Human error

Converging evidence from studies with animal models and humans suggests that early developmental exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) leads to deficits in cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control. These processes are mediated to a large extent by the prefrontal cortex, thus we examined the effects of PCB exposure during adolescence-a period of robust prefrontal cortical development-on both processes. Specifically, we used operant set-shifting and differential reinforcement of low rates of responding (DRL) tasks to assess cognitive flexibility and response inhibition, respectively...

Classical homocystinuria (HCU) is an inborn error of sulfur amino acid metabolism caused by deficient activity of cystathionine β-synthase (CBS), resulting in an accumulation of homocysteine and a concomitant decrease of cystathionine and cysteine in blood and tissues. In mice, the complete lack of CBS is neonatal lethal. In this study, newborn CBS knockout (KO) mice were treated with recombinant polyethyleneglycolylated human truncated CBS (PEG-CBS). Full survival of the treated KO mice, along with a positive impact on metabolite levels in plasma, liver, brain, and kidneys, was observed...

Quantitative gait analysis can provide a description of joint kinematics and dynamics, and it is recognized as a clinically useful tool for functional assessment, diagnosis and intervention planning. Clinically interpretable parameters are estimated from quantitative measures (i.e. ground reaction forces, skin marker trajectories, etc.) through biomechanical modelling. In particular, the estimation of joint moments during motion is grounded on several modelling assumptions: (1) body segmental and joint kinematics is derived from the trajectories of markers and by modelling the human body as a kinematic chain; (2) joint resultant (net) loads are, usually, derived from force plate measurements through a model of segmental dynamics...

Throughout many developing and tropical countries around the world, malaria remains a significant threat to human health. One barrier to malaria elimination is the ability to safely administer primaquine chemotherapy for the radical cure of malaria infections in populations with a high prevalence of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency. In the current study, a field trial of the world's first quantitative, point-of-care assay for measuring G6PD activity was conducted in Haiti. The performance of the CareStart Biosensor Analyzer was compared with the gold standard spectrophotometric assay and genotyping of the G6PD allele in schoolchildren (N = 343) from the Ouest Department of Haiti...

It is a daunting task to eradicate tuberculosis completely in Heng County due to a large transient population, human immunodeficiency virus/tuberculosis coinfection, and latent infection. Thus, a high-precision forecasting model can be used for the prevention and control of tuberculosis. In this study, four models including a basic autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model, a traditional ARIMA-generalized regression neural network (GRNN) model, a basic GRNN model, and a new ARIMA-GRNN hybrid model were used to fit and predict the incidence of tuberculosis...

OBJECTIVES: Unregulated intraoperative distension of human saphenous vein (SV) graft leads to supraphysiologic luminal pressures and causes acute physiologic and cellular injury to the conduit. The effect of distension on tissue viscoelasticity, a biophysical property critical to a successful graft, is not well described. In this investigation, we quantify the loss of viscoelasticity in SV deformed by distension and compare the results to tissue distended in a pressure-controlled fashion...

The purpose of the study was to assess transgenerational intestinal tumorigenic effects of low dose ionizing radiation employing a well-characterized mouse model of human colorectal cancer. Mice (6 to 8 weeks old APC(1638N/+) mice; n=20 per study group) were exposed to whole-body 25 cGy x-rays and mated 2 days post-irradiation. Intestinal tumorigenesis in male and female F1 mice from No Parents Irradiated (NPI), Both Parents Irradiated (BPI), and Male Parent Irradiated (MPI) groups were compared 210 days after birth...

Laterality is a basic characteristic of all life forms, from single cell organisms to complex plants and animals. For many metazoans, consistent left-right asymmetric patterning is essential for the correct anatomy of internal organs, such as the heart, gut, and brain; disruption of left-right asymmetry patterning leads to an important class of birth defects in human patients. Laterality functions across multiple scales, where early embryonic, subcellular and chiral cytoskeletal events are coupled with asymmetric amplification mechanisms and gene regulatory networks leading to asymmetric physical forces that ultimately result in distinct left and right anatomical organ patterning...

BACKGROUND: The use of embedded smartphone sensors offers opportunities to measure physical activity (PA) and human movement. Big data-which includes billions of digital traces-offers scientists a new lens to examine PA in fine-grained detail and allows us to track people's geocoded movement patterns to determine their interaction with the environment. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to examine the validity of the Movn smartphone app (Moving Analytics) for collecting PA and human movement data...

Molecular techniques are widely used in the field of parasitology to identify the genetic profile of the microbiological agents. Microsatellite typing studies are comprised of the amplification of polymorphic markers to analyze the fragment sizes using bioinformatics tools. Current methods need fluorescently labeled primers and size markers to obtain fragment peaks in ABI PRISM® systems and due to low discrimination power of gel-electrophoresis, it is not possible to differentiate primer-dimers from small fragments In the present study, we designed a new method for fragment analysis studies, which reduce the time by eliminating the classical PCR, the gel-electrophoresis and the preparation steps of fragment analysis...

Partition coefficients between human stratum corneum lipids and water (K(sclip/w)) are collected or deduced from a variety of sources in a manner that approximately doubles the available data compared to the current state-of-the-art model [Hansen et al., Adv Drug Deliv Rev 65:252-264 (2013)]. An additional datum for water itself in porcine SC that considerably extends the molecular size and lipophilicity range of the dataset is considered. The data are analyzed in terms of an extended linear free energy relationship involving octanol/water partition coefficients, Abraham solvation parameters and a secondary, power law molecular weight dependence...

Epidemiologists seek to make a valid inference about the causal effect between an exposure and a disease in a specific population, using representative sample data from a specific population. Clinical researchers likewise seek to make a valid inference about the association between an intervention and outcome(s) in a specific population, based upon their randomly collected, representative sample data. Both do so by using the available data about the sample variable to make a valid estimate about its corresponding or underlying, but unknown population parameter...

BACKGROUND: The objective of this study was to compare cervical high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions subcategorized as cervical intraepithelial neoplasia-3 (CIN-3)-positive after a negative cytology result but positive for high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) testing to those with a negative HR-HPV test but positive cytology (atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance [ASCUS]-positive/HPV-negative) and to assess reasons for discrepancies. METHODS: The authors retrospectively analyzed women who underwent screening with cytology and HPV testing from 2010 through 2013...

Cyber-physical systems, which closely integrate physical systems and humans, can be applied to a wider range of applications through user movement analysis. In three-dimensional (3D) gesture recognition, multiple sensors are required to recognize various natural gestures. Several studies have been undertaken in the field of gesture recognition; however, gesture recognition was conducted based on data captured from various independent sensors, which rendered the capture and combination of real-time data complicated...

3D Human shape tracking consists in fitting a template model to temporal sequences of visual observations. It usually comprises an association step, that finds correspondences between the model and the input data, and a deformation step, that fits the model to the observations given correspondences. Most current approaches follow the Iterative-Closest-Point (ICP) paradigm, where the association step is carried out by searching for the nearest neighbors. It fails when large deformations occur and errors in the association tend to propagate over time...

Inbreeding results from the mating of related individuals and may be associated with reduced fitness because it brings together deleterious variants in one individual. In general, inbreeding is estimated with respect to an arbitrary base population consisting of ancestors that are assumed unrelated. We herein propose a model-based approach to estimate and characterize individual inbreeding at both global and local genomic scales by assuming the individual genome is a mosaic of HBD (Homozygous-By-Descent) and non-HBD segments...

Melanoma will affect an estimated 73,000 new cases this year and result in 9,000 deaths, yet precise diagnosis remains a serious problem. Without early detection and preventative care, melanoma can quickly spread to become fatal (Stage IV 5-year survival rate is 20-10%) from a once localized skin lesion (Stage IA 5- year survival rate is 97%). There is no biomarker for melanoma in clinical use, and the current diagnostic criteria for skin lesions remains subjective and imprecise. Accurate diagnosis of melanoma relies on a histopathologic gold standard; thus, aggressive excision of melanocytic skin lesions has been the mainstay of treatment...

BACKGROUND: Oesophageal candidiasis is a common, usually self-limiting opportunistic infection, but long-term infection with Candida is known to predispose to oral and oesophageal squamous cell cancer (SCC). Permissive factors that lead to immune deficiencies can underlie persistent or recurring candidiasis, called chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis (CMC). Secondary immune deficiencies are most often due to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, antibiotic use and immunosuppressive treatment (steroids, chemotherapy)...

Early detection and intervention are likely to be the most effective means for reducing morbidity and mortality of human cancer. However, development of methods for noninvasive detection of early-stage tumors has remained a challenge. We have developed an approach called targeted error correction sequencing (TEC-Seq) that allows ultrasensitive direct evaluation of sequence changes in circulating cell-free DNA using massively parallel sequencing. We have used this approach to examine 58 cancer-related genes encompassing 81 kb...

Hosts and viruses are locked in an evolutionary arms race. Hosts are constantly evolving to suppress virulence and replication, while viruses, reliant on host machinery for survival and reproduction, develop counter-strategies to escape this immune defense. Viruses must also adapt to novel conditions when establishing themselves in a host species. Both processes provide strong selection for viral adaptation. Understanding adaptive evolution in insect viruses can help us better understand adaptive evolution in general, and is important due to their use as biocontrol agents, and for protecting ecologically or economically important species from outbreaks...