Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can enhance motor and language rehabilitation after stroke. Though brain lesions distort tDCS-induced electric field (E-field), systematic accounts ...remain limited. Using electric field modelling, we investigated the effect of 630 synthetic lesions on E-field magnitude in the region of interest (ROI). Models were conducted for two tDCS montages targeting either primary motor cortex (M1) or Broca's area (BA44). Absolute E-field magnitude in the ROI differed by up to 42% compared to the non-lesioned brain depending on lesion size, lesion-ROI distance, and lesion conductivity value. Lesion location determined the sign of this difference: lesions in-line with the predominant direction of current increased E-field magnitude in the ROI, whereas lesions located in the opposite direction decreased E-field magnitude. We further explored how individualised tDCS can control lesion-induced effects on E-field. Lesions affected the individualised electrode configuration needed to maximise E-field magnitude in the ROI, but this effect was negligible when prioritising the maximisation of radial inward current. Lesions distorting tDCS-induced E-field, is likely to exacerbate inter-individual variability in E-field magnitude. Individualising electrode configuration and stimulator output can minimise lesion-induced variability but requires improved estimates of lesion conductivity. Individualised tDCS is critical to overcome E-field variability in lesioned brains.
This study examined the patterns and nature of science co-publications between the USA and China. Based on a scientometric study of Scopus co-publications over the past 5 years, the results ...demonstrated a continuous rise of bilateral collaboration between the two countries. Challenging the US political rhetoric and attempts to curb international research engagement with China, the findings demonstrated ways that China plays a leading role in US-China research collaboration, based on first authorship and governmental funding patterns. Findings also showed that over the past 5 years, US research article publications would have declined without co-authorship with China, whereas China’s publication rate would have risen without the USA. Using zero-sum and positive-sum frameworks, this study shows the benefits of US collaboration with China for both the US nation-state and global science.
Combination PD-1 and CTLA-4 inhibitor therapy has dramatically improved the survival of patients with advanced melanoma but is also associated with significant immune-related toxicities. This study ...sought to identify circulating cytokine biomarkers of treatment response and immune-related toxicity.
The expression of 65 cytokines was profiled longitudinally in 98 patients with melanoma treated with PD-1 inhibitors, alone or in combination with anti-CTLA-4, and in an independent validation cohort of 49 patients treated with combination anti-PD-1 and anti-CTLA-4. Cytokine expression was correlated with RECIST response and immune-related toxicity, defined as toxicity that warranted permanent discontinuation of treatment and administration of high-dose steroids.
Eleven cytokines were significantly upregulated in patients with severe immune-related toxicities at baseline (PRE) and early during treatment (EDT). The expression of these 11 cytokines was integrated into a single toxicity score, the CYTOX (cytokine toxicity) score, and the predictive utility of this score was confirmed in the discovery and validation cohorts. The AUC for the CYTOX score in the validation cohort was 0.68 at PRE 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.51-0.84;
= 0.037 and 0.70 at EDT (95% CI, 0.55-0.85;
= 0.017) using ROC analysis.
The CYTOX score is predictive of severe immune-related toxicity in patients with melanoma treated with combination anti-CTLA-4 and anti-PD-1 immunotherapy. This score, which includes proinflammatory cytokines such as IL1a, IL2, and IFNα2, may help in the early management of severe, potentially life-threatening immune-related toxicity.
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Summary
Nanomachines belonging to the type IV filament (Tff) superfamily serve a variety of cellular functions in prokaryotes, including motility, adhesion, electrical conductance, competence and ...secretion. The type 2 secretion system (T2SS) Tff member assembles a short filament called pseudopilus that promotes the secretion of folded proteins from the periplasm across the outer membrane of Gram‐negative bacteria. A combination of structural, biochemical, imaging, computational and in vivo approaches had led to a working model for the assembled nanomachine. High‐resolution cryo‐electron microscopy and tomography provided the first view of several homologous Tff nanomachines in the cell envelope and revealed the structure of the outer membrane secretin channel, challenging current models of the overall stoichiometry of the T2SS. In addition, recent insights into exoprotein substrate features and interactions with the T2SS have led to new questions about the dynamics of the system and the role of the plasma membrane in substrate presentation. This micro‐review will highlight recent advances in the field of type 2 secretion and discuss approaches that can be used to reach a mechanistic understanding of exoprotein recognition, integration into the machine and secretion.
The type 2 secretion system promotes secretion of fully folded and active enzymes or toxins from the periplasm to the surface of Gram‐negative bacteria. We describe recent insights into the architecture of this molecular machine and our current understanding of how it recognizes, takes up and secretes specific proteins across the bacterial envelope.
Welcome to America? Lee, Jenny J; Rice, Charles
Higher education,
03/2007, Letnik:
53, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
This research explores the experiences of international students at a research university in the U.S. Southwest. Based on interviews of a sample of 24 students from 15 countries, we consider a range ...of difficulties they encounter which runs from perceptions of unfairness and inhospitality to cultural intolerance and confrontation. Utilizing the conceptual framework of neo-racism to explain many of their experiences, we organize our analysis and discussion around their words and the contexts in which the difficulties they encounter emerge. We find that not all of the issues international students face can be problematized as matters of adjustment, as much research does, but that some of the more serious challenges are due to inadequacies within the host society. (HRK / Abstract übernommen).
Place attachment has become an important concept in tourism-related research, with substantial relevance for the nature of the human-place relationship and behavioural intentions and outcomes. ...Following a review of the place attachment literature in tourism, this article reviews the studies on the conceptualisation of place attachment, its antecedents and influencing outcomes, and explores its potential in the areas of sustainable tourism, destination resilience, and destination competitiveness.
This essay argues that neo-racism undermines the U.S.’s role as a global leader in higher education, considering the risks to public health, personal freedoms, and rights. With the rise of national ...protectionism, universities are and must remain international. Knowledge is fundamentally borderless, and yet higher education is being bordered by neo-racism. Neo-racist barriers to international migration, collaboration, and exchange limit higher education as well as our universities. Neo-racism limits our freedoms, it limits our rights, and now limits our ability to respond to COVID-19 effectively. Neo-racist barriers must be called out and addressed.
Skeletal maturity progresses through discrete phases, a fact that is used routinely in pediatrics where bone age assessments (BAAs) are compared to chronological age in the evaluation of endocrine ...and metabolic disorders. While central to many disease evaluations, little has changed to improve the tedious process since its introduction in 1950. In this study, we propose a fully automated deep learning pipeline to segment a region of interest, standardize and preprocess input radiographs, and perform BAA. Our models use an ImageNet pretrained, fine-tuned convolutional neural network (CNN) to achieve 57.32 and 61.40% accuracies for the female and male cohorts on our held-out test images. Female test radiographs were assigned a BAA within 1 year 90.39% and within 2 years 98.11% of the time. Male test radiographs were assigned 94.18% within 1 year and 99.00% within 2 years. Using the input occlusion method, attention maps were created which reveal what features the trained model uses to perform BAA. These correspond to what human experts look at when manually performing BAA. Finally, the fully automated BAA system was deployed in the clinical environment as a decision supporting system for more accurate and efficient BAAs at much faster interpretation time (<2 s) than the conventional method.
Objective:
To examine the medium-term effects of a group intervention combining exercise and cognitive-behavioral strategies (EC) on older adults with chronic pain.
Method:
One hundred and fifty-two ...Hong Kong Chinese older adults with chronic pain affecting bones, muscles, and joints were randomized by clinic/social center to receive 10 weekly sessions of EC or pain education (control). The primary (pain intensity) and secondary outcomes (pain disability, pain self-efficacy, pain catastrophizing, pain coping, depressive symptoms, health-related quality of life, and hip and knee strength) were collected at baseline (T1), postintervention (T2), and 3- (T3) and 6-month follow-ups (T4). The trajectories of intervention effects were modeled by EC × time and EC × time2 interaction terms in mixed-effects regression.
Results:
Significant EC × time and/or EC × time2 interactions were found for pain intensity, pain disability, self-efficacy, and catastrophizing, such that the treatment effect leveled off (pain disability) or diminished (pain intensity and catastrophizing) over time, or continued to increase in a linear fashion (self-efficacy). There was also a treatment main effect on hip/knee muscle strength. Group differences in favor of EC were observed up to 3-month follow-up for pain intensity (d = −0.51) and hip/knee muscle strength (d = 0.38), and up to 6-month follow-up for pain disability (d = −0.60) and self-efficacy (d = 0.52). No group difference was found for catastrophizing at any time point. No treatment effects were found for the other outcomes.
Conclusion:
Older people suffering from chronic pain can benefit from a program incorporating both cognitive-behavioral techniques and physical exercise.
What is the public health significance of this article?
Studies on nonpharmacological methods for older people with chronic pain are lacking. This randomized controlled trial provides support for integrating cognitive-behavioral methods with physical exercise in the self-management of chronic pain by older people. The alleviation of pain and its sequelae such as disability through a structured time-limited program that is easy to implement in diverse clinical and service settings can have large public health benefits given the prevalence of chronic pain in aging populations.
Internationalisation and globalisation are intertwined and complex phenomena that have attracted the interest of higher education scholars for several decades. This article offers some reflections on ...how research on internationalisation and globalisation has developed over the years and the perspectives that appear to have dominated these studies. A key argument is that while the field is, in many ways, booming—both in the numbers of publications and with respect to topics explored—whether substantial theoretical advances have been made is questionable. Many publications still tend to be quite descriptive with shallow observations, mostly on reporting national trends and political agendas. As internationalisation and globalisation undoubtedly continue to make an impact on higher education in the years to come, there is a need for a stronger theoretical basis, which can underpin future studies. The current article discusses potential future advancements enabling a more integrated, theoretical grounding for understanding and interpreting internationalisation and globalisation in the years to come.
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