SUMMARY Mycobacterium bovis causes bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in many mammals including cattle, deer and brushtail possum. The aim of this study was to estimate the strength of association, using model selection (AICc) regression analyses, between the proportion of cattle and farmed deer herds with bTB in New Zealand and annual ...

AIMS: Explore and compare junior doctors' perceptions of their self-efficacy in prescribing, their prescribing errors and the possible causes of those errors. METHODS: A cross-sectional questionnaire study was distributed to foundation doctors throughout Scotland, based on Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory and Human Error Theory (HET). RESULTS: 548 questionnaires were completed ...

Identifying and quantifying secondhand tobacco smoke (SHS) that drifts between multiunit homes is critical for assessing exposure. Twenty-three different gaseous and particulate measurements were collected during controlled emissions from smoked cigarettes and six other common indoor source types in 60 single-room and 13 two-room experiments. We used measurements from the ...

This paper presents a framework to diagnose and predict the effects of chemicals, integrating two promising tools to incorporate more ecology into ecological risk assessment, viz. traits-based approaches and ecological modelling. Traits-based approaches are increasingly used to derive correlations between the occurrence of species traits and chemical exposure from biological ...

Species distribution models (SDMs), which are well established in many fields of biological research, are still uncommon in the agricultural risk analysis of pest insects. To exemplify the use of SDMs, we investigated the influence of environmental factors on the occurrence of Hyalesthes obsoletus Signoret (Hemiptera: Cixiidae). The planthopper is ...

BACKGROUND: The extant squamates (>9400 known species of lizards and snakes) are one of the most diverse and conspicuous radiations of terrestrial vertebrates, but no studies have attempted to reconstruct a phylogeny for the group with large-scale taxon sampling. Such an estimate is invaluable for comparative evolutionary studies, and to ...

The concept of acceptance has recently received growing attention within tinnitus research due to the fact that tinnitus acceptance is one of the major targets of psychotherapeutic treatments. Accordingly, acceptance-based treatments will most likely be increasingly offered to tinnitus patients and assessments of acceptance-related behaviours will thus be needed. The ...

The demographic transition is an ongoing global phenomenon in which high fertility and mortality rates are replaced by low fertility and mortality. Despite intense interest in the causes of the transition, especially with respect to decreasing fertility rates, the underlying mechanisms motivating it are still subject to much debate. The ...

The speed limit of 55 mph (88 km/h) is used typically on rural highways in the U.S. When curbs are installed, a lower speed limit is suggested because running into curbs at high speeds may cause significant vehicular damage and severe injuries. However, it has been argued that lowering the speed ...

MOTIVATION: RUbioSeq has been developed to facilitate the primary and secondary analysis of resequencing projects by providing an integrated software suite of parallelized pipelines to detect exome variants (SNVs and CNVs) and to perform Bisulfite-seq analyses automatically. RUbioSeq's variant analysis results have been already validated and published. AVAILABILITY: http://rubioseq.sourceforge.net/ CONTACT: ...

We develop a Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm for estimating divergence times using sequentially sampled molecular sequences. This type of data is commonly collected during viral epidemics and is sometimes available from different species in ancient DNA studies. We derive the distribution of ages of nodes in the ...

In Morocco the distribution of P. papatasi and P. sergenti largely exceeds the Leishmaniasis foci. This situation, which also occurs in other regions of the world, highlights that various factors, acting at different levels of the Leishmania life cycle, can influence the transmission of Leishmania in endemic areas. Among which, ...

The objective of this study was to use ecologically relevant field measurements for determining the relationship between bifenthrin sediment toxic units (TUs) (environmental concentrations/Hyalella acute LC50 value) and 15 benthic metrics in four urban California streams sampled from 2006 to 2011. Data from the following four California streams were used ...

But the investigators were not able to show if influential people had a more attractive smile than others.

BACKGROUND: Genomic selection is an appealing method to select purebreds for crossbred performance. In the case of crossbred records, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) effects can be estimated using an additive model or a breed-specific allele model. In most studies, additive gene action is assumed. However, dominance is the likely genetic ...

DNA methylation is an important, heritable epigenetic modification in most eukaryotic organisms that is connected with numerous biological processes. To study the impact of natural epigenetic variation in an ecological or evolutionary context, epigenetic studies are increasingly using methylation-sensitive amplification polymorphism (MSAP) for surveys at the population or species level. ...

Not all individuals in a population use the same subset of dietary and habitat resources. Patterns of individual specialization have been documented in an increasing number of organisms, but often without an associated time scale over which niche specialization was observed. We examined the patterns in individual resource use through ...

Abstract Purpose . Existing literature shows negative relationships between gasoline price and motor vehicle crashes, particularly among teens. This paper extends that literature by evaluating the relationship between gasoline price and self-reported risky driving among teens. Design . Observational study using multivariate empirical analysis, using pooled data from the Youth ...

This paper examines the health implications of global PM reduction accompanying greenhouse gas emissions reductions in the 180 national economies of the global macroeconomy. A human health effects module based on empirical data on GHG emissions, PM emissions, background PM concentrations, source apportionment and human health risk coefficients is used ...

BACKGROUND: There is much evidence that smoking cessation interventions are both clinically and cost effective but these results relate only to the specific study populations involved in the studies. The present study aimed to compare and contrast results obtained when the effects of smoking cessation are modelled for several different ...

Allometric scaling has been applied to the pharmacokinetics (PK) of factor VIII (FVIII), but published relationships are based on relatively small subsets of available data. Numerous next-generation forms of FVIII are being developed (e.g., Fc fusion, PEGylated, and liposomal formulations) and traditional PK scaling of these products would not incorporate ...

The Great English Vowel Shift of 16th-19th centuries and the current Northern Cities Vowel Shift are two examples of collective language processes characterized by regular phonetic changes, that is, gradual changes in vowel pronunciation over time. Here we develop a structured population approach to modelling such regular changes in the ...

Objectives: Using the theory of religious effects (Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 42, 17-30 ( 2003 )), the current study examined the relationship among religiosity, psychosocial resources (social support and mastery) and psychological distress. Method: Through face-to-face interviewing, data were collected from 321 randomly selected older adults in ...

Efforts to compile and standardize human exposure factors have resulted in the development of a variety of resources available to the scientific community. For example, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) developed the Exposure Factors Handbook and Child-specific Exposure Factors Handbook to promote consistency among its various exposure-assessment activities. The ...

BACKGROUND: To validate a widely used health outcomes instrument for patients with chronic kidney disease and on dialysis, the Kidney Disease Quality of Life questionnaire (KDQOL-36), in English-speaking haemodialysis patients in Singapore. METHODS: This study is a secondary data analysis using the KDQOL-SF (version 1.3) data collected from a cross-sectional ...

Abstract The explosion of data in evolutionary bioinformatics has led to sometimes ad hoc, incomplete and even inaccurate data analyses. Taking dS data, namely, data on synonymous substitutions per synonymous sites, we go through a statistical analysis for modeling the time since duplications of genes. We explore the shortcomings of ...

Many methods have been proposed to reconstruct the pedigree of a sample of individuals from their multilocus marker genotypes. These methods, like those in other fields of statistical inferences, may suffer from both type I (falsely related) and type II (falsely unrelated) errors. In sibship reconstruction, type I errors come ...

Abstract In genetic association studies (GAS) as well as in genome-wide association studies (GWAS), the mode of inheritance (dominant, additive and recessive) is usually not known a priori. Assuming an incorrect mode of inheritance may lead to substantial loss of power, whereas on the other hand, testing all possible models ...

The process of validating an assay for high-throughput screening (HTS) involves identifying sources of variability and developing procedures that minimize the variability at each step in the protocol. The goal is to produce a robust and reproducible assay with good metrics. In all good cell-based assays, this means coefficient of ...

INTRODUCTION: The colour of fruit is an important quality factor for cultivar classification and phenotyping techniques. Besides the subjective visual evaluation, new instruments and techniques can be used. OBJECTIVES: This work aims at developping an objective, fast, easy and non-destructive method as a useful support for evaluating grapes' colour under ...

BACKGROUND: The binding of transcription factors to DNA plays an essential role in the regulation of geneexpression. Numerous experiments elucidated binding sequences which subsequently have beenused to derive statistical models for predicting potential transcription factor binding sites (TFBS).The rapidly increasing number of genome sequence data requires sophisticated computationalapproaches to manage ...

MOTIVATION: Accurate determination of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from next-generation sequencing data is a significant challenge facing bioinformatics researchers. Most current methods employ mechanistic models that assume nucleotides aligning to a given reference position are sampled from a binomial distribution. While such methods are sensitive, they are often unable to ...

PURPOSE: To explore methods to assess standardized patient (SP) performance over time so as to sustain objective performance in a high-stakes clinical skills examination and to inform quality assurance. METHOD: The authors selected data from the United States Medical Licensing Examination-Step 2 Clinical Skills to assess the relative usefulness of ...

In the climate system, two types of radiative feedback are in operation. The feedback of the first kind involves the radiative damping of the vertically uniform temperature perturbation of the troposphere and Earth's surface that approximately follows the Stefan-Boltzmann law of blackbody radiation. The second kind involves the change in ...

OBJECTIVES: Experiential knowledge of elite athletes and coaches was investigated to reveal insights on expertise acquisition in cricket fast bowling. DESIGN: Twenty-one past or present elite cricket fast bowlers and coaches of national or international level were interviewed using an in-depth, open-ended, semi-structured approach. METHODS: Participants were asked about specific ...

OBJECTIVE.: The present study attempts to fill a research gap by performing the first dimensionality analysis of the Revised Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQR) using exploratory and confirmatory techniques. A second objective is to report on the reliability and construct validity of the FIQR in Spanish patients. METHODS.: FIQR data from ...

Animal models have been used for decades in the Alzheimer's disease (AD) research field and have been crucial for the advancement of our understanding of the disease. Most models are based on familial AD mutations of genes involved in the amyloidogenic process, such as the amyloid precursor protein (APP) and ...

Throughout history, the population size of modern humans has varied considerably due to changes in environment, culture, and technology. More accurate estimates of population size changes, and when they occurred, should provide a clearer picture of human colonization history and help remove confounding effects from natural selection inference. Demography influences ...

OBJECTIVE: To determine the content, structural, and construct validity of the Dutch version of the Neck Disability Index (NDI). STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: To assess content validity, 11 neck pain experts and 10 patients commented on the construct, comprehensiveness, and relevance of the NDI. Structural validity was assessed by item ...

On June 4 and 17, 2011, separate oil spill accidents occurred at two oil platforms in the Bohai Sea, China. The oil spills were subsequently observed on different types of satellite images including SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar), Chinese HJ-1-B CCD and NASA MODIS. To illustrate the fate of the oil ...

Gentiana straminea is the famous Tibetan folk medicine thought to cure various diseases. Historically, the Qinghai-Tibetan region has been considered as the geo-authentic production area of "Mahua Jiao," where large quantities of the medicine are grown. However, there is still little known about the phytochemical constituent spatial variation of this ...

Racial distinctions in the United States have long been characterized as uniquely rigid and governed by strict rules of descent, particularly along the black-white boundary. This is often contrasted with countries, such as Brazil, that recognize "mixed" or intermediate racial categories and allow for more fluidity or ambiguity in racial ...

The invasion of pest insects often changes or destroys a native ecosystem, and can result in food shortages and disease endemics. Issues such as the environmental effects of chemical control methods, the economic burden of maintaining control strategies and the risk of pest resistance still remain, and mosquito-borne diseases such ...

In this article a review on the recent applications of multivariate techniques for optimization of electromigration methods, is presented. Papers published in the period from August 2007 to February 2013, have been taken into consideration. Upon a brief description of each of the involved CE operative modes, the characteristics of ...

In ecotoxicity assessment, the ambient exposure concentration is typically applied to quantify the toxic potential of xenobiotic substances. However, exposure and organism-related differences in bioconcentration often cause a considerable variability of toxicity data. This can be minimized by using the internal organism concentration, because toxicokinetic modifying factors are considered implicitly. ...

Aims: To describe the development of a deprivation index for Danish parishes and to investigate its association with all-cause mortality compared with the Townsend index and individual-level factors. Methods: Nine socioeconomic factors were aggregated to the parish level from individual-level register data comprising the entire Danish population in 2005. A ...

MOTIVATION: Approaches for testing sets of variants, such as a set of rare or common variants within a gene or pathway, for association with complex traits are important. In particular, set tests allow for aggregation of weak signal within a set, can capture interplay among variants, and reduce the burden ...

MOTIVATION: Genetic variants identified by genome-wide association studies to date explain only a small fraction of total heritability. Gene-by-gene interaction is one important potential source of unexplained total heritability. We propose a novel approach to detect such interactions that uses penalized regression and sparse estimation principles, and incorporates outside biological ...

BACKGROUND: Perceived incongruity between the individual and the job on work-life areas such as workload, control, reward, fairness, community and values have implications for the dimensions of burnout syndrome. The "Areas of Work-life Scale" (AWS) is a practical instrument to measure employees perceptions of their work environments.AIMS: Validate a Spanish ...

Intersex is defined as the simultaneous presence of male and female gonadal tissue in a gonochoristic (fixed-sex) species. The intersex condition has been documented in both wild and laboratory animals, including fish, amphibians, and reptiles. In aquatic animals, intersex is often viewed as a signature effect of exposure to endocrine ...