of the right posterior superior temporal gyral volume in the autism group, before and after controlling for age and total brain volume. Examination of the symmetry index for the superior temporal gyral volumes did not yield statistically significant between-group differences. Findings from this preliminary investigation suggest the existence of volumetric alterations in the right superior temporal gyrus in children and adolescents with autism, providing support for a neuroanatomical basis of the social perceptual deficits characterizing this severe neurodevelopmental disorder. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  13. [Levels of plasma cholinesterase in Colombian working-class populations].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carmona-Fonseca, Jaime

    2003-12-01

    Levels of plasma cholinesterase in Colombian working-class populations Reference values for plasma cholinesterase (EC 3.1.1.8) are not available for Colombian populations. A representative sample of a working-class population was used to establish these values to provide reference data for use by the social security system. Two working-class populations were sampled from the Aburrá Valley (Aburrá) and eastern Antioquia (Oriente). Cholinesterase activity was measured in 827 workers, with ages spanning 18-49 years, 415 from Aburrá and 412 people from Oriente. Three methods were used to measure cholinesterase: Michel, EQM and Monotest The average values by Michel and EQM were not statistically different between regions (Michel: Aburrá, 1.11, and East, 1.13 deltas pH/hora; EQM: Aburrá, 2.55, and Oriente, 2.48 U/ml). By the Monotest, the enzyme average was statistically higher in Aburra than in Oriente (5,743 and 5,459 U/L respectively; p = 0 .012). By region and technique, men had significantly higher enzymatic levels than women. Within both regions and sexes, no statistically significant difference among the three aged groups was noted. Our obtained Colombian values differed significantly from foreign reference values: Michel and Monotest levels were higher and EQM levels were lower. For making clinical and epidemiologic decisions in Colombia related to these data, the values obtained for the Colombian populations are preferred over values derived from external sources.

  14. Populism in Lithuania: defining the research tradition

    OpenAIRE

    Aleknonis, Gintaras; Matkevičienė, Renata

    2016-01-01

    The research on populism and populist political communication in Lithuania is rather limited, regardless of the fact that populist movements and politicians are influential on national and local political levels; they also receive sufficient support from a significant share of the population. Because the Western European research tradition is concentrated on the challenges of right-wing populism, Lithuanian political scientists distinguish right-wing populism as more significant in comparison...

  15. Handedness in shearing auxetics creates rigid and compliant structures

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lipton, Jeffrey Ian; MacCurdy, Robert; Manchester, Zachary; Chin, Lillian; Cellucci, Daniel; Rus, Daniela

    2018-05-01

    In nature, repeated base units produce handed structures that selectively bond to make rigid or compliant materials. Auxetic tilings are scale-independent frameworks made from repeated unit cells that expand under tension. We discovered how to produce handedness in auxetic unit cells that shear as they expand by changing the symmetries and alignments of auxetic tilings. Using the symmetry and alignment rules that we developed, we made handed shearing auxetics that tile planes, cylinders, and spheres. By compositing the handed shearing auxetics in a manner inspired by keratin and collagen, we produce both compliant structures that expand while twisting and deployable structures that can rigidly lock. This work opens up new possibilities in designing chemical frameworks, medical devices like stents, robotic systems, and deployable engineering structures.

  16. Significant association of periodontal disease with anti-citrullinated peptide antibody in a Japanese healthy population - The Nagahama study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Terao, Chikashi; Asai, Keita; Hashimoto, Motomu; Yamazaki, Toru; Ohmura, Koichiro; Yamaguchi, Akihiko; Takahashi, Katsu; Takei, Noriko; Ishii, Takanori; Kawaguchi, Takahisa; Tabara, Yasuharu; Takahashi, Meiko; Nakayama, Takeo; Kosugi, Shinji; Sekine, Akihiro; Fujii, Takao; Yamada, Ryo; Mimori, Tsuneyo; Matsuda, Fumihiko; Bessho, Kazuhisa

    2015-05-01

    Anti-citrullinated peptide antibody (ACPA) is a highly specific autoantibody to rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Recent studies have revealed that periodontal disease (PD) is closely associated with RA and production of ACPA in RA. Analyses of associations between PD and ACPA production in a healthy population may deepen our understandings. Here, we analyzed a total of 9554 adult healthy subjects. ACPA and IgM-rheumatoid factor (RF) was quantified and PD status was evaluated using the number of missing teeth (MT), the Community Periodontal Index (CPI) and Loss of Attachment (LA) for these subjects. PD status was analyzed for its association with the positivity and categorical levels of ACPA and RF conditioned for covariates which were shown to be associated with PD, ACPA or RF. As a result, all of MT, CPI and LA showed suggestive or significant associations with positivity (p = 0.024, 0.0042 and 0.037, respectively) and levels of ACPA (p ≤ 0.00031), but none of the PD parameters were associated with those of RF. These association patterns were also observed when we analyzed 6206 non-smokers of the participants. The significant associations between PD parameters and positivity and levels of ACPA in healthy population support the fundamental involvement of PD with ACPA production. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  17. Populism in Lithuania: Defining the Research Tradition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aleknonis Gintaras

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available The research on populism and populist political communication in Lithuania is rather limited, regardless of the fact that populist movements and politicians are influential on national and local political levels; they also receive sufficient support from a significant share of the population. Because the Western European research tradition is concentrated on the challenges of right-wing populism, Lithuanian political scientists distinguish right-wing populism as more significant in comparison to left-wing populism. Although Lithuanian researchers note, that in the balance of the left-right wing populists, Lithuania stands out with the majority of left-wing populists, in comparison to the popularity and number of right-wing populists in neighbouring countries.

  18. Sleep on the right side-Get cancer on the left?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hallberg, Orjan; Johansson, Olle

    2010-06-01

    Breast cancer frequently occurs in the left breast among both women and men [R. Roychoudhuri, V. Putcha, H. Møller, Cancer and laterality: a study of the five major paired organs (UK), Cancer Causes Control 17 (2006) 655-662; M.T. Goodman, K.H. Tung, L.R. Wilkens, Comparative epidemiology of breast cancer among men and women in the US, 1996 to 2000, Cancer Causes Control 17 (2006) 127-136; C.I. Perkins, J. Hotes, B.A. Kohler, H.L. Howe, Association between breast cancer laterality and tumor location, United States, 1994-1998, Cancer Causes Control 15 (2004) 637-645; H.A. Weiss, S.S. Devesa, L.A. Brinton, Laterality of breast cancer in the United States, Cancer Causes Control 7 (1996) 539-543; A. Ekbom, H.O. Adami, D. Trichopoulos, M. Lambe, C.C. Hsieh, J. Pontén, Epidemiologic correlates of breast cancer laterality (Sweden), Cancer Causes Control 5 (1994) 510-516]. Moreover, recent results showed that the left side of the body is more prone to melanoma than the right side [D.H. Brewster, M.J. Horner, S. Rowan, P. Jelfs, E. de Vries, E. Pukkala, Left-sided excess of invasive cutaneous melanoma in six countries, Eur. J. Cancer 43 (2007) 2634-2637]. Current explanations for left-sided breast cancer include handedness [L. Titus-Ernstoff, P.A. Newcomb, K.M. Egan, et al., Left-handedness in relation to breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women, Epidemiology 11 (2000) 181-184; M.A. Kramer, S. Albrecht, R.A. Miller, Handedness and the laterality of breast cancer in women, Nurs. Res. 34 (1985) 333-337; M.K. Ramadhani, S.G. Elias, P.A. van Noord, D.E. Grobbee, P.H. Peeters, C.S. Uiterwaal, Innate left handedness and risk of breast cancer: case-cohort study, BMJ 331 (2005) 882-883], size difference, nursing preference, and brain structure. However, men are affected even more by left laterality than women, thus many of these explanations are unconvincing. Increasing rates of skin melanoma have been associated with immune-disruptive radiation from FM/TV transmitters [O

  19. Key populations and human rights in the context of HIV services rendition in Ghana.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laar, Amos; DeBruin, Debra

    2017-08-02

    In line with its half century old penal code, Ghana currently criminalizes and penalizes behaviors of some key populations - populations deemed to be at higher risk of acquiring or transmitting Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Men who have sex with men (MSM), and sex workers (SWs) fit into this categorization. This paper provides an analysis of how enactment and implementation of rights-limiting laws not only limit rights, but also amplify risk and vulnerability to HIV in key and general populations. The paper derives from a project that assessed the ethics sensitivity of key documents guiding Ghana's response to its HIV epidemic. Assessment was guided by leading frameworks from public health ethics, and relevant articles from the international bill of rights. Ghana's response to her HIV epidemic does not adequately address the rights and needs of key populations. Even though the national response has achieved some public health successes, palpable efforts to address rights issues remain nascent. Ghana's guiding documents for HIV response include no advocacy for decriminalization, depenalization or harm reduction approaches for these key populations. The impact of rights-restricting codes on the nation's HIV epidemic is real: criminalization impedes key populations' access to HIV prevention and treatment services. Given that they are bridging populations, whatever affects the Ghanaian key populations directly, affects the general population indirectly. The right to the highest attainable standard of health, without qualification, is generally acknowledged as a fundamental human right. Unfortunately, this right currently eludes the Ghanaian SW and MSM. The paper endorses decriminalization as a means of promoting this right. In the face of opposition to decriminalization, the paper proposes specific harm reduction strategies as approaches to promote health and uplift the diminished rights of key populations. Thus the authors call on Ghana to remove impediments to

  20. Neglected Population, Neglected Right: Children Living with HIV and the Right to Science.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scanlon, Michael L; MacNaughton, Gillian; Sprague, Courtenay

    2017-12-01

    The laws, language, and tools of human rights have been instrumental in expanding access to lifesaving treatment for people living with HIV. Children, however, remain a neglected population, as evidenced by inadequate child-specific and child-friendly HIV treatment options. In this article, we explore the right to science, a potentially powerful but underdeveloped right in international law, and its application to research and development for pediatric HIV treatment. Drawing on reports of human rights bodies and scholars and applying the human rights typology of state obligations to respect, protect, and fulfill, we argue that states have five core obligations related to research and development for child-specific and child-friendly treatment: (1) adopting a public goods approach to science and science policy; (2) including and protecting children in research activities; (3) adopting legal and policy frameworks to support research and development through public funding and private sector incentives; (4) promoting international cooperation and assistance; and (5) ensuring the participation of marginalized communities in decision-making processes. In concluding, we make a number of recommendations for states, human rights bodies, international organizations, civil society, and private industry to further develop and implement the right to science.

  1. Accuracy of Outcome Anticipation, But Not Gaze Behavior, Differs Against Left- and Right-Handed Penalties in Team-Handball Goalkeeping.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Loffing, Florian; Sölter, Florian; Hagemann, Norbert; Strauss, Bernd

    2015-01-01

    Low perceptual familiarity with relatively rarer left-handed as opposed to more common right-handed individuals may result in athletes' poorer ability to anticipate the former's action intentions. Part of such left-right asymmetry in visual anticipation could be due to an inefficient gaze strategy during confrontation with left-handed individuals. To exemplify, observers may not mirror their gaze when viewing left- vs. right-handed actions but preferentially fixate on an opponent's right body side, irrespective of an opponent's handedness, owing to the predominant exposure to right-handed actions. So far empirical verification of such assumption, however, is lacking. Here we report on an experiment where team-handball goalkeepers' and non-goalkeepers' gaze behavior was recorded while they predicted throw direction of left- and right-handed 7-m penalties shown as videos on a computer monitor. As expected, goalkeepers were considerably more accurate than non-goalkeepers and prediction was better against right- than left-handed penalties. However, there was no indication of differences in gaze measures (i.e., number of fixations, overall and final fixation duration, time-course of horizontal or vertical fixation deviation) as a function of skill group or the penalty-takers' handedness. Findings suggest that inferior anticipation of left-handed compared to right-handed individuals' action intentions may not be associated with misalignment in gaze behavior. Rather, albeit looking similarly, accuracy differences could be due to observers' differential ability of picking up and interpreting the visual information provided by left- vs. right-handed movements.

  2. County-Level Population Economic Status and Medicare Imaging Resource Consumption.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rosenkrantz, Andrew B; Hughes, Danny R; Prabhakar, Anand M; Duszak, Richard

    2017-06-01

    The aim of this study was to assess relationships between county-level variation in Medicare beneficiary imaging resource consumption and measures of population economic status. The 2013 CMS Geographic Variation Public Use File was used to identify county-level per capita Medicare fee-for-service imaging utilization and nationally standardized costs to the Medicare program. The County Health Rankings public data set was used to identify county-level measures of population economic status. Regional variation was assessed, and multivariate regressions were performed. Imaging events per 1,000 Medicare beneficiaries varied 1.8-fold (range, 2,723-4,843) at the state level and 5.3-fold (range, 1,228-6,455) at the county level. Per capita nationally standardized imaging costs to Medicare varied 4.2-fold (range, $84-$353) at the state level and 14.1-fold (range, $33-$471) at the county level. Within individual states, county-level utilization varied on average 2.0-fold (range, 1.1- to 3.1-fold), and costs varied 2.8-fold (range, 1.1- to 6.4-fold). For both large urban populations and small rural states, Medicare imaging resource consumption was heterogeneously variable at the county level. Adjusting for county-level gender, ethnicity, rural status, and population density, countywide unemployment rates showed strong independent positive associations with Medicare imaging events (β = 26.96) and costs (β = 4.37), whereas uninsured rates showed strong independent positive associations with Medicare imaging costs (β = 2.68). Medicare imaging utilization and costs both vary far more at the county than at the state level. Unfavorable measures of county-level population economic status in the non-Medicare population are independently associated with greater Medicare imaging resource consumption. Future efforts to optimize Medicare imaging use should consider the influence of local indigenous socioeconomic factors outside the scope of traditional beneficiary-focused policy

  3. An integrated approach to historical population assessment of the great whales: case of the New Zealand southern right whale.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jackson, Jennifer A; Carroll, Emma L; Smith, Tim D; Zerbini, Alexandre N; Patenaude, Nathalie J; Baker, C Scott

    2016-03-01

    Accurate estimation of historical abundance provides an essential baseline for judging the recovery of the great whales. This is particularly challenging for whales hunted prior to twentieth century modern whaling, as population-level catch records are often incomplete. Assessments of whale recovery using pre-modern exploitation indices are therefore rare, despite the intensive, global nature of nineteenth century whaling. Right whales (Eubalaena spp.) were particularly exploited: slow swimmers with strong fidelity to sheltered calving bays, the species made predictable and easy targets. Here, we present the first integrated population-level assessment of the whaling impact and pre-exploitation abundance of a right whale, the New Zealand southern right whale (E. australis). In this assessment, we use a Bayesian population dynamics model integrating multiple data sources: nineteenth century catches, genetic constraints on bottleneck size and individual sightings histories informing abundance and trend. Different catch allocation scenarios are explored to account for uncertainty in the population's offshore distribution. From a pre-exploitation abundance of 28 800-47 100 whales, nineteenth century hunting reduced the population to approximately 30-40 mature females between 1914 and 1926. Today, it stands at less than 12% of pre-exploitation abundance. Despite the challenges of reconstructing historical catches and population boundaries, conservation efforts of historically exploited species benefit from targets for ecological restoration.

  4. Cortical Asymmetries during Hand Laterality Task Vary with Hand Laterality: A fMRI Study in 295 Participants

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mellet, Emmanuel; Mazoyer, Bernard; Leroux, Gaelle; Joliot, Marc; Tzourio-Mazoyer, Nathalie

    2016-01-01

    The aim of this study was to characterize, using fMRI, the functional asymmetries of hand laterality task (HLT) in a sample of 295 participants balanced for handedness. During HLT, participants have to decide whether the displayed picture of a hand represent a right or a left hand. Pictures of hands’ back view were presented for 150 ms in the right or left hemifield. At the whole hemisphere level, we evidenced that the laterality of the hand and of the hemifield in which the picture was displayed combined their effects on the hemispheric asymmetry in an additive way. We then identified a set of 17 functional homotopic regions of interest (hROIs) including premotor, motor, somatosensory and parietal regions, whose activity and asymmetry varied with the laterality of the presented hands. When the laterality of a right hand had to be evaluated, these areas showed stronger leftward asymmetry, the hROI located in the primary motor area showing a significant larger effect than all other hROIs. In addition a subset of six parietal regions involved in visuo-motor integration together with two postcentral areas showed a variation in asymmetry with hemifield of presentation. Finally, while handedness had no effect at the hemispheric level, two regions located in the parietal operculum and intraparietal sulcus exhibited larger leftward asymmetry with right handedness independently of the hand of presentation. The present results extend those of previous works in showing a shift of asymmetries during HLT according to the hand presented in sensorimotor areas including primary motor cortex. This shift was not affected by manual preference. They also demonstrate that the coordination of visual information and handedness identification of hands relied on the coexistence of contralateral motor and visual representations in the superior parietal lobe and the postcentral gyrus. PMID:27999536

  5. Documentation of Significant Losses in Cornus florida L. Populations throughout the Appalachian Ecoregion

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Christopher M. Oswalt

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available Over the last three decades the fungus Discula destructiva Redlin has severely impacted Cornus florida L. (flowering dogwood—hereafter “dogwood” populations throughout its range. This study estimates historical and current dogwood populations (number of trees across the Appalachian ecoregion. Objectives were to (1 quantify current dogwood populations in the Appalachian ecoregion, (2 quantify change over time in dogwood populations, and (3 identify trends in dogwood population shifts. Data from the USDA Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA database were compiled from 41 FIA units in 13 states for county-level estimates of the total number of all live dogwood trees on timberland within the Appalachian ecoregion. Analysis of covariance, comparing historical and current county-level dogwood population estimates with average change in forest density as the covariate, was used to identify significant changes within FIA units. Losses ranging from 25 to 100 percent of the sample population (<.05 were observed in 33 of the 41 (80 percent sampled FIA units. These results indicate that an important component of the eastern deciduous forest has experienced serious losses throughout the Appalachians and support localized empirical results and landscape-scale anecdotal evidence.

  6. Documentation of Significant Losses in Cornus florida L. Populations throughout the Appalachian Ecoregion

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Oswalt, Ch.M.; Oswalt, S.N.

    2010-01-01

    Over the last three decades the fungus Discula destructiva Redlin has severely impacted Cornus florida L. (flowering dogwood hereafter dogwood) populations throughout its range. This study estimates historical and current dogwood populations (number of trees) across the Appalachian ecoregion. Objectives were to (1) quantify current dogwood populations in the Appalachian eco region, (2) quantify change over time in dogwood populations, and (3) identify trends in dogwood population shifts. Data from the USDA Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) database were compiled from 41 FIA units in 13 states for county-level estimates of the total number of all live dogwood trees on timberland within the Appalachian eco region. Analysis of covariance, comparing historical and current county-level dogwood population estimates with average change in forest density as the covariate, was used to identify significant changes within FIA units. Losses ranging from 25 to 100 percent of the sample population (ρ<.05) were observed in 33 of the 41 (80 percent) sampled FIA units. These results indicate that an important component of the eastern deciduous forest has experienced serious losses throughout the Appalachians and support localized empirical results and landscape-scale anecdotal evidence.

  7. A Dextral Primary Progressive Aphasia Patient with Right Dominant Hypometabolism and Tau Accumulation and Left Dominant Amyloid Accumulation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Young Kyoung Jang

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available Background: Primary progressive aphasia (PPA is a degenerative disease that presents as progressive decline of language ability with preservation of other cognitive functions in the early stages. Three subtypes of PPA are known: progressive nonfluent aphasia, semantic dementia, and logopenic aphasia (LPA. Patients and Methods: We report the case of a 77-year-old patient with PPA whose clinical findings did not correspond to the three subtypes but mainly fit LPA. Unlike other LPA patients, however, this patient showed a right hemisphere predominant glucose hypometabolism and tau accumulation and a left hemisphere predominant amyloid deposition. The right-handed patient presented with comprehension difficulty followed by problems naming familiar objects. This isolated language problem had deteriorated rapidly for 2 years, followed by memory difficulties and impairment of daily activities. Using a Korean version of the Western Aphasia Battery, aphasia was consistent with a severe form of Wernicke's aphasia. According to the brain magnetic resonance imaging and 18F-fludeoxyglucose positron emission tomography results, right hemisphere atrophy and hypometabolism, more predominant on the right hemisphere than the left, were apparent despite the fact that Edinburgh Handedness Questionnaire scores indicated strong right-handedness. On Pittsburgh compound B-PET, amyloid accumulation was asymmetrical with the left hemisphere being more predominant than the right, whereas 18F-T807-PET showed a right dominant tau accumulation. Conclusions: This is the first report of atypical PPA, in which the patient exhibited crossed aphasia and asymmetrical amyloid accumulation.

  8. Crossed Aphasia in a Patient with Anaplastic Astrocytoma of the Non-Dominant Hemisphere.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Prater, Stephanie; Anand, Neil; Wei, Lawrence; Horner, Neil

    2017-09-01

    Aphasia describes a spectrum of speech impairments due to damage in the language centers of the brain. Insult to the inferior frontal gyrus of the dominant cerebral hemisphere results in Broca's aphasia - the inability to produce fluent speech. The left cerebral hemisphere has historically been considered the dominant side, a characteristic long presumed to be related to a person's "handedness". However, recent studies utilizing fMRI have shown that right hemispheric dominance occurs more frequently than previously proposed and despite a person's handedness. Here we present a case of a right-handed patient with Broca's aphasia caused by a right-sided brain tumor. This is significant not only because the occurrence of aphasia in right-handed-individuals with right hemispheric brain damage (so-called "crossed aphasia") is unusual but also because such findings support dissociation between hemispheric linguistic dominance and handedness.

  9. Handedness results from Complementary Hemispheric Dominance, not Global Hemispheric Dominance: Evidence from Mechanically Coupled Bilateral Movements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Woytowicz, Elizabeth J; Westlake, Kelly P; Whitall, Jill; Sainburg, Robert L

    2018-05-09

    Two contrasting views of handedness can be described as 1) complementary dominance, in which each hemisphere is specialized for different aspects of motor control, and 2) global dominance, in which the hemisphere contralateral to the dominant arm is specialized for all aspects of motor control. The present study sought to determine which motor lateralization hypothesis best predicts motor performance during common bilateral task of stabilizing an object (e.g. bread) with one hand while applying forces to the object (e.g. slicing) using the other hand. We designed an experimental equivalent of this task, performed in a virtual environment with the unseen arms supported by frictionless air-sleds. The hands were connected by a spring, and the task was to maintain the position of one hand, while moving the other hand to a target. Thus, the reaching hand was required to take account of the spring load to make smooth and accurate trajectories, while the stabilizer hand was required to impede the spring load to keep a constant position. Right-handed subjects performed two task sessions (right hand reach and left hand stabilize; left hand reach and right hand stabilize) with the order of the sessions counterbalanced between groups. Our results indicate a hand by task-component interaction, such that the right hand showed straighter reaching performance while the left showed more stable holding performance. These findings provide support for the complementary dominance hypothesis and suggest that the specializations of each cerebral hemisphere for impedance and dynamic control mechanisms are expressed during bilateral interactive tasks.

  10. Assessment of right ventricular function using gated blood pool single photon emission computed tomography in inferior myocardial infarction with or without hemodynamically significant right ventricular infarction

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Takahashi, Masaharu

    1992-01-01

    Right ventricular function was assessed using gated blood pool single photon emission computed tomography (GSPECT) in 10 normal subjects and 14 patients with inferior myocardial infarction. Three-dimensional backbround subtraction was achieved by applying an optimal cut off level. The patient group consisted of 6 patients with definite hemodynamic abnormalities indicative of right ventricular infarction (RVI) and 8 other patients with significant obstructive lesion at the proximal portion of right coronary artery without obvious hemodynamic signs of RVI. Right ventricular regional wall motion abnormalities were demonstrated on GSPECT functional images and the indices of right ventricular function (i.e the right ventricular ejection fraction (RVEF), the right ventricular peak ejection rate (RVPER) and the right ventricular peak filling rate (RVPFR)) were significantly reduced in the patient group, not only in the patients with definite RVI but also in those without hemodynamic signs of RVI, even in the absence of definite hemodynamic signs, when the proximal portion of right coronary artery is obstructed. It is concluded that GSPECT is reliable for the assessment of right ventricular function and regional wall motion, and is also useful for the diagnosis of RVI. (author)

  11. How to determine the handedness of single molecules using Coulomb explosion imaging

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pitzer, Martin

    2017-01-01

    This tutorial is based on a doctoral thesis that was shortlisted for the 2016 AMOP dissertation prize of the German Physical Society (DPG). The principal achievement of the thesis was to use Coulomb explosion imaging (CEI) to determine the microscopic handedness (‘chirality’) of molecular structures on a single-molecule level. It thus shows how a technique developed in atomic physics can address a long-standing problem in chemistry. Owing to these disparate backgrounds, the tutorial has two facets: on the one hand, the history of molecular chirality and recent developments are very briefly reviewed. On the other hand, an account is given of different experimental approaches to CEI, on the physical processes in light-induced Coulomb explosion and—most importantly—on the aspects that are relevant when designing and performing such an experiment. As structural chirality occurs only in polyatomic molecules, special attention will be given to multiple ionization and multi-coincidence measurements. A short discussion of the results presented in earlier papers is given, followed by an outlook on experiments that are under way or can realistically be performed within the next years. (phd tutorial)

  12. Population, sexual and reproductive health, rights and sustainable development: forging a common agenda.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Newman, Karen; Fisher, Sarah; Mayhew, Susannah; Stephenson, Judith

    2014-05-01

    This article suggests that sexual and reproductive health and rights activists seeking to influence the post-2015 international development paradigm must work with sustainable development advocates concerned with a range of issues, including climate change, environmental issues, and food and water security, and that a way of building bridges with these communities is to demonstrate how sexual and reproductive health and rights are relevant for these issues. An understanding of population dynamics, including urbanization and migration, as well as population growth, can help to clarify these links. This article therefore suggests that whether or not sexual and reproductive health and rights activists can overcome resistance to discussing "population", become more knowledgeable about other sustainable development issues, and work with others in those fields to advance the global sustainable development agenda are crucial questions for the coming months. The article also contends that it is possible to care about population dynamics (including ageing and problems faced by countries with a high proportion of young people) and care about human rights at the same time. It expresses concern that, if sexual and reproductive health and rights advocates do not participate in the population dynamics discourse, the field will be left free for those for whom respecting and protecting rights may be less of a priority. Copyright © 2014 Reproductive Health Matters. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. Accuracy of outcome anticipation, but not gaze behavior, differs against left- and right-handed penalties in team-handball goalkeeping

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Florian eLoffing

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Low perceptual familiarity with relatively rarer left-handed as opposed to more common right-handed individuals may result in athletes’ poorer ability to anticipate the former’s action intentions. Part of such left-right asymmetry in visual anticipation could be due to an inefficient gaze strategy during confrontation with left-handed individuals. To exemplify, observers may not mirror their gaze when viewing left- vs. right-handed actions but preferentially fixate on an opponent’s right body side, irrespective of an opponent’s handedness, owing to the predominant exposure to right-handed actions. So far empirical verification of such assumption, however, is lacking. Here we report on an experiment where team-handball goalkeepers’ and non-goalkeepers’ gaze behavior was recorded while they predicted throw direction of left- and right-handed seven-meter penalties shown as videos on a computer monitor. As expected, goalkeepers were considerably more accurate than non-goalkeepers and prediction was better against right- than left-handed penalties. However, there was no indication of differences in gaze measures (i.e., number of fixations, overall and final fixation duration, time-course of horizontal or vertical fixation deviation as a function of skill group or the penalty-takers’ handedness. Findings suggest that inferior anticipation of left-handed compared to right-handed individuals’ action intentions may not be associated with misalignment in gaze behavior. Rather, albeit looking similarly, accuracy differences could be due to observers’ differential ability of picking up and interpreting the visual information provided by left- vs. right-handed movements.

  14. Accuracy of Outcome Anticipation, But Not Gaze Behavior, Differs Against Left- and Right-Handed Penalties in Team-Handball Goalkeeping

    Science.gov (United States)

    Loffing, Florian; Sölter, Florian; Hagemann, Norbert; Strauss, Bernd

    2015-01-01

    Low perceptual familiarity with relatively rarer left-handed as opposed to more common right-handed individuals may result in athletes' poorer ability to anticipate the former's action intentions. Part of such left-right asymmetry in visual anticipation could be due to an inefficient gaze strategy during confrontation with left-handed individuals. To exemplify, observers may not mirror their gaze when viewing left- vs. right-handed actions but preferentially fixate on an opponent's right body side, irrespective of an opponent's handedness, owing to the predominant exposure to right-handed actions. So far empirical verification of such assumption, however, is lacking. Here we report on an experiment where team-handball goalkeepers' and non-goalkeepers' gaze behavior was recorded while they predicted throw direction of left- and right-handed 7-m penalties shown as videos on a computer monitor. As expected, goalkeepers were considerably more accurate than non-goalkeepers and prediction was better against right- than left-handed penalties. However, there was no indication of differences in gaze measures (i.e., number of fixations, overall and final fixation duration, time-course of horizontal or vertical fixation deviation) as a function of skill group or the penalty-takers' handedness. Findings suggest that inferior anticipation of left-handed compared to right-handed individuals' action intentions may not be associated with misalignment in gaze behavior. Rather, albeit looking similarly, accuracy differences could be due to observers' differential ability of picking up and interpreting the visual information provided by left- vs. right-handed movements. PMID:26648887

  15. Flank Attacks : Populism and Left-Right Radicalism in Western Europe

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Rooduijn, M.; Akkerman, T.

    2017-01-01

    How is populism distributed over the political spectrum? Are right-wing parties more populist than left-wing parties? Based on the analysis of 32 parties in five Western European countries between 1989 and 2008, we show that radical parties on both the left and the right are inclined to employ a

  16. Flank attacks : Populism and left-right radicalism in Western Europe

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Rooduijn, Matthijs; Akkerman, Tjitske

    2017-01-01

    How is populism distributed over the political spectrum? Are right-wing parties more populist than left-wing parties? Based on the analysis of 32 parties in five Western European countries between 1989 and 2008, we show that radical parties on both the left and the right are inclined to employ a

  17. Population and reproductive biology of the fiddler crab Uca thayeri Rathbun, 1900 (Crustacea: Ocypodidae) in a tropical mangrove from Northeast Brazil

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arruda Bezerra, Luis Ernesto; Matthews-Cascon, Helena

    2007-05-01

    Population and reproductive biology of Uca thayeri Rathbun, 1900 were studied for the first time in a tropical mangrove. Absolute density, sex ratio, population structure, handedness, breeding season and fecundity were investigated. Seven transects were delimited in a mangrove area of the Pacoti River, Northeast of Brazil (3° 43' 02″ S/38° 32' 35″ W). On each transect, ten 0.25 m 2 squares were sampled on a monthly basis during low tide periods from September 2003 to August 2004. A total of 483 crabs were obtained, of which 250 were males, 219 non-ovigerous females, and 14 ovigerous females. The U. thayeri population presented bi-modal size frequency distribution, with males and non-ovigerous females not differing significantly size-wise. Ovigerous females were larger than males and non-ovigerous females. The overall sex ratio (1:1.07) did not differ significantly from the expected 1:1 proportion. The major cheliped was the right one in 50% of the males. The observed density was of 8.5 individuals/m 2, with the specimens being found mostly in shaded areas. Ovigerous females were found in 5 months of the year, coinciding with the rainy season, suggesting that the population of U. thayeri presents seasonal reproductive events. Juvenile crabs were more abundant during the dry period, while larger crabs were found mainly during the rainy period. The fecundity of the studied population was much smaller than that of subtropical populations of this species. The regression analysis shows that the number of eggs increases linearly with the increase of carapace width.

  18. Did Caravaggio employ optical projections? An image analysis of the parity in the artist's paintings

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stork, David G.

    2011-03-01

    We examine one class of evidence put forth in support of the recent claim that the Italian Baroque master Caravaggio secretly employed optical projectors as a direct drawing aid. Specically, we test the claims that there is an "abnormal number" of left-handed gures in his works and, more specically, that "During the Del Monte period he had too many left-handed models." We also test whether there was a reversal in the handedness of specic models in different paintings. Such evidence would be consistent with the claim that Caravaggio switched between using a convex-lens projector to using a concave-mirror projector and would support, but not prove, the claim that Caravaggio used optical projections. We estimate the parity (+ or -) of each of Caravaggio's 76 appropriate oil paintings based on the handedness of gures, the orientation of asymmetric objects, placement of scabbards, depicted text, and so on, and search for statistically significant changes in handedness in figures. We also track the direction of the illumination over time in the artist's uvre. We discuss some historical evidence as it relates to the question of his possible use of optics. We nd the proportion of left-handed figures lower than that in the general population (not higher), and no significant change in estimated handedness even of individual models. Optical proponents have argued that Bacchus (1597) portrays a left-handed gure, but we give visual and cultural evidence showing that this gure is instead right-handed, thereby rebutting this claim that the painting was executed using optical projections. Moreover, scholars recently re-discovered the image of the artist with easel and canvas reflected in the carafe of wine at the front left in the tableau in Bacchus, showing that this painting was almost surely executed using traditional (non-optical) easel methods. We conclude that there is 1) no statistically signicant abnormally high number of left-handed gures in Caravaggio's uvre, including

  19. Left, right, left, right, eyes to the front! Müller-Lyer bias in grasping is not a function of hand used, hand preferred or visual hemifield, but foveation does matter.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van der Kamp, John; de Wit, Matthieu M; Masters, Rich S W

    2012-04-01

    We investigated whether the control of movement of the left hand is more likely to involve the use of allocentric information than movements performed with the right hand. Previous studies (Gonzalez et al. in J Neurophys 95:3496-3501, 2006; De Grave et al. in Exp Br Res 193:421-427, 2009) have reported contradictory findings in this respect. In the present study, right-handed participants (N = 12) and left-handed participants (N = 12) made right- and left-handed grasps to foveated objects and peripheral, non-foveated objects that were located in the right or left visual hemifield and embedded within a Müller-Lyer illusion. They were also asked to judge the size of the object by matching their hand aperture to its length. Hand apertures did not show significant differences in illusory bias as a function of hand used, handedness or visual hemifield. However, the illusory effect was significantly larger for perception than for action, and for the non-foveated compared to foveated objects. No significant illusory biases were found for reach movement times. These findings are consistent with the two-visual system model that holds that the use of allocentric information is more prominent in perception than in movement control. We propose that the increased involvement of allocentric information in movements toward peripheral, non-foveated objects may be a consequence of more awkward, less automatized grasps of nonfoveated than foveated objects. The current study does not support the conjecture that the control of left-handed and right-handed grasps is predicated on different sources of information.

  20. Microsatellite data suggest significant population structure and differentiation within the malaria vector Anopheles darlingi in Central and South America

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Achee Nicole L

    2008-03-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Anopheles darlingi is the most important malaria vector in the Neotropics. An understanding of A. darlingi's population structure and contemporary gene flow patterns is necessary if vector populations are to be successfully controlled. We assessed population genetic structure and levels of differentiation based on 1,376 samples from 31 localities throughout the Peruvian and Brazilian Amazon and Central America using 5–8 microsatellite loci. Results We found high levels of polymorphism for all of the Amazonian populations (mean RS = 7.62, mean HO = 0.742, and low levels for the Belize and Guatemalan populations (mean RS = 4.3, mean HO = 0.457. The Bayesian clustering analysis revealed five population clusters: northeastern Amazonian Brazil, southeastern and central Amazonian Brazil, western and central Amazonian Brazil, Peruvian Amazon, and the Central American populations. Within Central America there was low non-significant differentiation, except for between the populations separated by the Maya Mountains. Within Amazonia there was a moderate level of significant differentiation attributed to isolation by distance. Within Peru there was no significant population structure and low differentiation, and some evidence of a population expansion. The pairwise estimates of genetic differentiation between Central America and Amazonian populations were all very high and highly significant (FST = 0.1859 – 0.3901, P DA and FST distance-based trees illustrated the main division to be between Central America and Amazonia. Conclusion We detected a large amount of population structure in Amazonia, with three population clusters within Brazil and one including the Peru populations. The considerable differences in Ne among the populations may have contributed to the observed genetic differentiation. All of the data suggest that the primary division within A. darlingi corresponds to two white gene genotypes between Amazonia (genotype 1

  1. A comprehensive assessment of mercury exposure in penguin populations throughout the Southern Hemisphere: Using trophic calculations to identify sources of population-level variation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brasso, Rebecka L; Chiaradia, André; Polito, Michael J; Raya Rey, Andrea; Emslie, Steven D

    2015-08-15

    The wide geographic distribution of penguins (Order Sphenisciformes) throughout the Southern Hemisphere provided a unique opportunity to use a single taxonomic group as biomonitors of mercury among geographically distinct marine ecosystems. Mercury concentrations were compared among ten species of penguins representing 26 geographically distinct breeding populations. Mercury concentrations were relatively low (⩽2.00ppm) in feathers from 18/26 populations considered. Population-level differences in trophic level explained variation in mercury concentrations among Little, King, and Gentoo penguin populations. However, Southern Rockhopper and Magellanic penguins breeding on Staten Island, Tierra del Fuego, had the highest mercury concentrations relative to their conspecifics despite foraging at a lower trophic level. The concurrent use of stable isotope and mercury data allowed us to document penguin populations at the greatest risk of exposure to harmful concentrations of mercury as a result of foraging at a high trophic level or in geographic 'hot spots' of mercury availability. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. Increased cortical thickness and altered functional connectivity of the right superior temporal gyrus in left-handers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Meiling; Chen, Heng; Wang, Junping; Liu, Feng; Wang, Yifeng; Lu, Fengmei; Yu, Chunshui; Chen, Huafu

    2015-01-01

    Altered structure in the temporal cortex has been implicated in the variable language laterality of left-handers (LH). The neuroanatomy of language lateralization and the corresponding synchronous functional connectivity (FC) in handedness cohorts are not, however, fully understood. We used structural and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data to investigate the effect of altered cortical thickness on FC in LH and right-handers (RH). Whole-brain cortical thickness was calculated and compared between the LH and RH. We observed increased cortical thickness in the right superior temporal gyrus (STG) in the LH. A further FC analysis was conducted between the right STG and the remaining voxels in the brain. Compared with RH, the LH showed significantly higher FC in the left STG, right occipital cortex, and lower FC in the left inferior frontal gyrus and supramarginal gyrus. Our findings suggest that LH have atypical connectivity in the language network, with an enhanced role of the STG, findings which provide novel insights into the structural and functional substrates underlying the atypical language development of left-handed individuals. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. Are higher blood mercury levels associated with dry eye symptoms in adult Koreans? A population-based cross-sectional study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chung, So-Hyang; Myong, Jun-Pyo

    2016-04-27

    The purpose of this study was to investigate whether blood mercury concentrations associated with the presence of dry eye symptoms in a nationally representative Korean population. Population-based prospective cross-sectional study using the heavy metal data set of the 2010-2012 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES). A total of 4761 adult Koreans were the eligible population in this study. Of the 7162 survey participants, 2401 were excluded because they were eye surgery. Blood mercury levels were measured on the day the participants completed a questionnaire regarding the presence of dry eye symptoms (persistent dryness or eye irritation). The population was divided into low and high groups by median level (4.26 and 2.89 µg/L for males and females, respectively). Self-reported dry eye symptoms were present in 13.0% of the cohort. Participants with dry eye symptoms were significantly more likely to have blood mercury levels exceeding the median than those without dry eye symptoms (45.7% vs 51.7%, p=0.021). Logistic regression analysis showed that, after adjusting for age, gender, education, total household income, smoking status, heavy alcohol use, sleep time, perceived stress status, total cholesterol levels and atopy history, dry eye symptoms were significantly associated with blood mercury levels that exceeded the median (reference: lower mercury group; OR, 1.324; 95% CI 1.059 to 1.655; pdry eye symptoms in a nationally representative Korean population. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

  4. Integrative demographic modeling reveals population level impacts of PCB toxicity to juvenile snapping turtles

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Salice, Christopher J.; Rowe, Christopher L.; Eisenreich, Karen M.

    2014-01-01

    A significant challenge in ecotoxicology and risk assessment lies in placing observed contaminant effects in a meaningful ecological context. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have been shown to affect juvenile snapping turtle survival and growth but the ecological significance of these effects is difficult to discern without a formal, population-level assessment. We used a demographic matrix model to explore the potential population-level effects of PCBs on turtles. Our model showed that effects of PCBs on juvenile survival, growth and size at hatching could translate to negative effects at the population level despite the fact that these life cycle components do not typically contribute strongly to population level processes. This research points to the utility of using integrative demographic modeling approaches to better understand contaminant effects in wildlife. The results indicate that population-level effects are only evident after several years, suggesting that for long-lived species, detecting adverse contaminant effects could prove challenging. -- Highlights: • Previous studies have shown the PCBs can impact juvenile snapping turtles. • We used a demographic model of turtles to evaluate population-level PCB effects. • PCB effects on turtles may translate to negative population responses. • Long-term monitoring is needed to detect contaminant effects on natural turtle populations. • Demographic models can improve our understanding contaminant ecotoxicity. -- A demographic model was used to show that PCB induced effects on young snapping turtles can result in adverse effects at the population level

  5. Inferring individual-level processes from population-level patterns in cultural evolution

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilder, Bryan

    2017-01-01

    Our species is characterized by a great degree of cultural variation, both within and between populations. Understanding how group-level patterns of culture emerge from individual-level behaviour is a long-standing question in the biological and social sciences. We develop a simulation model capturing demographic and cultural dynamics relevant to human cultural evolution, focusing on the interface between population-level patterns and individual-level processes. The model tracks the distribution of variants of cultural traits across individuals in a population over time, conditioned on different pathways for the transmission of information between individuals. From these data, we obtain theoretical expectations for a range of statistics commonly used to capture population-level characteristics (e.g. the degree of cultural diversity). Consistent with previous theoretical work, our results show that the patterns observed at the level of groups are rooted in the interplay between the transmission pathways and the age structure of the population. We also explore whether, and under what conditions, the different pathways can be distinguished based on their group-level signatures, in an effort to establish theoretical limits to inference. Our results show that the temporal dynamic of cultural change over time retains a stronger signature than the cultural composition of the population at a specific point in time. Overall, the results suggest a shift in focus from identifying the one individual-level process that likely produced the observed data to excluding those that likely did not. We conclude by discussing the implications for empirical studies of human cultural evolution. PMID:28989786

  6. Inferring individual-level processes from population-level patterns in cultural evolution.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kandler, Anne; Wilder, Bryan; Fortunato, Laura

    2017-09-01

    Our species is characterized by a great degree of cultural variation, both within and between populations. Understanding how group-level patterns of culture emerge from individual-level behaviour is a long-standing question in the biological and social sciences. We develop a simulation model capturing demographic and cultural dynamics relevant to human cultural evolution, focusing on the interface between population-level patterns and individual-level processes. The model tracks the distribution of variants of cultural traits across individuals in a population over time, conditioned on different pathways for the transmission of information between individuals. From these data, we obtain theoretical expectations for a range of statistics commonly used to capture population-level characteristics (e.g. the degree of cultural diversity). Consistent with previous theoretical work, our results show that the patterns observed at the level of groups are rooted in the interplay between the transmission pathways and the age structure of the population. We also explore whether, and under what conditions, the different pathways can be distinguished based on their group-level signatures, in an effort to establish theoretical limits to inference. Our results show that the temporal dynamic of cultural change over time retains a stronger signature than the cultural composition of the population at a specific point in time. Overall, the results suggest a shift in focus from identifying the one individual-level process that likely produced the observed data to excluding those that likely did not. We conclude by discussing the implications for empirical studies of human cultural evolution.

  7. Prevalence of stuttering.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Porfert, A R; Rosenfield, D B

    1978-01-01

    The prevalence of stuttering in a university population was 2.1%; 3.4% were former stutterers. More men than women stuttered. Right handed female stutterers were less likely to have "lost" their stutter than were right handed males. Stutterers, past stutterers, and questionable stutterers all had a family history of stuttering. The significant prevalence of stuttering, the increased prevalence among males, the lack of a decline of this disorder over the past few decades despite the increased number of speech clinicians and data concerning handedness, emphasise the need to investigate organic causes of stuttering. PMID:731247

  8. Echocardiographic assessment of right ventricular functions in healthy subjects who migrated from the sea level to a moderate altitude.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arısoy, Arif; Topçu, Selim; Demirelli, Selami; Altunkaş, Fatih; Karayakalı, Metin; Çelik, Ataç; Tanboğa, İbrahim Halil; Aksakal, Enbiya; Sevimli, Serdar; Gürlertop, Hanefi Yekta

    2015-11-25

    The aim of this study was to evaluate right ventricle (RV) functions using echocardiography in healthy subjects who migrated from the sea level to moderate altitude (1890 m). The prospective observational in this study population consisted of 33 healthy subjects (23 men; mean age 20.4±3.2 years) who migrated from the sea level to a moderate altitude (Erzurum city centre, 1890 m above sea level) for long-term stay. Subjects underwent echocardiographic evaluation within the first 48 h of exposure to the moderate altitude and at the sixth month of arrival. Conventional echocardiographic parameters such as RV sizes and areas, systolic, and diastolic functional indices [fractional area change (FAC), tricuspid flow velocities, myocardial performance index (MPI), and tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE)] were obtained. Systolic (S) and diastolic (E', A') velocities were acquired from the apical fourchamber view using tissue Doppler imaging. Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, student's t-test, Wilcoxon test, and chi-square test were used in this study. There were no significant changes in RV size, FAC, MPI, TAPSE, inferior inspiratory vena cava collapse, tricuspid E velocity, and tricuspid annulus E' velocity. Compared with the baseline, there was a significant increase in mean pulmonary artery pressure (p=0.001); RV end systolic area (p=0.014); right atrial end diastolic area (p=0.021); tricuspid A velocity (p=0.013); tricuspid annulus S and A' velocity (p=0.031 and p=0.006, respectively); and RV free wall S, E', and A' velocity (p=0.007, pa significant decrease in tricuspid E/A ratio (1.61±0.3 vs. 1.45±0.2, p=0.038) and tricuspid annulus E'/A' ratio (1.52±0.5 vs. 1.23±0.4, p=0.002) at the sixth month. Our study revealed that right ventricular diastolic function was altered while the systolic function was preserved in healthy subjects who migrated from the sea level to a moderate altitude.

  9. Eye-hand laterality and right thoracic idiopathic scoliosis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Catanzariti, Jean-François; Guyot, Marc-Alexandre; Agnani, Olivier; Demaille, Samantha; Kolanowski, Elisabeth; Donze, Cécile

    2014-06-01

    The adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) pathogenesis remains unknown. Certain studies have shown that there is a correlation between manual laterality and scoliotic deviation. A full study of manual laterality needs to be paired with one for visual dominance. With the aim of physiopathological research, we have evaluated the manual and visual laterality in AIS. A retrospective study from prospective data collection is used to evaluate the distribution of eye-hand laterality (homogeneous or crossed) of 65 right thoracic AIS (mean age 14.8 ± 1.8 years; mean Cobb angle: 32.8°) and a control group of 65 sex and age-matched (mean age 14.6 ± 1.8 years). The manual laterality was defined by the modified Edinburgh Handedness Inventory. The evaluation of the visual laterality is done using three tests (kaleidoscope test, hole-in-the-card test, distance-hole-in-the-card test). The group of right thoracic AIS presents a significantly higher frequency of crossed eye-hand laterality (63 %) than the control group (63 vs. 29.2 %; p laterality is "right hand dominant-left eye dominant" (82.9 %). There is no relationship with the Cobb angle. Those with right thoracic AIS show a higher occurrence of crossed eye-hand laterality. This could point physiopathological research of AIS towards functional abnormality of the optic chiasma through underuse of cross visual pathways, and in particular accessory optic pathways. It would be useful to explore this by carrying out research on AISs through neuroimaging and neurofunctional exploration.

  10. Significance of changes of levels of plasma proBNP1-76 in patients with chronic pulmonary heart disease

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li Guizhong; Xu Hua; Cao Jun; Jiang Wei; Pang Yongzheng; Tang Chaoshu

    2003-01-01

    Objective: To investigate the significance of the changes levels of plasma proBNP 1-76 in patients with COPD and chronic pulmonary heart disease. Methods: Plasma proBNP 1-76 levels were determined with radioimmunoassay in patients with CHPD (n=23), COPD (n=24) and 32 controls. Results: The concentrations of plasma proBNP 1-76 in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were significantly increased (vs controls, p 1-76 (r=0.541, p 1-76 , right inferior pulmonary artery diameter, right ventricle out flow tract diameter and right ventricle anterior wall thickness in patients with chronic pulmonary heart disease were increased significantly (vs COPD patients and controls, p 1-76 (r=0.477, p 1-76 is an early marker of right ventricular hypertrophy and right ventricular dysfunction, measurement of which is useful in the management of patients with chronic pulmonary heart disease in daily practice

  11. Getting Things Right at the Classroom Level

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shaw, Jerome M.

    2005-01-01

    In this article, the author approaches accountability testing from a more micro level and offers a response to the question, "What can be done to get assessment right at the classroom level?" The author's answer refers back to accountability issues by considering that class of assessments most commonly used for such a purpose, herein referred to…

  12. Quality of life differences in patients with right- versus left-sided facial paralysis: Universal preference of right-sided human face recognition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ryu, Nam Gyu; Lim, Byung Woo; Cho, Jae Keun; Kim, Jin

    2016-09-01

    We investigated whether experiencing right- or left-sided facial paralysis would affect an individual's ability to recognize one side of the human face using hybrid hemi-facial photos by preliminary study. Further investigation looked at the relationship between facial recognition ability, stress, and quality of life. To investigate predominance of one side of the human face for face recognition, 100 normal participants (right-handed: n = 97, left-handed: n = 3, right brain dominance: n = 56, left brain dominance: n = 44) answered a questionnaire that included hybrid hemi-facial photos developed to determine decide superiority of one side for human face recognition. To determine differences of stress level and quality of life between individuals experiencing right- and left-sided facial paralysis, 100 patients (right side:50, left side:50, not including traumatic facial nerve paralysis) answered a questionnaire about facial disability index test and quality of life (SF-36 Korean version). Regardless of handedness or hemispheric dominance, the proportion of predominance of the right side in human face recognition was larger than the left side (71% versus 12%, neutral: 17%). Facial distress index of the patients with right-sided facial paralysis was lower than that of left-sided patients (68.8 ± 9.42 versus 76.4 ± 8.28), and the SF-36 scores of right-sided patients were lower than left-sided patients (119.07 ± 15.24 versus 123.25 ± 16.48, total score: 166). Universal preference for the right side in human face recognition showed worse psychological mood and social interaction in patients with right-side facial paralysis than left-sided paralysis. This information is helpful to clinicians in that psychological and social factors should be considered when treating patients with facial-paralysis. Copyright © 2016 British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. Fasting time and vitamin B12 levels in a community-based population.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Orton, Dennis J; Naugler, Christopher; Sadrzadeh, S M Hossein

    2016-07-01

    Vitamin B12, also known as cobalamin (Cbl), is an essential vitamin that manifests with numerous severe but non-specific symptoms in cases of deficiency. Assessing Cbl status often requires fasting, although this requirement is not standard between institutions. This study evaluated the impact of fasting on Cbl levels in a large community-based cohort in an effort to promote standardization of Cbl testing between sites. Laboratory data for Cbl, fasting time, patient age and sex were obtained from laboratory information service from Calgary Laboratory Services (CLS) for the period of April 2011 to June 2015. CLS is the sole supplier of laboratory services in the Southern Alberta region in Canada (population, approximately 1.4 million). To investigate potential sex-specific effects of fasting on Cbl levels, males and females were analyzed separately using linear regression models. A total of 346,957 individual patient results (196,849 females, 146,085 males) were obtained. The mean plasma Cbl level was 386.5 (±195.6) pmol/L and 412.0 (±220.8) pmol/L for males and females, respectively. Linear regression analysis showed fasting had no significant association with Cbl levels in females; however a statistically significant decrease of 0.9pmol/L/hour fasting (pfasting has the potential to contribute to higher rates of Cbl deficiency in men. Together, these data suggest fasting should be excluded as a requirement for evaluating plasma Cbl. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  14. On the determination of the b →c handedness using nonleptonic Λc-decays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Koenig, B.

    1993-09-01

    We consider possibilities to determine the handedness of b→c current transitions using semileptonic baryonic Λ b →Λ c transitions. We propose to analyze the longitudinal polarization of the daughter baryon Δ c by using momentum-spin correlation measurements in the form of forward-backward (FB) asymmetry measures involving its nonleptonic decay products. We use an explicit form factor model to determine the longitudinal polarization of the Λ c in the semileptonic decay Λ b →Λ c +l - + anti v l . The mean longitudinal polarization of the Λ c is negative (positive) for left-chiral (right-chiral) b→c current transitions. The frame dependent longitudinal polarization of the Λ c is large (≅80%) in the Λ b rest frame and somewhat smaller (30%-40%) in the lab frame when the Λ b 's are produced on the Z 0 peak. We suggest to use nonleptonic decay modes of the D c to analyze its polarization and thereby to determine the chirality of the b→c transition. Since the Λ b 's produced on the Z 0 are expected to be polarized we discuss issues of the polarization transfer in Λ b →Λ c transitions. We also investigate the p perpendicular to - and p-cut sensitivity of our predictions for the polarization of the Λ c . (orig.)

  15. The significance and role of local self-governments in the population policy of Serbia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gavrilović Ana

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Population should be in the central focus of local community institutions and the local community may constitute its population policy which will supplement state population policy measures, considering the local specific various traditions, values and models of living. The paper's basic goal is to critically perceive the characteristics, significance and role of local self-governments in the current population policy of Serbia. Social situation and social policy characteristics in Serbia are analyzed in the context of the population policy. It is pointed out that poverty, unemployment, the economic crisis, the process of privatization, the issue of system decentralization and social expectations of the population, as current expressions of transition, all have a consequence on the demographic development and population policy. A critical estimation of the activities in the field of population policies which are carried out by local and provincial self-governments in Serbia in the last decade are brought into focus, with a special review to the activities of provincial and local governments in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina. As a result of the analysis it is pointed out that the population and social policy measures have been separated since the year 2000 and that they have been directed only to stimulating births and not child raising and that solutions regarding maternity leave brought improvements, however shortened maternity leave for the third child. The new conception of the population policy brought a whole series of restrictions such as: suspension of aid for newborn essentials; discontinuance of the right to maternity allowance; abolishing of compensation for preschool expenses for the third child; children’s allowance lost its population measures character along with considerable tightening of the census and decreasing of amount; the activities of preschool facilities have been reduced only to an educational function, and the

  16. Human rights, ideology and population policies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Colombo, B

    1977-01-01

    Only too often ideology means fanaticism, intolerance, even violence, but the term can be used also to denote sets of preconceptions and presuppositions which act as a stimulus and a guide to scientific innovation, particularly in the field of social science. This sort of insight into the realities of life and the world is a contribution to knowledge and the search for truth, also in the field of human rights. These are taken in the paper as those rights whose infringement constitutes a "vulnus" of the essential characteristics of human beings and those which assume the role of a basic safeguard of them. The meaning of the insistence on the human rights theme in the United Nations system is briefly touched upon, but the main effort is spent in trying to find a firm base for both fundamental rights and duties, shown as strictly and simmetrically linked. Various examples of population policies - broadly defined as governmental interventions influencing demographic variables - are then examined in the light of the basic principles laid down in the said effort. The fields taken up in succession for consideration are international and internal migration, mortality, marriage, fertility in countries at different stages of demographic transition, and growth. Rather than trying an extensive coverage of the whole horizon, a line of critical and deep thought about typical problematic themes is preferred. One of the main conclusions which may be quoted is a statement according to which the problem remains wide open of discovering acceptable ways aiming at a modification of fertility patterns which combine a reduction of the average family size with the maintenance of its variability in order to respect free and responsible individual choices. How important and urgent this task is, is underscored by the observations advanced in the final section of the paper including a meditation on the limits that human sexuality appears to have imposed on itself.

  17. Ancestral Exposure to Stress Generates New Behavioral Traits and a Functional Hemispheric Dominance Shift.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ambeskovic, Mirela; Soltanpour, Nasrin; Falkenberg, Erin A; Zucchi, Fabiola C R; Kolb, Bryan; Metz, Gerlinde A S

    2017-03-01

    In a continuously stressful environment, the effects of recurrent prenatal stress (PS) accumulate across generations and generate new behavioral traits in the absence of genetic variation. Here, we investigated if PS or multigenerational PS across 4 generations differentially affect behavioral traits, laterality, and hemispheric dominance in male and female rats. Using skilled reaching and skilled walking tasks, 3 findings support the formation of new behavioral traits and shifted laterality by multigenerational stress. First, while PS in the F1 generation did not alter paw preference, multigenerational stress in the F4 generation shifted paw preference to favor left-handedness only in males. Second, multigenerational stress impaired skilled reaching and skilled walking movement abilities in males, while improving these abilities in females beyond the levels of controls. Third, the shift toward left-handedness in multigenerationally stressed males was accompanied by increased dendritic complexity and greater spine density in the right parietal cortex. Thus, cumulative multigenerational stress generates sexually dimorphic left-handedness and dominance shift toward the right hemisphere in males. These findings explain the origins of apparently heritable behavioral traits and handedness in the absence of DNA sequence variations while proposing epigenetic mechanisms. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  18. Insulin resistance index (HOMA-IR) levels in a general adult population: curves percentile by gender and age. The EPIRCE study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gayoso-Diz, Pilar; Otero-Gonzalez, Alfonso; Rodriguez-Alvarez, María Xosé; Gude, Francisco; Cadarso-Suarez, Carmen; García, Fernando; De Francisco, Angel

    2011-10-01

    To describe the distribution of HOMA-IR levels in a general nondiabetic population and its relationships with metabolic and lifestyles characteristics. Cross-sectional study. Data from 2246 nondiabetic adults in a random Spanish population sample, stratified by age and gender, were analyzed. Assessments included a structured interview, physical examination, and blood sampling. Generalized additive models (GAMs) were used to assess the effect of lifestyle habits and clinical and demographic measurements on HOMA-IR. Multivariate GAMs and quantile regression analyses of HOMA-IR were carried out separately in men and women. This study shows refined estimations of HOMA-IR levels by age, body mass index, and waist circumference in men and women. HOMA-IR levels were higher in men (2.06) than women (1.95) (P=0.047). In women, but not men, HOMA-IR and age showed a significant nonlinear association (P=0.006), with increased levels above fifty years of age. We estimated HOMA-IR curves percentile in men and women. Age- and gender-adjusted HOMA-IR levels are reported in a representative Spanish adult non-diabetic population. There are gender-specific differences, with increased levels in women over fifty years of age that may be related with changes in body fat distribution after menopause. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. Handedness is a biomarker of variation in anal sex role behavior and Recalled Childhood Gender Nonconformity among gay men

    OpenAIRE

    Swift-Gallant, Ashlyn; Coome, Lindsay A.; Monks, D. Ashley; VanderLaan, Doug P.

    2017-01-01

    Developmental theories of the biological basis of sexual orientation suggest that sexually differentiated psychological and behavioural traits should be linked with sexual orientation. Subgroups of gay men delineated by anal sex roles differ according to at least one such trait: gender expression. The present study assessed the hypothesis that handedness, a biologically determined sexually differentiated trait, corresponds to differences in subgroups of gay men based on anal sex role. Further...

  20. The Population Consequences of Disturbance Model Application to North Atlantic Right Whales (Eubalaena glacialis)

    Science.gov (United States)

    2015-09-30

    physiology, and the revised approach is called PCOD (Population Consequences Of Disturbance). In North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis...acoustic disturbance and prey variability into the PCOD model. OBJECTIVES The objectives for this study are to: 1) develop a Hierarchical...the model to assessing the effects of acoustics on the population. We have refined and applied the PCOD model developed for right whales (Schick et

  1. Normative values and the effects of age, gender, and handedness on the Moberg Pick-Up Test.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Amirjani, Nasim; Ashworth, Nigel L; Gordon, Tessa; Edwards, David C; Chan, K Ming

    2007-06-01

    The Moberg Pick-Up Test is a standardized test for assessing hand dexterity. Although reduction of sensation in the hand occurs with aging, the effect of age on a subject's performance of the Moberg Pick-Up Test has not been examined. The primary goal of this study was to examine the impact of aging and, secondarily, the impact of gender and handedness, on performance of the Moberg Pick-Up Test in 116 healthy subjects. The average time to complete each of the four subsets of the test was analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis, Mann-Whitney U, and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests. The results show that hand dexterity of the subjects was significantly affected by age, with young subjects being the fastest and elderly subjects the slowest. Women accomplished the test faster than men, and task performance with the dominant hand was faster than with the non-dominant hand. Use of normative values established based on age and gender is a valuable objective tool to gauge hand function in patients with different neurologic disorders.

  2. Resting-state functional connectivity between right anterior insula and right orbital frontal cortex correlate with insight level in obsessive-compulsive disorder

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jie Fan

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Few studies have explored the neurobiological basis of insight level in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD, though the salience network (SN has been implicated in insight deficits in schizophrenia. This study was then designed to investigate whether resting-state (rs functional connectivity (FC of SN was associated with insight level in OCD patients. We analyzed rs-functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI data from 21 OCD patients with good insight (OCD-GI, 19 OCD patients with poor insight (OCD-PI, and 24 healthy controls (HCs. Seed-based whole-brain FC and ROI (region of interest-wise connectivity analyses were performed with seeds/ROIs in the bilateral anterior insula (AI and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC. The right AI-right medial orbital frontal cortex (mOFC connectivity was found to be uniquely decreased in the OCD-PI group, and the value of this aberrant connectivity correlated with insight level in OCD patients. In addition, we found that the OCD-GI group had significantly increased right AI-left dACC connectivity within the SN, relative to HCs (overall trend for groups: OCD-GI > OCD-PI > HC. Our findings suggest that abnormal right AI-right mOFC FC may mediate insight deficits in OCD, perhaps due to impaired encoding and integration of self-evaluative information about OCD-related beliefs and behaviors. Our findings indicate a SN connectivity dissociation between OCD-GI and OCD-PI patients and support the notion of considering OCD-GI and OCD-PI as two distinct disorder subtypes.

  3. Circulating levels of endothelin-1 in a homogenous Gulf Arab population with untreated essential hypertension.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Obineche, Enyioma; Abdulle, Abdishakur M; Bokhari, Awais M; Yasin, Javed Y; Gillett, Michael P T

    2006-01-01

    Racial variations are reported in the natural history of hypertension. For example, hypertension is significantly more prevalent in blacks than whites. Endothelial cells are important regulators of vascular tone and homeostasis, in part through secretions of vasoactive substances including endothelin-1 (ET-1), a small peptide with potent vasopressor actions. In black hypertensives, ET-1 levels are higher than in normotensive blacks and in both hypertensive and normotensive whites. Since ET-1 might play a significant role in the development and severity of hypertension in the indigenous Arab population of the United Arab Emirates, we investigated the circulating levels of ET-1 in this homogenous population. ET-1 levels were measured in plasma samples from 60 untreated hypertensive Arabs and compared with 60 age- and sex-matched normotensive controls. ET-1 levels were significantly higher in hypertensives (mean 10.1 +/- 1 pmol/L) than normotensives (mean 2.2 +/- 0.5 pmol/L). Body mass index (BMI) was slightly higher among the hypertensives. For all subjects these levels significantly (P Arabs as compared with reported levels in white hypertensives and ET-1 could be a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases in this population. The endothelial system might be particularly important with respect to hypertension in this racial group and merits further study.

  4. Mercury levels in defined Italian population groups

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ingrao, G.; Belloni, P.

    1991-01-01

    Our group conducts its research activity in the Department AMB-BIO (Biological and Sanitary Effect of Toxic Agents) of ENEA (National Committee for Research and Development of Nuclear and Alternative Energy) at the research centre of Casaccia. The food chain is the main pathway leading to humans for most of the trace elements. The research, therefore, has been directed mainly towards the study of the variability of the trace element content in the Italian diet. This programme aims at assessing the adequacy of the essential trace elements ingestion, and to verify that the ingestion of toxic trace elements is below the recommended values. Part of this research was conducted in the frame of the IAEA CRP on ''Human daily Intakes of Nutritionally Important Trace Elements as Measured by Nuclear and Other Techniques''. Studies carried out by the National Institute of Nutrition and FAO have shown that there are some population groups having a fish consumption significantly higher than the average value for the Italian population. These groups are usually found in coastal towns were fishing is one of the main occupation and generally includes fishermen, fish dealers, restaurant workers and their families. A pilot study was conducted in one of these towns, Bagnara Calabra in the South of Italy, where the average fish consumption is 27.1 kg per year, which is more than twice the national average. The results have shown that the mercury concentration in the diet is significantly higher than in other Italian locations, the mercury levels in blood and hair sample in these subjects are also significantly higher than the values reported for subjects of the general Italian population. 6 refs

  5. Arrested Handedness and Disordered Stacking in Crystals of the Pre-helical Molecule 7,8-Dioxa[6]helicene

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Krebs, Frederik C; Faldt, André; Thorup, Niels

    1999-01-01

    A characteristic feature of many molecules of biological origin is their 'handedness' or enantiomorphism. L. Pasteur prepared and separated enantiomeric crystals in 1848.(1) Since then, manifestations of symmetry breaking have attracted much attention.(2,3) Simple models of the new horseshoe shaped...... molecule, 7,8-dioxa[6]helicene ( 1), indicated a low inversion barrier between helical enantiomers. A quasi-planar pi system capable of stack formation was also observed. The molecule in question is a so-called helicene. Aromatic helicenes and heteroaromatic helicenes constitute a class of molecules...

  6. Circulating levels of endothelin-1 in a homogenous Gulf Arab population with untreated essential hypertension

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Obinache, C.N.; Abdullah, A.M.; Pathan, J.Y.; Bokahri, A.M.; Gillett, M.P.T.

    2006-01-01

    Rectal variations are reported in the natural history of high-tension. For example hypertension is significantly more prevalent in blacks than whites. Endothelial cells are important regulators of vasculars tone and homeostasis, in part through secretions of vasoactive substances including endothelin-I (ET-1), a small peptide with potent vaspressor actions in black hypertensive and normotensive whites. Since ET-I might play a significant role to the development and severity of hypertension in the indigenous Arab population of United Arab Emirates; we investigated the circulatory levels of ET-1 in the homogenous population. ET-I levels were measured in plasma samples from 60 unteated hypertensive Arabs and compared with 60 age and sex matched normotensive controls. ET-I levels were significantly higher in hypertensive (10.1+-pmol/L) than normtensives (mean 2.2+-0.5 pmol/L). Body mass index (BMI) was slightly higher among the hypertensive. For all subjects these levels significantly (P<0.001) correlated with systolic blood pressure and less significantly (P<0.05) with diastolic blood pressure and body weight. The correlation with ET-1 and both systolic and diastolic blood pressure with persistently significant after adjusting for BMI. Plasma concentration of ET-I are significantly higher in hypertensive Gulf Arabs as compared with reported levels in which hypertensives and ET-I could be a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases in this population. The endothelial sate might be particularly important with respect to hypertension in this racial group and merits further study. (author)

  7. Inverse relationship between fat intake and blood lead levels in the Korean adult population in the KNHANES 2007-2009.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, Sunmin; Lee, Byung-Kook

    2012-07-15

    Blood lead levels (BLLs) in the Korean adult population are about twofold higher than those in the US adult population, which may be related to nutrient intake. We examined which nutritional factors might be associated with decreased BLL. This study was based on Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data obtained over 3 years (2007-2009) using a rolling sampling design involving a complex, stratified, multistage, probability-cluster survey of a representative sample of the non-institutionalized civilian population of South Korea. A multiple regression analysis after controlling for covariates indicated that dietary fat and protein were significant opposite predictors of BLL in five different models; fat and protein intake had negative and positive associations with BLL, respectively. Covariates used in the analysis were sex, age, regional area, education level, smoking and drinking status, hypertension, use of antihypertensive drugs, diabetes, use of antidiabetic drugs, use of cholesterol-lowering drugs, hemoglobin level, and exposure to chemical substances during daily life. Intake levels of other nutrients, such as dietary fiber, carbohydrates, and calcium, did not show any significant effect on BLL. Gender was also an important predictor: BLL was significantly higher in men than women. However, total femur T-score, which represents bone mass, was unaffected by BLL. When calculating adjusted predicted marginal values of blood lead according to dietary fat percentage, BLL was lower by 5.3% and 8.0% in men when fat intake was increased from 10% to 20% and 25%, respectively. This effect of fat intake on BLL was minimal in women. The accumulation of body stores of lead from lead exposure may be reduced by increasing dietary fat consumption to 25% of energy intake, especially in men. However, this must be weighed against possible cardiovascular risks of higher fat diets. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  8. Individual and population-level responses to ocean acidification.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harvey, Ben P; McKeown, Niall J; Rastrick, Samuel P S; Bertolini, Camilla; Foggo, Andy; Graham, Helen; Hall-Spencer, Jason M; Milazzo, Marco; Shaw, Paul W; Small, Daniel P; Moore, Pippa J

    2016-01-29

    Ocean acidification is predicted to have detrimental effects on many marine organisms and ecological processes. Despite growing evidence for direct impacts on specific species, few studies have simultaneously considered the effects of ocean acidification on individuals (e.g. consequences for energy budgets and resource partitioning) and population level demographic processes. Here we show that ocean acidification increases energetic demands on gastropods resulting in altered energy allocation, i.e. reduced shell size but increased body mass. When scaled up to the population level, long-term exposure to ocean acidification altered population demography, with evidence of a reduction in the proportion of females in the population and genetic signatures of increased variance in reproductive success among individuals. Such increased variance enhances levels of short-term genetic drift which is predicted to inhibit adaptation. Our study indicates that even against a background of high gene flow, ocean acidification is driving individual- and population-level changes that will impact eco-evolutionary trajectories.

  9. Lateralization in the invertebrate brain: left-right asymmetry of olfaction in bumble bee, Bombus terrestris.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gianfranco Anfora

    Full Text Available Brain and behavioural lateralization at the population level has been recently hypothesized to have evolved under social selective pressures as a strategy to optimize coordination among asymmetrical individuals. Evidence for this hypothesis have been collected in Hymenoptera: eusocial honey bees showed olfactory lateralization at the population level, whereas solitary mason bees only showed individual-level olfactory lateralization. Here we investigated lateralization of odour detection and learning in the bumble bee, Bombus terrestris L., an annual eusocial species of Hymenoptera. By training bumble bees on the proboscis extension reflex paradigm with only one antenna in use, we provided the very first evidence of asymmetrical performance favouring the right antenna in responding to learned odours in this species. Electroantennographic responses did not reveal significant antennal asymmetries in odour detection, whereas morphological counting of olfactory sensilla showed a predominance in the number of olfactory sensilla trichodea type A in the right antenna. The occurrence of a population level asymmetry in olfactory learning of bumble bee provides new information on the relationship between social behaviour and the evolution of population-level asymmetries in animals.

  10. Rate coefficients for collisional population transfer between 3p54p argon levels at 300 0K

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nguyen, T.D.; Sadeghi, N.

    1978-01-01

    The population transfer between excited 3p 5 4p argon levels induced by the collisional process Ar* (3p 5 4p)/sub i/ + Ar( 1 S 0 ) arrow-right-left Ar* (3p 5 4p)/sub j/ + Ar( 1 S 0 ) + ΔE was studied in the afterglow of an argon pulsed discharge, at the pressure range of 0.2--1 Torr. Selective population of one particular argon 3p 5 4p level was achieved by laser excitation from one metastable state by use of a tunable cw dye laser. The populations of the laser-excited level and of the collisional excited levels were determined by intensity measurements of the fluorescence line and of the sensitized fluorescence lines. The time-dependence study of the populations of the metastable state, of the laser-excited state, and of the collisional excited states was carried out to ascertain the product channel and to determine the collisional transfer rate coefficients

  11. Prognostic significance of radionuclide-assessed right ventricular function in dilated cardiomyopathy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ohno, Akira; Nishimura, Tsunehiko; Uehara, Toshiisa; Shimonagata, Tsuyoshi; Kumita, Shinichiro; Ogawa, Youji; Nagata, Seiki; Miyatake, Kunio

    1991-01-01

    To assess the prognostic significance of right ventricular function in dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), we studied consecutive 57 DCM patients. There were 41 men and 16 women, whose mean age was 48 years (range 3-68 years). The mean left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) in all patients was 29±11%, and the mean interval from the onset of symptom of cardiac failure (CHF history) was 4 years (range 0-33 years). With follow-up of 3.8 years, five patients had died until the first year, and 14 had died until the third year. By using multivariate regression analysis, there were no prognostic significance in clinical parameters such as age, CHF history, sex, atrial fibrillation, except for NYHA class, and medication at the third year. In survival curves according to Kaplan-Meier method, right ventricular ejection fraction (RVEF) and mean pulmonary artery (PA) had predictive value (p<0.05), while LVEF did not. The patients with RVEF<45% had poor survival rate compared to those with RVEF≥45%. The patients with RVEF<45% showed lower LVEF and left ventricular end-systolic volume index. RVEF may offer prognostic predictive value through the effect of not only mean PA but also left ventricular parameter. In conclusion, radionuclide assessment of right ventricular function should be valuable for the prognostic evaluation of DCM patients. (author)

  12. Prognostic significance of radionuclide-assessed right ventricular function in dilated cardiomyopathy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ohno, Akira; Nishimura, Tsunehiko; Uehara, Toshiisa; Shimonagata, Tsuyoshi; Kumita, Shinichiro; Ogawa, Youji; Nagata, Seiki; Miyatake, Kunio [National Cardiovascular Center, Suita, Osaka (Japan)

    1991-09-01

    To assess the prognostic significance of right ventricular function in dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), we studied consecutive 57 DCM patients. There were 41 men and 16 women, whose mean age was 48 years (range 3-68 years). The mean left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) in all patients was 29{+-}11%, and the mean interval from the onset of symptom of cardiac failure (CHF history) was 4 years (range 0-33 years). With follow-up of 3.8 years, five patients had died until the first year, and 14 had died until the third year. By using multivariate regression analysis, there were no prognostic significance in clinical parameters such as age, CHF history, sex, atrial fibrillation, except for NYHA class, and medication at the third year. In survival curves according to Kaplan-Meier method, right ventricular ejection fraction (RVEF) and mean pulmonary artery (PA) had predictive value (p<0.05), while LVEF did not. The patients with RVEF<45% had poor survival rate compared to those with RVEF{>=}45%. The patients with RVEF<45% showed lower LVEF and left ventricular end-systolic volume index. RVEF may offer prognostic predictive value through the effect of not only mean PA but also left ventricular parameter. In conclusion, radionuclide assessment of right ventricular function should be valuable for the prognostic evaluation of DCM patients. (author).

  13. On the Distinct Effects of Left-Wing and Right-Wing Populism on Democratic Quality

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Robert A. Huber

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available This study examines the differences and commonalities of how populist parties of the left and right relate to democracy. The focus is narrowed to the relationship between these parties and two aspects of democratic quality, minority rights and mutual constraints. Our argument is twofold: first, we contend that populist parties can exert distinct influences on minority rights, depending on whether they are left-wing or right-wing populist parties. Second, by contrast, we propose that the association between populist parties and mutual constraints is a consequence of the populist element and thus, we expect no differences between the left-wing and right-wing parties. We test our expectations against data from 30 European countries between 1990 and 2012. Our empirical findings support the argument for the proposed differences regarding minority rights and, to a lesser extent, the proposed similarities regarding mutual constraints. Therefore we conclude that, when examining the relationship between populism and democracy, populism should not be considered in isolation from its host ideology.

  14. Health, human rights, and the conduct of clinical research within oppressed populations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mills Edward J

    2007-11-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Clinical trials evaluating interventions for infectious diseases require enrolling participants that are vulnerable to infection. As clinical trials are conducted in increasingly vulnerable populations, issues of protection of these populations become challenging. In settings where populations are forseeably oppressed, the conduct of research requires considerations that go beyond common ethical concerns and into issues of international human rights law. Discussion Using examples of HIV prevention trials in Thailand, hepatitis-E prevention trials in Nepal and malaria therapeutic trials in Burma (Myanmar, we address the inadequacies of current ethical guidelines when conducting research within oppressed populations. We review existing legislature in the United States and United Kingdom that may be used against foreign investigators if trial hardships exist. We conclude by making considerations for research conducted within oppressed populations.

  15. Considerations for a Human Rights Impact Assessment of a Population Wide Treatment for HIV Prevention Intervention.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hanefeld, Johanna; Bond, Virginia; Seeley, Janet; Lees, Shelley; Desmond, Nicola

    2015-12-01

    Increasing attention is being paid to the potential of anti-retroviral treatment (ART) for HIV prevention. The possibility of eliminating HIV from a population through a universal test and treat intervention, where all people within a population are tested for HIV and all positive people immediately initiated on ART, as part of a wider prevention intervention, was first proposed in 2009. Several clinical trials testing this idea are now in inception phase. An intervention which relies on universally testing the entire population for HIV will pose challenges to human rights, including obtaining genuine consent to testing and treatment. It also requires a context in which people can live free from fear of stigma, discrimination and violence, and can access services they require. These challenges are distinct from the field of medical ethics which has traditionally governed clinical trials and focuses primarily on patient researcher relationship. This paper sets out the potential impact of a population wide treatment as prevention intervention on human rights. It identifies five human right principles of particular relevance: participation, accountability, the right to health, non-discrimination and equality, and consent and confidentiality. The paper proposes that explicit attention to human rights can strengthen a treatment as prevention intervention, contribute to mediating likely health systems challenges and offer insights on how to reach all sections of the population. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  16. SIGWX Charts - High Level Significant Weather

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — High level significant weather (SIGWX) forecasts are provided for the en-route portion of international flights. NOAA's National Weather Service Aviation Center...

  17. Essay: A Complicated Relationship: Right-Wing Populism, Media Representation and Journalism Theory

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kai Hafez

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The current upswing of right-wing populism in the United States and in Europe is a challenge not only for policy makers, but also for journalism theory. If and how to report on right-wing politicians, movements and issues is a delicate question that various strands of theory answer differently. Functionalist systems theory is in favor of large-scale coverage due to the stimulating news values of populist debates, although the precise character of the political integration remains unclear. In contrast, rational democratic deliberation theory is to be interpreted as a complete rebuttal of the irrational character of populism. The argument here would be that we must not allow the media be dominated by irrational debates. At the same time, democratic media theory is all but uniform in dealing with the phenomenon. While traditional rational public sphere theory is clearly anti-populist, paradoxically left-liberal and postmodern public sphere theory, anti-elitist and radically post-modern as it is, can be used as an argument for better representation of marginalized voices, including right-wing populists.

  18. Multi-level significance of vulnerability indicators. Case study: Eastern Romania

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stanga, I. C.; Grozavu, A.

    2012-04-01

    Vulnerability assessment aims, most frequently, to emphasize internal fragility of a system comparing to a reference standard, to similar systems or in relation to a given hazard. Internal fragility, either biophysical or structural, may affect the capacity to predict, to prepare for, to cope with or to recover from a disaster. Thus, vulnerability is linked to resilience and adaptive capacity. From local level to global one, vulnerability factors and corresponding indicators are different and their significance must be tested and validated in a well-structured conceptual and methodological framework. In this paper, the authors aim to show the real vulnerability of rural settlements in Eastern Romania in a multi-level approach. The research area, Tutova Hills, counts about 3421 sq.km and more than 200.000 inhabitants in 421 villages characterized by deficient accessibility, lack of endowments, subsistential agriculture, high pressure on natural environment (especially on forest and soil resources), poverty and aging process of population. Factors that could influence the vulnerability of these rural settlements have been inventoried and assigned into groups through a cluster analysis: habitat and technical urban facilities, infrastructure, economical, social and demographical indicators, environment quality, management of emergency situations etc. Firstly, the main difficulty was to convert qualitative variable in quantitative indicators and to standardize all values to make possible mathematical and statistical processing of data. Secondly, the great variability of vulnerability factors, their different measuring units and their high amplitude of variation require different method of standardization in order to obtain values between zero (minimum vulnerability) and one (maximum vulnerability). Final vulnerability indicators were selected and integrated in a general scheme, according to their significance resulted from an appropriate factor analysis: linear and

  19. Blood lipid levels in a rural male population.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thelin, A; Stiernström, E L; Holmberg, S

    2001-06-01

    Farmers have a low risk for cardiovascular disease, which may be related to a favourable blood lipid profile. In order to study the blood lipid levels and evaluate the effect of other cardiovascular risk factors on the blood lipid profile, this cross-sectional study was made. A total of 1013 farmers and 769 non-farming rural men in nine different Swedish counties were examined, interviewed, and replied to questionnaires. The inter-relationships between different risk factors were analysed using a multivariate linear regression model. The farmers had a significantly more favourable blood lipid profile than the non-farmers although the total cholesterol levels were almost the same for the two groups. In the total study population there were significant positive relationships between total cholesterol level and body mass index (BMI), diastolic blood pressure and smoking. The high-density lipoprotein (HDL) level was positively related to physical workload and alcohol consumption, and negatively related to BMI, waist/hip ratio and smoking. Triglyceride levels showed a positive relationship to BMI, waist/hip ratio and blood pressure. Differences between farmers and other rural males were seen, especially with respect to the effect of physical activity and psychosocial factors. Among the farmers, a negative correlation between the Karasek-Theorell authority over work index and total cholesterol, the low-density lipoprotein (LDL)/HDL ratio and triglyceride levels was observed. This study indicated that diet is of minor significance for the blood lipid profile, whereas factors such as physical activity, body weight and the waist/hip ratio, smoking, alcohol consumption, and perhaps psychosocial working conditions are major independent factors affecting the blood lipid profile most prominently among farmers, but also among non-farming rural men.

  20. Type 1 diabetes, quality of life, occupational status and education level - A comparative population-based study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nielsen, Helena B; Ovesen, Louise L; Mortensen, Laust H; Lau, Cathrine J; Joensen, Lene E

    2016-11-01

    Type 1 diabetes requires extensive self-management to avoid complications and may have negative effects on the everyday life of people with the disease. The aim of this study was to compare adults with type 1 diabetes to the general population in terms of health-related quality of life, occupational status (level of employment, working hours and sick leave) and education level. 2415 adults (aged 18-98years) with type 1 diabetes were compared to 48,511 adults (aged 18-103years) from the general population. Data were obtained from two cross-sectional surveys conducted in 2010 and 2011 of adults living or treated in the Capital Region in Denmark. Differences between adults with type 1 diabetes and the general population were standardised for age and sex and analyzed using linear probability models and negative binomial regression. Differences were further analyzed in subgroups. Compared to the general population, adults with type 1 diabetes experienced lower health-related quality of life, were more frequently unemployed, had more sick leave per year and were slightly better educated. Differences in health-related quality of life and employment increased with age and were larger among women, as compared to men. No significant differences were found with regard to working hours. Our findings suggest that type 1 diabetes is associated with lower health-related quality of life, higher unemployment and additional sick leave. The negative association with type 1 diabetes is more pronounced in women and older adults. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  1. Canadian population trends in leisure-time physical activity levels, 1981-1998.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bruce, Marny J; Katzmarzyk, Peter T

    2002-12-01

    Age, sex, geographic and temporal trends in leisure-time physical activity levels were examined using data from five national surveys conducted between 1981 and 1998. Physical activity energy expenditure (AEE) was higher among men compared to women, and in younger versus older adults. AEE increased from Eastern to Western Canada, with a significant temporal trend of increasing AEE. The prevalence of physical inactivity (expending importance of population-level physical activity surveillance and interventions.

  2. Recommended vitamin D levels in the general population.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Varsavsky, Mariela; Rozas Moreno, Pedro; Becerra Fernández, Antonio; Luque Fernández, Inés; Quesada Gómez, José Manuel; Ávila Rubio, Verónica; García Martín, Antonia; Cortés Berdonces, María; Naf Cortés, Silvia; Romero Muñoz, Manuel; Reyes García, Rebeca; Jódar Gimeno, Esteban; Muñoz Torres, Manuel

    2017-03-01

    To provide recommendations based on evidence on the management of vitaminD deficiency in the general population. Members of the Bone Metabolism Working Group of the Spanish Society of Endocrinology. Recommendations were formulated using the GRADE system (Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation) to describe both the strength of recommendations and the quality of evidence. A systematic search was made in MEDLINE (Pubmed) using the term VitaminD and the name of each issue. Papers in English and Spanish with publication date before 17 March 2016 were included. Recommendations were jointly discussed by the Working Group. This document summarizes the data about vitaminD deficiency in terms of prevalence, etiology, screening indications, adequate levels and effects of supplementation on bone and non-skeletal health outcomes. Copyright © 2017 SEEN. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

  3. Gender differences of cannabis smoking on serum leptin levels: population-based study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fernanda P. Moreira

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Objective: To evaluate the serum leptin levels in cannabis smokers. Methods: This was a cross-sectional population-based study of participants between the ages of 18 and 35 years. The data were collected through a self-administered questionnaire covering sociodemographic data and the use of psychoactive substances. Leptin levels were measured using a commercial ELISA kit. Results: Of the 911 participants, 6.7% were identified as cannabis smokers and had significantly lower leptin levels (p = 0.008. When stratified by gender, there was a significant decrease in leptin levels among male smokers (p = 0.039. Conclusion: Cannabis smoking was linked to leptin levels in men, suggesting that the response to biological signals may be different between men and women.

  4. Right hand, left brain: genetic and evolutionary bases of cerebral asymmetries for language and manual action.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Corballis, Michael C; Badzakova-Trajkov, Gjurgjica; Häberling, Isabelle S

    2012-01-01

    Most people are right-handed and left-cerebrally dominant for language. This pattern of asymmetry, as well as departures from it, have been reasonably accommodated in terms of a postulated gene with two alleles, one disposing to this common pattern and the other leaving the direction of handedness and language asymmetry to chance. There are some leads as to the location of the gene or genes concerned, but no clear resolution; one possibility is that the chance factor is achieved by epigenetic cancelling of the lateralizing gene rather than through a chance allele. Neurological evidence suggests that the neural basis of manual praxis, including pantomime and tool use, is more closely associated with cerebral asymmetry for language than with handedness, and is homologous with the so-called "mirror system" in the primate brain, which is specialized for manual grasping. The evidence reviewed supports the theory that language itself evolved within the praxic system, and became lateralized in humans, and perhaps to a lesser extent in our common ancestry with the great apes. WIREs Cogn Sci 2012, 3:1-17. doi: 10.1002/wcs.158 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  5. Magnetoencephalographic evidence of the interhemispheric asymmetry in echoic memory lifetime and its dependence on handedness and gender.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ioannides, Andreas A; Popescu, Mihai; Otsuka, Asuka; Bezerianos, Anastasios; Liu, Lichan

    2003-07-01

    The echoic memory trace (EMT) refers to neuronal activity associated with the short-term retention of stimulus-related information, especially within the primary and association auditory cortex. Using magnetoencephalography it is possible to determine quantitatively the lifetime of the EMT. Previous studies assumed that each new stimulus drives the EMT to its full strength, which then passively decays. In this study we show the limitations of this assumption using trains of auditory stimuli designed specifically for computing the EMT lifetime and its contextual sensitivity. We estimated a time-dependent EMT using a data-driven approach, which allows contributions from a relatively wide area around the auditory cortex in our quantitative measures. We identified: (1) internally generated cortical activations during the silent period between stimuli well separated in time from each other, which had influence on the morphology of the neuromagnetic response to the next external stimulus; and (2) EMTs with different lifetimes that modulate the amplitude of the evoked responses at different latencies, suggesting the existence of multiple neural delay lines. Long EMT lifetimes were observed on the descending part of the M100 complex, which showed handedness and gender-dependent interhemispheric asymmetry. Specifically, all subjects showed longer EMT lifetimes on the left hemisphere, except left-handed males. Distributed source analysis of the data for one left- and one right-handed male subject identified a secondary generator in the right-handed subject, which was located posterior to the early primary generator and dominated the auditory response at late latencies, where EMT lifetime asymmetry was high. The identified multiple neural delay lines and their laterality may provide a link between macroneuronal activity and left hemisphere specialization for processing linguistic material.

  6. The Far Right Challenge Comment on "The Rise of Post-truth Populism in Pluralist Liberal Democracies: Challenges for Health Policy".

    Science.gov (United States)

    Halikiopoulou, Daphne

    2017-07-11

    Speed and Mannion make a good case that the rise of populism poses significant challenges for health policy. This commentary suggests that the link between populism and health policy should be further nuanced in four ways. First, a deconstruction of the term populism itself and a focus on the far right dimension of populist politics; second, a focus on the supply side and more specifically the question of nationalism and the 'national preference'; third, the dynamics of party competition during economic crisis; and fourth the question of policy, and more specifically the extent to which certain labour market policies are able to mediate demand for the far right. © 2018 The Author(s); Published by Kerman University of Medical Sciences. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

  7. One hand or the other? Effector selection biases in right and left handers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Main, Julie C; Carey, David P

    2014-11-01

    Much debate in the handedness literature has centred on the relative merits of questionnaire-based measures assessing hand preference versus simple movement tasks such as peg moving or finger tapping, assessing hand performance. A third paradigm has grown in popularity, which assesses choices by participants when either hand could be used to execute movements. These newer measures may be useful in predicting possible "reversed" asymmetries in proportions of non-right handed ("adextral") people. In the current studies we examine hand choice in large samples of dextral (right handed) and adextral participants. Unlike in some previous experiments on choice, we found that left handers were as biased towards their dominant hand as were right handers, for grasping during a puzzle-making task (study 1). In a second study, participants had to point to either of two suddenly appearing targets with one hand or the other. In study 2, left handers were not significantly less one handed than their right-handed counterparts as in study 1. In a final study, we used random effects meta analysis to summarise the possible differences in hand choice between left handers and right handers across all hand choice studies published to date. The meta analysis suggests that right handers use their dominant hand 12.5% more than left handers favour their dominant hand (with 95% confidence that the real difference lies between 7% and 18%). These last results suggest that our two experiments reported here may represent statistical Type 2 errors. This mean difference may be related to greater left hemispheric language and praxic laterality in right handers. Nevertheless, more data are needed regarding the precise proportions of left and right handers who favour their preferred hands for different tasks. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. Population-level interventions in government jurisdictions for dietary sodium reduction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McLaren, Lindsay; Sumar, Nureen; Barberio, Amanda M; Trieu, Kathy; Lorenzetti, Diane L; Tarasuk, Valerie; Webster, Jacqui; Campbell, Norman Rc

    2016-09-16

    Excess dietary sodium consumption is a risk factor for high blood pressure, stroke and cardiovascular disease. Currently, dietary sodium consumption in almost every country is too high. Excess sodium intake is associated with high blood pressure, which is common and costly and accounts for significant burden of disease. A large number of jurisdictions worldwide have implemented population-level dietary sodium reduction initiatives. No systematic review has examined the impact of these initiatives. • To assess the impact of population-level interventions for dietary sodium reduction in government jurisdictions worldwide.• To assess the differential impact of those initiatives by social and economic indicators. We searched the following electronic databases from their start date to 5 January 2015: the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL); Cochrane Public Health Group Specialised Register; MEDLINE; MEDLINE In Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations; EMBASE; Effective Public Health Practice Project Database; Web of Science; Trials Register of Promoting Health Interventions (TRoPHI) databases; and Latin American Caribbean Health Sciences Literature (LILACS). We also searched grey literature, other national sources and references of included studies.This review was conducted in parallel with a comprehensive review of national sodium reduction efforts under way worldwide (Trieu 2015), through which we gained additional information directly from country contacts.We imposed no restrictions on language or publication status. We included population-level initiatives (i.e. interventions that target whole populations, in this case, government jurisdictions, worldwide) for dietary sodium reduction, with at least one pre-intervention data point and at least one post-intervention data point of comparable jurisdiction. We included populations of all ages and the following types of study designs: cluster-randomised, controlled pre-post, interrupted time series

  9. Polymorphism of the NFKB1 affects the serum inflammatory levels of IL-6 in Hashimoto thyroiditis in a Turkish population.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koc, Arzuhan; Batar, Bahadir; Celik, Ozlem; Onaran, Ilhan; Tasan, Ertugrul; Sultuybek, Gonul Kanigur

    2014-07-01

    Hashimoto thyroiditis (HT) is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease of thyroid gland affected by interaction of multiple genes and various cytokines. Variants in the genes coding for the NFKB and IKB proteins can be potentially involved in the development of the inflammatory diseases. NFKB, a key transcription factor of the regulation of immune responses, is interesting candidate for association studies about autoimmune disorder. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between NFKB1 and NFKBIA (NFKB1 inhibitor gene) polymorphisms, and the risk of HT in a Turkish Population in the context of IL-6 serum levels which may contribute to susceptibility to the disease. We analyzed the distribution of NFKB1-94ins/del ATTG and NFKBIA 3'UTR A→G polymorphisms using PCR-RFLP method and IL-6 serum levels using ELISA method in 120 HT patients and 190 healthy controls in Turkish population. Although, there was no statistical significant difference in distribution of the genotypes and alleles of NFKB1-94ins/del ATTG or NFKBIA 3'UTR A→G polymorphisms in patients and control subjects as single, ins/ins/GG combined genotype had protective effect on the disease when compared to ins/ins/AG combined genotype as combined genotypes of both polymorphisms. In addition to this finding, IL-6 serum levels in HT patients with del/del genotype were significantly higher than in patients with del/ins genotype (p<0.001). According to the combined genotype analysis of NFKB1-94ins/del ATTG and NFKBIA 3'UTR A→G polymorphisms, IL-6 levels were also higher in patients with del/del genotype when at least one G allele existing (p=0.007). Therefore, our findings suggest that the functional promoter NFKB1-94ins/del ATTG polymorphism was significantly associated with population HT disease through acting by directly modulating IL-6 serum levels. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

  10. Internet gaming disorder, social network disorder and laterality: handedness relates to pathological use of social networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bouna-Pyrrou, Polyxeni; Mühle, Christiane; Kornhuber, Johannes; Lenz, Bernd

    2015-08-01

    The internet age bears new challenges that include health risks. It is agreed that excessive internet use may reach pathological levels. However, the concept of internet addiction lacks specificity and, therefore, warrants studies on its diagnostic and etiologic classification. This study was conducted to characterize the novel DSM-5 criteria for internet gaming disorder and the adapted criteria for the "social network disorder". Based on the established association of handedness and substance use disorders, we also explored whether internet use related to laterality. For this study, 3,287 volunteers participated in the online survey and gave particulars concerning their internet use in general, internet gaming and use of social networks, laterality markers (hand, foot, eye, ear, rotational preference in gymnastics, and head turning asymmetry) and health status. Of the participants, 1.1 % fulfilled the criteria for internet gaming disorder, and 1.8 % fulfilled the criteria for social network disorder. The applied criteria were highly correlated with the time spent on the respective internet activities (p social networks (p ≤ 4 × 10(-2)). The provided criteria proved to be user-friendly, comprehensible and well accepted. The results contribute to a better understanding of pathological internet gaming and social network use and provide evidence that biological markers of substance use disorders are involved in internet addiction.

  11. Clinical significance of changes of plasma ET and NPY levels after treatment in patients with AMI

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhou Jinbao

    2005-01-01

    Objective: To investigate the changes of plasma ET and NPY levels in patients with AMI. Methods: Plasma ET and NPY levels were dynamically determined in 36 patients with AMI right after establishment of diagnosis and 8h, 24h, 4ph, 72h, 7d, 14d later. Levels in 35 healthy individuals were taken as control. Results: Before treatment was initiated, the levels of Et and Np in patients with AMI were significantly higher than those in controls (P <0.01). After one week of treatment, the levels dropped toward normal. Conclusion: Dynamic measurement of plasma ET and NPY levels in patients with AMI is of clinical importance. (authors)

  12. Marginal bone level in two Danish cross-sectional population samples in 1997-1998 and 2007-2008.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bahrami, Golnosh; Vaeth, Michael; Wenzel, Ann; Isidor, Flemming

    2018-04-12

    The aim of this study was to compare the marginal bone level of two randomly selected population samples from 1997/1998 and 2007/2008, with special emphasis on the role of smoking habits and gender. Two cross-sectional randomly selected population samples [1997/1998 (N = 616) and 2007/2008 (N = 396)] were analysed with respect to the marginal bone level. The marginal bone level was measured in full-mouth intraoral radiographs. Information on smoking was gathered using questionnaires. Multiple regression analysis was used in order to adjust for correlating factors (gender, age, smoking habits and number of teeth). After adjusting for confounding factors, the population sample from 2007/2008 had on average a slightly, but statistically significantly, more reduced average marginal bone level (0.15 mm) than the population sample from 1997/1998. Men had more reduced marginal bone level than women (0.12 mm). Smokers in both population samples had more reduced marginal bone level than non-smokers (0.39 mm and 0.12 mm for 1997/1998; 0.65 mm and 0.16 mm for 2007/2008). In these populations, sampled 10 years apart, the 2007/2008 population sample had a slightly more reduced marginal bone level than the 1997/1998 population sample. Men had more reduced marginal bone level than women, and smoking is considered a major risk factor for a reduced marginal bone level.

  13. Is the cup orientation different in bilateral total hip arthroplasty with right-handed surgeons using posterolateral approach?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Song, Xinggui; Ni, Ming; Li, Heng; Li, Xin; Li, Xiang; Fu, Jun; Chen, Jiying

    2018-05-23

    The impact of surgeon handedness on acetabular cup orientation in total hip arthroplasty (THA) is not well studied. The aim of our study is to investigate the difference of cup orientation in bilateral THA performed by right-handed surgeons using posterolateral approach and which cup could be fitter to Lewinneck's safe zone. The study consisted of 498 patients that underwent bilateral THA by three right-handed surgeons in our hospital. Postoperative acetabular cup anteversion and abduction on an anteroposterior pelvic radiograph were measured by Orthoview software (Orthoview LLC, Jacksonville, Florida). Furthermore, the percentage of cup placement within the safe zone was compared. The mean anteversion was 25.28 (25.28° ± 7.16°) in left THA and 22.01 (22.01° ± 6.35°) in right THA (p cup was positioned in Lewinnek's safe zone in 52% for anteversion, 87% for abduction, and 46% for both anteversion and abduction. But the cup placement within Lewinnek's safe zone was 71, 88, and 62% in the right side, respectively. There were significant differences in the percentage of acetabular cup placement within the safe zone for anteversion (p cup inclination and anteversion in bilateral THA and that the placement of cup performed by dominant hands of surgeons is more accurate than that performed by non-dominant sides.

  14. Selenium Supplementation Significantly Reduces Thyroid Autoantibody Levels in Patients with Chronic Autoimmune Thyroiditis

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wichman, Johanna Eva Märta; Winther, Kristian Hillert; Bonnema, Steen Joop

    2016-01-01

    BACKGROUND: Selenium supplementation may decrease circulating thyroid autoantibodies in patients with chronic autoimmune thyroiditis (AIT), but the available trials are heterogenous. This study expands and critically reappraises the knowledge on this topic. METHODS: A literature search identified...... 3366 records. Controlled trials in adults (≥18 years of age) with AIT, comparing selenium with or without levothyroxine (LT4), versus placebo and/or LT4, were eligible. Assessed outcomes were serum thyroid peroxidase (TPOAb) and thyroglobulin (TgAb) autoantibody levels, and immunomodulatory effects...... and LT4-untreated. Heterogeneity was estimated using I(2), and quality of evidence was assessed per outcome, using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) guidelines. RESULTS: In LT4-treated populations, the selenium group had significantly lower TPOAb levels after...

  15. Leptin levels distribution and ethnic background in two populations from Chile: Caucasian and Mapuche groups.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pérez-Bravo, F; Albala, C; Santos, J L; Yañez, M; Carrasco, E

    1998-10-01

    Leptin, the product of the human ob gene is increased in obese individuals, suggesting resistance to its effect. We examined the relationship of serum leptin levels with respect to obesity, gender and insulin levels in two populations with different ethnic compositions in Chile. Leptin and insulin levels were determined by radioimmunoassay (RIA) and correlated with body mass index (BMI), gender and ethnic background. 79 Caucasian subjects from Santiago and 65 Mapuche natives from the Araucania region, Chile, were included in this study. Leptin concentrations in obese subjects were significantly increased in both ethnic groups in relation to lean status: Caucasian and Mapuche obese 19.3 +/- 11.6 and 10.1 +/- 5.8 (P Mapuche lean 10.4 +/- 5.8 and 4.7 +/- 2.9 (P Mapuche and Caucasian groups, similar leptin levels were observed among the males of the two populations in both metabolic states (lean and obese). In contrast, the leptin level distributions between women showed a marked difference, having a minor value in the Mapuche women with a comparable value with the male group in this ethnic population. The leptin concentrations are associated with obesity in both ethnic groups in Chile. However, the leptin levels between the Mapuche natives were significantly decreased compared to the Caucasian group. The gender distribution does not seem to be important in the Mapuche natives. The ethnic composition seems to be important in the leptin distribution in the analysed populations.

  16. Significant genetic differentiation within the population of the Island of Corsica (France) revealed by y-chromosome analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ghiani, Maria Elena; Varesi, Laurent; Mitchell, Robert John; Vona, Giuseppe

    2009-12-01

    Using 10 Y-chromosome short tandem repeat allelic and haplotypic frequencies, we examined genetic variation within the population of Corsica and its relationship with other Mediterranean populations. The most significant finding is the high level of genetic differentiation within Corsica, with strong evidence of an effective barrier to male-mediated gene flow between the south and the rest of the island. This internal differentiation most probably results from low exogamy among small isolated populations and also from the orography of the island, with a central mountain chain running the length of the island restricting human movement. This physical barrier is reflected not only in present-day intraisland linguistic and genetic differences but also in the relatedness of Corsican regions to other Mediterranean groups. Northwest and Central Corsica are much closer to West Mediterranean populations, whereas South Corsica is closer to Central-North Sardinia and East Mediterranean populations.

  17. The Effect of Children's Rights Training on Primary School Students' Utilisation and Knowledge Level about Children's Rights

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ozmen, Suna Kaymak; Ocal, Tugba; Ozmen, Ahmet

    2014-01-01

    Recently, children's rights issue has taken attention. In this study, main purpose was to investigate the utilisation and knowledge level of 4th and 5th grade primary school students after children's rights training. The participants of this survey study were selected randomly from 10 schools. Results indicated that students had the chance to…

  18. Mercury levels in defined Italian population groups

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ingrao, G.; Belloni, P.

    1992-01-01

    The consumption of fish and seafood usually is the main source of intake of methylmercury for members of the general population. Therefore subjects having a diet rich in these food items present a high risk of exceeding the tolerable recommended weekly intake of mercury set by FAO and WHO. The average consumption of fish at a national level is rather small in Italy, 12.5 kg per year, consequently the risk of exposure to elevated levels of mercury through the diet for members of the Italian general population is rather negligible. However, fish is one of the main components of the diet of some population groups. These groups are usually found in coastal towns close fishing ports and include subjects working as fishermen, fish dealers, restaurant workers and their families. The purpose of this research programme, carried our with the collaboration of the National Institute of Nutrition is to determine the levels of mercury and methylmercury in hair samples of subjects having a higher than average fish consumption and to evaluate the effects of elevated intakes of mercury. 1 ref., 13 figs

  19. Significance levels for studies with correlated test statistics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shi, Jianxin; Levinson, Douglas F; Whittemore, Alice S

    2008-07-01

    When testing large numbers of null hypotheses, one needs to assess the evidence against the global null hypothesis that none of the hypotheses is false. Such evidence typically is based on the test statistic of the largest magnitude, whose statistical significance is evaluated by permuting the sample units to simulate its null distribution. Efron (2007) has noted that correlation among the test statistics can induce substantial interstudy variation in the shapes of their histograms, which may cause misleading tail counts. Here, we show that permutation-based estimates of the overall significance level also can be misleading when the test statistics are correlated. We propose that such estimates be conditioned on a simple measure of the spread of the observed histogram, and we provide a method for obtaining conditional significance levels. We justify this conditioning using the conditionality principle described by Cox and Hinkley (1974). Application of the method to gene expression data illustrates the circumstances when conditional significance levels are needed.

  20. Patterns of hand preference for pairs of actions and the classification of handedness.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Annett, Marian

    2009-08-01

    Pairs of actions such as write x throw and throw x racquet were examined for items of the Annett hand preference questionnaire (AHPQ). Right (R) and left (L) responses were described for frequencies of RR, RL, LR, and LL pairings (write x throw etc.) in a large representative combined sample with the aim of discovering the distribution over the population as a whole. The frequencies of RL pairings varied significantly over the different item pairs but the frequencies of LR pairings were fairly constant. An important difference was found between primary actions (originally write, throw, racquet, match, toothbrush, hammer with the later addition of scissors for right-handers) and non-primary actions (needle and thread, broom, spade, dealing playing cards, and unscrewing the lid of a jar). For primary actions, there were similar numbers of right and left writers using the 'other' hand. For non-primary actions more right-handers used the left hand than for primary actions but more left-handers did not use the right hand. That is, different frequencies of response to primary versus non-primary actions were found for right-handers but not for left-handers. The pattern of findings was repeated for a corresponding analysis of left-handed throwing x AHPQ actions. The findings have implications for the classification of hand preferences and for analyses of the nature of hand skill.

  1. Association Between Educational Level and Risk of Cancer in HIV-infected Individuals and the Background Population: Population-based Cohort Study 1995-2011.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Legarth, Rebecca; Omland, Lars H; Dalton, Susanne O; Kronborg, Gitte; Larsen, Carsten S; Pedersen, Court; Pedersen, Gitte; Gerstoft, Jan; Obel, Niels

    2015-11-15

    Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected individuals have increased risk of cancer. To our knowledge, no previous study has examined the impact of socioeconomic position on risk and prognosis of cancer in HIV infection. Population-based cohort-study, including HIV-infected individuals diagnosed (without intravenous drug abuse or hepatitis C infection) (n = 3205), and a background population cohort matched by age, gender, and country of birth (n = 22 435) were analyzed. Educational level (low or high) and cancer events were identified in Danish national registers. Cumulative incidences, incidence rate ratios (IRRs), and survival using Kaplan-Meier methods were estimated. Low educational level was associated with increased risk of cancer among HIV-infected individuals compared to population controls: all (adjusted-IRRs: 1.4 [95% confidence interval {CI}, 1.1-1.7] vs 1.1 [95% CI, .9-1.2]), tobacco- and alcohol-related (2.1 [95% CI, 1.3-3.4] vs 1.3 [95% CI, 1.1-1.6]), and other (1.7 [95% CI, 1.1-2.8] vs 0.9 [95% CI, .7-1.0]). Educational level was not associated with infection-related or ill-defined cancers. One-year-survival was not associated with educational level, but HIV-infected individuals with low educational level had lower 5-year-survival following infection-related and ill-defined cancers. Education is associated with risk and prognosis of some cancers in HIV infection, and diverges from what is observed in the background population. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  2. Level of knowledge among the population of radiation safety basic issues

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. A. Zelencova

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The goal of research was to determine the level of knowledge among the population on issues like sources of ionising radiation, methods of ionising radiation measurement, measures of self-protection in case of threating or actual radioactive pollution in the district, and to study self-estimation by the population of their knowledge of radiation safety issues. Research was carried out using the method of questioning of population groups in three regions close to the places of previous peaceful nuclear explosions (Arkhangelsk, Murmansk and Tyumen regions, and in five Far East regions of the Russian Federation (Kamchatka, Khabarovsk, Primorsky, Magadan and South-Sakhalin regions after radiation accident in Japan at "Fukushima-1" NPP. This research included processing of 243 questionnaires from the regions close to places of previous peaceful nuclear explosions and 216 questionnaires from the Far East regions.The analysis of obtained questioning results enabled to make the following conclusions: the level of knowledge among the population about the basic concepts of radiation safety appeared to be generally low among respondents of all eight territories. Considerable number of respondents in seven groups correctly mentioned the x-ray device as a source of ionising radiation (from 71 to 88 % of answers. In Murmansk region – only 52 % of the answers. Respondents of the same seven groups often correctly answered the question on how to detect ionising radiation (only with devices – from 68 to 98 % in different groups. The smallest number of correct answers to this question (42 % is also noted among respondents from the Murmansk region.Level of knowledge on self-protection measures at threating or actual radioactive pollution of the places of residence appeared a little higher among the Far East region population, who had actual concerns regarding the threat of radioactive pollution at the present time. However, in all eight investigated groups

  3. Cognitive Function and Serum Hormone Levels Are Associated with Gray Matter Volume Decline in Female Patients with Prolactinomas

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shun Yao

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Background and objectiveCognitive impairments have been reported in patients with hyperprolactinemia; however, there is a lack of knowledge of brain structure alterations relevant to hyperprolactinemia in prolactinomas. Thus, we aimed to identify changes in brain structure in prolactinomas and to determine whether these changes are related to cognitive performance and clinical characteristics.MethodsParticipants were 32 female patients with prolactinomas and 26 healthy controls (HC matched for age, sex, education, and handedness. All participants underwent magnetic resonance imaging brain scans, neuropsychological assessments, and clinical evaluations. Voxel-based morphometry analysis was used to identify changes in gray matter volume (GMV. Partial correlation analysis and multiple linear regression were performed to determine the relationship between GMV, cognition, and clinical characteristics.ResultsCompared to HC, patients with prolactinomas demonstrated a decrease in GMV in the left hippocampus, left orbitofrontal cortex, right middle frontal cortex (MFC, and right inferior frontal cortex (IFC. In addition, patients performed worse than controls on tests for verbal memory and executive function, and this was significantly related to the GMV of the left hippocampus and right MFC, respectively. Moreover, in the patients, we found a negative relationship between serum prolactin levels and the GMV of the left hippocampus and right IFC, whereas a positive relationship was found between the GMV of the left hippocampus and serum levels of estradiol and luteinizing hormone.ConclusionIn patients with prolactinomas, specific brain structure abnormalities have been identified and are associated with cognitive impairments and dysfunctional hormones. This study enhances our understanding of brain structure changes that may occur with prolactinomas and provides novel and fundamental evidence for previous behavioral findings relevant to hyperprolactinemia.

  4. Area-level poverty and preterm birth risk: A population-based multilevel analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    DeFranco, Emily A; Lian, Min; Muglia, Louis A; Schootman, Mario

    2008-01-01

    Background Preterm birth is a complex disease with etiologic influences from a variety of social, environmental, hormonal, genetic, and other factors. The purpose of this study was to utilize a large population-based birth registry to estimate the independent effect of county-level poverty on preterm birth risk. To accomplish this, we used a multilevel logistic regression approach to account for multiple co-existent individual-level variables and county-level poverty rate. Methods Population-based study utilizing Missouri's birth certificate database (1989–1997). We conducted a multilevel logistic regression analysis to estimate the effect of county-level poverty on PTB risk. Of 634,994 births nested within 115 counties in Missouri, two levels were considered. Individual-level variables included demographics factors, prenatal care, health-related behavioral risk factors, and medical risk factors. The area-level variable included the percentage of the population within each county living below the poverty line (US census data, 1990). Counties were divided into quartiles of poverty; the first quartile (lowest rate of poverty) was the reference group. Results PTB rate of PTB poverty and increased through the 4th quartile (4.9%), p poverty was significantly associated with PTB risk. PTB risk (poverty, adjusted odds ratio (adjOR) 1.18 (95% CI 1.03, 1.35), with a similar effect at earlier gestational ages (birth, above other underlying risk factors. Although the risk increase is modest, it affects a large number of pregnancies. PMID:18793437

  5. 82 - 86_Shugaba

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    DR. AMINU

    2013-06-01

    Jun 1, 2013 ... Jos, Nigeria and also to determine if any significant relationship exists between handedness of the ... girls firstly develop the left hemisphere, while the .... handed female siblings for the right and left handed .... and cognition.

  6. Hair mercury levels in Amazonian populations: spatial distribution and trends

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Barbieri Flavia L

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Mercury is present in the Amazonian aquatic environments from both natural and anthropogenic sources. As a consequence, many riverside populations are exposed to methylmercury, a highly toxic organic form of mercury, because of their intense fish consumption. Many studies have analysed this exposure from different approaches since the early nineties. This review aims to systematize the information in spatial distribution, comparing hair mercury levels by studied population and Amazonian river basin, looking for exposure trends. Methods The reviewed papers were selected from scientific databases and online libraries. We included studies with a direct measure of hair mercury concentrations in a sample size larger than 10 people, without considering the objectives, approach of the study or mercury speciation. The results are presented in tables and maps by river basin, displaying hair mercury levels and specifying the studied population and health impact, if any. Results The majority of the studies have been carried out in communities from the central Amazonian regions, particularly on the Tapajós River basin. The results seem quite variable; hair mercury means range from 1.1 to 34.2 μg/g. Most studies did not show any significant difference in hair mercury levels by gender or age. Overall, authors emphasized fish consumption frequency as the main risk factor of exposure. The most studied adverse health effect is by far the neurological performance, especially motricity. However, it is not possible to conclude on the relation between hair mercury levels and health impact in the Amazonian situation because of the relatively small number of studies. Conclusions Hair mercury levels in the Amazonian regions seem to be very heterogenic, depending on several factors. There is no obvious spatial trend and there are many areas that have never been studied. Taking into account the low mercury levels currently handled as acceptable, the

  7. Laterality of Grooming and Tool Use in a Group of Captive Bonobos (Pan paniscus).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brand, Colin M; Marchant, Linda F; Boose, Klaree J; White, Frances J; Rood, Tabatha M; Meinelt, Audra

    2017-01-01

    Humans exhibit population level handedness for the right hand; however, the evolution of this behavioral phenotype is poorly understood. Here, we compared the laterality of a simple task (grooming) and a complex task (tool use) to investigate whether increasing task difficulty elicited individual hand preference among a group of captive bonobos (Pan paniscus). Subjects were 17 bonobos housed at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. Laterality of grooming was recorded using group scans; tool use was recorded using all-occurrence sampling. Grooming was characterized as unimanual or bimanual, and both tasks were scored as right-handed or left-handed. Most individuals did not exhibit significant hand preference for unimanual or bimanual (asymmetrical hand use) grooming, although 1 individual was lateralized for each. For the 8 subjects who engaged in termite fishing enough for statistical testing, 7 individuals exhibited significant laterality and strong individual hand preference. Four subjects preferred their left hand, 3 preferred their right, and 1 had no preference. Grooming, a simple behavior, was not lateralized in this group, yet a more complex behavior revealed a strong individual hand preference, and these results are congruent with other recent findings that demonstrate complex tasks elicit hand preference in bonobos. © 2017 S. Karger AG, Basel.

  8. Ethical issues in using Twitter for population-level depression monitoring: a qualitative study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mikal, Jude; Hurst, Samantha; Conway, Mike

    2016-04-14

    Recently, significant research effort has focused on using Twitter (and other social media) to investigate mental health at the population-level. While there has been influential work in developing ethical guidelines for Internet discussion forum-based research in public health, there is currently limited work focused on addressing ethical problems in Twitter-based public health research, and less still that considers these issues from users' own perspectives. In this work, we aim to investigate public attitudes towards utilizing public domain Twitter data for population-level mental health monitoring using a qualitative methodology. The study explores user perspectives in a series of five, 2-h focus group interviews. Following a semi-structured protocol, 26 Twitter users with and without a diagnosed history of depression discussed general Twitter use, along with privacy expectations, and ethical issues in using social media for health monitoring, with a particular focus on mental health monitoring. Transcripts were then transcribed, redacted, and coded using a constant comparative approach. While participants expressed a wide range of opinions, there was an overall trend towards a relatively positive view of using public domain Twitter data as a resource for population level mental health monitoring, provided that results are appropriately aggregated. Results are divided into five sections: (1) a profile of respondents' Twitter use patterns and use variability; (2) users' privacy expectations, including expectations regarding data reach and permanence; (3) attitudes towards social media based population-level health monitoring in general, and attitudes towards mental health monitoring in particular; (4) attitudes towards individual versus population-level health monitoring; and (5) users' own recommendations for the appropriate regulation of population-level mental health monitoring. Focus group data reveal a wide range of attitudes towards the use of public

  9. The Correlation Between Schizophrenic Patients' Level of Internalized Stigma and Their Level of Hope.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Olçun, Zeynep; Şahin Altun, Özlem

    2017-08-01

    The aim of this study is to determine the correlation between schizophrenic patients' level of internalized stigma and their level of hope. The population of the study consisted of patients who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and also met the study inclusion criteria. The study sample selection from the population was not further divided; the study was conducted with 76 patients. The data of the study were collected using a personal information form, the Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness (ISMI) Scale, and Herth Hope Scale. The patients' mean score on the Internalized Stigma Scale was 72.78±16.05. Their score on the Hope Scale is 50.36±11.91. A significant negative correlation was found between the total mean scores of ISMI and the Herth Hope Scale (r=-0.360, pHope Scale (r=0.510, phope levels were found to be moderate. A significant negative correlation was found between internalized stigma and hope. This study also found a significant positive correlation between the stigma resistance of patients and their hope levels. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  10. Clinical significance of the changes of plasma cortisol levels in patients with acute cerebral hemorrhage

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wu Zhiqiang

    2005-01-01

    Objective: To explore the changes of plasma cortisol levels in patients with acute cerebral hemorrhage. Methods: Plasma cortisol levels were measured with RIA at 24:00 and 8:00 right after admission in 68 patients with acute cerebral hemorrhage and the tests were repeated in 61 patients one week later 40 controls entered this study. Results: The plasma cortisol levels were significantly higher in the patients than the corresponding readings in controls (P<0.001) with obliteration of the normal diurnal rhythm of secretion. The increase of the cortisol levels was positively correlated with the severity of the disease. As the condition of the patients improved, the cortisol levels dropped gradually. Conclusion: The plasma cortisol levels in patients with acute cerebral hemorrhage were closely related to the severity of the disease and were of prognostic value. (authors)

  11. Alteration of functional connectivity within visuospatial working memory-related brain network in patients with right temporal lobe epilepsy: a resting-state fMRI study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lv, Zong-xia; Huang, Dong-Hong; Ye, Wei; Chen, Zi-rong; Huang, Wen-li; Zheng, Jin-ou

    2014-06-01

    This study aimed to investigate the resting-state brain network related to visuospatial working memory (VSWM) in patients with right temporal lobe epilepsy (rTLE). The functional mechanism underlying the cognitive impairment in VSWM was also determined. Fifteen patients with rTLE and 16 healthy controls matched for age, gender, and handedness underwent a 6-min resting-state functional MRI session and a neuropsychological test using VSWM_Nback. The VSWM-related brain network at rest was extracted using multiple independent component analysis; the spatial distribution and the functional connectivity (FC) parameters of the cerebral network were compared between groups. Behavioral data were subsequently correlated with the mean Z-value in voxels showing significant FC difference during intergroup comparison. The distribution of the VSWM-related resting-state network (RSN) in the group with rTLE was virtually consistent with that in the healthy controls. The distribution involved the dorsolateral prefrontal lobe and parietal lobe in the right hemisphere and the partial inferior parietal lobe and posterior lobe of the cerebellum in the left hemisphere (pright superior frontal lobe (BA8), right middle frontal lobe, and right ventromedial prefrontal lobe compared with the controls (pright superior frontal lobe (BA11), right superior parietal lobe, and left posterior lobe of the cerebellum (prights reserved.

  12. Plasma myostatin levels are related to the extent of right ventricular dysfunction in exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ju, Chun-Rong; Zhang, Jian-Heng; Chen, Miao; Chen, Rong-Chang

    To investigate the relationship between plasma myostatin levels and right ventricle (RV) dysfunction (RVD) in acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD). The study recruited 84 patients with AECOPD. Plasma myostatin was analyzed and tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) myostatin levels were significantly higher in 47 patients with RVD than 37 ones without (P myostatin levels correlated significantly with TAPSE values and RV myocardial performance index (p myostatin is a potential biomarker for improving diagnosis of RVD in AECOPD.

  13. A significant causal association between C-reactive protein levels and schizophrenia

    OpenAIRE

    Inoshita, Masatoshi; Numata, Shusuke; Tajima, Atsushi; Kinoshita, Makoto; Umehara, Hidehiro; Nakataki, Masahito; Ikeda, Masashi; Maruyama, Souichiro; Yamamori, Hidenaga; Kanazawa, Tetsufumi; Shimodera, Shinji; Hashimoto, Ryota; Imoto, Issei; Yoneda, Hiroshi; Iwata, Nakao

    2016-01-01

    Many observational studies have shown elevated blood CRP levels in schizophrenia compared with controls, and one population-based prospective study has reported that elevated plasma CRP levels were associated with late- and very-late-onset schizophrenia. Furthermore, several clinical studies have reported the efficacy of anti-inflammatory drugs on the symptoms in patients with schizophrenia. However, whether elevated CRP levels are causally related to schizophrenia is not still established be...

  14. Comparison of Brain Natriuretic Peptide Levels to Simultaneously Obtained Right Heart Hemodynamics in Stable Outpatients with Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Helgeson, Scott A; Imam, J Saadi; Moss, John E; Hodge, David O; Burger, Charles D

    2018-05-01

    Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a progressive disease that requires validated biomarkers of disease severity. While PAH is defined hemodynamically by right heart catheterization (RHC), brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) is recommended by guidelines to assess disease status. Retrospectively collected data in 138 group 1 PAH patients were examined for the correlation of BNP levels to simultaneously obtained right heart catheterization (RHC). Patients were mostly Caucasian women, with functional class III symptoms, mean BNP of 406 ± 443 pg/mL, and an average right atrial pressure (RAP) of 9.9 ± 5.7 mm Hg and mean pulmonary artery pressure (mPAP) of 47.3 ± 14.7 mm Hg. Significant correlation was demonstrated between BNP and RAP ( p = 0.021) and mPAP ( p = 0.003). Additional correlation was seen with right heart size on echocardiography: right atrial (RAE; p = 0.04) and right ventricular enlargement ( p = 0.03). An increased BNP level was an independent predictor of mortality ( p right heart hemodynamics. The current results reinforce the use of BNP level as a continuous variable to assess disease severity in group 1 PAH.

  15. Within- and among-population level differences in response to chronic copper exposure in southern toads, Anaxyrus terrestris

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lance, Stacey L.; Flynn, R. Wesley; Erickson, Matthew R.; Scott, David E.

    2013-01-01

    Environmental contaminants are implicated in the global decline of amphibian populations. Copper (Cu) is a widespread contaminant that can be toxic at concentrations just above the normal physiological range. In the present study we examined the effects of chronic Cu aqueous exposure on embryos and larvae of southern toads, Anaxyrus (Bufo) terrestris. Measurable levels of Cu were found in larvae, with tissue concentrations up to 27.5 μg Cu/g dry mass. Aqueous concentrations of Cu as low as 10 μg/L significantly reduced survival to the free-swimming stage and no larvae reached metamorphosis at concentrations above 15 μg/L. Clutches from populations with prior Cu exposure had the lowest survivorship. Among several populations there was significant variation in survivorship at different levels of Cu. More data are needed to understand the underlying causes of within- and among-population resilience to anthropogenic stressors. -- Highlights: ► Southern toad, Anaxyrus terrestris, embryos and larvae are highly sensitive to Cu. ► Significant variation in survivorship exists among clutches and populations. ► Clutches with prior Cu exposure had the lowest survivorship. ► Body burdens in larvae were up to 27.5 μg Cu/g dry mass. -- Capsule: Southern toad aquatic survival is significantly reduced at 15 μg Cu/L with variation in survivorship across clutches and populations

  16. Blood and urinary levels of metals and metalloids in the general adult population of Northern France: The IMEPOGE study, 2008-2010.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nisse, Catherine; Tagne-Fotso, Romuald; Howsam, Mike; Richeval, Camille; Labat, Laurence; Leroyer, Ariane

    2017-04-01

    The assessment of human chemical risks related to occupational or environmental exposure to pollutants requires the use of both accurate exposure indicators and reference values. The objective of this study was to evaluate the blood and urinary levels of various metals and metalloids in a sample of adults aged 20-59 years of the general population of Northern France, a formerly heavily industrialised area that retains some industrial activity. A cross-sectional study was conducted between 2008 and 2010, enrolling 2000 residents of Northern France. The quota method was used to guarantee the representativeness of the participants on a sex, age, social category and smoking status basis, according to the census done by the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies. The levels of 14 metals: aluminium (Al), antimony (Sb), total arsenic (As), beryllium (Be), cadmium (Cd), cobalt (Co), chromium (Cr), mercury (Hg), manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), thallium (Tl), vanadium (V) and zinc (Zn) were quantified by ICP-MS in urine and blood samples. A total of 982 men and 1018 women participated, allowing the analysis of 1992 blood and 1910 urine samples. Some metal(loid)s were detected in over 99% of the blood (Cd, Co, Mn, Ni, Pb) and urine (As, Co, Pb, Zn) samples and the remaining metals in 84-99% of the samples, with the exception of blood V (19%), blood Be (57%) and urine Be (58%). Mean blood levels of Pb and Zn were significantly higher in men, and Mn, Co and Cr in women. In urine, mean Pb, Tl and Sb concentrations were significantly higher in men, and Al and Co in women. Current smokers had significantly higher mean levels of blood Cd and Pb and lower blood Co, Mn and Hg. In urine (adjusted on urinary creatinine), the smokers had higher mean levels of Cd, Pb, V and Zn and lower mean levels of As, Co, and Hg. Overall, the mean urinary levels of most metal(loid)s found in the general population of Northern France were higher than those found in the

  17. A meta-analysis of development aid allocation:  The effects of income level and population size

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Paldam, Martin

    The effect on aid allocation of the income level and population size in the recipient country is  analyzed. The data show that both variables have a significant and robust negative effect, but  they explain only a small part of the variation. The main thrust of the paper is a meta-analysis of the......The effect on aid allocation of the income level and population size in the recipient country is  analyzed. The data show that both variables have a significant and robust negative effect, but  they explain only a small part of the variation. The main thrust of the paper is a meta...

  18. Blood levels of dioxins, furans, dioxin-like PCBs, and TEQs in general populations: a review, 1989-2010.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Consonni, Dario; Sindaco, Raffaella; Bertazzi, Pier Alberto

    2012-09-01

    A comprehensive worldwide literature review of blood levels of dioxins and dioxin-like compounds in non-exposed adult general populations was performed. The studies published in 1989-2010 reporting information on polychlorinated dibenzo-para-dioxins (PCDDs), polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs), non-ortho-PCBs (nPCBs), mono-ortho-PCBs (mPCBs) levels and Toxic Equivalencies (TEQs, a summary weighted measure of their combined toxicity) were reviewed. TEQs were calculated using as standard the most recent WHO 2005 reevaluation of Toxic Equivalency Factors (TEFs). Weighted multiple regression analyses adjusted for year, subject's age, type of sample analyzed, method used for values below detection limit, and central tendency measure used were performed for each congener and standardized TEQs (log-transformed). We identified 187 studies regarding 29,687 subjects of 26 countries. Year of blood collection ranged from 1985 to 2008. The studies reporting congener levels 161. In adjusted analyses, European countries showed higher levels of most dioxin-like congeners and TEQs. A strong positive association of subjects' age with most congeners and with TEQ values was found, confirming previous findings. Significant decreases over time (1985-2008) were documented for PCCDs, PCDFs, and TEQs including their contributions. No significant decrease was found for non-ortho-PCBs, notably PCB 126. Only some mono-ortho-PCBs showed clear significant declines. Accordingly, TEQs including only PCB contribution did not decrease over time. In interpreting these findings, it should be considered that for dioxin-like PCBs the analysis period was shorter (17 years), since these compounds were first measured in 1992. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. High dietary fiber intake prevents stroke at a population level.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Casiglia, Edoardo; Tikhonoff, Valérie; Caffi, Sandro; Boschetti, Giovanni; Grasselli, Carla; Saugo, Mario; Giordano, Nunzia; Rapisarda, Valentina; Spinella, Paolo; Palatini, Paolo

    2013-10-01

    This research was aimed at clarifying whether high dietary fiber intake has an impact on incidence and risk of stroke at a population level. In 1647 unselected subjects, dietary fiber intake (DFI) was detected in a 12-year population-based study, using other dietary variables, anagraphics, biometrics, blood pressure, heart rate, blood lipids, glucose, insulin, uricaemia, fibrinogenaemia, erytrosedimentation rate, diabetes, insulin resistance, smoking, pulmonary disease and left ventricular hypertrophy as covariables. In adjusted Cox models, high DFI reduced the risk of stroke. In analysis based on quintiles of fiber intake adjusted for confounders, HR for incidence of stroke was lower when the daily intake of soluble fiber was >25 g or that of insoluble fiber was >47 g. In multivariate analyses, using these values as cut-off of DFI, the risk of stroke was lower in those intaking more that the cut-off of soluble (HR 0.31, 0.17-0.55) or insoluble (HR 0.35, 0.19-0.63) fiber. Incidence of stroke was also lower (-50%, p < 0.003 and -46%, p < 0.01, respectively). Higher dietary DFI is inversely and independently associated to incidence and risk of stroke in general population. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd and European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism. All rights reserved.

  20. Glycohemoglobin levels with severity of periodontitis in non-diabetic population.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ghalaut, Pankaj; Sharma, Tarun Kumar; Ghalaut, Veena Singh; Singh, Ragini; Ghalaut, P S

    2013-01-01

    Periodontal disease is closely related to type 2 diabetes and is an important complication of diabetes. There are few studies about the relationship the glycohemoglobin levels with severity of periodontitis in non-diabetic population. We therefore planned this study to evaluate the glycohemoglobin levels with severity of periodontitis in non-diabetic population. This study was conducted on 50 age and gender matched subjects in each of the three groups (according to the grades of mobility in periodontitis), a total of 150 non-diabetic periodontitis patients (Grade 1, Grade 2, and Grade 3 mobility) and 50 non-diabetic periodontitis patients with Grade 0 mobility (controls), in collaboration with the Department of Periodontics of Dental College and Department of Biochemistry, PGIMS, Rohtak, Haryana. After obtaining informed consent, fasting venous blood samples of all the non-diabetic periodontitis patients of all grades were collected aseptically for HbA1c, plasma glucose, and serum C-reactive protein (CRP) estimation. A total of 150 non-diabetic periodontitis patients (Grade 1, Grade 2, and Grade 3 mobility) and 50 age and gender matched controls participated in the study. There was no significant difference in fasting plasma glucose and postprandial plasma glucose in non-diabetic periodontitis patients with Grade 1, Grade 2, and Grade 3 mobility as compared to controls, non-diabetic periodontitis patients with Grade 1 mobility as compared to Grade 2, non-diabetic periodontitis patients with Grade 1 mobility as compared to Grade 3 and non-diabetic periodontitis patients with Grade 2 mobility as compared to Grade 3. Glycohemoglobin and serum C-reactive protein levels were significantly increased in non-diabetic periodontitis patients with Grade 1, Grade 2, and Grade 3 mobility as compared to controls, non-diabetic periodontitis patients with Grade 1 mobility as compared to Grade 3 and non-diabetic periodontitis patients with Grade 2 mobility as compared to Grade 3

  1. How Does Subclinical Hyperthyroidism Affect Right Heart Function and Mechanics?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tadic, Marijana; Celic, Vera; Cuspidi, Cesare; Ilic, Sanja; Zivanovic, Vladimir; Marjanovic, Tamara

    2016-02-01

    Right heart function and mechanics have not been investigated in patients with subclinical hyperthyroidism. Our aim was to investigate right ventricular (RV) and right atrial (RA) function and deformation as evaluated by 3-dimensional echocardiography (3DE) and speckle-tracking 2-dimensional echocardiography (2DE) in these individuals. We included 39 untreated women with endogenous subclinical hyperthyroidism and 39 healthy women matched by age. All participants underwent laboratory analyses that included thyroid hormone levels and comprehensive 2DE and 3DE examinations. Three-dimensional echocardiographic RV volumes were significantly elevated in the patients with subclinical hyperthyroidism (P < .05), whereas the 3DE RV ejection fraction was reduced in this group, but with borderline significance. Two-dimensional echocardiographic longitudinal RV and RA strain were significantly reduced in the patients with subclinical hyperthyroidism. Two-dimensional echocardiographic RV systolic and early diastolic strain rates were reduced, whereas late diastolic strain rates were increased in the patients with subclinical hyperthyroidism. The same changes were detected in RA mechanics among the patients with subclinical hyperthyroidism. The thyrotropin (TSH) level correlated with the left ventricular mass index, transmitral early diastolic peak flow velocity (E)/late diastolic flow velocity (A) ratio, tricuspid E/A ratio, 2DE RV global strain, 2DE RA, strain, and 3DE RV end-diastolic volume. A multivariate regression analysis showed that the mitral E/A ratio, 2DE RV global strain, and 3DE RV end-diastolic volume were independently associated with the TSH level. Right ventricular and RA function as evaluated by 3DE and speckle-tracking 2DE is significantly impaired in patients with subclinical hyperthyroidism. The TSH level correlated with parameters for RV function and mechanics in the whole study population. © 2016 by the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine.

  2. Nonylphenol stimulates fecundity but not population growth rate (λ) of Folsomia candida

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Widarto, T. H.; Krogh, P. H.; Forbes, V. E.

    2007-01-01

    of NP on these traits did not result in a statistically significant increase in population growth rate (λ). Decomposition analysis indicated that fecundity was the main contributor to the (non-significant) changes observed in λ However, since the elasticity of fecundity was very low, large changes...... at the population level and that λ is an appropriate endpoint for ecotoxicological studies. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved...

  3. RIGHT MEDICATION RELATED TO DRUG CENTRALIZED IN RSUD SIDOARJO

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aprilia Aprilia

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available Introduction. Centralized drug is a management of the entire drug which is entirely done by nurses to administration to patients. Right medication is the process of right drug administration which is done by nurses based on 6 rights of medication, and wary of side effects. The purpose of this study was to analyze the corelation between centralized drug, team leadership, and nurse`s knowledge with right medication among nurses. Methods.The design of the study was descriptive corelational with cross-sectional approach. The population was inpatient nurses in RSUD Sidoarjo. Total sample was 114 respondents was selected by purposive sampling. The independent variables in this study: centralized drug, team leadership, and nurse`s knowledge. The dependent variable was right medication. Data were collected by using questionnares for independent variables and dependent variable. Data were analyzed by using Binary Logistic Regression with degree of significance α>0,05. Results. Binary Logistic Regression test showed non significance level between centralized drug with right medication (P=0.501, team leadership with right medication (P=0.874, and nurses`s knowledge with right medication (P=0.243. Discussion. This study concluded centralized drug, team leadership, and nurse`s knowledge were good. But, there are nurses that have negative value at right medication, however right medication in RSUD Sidoarjo has majority positive value. Keywords: centralized drug, right medication

  4. Populists in Parliament : Comparing Left-Wing and Right-Wing Populism in the Netherlands

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Otjes, Simon; Louwerse, Tom

    2015-01-01

    In parliament, populist parties express their positions almost every day through voting. There is great diversity among them, for instance between left-wing and right-wing populist parties. This gives rise to the question: is the parliamentary behaviour of populists motivated by their populism or by

  5. The effect of between-breast differences on human milk macronutrients content.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pines, N; Mandel, D; Mimouni, F B; Moran Lev, H; Mangel, L; Lubetzky, R

    2016-07-01

    Little is known about the effect of maternal handedness and preferential side of breastfeeding upon macronutrients concentration in human milk (HM). We aimed to compare macronutrients content of HM from both breasts, taking into account the self-reported preferential feeding ('dominant') breast, breast size and handedness (right versus left). We tested the null hypothesis that macronutrients content of HM is not affected by breast dominancy, breast size or maternal handedness. Fifty-seven lactating mothers were recruited. HM macronutrients were measured after mid manual expression using infrared transmission spectroscopy. Out of the 57 mothers recruited, 12 were excluded from the analyses because they brought in insufficient samples. Among the 22 who reported a size difference, 16 (73%) had a larger left breast (Pmacronutrients between the right and the left breasts. In multiple stepwise backward regression analysis, fat, carbohydrate, protein and energy contents were unaffected by maternal handedness, breast side dominance or breast size asymmetry. Macronutrients content of mid expression HM is unaffected by maternal handedness, breast size or breast side dominance.

  6. Normal and reversed supramolecular chirality of insulin fibrils probed by vibrational circular dichroism at the protofilament level of fibril structure.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kurouski, Dmitry; Dukor, Rina K; Lu, Xuefang; Nafie, Laurence A; Lednev, Igor K

    2012-08-08

    Fibrils are β-sheet-rich aggregates that are generally composed of several protofibrils and may adopt variable morphologies, such as twisted ribbons or flat-like sheets. This polymorphism is observed for many different amyloid associated proteins and polypeptides. In a previous study we proposed the existence of another level of amyloid polymorphism, namely, that associated with fibril supramolecular chirality. Two chiral polymorphs of insulin, which can be controllably grown by means of small pH variations, exhibit opposite signs of vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) spectra. Herein, using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), we demonstrate that indeed VCD supramolecular chirality is correlated not only by the apparent fibril handedness but also by the sense of supramolecular chirality from a deeper level of chiral organization at the protofilament level of fibril structure. Our microscopic examination indicates that normal VCD fibrils have a left-handed twist, whereas reversed VCD fibrils are flat-like aggregates with no obvious helical twist as imaged by atomic force microscopy or scanning electron microscopy. A scheme is proposed consistent with observed data that features a dynamic equilibrium controlled by pH at the protofilament level between left- and right-twist fibril structures with distinctly different aggregation pathways for left- and right-twisted protofilaments. Copyright © 2012 Biophysical Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  7. A search for jet handedness in hadronic Z{sup 0} decays

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hasegawa, Yoji

    1995-03-01

    Transport of polarization through hadronization process is one of the fundamental interest in Quantum Chromodynamics which is a theory of strong interactions. In the low energy region where the hadronization occurs, QCD calculations are difficult, therefore at present the transport can be investigated experimentally. In this study the authors have searched for signatures of polarization of quarks and antiquarks in hadronic jets from Z{sup 0} {yields} q{bar q} decays. The polarization of quarks and antiquark produced by Z{sup 0} decays are predicted by the Standard Model of elementary particle physics. The authors defined several quantities depending on {open_quotes}jet handedness{close_quotes} methods and studied the correlation between the predicted polarization and the quantities. The signal was estimated by analyzing power which represents degree of the polarization transport through the hadronization process. The Z{sup 0} decays were measured by SLC Large Detector and the polarized electron beam provided by SLAC Linear Collider was useful for this study. The data from the 1993 run showed no signature of the transport of quark and antiquark polarization. Upper limits on magnitude of the analyzing power were set in the range 0.05-0.15 depending on the methods.

  8. Right Hepatic Artery: A Cadaver Investigation and Its Clinical Significance

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Usha Dandekar

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The right hepatic artery is an end artery and contributes sole arterial supply to right lobe of the liver. Misinterpretation of normal anatomy and anatomical variations of the right hepatic artery contribute to the major intraoperative mishaps and complications in hepatobiliary surgery. The frequency of inadvertent or iatrogenic hepatobiliary vascular injury rises with the event of an aberrant anatomy. This descriptive study was carried out to document the normal anatomy and different variations of right hepatic artery to contribute to existing knowledge of right hepatic artery to improve surgical safety. This study conducted on 60 cadavers revealed aberrant replaced right hepatic artery in 18.3% and aberrant accessory right hepatic artery in 3.4%. Considering the course, the right hepatic artery ran outside Calot’s triangle in 5% of cases and caterpillar hump right hepatic artery was seen in 13.3% of cases. The right hepatic artery (normal and aberrant crossed anteriorly to the common hepatic duct in 8.3% and posteriorly to it in 71.6%. It has posterior relations with the common bile duct in 16.7% while in 3.4% it did not cross the common hepatic duct or common bile duct. The knowledge of such anomalies is important since their awareness will decrease morbidity and help to keep away from a number of surgical complications.

  9. Assessing the UN High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines Report in Light of the Right to Health

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lisa Forman

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Access to medicines is the lynchpin to realizing a range of human rights, public health and development imperatives. However, without strong policy action to increase access to affordable medicines, there is little hope of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals or of realizing the human right to health. Access to medicines is a fundamental element of the right to health, and the majority of states are bound by core obligations in this regard. Accordingly, states must ensure that this critical human rights, public health and development interest is appropriately prioritized against inadequate resource allocations and competing private or trade interests. This is an imperative which we have argued should have framed the deliberations of the UN High Level Panel on Access to Medicines, convened to propose solutions to the “policy incoherence” between international human rights, trade rules and public health that is impeding access to medicines and the right to health for millions. In this article we explore interpretations in international human rights law regarding state duties towards medicines that should have guided these deliberations, and which were presented by the first author in a submission to the panel. We argue that at least two clear right to health duties support the High Level Panel’s recommendations: (1 the duty to prevent unreasonably high costs for medicines from denying large segments of the population their rights to health; and (2 the core obligation to provide essential medicines. Consequently, we explore three areas of action implied by these duties: (1 consistent implementation of human rights impact assessment; (2 institutionalizing the Agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS flexibilities in law and policy; (3 making permanent the waiver of TRIPS for least developed countries (LDC, and waiving the application of TRIPS to essential medicines in low and middle-income countries. Finally, we

  10. Food Addiction: Its Prevalence and Significant Association with Obesity in the General Population

    OpenAIRE

    Pedram, Pardis; Wadden, Danny; Amini, Peyvand; Gulliver, Wayne; Randell, Edward; Cahill, Farrell; Vasdev, Sudesh; Goodridge, Alan; Carter, Jacqueline C.; Zhai, Guangju; Ji, Yunqi; Sun, Guang

    2013-01-01

    Background ?Food addiction? shares a similar neurobiological and behavioral framework with substance addiction. However whether, and to what degree, ?food addiction? contributes to obesity in the general population is unknown. Objectives to assess 1) the prevalence of ?food addiction? in the Newfoundland population; 2) if clinical symptom counts of ?food addiction? were significantly correlated with the body composition measurements; 3) if food addicts were significantly more obese than contr...

  11. Derivation of a No-Significant-Risk-Level (NSRL) for diethanolamine (DEA).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Bingxuan; Amacher, David E; Whittaker, Margaret H

    2014-02-01

    Diethanolamine (DEA) has been listed on the State of California's Proposition 65 List. This listing is based in part on tumors reported in a National Toxicology Program (NTP) 2-year dermal carcinogenicity study in mice which found clear evidence of carcinogenic activity in B6C3F₁ mice based on increased incidences of liver neoplasms in both sexes, and increased incidences of renal tubule neoplasms in males. Although considerable controversy exists on the relevance of the NTP study to humans, industries are obligated to comply with the Proposition 65 labeling requirement and drinking water discharge prohibition, unless they are able to demonstrate that DEA levels in their products are below a specific No Significant Risk Level (NSRL). The State of California has not published an NSRL for DEA. In this article, a NSRL of 5.6 μg/day and a life-stage-adjusted NSRL(adj) of 1.4 μg/day are derived from the NTP carcinogenicity study using a benchmark dose modeling method based on the incidence of hepatocellular carcinomas in female mice, in accordance with the guidelines of California EPA. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  12. Economic stress and well-being: Does population health context matter?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Probst, Tahira M; Sinclair, Robert R; Sears, Lindsay E; Gailey, Nicholas J; Black, Kristen Jennings; Cheung, Janelle H

    2018-05-07

    The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of county-level population health determinants in predicting individual employee reactions to economic stress. Using multilevel modeling and a population health perspective, we tested a model linking nationally representative individual-level data (N = 100,968) on exposure to economic stressors and county-level population health determinants (N = 3,026) to responses on a composite measure of individual well-being that included the facets of purpose, community, physical, and social well-being, as well as life satisfaction. Results indicate that higher income- and employment-related economic stress were significantly related to poorer well-being. Additionally, living in a county with more positive population health determinants was significantly predictive of individual well-being. Finally, the Level-1 relationship between income-related stress and well-being was significantly attenuated for individuals living in counties with more positive population health determinants. In contrast, employment-related stress had a stronger negative relationship with well-being for individuals who lived in counties with more positive population health determinants. We discuss these findings in light of conservation of resources and relative deprivation theories, as well as how they may extend the scientific foundation for evidence-based social policy and evidence-based intervention programs aimed at lessening the effects of economic stress on individual well-being. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

  13. Spatial distribution of insecticide resistance in Caribbean populations of Aedes aegypti and its significance

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rawlins Samuel C.

    1998-01-01

    Full Text Available To monitor resistance to insecticides, bioassays were performed on 102 strains of the dengue vector Aedes aegypti (L. from 16 countries ranging from Suriname in South America and through the chain of Caribbean Islands to the Bahamas, where the larvicide temephos and the adulticide malathion have been in use for 15 to 30 years. There was wide variation in the sensitivity to the larvicide in mosquito populations within and among countries. Mosquito strains in some countries such as Antigua, St. Lucia, and Tortola had consistently high resistance ratios (RR to temephos, ranging from 5.3 to 17.7. In another group of countries-e.g., Anguilla and Curaçao-mosquitoes had mixed levels of resistance to temephos (RR = 2.5-10.6, and in a third group of countries, including St. Kitts, Barbados, Jamaica, and Suriname, mosquitoes had consistently low levels of resistance to temephos (RR = 1- 4.6 (P < 0.05. On occasion significantly different levels of resistance were recorded from neighboring A. aegypti communities, which suggests there is little genetic exchange among populations. The impact of larval resistance expressed itself as reduced efficacy of temephos to kill mosquitoes when strains were treated in the laboratory or in the field in large container environments with recommended dosages. Although a sensitive strain continued to be completely controlled for up to 7 weeks, the most resistant strains had 24% survival after the first week. By week 6, 60% to 75% of all resistant strains of larvae were surviving the larval period. Responses to malathion in adult A. aegypti varied from a sensitive population in Suriname (RR = 1.3 to resistant strains in St. Vincent (RR = 4.4, Dominica (RR = 4.2, and Trinidad (RR = 4.0; however, resistance was generally not on the scale of that observed to temephos in the larval stages and had increased only slightly when compared to the levels that existed 3 to 4 years ago. Suggestions are made for a pesticide usage policy

  14. Timescales for detecting a significant acceleration in sea level rise.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haigh, Ivan D; Wahl, Thomas; Rohling, Eelco J; Price, René M; Pattiaratchi, Charitha B; Calafat, Francisco M; Dangendorf, Sönke

    2014-04-14

    There is observational evidence that global sea level is rising and there is concern that the rate of rise will increase, significantly threatening coastal communities. However, considerable debate remains as to whether the rate of sea level rise is currently increasing and, if so, by how much. Here we provide new insights into sea level accelerations by applying the main methods that have been used previously to search for accelerations in historical data, to identify the timings (with uncertainties) at which accelerations might first be recognized in a statistically significant manner (if not apparent already) in sea level records that we have artificially extended to 2100. We find that the most important approach to earliest possible detection of a significant sea level acceleration lies in improved understanding (and subsequent removal) of interannual to multidecadal variability in sea level records.

  15. In pursuit of our ancestors' hand laterality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bargalló, Amèlia; Mosquera, Marina; Lozano, Sergi

    2017-10-01

    The aim of this paper is to apply a previously published method (Bargalló and Mosquera, 2014) to the archaeological record, allowing us to identify the hand laterality of our ancestors and determine when and how this feature, which is exhibited most strongly in humans, appeared in our evolutionary history. The method focuses on identifying handedness by looking at the technical features of the flakes produced by a single knapper, and discovering how many flakes are required to ascertain their hand preference. This method can potentially be applied to the majority of archaeological sites, since flakes are the most abundant stone tools, and stone tools are the most widespread and widely-preserved remains from prehistory. For our study, we selected two Spanish sites: Gran Dolina-TD10.1 (Atapuerca) and Abric Romaní (Barcelona), which were occupied by pre-Neanderthal and Neanderthal populations, respectively. Our analyses indicate that a minimum number of eight flakes produced by the same knapper is required to ascertain their hand preference. Even though this figure is relatively low, it is quite difficult to obtain from many archaeological sites. In addition, there is no single technical feature that provides information about handedness, instead there is a combination of eight technical features, localised on the striking platforms and ventral surfaces. The raw material is not relevant where good quality rocks are used, in this case quartzite and flint, since most of them retain the technical features required for the analysis. Expertise is not an issue either, since the technical features analysed here only correlate with handedness (Bargalló and Mosquera, 2014). Our results allow us to tentatively identify one right-handed knapper among the pre-Neanderthals of level TD10.1 at Gran Dolina (Atapuerca), while four of the five Neanderthals analysed from Abric Romaní were right-handed. The hand preference of the fifth knapper from that location (AR5) remains unclear

  16. [Level at which control objectives are reached in patients in different population groups with type 2 diabetes].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Herrero, A; Pinillos, J; Sabio, P; Martín, J L; Garzón, G; Gil, Á

    There is evidence of increased macro- and micro-vascular risk in diabetic patients. The objective of this study was to determine the level of control in patients in different population groups with type 2 diabetes. Descriptive cross-sectional study. Primary care. Madrid Health Service. Year: 2014. Patients over 14 years with type 2 diabetes. Number of patientes: n=6674. Variables on the degree of control (HbA1c, systolic blood pressure [SBP], diastolic blood pressure [DBP], LDL-c) and variables on patient characteristics (demographic, other cardiovascular risk factors, complications). The mean age of patients with controlled HbA1c was 67.8 years vs. 62.9 years in the uncontrolled (Pdifferences were statistically significant (P 140mmHg or DBP> 90mmHg. Over 25% of patients with hypertension or DL and uncontrolled levels were not receiving drug treatment. Control was improved in all groups, especially in younger patients, with particularly high cardiovascular risk by the presence of other cardiovascular risk factors or macroangiopathy. A significant percentage of patients with uncontrolled BP and cLDL were not diagnosed or receiving drug treatment. Copyright © 2016 Sociedad Española de Médicos de Atención Primaria (SEMERGEN). Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

  17. What is the most bothersome lower urinary tract symptom? Individual- and population-level perspectives for both men and women.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Agarwal, Arnav; Eryuzlu, Leyla N; Cartwright, Rufus; Thorlund, Kristian; Tammela, Teuvo L J; Guyatt, Gordon H; Auvinen, Anssi; Tikkinen, Kari A O

    2014-06-01

    No study has compared the bothersomeness of all lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) using a population-based sample of adults. Despite this lack of evidence, investigators have often cited their LUTS of interest as the "most bothersome" or "one of the most bothersome." To compare the population- and individual-level burden of LUTS in men and women. In this population-based cross-sectional study, questionnaires were mailed to 6000 individuals (18-79 yr of age) randomly identified from the Finnish Population Register. The validated Danish Prostatic Symptom Score questionnaire was used for assessment of bother of 12 different LUTS. The age-standardized prevalence of at least moderate bother was calculated for each symptom (population-level burden). Among symptomatic individuals, the proportion of affected individuals with at least moderate bother was calculated for each symptom (individual-level bother). A total of 3727 individuals (62.4%) participated (53.7% female). The LUTS with the greatest population-level burden were urgency (7.9% with at least moderate bother), stress urinary incontinence (SUI) (6.5%), nocturia (6.0%), postmicturition dribble (5.8%), and urgency urinary incontinence (UUI) (5.0%). Burden from incontinence symptoms was higher in women than men, and the opposite was true for voiding and postmicturition symptoms. At the individual level, UUI was the most bothersome for both genders. Although the response proportion was high, approximately a third did not participate. Both men and women with UUI report moderate or major bother more frequently than individuals with other LUTS. At the population level, the most prevalent bothersome symptoms are urgency, SUI, and nocturia. Urinary urgency was the most common troubling symptom in a large population-based study; however, for individuals, urgency incontinence was the most likely to be rated as bothersome. Copyright © 2014 European Association of Urology. All rights reserved.

  18. [Geography of effective size of rural populations of Northern Eurasia. Geographic correlation between effective size and level of heterozygosity of populations].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Evsiukov, A N; Zhukova, O V; Sheremet'eva, V A; Shneĭder, Iu V; Rychkov, Iu G

    1996-11-01

    A significant geographical correlation (r = 0.719) was found between the logarithm of effective size (InNe) and heterozygosity level (H) in populations under the assumption of the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. The area of highest positive correlation was positioned meridionally between the Ob and Yenisei rivers, from the Arctic coast of Taimyr Peninsula to eastern Sayans and the southern Cis-Baikal region, i.e., in the same region where the highest distribution density of mean Ne values was found. Two additional areas of high correlations were found on the northern Black Sea coast and in the lower Lena river region. Analysis and mapping of correlation ratios eta H/lnNe2 and eta lnNe/H2 revealed that effective size substantially influenced heterozygosity level (as could be expected in the case of an intense gene drift), and heterozygosity level influenced effective size to the same extent. The latter relationship indicated an intense adaptation, and changes in diversity of the gene pool caused substantial demographic changes. However, this might be accounted for by direct gene migration into a population prevailing over reverse migration, i.e., mechanical population growth prevailing over natural growth.

  19. Dihydrotestosterone and testosterone levels in men screened for prostate cancer: a study of a randomized population.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gustafsson, O; Norming, U; Gustafsson, S; Eneroth, P; Aström, G; Nyman, C R

    1996-03-01

    To investigate the possible relationship between serum levels of prostate specific antigen (PSA), dihydrotestosterone (DHT), testosterone, sexual-hormone binding globulin (SHBG) and tumour stage, grade and ploidy in 65 cases of prostate cancer diagnosed in a screening study compared to 130 controls from the same population. From a population of 26,602 men between the ages of 55 and 70 years, 2400 were selected randomly and invited to undergo screening for prostate cancer using a digital rectal examination, transrectal ultrasonography and PSA analysis. Among the 1782 attendees, 65 cases of prostate cancer were diagnosed. Each case was matched with two control subjects of similar age and prostate volume from the screening population. Frozen serum samples were analysed for PSA, DHT, testosterone and SHBG, and compared to the diagnosis and tumour stage, grade and ploidy. Comparisons between these variables, and multivariate and regression analyses were performed. There were significant differences in PSA level with all variables except tumour ploidy. DHT levels were slightly lower in patients with prostate cancer but the difference was not statistically significant. There was a trend towards lower DHT values in more advanced tumours and the difference for T-stages was close to statistical significance (P = 0.059). Testosterone levels were lower in patients with cancer than in the control group, but the differences were not significant. There was no correlation between testosterone levels, tumour stage and ploidy, but the differences in testosterone level in tumours of a low grade of differentiation compared to those with intermediate and high grade was nearly significant (P = 0.058). The testosterone/DHT ratio tended to be higher in patients with more advanced tumours. SHBG levels were lower in patients with cancer than in controls but the differences were not statistically significant. There were no systematic variations of tumour stage, grade and ploidy. Multivariate

  20. Levels of rare earth elements, heavy metals and uranium in a population living in Baiyun Obo, Inner Mongolia, China: a pilot study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hao, Zhe; Li, Yonghua; Li, Hairong; Wei, Binggan; Liao, Xiaoyong; Liang, Tao; Yu, Jiangping

    2015-06-01

    The Baiyun Obo deposit is the world's largest rare earth elements (REE) deposit. We aimed to investigate levels of REE, heavy metals (HMs) and uranium (U) based on morning urine samples in a population in Baiyun Obo and to assess the possible influence of rare earth mining processes on human exposure. In the mining area, elevated levels were found for the sum of the concentrations of light REE (LREE) and heavy REE (HREE) with mean values at 3.453 and 1.151 μg g(-1) creatinine, which were significantly higher than those in the control area. Concentrations of HMs and U in the population increased concomitantly with increasing REE levels. The results revealed that besides REE, HMs and U were produced with REE exploitation. Gender, age, educational level, alcohol and smoking habit were major factors contributing to inter-individual variation. Males were more exposed to these metals than females. Concentrations in people in the senior age group and those with only primary education were low. Drinking and smoking were associated with the levels of LREE, Cr, Cu, Cd and Pb in morning urine. Hence this study provides basic and useful information when addressing public and environmental health challenges in the areas where REE are mined and processed. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  1. Clinical significance of determination of serum C-peptide levels

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang Guohong; Xu Ruiji; Zhang Zhongshu; Wang Xiaoji

    2006-01-01

    Objective: To study the clinical meanings of changes of serum C-peptide levels and insulin/C-peptide ratio. Methods: Serum insulin and C-peptide levels were determined with RIA in 171 patients with DM-2 of all ages (31-50, n= 50, 51-60, n=60, over 60, n=61) and 50 patients with renal insufficiency. The insulin/C-peptide ratio were calculated. Results: The serum C-peptide and insulin levels in patients with renal insufficiency were significantly higher than those in diabetics of all age groups and the insulin/C-peptide ratio were significantly lower than those in diabetics (P 0.05), but the serum C-peptide levels increased as the age of patients increased with decrease of insulin/C-peptide ratio (P<0.01). Conclusion: Abnormal changes of C-peptide levels and insulin/C-peptide ratio in diabetics (the age-factor corrected) might reflect renal dysfunction. (authors)

  2. A Bayesian random effects discrete-choice model for resource selection: Population-level selection inference

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thomas, D.L.; Johnson, D.; Griffith, B.

    2006-01-01

    Modeling the probability of use of land units characterized by discrete and continuous measures, we present a Bayesian random-effects model to assess resource selection. This model provides simultaneous estimation of both individual- and population-level selection. Deviance information criterion (DIC), a Bayesian alternative to AIC that is sample-size specific, is used for model selection. Aerial radiolocation data from 76 adult female caribou (Rangifer tarandus) and calf pairs during 1 year on an Arctic coastal plain calving ground were used to illustrate models and assess population-level selection of landscape attributes, as well as individual heterogeneity of selection. Landscape attributes included elevation, NDVI (a measure of forage greenness), and land cover-type classification. Results from the first of a 2-stage model-selection procedure indicated that there is substantial heterogeneity among cow-calf pairs with respect to selection of the landscape attributes. In the second stage, selection of models with heterogeneity included indicated that at the population-level, NDVI and land cover class were significant attributes for selection of different landscapes by pairs on the calving ground. Population-level selection coefficients indicate that the pairs generally select landscapes with higher levels of NDVI, but the relationship is quadratic. The highest rate of selection occurs at values of NDVI less than the maximum observed. Results for land cover-class selections coefficients indicate that wet sedge, moist sedge, herbaceous tussock tundra, and shrub tussock tundra are selected at approximately the same rate, while alpine and sparsely vegetated landscapes are selected at a lower rate. Furthermore, the variability in selection by individual caribou for moist sedge and sparsely vegetated landscapes is large relative to the variability in selection of other land cover types. The example analysis illustrates that, while sometimes computationally intense, a

  3. Comparison of six sewage effluents treated with different treatment technologies--population level responses in the harpacticoid copepod Nitocra spinipes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lundström, Elin; Björlenius, Berndt; Brinkmann, Markus; Hollert, Henner; Persson, Jan-Olov; Breitholtz, Magnus

    2010-03-01

    useful tool for biologically characterizing and comparing the effluents. Basing the assessment either on the individual level data (development and survival over time or total reproductive output) or the population level data (lambda values and projected population abundances) would not have resulted in the same conclusions as combining both analyses. The juvenile development and survival over time allowed for closer monitoring of the important molting process, whereas the population modeling provided an integrated measure of potential effects at the population level. If the dilution of the effluent in the recipient is considered, the biological effects recorded in the present study were not of substantial significance for the copepod populations, regardless of treatment technology. 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  4. Registered Nurses' personal rights vs. professional responsibility in caring for members of underserved and disenfranchised populations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maze, Claire D Martino

    2005-05-01

    Health disparities exist and refer to the chasms in health status between the advantaged and disadvantaged. Intense multiculturalism will require different approaches and moral obligations to work with these groups and urgency exists to develop nursing caring strategies when dealing with these populations. Development of nursing curricula which identify prejudicial thinking and intolerance for marginalized groups will help to decrease fears and increase nurses' willingness to provide culturally competent health care for underserved and disenfranchised populations. Caring for members of disenfranchised groups instills fear at some level in nurses who are working with these individuals. This fear may be due, in part, to the potential harm nurses perceive the patient may cause them, or perhaps it is because they feel they could possibly be in the individual's situation at some point in their lives. Prejudice and discrimination continue to exist in society and have adversely affected the health care system and the nursing profession. Discrimination may be based on differences due to age, ability, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or any characteristics by which people differ. Registered Nurses are accountable for nursing decisions and actions regardless of personal preferences. Due to the rapidly changing healthcare system the nurse faces increasing ethical dilemmas and human rights issues. Nurses are individually accountable for caring for each patient and the right to refuse an assignment should be carefully interpreted to avoid patient abandonment. Nurses' objections can be based on moral, ethical, or religious beliefs not on personal preferences and in an emergency the nurse must provide treatment regardless of any personal objections.

  5. Levels in {sup 227}Ac populated in the {sup 230}Th(p,{alpha}) reaction

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Burke, D.G. E-mail: dgb@physics.mcmaster.ca; Garrett, P.E.; Qu, Tao

    2003-09-08

    The {sup 230,232}Th(p,{alpha}){sup 227,229}Ac reactions were studied using 20 MeV protons and a magnetic spectrograph to analyze the reaction products. Relative populations of levels in {sup 229}Ac correlated well with previously published (t,{alpha}) results for the same final levels, showing that the similarity of the two reactions observed empirically in the deformed rare earth region extends to actinides. The most strongly populated level in {sup 227}Ac is at 639 keV, and is assigned as the 1/2{sup +}[4 0 0] bandhead. The 435 keV level, previously adopted as the 1/2{sup +}[6 6 0] bandhead, also has a significant intensity that is attributed to {delta}N=2 mixing between these two K=1/2 proton orbitals. The {delta}N=2 matrix element estimated from these data is {approx}80 keV, similar to values observed for the same two Nilsson states as neutron orbitals in the dysprosium isotopes.

  6. Are higher blood mercury levels associated with dry eye symptoms in adult Koreans? A population-based cross-sectional study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chung, So-Hyang

    2016-01-01

    Objectives The purpose of this study was to investigate whether blood mercury concentrations associated with the presence of dry eye symptoms in a nationally representative Korean population. Methods Population-based prospective cross-sectional study using the heavy metal data set of the 2010–2012 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES). A total of 4761 adult Koreans were the eligible population in this study. Of the 7162 survey participants, 2401 were excluded because they were mercury levels were measured on the day the participants completed a questionnaire regarding the presence of dry eye symptoms (persistent dryness or eye irritation). The population was divided into low and high groups by median level (4.26 and 2.89 µg/L for males and females, respectively). Results Self-reported dry eye symptoms were present in 13.0% of the cohort. Participants with dry eye symptoms were significantly more likely to have blood mercury levels exceeding the median than those without dry eye symptoms (45.7% vs 51.7%, p=0.021). Logistic regression analysis showed that, after adjusting for age, gender, education, total household income, smoking status, heavy alcohol use, sleep time, perceived stress status, total cholesterol levels and atopy history, dry eye symptoms were significantly associated with blood mercury levels that exceeded the median (reference: lower mercury group; OR, 1.324; 95% CI 1.059 to 1.655; pmercury levels were associated with dry eye symptoms in a nationally representative Korean population. PMID:27121705

  7. Clinical significance of serum leptin levels in patients with graves' disease

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hou Ying; Du Fuman; Teng Haikun; Yang Yuzhi

    2008-01-01

    Objective: To investigate the levels of serum leptin in patients with graves' disease. Methods: Serum leptin levels were measured with IRMA in 51 patients with hyperthyroidism as well as 46 hypothyroid and 50 euthyroid subjects as controls. Serum TSH, free T 3 and free T 4 (FT 3 and FT 4 ) were also measured. Body fat percentage (% Fat) and body mass index (BMI) were calculated. Results: Serum leptin levels were significantly lower in patients with graves' disease (male 2.05 ± 1.54μg/L, female 7.47±5. 08 μg/L), than those in hypothyroid and euthyroid subjects. Levels in hypothyroid patients were significantly higher than those in controls, however, excluding the body fat factor, there were no obvious difference. Serum leptin levels in all the 3 groups were significantly positively correlated with BMI. The levels were negatively correlated with FT 3 , FT 4 levels and positively correlated with TSH levels but both were not significant. Serum leptin levels were 2-3 times higher in women than in men among all 3 groups. Conclusion: Thyroid functional status affected serum leptin levels indirectly through the amount of body fat. (authors)

  8. Significance of beach geomorphology on fecal indicator bacteria levels.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Donahue, Allison; Feng, Zhixuan; Kelly, Elizabeth; Reniers, Ad; Solo-Gabriele, Helena M

    2017-08-15

    Large databases of fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) measurements are available for coastal waters. With the assistance of satellite imagery, we illustrated the power of assessing data for many sites by evaluating beach features such as geomorphology, distance from rivers and canals, presence of piers and causeways, and degree of urbanization coupled with the enterococci FIB database for the state of Florida. We found that beach geomorphology was the primary characteristic associated with enterococci levels that exceeded regulatory guidelines. Beaches in close proximity to marshes or within bays had higher enterococci exceedances in comparison to open coast beaches. For open coast beaches, greater enterococci exceedances were associated with nearby rivers and higher levels of urbanization. Piers and causeways had a minimal contribution, as their effect was often overwhelmed by beach geomorphology. Results can be used to understand the potential causes of elevated enterococci levels and to promote public health. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. Lead and mercury levels in an environmentally exposed population in the Central Brazil.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jesus, Leda Diva Freitas de; Moreira, Maria de Fátima Ramos; Azevedo, Sayonara Vieira de; Borges, Renato Marçullo; Gomes, Regina Aderne de Almeida; Bergamini, Fernanda Pereira Baptista; Teixeira, Liliane Reis

    2018-03-01

    The objective was to assess the level of exposure to lead and mercury in a population in the Pantanal region in Mato Grosso State, Brazil. Blood lead (PbB) (n = 119) and urinary mercury (HgU) (n = 109) in local residents were measured by atomic absorption spectrometry. Comparison of means and correlations between variables used analysis of variance (ANOVA) and linear regression, respectively, with 95% confidence intervals. Mean PbB was 2.82 ± 1.53µg dL-1. The comparison of PbB stratified by collection site (p ≤ 0.01), work activity (p ≤ 0.01), and consumption of locally produced cow's milk (p ≤ 0.05) showed statistically significant differences. There were also positive associations between PbB and collection site (p ≤ 0.01), participants' profession (p ≤ 0.05), local milk (p ≤ 0.01), and source of drinking water (p ≤ 0.01). Mean HgU was 1.41 ± 0.98µg L-1. The levels only showed significant differences for participants' profession (p ≤ 0.01), and positive associations emerged between HgU and work activity (p ≤ 0.01) and body mass index (p ≤ 0.01). The samples showed low lead and mercury levels, similar to those found in other environmentally exposed populations. Despite these low concentrations, current knowledge on the toxicity of these metals shows that health effects can already be felt at levels that were previously considered safe, thus characterizing a health hazard.

  10. Population dynamics of Hawaiian seabird colonies vulnerable to sea-level rise

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hatfield, Jeff S.; Reynolds, Michelle H.; Seavy, Nathaniel E.; Krause, Crystal M.

    2012-01-01

    Globally, seabirds are vulnerable to anthropogenic threats both at sea and on land. Seabirds typically nest colonially and show strong fidelity to natal colonies, and such colonies on low-lying islands may be threatened by sea-level rise. We used French Frigate Shoals, the largest atoll in the Hawaiian Archipelago, as a case study to explore the population dynamics of seabird colonies and the potential effects sea-level rise may have on these rookeries. We compiled historic observations, a 30-year time series of seabird population abundance, lidar-derived elevations, and aerial imagery of all the islands of French Frigate Shoals. To estimate the population dynamics of 8 species of breeding seabirds on Tern Island from 1980 to 2009, we used a Gompertz model with a Bayesian approach to infer population growth rates, density dependence, process variation, and observation error. All species increased in abundance, in a pattern that provided evidence of density dependence. Great Frigatebirds (Fregata minor), Masked Boobies (Sula dactylatra), Red-tailed Tropicbirds (Phaethon rubricauda), Spectacled Terns (Onychoprion lunatus), and White Terns (Gygis alba) are likely at carrying capacity. Density dependence may exacerbate the effects of sea-level rise on seabirds because populations near carrying capacity on an island will be more negatively affected than populations with room for growth. We projected 12% of French Frigate Shoals will be inundated if sea level rises 1 m and 28% if sea level rises 2 m. Spectacled Terns and shrub-nesting species are especially vulnerable to sea-level rise, but seawalls and habitat restoration may mitigate the effects of sea-level rise. Losses of seabird nesting habitat may be substantial in the Hawaiian Islands by 2100 if sea levels rise 2 m. Restoration of higher-elevation seabird colonies represent a more enduring conservation solution for Pacific seabirds.

  11. Assessment of state- and territorial-level preparedness capacity for serving deaf and hard-of-hearing populations in disasters.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ivey, Susan L; Tseng, Winston; Dahrouge, Donna; Engelman, Alina; Neuhauser, Linda; Huang, Debbie; Gurung, Sidhanta

    2014-01-01

    Substantial evidence exists that emergency preparedness and response efforts are not effectively reaching populations with functional and access needs, especially barriers related to literacy, language, culture, or disabilities. More than 36 million Americans are Deaf or hard of hearing (Deaf/HH). These groups experienced higher risks of injury, death, and property loss in recent disasters than the general public. We conducted a participatory research study to examine national recommendations on preparedness communication for the Deaf/HH. We assessed whether previous recommendations regarding the Deaf/HH have been incorporated into state- and territorial-level emergency operations plans (EOPs), interviewed state- and territorial-level preparedness directors about capacity to serve the Deaf/HH, and proposed strategies to benefit Deaf/HH populations during emergencies. We analyzed 55 EOPs and 50 key informant (KI) interviews with state directors. Fifty-five percent of EOPs mentioned vulnerable populations; however, only 31% specifically mentioned Deaf/HH populations in their plan. Study findings indicated significant relationships among the following factors: a state-level KI's familiarity with communication issues for the Deaf/HH, making relay calls (i.e., calls to services to relay communication between Deaf and hearing people), and whether the KI's department provides trainings about serving Deaf/HH populations in emergencies. We found significant associations between a state's percentage of Deaf/HH individuals and a KI's familiarity with Deaf/HH communication issues and provision by government of any disability services to Deaf/HH populations in emergencies. Further, we found significant relationships between KIs attending training on serving the Deaf/HH and familiarity with Deaf/HH communication issues, including how to make relay calls. This study provides new knowledge that can help emergency agencies improve their preparedness training, planning, and capacity

  12. Time-specific and population-level differences in physiological responses of fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) and golden shiners (Notemigonus crysoleucas) exposed to copper.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peles, John D; Pistole, David H; Moffe, Mickey C

    2012-03-01

    The influence of exposure time on gill Na+/K+ ATPase activity and metabolic rate in populations of fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) and golden shiners (Notemigonus crysoleucas) hatcheries in Ohio (OH) and Pennsylvania (PA) when exposed to sublethal concentrations of copper (Cu) was examined. The pattern of change in gill Na+/K+ ATPase activity was similar in all species/populations and results support expectations based on the concept of acclimation. In all populations, Na+/K+ ATPase activity declined significantly compared to reference values within 24 h, recovered by 48 h, and then continued to increase before exceeding reference values by 192 h. With the exception of PA fathead minnows, Na+/K+ ATPase activities returned to reference levels by 384 h. Although metabolic rates of individual fish were not strongly correlated with Na+/K+ ATPase activities, the pattern of change in mean values of these physiological parameters was very similar. However, OH populations of both fathead minnows and golden shiners demonstrated much more dramatic changes in metabolic rate compared to PA fish. At 24 h, metabolic rate of PA fathead minnows had decreased by 16% compared to the reference value whereas the OH population had decreased by 31%; metabolic rate of PA golden shiners declined by 23% compared to 59% in OH shiners at 24 h. Similar differences were observed in the maximum metabolic rates achieved at 192 h. While the increased sensitivity of OH fish to Cu is not readily explainable by genetic or environmental factors, results suggest the need for considering population level differences when evaluating the physiological effects of toxicants. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  13. Assessing the Energy and Emissions Implications of Alternative Population Scenarios Using a State-Level Integrated Assessment Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shi, W.; Nolte, C. G.; Loughlin, D. H.; Ou, Y.; Smith, S. J.

    2017-12-01

    We use GCAM-USA to examine the sensitivity of energy demands and resulting pollutant emissions and health impacts to differing population projections. The population projections are based on future fertility, mortality, migration and education assumptions consistent with the five Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) (Jones and O'Neill, 2016). By using a state-level integrated assessment model, we capture the energy and emissions implications of population changes. Additionally, we overlay heating degree days and cooling degree days calculated from climate change projections to assess the individual and combined impacts of population shifts and climate change. A unique aspect of this work is the explicit representation of important regulatory drivers, such as the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule and vehicle efficiency standards. Preliminary results indicate there are significant differences across population scenarios in both U.S. national and state-level emissions. In this presentation, we will examine the influence of underlying factors such as climate, population, and technology changes on emissions and environmental impacts at 2050.

  14. Hand dominance in orthopaedic surgeons.

    LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

    Lui, Darren F

    2012-08-01

    Handedness is perhaps the most studied human asymmetry. Laterality is the preference shown for one side and it has been studied in many aspects of medicine. Studies have shown that some orthopaedic procedures had poorer outcomes and identified laterality as a contributing factor. We developed a questionnaire to assess laterality in orthopaedic surgery and compared this to an established scoring system. Sixty-two orthopaedic surgeons surveyed with the validated Waterloo Handedness Questionnaire (WHQ) were compared with the self developed Orthopaedic Handedness Questionnaire (OHQ). Fifty-eight were found to be right hand dominant (RHD) and 4 left hand dominant (LHD). In RHD surgeons, the average WHQ score was 44.9% and OHQ 15%. For LHD surgeons the WHQ score was 30.2% and OHQ 9.4%. This represents a significant amount of time using the non dominant hand but does not necessarily determine satisfactory or successful dexterity transferable to the operating room. Training may be required for the non dominant side.

  15. A lack of cerebral lateralization in schizophrenia is within the normal variation in brain maturation but indicates late, slow maturation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saugstad, L F

    1999-10-19

    The planum temporale (PT) bias, PT leftward, PT symmetry, and PT rightward reversal and sidedness preference, consistent right-handedness, ambilaterality, and consistent left-handedness are placed on a continuum mirroring the normal variation in rate of brain maturation. Maturational rate declines as we pass from PT leftward bias and consistent right-handedness to PT reversal and consistent left-handedness. Concomitantly, we expect an increased prevalence of males due to their pubertal age being about 2 years later than that of females, and a shift in cognitive profile from higher verbal scores than performance scores on the WAIS to higher performance than verbal scores. Three disorders fulfilling the criteria of late CNS maturation apart from the corresponding cognitive profile were studied: infantile autism (IA), schizophrenia (S), and developmental dyslexia (DD). These disorders have in common deficits in cognition, perception, and somatomotor function. The deficits range from an arrest in brain development (which is evident in infancy superimposed on late maturation in IA) to overall delayed brain and somatic development in S (culminating in postpubertal psychotic episodes and persistent and generalized residual deficits). Finally, reading inability, problems in perception (vision and hearing) and in motor coordination, particularly between the two hemispheres, characterize DD. Enhancing brain maturation and the prevalence of 'normal' cerebral asymmetry--laterality is preferable if we want to reduce the risk of developing the above-mentioned disorders. It is suggested that in the past environmental challenges have favored early maturation, with its abundant neuronal population, arborization and excessive density of synapses and cerebral excitability which has powered evolution through the mechanism of natural selection. Early maturation is obtainable through optimal nutrition, including a satisfactory amount of marine fat (PUFA), before and during pregnancy and

  16. Association between vitamin D concentration and levels of sex hormones in an elderly Polish population with different genotypes of VDR polymorphisms (rs10735810, rs1544410, rs7975232, rs731236).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laczmanski, Lukasz; Lwow, Felicja; Mossakowska, Malgorzata; Puzianowska-Kuznicka, Monika; Szwed, Małgorzata; Kolackov, Katarzyna; Krzyzanowska-Swiniarska, Barbara; Bar-Andziak, Ewa; Chudek, Jerzy; Sloka, Natalia; Milewicz, Andrzej

    2015-03-15

    Vitamin D co-regulates the synthesis of sex hormones in part by interaction with its nuclear receptor. The aim of this study was to determine whether there is an association of vitamin D concentration vs the level of sex hormones in elderly Polish individuals with different genotypes of the vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene. Rs10735810, rs1544410, rs7975232, and rs731236 polymorphisms of VDR, the serum sex hormone level, free estrogen index (FEI) and free androgen index (FAI) as well as vitamin D, were evaluated in 766 persons (362 women and 404 men) selected from 5695 Polish population, aged 65-90years from the PolSenior survey. We observed that women with GG (rs731236), TT (rs7975232), BB (rs1544410) and FF (rs10735810) genotypes were characterized by a significant correlation between vitamin D vs testosterone concentration and FAI value. We found a significant correlation between testosterone level and FAI vs vitamin D concentration in men with heterozygote AG in the rs731236 polymorphism and in the GG (rs7975232), the BB (rs1544410), and the Ff (rs10735810) genotypes. In elderly selected Polish population with different genotypes of VDR polymorphisms, a statistically significant relationship between vitamin D concentration vs testosterone level was observed. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  17. Assessment of genetically significant doses to the Sofia population from natural gamma background

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vasilev, G.; Khristova, M.

    1977-01-01

    Genetically significant dose to the population of Sofia city was assessed within a program covering larger urban communities in the country. Measurements were made of gamma background exposure rates in the gonadal region. Gonad doses were estimated using a screening factor of 0.73. Based on statistical data for total number of inhabitants and number of people of reproductive age, and on the mean annual gonad doses derived, calculations were made of genetically significant dose to the Sofia population. Base-line data were thus provided for an assessment of extra radiation dose resulting from occupational radiation exposure. (author)

  18. Embodiment of Abstract Concepts: Good and Bad in Right- and Left-Handers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Casasanto, Daniel

    2009-01-01

    Do people with different kinds of bodies think differently? According to the "body-specificity hypothesis," people who interact with their physical environments in systematically different ways should form correspondingly different mental representations. In a test of this hypothesis, 5 experiments investigated links between handedness and the…

  19. Population-level assessments should be emphasized over community/ecosystem-level assessments. Environmental Sciences Division Publication No. 1535

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Van Winkle, W.

    1980-01-01

    Arguments are presented in favor of emphasizing population-level assessments over community/ecosystem-level assessments. The two approaches are compared on each of four issues: (1) the nature of entrainment/impingement impacts; (2) the ability to forecast reliably for a single fish population as contrasted to the ability to forecast for an aquatic community or ecosystem; (3) practical considerations involving money, manpower, time, and the need to make decisions; and (4) the nature of societal and economic concerns. The conclusion on each of these four issues is that population-level assessments provide the optimal approach for evaluating the effects of entrainment and impingement mortality

  20. Analysis of the nexus between population, water resources and Global Food Security highlights significance of governance and research investments and policy priorities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yunusa, Isa A M; Zerihun, Ayalsew; Gibberd, Mark R

    2018-05-10

    Analyses of sensitivity of Global Food Security (GFS) score to a key set of supply or demand factors often suggest population and water supply as being the most critical and on which policies tend to focus. To explore other policy options, we characterised the nexus between GFS and a set of supply or demand factors including defining including population, agricultural and industrial water-use, agricultural publications (as a surrogate for investment in agricultural research and development [R&D]), and corruption perception index (CPI), to reveal opportunities for attaining enduring GFS. We found that despite being the primary driver of demand for food, population showed no significant correlation with GFS scores. Similarly agricultural water-use was poorly correlated with GFS scores, except in countries where evaporation exceeds precipitation and irrigation is significant. However, GFS had a strong positive association with industrial water-use as a surrogate for overall industrialisation. Recent expansions in cultivated land area failed to yield concomitant improvements in GFS score since such expansions have been mostly into marginal lands with low productivity and also barely compensated for lands retired from cropping in several developed economies. However, GFS was positively associated with agricultural R&D investments, as it was with the CPI scores. The apparent and relative strengths of these drivers on GFS outcome amongst countries were in the order: industrial water-use ≈ publication rate ≈ corruption perception > agricultural water-use > population. We concluded by suggesting that to enshrine enduring food security, policies should prioritise (1) increased R&D investments that address farmer needs, and (2) governance mechanisms that promote accountability in both research and production value chains. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

  1. Individual performance and leader's laterality in interactive contests.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mukherjee, Satyam

    2017-05-01

    Left-handedness is known to provide an intrinsic and tactical advantage at top level in many sports involving interactive contests. Again, most of the renowned leaders of the world are known to have been left-handed. Leadership plays an important role in politics, sports and mentorship. In this paper we show that Cricket captains who bat left-handed have a strategic advantage over the right-handed captains in One Day International (ODI) and Test matches. The present study involving 46 left-handed captains and 148 right-handed captains in ODI matches, reveal a strong relation between leader's laterality and team member performance, demonstrating the critical importance of left-handedness and successful leadership. The odds for superior batting performance in an ODI match under left-handed captains are 89% higher than the odds under right-handed captains. Our study shows that left-handed captains are more successful in extracting superior performance from the batsmen and bowlers in ODI and Test matches; perhaps indicating left-handed leaders are better motivators as leaders when compared to right-handed captains.

  2. Estimation of Potential Population Level Effects of Contaminants on Wildlife; FINAL

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Loar, J.M.

    2001-01-01

    The objective of this project is to provide DOE with improved methods to assess risks from contaminants to wildlife populations. The current approach for wildlife risk assessment consists of comparison of contaminant exposure estimates for individual animals to literature-derived toxicity test endpoints. These test endpoints are assumed to estimate thresholds for population-level effects. Moreover, species sensitivities to contaminants is one of several criteria to be considered when selecting assessment endpoints (EPA 1997 and 1998), yet data on the sensitivities of many birds and mammals are lacking. The uncertainties associated with this approach are considerable. First, because toxicity data are not available for most potential wildlife endpoint species, extrapolation of toxicity data from test species to the species of interest is required. There is no consensus on the most appropriate extrapolation method. Second, toxicity data are represented as statistical measures (e.g., NOAEL s or LOAELs) that provide no information on the nature or magnitude of effects. The level of effect is an artifact of the replication and dosing regime employed, and does not indicate how effects might increase with increasing exposure. Consequently, slight exceedance of a LOAEL is not distinguished from greatly exceeding it. Third, the relationship of toxic effects on individuals to effects on populations is poorly estimated by existing methods. It is assumed that if the exposure of individuals exceeds levels associated with impaired reproduction, then population level effects are likely. Uncertainty associated with this assumption is large because depending on the reproductive strategy of a given species, comparable levels of reproductive impairment may result in dramatically different population-level responses. This project included several tasks to address these problems: (1) investigation of the validity of the current allometric scaling approach for interspecies extrapolation

  3. Community-based population-level interventions for promoting child oral health.

    OpenAIRE

    de Silva, AM; Hegde, S; Akudo Nwagbara, B; Calache, H; Gussy, MG; Nasser, M; Morrice, HR; Riggs, E; Leong, PM; Meyenn, LK; Yousefi-Nooraie, R

    2016-01-01

    BACKGROUND: Dental caries and gingival and periodontal disease are commonly occurring, preventable chronic conditions. Even though much is known about how to treat oral disease, currently we do not know which community-based population-level interventions are most effective and equitable in preventing poor oral health. OBJECTIVES: Primary • To determine the effectiveness of community-based population-level oral health promotion interventions in preventing dental caries and gingival and period...

  4. Significant gender difference in serum levels of fibroblast growth factor 21 in Danish children and adolescents

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bisgaard, Amalie; Sørensen, Kaspar; Johannsen, Trine Holm

    2014-01-01

    children (21%) had levels below detection limit of assay. Baseline levels of FGF21 showed positive correlation with triglycerides, but no significant correlations were found between FGF21-concentration and body mass index (BMI), DXA-derived fat percentage, LDL- HDL- and non-HDL cholesterol, leptin......INTRODUCTION: Fibroblast Growth Factor 21 (FGF21) is a novel metabolic factor with effect on glucose and lipid metabolism, and shown to be elevated in diseases related to metabolic syndrome. Due to the increasing frequency of metabolic syndrome in the pediatric population, and as FGF21 studies...... in children are limited, we investigated baseline serum levels of FGF21 in healthy children during an oral glucose tolerance test. METHODS: A total of 179 children and adolescents from the COPENHAGEN Puberty Study were included. An OGTT with glucose and insulin measurements, a dual energy X-ray absorptiometry...

  5. Building the Evidence Base for Population-Level Interventions: Barriers and Opportunities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lifsey, Sarah; Cash, Amanda; Anthony, Jodi; Mathis, Sheryl; Silva, Sandra

    2015-01-01

    Population-level interventions focused on policy, systems, and environmental change strategies are increasingly being used to affect and improve the health of populations. At the same time, emphasis on implementing evidence-based public health practices and programming is increasing, particularly at the federal level. Valuing strategies in the…

  6. Health and Human Rights in Chin State, Western Burma: A Population-Based Assessment Using Multistaged Household Cluster Sampling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sollom, Richard; Richards, Adam K.; Parmar, Parveen; Mullany, Luke C.; Lian, Salai Bawi; Iacopino, Vincent; Beyrer, Chris

    2011-01-01

    Background The Chin State of Burma (also known as Myanmar) is an isolated ethnic minority area with poor health outcomes and reports of food insecurity and human rights violations. We report on a population-based assessment of health and human rights in Chin State. We sought to quantify reported human rights violations in Chin State and associations between these reported violations and health status at the household level. Methods and Findings Multistaged household cluster sampling was done. Heads of household were interviewed on demographics, access to health care, health status, food insecurity, forced displacement, forced labor, and other human rights violations during the preceding 12 months. Ratios of the prevalence of household hunger comparing exposed and unexposed to each reported violation were estimated using binomial regression, and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were constructed. Multivariate models were done to adjust for possible confounders. Overall, 91.9% of households (95% CI 89.7%–94.1%) reported forced labor in the past 12 months. Forty-three percent of households met FANTA-2 (Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance II project) definitions for moderate to severe household hunger. Common violations reported were food theft, livestock theft or killing, forced displacement, beatings and torture, detentions, disappearances, and religious and ethnic persecution. Self reporting of multiple rights abuses was independently associated with household hunger. Conclusions Our findings indicate widespread self-reports of human rights violations. The nature and extent of these violations may warrant investigation by the United Nations or International Criminal Court. Please see later in the article for the Editors' Summary PMID:21346799

  7. Assessing multimedia/multipathway exposures to inorganic arsenic at population and individual level using MERLIN-Expo.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Van Holderbeke, Mirja; Fierens, Tine; Standaert, Arnout; Cornelis, Christa; Brochot, Céline; Ciffroy, Philippe; Johansson, Erik; Bierkens, Johan

    2016-10-15

    In this study, we report on model simulations performed using the newly developed exposure tool, MERLIN-Expo, in order to assess inorganic arsenic (iAs) exposure to adults resulting from past emissions by non-ferrous smelters in Belgium (Northern Campine area). Exposure scenarios were constructed to estimate external iAs exposure as well as the toxicologically relevant As (tAs, i.e., iAs, MMA and DMA) body burden in adults living in the vicinity of the former industrial sites as compared to adults living in adjacent areas and a reference area. Two scenarios are discussed: a first scenario studying exposure to iAs at the aggregated population level and a second scenario studying exposure at the individual level for a random sub-sample of subjects in each of the three different study areas. These two scenarios only differ in the type of human related input data (i.e., time-activity data, ingestion rates and consumption patterns) that were used, namely averages (incl. probability density functions, PDFs) in the simulation at population level and subject-specific values in the simulation at individual level. The model predictions are shown to be lower than the corresponding biomonitoring data from the monitoring campaign. Urinary tAs levels in adults, irrespective of the area they lived in, were under-predicted by MERLIN-Expo by 40% on average. The model predictions for individual adults, by contrast, under-predict the biomonitoring data by 7% on average, but with more important under-predictions for subjects at the upper end of exposure. Still, average predicted urinary tAs levels from the simulations at population level and at individual level overlap, and, at least for the current case, lead to similar conclusions. These results constitute a first and partial verification of the model performance of MERLIN-Expo when dealing with iAs in a complex site-specific exposure scenario, and demonstrate the robustness of the modelling tool for these situations. Copyright

  8. Population dynamics of Hawaiian seabird colonies vulnerable to sea-level rise.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hatfield, Jeff S; Reynolds, Michelle H; Seavy, Nathaniel E; Krause, Crystal M

    2012-08-01

    Globally, seabirds are vulnerable to anthropogenic threats both at sea and on land. Seabirds typically nest colonially and show strong fidelity to natal colonies, and such colonies on low-lying islands may be threatened by sea-level rise. We used French Frigate Shoals, the largest atoll in the Hawaiian Archipelago, as a case study to explore the population dynamics of seabird colonies and the potential effects sea-level rise may have on these rookeries. We compiled historic observations, a 30-year time series of seabird population abundance, lidar-derived elevations, and aerial imagery of all the islands of French Frigate Shoals. To estimate the population dynamics of 8 species of breeding seabirds on Tern Island from 1980 to 2009, we used a Gompertz model with a Bayesian approach to infer population growth rates, density dependence, process variation, and observation error. All species increased in abundance, in a pattern that provided evidence of density dependence. Great Frigatebirds (Fregata minor), Masked Boobies (Sula dactylatra), Red-tailed Tropicbirds (Phaethon rubricauda), Spectacled Terns (Onychoprion lunatus), and White Terns (Gygis alba) are likely at carrying capacity. Density dependence may exacerbate the effects of sea-level rise on seabirds because populations near carrying capacity on an island will be more negatively affected than populations with room for growth. We projected 12% of French Frigate Shoals will be inundated if sea level rises 1 m and 28% if sea level rises 2 m. Spectacled Terns and shrub-nesting species are especially vulnerable to sea-level rise, but seawalls and habitat restoration may mitigate the effects of sea-level rise. Losses of seabird nesting habitat may be substantial in the Hawaiian Islands by 2100 if sea levels rise 2 m. Restoration of higher-elevation seabird colonies represent a more enduring conservation solution for Pacific seabirds. Conservation Biology ©2012 Society for Conservation Biology. No claim to original

  9. Vitamin B12 and folate levels in normal population of northern Pakistan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Madood-ul-mannan; Anwar, M.; Saleem, M.; Waqar, A.; Ahmad, M.

    1990-01-01

    Diagnosis of vitamin B12 or folate deficiency can not be made unless reference ranges of these vitamins in a given population are known. These serum levels depend upon the dietary intake of these vitamins which in turn depends upon the availability of foods containing these vitamins and the methods of cooking/processing. The latter vary in different populations. Therefore serum level of these vitamins would vary in different populations. Serum levels of vitamin B12 and folate were estimated by radioimmunoassay technique in 30 normal subjects of different age groups. The levels of vitamin B12 were found to be 215.2 pg/ml and that of folate 3.9 ng/ml. These values are much lower than those described for European population. It is therefore concluded that the cut off point of the levels of these vitamins should be different than the European figures. (author)

  10. Kinematic and kinetic differences between left-and right-handed professional baseball pitchers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Diffendaffer, Alek Z; Fleisig, Glenn S; Ivey, Brett; Aune, Kyle T

    2018-03-21

    While 10% of the general population is left-handed, 27% of professional baseball pitchers are left-handed. Biomechanical differences between left- and right-handed college pitchers have been previously reported, but these differences have yet to be examined at the professional level. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare pitching biomechanics between left- and right-handed professional pitchers. It was hypothesised that there would be significant kinematic and kinetic differences between these two groups. Pitching biomechanics were collected on 96 left-handed pitchers and a group of 96 right-handed pitchers matched for age, height, mass and ball velocity. Student t-tests were used to identify kinematic and kinetic differences (p different between the groups. Landing position of the stride foot, trunk separation at foot contact, maximum shoulder external rotation and trunk forward tilt at ball release were all significantly greater in right-handed pitchers. The magnitude of the statistical differences found were small and not consistent with differences in the two previous, smaller studies. Thus, the differences found may be of minimal practical significance and mechanics can be taught the same to all pitchers, regardless of throwing hand.

  11. Income inequality and population health in Islamic countries.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Esmaeili, A; Mansouri, S; Moshavash, M

    2011-09-01

    To undertake a fresh examination of the relationship between income inequality and population health for a group of Islamic countries using recent information derived from data resource sites from the World Bank and Islamic countries. Cross-sectional data on different measures of income distribution (prosperity, health care, women's role and environment) and indicators of population health were used to illuminate this issue. The relationship between income inequality and population health for a group of Islamic countries was tested using recent information derived from data resource sites from the World Bank and Islamic countries. After consideration of previous studies, seven dependent variables were determined and tested in six equation formats. According to the equations, the urban population percentage and gross domestic product are the most important significant variables that affect life expectancy and the infant mortality rate in Islamic countries. The income distribution coefficient, regardless of the type of measure, was almost insignificant in all equations. In selected Islamic countries, income level has a positive effect on population health, but the level of income distribution is not significant. Among the other dependent variables (e.g. different measures of income distribution, health care, role of women and environment), only environment and education had significant effects. Most of the Islamic countries studied are considered to be poorly developed. Copyright © 2011 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. Superior episodic memory in inconsistent-handers: a replication and extension using fNIRS.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Propper, Ruth E; Patel, Neil; Christman, Stephen D; Carlei, Christophe

    2017-11-01

    A large body of evidence supports the existence of a robust handedness difference in episodic memory retrieval, with inconsistent-handedness being associated with superior memory across a wide variety of paradigms, including superior retrieval of lab-based and real world memories. Despite superior episidoc memory in inconsistent-handers, and despite neuroanatomical and neurophysiological differences in cortical regions between inconsistent- and consistent-handers, we are aware of no studies to date that have examined physiological activity in the brains of inconsistent- versus consistent-handers while engaged in memory tasks. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to present a first look at this issue, using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) as a simple, non-invasive measure of frontal lobe activity during encoding and recall of list words in inconsistent- and consistent-handers. Behaviourally, we replicated prior studies, finding a significant inconsistent-handed advantage in free recall. Using fNIRS-derived oxygenated haemoglobin (O 2 Hb) as a measure of frontal lobe activity, we found the first evidence for handedness differences in brain activity that are associated with the handedness differences in episodic retrieval. Specifically, the primary finding was that increased O 2 Hb in the right hemisphere during recall was associated with better retrieval, but for consistent-handers only.

  13. The Significance of UNESCO’s Universal Declaration on the Human Genome & Human Rights

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shawn H.E. Harmon

    2005-03-01

    Full Text Available Modern medical research, particularly genetic research, is changing the nature of medicine. Concerns surrounding these changes and their potential negative impact on human rights led UNESCO to spearhead collaboration by experts in the creation of an international instrument intended to provide guidance for the promotion of bioethics and the protection of human rights in the genetic context. The result was the Universal Declaration of the Human Genome and Human Rights. This article briefly highlights the scientific and social setting into which the Declaration was injected. This is followed by a consideration of the drafting body (the IBC so as to assess whether UNESCO was the appropriate body to lead this project. The process by which the Declaration was created is also considered so as to assess whether it represents an example of ethical and democratic drafting. Finally, the substantive content of the Declaration is considered and measured against the pre-existing regime so as to assess whether it represents an intelligible and coherent response to the concerns raised capable of offering guidance now and into the future. By assessing these procedural and substantive matters, one can draw some tentative conclusions about the utility and significance of the Declaration.

  14. Reduced dream-recall frequency in left-handed adolescents: a replication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schredl, Michael; Beaton, Alan A; Henley-Einion, Josie; Blagrove, Mark

    2014-01-01

    The ability to recall a dream upon waking up in the morning has been linked to a broad variety of factors such as personality, creativity, sleep behaviour and cognitive function. There have been conflicting findings as to whether dream recall is related more to the right or to the left hemisphere, and conflicting findings regarding the relationship of dream-recall frequency to handedness. We have found previously that right- and mixed-handers report having more dreams than left-handers, a finding more pronounced among adolescents than adults. In the present sample of 3535 participants aged from 6 to 18 years, right-handedness and mixed/inconsistent handedness were associated with higher dream-recall frequency compared to that of left-handed persons, again especially in adolescents compared with children. Further research is required to uncover the reason for the lower frequency of dream recall by left-handers.

  15. Relative and absolute level populations in beam-foil--excited neutral helium

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Davidson, J.

    1975-01-01

    Relative and absolute populations of 19 levels in beam-foil--excited neutral helium at 0.275 MeV have been measured. The singlet angular-momentum sequences show dependences on principal quantum number consistent with n -3 , but the triplet sequences do not. Singlet and triplet angular-momentum sequences show similar dependences on level excitation energy. Excitation functions for six representative levels were measured in the range 0.160 to 0.500 MeV. The absolute level populations increase with energy, whereas the neutral fraction of the beam decreases with energy. Further, the P angular-momentum levels are found to be overpopulated with respect to the S and D levels. The overpopulation decreases with increasing principal quantum number

  16. [Prenatal maternal mnemonic effects on the human neuro-psychic sex: a new proposition from fetus-maternal tolerance-rejection].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Valenzuela, Carlos Y

    2008-12-01

    In approximately 15% of homosexual men, their phenotype is associated to the fraternal birth order. Older biological brothers induce in their mothers anti-male factors (antibodies) that interfere the brain maleness development of younger fetuses. This effect is seldom seen in non-right-handed men and is not seen in women. The influence of older siblings is seen in their sex ratio (SR). In contradiction with previous hypothesis, significant heterogeneities of SR have been found among older siblings of males or females, right or non-right-handed and homo or heterosexual individuals. This can only be understood as if the findings among homosexuals were part of a general mechanism of fetus-maternal tolerance-rejection processes of placental mammals. We found, in relation to ABO and Rh systems and sex, that embryos with genes different from those of their mothers, induced better pregnancies and maternal tolerance than embryos similar to their mothers. Assuming that homo or heterosexuality and right or non-right-handedness behave similar to ABO or Rh alleles, the author provides a speculative interpretation of these results. Homosexual women and especially if they are non-right-handed, are preceded by siblings with a high SR (maternal environment with anti-female or pro-male factors); then lesbianism or non-right-handedness may induce tolerance to be a woman in such anti-female environment. Non-right-handedness could induce tolerance for anti-male factors of mothers, thus preventing the production of gays in a pro-male maternal environment, but leading to the production of non-right-handed gays in anti-male maternal environments. Several new hypotheses and interpretations merge from this new proposition. Also, complete sexual orientation could be acquired after birth.

  17. Food addiction: its prevalence and significant association with obesity in the general population.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pedram, Pardis; Wadden, Danny; Amini, Peyvand; Gulliver, Wayne; Randell, Edward; Cahill, Farrell; Vasdev, Sudesh; Goodridge, Alan; Carter, Jacqueline C; Zhai, Guangju; Ji, Yunqi; Sun, Guang

    2013-01-01

    'Food addiction' shares a similar neurobiological and behavioral framework with substance addiction. However whether, and to what degree, 'food addiction' contributes to obesity in the general population is unknown. to assess 1) the prevalence of 'food addiction' in the Newfoundland population; 2) if clinical symptom counts of 'food addiction' were significantly correlated with the body composition measurements; 3) if food addicts were significantly more obese than controls, and 4) if macronutrient intakes are associated with 'food addiction'. A total of 652 adults (415 women, 237 men) recruited from the general population participated in this study. Obesity was evaluated by Body Mass Index (BMI) and Body Fat percentage measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. 'Food addiction' was assessed using the Yale Food Addiction Scale and macronutrient intake was determined from the Willet Food Frequency Questionnaire. The prevalence of 'food addiction' was 5.4% (6.7% in females and 3.0% in males) and increased with obesity status. The clinical symptom counts of 'food addiction' were positively correlated with all body composition measurements across the entire sample (pObesity measurements were significantly higher in food addicts than controls; Food addicts were 11.7 (kg) heavier, 4.6 BMI units higher, and had 8.2% more body fat and 8.5% more trunk fat. Furthermore, food addicts consumed more calories from fat and protein compared with controls. Our results demonstrated that 'food addiction' contributes to severity of obesity and body composition measurements from normal weight to obese individuals in the general population with higher rate in women as compared to men.

  18. Right-handed and left-handed neutrinos and the two galactic populations of the universe. Additional evidence for the neutrino mass

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fargion, D.

    1981-01-01

    There is astrophysical evidence in favour of the right-handed and left-handed nature of the neutrinos: the existence of our recent galactic population could be associated with a recent clustering of cosmological left-handed neutrinos, while a primordial galactic population could be created by a corresponding clustering of a cosmological right-handed neutrinos. This latter galactic population could be associated with an anomalous excess in the radiosource counts at a large red-shift which is consistent with the range of red-shifts predicted by our estimate, based on presently known elementary-particle physics and thermodynamics. (author)

  19. Surface anatomy of major anatomical landmarks of the neck in an adult population: A Ct Evaluation of Vertebral Level.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Badshah, Masroor; Soames, Roger; Ibrahim, Muhammad; Khan, Muhammad Jaffar; Khan, Adnan

    2017-09-01

    To compare the projectional surface anatomy of healthy individuals in an adult population with those with a thyroid mass, using computed tomography (CT). Sixteen slice CT images of 101 individuals were analyzed using a 32-bit Radiant DICOM viewer to establish the relationships among major anatomical landmarks in the neck and their vertebral levels. The structures investigated included: hard palate (HP), hyoid bone (HB) including body and lesser horns, soft palate (SP), thyroid gland (TG) (both superior and inferior poles), thyroid gland anteroposterior (APD) and superoinferior (SID) diameters, thyroid isthmus (TI) superoinferior dimension, epiglottis, vertebral arteries (right and left), and both right and left parotid glands (superior and inferior extents). The vertebral levels noted most frequently were: body of hyoid bone (C4, 42.71%); lesser horns of hyoid bone (C3, 36.46%); thyroid gland superior pole (C6, 31.25%); and thyroid gland inferior pole (T2, 30.2%). TG-ID, TG-APD, and TG-SID were not significantly different between males and females in the healthy group; however, there was a significant gender difference in thyroid gland inferior diameter in the pathology group [males 2.16(±1.16) vs. females 3.37(±1.30), P = 0.01, paired sample t-test]. Further studies are needed to determine whether neck pathology in those with a thyroid mass affects the dimensions of the thyroid gland. Moreover, the surface anatomy of the neck should be revisited using modern imaging techniques to address inconsistencies in anatomy and clinical reference texts. Clin. Anat. 30:781-787, 2017. © 2017Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  20. The clinical significance of anomalous origination of right gastric artery in interventional treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lin Zhidong; Wen Chongpei; Fu Kong; Wang Banghao

    2010-01-01

    Objective: To discuss the clinical significance of anomalous origination of right gastric artery in interventional treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods: The dynamic enhanced CT scanning of the liver with a 64-slice spiral CT unit was performed in 72 HCC patients. In arterial phase, maximum intensity projection (MIP) and volume reconstruction technique (VRT) were used to observe the origin of the right gastric artery and its relationship with the hepatic artery. The findings were compared with the angiographic results. Results: Of the total 72 cases, the anomalous origin of the right gastric artery was found in 43 (59.8%). The anomalous origins of the right gastric artery included proper hepatic artery (n=19), left hepatic artery (n=17), gastroduodenal artery (n=4), right hepatic artery (n=2) and common hepatic artery (n=1). The results obtained from three-dimensional reconstruction were in good accordance with angiographic findings. Conclusion: The anomalously originated right gastric artery most commonly originates from the left hepatic artery. Three-dimensional reconstruction obtained from the 64-slice spiral CT scans can provide the clear and reliable images of the right gastric artery, which is very helpful for the interventional procedure. (authors)

  1. Association between unemployment, income, education level, population size and air pollution in Czech cities: evidence for environmental inequality? A pilot national scale analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Branis, Martin; Linhartova, Martina

    2012-09-01

    We analyzed differentials in exposure to SO(2), PM(10) and NO(2) among Czech urban populations categorized according to education level, unemployment rate, population size and average annual salary. Altogether 39 cities were included in the analysis. The principal component analysis revealed two factors explaining 72.8% of the data variability. The first factor explaining 44.7% of the data variability included SO(2), PM(10), low education level and high unemployment, documenting that inhabitants with unfavorable socioeconomic status mainly reside in smaller cities with higher concentration levels of combustion-related air pollutants. The second factor explaining 28.1% of the data variability included NO(2), high salary, high education level and large population, suggesting that large cities with residents with higher socioeconomic status are exposed to higher levels of traffic-related air pollution. We conclude that, after more than a decade of free-market economy, the Czech Republic, a former Soviet satellite with a centrally planned economy, displays signs of a certain kind of environmental inequality, since environmental hazards are unevenly distributed among the Czech urban populations. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. Emergence of cytotoxic resistance in cancer cell populations: Single-cell mechanisms and population-level consequences

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lorenzi, Tommaso; Chisholm, Rebecca H.; Lorz, Alexander; Neves de Almeida, Luís; Clairambault, Jean; Larsen, Annette K.; Escargueil, Alexandre

    2016-01-01

    We formulate an individual-based model and a population model of phenotypic evolution, under cytotoxic drugs, in a cancer cell population structured by the expression levels of survival-potential and proliferation-potential. We apply these models to a recently studied experimental system. Our results suggest that mechanisms based on fundamental laws of biology can reversibly push an actively-proliferating, and drug-sensitive, cell population to transition into a weakly-proliferative and drug-tolerant state, which will eventually facilitate the emergence of more potent, proliferating and drug-tolerant cells.

  3. Emergence of cytotoxic resistance in cancer cell populations: Single-cell mechanisms and population-level consequences

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lorenzi, Tommaso [Centre de Mathématiques et de Leurs Applications, ENS Cachan, CNRS, Cachan 94230 Cedex, France & INRIA-Paris-Rocquencourt, MAMBA Team, Domaine de Voluceau, BP105, 78153 Le Chesnay Cedex (France); Chisholm, Rebecca H. [School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW 2052 (Australia); Lorz, Alexander; Neves de Almeida, Luís; Clairambault, Jean [Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, UMR 7598, Laboratoire Jacques-Louis Lions, F-75005, Paris (France); CNRS, UMR 7598, Laboratoire Jacques-Louis Lions, F-75005, Paris (France); INRIA-Paris-Rocquencourt, MAMBA Team, Domaine de Voluceau, BP105, 78153 Le Chesnay Cedex (France); Larsen, Annette K.; Escargueil, Alexandre [Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, F-75005, Paris (France); INSERM, UMR-S 938, Laboratory of “Cancer Biology and Therapeutics”, F-75012, Paris (France)

    2016-06-08

    We formulate an individual-based model and a population model of phenotypic evolution, under cytotoxic drugs, in a cancer cell population structured by the expression levels of survival-potential and proliferation-potential. We apply these models to a recently studied experimental system. Our results suggest that mechanisms based on fundamental laws of biology can reversibly push an actively-proliferating, and drug-sensitive, cell population to transition into a weakly-proliferative and drug-tolerant state, which will eventually facilitate the emergence of more potent, proliferating and drug-tolerant cells.

  4. The association between stress levels and food consumption among Iranian population.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roohafza, Hamidreza; Sarrafzadegan, Nizal; Sadeghi, Masoumeh; Rafieian-Kopaei, Mahmoud; Sajjadi, Firouzeh; Khosravi-Boroujeni, Hossein

    2013-03-01

    Stress has been considered as a highly common disorder that has a complicated relation with dietary intake and has been linked with both increased and decreased dietary intake. This study was conducted to assess the association between food consumption and stress levels in an Iranian adult population. In this cross-sectional study, data from the third phase of Isfahan Healthy Heart Program (IHHP) that was conducted for cardiovascular diseases prevention and health promotion were used. Nine thousand five hundred forty-nine adults aged ≥ 18 years participated in the study. Dietary habits were assessed by a 49- item Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ). Stress levels were assessed by General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12). The participants were separated on the basis of their stress levels into two groups as the low- and high- stress groups.  Individuals in the low- stress group were significantly younger and tended to have higher physical activity and education level, lower LDL cholesterol, and were less likely to be current smokers. Dietary intake of unsaturated oils, grains, fruits, vegetables, meat, and dairy products was significantly higher in the low- stress group whereas dietary intake of saturated oils was significantly lower; moreover, Global Dietary Index (GDI) was lower in the low- stress group. We found a significant positive association between stress level, GDI (OR: 1.24; 95% CI: 1.14 - 1.35), and saturated oils (OR: 1.17; 95% CI: 1.08 - 1.28) and inverse association between stress level and intake of unsaturated oils (OR: 0.84 ; 95% CI: 0.77 - 0.91), fruits and vegetables (OR: 0.83; 95% CI: 0.76 - 0.90), meat (OR: 0.88; 95%CI: 0.82 - 0.97),and dairy products (OR: 0.88 ; 95% CI: 0.81 - 0.96) after adjustments based on sex, age, smoking, and physical activity. Our results showed a significant positive association between dietary intake and stress. We must have a special attention to dietary intake in stress management program of high- stress

  5. Predicting glycated hemoglobin levels in the non-diabetic general population

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rauh, Simone P; Heymans, Martijn W; Koopman, Anitra D M

    2017-01-01

    AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: To develop a prediction model that can predict HbA1c levels after six years in the non-diabetic general population, including previously used readily available predictors. METHODS: Data from 5,762 initially non-diabetic subjects from three population-based cohorts (Hoorn Study, I...

  6. Relative and absolute level populations in beam-foil-excited neutral helium

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davidson, J.

    1975-01-01

    Relative and absolute populations of 19 levels in beam-foil-excited neutral helium at 0.275 MeV have been measured. The singlet angular-momentum sequences show dependences on principal quantum number consistent with n to the -3rd power, but the triplet sequences do not. Singlet and triplet angular-momentum sequences show similar dependences on level excitation energy. Excitation functions for six representative levels were measured in the range from 0.160 to 0.500 MeV. The absolute level populations increase with energy, whereas the neutral fraction of the beam decreases with energy. Further, the P angular-momentum levels are found to be overpopulated with respect to the S and D levels. The overpopulation decreases with increasing principal quantum number.

  7. Finding solid ground: law enforcement, key populations and their health and rights in South Africa.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scheibe, Andrew; Howell, Simon; Müller, Alexandra; Katumba, Munyaradzi; Langen, Bram; Artz, Lillian; Marks, Monique

    2016-01-01

    Sex workers, people who use drugs, men who have sex with men, women who have sex with women and transgender people in South Africa frequently experience high levels of stigma, abuse and discrimination. Evidence suggests that such abuse is sometimes committed by police officers, meaning that those charged with protection are perpetrators. This reinforces cycles of violence, increases the risk of HIV infection, undermines HIV prevention and treatment interventions and violates the constitutional prescriptions that the police are mandated to protect. This paper explores how relationship building can create positive outcomes while taking into account the challenges associated with reforming police strategies in relation to key populations, and vice versa. We argue that relationships between law enforcement agencies and key populations need to be re-examined and reconstituted to enable appropriate responses and services. The antagonistic positioning, "othering" and blame assignment frequently seen in interactions between law enforcement officials and key populations can negatively influence both, albeit for different reasons. In addressing these concerns, we argue that mediation based on consensual dialogue is required, and can be harnessed through a process that highlights points of familiarity that are often shared, but not understood, by both parties. Rather than laying blame, we argue that substantive changes need to be owned and executed by all role-players, informed by a common language that is cognisant of differing perspectives. Relational approaches can be used to identify programmes that align goals that are part of law enforcement, human rights and public health despite not always being seen as such. Law enforcement champions and representatives of key populations need to be identified and supported to promote interventions that are mutually reinforcing, and address perceived differences by highlighting commonality. Creating opportunities to share experiences

  8. The effects of country-level population policy for enhancing adaptation to climate change

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gunasekara, N. K.; Kazama, S.; Yamazaki, D.; Oki, T.

    2013-11-01

    The effectiveness of population policy in reducing the combined impacts of population change and climate change on water resources is explored. One no-policy scenario and two scenarios with population policy assumptions are employed in combination with water availability under the SRES scenarios A1b, B1 and A2 for the impact analysis. The population data used are from the World Bank. The river discharges per grid of horizontal resolution 0.5° are obtained from the Total Runoff Integrating Pathways (TRIP) of the University of Tokyo, Japan. Unlike the population scenarios utilized in the SRES emission scenarios and the newest representative concentration pathways, the scenarios employed in this research are based, even after 2050, on country-level rather than regional-level growth assumptions. Our analysis implies that the heterogeneous pattern of population changes across the world is the dominant driver of water stress, irrespective of future greenhouse gas emissions, with highest impacts occurring in the already water-stressed low latitudes. In 2100, Africa, Middle East and parts of Asia are under extreme water stress under all scenarios. The sensitivity analysis reveals that a small reduction in populations over the region could relieve a large number of people from high water stress, while a further increase in population from the assumed levels (SC1) might not increase the number of people under high water stress considerably. Most of the population increase towards 2100 occurs in the already water-stressed lower latitudes. Therefore, population reduction policies are recommended for this region as a method of adaptation to the future water stress conditions. Population reduction policies will facilitate more control over their future development pathways, even if these countries were not able to contribute significantly to greenhouse gas (GHG) emission cuts due to economic constraints. However, for the European region, the population living in water

  9. Serum apolipoprotein E concentration and polymorphism influence serum lipid levels in Chinese Shandong Han population.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Han, ShuYi; Xu, YiHui; Gao, MeiHua; Wang, YunShan; Wang, Jun; Liu, YanYan; Wang, Min; Zhang, XiaoQian

    2016-12-01

    Apolipoprotein E (ApoE), which has been shown to influence serum lipid parameters, can bind to multiple types of lipids and plays an important role in the metabolism and homeostasis of lipids and lipoproteins. A previous study showed that ApoE concentration significantly affects serum lipid levels independently of ApoE polymorphism. The serum lipid levels were also closely correlated with dietary habits, and Shandong cuisine is famous for its high salt and oil contents, which widely differ among the different areas in China. Therefore, studying the effect of ApoE polymorphism on ApoE concentration and serum lipid levels in Shandong province is very important.A total of 815 subjects including 285 men and 530 women were randomly selected and studied from Jinan, Shandong province. In order to evaluate the association of ApoE polymorphism and serum level on lipid profiles, the ApoE genotypes, as well as levels of fasting serum ApoE and other lipid parameters, were detected in all subjects.The frequency of the ApoE E3 allele was highest (83.1%), while those of E2 and E4 were 9.4% and 7.5%, respectively, which are similar to those in other Asian populations. ApoE2 allele carriers showed significantly increased ApoE levels but lower levels of serum total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and Apolipoprotein B (ApoB).We found that ApoE level is influenced by ApoE polymorphism in a gene-dependent manner. The ApoE polymorphism showed different influences on serum lipid parameters with increasing age and body mass index (BMI) in our Shandong Han population.

  10. Significance of serum endostatin levels in patients with primary lung cancer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Peng Qunxin; Ling Chunhua; Ji Cheng

    2005-01-01

    Objective: To investigate the relationship between the serum level of endostatin and the clinical pathophysiological characteristics in patients with primary lung cancer. Methods: The serum levels of endostatin were detected in 48 patients with primary lung cancer and 50 patients with benign pulmonary diseases by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method. Results: Serum endostatin level in patients with primary lung cancer was significantly higher than it in patients with benign pulmonary diseases (P<0.01). It was higher in adenocarcinoma group than that in squamous cell carcinoma and small cell carcinoma group (P<0.05). The level of serum endostatin in lung cancer with TNM stage III + IV was higher than that in patients in stage I + II (P<0.01). And it was also higher in patients suffering from lung cancer with metastasis than that in patients with no metastasis (P<0.05). However, there was not a significant relation between serum endostatin level the location of the tumor and lymph node metastasis. Conclusion: Serum endostatin level in expressed higher in patients with primary lung cancer. There is significant relationship between serum endostatin level, histological classification, TNM stage and metastasis of lung cancer. (authors)

  11. Right ventricular function and N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide levels in adult patients with simple dextro-transposition of the great arteries.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martínez-Quintana, Efrén; Marrero-Negrín, Natalia; Gopar-Gopar, Silvia; Rodríguez-González, Fayna

    2017-06-01

    Dextro-transposition of the great arteries (d-TGA) patients is at high risk of developing right ventricular dysfunction and tricuspid regurgitation in adulthood. Determining the relation between echocardiographic parameters, N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-pro-BNP) levels and the New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class may help determining the best time to operate them. Patients with simple d-TGA operated in infancy with an atrial switch procedure (Mustard or Senning operation) were followed up in our Adult Congenital Heart Disease Unit. Analytical, echocardiographic, and clinical parameters were determined to evaluate the correlation between right echocardiographic ventricular function, NT-pro-BNP levels, and NYHA functional class. Twenty-four patients with d-TGA were operated in infancy of whom 17 alive patients had simple d-TGA. Nine patients had NT-pro-BNP levels lower than 200 pg/mL and eight patients were above 200 pg/mL. Patients with lower hemoglobin concentration, higher right ventricular diameter or under diuretic treatment showed significant higher NT-pro-BNP levels (above 200 pg/dL). The Spearman test showed a positive correlation between basal right ventricular diameter and tricuspid regurgitation with pro NT BNP levels (correlation coefficient of .624; P=.017 and .490; P=.046, respectively) and a negative correlation with the right ventricle fractional area change (-.508, P=.045). No correlation was seen between NT-pro-BNP levels and the rest of echocardiographic parameters or the NYHA functional class. NT-pro-BNP levels showed a positive correlation with basal right ventricular diameter and tricuspid regurgitation but not with NYHA association functional class in d-TGA patients. © 2017, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  12. Serum uric acid levels and mortality in the Japanese population: the Yamagata (Takahata) study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kamei, Keita; Konta, Tsuneo; Ichikawa, Kazunobu; Sato, Hiroko; Suzuki, Natsuko; Kabasawa, Asami; Suzuki, Kazuko; Hirayama, Atsushi; Shibata, Yoko; Watanabe, Tetsu; Kato, Takeo; Ueno, Yoshiyuki; Kayama, Takamasa; Kubota, Isao

    2016-12-01

    Serum uric acid level is regulated by gender, dietary habit, genetic predisposition, and renal function, and is associated with the development of renal and cardiovascular diseases. This study prospectively investigated the association between serum uric acid levels and mortality in a community-based population. Three thousand four hundred and eighty-seven subjects regardless of the antihyperuricemic medication (45 % male; mean age 62 years old) from the Takahata town in Japan participated in this study and were followed up for 8 years (median 7.5 years). We examined the association between serum uric acid levels at baseline and the all-cause and cardiovascular mortality, respectively, in this population. One hundred seventy-nine subjects died during the follow-up period, with 49 deaths attributed to cardiovascular causes. Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that the all-cause mortality was significantly higher along with the increase in serum uric acid levels at baseline among female (Log-rank P uric acid ≥7.0 mg/dL) was an independent risk factor for all-cause and cardiovascular mortality, respectively, in female [hazard ratio (HR) 5.92, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 2.10-14.6 for all-cause mortality, and HR 10.7, 95 % CI 1.76-50.2 for cardiovascular mortality], but not male subjects. Hyperuricemia was an independent risk for all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in female, but not among the male subjects in a community-based population.

  13. Manipulating the Alpha Level Cannot Cure Significance Testing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    David Trafimow

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available We argue that making accept/reject decisions on scientific hypotheses, including a recent call for changing the canonical alpha level from p = 0.05 to p = 0.005, is deleterious for the finding of new discoveries and the progress of science. Given that blanket and variable alpha levels both are problematic, it is sensible to dispense with significance testing altogether. There are alternatives that address study design and sample size much more directly than significance testing does; but none of the statistical tools should be taken as the new magic method giving clear-cut mechanical answers. Inference should not be based on single studies at all, but on cumulative evidence from multiple independent studies. When evaluating the strength of the evidence, we should consider, for example, auxiliary assumptions, the strength of the experimental design, and implications for applications. To boil all this down to a binary decision based on a p-value threshold of 0.05, 0.01, 0.005, or anything else, is not acceptable.

  14. Dioxin, furan and PCB serum levels in a South African Tswana population: comparing the polluting effects of using different cooking and heating fuels.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pieters, Rialet; Focant, Jean-François

    2014-05-01

    In South Africa, 26-50% of households use solid fuel for cooking food and heating houses. When used as fuel, wood and chlorinated waste are known sources of polychlorinated dibenzo-para-dioxins, polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs), and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Here, we compare PCDD/F, dioxin-like PCB (DL-PCB), and non-DL-PCB (NDL-PCB) levels in serum of 693 Tswana individuals in the North West province, who either burn solid biofuels or have access to electricity, gas, and paraffin. This is the first South African study on dioxin levels in humans with more than 100 participants. Serum was pooled according to fuel use, as well as to confounding factors such as gender and age. Solid-phase extraction was used to remove the target analytes from serum, after which the extracts were further refined automatically using a combination of multilayer sorbents. Compound concentrations were determined by high-resolution mass spectrometry after high-resolution gas chromatography. Mean serum lipid content was determined enzymatically to be 5.91 ± 0.42 g/L. The PCDD/F and DL-PCB levels were similar to global concentrations reported for non-exposed adults. The mean of the total Toxic Equivalencies (ΣTEQ) was 6.9 ± 3.3 pg/g lipid and the mean NDL-PCB was 70.1 ± 42.8 ng/g lipid. The mean concentrations of the PCDDs, PCDFs and the corresponding World Health Organization-TEQ (WHO-TEQ) of the population using electricity, gas, and paraffin were greater than of those reliant on solid biomass (p = 0), whereas the DL-PCBs, their corresponding WHO-TEQ, and NDL-PCBs were greater for the population who use biofuels but not significantly so. The females had higher serum levels of the PCDDs (p = 0) and PCDFs (not significant) whereas the PCBs were higher for the males (p = 0). Breastfeeding women presented lower levels of all compound classes than their non-breastfeeding counterparts (p=0) and older subjects manifested greater pollutant loads than the younger generation (p = 0

  15. The impacts of population change on carbon emissions in China during 1978-2008

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Zhu Qin, E-mail: zhuqin@fudan.edu.cn; Peng Xizhe, E-mail: xzpeng@fudan.edu.cn

    2012-09-15

    This study examines the impacts of population size, population structure, and consumption level on carbon emissions in China from 1978 to 2008. To this end, we expanded the stochastic impacts by regression on population, affluence, and technology model and used the ridge regression method, which overcomes the negative influences of multicollinearity among independent variables under acceptable bias. Results reveal that changes in consumption level and population structure were the major impact factors, not changes in population size. Consumption level and carbon emissions were highly correlated. In terms of population structure, urbanization, population age, and household size had distinct effects on carbon emissions. Urbanization increased carbon emissions, while the effect of age acted primarily through the expansion of the labor force and consequent overall economic growth. Shrinking household size increased residential consumption, resulting in higher carbon emissions. Households, rather than individuals, are a more reasonable explanation for the demographic impact on carbon emissions. Potential social policies for low carbon development are also discussed. - Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer We examine the impacts of population change on carbon emissions in China. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer We expand the STIRPAT model by containing population structure factors in the model. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer The population structure includes age structure, urbanization level, and household size. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer The ridge regression method is used to estimate the model with multicollinearity. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer The population structure plays a more important role compared with the population size.

  16. Age-dependent transition from cell-level to population-level control in murine intestinal homeostasis revealed by coalescence analysis.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zheng Hu

    Full Text Available In multi-cellular organisms, tissue homeostasis is maintained by an exquisite balance between stem cell proliferation and differentiation. This equilibrium can be achieved either at the single cell level (a.k.a. cell asymmetry, where stem cells follow strict asymmetric divisions, or the population level (a.k.a. population asymmetry, where gains and losses in individual stem cell lineages are randomly distributed, but the net effect is homeostasis. In the mature mouse intestinal crypt, previous evidence has revealed a pattern of population asymmetry through predominantly symmetric divisions of stem cells. In this work, using population genetic theory together with previously published crypt single-cell data obtained at different mouse life stages, we reveal a strikingly dynamic pattern of stem cell homeostatic control. We find that single-cell asymmetric divisions are gradually replaced by stochastic population-level asymmetry as the mouse matures to adulthood. This lifelong process has important developmental and evolutionary implications in understanding how adult tissues maintain their homeostasis integrating the trade-off between intrinsic and extrinsic regulations.

  17. Coronary artery disease in a rural population of Bangladesh: is dyslipidemia or adiposity a significant risk?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sajal Krishna Banerjee

    2017-07-01

    and dyslipidemia were proved not significant. Conclusions: The study concludes that the prevalence of CAD in a Bangladeshi rural population is comparable to other developed countries. The male sex, rich social class, hypertension and diabetes were proved to have excess risk of CAD. Neither obesity nor dyslipidemia were found significant for CAD. The younger people had similar risk as the aged ones, which necessitate primordial and primary prevention of CAD. Further study may be undertaken, which should include and consider physical activity and diet; and if possible, C-reactive protein, Vitamin D and homocysteine level. IMC J Med Sci 2017; 11(2: 61-69

  18. To study the significance of social interaction for former right wing extremists wanting to disengage

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Christensen, Tina Wilchen

    2013-01-01

    in investigating the significance of social interaction for former participants in right wing extremist groups, who were in a disengagement process with the help from the organisation Exit in Stockholm, Sweden. As this field involved dealing with people in transition, it also meant dealing with people with very...

  19. Variation in LPA is associated with Lp(a levels in three populations from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Logan Dumitrescu

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available The distribution of lipoprotein(a [Lp(a] levels can differ dramatically across diverse racial/ethnic populations. The extent to which genetic variation in LPA can explain these differences is not fully understood. To explore this, 19 LPA tagSNPs were genotyped in 7,159 participants from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III. NHANES III is a diverse population-based survey with DNA samples linked to hundreds of quantitative traits, including serum Lp(a. Tests of association between LPA variants and transformed Lp(a levels were performed across the three different NHANES subpopulations (non-Hispanic whites, non-Hispanic blacks, and Mexican Americans. At a significance threshold of p<0.0001, 15 of the 19 SNPs tested were strongly associated with Lp(a levels in at least one subpopulation, six in at least two subpopulations, and none in all three subpopulations. In non-Hispanic whites, three variants were associated with Lp(a levels, including previously known rs6919246 (p = 1.18 × 10(-30. Additionally, 12 and 6 variants had significant associations in non-Hispanic blacks and Mexican Americans, respectively. The additive effects of these associated alleles explained up to 11% of the variance observed for Lp(a levels in the different racial/ethnic populations. The findings reported here replicate previous candidate gene and genome-wide association studies for Lp(a levels in European-descent populations and extend these findings to other populations. While we demonstrate that LPA is an important contributor to Lp(a levels regardless of race/ethnicity, the lack of generalization of associations across all subpopulations suggests that specific LPA variants may be contributing to the observed Lp(a between-population variance.

  20. Level of understanding of Alzheimer disease among caregivers and the general population.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jorge, C; Cetó, M; Arias, A; Blasco, E; Gil, M P; López, R; Dakterzada, F; Purroy, F; Piñol-Ripoll, G

    2018-05-11

    Understanding of Alzheimer disease is fundamental for early diagnosis and to reduce caregiver burden. The objective of this study is to evaluate the degree of understanding of Alzheimer disease among informal caregivers and different segments of the general population through the Alzheimer's Disease Knowledge Scale. We assessed the knowledge of caregivers in different follow-up periods (less than one year, between 1 and 5 years, and over 5 years since diagnosis) and individuals from the general population. Alzheimer's Disease Knowledge Scale scores were grouped into different items: life impact, risk factors, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, disease progression, and caregiving. A total of 419 people (215 caregivers and 204 individuals from the general population) were included in the study. No significant differences were found between groups for overall Alzheimer's Disease Knowledge Scale score (19.1 vs. 18.8, P = .9). There is a scarce knowledge of disease risk factors (49.3%) or the care needed (51.2%), while symptoms (78.6%) and course of the disease (77.2%) were the best understood aspects. Older caregiver age was correlated with worse Alzheimer's Disease Knowledge Scale scores overall and for life impact, symptoms, treatment, and disease progression (P < .05). Time since diagnosis improved caregivers' knowledge of Alzheimer disease symptoms (P = .00) and diagnosis (P = .05). Assessing the degree of understanding of Alzheimer disease is essential to the development of health education strategies both in the general population and among caregivers. Copyright © 2018 Sociedad Española de Neurología. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

  1. How much can be learned from populations exposed to low levels of radiation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gilbert, E.S.

    1984-05-01

    The assessment of health effects from low-level exposure to radiation is a matter of considerable controversy. Many of the problems in analyzing and interpreting data on populations exposed to low levels of radiation are well illustrated by a current study of the effects on mortality of occupational exposure to radiation at the Hanford plant. The conclusion drawn is that the amount that can be learned from the Hanford population, and other populations exposed to low levels of radiation, is extremely limited. The data are not adequate to determine reliable estimates of risks, or to investigate the appropriateness of various models. Although there are problems in using data from populations exposed at high levels to estimate risks of low level exposure to radiation, the problems in obtaining such estimates directly are even more severe. Thus data from populations such as the Japanese A-bomb survivors and the British ankylosing spondylitis patients must continue to serve as our primary source of information on radiation effects. 27 references, 3 tables

  2. Influence of polygenic risk scores on lipid levels and dyslipidemia in a psychiatric population receiving weight gain-inducing psychotropic drugs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Delacrétaz, Aurélie; Lagares Santos, Patricia; Saigi Morgui, Nuria; Vandenberghe, Frederik; Glatard, Anaïs; Gholam-Rezaee, Mehdi; von Gunten, Armin; Conus, Philippe; Eap, Chin B

    2017-12-01

    Dyslipidemia represents a major health issue in psychiatry. We determined whether weighted polygenic risk scores (wPRSs) combining multiple single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with lipid levels in the general population are associated with lipid levels [high-density lipoprotein (HDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), total cholesterol (TC), and triglycerides] and/or dyslipidemia in patients receiving weight gain-inducing psychotropic drugs. We also determined whether genetics improve the predictive power of dyslipidemia. The influence of wPRS on lipid levels was firstly assessed in a discovery psychiatric sample (n=332) and was then tested for replication in an independent psychiatric sample (n=140). The contribution of genetic markers to predict dyslipidemia was evaluated in the combined psychiatric sample. wPRSs were significantly associated with the four lipid traits in the discovery (P≤0.02) and in the replication sample (P≤0.03). Patients whose wPRS was higher than the median wPRS had significantly higher LDL, TC, and triglyceride levels (0.20, 0.32 and 0.26 mmol/l, respectively; P≤0.004) and significantly lower HDL levels (0.13 mmol/l; Pdyslipidemia prediction of HDL (P=0.03) and a trend for improvement was observed for the prediction of TC dyslipidemia (P=0.08). Population-based wPRSs have thus significant effects on lipid levels in the psychiatric population. As genetics improved the predictive power of dyslipidemia development, only 24 patients need to be genotyped to prevent the development of one case of HDL hypocholesterolemia. If confirmed by further prospective investigations, the present results could be used for individualizing psychotropic treatment.

  3. Do health care workforce, population, and service provision significantly contribute to the total health expenditure? An econometric analysis of Serbia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Santric-Milicevic, M; Vasic, V; Terzic-Supic, Z

    2016-08-15

    In times of austerity, the availability of econometric health knowledge assists policy-makers in understanding and balancing health expenditure with health care plans within fiscal constraints. The objective of this study is to explore whether the health workforce supply of the public health care sector, population number, and utilization of inpatient care significantly contribute to total health expenditure. The dependent variable is the total health expenditure (THE) in Serbia from the years 2003 to 2011. The independent variables are the number of health workers employed in the public health care sector, population number, and inpatient care discharges per 100 population. The statistical analyses include the quadratic interpolation method, natural logarithm and differentiation, and multiple linear regression analyses. The level of significance is set at P Total health expenditure increased by 1.21 standard deviations, with an increase in health workforce growth rate by 1 standard deviation. Furthermore, this rate decreased by 1.12 standard deviations, with an increase in (negative) population growth rate by 1 standard deviation. Finally, the growth rate increased by 0.38 standard deviation, with an increase of the growth rate of inpatient care discharges per 100 population by 1 standard deviation (P < 0.001). Study results demonstrate that the government has been making an effort to control strongly health budget growth. Exploring causality relationships between health expenditure and health workforce is important for countries that are trying to consolidate their public health finances and achieve universal health coverage at the same time.

  4. Mercury exposure, serum antinuclear/antinucleolar antibodies, and serum cytokine levels in mining populations in Amazonian Brazil: a cross-sectional study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gardner, Renee M; Nyland, Jennifer F; Silva, Ines A; Ventura, Ana Maria; de Souza, Jose Maria; Silbergeld, Ellen K

    2010-05-01

    Mercury is an immunotoxic substance that has been shown to induce autoimmune disease in rodent models, characterized by lymphoproliferation, overproduction of immunoglobulin (IgG and IgE), and high circulating levels of auto-antibodies directed at antigens located in the nucleus (antinuclear auto-antibodies, or ANA) or the nucleolus (antinucleolar auto-antibodies, or ANoA). We have reported elevated levels of ANA and ANoA in human populations exposed to mercury in artisanal gold mining, though other confounding variables that may also modulate ANA/ANoA levels were not well controlled. The goal of this study is to specifically test whether occupational and environmental conditions (other than mercury exposure) that are associated with artisanal gold mining affect the prevalence of markers of autoimmune dysfunction. We measured ANA, ANoA, and cytokine concentrations in serum and compared results from mercury-exposed artisanal gold miners to those from diamond and emerald miners working under similar conditions and with similar socio-economic status and risks of infectious disease. Mercury-exposed gold miners had higher prevalence of detectable ANA and ANoA and higher titers of ANA and ANoA as compared to diamond and emerald miners with no occupational mercury exposure. Also, mercury-exposed gold miners with detectable ANA or ANoA in serum had significantly higher concentrations of pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1beta, TNF-alpha, and IFN-gamma in serum as compared to the diamond and emerald miners. This study provides further evidence that mercury exposure may lead to autoimmune dysfunction and systemic inflammation in affected populations. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  5. A comprehensive assessment of mercury exposure in penguin populations throughout the Southern Hemisphere: Using trophic calculations to identify sources of population-level variation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Brasso, Rebecka L.; Chiaradia, André; Polito, Michael J.; Raya Rey, Andrea; Emslie, Steven D.

    2015-01-01

    Highlights: • Mercury concentrations documented for 10 species of penguins (26 breeding populations). • Mercury concentrations ⩽2.00 ppm in feathers from 18/26 penguin populations. • Trophic level calculations revealed source of population-level variation in mercury. • First documentation of geographic mercury ‘hotspots’ for penguin populations. - Abstract: The wide geographic distribution of penguins (Order Sphenisciformes) throughout the Southern Hemisphere provided a unique opportunity to use a single taxonomic group as biomonitors of mercury among geographically distinct marine ecosystems. Mercury concentrations were compared among ten species of penguins representing 26 geographically distinct breeding populations. Mercury concentrations were relatively low (⩽2.00 ppm) in feathers from 18/26 populations considered. Population-level differences in trophic level explained variation in mercury concentrations among Little, King, and Gentoo penguin populations. However, Southern Rockhopper and Magellanic penguins breeding on Staten Island, Tierra del Fuego, had the highest mercury concentrations relative to their conspecifics despite foraging at a lower trophic level. The concurrent use of stable isotope and mercury data allowed us to document penguin populations at the greatest risk of exposure to harmful concentrations of mercury as a result of foraging at a high trophic level or in geographic ‘hot spots’ of mercury availability

  6. Population Stabilization in India: A Sub-State level Analysis

    OpenAIRE

    Purohit C, Dr Brijesh

    2007-01-01

    The study aims at analyzing economic and policy factors impinging upon population stabilization measures at the district (sub-state level) in India. It reflects upon popularly debated notions, namely, that development is the best contraceptive or whether contraceptive is the best development. In order to reflect upon this notion, we hypothesize that the factors determining the success of population stabilization measures are likely to be different across rich and poor states. It is more likel...

  7. Level of emotional awareness in the general French population: effects of gender, age, and education level.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nandrino, Jean-Louis; Baracca, Margaret; Antoine, Pascal; Paget, Virginie; Bydlowski, Sarah; Carton, Solange

    2013-01-01

    The Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS) developed by Lane et al. (1990) measures the ability of a subject to discriminate his or her own emotional state and that of others. The scale is based on a cognitive-developmental model in which emotional awareness increases in a similar fashion to intellectual functions. Because studies performed using North American and German populations have demonstrated an effect of age, gender, and level of education on the ability to differentiate emotional states, our study attempts to evaluate whether these factors have the same effects in a general French population. 750 volunteers (506 female, 244 male), who were recruited from three regions of France (Lille, Montpellier, Paris), completed the LEAS. The sample was divided into five age groups and three education levels. The results of the LEAS scores for self and others and the total score showed a difference in the level of emotional awareness for different age groups, by gender and education level. A higher emotional level was observed for younger age groups, suggesting that emotional awareness depends on the cultural context and generational societal teachings. Additionally, the level of emotional awareness was higher in women than in men and lower in individuals with less education. This result might be explained by an educational bias linked to gender and higher education whereby expressive ability is reinforced. In addition, given the high degree of variability in previously observed scores in the French population, we propose a standard based on our French sample.

  8. Integrating chemical fate and population-level effect models of pesticides: the importance of capturing the right scales

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Focks, A.; Horst, ter M.M.S.; Berg, van den E.; Baveco, H.; Brink, van den P.J.

    2014-01-01

    Any attempt to introduce more ecological realism into ecological risk assessment of chemicals faces the major challenge of integrating different aspects of the chemicals and species of concern, for example, spatial scales of emissions, chemical exposure patterns in space and time, and population

  9. Individual and population-level impacts of an emerging poxvirus disease in a wild population of great tits.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shelly Lachish

    Full Text Available Emerging infectious diseases of wildlife can have severe effects on host populations and constitute a pressing problem for biodiversity conservation. Paridae pox is an unusually severe form of avipoxvirus infection that has recently been identified as an emerging infectious disease particularly affecting an abundant songbird, the great tit (Parus major, in Great Britain. In this study, we study the invasion and establishment of Paridae pox in a long-term monitored population of wild great tits to (i quantify the impact of this novel pathogen on host fitness and (ii determine the potential threat it poses to population persistence. We show that Paridae pox significantly reduces the reproductive output of great tits by reducing the ability of parents to fledge young successfully and rear those young to independence. Our results also suggested that pathogen transmission from diseased parents to their offspring was possible, and that disease entails severe mortality costs for affected chicks. Application of multistate mark-recapture modelling showed that Paridae pox causes significant reductions to host survival, with particularly large effects observed for juvenile survival. Using an age-structured population model, we demonstrate that Paridae pox has the potential to reduce population growth rate, primarily through negative impacts on host survival rates. However, at currently observed prevalence, significant disease-induced population decline seems unlikely, although pox prevalence may be underestimated if capture probability of diseased individuals is low. Despite this, because pox-affected model populations exhibited lower average growth rates, this emerging infectious disease has the potential to reduce the resilience of populations to other environmental factors that reduce population size.

  10. Population Level Effects of a Mass Media Alcohol and Breast Cancer Campaign: A Cross-Sectional Pre-Intervention and Post-Intervention Evaluation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martin, Neil; Buykx, Penny; Shevills, Colin; Sullivan, Claire; Clark, Lynsey; Newbury-Birch, Dorothy

    2018-01-01

    To examine the relationship between a TV-led breast cancer mass-media campaign in the North East of England (conducted in two waves: Jul/2015 and Nov/2015), awareness of the link between alcohol and cancer, intention to reduce alcohol consumption and support for alcohol related policies. Three cross-sectional surveys were conducted; one over the 2 weeks pre-campaign (n = 572); one immediately following campaign wave 1 (n = 576); and another immediately following campaign wave 2 (n = 552). Survey questions assessed; campaign exposure; awareness of the links between alcohol and related cancers; intention to change alcohol consumption; and support for alcohol related policies. The proportion of respondents indicating awareness of alcohol as a cancer risk factor was larger post-campaign compared to pre-campaign. The largest increase was seen for breast cancer with 45% aware of the links post-campaign wave 2 compared to 33% pre-campaign. The proportion of respondents indicating 'strong support' of the seven alcohol related policies significantly increased between surveys. The proportion of respondents both aware of alcohol as a cancer risk factor and supportive of the seven alcohol related policies significantly increased between surveys. There was no significant change in self-reported intention to reduce alcohol consumption amongst increasing/higher risk drinkers. These findings indicate that a mass-media campaign raising awareness of the links between alcohol and breast cancer is associated with increased awareness and alcohol related policy support at a population level. However, there was no association found with a change in short-term drinking intentions. A mass-media campaign raising awareness of the links between alcohol and breast cancer is associated with increased awareness and alcohol policy support at a population level but does not appear to be associated with a change in short term drinking intentions. © The Author 2017. Medical Council on Alcohol and

  11. Sleep duration is significantly associated with carotid artery atherosclerosis incidence in a Japanese population.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abe, Tsueko; Aoki, Toshinari; Yata, Syogo; Okada, Masahiko

    2011-08-01

    Previous studies have indicated that sleep duration is associated with total mortality in a U-shaped fashion. The purpose of the current study was to examine the relationship between self-reported sleep duration and carotid artery atherosclerosis in a Japanese population. In 2009-2010, a total of 2498 participants (1195 men, 1303 women; age range, 23-92 years) were recruited from members of a Japanese community receiving annual health check-up at a local health center who agreed to participate in the study. Exclusion criteria were as follows: age <40 or ≥85 years; and more than one missing value from either laboratory data or questionnaire responses. A total of 2214 participants were entered into the study. Carotid artery arteriosclerosis was evaluated ultrasonographically and quantified as intima-medial thickness (IMT). The presence of carotid artery atherosclerosis was defined as IMT≥1.2 mm. Sleep durations were compared with IMT measurements after controlling for confounding factors such as age, sex, lipid profile, fasting plasma glucose, hemoglobin A1c, blood pressure, alcohol intake, and smoking habit. Sleep duration ≥7 h correlated significantly with the incidence of IMT≥1.2 m when compared with a sleep duration of 6 h (multivariate-adjusted odds ratio, 1.263; 95% confidence interval, 1.031-1.546, P=0.024). Shorter sleep duration ≤5 h did not correlate significantly with the risk compared with a sleep duration of 6 h. Long sleep duration (≥7 h) correlated significantly with the incidence of carotid artery atherosclerosis compared with a sleep duration of 6 h, but shorter sleep duration did not. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. Identifying individual- and population-level characteristics that influence rates of risky alcohol consumption in regional communities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Breen, Courtney; Shakeshaft, Anthony; Sanson-Fisher, Rob; D'Este, Catherine; Mattick, Richard P; Gilmour, Stuart

    2014-02-01

    To examine the extent to which individual- and community- level characteristics account for differences in risky alcohol consumption. A cross-sectional postal survey of 2,977 randomly selected individuals from 20 regional communities in NSW, Australia. Individuals drinking at harmful levels on the AUDIT and for risk of harm in the short term and long-term were identified. Multi-level modelling of the correlates of risky alcohol consumption at the individual and community level was conducted. There were differences between communities in alcohol consumption patterns. Being male, unmarried and reporting worse health were significant individual-level correlates for drinking at levels for risk of harm in the long term. The number of GPs (+) and police (-) were significant community characteristics. Being younger (≤25), unmarried, Australian born and with a larger income was associated with drinking at levels for risk of harm in the short term and harmful drinking on the AUDIT. The number of hotels and clubs was positively associated with drinking at levels for risk of harm in the short term. Rates of risky drinking vary significantly between communities and both individual and community characteristics are significantly associated with risky alcohol consumption. A combination of individual- and population-level interventions, tailored to the risk profile of individual communities, is most likely to be optimally effective. © 2014 The Authors. ANZJPH © 2014 Public Health Association of Australia.

  13. Levels of 250Cf populated in the decay of 250Bk

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Uecke, J.W.

    1975-06-01

    The nuclide 250 Bk undergoes β-decay with a half-life of 3.2 h to 13.1 y 250 Cf. A study is undertaken of the excited states in 250 Cf populated by 250 Bk decay which results from the α-decay of 276d 254 Es. The general features of published level schemes for these nuclei are consistent with predictions of the Nilsson and collective models; however, there remain many undiscovered transitions and ambiguous or uncertain level assignments. In an attempt to confirm predictions of current theoretical models which account for nuclear level assignments in this nucleus, these gamma transitions and their levels have been studied. Twenty-eight new γ-rays were determined. The decay of 250 Bk is investigated primarily by high resolution gamma-ray singles spectrometry and supported in part by two-parameter gamma-gamma coincidence spectrometry. The equipment, comprised of a Ge(HP) and a large volume Ge(Li) detector, a 4096-channel two-parameter analyzer, and a PDP-8/e computer system, permitted significant improvement in sensitivity and accuracy over previous investigations on this nucleus. (11 figures, 2 tables) (U.S.)

  14. Bone lead levels in an environmentally exposed elderly population in shanghai, China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Specht, Aaron J; Lin, Yanfen; Xu, Jian; Weisskopf, Marc; Nie, Linda H

    2018-06-01

    This study looked at measurements of lead (Pb) in a pilot population of environmentally exposed elderly residents of Shanghai, China and presented the first set of bone Pb data on an elderly Chinese population. We found that with environmental exposures in this population using K-shell x-ray fluorescence (KXRF) bone Pb measurements 40% of the individuals had bone Pb levels above the nominal detection limit with an average bone lead level of 4.9 ± 3.6 μg/g. This bone lead level is lower than comparable values from previous studies of community dwelling adults in US cities. This population had a slightly higher geometric mean blood Pb of 2.6 μg/dL than the adult US population. The main conclusion of this data is that in Shanghai there is environmental exposure to Pb, measured through blood and bone, which should be further investigated to assess the health impact of this exposure. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  15. Population characteristics may reduce the levels of individual call identity.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    María del Mar Delgado

    Full Text Available Individual variability influences the demographic and evolutionary dynamics of spatially structured populations, and conversely ecological and evolutionary dynamics provide the context under which variations at the individual level occur. Therefore, it is essential to identify and characterize the importance of the different factors that may promote or hinder individual variability. Animal signaling is a prime example of a type of behavior that is largely dependent on both the features of individuals and the characteristics of the population to which they belong. After 10 years studying the dynamics of a population of a long-lived species, the eagle owl (Bubo bubo, we investigated the emergence and maintenance of traits that reveal individual identity by focusing on vocal features. We found that individuals inhabiting a high density population characterized by a relative lack of heterogeneity (in terms of prey availability and breeding success among breeding sites might be selected for reducing the levels of identity. Two non-mutually exclusive hypotheses may explain the structural call patterns we detected: (1 similarity in calls may be principally a consequence of the particular characteristics of the population; and (2 high density may encourage individuals to mimic each other's vocalizations in a cascade effect, leading to a widespread and unique communication network.

  16. Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation for Treating Depression in a Patient With Right Hemispheric Dominance: A Case Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shiozawa, Pedro; da Silva, Mailu Enokibara; Cordeiro, Quirino

    2015-09-01

    We report the case of a 66-year-old male patient with major depressive disorder for the last 6 months. The patient had been diagnosed with dyslexia during childhood and was left-handed. The intervention protocol consisted in 10 consecutive daily transcranial direct current stimulation sessions. However, after 5 days of stimulation, the patient presented with intensification of depressive symptoms and panic attacks. It was hypothetized that the intensification of symptoms may have been due to stimulation protocol itself. Considering the patient was left-handed and presented comorbidity with dyslexia, there was a plausible hypothesis of right hemispheric dominance. This was corroborated by the Edinburgh Handedness Scale. In fact, dyslexic patients present right hemisphere dominance more frequently. The patient also presented a single photon emission computed tomography with a hypoperfusion area over the left posterior parietal lobe. After the patients agreement, a 10-day experimental repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation low-frequency protocol over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex was started to inhibit the area, which was hypothetically hyperactivated following the rationale of right dominance. The patient presented amelioration of depressive and anxious symptoms. Given the hemispheric reversal we show in the present case study, however, it seems that therapies that are beneficial to right-handers could be detrimental to left-handers.

  17. Level of colorectal cancer awareness: a cross sectional exploratory study among multi-ethnic rural population in Malaysia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Su, Tin Tin; Goh, Jun Yan; Tan, Jackson; Muhaimah, Abdul Rahim; Pigeneswaren, Yoganathan; Khairun, Nasirin Sallamun; Normazidah, Abdul Wahab; Tharisini, Devi Kunasekaran; Majid, Hazreen Abd

    2013-08-07

    This paper presents the level of colorectal cancer awareness among multi-ethnic rural population in Malaysia. A rural-based cross sectional survey was carried out in Perak state in Peninsular Malaysia in March 2011. The survey recruited a population-representative sample using multistage sampling. Altogether 2379 participants were included in this study. Validated bowel/colorectal cancer awareness measure questionnaire was used to assess the level of colorectal cancer awareness among study population. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was done to identify socio-demographic variance of knowledge score on warning signs and risk factors of colorectal cancer. Among respondents, 38% and 32% had zero knowledge score for warning signs and risk factors respectively. Mean knowledge score for warning signs and risk factors were 2.89 (SD 2.96) and 3.49 (SD 3.17) respectively. There was a significant positive correlation between the knowledge score of warning signs and level of confidence in detecting a warning sign. Socio-demographic characteristics and having cancer in family and friends play important role in level of awareness. Level of awareness on colorectal cancer warning signs and risk factors in the rural population of Malaysia is very low. Therefore, it warrants an extensive health education campaign on colorectal cancer awareness as it is one of the commonest cancer in Malaysia. Health education campaign is urgently needed because respondents would seek medical attention sooner if they are aware of this problem.

  18. Level of colorectal cancer awareness: a cross sectional exploratory study among multi-ethnic rural population in Malaysia

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Su, Tin Tin; Goh, Jun Yan; Tan, Jackson; Muhaimah, Abdul Rahim; Pigeneswaren, Yoganathan; Khairun, Nasirin Sallamun; Normazidah, Abdul Wahab; Tharisini, Devi Kunasekaran; Majid, Hazreen Abd

    2013-01-01

    This paper presents the level of colorectal cancer awareness among multi-ethnic rural population in Malaysia. A rural-based cross sectional survey was carried out in Perak state in Peninsular Malaysia in March 2011. The survey recruited a population-representative sample using multistage sampling. Altogether 2379 participants were included in this study. Validated bowel/colorectal cancer awareness measure questionnaire was used to assess the level of colorectal cancer awareness among study population. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was done to identify socio-demographic variance of knowledge score on warning signs and risk factors of colorectal cancer. Among respondents, 38% and 32% had zero knowledge score for warning signs and risk factors respectively. Mean knowledge score for warning signs and risk factors were 2.89 (SD 2.96) and 3.49 (SD 3.17) respectively. There was a significant positive correlation between the knowledge score of warning signs and level of confidence in detecting a warning sign. Socio-demographic characteristics and having cancer in family and friends play important role in level of awareness. Level of awareness on colorectal cancer warning signs and risk factors in the rural population of Malaysia is very low. Therefore, it warrants an extensive health education campaign on colorectal cancer awareness as it is one of the commonest cancer in Malaysia. Health education campaign is urgently needed because respondents would seek medical attention sooner if they are aware of this problem

  19. Levels of conflict in reasoning modulate right lateral prefrontal cortex.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stollstorff, Melanie; Vartanian, Oshin; Goel, Vinod

    2012-01-05

    Right lateral prefrontal cortex (rlPFC) has previously been implicated in logical reasoning under conditions of conflict. A functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study was conducted to explore its role in conflict more precisely. Specifically, we distinguished between belief-logic conflict and belief-content conflict, and examined the role of rlPFC under each condition. The results demonstrated that a specific region of rlPFC is consistently activated under both types of conflict. Moreover, the results of a parametric analysis demonstrated that the same region was modulated by the level of conflict contained in reasoning arguments. This supports the idea that this specific region is engaged to resolve conflict, including during deductive reasoning. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled "The Cognitive Neuroscience of Thought". Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  20. Serum Inhibin B and follicle-stimulating hormone levels as tools in the evaluation of infertile men: significance of adequate reference values from proven fertile men

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Andersson, A.-M.; Petersen, Jørgen Holm; Jørgensen, N.

    2004-01-01

    Inhibin B and FSH levels in 289 idiopathic infertile men were compared with reference materials consisting of 303 proven fertile men (reference group 1) and 307 healthy men from the general population with unknown fertility status (reference group 2). The diagnostic power of these two serum markers...... of spermatogenesis was evaluated by the use of receiver operating characteristic plot analysis, and an example of how both markers can be used simultaneously in a bivariate reference chart is presented. Inhibin B levels were significantly lower and FSH levels were significantly higher in the infertile men, compared...

  1. Optical preparation of H2 rovibrational levels with almost complete population transfer

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dong, Wenrui; Mukherjee, Nandini; Zare, Richard N.

    2013-08-01

    Using stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (SARP), it is possible, in principle, to transfer all the population in a rovibrational level of an isolated diatomic molecule to an excited rovibrational level. We use an overlapping sequence of pump (532 nm) and dump (683 nm) single-mode laser pulses of unequal fluence to prepare isolated H2 molecules in a molecular beam. In a first series of experiments we were able to transfer more than half the population to an excited rovibrational level [N. Mukherjee, W. R. Dong, J. A. Harrison, and R. N. Zare, J. Chem. Phys. 138(5), 051101-1051101-4 (2013)], 10.1063/1.4790402. Since then, we have achieved almost complete transfer (97% ± 7%) of population from the H2 (v = 0, J = 0) ground rovibrational level to the H2 (v = 1, J = 0) excited rovibrational level. An explanation is presented of the SARP process and how these results are obtained.

  2. Left-right asymmetries of behaviour and nervous system in invertebrates.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frasnelli, Elisa; Vallortigara, Giorgio; Rogers, Lesley J

    2012-04-01

    Evidence of left-right asymmetries in invertebrates has begun to emerge, suggesting that lateralization of the nervous system may be a feature of simpler brains as well as more complex ones. A variety of studies have revealed sensory and motor asymmetries in behaviour, as well as asymmetries in the nervous system, in invertebrates. Asymmetries in behaviour are apparent in olfaction (antennal asymmetries) and in vision (preferential use of the left or right visual hemifield during activities such as foraging or escape from predators) in animals as different as bees, fruitflies, cockroaches, octopuses, locusts, ants, spiders, crabs, snails, water bugs and cuttlefish. Asymmetries of the nervous system include lateralized position of specific brain structures (e.g., in fruitflies and snails) and of specific neurons (e.g., in nematodes). As in vertebrates, lateralization can occur both at the individual and at the population-level in invertebrates. Theoretical models have been developed supporting the hypothesis that the alignment of the direction of behavioural and brain asymmetries at the population-level could have arisen as a result of social selective pressures, when individually asymmetrical organisms had to coordinate with each other. The evidence reviewed suggests that lateralization at the population-level may be more likely to occur in social species among invertebrates, as well as vertebrates. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. Self-reported oral health of a metropolitan homeless population in Australia: comparisons with population-level data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parker, E J; Jamieson, L M; Steffens, M A; Cathro, P; Logan, R M

    2011-09-01

    There is limited information on self-perceived oral health of homeless populations. This study quantified self-reported oral health among a metropolitan homeless adult population and compared against a representative sample of the metropolitan adult population obtained from the National Survey of Adult Oral Health. A total of 248 homeless participants (age range 17-78 years, 79% male) completed a self-report questionnaire. Data for an age-matched, representative sample of metropolitan-dwelling adults were obtained from Australia's second National Survey of Adult Oral Health. Percentage responses and 95% confidence intervals were calculated, with non-overlapping 95% confidence intervals used to identify statistically significant differences between the two groups. Homeless adults reported poorer oral health than their age-matched general population counterparts. Twice as many homeless adults reported visiting a dentist more than a year ago and that their usual reason for dental attendance was for a dental problem. The proportion of homeless adults with a perceived need for fillings or extractions was also twice that of their age-matched general population counterparts. Three times as many homeless adults rated their oral health as 'fair' or 'poor'. A significantly greater proportion of homeless adults in an Australian metropolitan location reported poorer oral health compared with the general metropolitan adult population. © 2011 Australian Dental Association.

  4. Quantifying risks experienced by populations exposed to low levels of environmental contaminants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gilbert, E.S.

    1985-05-01

    The objective was to provide a direct assessment of risks associated with exposures at the actual levels of interest. There are several epidemiological studies of populations that have received occupational exposure to radiation including workers at the Hanford nuclear facility. This population was used as a typical example to illustrate methods of analyzing such data. The Hanford data appear to demonstrate directly that risk estimates obtained by linear extrapolation from data on populations exposed at high levels are unlikely to underestimate risks by a factor greater than three. 15 refs

  5. On the Relationship between Right- brain and Left- brain Dominance and Reading Comprehension Test Performance of Iranian EFL Learners

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hassan Soleimani

    2012-05-01

    Full Text Available A tremendous amount of works have been conducted by psycholinguistics to identify hemisphere processing during second/ foreign language learning, or in other words to investigate the role of the brain hemisphere dominance in language performance of learners. Most of these researches have focused on single words and word pairs (e.g., Anaki et al., 1998; Arzouan et. al., 2007; Faust & Mahal, 2007 or simple sentences (Rapp et al., 2007; Kacinik & Chiarello, 2007, and it has been discovered that there is an advantage of right hemisphere for metaphors and an
    advantage of left hemisphere for literal text. But the present research was designed to study Iranian EFL learners' performance in different reading tasks, so there could be differences between the consequences of the former research and the results of the present study due to the context. Here left-brain and right-brain dominance was investigated in 60 individuals (20 right-handed and 10 left-handed male, 20 right-handed and 10 left-handed female via the Edinburg Handedness Questionnaire (EHQ. The research results suggested that the right-handed learners who are supposed to be left-brain outperformed the left-handed ones; and regarding participant's gender, male learners outperformed female learners on reading comprehension test tasks.

  6. Hazard quotient profiles used as a risk assessment tool for PFOS and PFOA serum levels in three distinctive European populations

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ludwicki, Jan K; Góralczyk, Katarzyna; Struciński, Paweł

    2015-01-01

    Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) blood levels are commonly used as biomarkers of human environmental exposure to these compounds. Many biomonitoring studies indicate 100% detection for PFOS and PFOA thus justifying a concern of possible risk for the most exposed...... individuals. This study addresses the predictive value of hazard quotients (HQs) calculated on the basis of serum PFOS and PFOA in male and female populations of reproductive age in Greenland, Poland and Ukraine. Overall, 2026 results of PFOS and PFOA serum concentrations (589 males, 1437 females) were...... and PFOA. Only in the three cases of males in Greenland were there serum PFOS levels showing HQ values exceeding 1, so indicating that such serum levels may be of concern. The mean serum concentration of PFOS was significantly higher in male than in female populations. Despite significant differences...

  7. First 3D Cadastral Registration of Multi-level Ownerships Rights in the Netherlands

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ploeger, H.D.; Stoter, J.E.; Roes, R; Van der Riet, E.; Biljecki, F.; Ledoux, H.

    2016-01-01

    This paper reports on the first 3D cadastral registration of multi-level ownerships rights in the Netherlands, which was accomplished in March 2016. It is the result of a study that was undertaken from 2013 to 2015 to determine how insight about multi-level ownership can be provided in 3D by the

  8. Clinical significance of determination serum sex hormones levels in patients with secondary amenorrhea

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jiang Hua

    2007-01-01

    Objective: To explore the clinical significance of changes of serum sex hormones levels in patients with secondary amenorrhea. Methods: Serum levels of E 2 , FSH, LH, PRL and P were detected with RIA in 33 patients with secondary amenorrhea and 30 controls. Results: In the patients, the serum E 2 levels were significantly lower and FSH, LH, PRL and P levels were significantly higher than those in controls (P 2 , FSH, LH, PRL and P levels is of help for assessment of severity of secondary amenorrhea as well as outcome prediction. (authors)

  9. ON THE GENDER EFFECTS OF HANDEDNESS IN PROFESSIONAL TENNIS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kristijan Breznik

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to explore the effects of the gender variable in relation to other player and match characteristics on the advantage possessed by left-handed professional tennis players over their right-handed rivals. The data include 16 732 male tennis players and 16 432 female tennis players who played 438 937 and 415 346 matches, respectively, in the period from 1968 to the end of 2011. The results revealed that the advantage of left-handed professional tennis players is higher in males compared to females. The inverse impact of player and match quality on the left- handers' advantage was clearly confirmed. On the contrary, it seems that the type of court surface does not directly imply this advantage. To obtain an overview on the individual level, directed and weighted networks of tennis matches in both gender categories were constructed. Applying network analytic methods and the PageRank algorithm, the best left and right-handed players in the Open Era of tennis were identified. The top three ranked left-handed players in the male and female categories were found to be far more consistent in their ranks achieved against left and right-handed opponents compared to their right-handed counterparts

  10. The relationship between population-level exposure to alcohol advertising on television and brand-specific consumption among underage youth in the US.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ross, Craig S; Maple, Emily; Siegel, Michael; DeJong, William; Naimi, Timothy S; Padon, Alisa A; Borzekowski, Dina L G; Jernigan, David H

    2015-05-01

    We investigated the population-level relationship between exposure to brand-specific advertising and brand-specific alcohol use among US youth. We conducted an internet survey of a national sample of 1031 youth, ages 13-20, who had consumed alcohol in the past 30 days. We ascertained all of the alcohol brands respondents consumed in the past 30 days, as well as which of 20 popular television shows they had viewed during that time period. Using a negative binomial regression model, we examined the relationship between aggregated brand-specific exposure to alcohol advertising on the 20 television shows [ad stock, measured in gross rating points (GRPs)] and youth brand-consumption prevalence, while controlling for the average price and overall market share of each brand. Brands with advertising exposure on the 20 television shows had a consumption prevalence about four times higher than brands not advertising on those shows. Brand-level advertising elasticity of demand varied by exposure level, with higher elasticity in the lower exposure range. The estimated advertising elasticity of 0.63 in the lower exposure range indicates that for each 1% increase in advertising exposure, a brand's youth consumption prevalence increases by 0.63%. At the population level, underage youths' exposure to brand-specific advertising was a significant predictor of the consumption prevalence of that brand, independent of each brand's price and overall market share. The non-linearity of the observed relationship suggests that youth advertising exposure may need to be lowered substantially in order to decrease consumption of the most heavily advertised brands. © The Author 2015. Medical Council on Alcohol and Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.

  11. Asymmetry in the brain influenced the neurological deficits and infarction volume following the middle cerebral artery occlusion in rats

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhang Meizeng

    2008-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Paw preference in rats is similar to human handedness, which may result from dominant hemisphere of rat brain. However, given that lateralization is the uniqueness of the humans, many researchers neglect the differences between the left and right hemispheres when selecting the middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO in rats. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of ischemia in the dominant hemisphere on neurobehavioral function and on the cerebral infarction volume following MCAO in rats. Methods The right-handed male Sprague-Dawley rats asserted by the quadrupedal food-reaching test were subjected to 2 hours MCA occlusion and then reperfusion. Results The neurological scores were significantly worse in the left MCAO group than that in the right MCAO group at 1 h, 24 h, 48 h and 72 h (p 0.05 respectively. There was a trend toward better neurobehavioral function recovery in the right MCAO group than in the left MCAO group. The total infarct volume in left MCAO was significantly larger than that in the right (p Conclusion The neurobehavioral function result and the pathological result were consistent with the hypothesis that paw preference in rats is similar to human handedness, and suggested that ischemia in dominant hemisphere caused more significant neurobehavioral consequence than in another hemisphere following MCAO in adult rats. Asymmetry in rat brain should be considered other than being neglected in choice of rat MCAO model.

  12. Early childhood development in Rwanda: a policy analysis of the human rights legal framework.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Binagwaho, Agnes; Scott, Kirstin W; Harward, Sardis H

    2016-01-12

    Early childhood development (ECD) is a critical period that continues to impact human health and productivity throughout the lifetime. Failing to provide policies and programs that support optimal developmental attainment when such services are financially and logistically feasible can result in negative population health, education and economic consequences that might otherwise be avoided. Rwanda, with its commitment to rights-based policy and program planning, serves as a case study for examination of the national, regional, and global human rights legal frameworks that inform ECD service delivery. In this essay, we summarize key causes and consequences of the loss of early developmental potential and how this relates to the human rights legal framework in Rwanda. We contend that sub-optimal early developmental attainment constitutes a violation of individuals' rights to health, education, and economic prosperity. These rights are widely recognized in global, regional and national human rights instruments, and are guaranteed by Rwanda's constitution. Recent policy implementation by several Rwandan ministries has increased access to health and social services that promote achievement of full developmental potential. These ECD-centric activities are characterized by an integrated approach to strengthening the services provided by several public sectors. Combining population level activities with those at the local level, led by local community health workers and women's councils, can bolster community education and ensure uptake of ECD services. Realization of the human rights to health, education, and economic prosperity requires and benefits from attention to the period of ECD, as early childhood has the potential to be an opportunity for expedient intervention or the first case of human rights neglect in a lifetime of rights violations. Efforts to improve ECD services and outcomes at the population level require multisector collaboration at the highest echelons

  13. Two Important Supreme Court Decisions Extending Gay Rights and Their Significance

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ashbee, Edward

    2013-01-01

    The US Supreme Court has often and rightly been described as the most powerful court in the world. This is because its rulings have such breadth that they can reshape US society and politics. The cout's June 2013 rulings provided further reminders of this. Two related rulings extended gay rights....

  14. Strong positive association of traditional Asian-style diets with blood cadmium and lead levels in the Korean adult population.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, Sunmin; Lee, Byung-Kook

    2013-12-01

    Blood lead and cadmium levels are more than twofold to fivefold higher in the Korean population compared to that of the USA. This may be related to the foods consumed. We examined which food categories are related to blood lead and cadmium levels in the Korean adult population using the 2008-2010 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (n = 5504). High and moderate consumption of bread and crackers, potatoes, meat and meat products, milk and dairy products, and pizza and hamburger resulted in significantly lower odds ratios for blood lead levels than their low consumption. However, consumption of salted fish, white fish, green vegetables, white and yellow vegetables, coffee, and alcohol resulted in significantly higher odds ratios of blood lead and cadmium. In conclusion, the typical Asian diet based on rice, fish, vegetables, regular coffee, and alcoholic drinks may be associated with higher blood cadmium and lead levels. This study suggests that lead and cadmium contents should be monitored and controlled in agricultural products to reduce health risks from heavy metals.

  15. Prognostic Significance of Pre-treatment Serum C-Reactive Protein Level in Patients with Adenocarcinoma of the Uterine Cervix.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bodner-Adler, Barbara; Kimberger, Oliver; Schneidinger, Cora; Kölbl, Heinz; Bodner, Klaus

    2016-09-01

    To evaluate pre-treatment serum C-reactive protein (CRP) level as a prognostic parameter in patients with adenocarcinoma of the uterine cervix. Pre-treatment CRP levels were analyzed to determine potential associations with clinicopathological parameters and to assess prognostic value in 46 patients with sole adenocarcinoma of the uterine cervix. The mean (±SD) pre-treatment serum CRP level was 5.82 (7.21) mg/l. Serum CRP concentration significantly correlated positively with age at diagnosis (p=0.001), lymphovascular space invasion (p=0.0026), recurrent disease (p=0.0001) and International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage (p=0.0002). In multivariate Cox regression models with age, FIGO stage, histological grade and lymph node status, elevated CRP and cancer antigen 125 levels were associated with shortened survival (pcervix. Copyright© 2016 International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. John G. Delinassios), All rights reserved.

  16. Hysteresis of haptic vertical and straight ahead in healthy human subjects

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tarnutzer Alexander A

    2012-09-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The subjective haptic vertical (SHV task requires subjects to adjust the roll orientation of an object, mostly in the roll plane, in such a way that it is parallel to perceived direction of gravity. Previously we found a tendency for clockwise rod rotations to deviate counter-clockwise and vice versa, indicating hysteresis. However, the contributing factors remained unclear. To clarify this we characterized the SHV in terms of handedness, hand used, direction of hand rotation, type of grasping (wrap vs. precision grip and gender, and compared findings with perceived straight-ahead (PSA. Healthy subjects repetitively performed adjustments along SHV (n = 21 and PSA (n = 10 in complete darkness. Results For both SHV and PSA significant effects of the hand used and the direction of rod/plate rotation were found. The latter effect was similar for SHV and PSA, leading to significantly larger counter-clockwise shifts (relative to true earth-vertical and objective straight-ahead for clockwise rotations compared to counter-clockwise rotations irrespective of the handedness and the type of grip. The effect of hand used, however, was opposite in the two tasks: while the SHV showed a counter-clockwise bias when the right hand was used and no bias for the left hand, in the PSA a counter-clockwise bias was obtained for the left hand without a bias for the right hand. No effects of grip and handedness (studied for SHV only on accuracy were observed, however, SHV precision was significantly (p  Conclusions Unimanual haptic tasks require control for the hand used and the type of grip as these factors significantly affect task performance. Furthermore, aligning objects with the SHV and PSA resulted in systematic direction-dependent deviations that could not be attributed to handedness, the hand used, or the type of grip. These deviations are consistent with hysteresis and are likely not related to gravitational pull, as they were

  17. High-level of resistance to spinosad, emamectin benzoate and carbosulfan in populations of Thrips tabaci collected in Israel.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lebedev, Galina; Abo-Moch, Fauzi; Gafni, Guy; Ben-Yakir, David; Ghanim, Murad

    2013-02-01

    The onion thrips, Thrips tabaci Lindeman, is a major pest of several crop plants in the genus Allium, such as onions, garlic and chives. In Israel, these crops are grown in open fields and in protected housing. This thrips is usually controlled by the application of chemical insecticides. In recent years, spinosad, emamectin benzoate and carbosulfan have been the major insecticides used for the control of the onion thrips. In the last 4 years, growers of chives and green onion from several regions of Israel have reported a significant decrease in the efficacy of insecticides used to control the onion thrips. The susceptibility of 14 populations of the onion thrips, collected mainly from chives between the years 2007 and 2011, to spinosad, emamectin benzoate and carbosulfan was tested using a laboratory bioassay. The majority of the populations showed significant levels of resistance to at least one of the insecticides. LC(50) values calculated for two of the studied populations showed that the resistance factor for spinosad compared with the susceptible population is 21 393, for carbosulfan 54 and for emamectin benzoate 36. Only two populations, collected from organic farms, were susceptible to the insecticides tested. This is the first report of a high resistance level to spinosad, the major insecticide used to control the onion thrips. Resistance cases to spinosad were associated with failures to control the pest. Populations resistant to spinosad also had partial or complete resistance to other insecticides used for controlling the onion thrips. Copyright © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry.

  18. Atypical speech lateralization in adults with developmental coordination disorder demonstrated using functional transcranial Doppler ultrasound

    OpenAIRE

    Hodgson, Jessica C.; Hudson, John M.

    2016-01-01

    Research using clinical populations to explore the relationship between hemispheric speech lateralization and handedness has focused on individuals with speech and language disorders, such as dyslexia or specific language impairment (SLI). Such work reveals atypical patterns of cerebral lateralization and handedness in these groups compared to controls. There are few studies that examine this relationship in people with motor coordination impairments but without speech or reading deficits, wh...

  19. Individual and population level effects of partner notification for Chlamydia trachomatis.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Christian L Althaus

    Full Text Available Partner notification (PN or contact tracing is an important aspect of treating bacterial sexually transmitted infections (STIs, such as Chlamydia trachomatis. It facilitates the identification of new infected cases that can be treated through individual case management. PN also acts indirectly by limiting onward transmission in the general population. However, the impact of PN, both at the level of individuals and the population, remains unclear. Since it is difficult to study the effects of PN empirically, mathematical and computational models are useful tools for investigating its potential as a public health intervention. To this end, we developed an individual-based modeling framework called Rstisim. It allows the implementation of different models of STI transmission with various levels of complexity and the reconstruction of the complete dynamic sexual partnership network over any time period. A key feature of this framework is that we can trace an individual's partnership history in detail and investigate the outcome of different PN strategies for C. trachomatis. For individual case management, the results suggest that notifying three or more partners from the preceding 18 months yields substantial numbers of new cases. In contrast, the successful treatment of current partners is most important for preventing re-infection of index cases and reducing further transmission of C. trachomatis at the population level. The findings of this study demonstrate the difference between individual and population level outcomes of public health interventions for STIs.

  20. Clinical significance of serum neuropeptide Y levels changes in chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jin Yuanhong; Pan Jiongwei; Cao Zhuo; Ji Naijun

    2004-01-01

    Objective: To study the clinical significance of serum neuropeptide Y level changes in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD). Methods: The serum neuropeptide Y levels were determined by radioimmunoassay in 40 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) and 30 patients without COPD. Results: Mean serum neuropeptide Y level in patients with COPD was significantly higher than that in patients without COPD (130.36 ± 20.58 pg/ml vs 86.62 ± 13.02 pg/ml; t=10.201, p<0.01). Moreover, the levels in patients of the different stages (I, II, III) of COPD were significantly different from one another (F=20.334, p<0.01). Conclusion: the serum neuropeptide Y levels increased significantly in patients with COPD and were correlated to the different disease stages

  1. Association Between PAI-1 Activity Levels and t-PA Antigen with Glycemic Status in Prediabetic Population

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andi Fachruddin Benyamin

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Aim: to evaluate an association between fibrinolysis defect and glycemic status in prediabetic population by assessing the levels of t-PA antigen and PAI-1 activity. Methods: it was an observational study with cross-sectional approach. There were 72 subjects aged 30-50 years who had met the inclusion criteria. The diagnosis of diabetes mellitus (DM and glycemic index were determined based on the American Diabetes Association (ADA criteria. The PAI-1 and t-PA antigen levels were measured quantitatively using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA. Analysis between the levels of t-PA antigen and PAI-1 activity was performed using ANOVA. Results: the t-PA antigen level was significantly higher in subjects with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT and impaired fasting blood glucose (IFBG as well as subject with impaired fasting blood glucose (IFBG than those with normal glucose tolerance (NGT (p=0.047. The PAI-1 activity was significantly higher in subjects with IGT, IFBG and subjects with IFBG than NGT (p=0.024. There was a significant association between glycemic status in prediabetic subjects and PAI-1 activity (p=0.04. Conclusion: the level of t-PA antigen and PAI-1 activity were significantly higher in prediabetic subjects than those with NGT; and there was a significant association between glycemic status in prediabetic subjects and PAI-1 activity.

  2. Can hand laterality be identified through lithic technology?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bargalló, Amèlia; Mosquera, Marina

    2014-01-01

    In this paper we present a new method for inferring handedness from lithic evidence. The study was conducted by means of an experimental programme in stone-knapping, after which the resulting lithic products (tools) were analysed. These lithic tools were produced by 15 inexpert knappers (8 right-handed and 7 left-handed), because we were not able to find a statistically significant number of left-handed expert knappers. We considered inexpert knappers to include individuals who had never struck two pebbles together, as well as individuals who were quite familiar with prehistoric tools and had had some degree of practice. The Mann-Whitney U test proved that all of them produced flakes with the same technical features, so within this sample expertise was not a factor that affected the presence or absence of the technical features analysed to determine hand laterality. The results of the experiment indicate that no single variable can be used to determine the laterality of the knapper, but rather the evidence of handedness lies in the combination of several variables. Furthermore, not all the flakes display the entire set of significant features. Therefore this study concludes that it is not possible to determine the handedness of a knapper through a single variable present on his or her flakes, but it may be possible to determine laterality by examining a combination of technical variables on a number of his or her pieces. Archaeologically, only well-preserved knapping events with numerous refitting products can be assigned to a left- or a right-handed knapper.

  3. The utility of estimating population-level trajectories of terminal wellbeing decline within a growth mixture modelling framework.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burns, R A; Byles, J; Magliano, D J; Mitchell, P; Anstey, K J

    2015-03-01

    Mortality-related decline has been identified across multiple domains of human functioning, including mental health and wellbeing. The current study utilised a growth mixture modelling framework to establish whether a single population-level trajectory best describes mortality-related changes in both wellbeing and mental health, or whether subpopulations report quite different mortality-related changes. Participants were older-aged (M = 69.59 years; SD = 8.08 years) deceased females (N = 1,862) from the dynamic analyses to optimise ageing (DYNOPTA) project. Growth mixture models analysed participants' responses on measures of mental health and wellbeing for up to 16 years from death. Multi-level models confirmed overall terminal decline and terminal drop in both mental health and wellbeing. However, modelling data from the same participants within a latent class growth mixture framework indicated that most participants reported stability in mental health (90.3 %) and wellbeing (89.0 %) in the years preceding death. Whilst confirming other population-level analyses which support terminal decline and drop hypotheses in both mental health and wellbeing, we subsequently identified that most of this effect is driven by a small, but significant minority of the population. Instead, most individuals report stable levels of mental health and wellbeing in the years preceding death.

  4. Observation of inverted population levels in the FM-1 Spherator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Suckewer, S.; Hawryluk, R.J.; Okabayashi, M.; Schmidt, J.A.

    1976-04-01

    Inversions in the populations of excited levels in hydrogen and HeII were observed in the FM-1 Spherator. The inversion increases strongly as the ratio of the decay time of the electron temperature to the decay time of the electron density was decreased. Time dependent numerical calculations of the populations were in good agreement with the experimental measurements. More general calculations for high Z hydrogen-like ions are discussed

  5. Myocardial Response to Milrinone in Single Right Ventricle Heart Disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nakano, Stephanie J; Nelson, Penny; Sucharov, Carmen C; Miyamoto, Shelley D

    2016-07-01

    Empiric treatment with milrinone, a phosphodiesterase (PDE) 3 inhibitor, has become increasingly common in patients with single ventricle heart disease of right ventricular (RV) morphology (SRV); our objective was to characterize the myocardial response to PDE3 inhibition (PDE3i) in the pediatric population with SRV. Cyclic adenosine monophosphate levels, PDE activity, and phosphorylated phospholamban (PLN) were determined in explanted human ventricular myocardium from nonfailing pediatric donors (n = 10) and pediatric patients transplanted secondary to SRV. Subjects with SRV were further classified by PDE3i treatment (n = 13 with PDE3i and n = 12 without PDE3i). In comparison with nonfailing RV myocardium (n = 8), cyclic adenosine monophosphate levels are lower in patients with SRV treated with PDE3i (n = 12, P = .021). Chronic PDE3i does not alter total PDE or PDE3 activity in SRV myocardium. Compared with nonfailing RV myocardium, SRV myocardium (both with and without PDE3i) demonstrates equivalent phosphorylated PLN at the protein kinase A phosphorylation site. As evidenced by preserved phosphorylated PLN, the molecular adaptation associated with SRV differs significantly from that demonstrated in pediatric heart failure because of dilated cardiomyopathy. These alterations support a pathophysiologically distinct mechanism of heart failure in pediatric patients with SRV, which has direct implications regarding the presumed response to PDE3i treatment in this population. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  6. A novel complete-case analysis to determine statistical significance between treatments in an intention-to-treat population of randomized clinical trials involving missing data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Wei; Ding, Jinhui

    2018-04-01

    The application of the principle of the intention-to-treat (ITT) to the analysis of clinical trials is challenged in the presence of missing outcome data. The consequences of stopping an assigned treatment in a withdrawn subject are unknown. It is difficult to make a single assumption about missing mechanisms for all clinical trials because there are complicated reactions in the human body to drugs due to the presence of complex biological networks, leading to data missing randomly or non-randomly. Currently there is no statistical method that can tell whether a difference between two treatments in the ITT population of a randomized clinical trial with missing data is significant at a pre-specified level. Making no assumptions about the missing mechanisms, we propose a generalized complete-case (GCC) analysis based on the data of completers. An evaluation of the impact of missing data on the ITT analysis reveals that a statistically significant GCC result implies a significant treatment effect in the ITT population at a pre-specified significance level unless, relative to the comparator, the test drug is poisonous to the non-completers as documented in their medical records. Applications of the GCC analysis are illustrated using literature data, and its properties and limits are discussed.

  7. Two-dimensional knowledge-based volumetric reconstruction of the right ventricle documents short-term improvement in pulmonary hypertension.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schwaiger, Johannes P; Knight, Daniel S; Kaier, Thomas; Gallimore, Adele; Denton, Christopher P; Schreiber, Benjamin E; Handler, Clive; Coghlan, John G

    2017-06-01

    Data are scarce about short-term right ventricular changes in pulmonary hypertension. Two-dimensional knowledge-based reconstruction of the right ventricle with 2D echocardiography (2DKBR) has been shown to be a valid alternative to Cardiac MRI. In this longitudinal study 25 pulmonary hypertension patients underwent 2DKBR of the right ventricle, assessment of NT-proBNP levels and functional class at baseline and after a mean follow-up of 6.1 months. Patients were followed up clinically for a further mean of 8.2 months. The majority of patients had connective tissue disease (CTD) associated pulmonary arterial hypertension (n=15) or chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH; n=6). A total of 15 patients underwent an intervention, either new targeted therapy, escalation of targeted therapy or pulmonary endarterectomy. A total of 10 clinically stable patients were routinely followed up without any change in therapy. There were significant improvements in the right ventricular end-diastolic volume index (111±29 mL/m² vs 100±36 mL/m²; P=.038), end-systolic volume index (72±23 mL/m² vs 61±25 mL/m²; P=.001), and ejection fraction (35±10% vs 40±9%; P=.030). Changes in NT-proBNP levels correlated strongest with changes in end-systolic volume index (r=-.77; P=right ventricle was associated with clinical worsening. In a CTD and CTEPH dominated patient population significant reverse remodeling and improvement of ejection fraction occurred despite a short follow-up and was paralleled by significant changes in NT-proBNP levels. Further right ventricular dilatation was associated with worse clinical outcome. 2DKBR is a feasible substitute for Cardiac MRI to follow-up right ventricular indices in pulmonary hypertension. © 2017, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  8. Does vaccination ensure protection? Assessing diphtheria and tetanus antibody levels in a population of healthy children

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gowin, Ewelina; Wysocki, Jacek; Kałużna, Ewelina; Świątek-Kościelna, Bogna; Wysocka-Leszczyńska, Joanna; Michalak, Michał; Januszkiewicz-Lewandowska, Danuta

    2016-01-01

    Abstract Vaccination effectiveness is proven when the disease does not develop after a patient is exposed to the pathogen. In the case of rare diseases, vaccination effectiveness is assessed by monitoring specific antibody levels in the population. Such recurrent analyses allow the evaluation of vaccination programs. The primary schedule of diphtheria and tetanus vaccinations is similar in various countries, with differences mainly in the number and timing of booster doses. The aim of the study was to assess diphtheria and tetanus antibody concentrations in a population of healthy children. Diphtheria and tetanus antibody levels were analyzed in a group of 324 children aged 18 to 180 months. All children were vaccinated in accordance with the Polish vaccination schedule. Specific antibody concentrations greater than 0.1 IU/mL were considered protective against tetanus or diphtheria. Levels above 1.0 were considered to ensure long-term protection. Protective levels of diphtheria antibodies were found in 229 patients (70.46%), and of tetanus in 306 patients (94.15%). Statistically significant differences were found in tetanus antibody levels in different age groups. Mean concentrations and the percentage of children with high tetanus antibody titers increased with age. No similar correlation was found for diphtheria antibodies. High diphtheria antibody levels co-occurred in 72% of the children with high tetanus antibody levels; 95% of the children with low tetanus antibody levels had low levels of diphtheria antibodies. The percentage of children with protective diphtheria antibody levels is lower than that in the case of tetanus antibodies, both in Poland and abroad, but the high proportion of children without diphtheria protection in Poland is an exception. This is all the more puzzling when taking into account that Polish children are administered a total of 5 doses containing a high concentration of diphtheria toxoid, at intervals shorter than 5 years. The

  9. Extreme lipoprotein(a) levels and risk of myocardial infarction in the general population

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kamstrup, Pia R; Benn, Marianne; Tybjaerg-Hansen, Anne

    2008-01-01

    Elevated lipoprotein(a) levels are associated with myocardial infarction (MI) in some but not all studies. Limitations of previous studies include lack of risk estimates for extreme lipoprotein(a) levels, measurements in long-term frozen samples, no correction for regression dilution bias, and lack...... of absolute risk estimates in the general population. We tested the hypothesis that extreme lipoprotein(a) levels predict MI in the general population, measuring levels shortly after sampling, correcting for regression dilution bias, and calculating hazard ratios and absolute risk estimates....

  10. Clinical significance of the VEGF level in urinary bladder carcinoma.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sankhwar, Monica; Sankhwar, Satya Narayan; Abhishek, Amar; Rajender, Singh

    2015-01-01

    To investigate the correlation of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) and micro-vessel density (MVD) with urinary bladder tumor and its stage. The study was conducted between January 2010 and December 2012. The study included screening of 122 patients at elevated risk for bladder cancer, of which 35 patients were finally enrolled in the study. Diagnosis was made on the basis of urine cytology, radiological investigation (ultrasound KUB, and CT-scan) and histopathology. Thirty-five normal cancer-free individuals were enrolled as controls. Human VEGF levels were measured using an enzyme linked immunoassay and protein content (pg/mg protein) by Lowry method. SPSS for Windows version 10.0.7 (SPSS, Chicago, IL, USA) was used for statistical analysis of the data. Mean urine VEGF level in the cases was significantly higher in comparison to the control group. There was a direct correlation between VEGF level and tumor stage. Mean urine VEGF values were minimum in the control group (22.75 ± 15.41 pg/mg creatinine) and maximum in stage IV patients (180.15 ± 75.93 pg/mg creatinine). Tissue VEGF levels also showed a similar trend of increase with increase in stage. Urine VEGF level also showed a correlation with tissue VEGF level. Similarly, MVD showed a significant increase with increase in tumor stage. A correlation between bladder cancer and MVD and VEGF suggest that the latter can serve as markers for therapeutic guidance. This is the first study from India on clinical and pathological correlation among urine VEGF, tumor tissue VEGF levels, and Micro Vessel Density (MVD) in urinary bladder cancer patients.

  11. Significant population genetic structure detected in the rock bream Oplegnathus fasciatus (Temminck & Schlegel, 1844) inferred from fluorescent-AFLP analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xiao, Yongshuang; Ma, Daoyuan; Xu, Shihong; Liu, Qinghua; Wang, Yanfeng; Xiao, Zhizhong; Li, Jun

    2016-05-01

    Oplegnathus fasciatus (rock bream) is a commercial rocky reef fish species in East Asia that has been considered for aquaculture. We estimated the population genetic diversity and population structure of the species along the coastal waters of China using fluorescent-amplified fragment length polymorphisms technology. Using 53 individuals from three populations and four pairs of selective primers, we amplified 1 264 bands, 98.73% of which were polymorphic. The Zhoushan population showed the highest Nei's genetic diversity and Shannon genetic diversity. The results of analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) showed that 59.55% of genetic variation existed among populations and 40.45% occurred within populations, which indicated that a significant population genetic structure existed in the species. The pairwise fixation index F st ranged from 0.20 to 0.63 and were significant after sequential Bonferroni correction. The topology of an unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean tree showed two significant genealogical branches corresponding to the sampling locations of North and South China. The AMOVA and STRUCTURE analyses suggested that the O. fasciatus populations examined should comprise two stocks.

  12. Human rights approach to maternal & child health: has India fared well?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ram, F; Singh, Abhishek; Ram, Usha

    2013-04-01

    The objectives of the study were to examine: right to access maternal health; right to access child health; and right to access improved water and sanitation in India. We used large-scale data sets like District Level Household Survey conducted in 2007-08 and National Family Health Surveys conducted during 1992-93, 1998-99, and 2005-06 to fulfil the objectives. The selection of the indicator variables was guided by the Human Rights' Framework for Health and Convention of the Rights of the Child- Articles 7, 24 and 27. We used univariate and bivariate analysis along with ratio of access among non-poor to access among poor to fulfil the objectives. Evidence clearly suggested gross violation of human rights starting from the birth of an individual. Even after 60 years of independence, significant proportions of women and children do not have access to basic services like improved drinking water and sanitation. There were enormous socio-economic and residence related inequalities in maternal and child health indicators included in the study. These inequalities were mostly to the disadvantage of the poor. The fulfilment of the basic human rights of women and children is likely to pay dividends in many other domains related to overall population and health in India.

  13. The impact of right ventricular stroke work on B-type natriuretic peptide levels in patients with mitral stenosis undergoing percutaneous mitral valvuloplasty.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Esteves, William A M; Lodi-Junqueira, Lucas; Neto, Cirilo P Fonseca; Tan, Timothy C; Nascimento, Bruno R; Mehrotra, Praveen; Barbosa, Marcia M; Ribeiro, Antonio Luiz P; Nunes, Maria Carmo P

    2013-10-01

    We aimed to explore the relationship between brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) levels and right ventricular (RV) function in patients with mitral stenosis (MS), and to investigate the hemodynamic parameters that predict reduction of BNP levels after percutaneous mitral valvuloplasty (PMV). Few studies have evaluated BNP in the context of MS, specifically the impact of the RV stroke work (RVSW) on serum BNP levels has not been defined. Thirty patients with symptomatic rheumatic MS in sinus rhythm who were referred for a PMV were enrolled. Right and left heart pressures were obtained before and after valvuloplasty. RVSW index (RVSWI) was calculated by cardiac catheterization. Basal BNP levels were elevated in MS patients and correlated with several hemodynamic parameters including pulmonary pressure, pulmonary vascular resistance index, cardiac index (CI), and RVSWI. In multivariate analysis, CI and RVSWI were independent predictors of raised basal BNP levels. PMV resulted in a significant decrease in the RVSWI with a concurrent increase in CI (2.4 ± 0.43 to 2.9 ± 0.8 L/min/m(2), P = 0.010). Overall, plasma BNP levels significantly decreased from 124 (63/234) to 73 (48/148) pg/ml postvalvuloplasty. Multivariate analysis revealed that the reduction of left atrial (LA) pressure post-PMV was an independent predictor of change in BNP levels. Elevated baseline BNP level in MS patients was independently associated with CI and RVSWI. Plasma BNP levels were reduced after successful PMV, which was associated with the reduction of the LA pressure. © 2013, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  14. Characterization of short white matter fiber bundles in the central area from diffusion tensor MRI

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Magro, Elsa [INSERM U 1099/Universite de Rennes 1, Equipe MediCIS, Faculte de Medecine, Rennes Cedex (France); CHU Cavale Blanche, Service de Neurochirurgie, Pole Neurolocomoteur, Brest (France); Moreau, Tristan; Gibaud, Bernard [INSERM U 1099/Universite de Rennes 1, Equipe MediCIS, Faculte de Medecine, Rennes Cedex (France); Seizeur, Romuald [INSERM U 1099/Universite de Rennes 1, Equipe MediCIS, Faculte de Medecine, Rennes Cedex (France); CHU Cavale Blanche, Service de Neurochirurgie, Pole Neurolocomoteur, Brest (France); INSERM UMR 1101 LaTIM, Brest (France); Morandi, Xavier [INSERM U 1099/Universite de Rennes 1, Equipe MediCIS, Faculte de Medecine, Rennes Cedex (France); CHU Pontchaillou, Service de Neurochirurgie, Rennes (France)

    2012-11-15

    Diffusion tensor imaging and tractography allow studying white matter fiber bundles in the human brain in vivo. Electrophysiological studies and postmortem dissections permit improving our knowledge about the short association fibers connecting the pre- and postcentral gyri. The aim of this study was first to extract and analyze the features of these short fiber bundles and secondly to analyze their asymmetry according to the subjects' handedness. Ten right-handed and ten left-handed healthy subjects were included. White matter fiber bundles were extracted using a streamline tractography approach, with two seed regions of interest (ROI) taken from a parcellation of the pre- and postcentral gyri. This parcellation was achieved using T1 magnetic resonance images (MRI) and semi-automatically generated three ROIs within each gyrus. MRI tracks were reconstructed between all pairs of ROIs connecting the adjacent pre- and postcentral gyri. A quantitative analysis was performed on the number of tracks connecting each ROI pair. A statistical analysis studied the repartition of these MRI tracks in the right and left hemispheres and as a function of the subjects' handedness. The quantitative analysis showed an increased density of MRI tracks in the middle part of the central area in each hemisphere of the 20 subjects. The statistical analysis showed significantly more MRI tracks for the left hemisphere, when we consider the whole population, and this difference was presumably driven by the left-handers. These results raise questions about the functional role of these MRI tracks and their relation with laterality. (orig.)

  15. Characterization of short white matter fiber bundles in the central area from diffusion tensor MRI

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Magro, Elsa; Moreau, Tristan; Gibaud, Bernard; Seizeur, Romuald; Morandi, Xavier

    2012-01-01

    Diffusion tensor imaging and tractography allow studying white matter fiber bundles in the human brain in vivo. Electrophysiological studies and postmortem dissections permit improving our knowledge about the short association fibers connecting the pre- and postcentral gyri. The aim of this study was first to extract and analyze the features of these short fiber bundles and secondly to analyze their asymmetry according to the subjects' handedness. Ten right-handed and ten left-handed healthy subjects were included. White matter fiber bundles were extracted using a streamline tractography approach, with two seed regions of interest (ROI) taken from a parcellation of the pre- and postcentral gyri. This parcellation was achieved using T1 magnetic resonance images (MRI) and semi-automatically generated three ROIs within each gyrus. MRI tracks were reconstructed between all pairs of ROIs connecting the adjacent pre- and postcentral gyri. A quantitative analysis was performed on the number of tracks connecting each ROI pair. A statistical analysis studied the repartition of these MRI tracks in the right and left hemispheres and as a function of the subjects' handedness. The quantitative analysis showed an increased density of MRI tracks in the middle part of the central area in each hemisphere of the 20 subjects. The statistical analysis showed significantly more MRI tracks for the left hemisphere, when we consider the whole population, and this difference was presumably driven by the left-handers. These results raise questions about the functional role of these MRI tracks and their relation with laterality. (orig.)

  16. Behavioural Lateralization in Budgerigars Varies with the Task and the Individual

    OpenAIRE

    Schiffner, Ingo; Srinivasan, Mandyam V.

    2013-01-01

    Handedness/footedness and side biases are a well-known phenomenon in many animals, including humans. However, these so-called biases have mostly been studied at the population level - individual biases have received less attention, especially with regard to consistency over different tasks. Here we investigate behavioral lateralization in 12 male Budgerigars, Melopsittacus undulatus, a social parrot inhabiting the Australian bushlands. We performed 5 types of experiments to investigate latera...

  17. On Marx’s human significance, Harvey’s right to the city, and Nussbaum’s capability approach

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Basta, C.

    2017-01-01

    In this article, I juxtapose David Harvey’s idea of the ‘right to the city’ and Martha Nussbaum’s central human capability of ‘control over one’s environment’, and I approach them from the perspective of their mutual convergence on Marx’s conception of human significance. In particular,
    I

  18. Neural Networks Mediating High-Level Mentalizing in Patients With Right Cerebral Hemispheric Gliomas

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Riho Nakajima

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Mentalizing is the ability to understand others’ mental state through external cues. It consists of two networks, namely low-level and high-level metalizing. Although it is an essential function in our daily social life, surgical resection of right cerebral hemisphere disturbs mentalizing processing with high possibility. In the past, little was known about the white matter related to high-level mentalizing, and the conservation of high-level mentalizing during surgery has not been a focus of attention. Therefore, the main purpose of this study was to examine the neural networks underlying high-level mentalizing and then, secondarily, investigate the usefulness of awake surgery in preserving the mentalizing network. A total of 20 patients with glioma localized in the right hemisphere who underwent awake surgery participated in this study. All patients were assigned to two groups: with or without intraoperative assessment of high-level mentalizing. Their high-level mentalizing abilities were assessed before surgery and 1 week and 3 months after surgery. At 3 months after surgery, only patients who received the intraoperative high-level mentalizing test showed the same score as normal healthy volunteers. The tract-based lesion symptom analysis was performed to confirm the severity of damage of associated fibers and high-level mentalizing accuracy. This analysis revealed the superior longitudinal fascicles (SLF III and fronto-striatal tract (FST to be associated with high-level mentalizing processing. Moreover, the voxel-based lesion symptom analysis demonstrated that resection of orbito-frontal cortex (OFC causes persistent mentalizing dysfunction. Our study indicates that damage of the OFC and structural connectivity of the SLF and FST causes the disorder of mentalizing after surgery, and assessing high-level mentalizing during surgery may be useful to preserve these pathways.

  19. Can Population-Level Laterality Stem from Social Pressures? Evidence from Cheek Kissing in Humans.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chapelain, Amandine; Pimbert, Pauline; Aube, Lydiane; Perrocheau, Océane; Debunne, Gilles; Bellido, Alain; Blois-Heulin, Catherine

    2015-01-01

    Despite extensive research, the origins and functions of behavioural laterality remain largely unclear. One of the most striking unresolved issues is the fact that laterality generally occurs at the population-level. Why would the majority of the individuals of a population exhibit the same laterality, while individual-level laterality would yet provide the advantages in terms of improving behavioural efficiency? Are social pressures the key factor? Can social pressures induce alignment of laterality between the individuals of a population? Can the effect of social pressures overpass the effect of other possible determining factors (e.g. genes)? We tested this important new hypothesis in humans, for the first time. We asked whether population-level laterality could stem from social pressures. Namely, we assessed social pressures on laterality in an interactive social behaviour: kissing on the cheek as a greeting. We performed observations in 10 cities of France. The observations took place in spots where people of the city meet and greet each other. We showed that: a) there is a population-level laterality for cheek kissing, with the majority of individuals being aligned in each city, and b) there is a variation between populations, with a laterality that depends on the city. These results were confirmed by our complementary data from questionnaires and internet surveys. These findings show that social pressures are involved in determining laterality. They demonstrate that population-level laterality can stem from social pressures.

  20. Can Population-Level Laterality Stem from Social Pressures? Evidence from Cheek Kissing in Humans.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Amandine Chapelain

    Full Text Available Despite extensive research, the origins and functions of behavioural laterality remain largely unclear. One of the most striking unresolved issues is the fact that laterality generally occurs at the population-level. Why would the majority of the individuals of a population exhibit the same laterality, while individual-level laterality would yet provide the advantages in terms of improving behavioural efficiency? Are social pressures the key factor? Can social pressures induce alignment of laterality between the individuals of a population? Can the effect of social pressures overpass the effect of other possible determining factors (e.g. genes? We tested this important new hypothesis in humans, for the first time. We asked whether population-level laterality could stem from social pressures. Namely, we assessed social pressures on laterality in an interactive social behaviour: kissing on the cheek as a greeting. We performed observations in 10 cities of France. The observations took place in spots where people of the city meet and greet each other. We showed that: a there is a population-level laterality for cheek kissing, with the majority of individuals being aligned in each city, and b there is a variation between populations, with a laterality that depends on the city. These results were confirmed by our complementary data from questionnaires and internet surveys. These findings show that social pressures are involved in determining laterality. They demonstrate that population-level laterality can stem from social pressures.

  1. Poverty levels and children's health status: study of risk factors in an urban population of low socioeconomic level

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Issler Roberto M.S.

    1996-01-01

    Full Text Available To test the hypothesis that the low socioeconomic population living is shanty towns in Porto Alegre presents different levels of poverty which are reflected on its health status, a cross-sectional study was designed involving 477 families living in Vila Grande Cruzeiro, Porto Alegre, Brazil. The poverty level of the families was measured by using an instrument specifically designed for poor urban populations. Children from families living in extreme poverty (poorest quartile were found to have higher infant mortality rate, lower birth weights, more hospitalizations, and higher malnutrition rates, in addition to belonging to more numerous families. Thus, the shanty town population of Porto Alegre is not homogeneous, and priority should be given to the more vulnerable subgroups.

  2. Poverty levels and children's health status: study of risk factors in an urban population of low socioeconomic level

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Roberto M.S. Issler

    1996-12-01

    Full Text Available To test the hypothesis that the low socioeconomic population living is shanty towns in Porto Alegre presents different levels of poverty which are reflected on its health status, a cross-sectional study was designed involving 477 families living in Vila Grande Cruzeiro, Porto Alegre, Brazil. The poverty level of the families was measured by using an instrument specifically designed for poor urban populations. Children from families living in extreme poverty (poorest quartile were found to have higher infant mortality rate, lower birth weights, more hospitalizations, and higher malnutrition rates, in addition to belonging to more numerous families. Thus, the shanty town population of Porto Alegre is not homogeneous, and priority should be given to the more vulnerable subgroups.

  3. Human Rights Law for Persons with Disabilities in Asia and the Pacific: The Need for a Disability Rights Tribunal

    Science.gov (United States)

    Perlin, Michael L.

    2013-01-01

    Human rights are arguably the most significant political force shaping the life experience of people with disability. The "United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities" sets the standard at an international level, creating both positive and negative rights, and calls upon member states of the United Nations (UN)…

  4. Serum endocan level and its prognostic significance in breast cancer patients

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ozturk Ates

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Background: Endocan, known as endothelial cell specific molecule (ESM, is a novel endothelial dysfunction marker. The aim of this study is to examine the plasma endocan level and its prognostic significance in newly diagnosed breast cancer patients. Methods: A total of 84 patients were enrolled the study. Plasma endocan level was measured by specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELİSA kit. Ethical approval and informed consent were attained. Results: At the time of diagnosis, 33 patients had stage 4 disease. The median plasma endocan level was 619.9 (min 259.9–2813.2 ng/L and its level was significantly higher in metastatic breast cancer group compared to non–metastatic breast cancer group. According to molecular sub-type of breast cancer, there is not statistical difference in plasma endocan level, but its level was higher in patients with Her-2 amplified and triple negative breast cancer (TNBC. Median follow-up time is 11 (1-30 months. Event free survival (EFS was 15 months in patients with plasma endocan level lower than 620, while it was 4 months in patients with serum endocan level greater than 620 (p = 0.016. There was no difference between groups in terms of hypertension, age, Lymphovascular invasion (LVI, extra capsular extension (ECE, body mass index (BMI and White blood cells (WBC, platelet count and plasma endocan level. Conclusion: Plasma endocan levels higher than non metastatic breast cancer. Patients with high plasma endocan levels are short EFS. Further studies would be useful to assess endocan level as a prognostic factor in breast cancer. Keywords: Endothelial cell specific molecule, Breast cancer, Prognosis

  5. Effects of profession on urinary PAH metabolite levels in the US population.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Bian; Jia, Chunrong

    2016-01-01

    Although exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) is common in both environmental and occupational settings, few studies have compared PAH exposure among people with different professions. The purpose of this study was to investigate the variations in recent PAH exposure among different occupational groups over time using national representative samples. The study population consisted of 4162 participants from the 2001 to 2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, who had both urinary PAH metabolites and occupational information. Four corresponding monohydroxy-PAH urine metabolites: naphthalene (NAP), fluorene (FLUO), phenanthrene (PHEN), and pyrene (PYR) among seven broad occupational groups were analyzed using weighted linear regression models, adjusting for creatinine levels, sociodemographic factors, smoking status, and sampling season. The overall geometric mean concentrations of NAP, FLUO, PHEN, and PYR were 6927, 477, 335, and 87 ng/L, respectively. All four PAH metabolites were elevated in the "extractive, construction, and repair (ECR)" group, with 21-42 % higher concentrations than those in the reference group of "management." Similar trends were seen in the "operators, fabricators, and laborers (OFL)" group for FLUO, PHEN, and PYR. In addition, both "service" and "support" groups had elevated FLUO. Significant (p PAH exposure. Heterogeneous distributions of urinary PAH metabolites among people with different job categories exist at the population level. The upward temporal trends in NAP and PYR warrant reduction in PAH exposure, especially among those with OFL and ECR occupations.

  6. Clinical significance of changes of plasma CGRP and VIP levels in infants with bronchiolitis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yang Chun; Gu Ling; Zhang Yanjun; Xin Haiyan

    2005-01-01

    Objective: To explore the clinical significance of changes of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) and vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) levels in infants (2-24months) with bronchiolitis. Methods: Plasma levels of CGRP and VIP were determined with RIA in 31 infants with bronchiolitis both during acute infection and convalescence as well as in 35 controls. Results: Plasma CGRP levels in patients during acute infection were significantly higher than those in patients during convalescence and in controls (P<0.05). Levels of CGRP dropped during convalescence, but still remained significantly higher than those in controls (P<0.05). The reverse was true for the plasma VIP levels. The plasma VIP levels in patients during acute infection were significantly lower than those in patients during convalescence and in controls (P<0.05). During convalescence, the plasma VIP levels rose but remained significantly lower than those in controls (P<0.05). Conclusion: There were dynamic changes of plasma CGRP and VIP levels in the course of infant bronchiolitis and the two peptides played opposite roles. (authors)

  7. Transcriptome analysis of fat bodies from two brown planthopper (Nilaparvata lugens populations with different virulence levels in rice.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Haixin Yu

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: The brown planthopper (BPH, Nilaparvata lugens (Stål, one of the most serious rice insect pests in Asia, can quickly overcome rice resistance by evolving new virulent populations. The insect fat body plays essential roles in the life cycles of insects and in plant-insect interactions. However, whether differences in fat body transcriptomes exist between insect populations with different virulence levels and whether the transcriptomic differences are related to insect virulence remain largely unknown. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In this study, we performed transcriptome-wide analyses on the fat bodies of two BPH populations with different virulence levels in rice. The populations were derived from rice variety TN1 (TN1 population and Mudgo (M population. In total, 33,776 and 32,332 unigenes from the fat bodies of TN1 and M populations, respectively, were generated using Illumina technology. Gene ontology annotations and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG orthology classifications indicated that genes related to metabolism and immunity were significantly active in the fat bodies. In addition, a total of 339 unigenes showed homology to genes of yeast-like symbionts (YLSs from 12 genera and endosymbiotic bacteria Wolbachia. A comparative analysis of the two transcriptomes generated 7,860 differentially expressed genes. GO annotations and enrichment analysis of KEGG pathways indicated these differentially expressed transcripts might be involved in metabolism and immunity. Finally, 105 differentially expressed genes from YLSs and Wolbachia were identified, genes which might be associated with the formation of different virulent populations. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: This study was the first to compare the fat-body transcriptomes of two BPH populations having different virulence traits and to find genes that may be related to this difference. Our findings provide a molecular resource for future investigations of fat bodies

  8. Transcriptome Analysis of Fat Bodies from Two Brown Planthopper (Nilaparvata lugens) Populations with Different Virulence Levels in Rice

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Hongdan; Lai, Wenxiang; Fu, Qiang; Lou, Yonggen

    2014-01-01

    Background The brown planthopper (BPH), Nilaparvata lugens (Stål), one of the most serious rice insect pests in Asia, can quickly overcome rice resistance by evolving new virulent populations. The insect fat body plays essential roles in the life cycles of insects and in plant-insect interactions. However, whether differences in fat body transcriptomes exist between insect populations with different virulence levels and whether the transcriptomic differences are related to insect virulence remain largely unknown. Methodology/Principal Findings In this study, we performed transcriptome-wide analyses on the fat bodies of two BPH populations with different virulence levels in rice. The populations were derived from rice variety TN1 (TN1 population) and Mudgo (M population). In total, 33,776 and 32,332 unigenes from the fat bodies of TN1 and M populations, respectively, were generated using Illumina technology. Gene ontology annotations and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) orthology classifications indicated that genes related to metabolism and immunity were significantly active in the fat bodies. In addition, a total of 339 unigenes showed homology to genes of yeast-like symbionts (YLSs) from 12 genera and endosymbiotic bacteria Wolbachia. A comparative analysis of the two transcriptomes generated 7,860 differentially expressed genes. GO annotations and enrichment analysis of KEGG pathways indicated these differentially expressed transcripts might be involved in metabolism and immunity. Finally, 105 differentially expressed genes from YLSs and Wolbachia were identified, genes which might be associated with the formation of different virulent populations. Conclusions/Significance This study was the first to compare the fat-body transcriptomes of two BPH populations having different virulence traits and to find genes that may be related to this difference. Our findings provide a molecular resource for future investigations of fat bodies and will be useful

  9. The Human Right to Leisure in Old Age: Reinforcement of the Rights of an Aging Population.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karev, Iris; Doron, Israel Issi

    2017-01-01

    The right to leisure is recognized as a human right under the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The actual meaning and material content of this human right is subject to debate. The aim of this study is to examine the extent and the context to which this human right is specifically recognized with regard to older persons. Methodologically, this study textually analyzed 17 different international older persons' human rights documents. The findings reveal that in the majority of these documents there is no reference to the right to leisure. In the remaining documents, the right to leisure is mostly referred to indirectly or in a narrow legal construction. These findings support the notion that despite the growing body of knowledge regarding the importance of meaningful leisure in old age-and its empowering and anti-ageist nature-this knowledge has not transformed into a legal human rights discourse.

  10. Clinical significance of determination of serum BGP levels in patients with Graves' disease

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tu Liping; Zhang Chunyan; Wang Linglong; Yu Yuefang; Zhu Weijie; Cai Ao

    2006-01-01

    Objective: To study the clinical significance of changes of serum BGP levels in patients with Graves' disease. Methods: Serum BOP levels as well as T 3 , T 4 , FT 3 , FT 4 , TSH, TGA, TMA levels were determined with RIA in 158 patients with Graves' disease and 145 controls. Results: The serum BGP levels in patients with Graves' disease were significantly higher than those in controls (P 3 , T 4 , FT 3 , FT 4 levels, but not with TSH, TGA, TMA. Conclusion: Serum BGP levels is a useful marker for monitoring bone metabolism in patients with Graves' disease. (authors)

  11. [Vitamin B12 levels in the patient population attending an urban health centre in Madrid].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Camarero-Shelly, M

    2018-04-01

    Vitamin B 12 levels are usually measured in Primary Care when the patients have symptoms or risk factors associated with its deficiency, mostly in the elderly. However, no evidence has been found to support the recommendation of screening in the general population. The aim of this study is to assess the relevance of having extended the screening of vitamin B 12 deficiency to a younger population, after observing an increase in the prescription of this injected vitamin in a population under 65 years, by analysing the vitamin B 12 values obtained. A descriptive, retrospective, observational study was conducted on a sample consisting of 5,531 patients from Barajas Health Primary Centre, Madrid, between 2008 and 2012, and on whom a blood test was performed for any reason, with values of vitamin B 12 . A deficiency was found in 9.1% (SD 2.3) of the patients, of whom 49.4% were less than 65 years. The deficiencies were associated (P<.001, 95% CI) with age, dementia, changes in blood red cell counts, memory, and with the taking of metformin and proton pump inhibitors (P=.007). The prevalence of vitamin B 12 deficiency in our served population is similar in patients older and younger than 65 years. The extended screening was relevant. Copyright © 2017 Sociedad Española de Médicos de Atención Primaria (SEMERGEN). Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

  12. Population genetic structure of urban malaria vector Anopheles stephensi in India.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sharma, Richa; Sharma, Arvind; Kumar, Ashwani; Dube, Madhulika; Gakhar, S K

    2016-04-01

    Malaria is a major public health problem in India because climatic condition and geography of India provide an ideal environment for development of malaria vector. Anopheles stephensi is a major urban malaria vector in India and its control has been hampered by insecticide resistance. In present study population genetic structure of A. stephensi is analyzed at macro geographic level using 13 microsatellite markers. Significantly high genetic differentiation was found in all studied populations with differentiation values (FST) ranging from 0.0398 to 0.1808. The geographic distance was found to be playing a major role in genetic differentiation between different populations. Overall three genetic pools were observed and population of central India was found to be coexisting in two genetic pools. High effective population size (Ne) was found in all the studied populations. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  13. Divide and conquer: intermediate levels of population fragmentation maximize cultural accumulation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Derex, Maxime; Perreault, Charles; Boyd, Robert

    2018-04-05

    Identifying the determinants of cumulative cultural evolution is a key issue in the interdisciplinary field of cultural evolution. A widely held view is that large and well-connected social networks facilitate cumulative cultural evolution because they promote the spread of useful cultural traits and prevent the loss of cultural knowledge through factors such as drift. This view stems from models that focus on the transmission of cultural information, without considering how new cultural traits actually arise. In this paper, we review the literature from various fields that suggest that, under some circumstances, increased connectedness can decrease cultural diversity and reduce innovation rates. Incorporating this idea into an agent-based model, we explore the effect of population fragmentation on cumulative culture and show that, for a given population size, there exists an intermediate level of population fragmentation that maximizes the rate of cumulative cultural evolution. This result is explained by the fact that fully connected, non-fragmented populations are able to maintain complex cultural traits but produce insufficient variation and so lack the cultural diversity required to produce highly complex cultural traits. Conversely, highly fragmented populations produce a variety of cultural traits but cannot maintain complex ones. In populations with intermediate levels of fragmentation, cultural loss and cultural diversity are balanced in a way that maximizes cultural complexity. Our results suggest that population structure needs to be taken into account when investigating the relationship between demography and cumulative culture.This article is part of the theme issue 'Bridging cultural gaps: interdisciplinary studies in human cultural evolution'. © 2018 The Author(s).

  14. [Urbanization mechanisms in bird species: population systems transformations or adaptations at the individual level?].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fridman, V S; Eremkin, G S; Zakharova-Kubareva, N Iu

    2008-01-01

    The present research deals with urbanization of wild bird and mammal species. Forms and mechanisms of population steadiness in the urban landscape have been examined. The urbanization process turned out to be a directed change of the population system forming de novo in the urbolandscape leading to a sustainable organization peculiar for the particular environment. The population organization of different types in urbolandscape is found to provide its stability under conditions of directed and fast changes accompanied with instability and heterogenous structure of habitats. It is shown that the same type of population organization meets the corresponding demands among different species settling in the urban environment. Its features are "openness" and "flowage" of the groups, far order of settlement levels and other units of population system, constant movements of the individuals between the groups as a respond to the signals of urboenvironment significant changes. The "urban" variant of the population system organization turns out to be opposite to that of the same species in the non-urban habitats. After formation of the urban types by the species and successful developing of the town, the urban population becomes separated from the maternal local population and begins to exist independently in the urban landscape. The variety of adaptation aberrations in ecology, behavior, and mode of life of urban birds is the population system stability function in the urban landscape and is not a results of individual selection. It is shown that the urbanization process of the species goes firstly on the population level being the system structure transformation developed by the species towards the most stable state in the town (city) territory. Only after the appearance of stable urban population, the urban individuals show the rapid growth of different changes in ecology, behavior, mode of life that was traditionally described by naturalists as species adaptation to the

  15. Laterality and mental disorders in the postgenomic age--A closer look at schizophrenia and language lateralization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ocklenburg, Sebastian; Güntürkün, Onur; Hugdahl, Kenneth; Hirnstein, Marco

    2015-12-01

    Most people are right-handed and show left-hemispheric language lateralization, but a minority exhibits left-handedness and right-hemispheric language lateralization. This atypical laterality pattern is observed significantly more often in schizophrenia patients than in the general population, which led several authors to conclude that there is a genetic link between laterality and schizophrenia. It has even been suggested that a failure in the lateralization process, orchestrated by genes, could be the primary cause of schizophrenia. However, the molecular genetic evidence for a link between laterality and schizophrenia is weak. Recent genetic evidence indicates that schizophrenia is not a single disorder but a group of heritable disorders caused by different genotypic networks leading to distinct clinical symptoms. To uncover the link between schizophrenia and laterality we therefore suggest a paradigm shift where genetics are not mapped on schizophrenia as a whole but on discrete schizophrenia symptoms. In addition, we provide a critical evaluation of current theories on the genetic link between schizophrenia and brain asymmetry. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  16. Effects of collisions on level populations and dielectronic recombination rates of multiply charged ions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jacobs, V.L.; Davis, J.

    1978-01-01

    A generalization of previously reported statistical theories is developed for determining the excited-level populations and the ionization-recombination balance of multiply charged atomic ions in an optically thin high-temperature plasma. Account is taken of the most important collisional and radiative processes involving bound and autoionizing levels in three consecutive ionization stages. We obtain a set of rate equations for the population densities of the low-lying levels which contains effective excitation, ionization, and recombination rates describing indirect transitions through the more highly excited bound and autoionizing levels. The familiar corona-model equations for the ground-state populations are recovered by making the assumption that all excited states decay by only spontaneous radiative or autoionization processes. When collisional processes become efficient in depopulating the highly excited levels important in dielectronic recombination, the effective rate of recombination must be described by a collisional-dielectronic recombination coefficient. Results of calculations are presented for the collisional-dielectronic recombination rate coefficients for recombination of Fe +8 --Fe +13 ions. At an electron density of 10 16 cm -3 , dielectronic recombination is still the dominant recombination process. However, the collisional-dielectronic recombination rate coefficients are found to be reduced by about an order of magnitude from their corona-model values due to the effects of multiple-collisional excitations on the populations of the highly excited bound levels of the recombined ion. The dielectronic recombination rates into these highly excited levels are found to be enhanced by the effects of collisionally induced angular momentum redistribution on the populations of the autoionizing levels

  17. Elderly with proximal hip fracture present significantly lower levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marcelo Teodoro Ezequiel Guerra

    Full Text Available ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE: To compare serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D levels, a serum marker of vitamin D3, between patients with and without proximal hip fracture. METHODS: This was a case-control study in which serum samples of 25(OHD were obtained from 110 proximal hip fracture inpatients and 231 control patients without fractures, all over 60 years of age. Levels of 25(OHD lower than or equal to 20 ng/mL were considered deficient; from 21 ng/mL to 29 ng/mL, insufficient; and above 30 ng/mL, sufficient. Sex, age, and ethnicity were considered for association with the study groups and 25(OHD levels. RESULTS: Patients with proximal hip fracture had significantly lower serum 25(OHD levels (21.07 ng/mL than controls (28.59 ng/mL; p = 0.000. Among patients with proximal hip fracture, 54.5% had deficient 25(OHD levels, 27.2% had insufficient levels, and only 18.2% had sufficient levels. In the control group, 30.3% of patients had deficient 25(OHD levels, 30.7% had insufficient levels, and 38.9% had sufficient levels. Female patients had decreased serum 25(OHD levels both in the fracture group and in the control group (19.50 ng/mL vs. 26.94 ng/mL; p = 0.000 when compared with male patients with and without fracture (25.67 ng/mL vs. 33.74 ng/mL; p = 0.017. Regarding age, there was a significant association between 25(OHD levels and risk of fracture only for the age groups 71-75 years and above 80 years. CONCLUSION: Patients with proximal hip fracture had significantly decreased serum 25(OHD levels when compared with the control group. Female patients had significantly lower serum 25(OHD levels in both groups.

  18. Population-level associations between preschool vulnerability and grade-four basic skills.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Amedeo D'Angiulli

    2009-11-01

    Full Text Available This is a predictive validity study examining the extent to which developmental vulnerability at kindergarten entry (as measured by the Early Development Instrument, EDI is associated with children's basic skills in 4th grade (as measured by the Foundation Skills Assessment, FSA.Relative risk analysis was performed on a large database linking individual-level EDI ratings to the scores the same children obtained on a provincial assessment of academic skills (FSA--Foundation Skills Assessment four years later. We found that early vulnerability in kindergarten is associated with the basic skills that underlie populations of children's academic achievement in reading, writing and math, indicating that the Early Development Instrument permits to predict achievement-related skills four years in advance.The EDI can be used to predict children's educational trends at the population level and can help select early prevention and intervention programs targeting pre-school populations at minimum cost.

  19. Significant population of Egyptian Vulture Neophron percnopterus ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The Egyptian Vulture Neophron percnopterus population in Morocco has undergone a marked decline since the 1980s to the point of nearing local extinction in the twenty-first century. A field study of some possible sites for Egyptian Vultures was carried out over six days during June 2014 in the Middle Atlas Mountains, ...

  20. Suicide risk in relation to level of urbanicity - a population-based linkage study

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Qin, Ping

    2005-01-01

    from various Danish longitudinal registers. Data were analysed with conditional logistic regression. RESULTS: This study confirms that people living in more urbanized areas are at a higher risk of suicide than their counterparts in less urbanized areas. However, this excess risk is largely eliminated...... when adjusted for personal marital, income, and ethnic differences; it is even reversed when further adjusted for psychiatric status. Moreover, the impact of urbanicity on suicide risk differs significantly by sex and across age. Urban living reduces suicide risk significantly among men, especially......BACKGROUND: The extent to which the high suicide rate in urban areas is influenced by exposures to risk factors for suicide other than urbanicity remains unknown. This population-based study aims to investigate suicide risk in relation to the level of urbanicity in the context of other factors...

  1. Clinical significance of corpus callosum atrophy in a mixed elderly population

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ryberg, C.; Rostrup, E.; Stegmann, Mikkel Bille

    2007-01-01

    subjects with ARWMC from the Leukoaraiosis And DISability (LADIS) study, the CC was segmented on the normalised mid-sagittal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) slice and subdivided into five regions. Correlations between the CC areas and subjective memory complaints, mini mental state examination (MMSE......, and the CC areas were smaller in subjects with subjective gait difficulty. The correlations remained significant after correction for ARWMC grade. In conclusion, CC atrophy was independently associated with impaired global cognitive and motor function in subjects with ARWMC. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights...

  2. Experimental study of relative level populations in beam-foil excited Ar+7 and Kr+7

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bashkin, S.; Oona, H.; Veje, E.

    1981-01-01

    The relative level populations in beam-foil excited sodium-like argon (Ar VIII) and copper-like krypton (Kr VIII) have been studied at 2 MeV projectile energy. In Ar VIII, the 3p and the 3d terms are strongly excited. The level population decreases rapidly with increasing value of the principal quantum number n, reaches a minimum for levels with n = 5 or 6, but increases then and reaches a strong maximum for levels with n approximately 11. Also the Kr VIII data show a population maximum for levels with n = 11. The strong 3p and 3d level excitations in Ar VIII are explained as selective inner-shell processes which can be understood in the molecular-orbital electron-promotion picture. The preferential population of high-flying Rydberg states is explained as resulting from a near-resonance electron transfer from the valence band of the carbon foil to the projectile. This process takes place when the projectile leaves the back of the foil. (Auth.)

  3. Area-level poverty and preterm birth risk: A population-based multilevel analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Muglia Louis A

    2008-09-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Preterm birth is a complex disease with etiologic influences from a variety of social, environmental, hormonal, genetic, and other factors. The purpose of this study was to utilize a large population-based birth registry to estimate the independent effect of county-level poverty on preterm birth risk. To accomplish this, we used a multilevel logistic regression approach to account for multiple co-existent individual-level variables and county-level poverty rate. Methods Population-based study utilizing Missouri's birth certificate database (1989–1997. We conducted a multilevel logistic regression analysis to estimate the effect of county-level poverty on PTB risk. Of 634,994 births nested within 115 counties in Missouri, two levels were considered. Individual-level variables included demographics factors, prenatal care, health-related behavioral risk factors, and medical risk factors. The area-level variable included the percentage of the population within each county living below the poverty line (US census data, 1990. Counties were divided into quartiles of poverty; the first quartile (lowest rate of poverty was the reference group. Results PTB th quartile (4.9%, p adjOR 1.18 (95% CI 1.03, 1.35, with a similar effect at earlier gestational ages (adjOR 1.27 (95% CI 1.06, 1.52. Conclusion Women residing in socioeconomically deprived areas are at increased risk of preterm birth, above other underlying risk factors. Although the risk increase is modest, it affects a large number of pregnancies.

  4. The effect of chronic stress in pregnant mothers on the responsiveness to morphine in mice: a behavioral sensitization study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    zahra Nazari

    2008-10-01

    experimental group had no effect, but in high dose caused induced motion activations. But this motion activity was much less than the control group. The low dose morphine injection (1 mg/Kg in stressed groups caused induced motion activities which this action in dose 50mg/kg was significant statistically (** P<0/01. Conclusion: Results showed that inducing a psychological relatively slight stress (a short-term restrain could cause major changes, firstly in embryos brain and secondly in right handedness and left handedness and thirdly a response to morphine.

  5. Risk factors for human-directed canine aggression in a referral level clinical population.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lord, M; Casey, R A; Loftus, B A; Blackwell, E J

    2017-07-07

    Risk factors for human-directed aggression were investigated using retrospective analysis of data from a referral-level clinical behaviour population in the UK. A sample of 200 cases involving human-directed canine aggression and 200 control cases involving no instance of human-directed aggression were selected at random from a population of 746 cases. The final model suggested that clinical cases with human-directed aggression were significantly younger than those presenting with other undesired behaviours (P=0.008) and that male dogs were 1.4 times more likely to be aggressive towards human beings than female dogs (P=0.019). Dogs were 1.7 times more likely to be aggressive towards people if they had attended more than five puppy classes than if they had never attended puppy class (P=0.015) and that dogs were 2.8 times more likely to be aggressive towards human beings if there was another dog between 0 months and 24 months of age in the home (P=0.004). These factors only account for 7 per cent to 10 per cent of the variance between the human-directed aggression population and the control population, but factors such as attendance at puppy classes and numbers of dogs in the household suggest the need for longitudinal studies to investigate temporal relationships.

  6. Significance of population centers as sources of gaseous and dissolved PAHs in the lower Great Lakes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McDonough, Carrie A; Khairy, Mohammed A; Muir, Derek C G; Lohmann, Rainer

    2014-07-15

    Polyethylene passive samplers (PEs) were used to measure concentrations of gaseous and dissolved polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the air and water throughout the lower Great Lakes during summer and fall of 2011. Atmospheric Σ15PAH concentrations ranged from 2.1 ng/m3 in Cape Vincent (NY) to 76.4 ng/m3 in downtown Cleveland (OH). Aqueous Σ18PAH concentrations ranged from 2.4 ng/L at an offshore Lake Erie site to 30.4 ng/L in Sheffield Lake (OH). Gaseous PAH concentrations correlated strongly with population within 3-40 km of the sampling site depending on the compound considered, suggesting that urban centers are a primary source of gaseous PAHs (except retene) in the lower Great Lakes region. The significance of distant population (within 20 km) versus local population (within 3 km) increased with subcooled liquid vapor pressure. Most dissolved aqueous PAHs did not correlate significantly with population, nor were they consistently related to river discharge, wastewater effluents, or precipitation. Air-water exchange calculations implied that diffusive exchange was a source of phenanthrene to surface waters, while acenaphthylene volatilized out of the lakes. Comparison of air-water fluxes with temperature suggested that the significance of urban centers as sources of dissolved PAHs via diffusive exchange may decrease in warmer months.

  7. Water-level fluctuations and metapopulation dynamics as drivers of genetic diversity in populations of three Tanganyikan cichlid fish species.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nevado, B; Mautner, S; Sturmbauer, C; Verheyen, E

    2013-08-01

    Understanding how genetic variation is generated and maintained in natural populations, and how this process unfolds in a changing environment, remains a central issue in biological research. In this work, we analysed patterns of genetic diversity from several populations of three cichlid species from Lake Tanganyika in parallel, using the mitochondrial DNA control region. We sampled populations inhabiting the littoral rocky habitats in both very deep and very shallow areas of the lake. We hypothesized that the former would constitute relatively older, more stable and genetically more diverse populations, because they should have been less severely affected by the well-documented episodes of dramatic water-level fluctuations. In agreement with our predictions, populations of all three species sampled in very shallow shorelines showed traces of stronger population growth than populations of the same species inhabiting deep shorelines. However, contrary to our working hypothesis, we found a significant trend towards increased genetic diversity in the younger, demographically less stable populations inhabiting shallow areas, in comparison with the older and more stable populations inhabiting the deep shorelines. We interpret this finding as the result of the establishment of metapopulation dynamics in the former shorelines, by the frequent perturbation and reshuffling of individuals between populations due to the lake-level fluctuations. The repeated succession of periods of allopatric separation and secondary contact is likely to have further increased the rapid pace of speciation in lacustrine cichlids. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  8. Effects of handedness (left vs right) and cannabis abuse on intermanual coordination and negative symptoms in schizophrenic patients of the paranoid type.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gorynia, Inge; Schwaiger, Markus

    2011-09-01

    Intermanual coordination as an index of interhemispheric transfer and negative symptoms were investigated in 50 left- and 42 right-handed schizophrenic inpatients of the paranoid type, also including drug abusers. The primary objective was to show that there were higher values in intermanual coordination and fewer manifestations of negative symptoms in the left-handed compared to the right-handed patients. This assumption was based on previous studies. Most importantly, right- and left-handed patients showed a different behaviour in intermanual coordination, when the duration of illness was taken into consideration. Thus, long-term left-handed paranoid patients performed better in intermanual coordination and showed fewer manifestations of negative symptoms than did long-term right-handed patients. These results were true for the large group of all patients, and among them for the subgroup of patients without drug abuse. Consequently, higher scores in intermanual coordination in left-handed patients may be related to a better interhemispheric crosstalk resulting in less pronounced negative symptoms. Secondary objectives assessed by explorative data analysis included the effects of cannabis abuse. While cannabis abuse may be more prevalent in left-handed patients, its effects may be more pronounced in right-handed patients, scoring higher in intermanual coordination and lower in manifestations of negative symptoms.

  9. Similar levels of diversity and population Structure in superflock and ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    superflock cichlid fishes from Lake Victoria, Africa. ... Tropical Freshwater Biology ... We use DNA microsatellite loci to estimate neutral genetic diversity and the level of gene flow among populations of two cichlid species from southern Lake Victoria, ...

  10. A Population-Based Assessment of Human Rights Abuses Committed Against Ethnic Albanian Refugees From Kosovo

    Science.gov (United States)

    Iacopino, Vincent; Frank, Martina W.; Bauer, Heidi M.; Keller, Allen S.; Fink, Sheri L.; Ford, Doug; Pallin, Daniel J.; Waldman, Ronald

    2001-01-01

    Objectives. This study assessed patterns of displacement and human rights abuses among Kosovar refugees in Macedonia and Albania. Methods. Between April 19 and May 3, 1999, 1180 ethnic Albanian refugees living in 31 refugee camps and collective centers in Macedonia and Albania were interviewed. Results. The majority (68%) of participants reported that their families were directly expelled from their homes by Serb forces. Overall, 50% of participants saw Serb police or soldiers burning the houses of others, 16% saw Serb police or soldiers burn their own home, and 14% witnessed Serb police or soldiers killing someone. Large percentages of participants saw destroyed mosques, schools, or medical facilities. Thirty-one percent of respondents reported human rights abuses committed against their household members, including beatings, killings, torture, forced separation and disappearances, gunshot wounds, and sexual assault. Conclusions. The present findings confirm that Serb forces engaged in a systematic and brutal campaign to forcibly expel the ethnic Albanian population of Kosovo. In the course of these mass deportations, Serb forces committed widespread abuses of human rights against ethnic Albanians. PMID:11726386

  11. [The new patient rights act : the significance for surgeons].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dillschneider, J; Theuer, D; Mieth, M; Büchler, M W

    2012-07-01

    The committee draft for the new patient rights act was approved by the Federal Cabinet on 23 May 2012. Both the demands of the patient representative of the Federal government and some of the demands from the cornerstone paper of the State commission were taken into consideration.The draft of the new act contains comprehensive amendments to the Civil Code with the subtitle"Treatment contract in accordance with §630" and encompasses §§630a-h. The valid legal situation is therefore to all intents and purposes now codified.

  12. Clinical Significance of Serum Thyroglobulin Levels in Patients with Thyroid Cancer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Park, Sung Ki; Lee, Myung Sik; Lee, Myung Chul; Cho, Bo Youn; Kim, Byung Kook; Koh, Chang Soon

    1983-01-01

    To evaluate the significance of assay of serum thyroglobulin(Tg) in monitoring the course of the thyroid cancer or its response to treatment, serum thyroglobulin levels were measured in 41 patients with thyroid cancer who visited Seoul National University Hospital from August, 1981 to August, 1982. The results were as follows: 1) Serum Tg levels 1-3 months after thyroidectomy was 31±23 ng/ml(mean±S.D.) in 14 patients without metastasis, 66±41 ng/ml in 21 patients with regional metastasis and 176±59 ng/ml in 6 patients with distant metastasis and there were significant differences among three groups(p 131 I treatment were 134±62 ng/ml and 67±52 ng/ml respectively. 3) In the follow-up measurement of serum Tg levels every 3 months for about 1 year, almost all serum Tg levels were below 60 ng/ml in 12 patients without distant metastasis and serum Tg levels were elevated above 60 ng/ml in 5 of 6 patients with distant metastasis. 4) In 6 patients with distant metastasis, serum Tg levels were elevated in 5 patients and 131 I Whole body scan showed definite metastatic evidence in 3 patients and suspicious evidence in 1 patient. From above results, we concluded that serum Tg level is very useful as an indicator of recurrence or metastasis in patients with thyroid cancer after operation.

  13. Cellulose digestion in primitive hexapods: Effect of ingested antibiotics on gut microbial populations and gut cellulase levels in the firebrat,Thermobia domestica (Zygentoma, Lepismatidae).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Treves, D S; Martin, M M

    1994-08-01

    Antibiotic feeding studies were conducted on the firebrat,Thermobia domestica (Zygentoma, Lepismatidae) to determine if the insect's gut cellulases were of insect or microbial origin. Firebrats were fed diets containing either nystatin, metronidazole, streptomycin, tetracycline, or an antibiotic cocktail consisting of all four antibiotics, and then their gut microbial populations and gut cellulase levels were monitored and compared with the gut microbial populations and gut cellulase levels in firebrats feeding on antibiotic-free diets. Each antibiotic significantly reduced the firebrat's gut micro-flora. Nystatin reduced the firebrat's viable gut fungi by 89%. Tetracycline and the antibiotic cocktail reduced the firebrat's viable gut bacteria by 81% and 67%, respectively, and metronidazole, streptomycin, tetracycline, and the antibiotic cocktail reduced the firebrat's total gut flora by 35%, 32%, 55%, and 64%, respectively. Although antibiotics significantly reduced the firebrat's viable and total gut flora, gut cellulase levels in firebrats fed antibiotics were not significantly different from those in firebrats on an antibiotic-free diet. Furthermore, microbial populations in the firebrat's gut decreased significantly over time, even in firebrats feeding on the antibiotic-free diet, without corresponding decreases in gut cellulase levels. Based on this evidence, we conclude that the gut cellulases of firebrats are of insect origin. This conclusion implies that symbiont-independent cellulose digestion is a primitive trait in insects and that symbiont-mediated cellulose digestion is a derived condition.

  14. Individual- and community-level correlates of cigarette-smoking trajectories from age 13 to 32 in a U.S. population-based sample.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fuemmeler, Bernard; Lee, Chien-Ti; Ranby, Krista W; Clark, Trenette; McClernon, F Joseph; Yang, Chongming; Kollins, Scott H

    2013-09-01

    Characterizing smoking behavior is important for informing etiologic models and targeting prevention efforts. This study explored the effects of both individual- and community-level variables in predicting cigarette use vs. non-use and level of use among adolescents as they transition into adulthood. Data on 14,779 youths (53% female) were drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health); a nationally representative longitudinal cohort. A cohort sequential design allowed for examining trajectories of smoking typologies from age 13 to 32 years. Smoking trajectories were evaluated by using a zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP) latent growth analysis and latent class growth analysis modeling approach. Significant relationships emerged between both individual- and community-level variables and smoking outcomes. Maternal and peer smoking predicted increases in smoking over development and were associated with a greater likelihood of belonging to any of the four identified smoking groups versus Non-Users. Conduct problems and depressive symptoms during adolescence were related to cigarette use versus non-use. State-level prevalence of adolescent smoking was related to greater cigarette use during adolescence. Individual- and community-level variables that distinguish smoking patterns within the population aid in understanding cigarette use versus non-use and the quantity of cigarette use into adulthood. Our findings suggest that efforts to prevent cigarette use would benefit from attention to both parental and peer smoking and individual well-being. Future work is needed to better understand the role of variables in the context of multiple levels (individual and community-level) on smoking trajectories. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. Coherent population dynamics of a three-level atom in spacetime

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Netz, R.; Sauerbrey, R.; Feurer, T.; Roberts, G.

    2002-01-01

    This work explores temporal and spatial aspects of coherent population transfer in a three-level atom through a synergic combination of experimental measurements and theoretical calculations. Experimental measurements exploit the broad bandwidth of a femtosecond laser pulse to initiate simultaneous excitation of the 5p 2 P 1/2 2 S 1/2 and 5p 2 P 3/2 2 S 1/2 components of the doublet line of atomic rubidium. By adjusting positive or negative frequency sweeps the pump pulse favors either one of the two transitions and eventually even decouples the two excited states. The population of the excited spin-orbit levels is monitored in real time by stimulated emission probing under conditions of different intensity, chirp, and pulse width of the driving field, giving detailed information on the coupling between the three levels and their interactions with the driving and probe fields at different points in spacetime. Both pump and probe pulses are carefully characterized after the interaction region by frequency-resolved optical gating. In order to interpret and understand the experimental results it is essential to consider the close relationship between pulse propagation and time evolution of the atomic system via the coupled Maxwell-Bloch equations. This analysis highlights the importance of spatial propagation of the light fields, as well as their temporal dependence, in understanding the dynamical population evolution, and quantitatively reproduces all aspects of the experimental measurements

  16. Survey of studies of occupational populations exposed to low-level radiation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Marks, S.

    1980-04-01

    Studies of occupational populations exposed to large doses of radiation, principally from the ingestion of radium by dial painters and inhalation of radon and its daughters by miners, have provided important information on the health effects of those radioisotopes. Studies of medical radiologists, military personnel exposed to nuclear tests, and factory workers exposed to thorium are in progress. Employees of DOE-contractor facilities and of naval shipyards are also under study. Personnel dosimetry data are generally available for the latter category of occupational populations. Reasons for conducting the studies include interest in exploring the verification at low exposure levels of results of studies of heavily exposed populations and the responsibility of the employer to maintain adequate surveillance of the health of his workers by conducting appropriate epidemiologic studies. The low level of exposure of workers in facilities where adequate personnel dosimetry records are available make it unlikely that the results of such studies can be used to provide health risk estimates in the near future

  17. Reduced right frontal fractional anisotropy correlated with early elevated plasma LDL levels in obese young adults.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Baohui Lou

    Full Text Available OBJECTIVE: To investigate the underlying physiological mechanisms of the structural differences in gray matter (GM and white matter (WM associated with obesity in young Chinese adults. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 49 right-handed obese or overweight (n = 22, mean age 31.72±8.04 years and normal weight (n = 27, mean age 29.04±7.32 years Han Chinese individuals were recruited. All participants underwent voxel-based morphometry analysis of T1-weighted MRI and tract-based spatial statistics analysis of diffusion tensor imaging. Partial correlation analysis was performed between the physiological data obtained and the abnormal structural alterations. RESULTS: In the OO group, GM atrophy occurred in the left prefrontal cortex, bilateral cingulate gyrus, and the right temporal lobe, while enlargement was observed in the bilateral putamen. WM atrophy was observed predominantly in the regions that regulate food intake, such as the bilateral basal ganglia, the right amygdala, and the left insula. The OO group exhibited lower fractional anisotropy (FA in bilateral frontal corticospinal tracts and the right brainstem. Significant negative correlations were observed between FA values of those three clusters and BMI, and waist circumference, while the volume of bilateral putamen positively correlated with both BMI and waist circumference. High plasma LDL levels were correlated with low FA values in the right frontal corticospinal tract. Interestingly, the negative correlation was limited to male participants. CONCLUSIONS: Obesity-related alterations of GM and WM volumes were observed predominantly in food reward circuit, which may motivate abnormal dietary intake. Further, early elevated plasma LDL might contribute to low right frontal FA values of male adults, which requires further demonstration by larger-scale and longitudinal studies.

  18. ‎ Late Recovery from Stuttering: The Role of Hand ‎Dominancy, Fine Motor and ‎Inhibition Control

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hiwa Mohammadi

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available Objective: There are controversial reports about factors that affect recovery from stuttering. In the ‎present study, the effect of hand dominancy, fine motor and inhibition control on late ‎recovery from stuttering was investigated among a group of Kurdish-Persian children who ‎stuttered in Iran.‎Method: Twenty-two Kurdish-Persian children aged 7-14 years who stuttered were followed for 6 ‎years. Based on the evaluation of three experienced speech therapists and parental judgments, ‎these children were classified into recovered or persistent groups. Data about fine motor ‎control of hand and inhibition control were obtained, using Purdue Pegboard and Victoria ‎Strop Color Word Tests, respectively. Risk factors including sex, age, and family history of ‎stuttering, handedness, inhibitory control and fine motor control of hand were compared ‎between the groups and modeled to predict recovery from stuttering using logistic regression.‎Results: From the 22 participants, 5 (22.7% recovered from stuttering. The recovered and persistent ‎groups did not show significant differences in the interference effect. By dividing the scores ‎of the Purdue Pegboard tests to the right and left hand, we created a new Handedness Index ‎‎(HI. HI was significantly higher in the recovered group. The score of right hand was higher ‎than the left in the recovered group, but no difference was found between the two hands in ‎the persistent group. Among the investigated risk factors, only HI could predict the recovery ‎from or persistency of stuttering with 94% sensitivity and 84% specificity.‎Conclusion: Handedness Index can predict the recovery from stuttering significantly among children who ‎stutter.‎

  19. Monitoring serum PCB levels in the adult population of the Canary Islands (Spain

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Guillermo Burillo-Putze

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs are persistent organic chemicals that have been detected in human serum or tissues all over the world. These pollutants could exert a number of deleterious effects on humans and wildlife, including carcinogenic processes. The Spanish population of the Canary Islands was evaluated with respect to PCB levels more than ten years ago showing lower levels than other Western populations. The objective of our study was to assess the current level of contamination by PCBs showed by this population. We measured serum PCBs in a sample of healthy adult subjects (206 serum samples from subjects with an average age of 66 years old to evaluate the potential modification of PCB serum levels in this population during the last decade. PCB congeners (28, 52, 77, 81, 101, 105, 114, 118, 123, 126, 138, 153, 156, 157, 167, 169, 180, and 189 were measured by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS. Our results showed that PCB residues were found in 84% of serum samples analyzed, the congeners 28, 153 and 180 being the most frequently detected and at the highest median values (0.1 ng/mL. In addition, the median concentration of the sum of those PCBs considered as markers of environmental contamination by these chemicals (Marker-PCBs was 0.6 ng/mL, reaching values as high as as 2.6 ng/mL in the 95th percentile. Levels of the sum of PCBs with toxic effects similar to dioxins (dioxin-like PCBs reached median values of 0.4 ng/mL in the 95th percentile. The reported levels are similar to those described previously in this population more than ten years ago, in the sense that the inhabitants of the Canary Archipelago show levels of PCB contamination lower than the majority of populations from developed countries. These findings suggest that currently there is not any active source of these chemicals in this archipelago. Nevertheless, as foods seem to be a relevant source for these compounds, Public Health authorities should monitor the

  20. Integrated human rights and poverty eradication strategy: the case of civil registration rights in Zimbabwe.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Musarandega, Reuben

    2009-01-01

    High poverty levels characterise sub-Saharan Africa, Zimbabwe included. Over 80 per cent of Zimbabwe's population lived below the total consumption poverty line and 70 per cent below the food poverty line in 2003. This plummeting of social indicators resulted from the freefall suffered by the country's economy from the 1990s, after unsuccessful attempts to implement structural adjustment programmes prescribed by international financial institutions. The ensuing socioeconomic decay, political crisis and international isolation of the country from the late 1990s reversed gains made in social indicators during the 1980s. Development theories attribute poverty to unchecked population growth, political, economic and environmental mismanagement, while developing countries' leaders attribute it to historical imbalances and global political and economic injustices. Despite this debate, poverty continues to evolve, expand and deepen and the need to eradicate it has become urgent. The complex question of what causes and what drives poverty is perpetually addressed and new ideas are emerging to answer the question. One recent view is that failure to centre development on people and to declare poverty a violation of human rights has allowed poverty to grow the world over. This study uses a hypothesised cause of poverty - civil registration - to exemplify the human right nature of poverty, and how a human rights' policy can be used as an instrument to eradicate poverty. The study demonstrates that civil registration is a right of instrumental relevance to poverty; and achieving civil registration grants people access to numerous other rights, some of which will lift them out of poverty, while the failure of civil registration deprives people of access to livelihoods, thereby entrenching them in poverty.

  1. Distribution and significance of trace element pollutants in hair of the Iraqi population

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Al-Shahristani, H.; Shihab, K.M.; Jalil, M.

    1979-01-01

    Hair is an excellent indicator of man's exposure to trace element environmental pollutants. Several hundred human head-hair samples were randomly collected from various regions of Iraq representing the general population. These were analysed by thermal neutron activation analysis and the following elements were instrumentally determined: Cr, Fe, Co, Ni, Zn, As, Se, Br, Ag, Cd, Sb, La, Au, Hg, Th and U. The average concentrations of these elements and the frequency distributions among the population are given and compared with concentrations from other regions of the world. Except for Br, the elemental concentrations determined for this population are, in general, similar to those reported for other areas. The low consumption of sea foods in Iraq is perhaps the cause of this anomaly. For certain population groups, high levels of Hg, Au, Cr and Se have been measured and the causes are discussed. In certain cases when exposure to a pollutant has taken place, it is shown that the biological half-life of the element in man can be determined by following the concentration variation along the hair strand. The ratio of the concentration in hair to the average body concentration as well as the total body-burden of the element are also determined from these curves. For methylmercury, the average biological half-life in man was found to be 72 days and the ratio of concentration in hair to average body concentration to be 137. (author)

  2. Clinical significance of determination of serum cortisol and insulin levels in neonates with asphyxia

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yao Yingfei; Chen Linxing; Chen Sihong; Zhang Jinchi; Huang Hua

    2004-01-01

    Objective: To investigate the clinical significance of the changes of serum cortisol and insulin levels in neonates with asphyxia. Methods: Serum cortisol levels were determined with CLIA and serum insulin levels with RIA in 38 neonates with asphyxia (mild degree 20, advanced 18) and 30 controls. Results: 1) In mild cases, serum insulin levels were significantly higher than those in controls (p<0.01) and serum cortisol levels were very significantly higher (p<0.001). 2) In advanced cases, both serum insulin and cortisol levels were very significantly higher than those in the controls (p<0.001). Conclusion: Hypoxia in the neonates with asphyxia is a very severe stress and will induce hypersecretion of cortisol and hyperglycemia which is detrimental to the patients. However hypersecretion of insulin will result in hypoglycemia, which is also very damaging. Physicians in charge should be aware of these possibilities and deal with them appropriately

  3. Relationship of vitamin D levels to blood pressure in a biethnic population.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sakamoto, R; Jaceldo-Siegl, K; Haddad, E; Oda, K; Fraser, G E; Tonstad, S

    2013-08-01

    Accumulating epidemiological and clinical studies have suggested that vitamin D insufficiency may be associated with hypertension. Blacks tend to have lower vitamin D levels than Whites, but it is unclear whether this difference explains the higher blood pressure (BP) observed in Blacks in a population with healthy lifestyle practices. We examined cross-sectional data in the Adventist Health Study-2 (AHS-2), a cohort of non-smoking, mostly non-drinking men and women following a range of diets from vegan to non-vegetarian. Each participant provided dietary, demographic, lifestyle and medical history data. Measurements of weight, height, waist circumference, percent body fat and blood pressure and fasting blood samples were obtained from a randomly selected non-diabetic sample of 284 Blacks and 284 Whites aged 30-95 years. Multiple regression analyses were used to assess independent relationships between blood pressure and 25(OH)D levels. Levels of 25(OH)D were inversely associated with systolic BP in Whites after control for age, gender, BMI, and use of BP-lowering medications (β-coefficient -0.23 [95% CI, -0.43, -0.03; p = 0.02]). This relationship was not seen in Blacks (β-coefficient 0.08 [95% CI, -0.14, 0.30; p = 0.4]). Results were similar when controlling for waist circumference or percentage body fat instead of BMI. No relationship between serum 25(OH)D and diastolic BP was seen. Systolic BP is inversely associated with 25(OH)D levels in Whites but not in Blacks. Vitamin D may not be a major contributor to the White-Black differential in BP. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  4. Discrimination, policies, and sexual rights in Brazil.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carrara, Sergio

    2012-01-01

    This article focuses on a politics arena that has been articulated through the impact of ideals of sexual rights on Brazilian sexual politics, namely the affirmation of "LGBT rights". These rights have been constructed both through attempts to extend civil and social rights to the LGBT population that were previously restricted to heterosexuals, and by the enactment of provisions directly banning homophobic discrimination and violence. The focus will be on some of the principal social actors in this process, especially those situated in the three branches of government, since the most decisive clashes are now being waged at this level. Without intending to offer an exhaustive description of what has occurred in the Brazilian courts, Congress, and Administration, we point to the complexity of a situation which shows numerous innovations and breaks in its different dimensions, while simultaneously revealing contradictions, gaps, and ambiguities.

  5. Crossed aphasia following cerebral infarction in a right-handed patient with atypical cerebral language dominance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tan, Xiaoping; Guo, Yang; Dun, Saihong; Sun, Hongzan

    2018-05-18

    Crossed aphasia (CA), usually referred to as an acquired language disturbance, is caused by a lesion in the cerebral hemisphere ipsilateral to the dominant hand, and the exact mechanism is not clear. The development of handedness is influenced by education and training and the impact of habitualization, while language is more susceptible to the impact of speech habits, and it is not absolutely accurate to judge cerebral language dominance by the degree of hand preference. We describe a case of CA after right hemispheric stroke in a right-handed patient with atypical language dominance and attempt to analyze the mechanism of CA based on functional imaging methods, including arterial spin labeling (ASL) and positron emission tomography/magnetic resonance imaging (PET-MRI). Brain MRI at 24 h after admission showed a large cerebral infarction in the right cerebral hemisphere, including the posteroinferior part of Broca's area in the right frontal lobe, the right temporal lobe, and the right occipital lobe. The patient exhibited a non-fluent aphasia on a standard language test (the Aphasia Battery of Chinese [ABC]) performed on the 7th day after onset. Thus, atypical language dominance was suspected. One week after admission, ASL imaging showed high perfusion in the infarct core zone and low perfusion in the left cerebellar hemisphere. Two months later, PET/MRI demonstrated low metabolism in the posterior frontal lobe, temporal lobe, temporal occipital junction area, and the right basal ganglia. The findings suggest that the patient has right-sided cerebral language dominance, or that both hemispheres have linguistic functions. Not all patients show linguistic capabilities on the side opposite hand preference. The language dominance should be predicted by a combination of clinical manifestations and functional imaging techniques.

  6. Framing Political Change: Can a Left Populism Disrupt the Rise of the Reactionary Right?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Labonté, Ronald

    2017-01-01

    Solomon Benatar offers an important critique of the limited frame that sets the boundaries of much of what is referred to as ‘global health.’ In placing his comments within a criticism of increasing poverty (or certainly income and wealth inequalities) and the decline in our environmental commons, he locates our health inequities within the pathology of our present global economy. In that respect it is a companion piece to an editorial I published around the same time. Both Benatar’s and my paralleling arguments take on a new urgency in the wake of the US presidential election. Although not a uniquely American event (the xenophobic right has been making inroads in many parts of the world), the degree of vitriol expressed by the President-elect of the world’s (still) most powerful and militarized country is being used to further legitimate the policies of right-extremist parties in Europe while providing additional justification for the increasingly autocratic politics of leaders (elected or otherwise) in many other of the world’s nations. To challenge right-populism’s rejection of the predatory inequalities that 4 years of (neo)-liberal globalization have created demands strong and sustained left populism built, in part, on the ecocentric frame advocated by Benatar PMID:28949469

  7. Mono-2-ethylhexyl phthalate associated with insulin resistance and lower testosterone levels in a young population.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Szu-Ying; Hwang, Jing-Shiang; Sung, Fung-Chang; Lin, Chien-Yu; Hsieh, Chia-Jung; Chen, Pau-Chung; Su, Ta-Chen

    2017-06-01

    Phthalates are commonly used as plasticizers and are reported to associate with testicular dysfunction or insulin resistance in different studies, but the concurrent relationship between phthalate exposure, testosterone levels, and insulin resistance in the young population is not well understood. We recruited 786 subjects aged 12-30 years from a population-based sample of Taiwanese adolescents and young adults from 2006 to 2008. Generalized additive models were used to evaluate glucose homeostasis and testicular function in relation to seven urinary phthalate metabolites among adolescents (aged 12-20) and young adults (aged 20-30) in Taiwan. We observed a trend toward a decrease in male testosterone and an increase in urinary mono-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (MEHP) levels across four quartiles of homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR). After adjusting for potential covariates, generalized additive models further showed that log-transformed insulin and HOMA-IR were raised by 0.055 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.027-0.082] and 0.056 (95% CI, 0.027-0.084), respectively, with a one-unit increase in log-transformed MEHP in young adults. In male adults (aged 22-30), the log-testosterone levels were reduced by 0.018 (95% CI, 0.001-0.036), with a one-unit of increase in log-transformed MEHP. Such relationships were not observed in adolescents. In conclusion, this study demonstrated age-related associations of urinary MEHP metabolites with impaired metabolic homeostasis of glucose that were only observed in young adults. In addition, MEHP exposure was concurrently associated with lower testosterone levels in young, male adults. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. Population of vibrational levels of carbon dioxide by cylindrical fast ionization wave

    KAUST Repository

    Levko, Dmitry

    2017-09-08

    The population of vibrational levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) by a cylindrical fast ionization wave is analyzed using a one-dimensional Particle-in-Cell Monte Carlo collisions model. The model takes into account the inelastic electron-neutral collisions as well as the super-elastic collisions between electrons and excited species. We observe an efficient population of only the first two levels of the symmetric and asymmetric vibrational modes of CO2 by means of a fast ionization wave. The excitation of other higher vibrational modes by the fast ionization wave is inefficient. Additionally, we observe a strong influence of the secondary electron emission on the population of vibrational states of CO2. This effect is associated with the kinetics of high energy electrons generated in the cathode sheath.

  9. Gene-diet interaction effects on BMI levels in the Singapore Chinese population.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chang, Xuling; Dorajoo, Rajkumar; Sun, Ye; Han, Yi; Wang, Ling; Khor, Chiea-Chuen; Sim, Xueling; Tai, E-Shyong; Liu, Jianjun; Yuan, Jian-Min; Koh, Woon-Puay; van Dam, Rob M; Friedlander, Yechiel; Heng, Chew-Kiat

    2018-02-24

    Recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified 97 body-mass index (BMI) associated loci. We aimed to evaluate if dietary intake modifies BMI associations at these loci in the Singapore Chinese population. We utilized GWAS information from six data subsets from two adult Chinese population (N = 7817). Seventy-eight genotyped or imputed index BMI single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that passed quality control procedures were available in all datasets. Alternative Healthy Eating Index (AHEI)-2010 score and ten nutrient variables were evaluated. Linear regression analyses between z score transformed BMI (Z-BMI) and dietary factors were performed. Interaction analyses were performed by introducing the interaction term (diet x SNP) in the same regression model. Analysis was carried out in each cohort individually and subsequently meta-analyzed using the inverse-variance weighted method. Analyses were also evaluated with a weighted gene-risk score (wGRS) contructed by BMI index SNPs from recent large-scale GWAS studies. Nominal associations between Z-BMI and AHEI-2010 and some dietary factors were identified (P = 0.047-0.010). The BMI wGRS was robustly associated with Z-BMI (P = 1.55 × 10 - 15 ) but not with any dietary variables. Dietary variables did not significantly interact with the wGRS to modify BMI associations. When interaction analyses were repeated using individual SNPs, a significant association between cholesterol intake and rs4740619 (CCDC171) was identified (β = 0.077, adjP interaction  = 0.043). The CCDC171 gene locus may interact with cholesterol intake to increase BMI in the Singaporean Chinese population, however most known obesity risk loci were not associated with dietary intake and did not interact with diet to modify BMI levels.

  10. Population-level impacts of pesticide-induced chronic effects on individuals depend more on ecology than toxicology

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dalkvist, Trine; Topping, Christopher John; Forbes, Valery, E.

    2009-01-01

    at the population-level. Here we demonstrate how, using ABM modelling, assessments at the population-level can be obtained even for a pesticide with complex long-term effects such as epigenetic transmission of reproductive depression. By objectively fitting nonlinear models to the simulation outputs it was possible...... to compare population depression and recovery rates for a range of scenarios in which toxicity and exposure factors were varied. The system was differentially sensitive to the various factors, but vole ecology and behaviour were at least as important predictors of population-level effects as toxicology...

  11. Decay kinetics of Krsup(*) levels populated by ArF laser radiation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wren, D.J.; Setser, D.W.

    1981-01-01

    The Kr 6p [3/2] 2 (or 3p 6 ) level was pumped via a two-photon absorption using a focused ArF laser (193 nm). The time dependent fluorescence from excited Kr levels was observed using a monochromator and photomultiplier tube and transient digitizer. Fluorescence from the pumped level, observed via the 3p 6 → 1s 5 transition, has a lifetime of 8 +- 2 ns independent of the Kr pressure (2-30 Torr). Fluorescence from other levels of the Kr (4p 5 6p) manifold was either unobserved or weak. Strong fluorescence was observed from the Kr (4p 5 5p) levels via transitions to the Kr (4p 5 5s) levels, the highest populated levels being 2p 6 , 2p 8 and 2p 9 . All Kr (4p 5 5p) levels display effective lifetimes much longer than the radiative lifetimes; effective zero pressure lifetimes for Kr 2p 3 , 2p 6 and 2p 7 are 72 +- 15, 66 +- 15 and 90 +- 15 ns, respectively. The short lifetime of the Kr (3p 6 ) level is explained by very fast collisional depopulation by photoelectrons produced in three photon ionization of Kr by the ArF laser. The Kr (4p 5 5p) levels are populated indirectly from the Kr (3p 6 ) level and the long lifetimes of the Kr (4p 5 5p) levels represent the lifetime of the intermediate state (or states) which lead to the Kr (4p 5 5p) levels. Strong possibilities for the intermediate states are the Kr (4p 5 4d) levels. (orig.)

  12. Smoking, activity level and exercise test outcomes in a young population sample without cardiopulmonary disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vozoris, N T; O'donnell, D E

    2015-01-01

    Whether reduced activity level and exercise intolerance precede the clinical diagnosis of cardiopulmonary disorders in smokers is not known. We examined activity level and exercise test outcomes in a young population-based sample without overt cardiopulmonary disease, differentiating by smoking history. This was a multiyear cross-sectional study using United States National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data from 1999-2004. Self-reported activity level and incremental exercise treadmill testing were obtained on survey participants ages 20-49 years, excluding individuals with cardio-pulmonary disease. Three thousand seven hundred and one individuals completed exercise testing. Compared to never smokers, current smokers with >10 pack years reported significantly higher odds of little or no recreation, sport, or physical activity (adjusted OR 1.62; 95% CI 1.12-2.35). Mean perceived exertion ratings (Borg 6-20) at an estimated standardized workload were significantly greater among current smokers (18.3-18.6) compared to never (17.3) and former smokers (17.9) (psmoking abstinence was associated with significantly lower likelihood of low estimated peak oxygen uptake categorization (psmoking cessation, these results set the stage for future studies that examine mechanisms of activity restriction in young smokers and the utility of measures of activity restriction in the earlier diagnosis of smoking-related diseases.

  13. The level of health education in the Polish population.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Olszanecka-Glinianowicz, Magdalena; Chudek, Jerzy

    2013-01-01

    The study assessed factors influencing awareness of Poles concerning lifestyle factors that affect development of obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases (CVD). A questionnaire survey covering awareness of lifestyle factors performed by general practitioners in 37,557 unselected patients. 96.1% of respondents believed that lifestyle has an impact on the occurrence of CVDs, especially: tobacco smoking (91.4%), excessive intake of fat (81.3%), alcohol (67.5%), salt (64.9%), and stress (64.9%). 79.0% respondents believed the smoking cessation, 77.5% weight loss and 66.8% healthy diet are most important to prevent diseases. Additionally, the belief in the need for an early weight reduction decreased with increasing BMI (82.9% with normal weight vs. 77.5% overweight and 70.4% obese). The most common source of health education was a physician (75.8%), the mass media, such as television and the press (62.0% and 64.8%, respectively), less often were educational materials (37.8%) and books (20.3 %), the Internet (3.8%) and radio (0.8%). Younger respondents presented a higher level of awareness about all analysed aspects of healthy lifestyle. The multiple regression analysis revealed that low education level and rural residence are the most important factors decreasing awareness of the lifestyle effect on health. 1. The level of knowledge about non-pharmacological methods of preventing lifestyle diseases in the Polish population is high except of the role of physical activity and daily vegetables consumption. This, however, has no impact on reducing the percentage of overweight and obese people and on increasing the tendency to pursue lifestyle changes. 2. Frustrating is the fact that more than one fifth of the study population is unaware that excessive weight reduction prevents development of cardiovascular diseases. Moreover, the convince to early weight decreases with increasing BMI. 3. The highest level of the knowledge among younger subjects reflect

  14. The effects of dietary protein levels on the population growth, performance, and physiology of honey bee workers during early spring.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zheng, Benle; Wu, Zaifu; Xu, Baohua

    2014-01-01

    This study was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary protein levels on honey bee colonies, specifically the population growth, physiology, and longevity of honey bee workers during early spring. Diets containing four different levels of crude protein (25.0, 29.5, 34.0, or 38.5%) and pure pollen (control) were evaluated. Twenty-five colonies of honey bees with sister queens were used in the study. We compared the effects of the different bee diets by measuring population growth, emergent worker weight, midgut proteolytic enzyme activity, hypopharyngeal gland development, and survival. After 48 d, the cumulative number of workers produced by the colonies ranged from 22,420 to 29,519, providing a significant fit to a quadratic equation that predicts the maximum population growth when the diet contains 31.7% crude protein. Significantly greater emergent worker weight, midgut proteolytic enzyme activity, hypopharyngeal gland acini, and survival were observed in the colonies that were fed diets containing 34.0% crude protein compared with the other crude protein levels. Although higher emergent worker weight and survival were observed in the colonies that were fed the control diet, there were no significant differences between the control colonies and the colonies that were fed 34.0% crude protein. Based on these results, we concluded that a dietary crude protein content of 29.5-34.0% is recommended to maximize the reproduction rate of honey bee colonies in early spring. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Entomological Society of America.

  15. Comparative study of laterality in people with fragile X syndrome, people with intellectual disabilities, and people with typical development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Niort, Jannick; Hernández Vázquez, Francisco Javier

    2017-07-01

    Following on from the studies by McManus and Cornish [(1997). Fractionating handedness in mental retardation: What is the role of the cerebellum? Laterality, 2(2), 81-89] and Cornish, Pigram, and Shaw [(1997). Do anomalies of handedness exist in children with fragile-X syndrome? Laterality, 2(2), 91-101], the aim of this paper was to determine laterality in people with fragile X syndrome (FXS). The sample comprised three study groups: the first with 30 people with FXS (mean age 17.9 years), the second 34 people with various intellectual disabilities (ID, mean age 20.9 years), and the third 160 people with typical development (mean age 14.7 years). Laterality was assessed with a test adapted for this study. The results confirm the preponderance of right-handedness (93.3%) in people with FXS and present new data regarding footedness and sensory dominance (eyedness and earedness), indicating inconsistent footedness and ocular cross-dominance. Almost three-quarters (73.5%) of people with other ID were right-handed. The results corroborate those of McManus and Cornish (1997). People with FXS tend to be right-handed but have ocular cross-dominance.

  16. Right wing populism in Denmark

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Siim, Birte; Meret, Susi

    2016-01-01

    extent can we identify a specific Danish exceptionalism linked to the particular Danish history and democracy? In spite or perhaps because of these historical legacies, the Nordic countries face problems with integrating immigrant minorities as equal citizens on the labour market and in society....... This approach to the nation state carries clear historical legacies. Scholars have noticed that Scandinavia developed a particular form of ‘welfare nationalism’, which since the 1960s and 70s links national, social and democratic issues with social equality, democracy and gender equality in the construction...... of ‘national belonging’. The chapter suggests that these understandings of the nation have in recent decades been taken and re-interpreted by the populist right. Our contribution will focus on the case study of the Danish People’s Party and the Freedom of Press Society. One set of issues is the relation...

  17. Early uneven ear input induces long-lasting differences in left-right motor function.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Antoine, Michelle W; Zhu, Xiaoxia; Dieterich, Marianne; Brandt, Thomas; Vijayakumar, Sarath; McKeehan, Nicholas; Arezzo, Joseph C; Zukin, R Suzanne; Borkholder, David A; Jones, Sherri M; Frisina, Robert D; Hébert, Jean M

    2018-03-01

    How asymmetries in motor behavior become established normally or atypically in mammals remains unclear. An established model for motor asymmetry that is conserved across mammals can be obtained by experimentally inducing asymmetric striatal dopamine activity. However, the factors that can cause motor asymmetries in the absence of experimental manipulations to the brain remain unknown. Here, we show that mice with inner ear dysfunction display a robust left or right rotational preference, and this motor preference reflects an atypical asymmetry in cortico-striatal neurotransmission. By unilaterally targeting striatal activity with an antagonist of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), a downstream integrator of striatal neurotransmitter signaling, we can reverse or exaggerate rotational preference in these mice. By surgically biasing vestibular failure to one ear, we can dictate the direction of motor preference, illustrating the influence of uneven vestibular failure in establishing the outward asymmetries in motor preference. The inner ear-induced striatal asymmetries identified here intersect with non-ear-induced asymmetries previously linked to lateralized motor behavior across species and suggest that aspects of left-right brain function in mammals can be ontogenetically influenced by inner ear input. Consistent with inner ear input contributing to motor asymmetry, we also show that, in humans with normal ear function, the motor-dominant hemisphere, measured as handedness, is ipsilateral to the ear with weaker vestibular input.

  18. Glutathione enzyme and selenoprotein polymorphisms associate with mercury biomarker levels in Michigan dental professionals

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Goodrich, Jaclyn M.; Wang, Yi [Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Michigan School of Public Health, 1415 Washington Heights, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (United States); Gillespie, Brenda [Department of Biostatistics, University of Michigan School of Public Health, 1415 Washington Heights, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (United States); Werner, Robert [Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Michigan School of Public Health, 1415 Washington Heights, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (United States); Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Michigan, 325 E. Eisenhower Parkway Suite 100, Ann Arbor, MI 48108 (United States); Franzblau, Alfred [Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Michigan School of Public Health, 1415 Washington Heights, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (United States); Basu, Niladri, E-mail: niladri@umich.edu [Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Michigan School of Public Health, 1415 Washington Heights, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (United States)

    2011-12-15

    Mercury is a potent toxicant of concern to both the general public and occupationally exposed workers (e.g., dentists). Recent studies suggest that several genes mediating the toxicokinetics of mercury are polymorphic in humans and may influence inter-individual variability in mercury accumulation. This work hypothesizes that polymorphisms in key glutathione synthesizing enzyme, glutathione s-transferase, and selenoprotein genes underlie inter-individual differences in mercury body burden as assessed by analytical mercury measurement in urine and hair, biomarkers of elemental mercury and methylmercury, respectively. Urine and hair samples were collected from a population of dental professionals (n = 515), and total mercury content was measured. Average urine (1.06 {+-} 1.24 ug/L) and hair mercury levels (0.49 {+-} 0.63 ug/g) were similar to national U.S. population averages. Taqman assays were used to genotype DNA from buccal swab samples at 15 polymorphic sites in genes implicated in mercury metabolism. Linear regression modeling assessed the ability of polymorphisms to modify the relationship between mercury biomarker levels and exposure sources (e.g., amalgams, fish consumption). Five polymorphisms were significantly associated with urine mercury levels (GSTT1 deletion), hair mercury levels (GSTP1-105, GSTP1-114, GSS 5 Prime ), or both (SEPP1 3 Prime UTR). Overall, this study suggests that polymorphisms in selenoproteins and glutathione-related genes may influence elimination of mercury in the urine and hair or mercury retention following exposures to elemental mercury (via dental amalgams) and methylmercury (via fish consumption). -- Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer We explore the influence of 15 polymorphisms on urine and hair Hg levels. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Urine and hair Hg levels in dental professionals were similar to the US population. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer GSTT1 and SEPP1 polymorphisms associated with urine Hg levels. Black-Right

  19. Individual, population and community level effects of subtle anthropogenic contamination in estuarine meiobenthos

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rubal, Marcos; Guilhermino, Lucia M.; Medina, Matias H.

    2009-01-01

    The study presented here searched for the level of taxonomic resolution required to detect the effects of low-level chronic pollution on estuarine meiobenthic communities. Meiofauna from two sites, with special attention to harpacticoid copepods, was analysed at different taxonomic levels of aggregation using uni- and multivariate methods. Adaptation processes that could buffer biodiversity disruptions were also considered through the analysis of fitness-related and tolerance traits in the harpacticoid copepod Paronychocamptus nanus. Results showed that uni- and multivariate analyses could be inadequate when assessing subtle anthropogenic contamination. Instead, the assessment of inter-population differences in tolerance to the main source of stress rises as a required procedure if potential effects of this type of contamination are being investigated. Specifically, a 96 h acute toxicity test performed with populations from the affected site appears as a faster and reliable general tool to assess impacts of low-level chronic pollution in estuaries. - Tolerance of local populations as a reliable tool to assess impacts of subtle anthropogenic contamination in estuaries.

  20. Individual, population and community level effects of subtle anthropogenic contamination in estuarine meiobenthos

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rubal, Marcos [CIIMAR/CIMAR-LA - Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigacao Marinha e Ambiental, Universidade do Porto, Laboratorio de Ecotoxicologia, Rua dos Bragas 289, 4050-123 Porto (Portugal); Guilhermino, Lucia M. [CIIMAR/CIMAR-LA - Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigacao Marinha e Ambiental, Universidade do Porto, Laboratorio de Ecotoxicologia, Rua dos Bragas 289, 4050-123 Porto (Portugal); ICBAS - Instituto de Ciencias Biomedicas de Abel Salazar, Departamento de Estudos de Populacoes, Laboratorio de Ecotoxicologia, Universidade do Porto, Lg. Prof. Abel Salazar 2, 4099-003 Porto (Portugal); Medina, Matias H., E-mail: matias.medina@avs-chile.c [AVS Chile SA, Imperial 0655, Off. 3A, Puerto Varas (Chile); Centro i-mar, Universidad de Los Lagos, Camino Chinquihue km 6, Puerto Montt (Chile)

    2009-10-15

    The study presented here searched for the level of taxonomic resolution required to detect the effects of low-level chronic pollution on estuarine meiobenthic communities. Meiofauna from two sites, with special attention to harpacticoid copepods, was analysed at different taxonomic levels of aggregation using uni- and multivariate methods. Adaptation processes that could buffer biodiversity disruptions were also considered through the analysis of fitness-related and tolerance traits in the harpacticoid copepod Paronychocamptus nanus. Results showed that uni- and multivariate analyses could be inadequate when assessing subtle anthropogenic contamination. Instead, the assessment of inter-population differences in tolerance to the main source of stress rises as a required procedure if potential effects of this type of contamination are being investigated. Specifically, a 96 h acute toxicity test performed with populations from the affected site appears as a faster and reliable general tool to assess impacts of low-level chronic pollution in estuaries. - Tolerance of local populations as a reliable tool to assess impacts of subtle anthropogenic contamination in estuaries.