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Using Developmental Trajectories to Understand Developmental Disorders
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Thomas, Michael S. C.; Annaz, Dagmara; Ansari, Daniel; Scerif, Gaia; Jarrold, Chris; Karmiloff-Smith, Annette
Purpose: In this article, the authors present a tutorial on the use of developmental trajectories for studying language and cognitive impairments in developmental disorders and compare this method with the use of matching. Method: The authors assess the strengths, limitations, and practical implications of each method. The contrast between the…
Understanding Parables: A Developmental Analysis.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Bucher, Anton A.
The development of understanding of Biblical parables on the part of 28 Swiss subjects of 7 to 50 years of age was studied. It was found that Biblical parables were interpreted through the lens of one's stage of religious judgment in the manner described by Oser's and Gmunder's (1988) model. (BB)
Developmental Approaches to Understanding and Treating Autism
Tony Charman
Over the past decade our understanding of early social communication development in young children with autism has undergone a remarkable change. We now know something about how young children with autism process the social world in a very different way from typical children. This has led to truly developmental models of autism. In turn, these have had profound impacts on
Many human accelerated regions are developmental enhancers
Capra, John A.; Erwin, Genevieve D.; McKinsey, Gabriel; Rubenstein, John L. R.; Pollard, Katherine S.
The genetic changes underlying the dramatic differences in form and function between humans and other primates are largely unknown, although it is clear that gene regulatory changes play an important role. To identify regulatory sequences with potentially human-specific functions, we and others used comparative genomics to find non-coding regions conserved across mammals that have acquired many sequence changes in humans since divergence from chimpanzees. These regions are good candidates for performing human-specific regulatory functions. Here, we analysed the DNA sequence, evolutionary history, histone modifications, chromatin state and transcription factor (TF) binding sites of a combined set of 2649 non-coding human accelerated regions (ncHARs) and predicted that at least 30% of them function as developmental enhancers. We prioritized the predicted ncHAR enhancers using analysis of TF binding site gain and loss, along with the functional annotations and expression patterns of nearby genes. We then tested both the human and chimpanzee sequence for 29 ncHARs in transgenic mice, and found 24 novel developmental enhancers active in both species, 17 of which had very consistent patterns of activity in specific embryonic tissues. Of these ncHAR enhancers, five drove expression patterns suggestive of different activity for the human and chimpanzee sequence at embryonic day 11.5. The changes to human non-coding DNA in these ncHAR enhancers may modify the complex patterns of gene expression necessary for proper development in a human-specific manner and are thus promising candidates for understanding the genetic basis of human-specific biology. PMID:24218637
Many human accelerated regions are developmental enhancers.
Capra, John A; Erwin, Genevieve D; McKinsey, Gabriel; Rubenstein, John L R; Pollard, Katherine S
The genetic changes underlying the dramatic differences in form and function between humans and other primates are largely unknown, although it is clear that gene regulatory changes play an important role. To identify regulatory sequences with potentially human-specific functions, we and others used comparative genomics to find non-coding regions conserved across mammals that have acquired many sequence changes in humans since divergence from chimpanzees. These regions are good candidates for performing human-specific regulatory functions. Here, we analysed the DNA sequence, evolutionary history, histone modifications, chromatin state and transcription factor (TF) binding sites of a combined set of 2649 non-coding human accelerated regions (ncHARs) and predicted that at least 30% of them function as developmental enhancers. We prioritized the predicted ncHAR enhancers using analysis of TF binding site gain and loss, along with the functional annotations and expression patterns of nearby genes. We then tested both the human and chimpanzee sequence for 29 ncHARs in transgenic mice, and found 24 novel developmental enhancers active in both species, 17 of which had very consistent patterns of activity in specific embryonic tissues. Of these ncHAR enhancers, five drove expression patterns suggestive of different activity for the human and chimpanzee sequence at embryonic day 11.5. The changes to human non-coding DNA in these ncHAR enhancers may modify the complex patterns of gene expression necessary for proper development in a human-specific manner and are thus promising candidates for understanding the genetic basis of human-specific biology. PMID:24218637
Developmental stability and human violence.
Furlow, B; Gangestad, S W; Armijo-Prewitt, T
Developmental stability (the precision with which genotypes are translated into phenotypes under physically stressful developmental conditions), is a major source of phenotypic and behavioural variation, yet researchers have largely ignored its potential role in the ontogeny of individual propensities toward human aggression and violence. In this study, we measured fluctuating asymmetry of the body and administered aggression and fighting history questionnaires to 229 college students (139 female and 90 male undergraduates). Among males, but not females, fluctuating asymmetry correlated negatively and significantly with the participants' number of fights and propensity to escalate agonistic encounters to physical violence. Principal components analyses and scree tests suggested that two psychometric factors underlie observed correlations between self-report measures of aggressive tendencies. The first factor, 'aggressive negative affect', reflected verbal aggression and hostility toward others, while the second factor, 'self-assessed fighting ability', reflected physical violence and a tendency to win fights. The two factors correlated minimally. For both males and females, the second factor correlated with number of fights while the first factor did not. Fluctuating asymmetry did not significantly correlate with either factor for either sex, but for both sexes, psychometric intelligence (IQ) correlated positively with the first factor. PMID:9470212
Glucuronidation in humans. Pharmacogenetic and developmental aspects.
de Wildt, S N; Kearns, G L; Leeder, J S; van den Anker, J N
During human development impressive changes in drug disposition occur. An important determinant of drug clearance is metabolism, something that is not only determined by ontogenic regulation but also by genetic processes which add to the variability of drug metabolism during different stages of childhood. Therefore, an understanding of the developmental regulation of different metabolic pathways, together with information on the genetic determinants of drug metabolism, will increase the knowledge of inter- and intraindividual variability in drug disposition during childhood. Conjugation has historically received less attention than cytochrome P450 metabolism. An important group of conjugation reactions are catalysed by the uridine 5'-diphosphate (UDP)-glucuronosyltransferases (UGTs); to date at least 10 different UGT isoforms have been identified. The UGTs are not only involved in the metabolism of many drugs [e.g. morphine, paracetamol (acetaminophen)] but also capable of the biotransformation of important endogenous substrates (e.g. bilirubin, ethinylestradiol) and several xenobiotics. Isoform specificity for these substrates has, however, not been fully characterised. Serious adverse events associated with chloramphenicol toxicity in the neonate have highlighted the importance of developmental changes in UGT activity. However, isoform-specific differences preclude the generalisation of a simple developmental pattern for UGT activity. UGT2B7 is the only UGT isoform for which ontogeny has been characterised both in vitro and in vivo, using morphine as the probe drug. However, no general developmental pattern for the individual UGT isoforms which might be of value for the clinician is currently available. Genetic polymorphisms have been identified for the UGT family. Not only for the UGT1A gene, which reduces bilirubin glucuronidation, leading to genetic hyperbilirubinaemia (the Crigler-Najjar and Gilbert's syndromes), but also for 3 other UGT isoforms. However, the impact of these genetic differences on drug metabolism remains to be established because of overlapping isoform specificity of the drugs studied, as well as a lack of specific probe substrates to test the activity of individual UGT isoforms in relation to these gene mutations. Clearly, an information gap exists regarding the developmental and genetic aspects of UGT regulation and its potential impact on therapy. More research is needed on the pharmacogenetics and ontogeny of the UGTs for effective translation of scientific information into clinically applicable knowledge. PMID:10427468
Developmental Learning: A Case Study in Understanding \\
Yi Chen; Juyang Weng
The concepts of muddy environment and muddy tasks set the ground for us to understand the essence of intelligence, both artificial and nat- ural, which further motivates the need of Devel- opmental Learningfor machines. In this paper, a biologically inspired computational model is pro- posed to study one of the fundamental and contro- versial issues in cognitive science - \\
A Developmental Psychological Perspective on the Human–Animal Bond
Nancy A. Pachana; Bronwyn M. Massavelli; Sofia Robleda-Gomez
\\u000a The human–animal bond contributes to well-being in a variety of ways. Our understanding of our relationship with animals,\\u000a particularly from a psychological point of view, is enhanced when viewed through the lens of a lifetime developmental perspective.\\u000a Issues of attachment and the nature of the human–animal bond vary across childhood, adulthood, and later life. These in turn\\u000a influence how animals
How Neuropsychology Informs Our Understanding of Developmental Disorders
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Pennington, Bruce F.
This review includes 1) an explanation of what neuropsychology is, 2) a brief history of how developmental cognitive neuroscience emerged from earlier neuropsychological approaches to understanding atypical development, 3) three recent examples that illustrate the benefits of this approach, 4) issues and challenges this approach must face, and 5)…
Children's Understanding of False Beliefs that Result from Developmental Misconceptions.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Miller, Scott A.; And Others
Three experiments studied preschoolers' understanding of false beliefs resulting from developmental misconceptions. Found that children showed some (but incomplete) mastery of Level 2 perspective taking, appearance-reality distinction, line of sight, and biological principles of growth and innate potential. Performance was comparable to that with…
Understanding Human Experience Henry Kautz
Kautz, Henry
Understanding Human Experience Henry Kautz One of the earliest goals of research in artificial intelligence was to create systems that can interpret and understand day to day human experience. Early work on the goal of building systems that understand human experience. Each of the previous barriers is weakened
To compile literature information for web-based dissemination. The report will be on our current understanding of the science of development of the immune system, to provide examples of perturbations that can be brought about by environmental agents and that could produce effects...
Fernandez, Thomas
Chapter 2 AN ESSAY CONCERNING HUMAN UNDERSTANDING OF GENETIC PROGRAMMING Lee Spector Cognitive Concerning Human Understanding of Genetic Programming," by Lee Spector, to appear in Genetic Programming a personal perspective on the relation between theory and practice in genetic programming. It posits
An ontology of human developmental anatomy
Hunter, Amy; Kaufman, Matthew H; McKay, Angus; Baldock, Richard; Simmen, Martin W; Bard, Jonathan B L
Human developmental anatomy has been organized as structured lists of the major constituent tissues present during each of Carnegie stages 1–20 (E1–E50, ?8500 anatomically defined tissue items). For each of these stages, the tissues have been organized as a hierarchy in which an individual tissue is catalogued as part of a larger tissue. Such a formal representation of knowledge is known as an ontology and this anatomical ontology can be used in databases to store, organize and search for data associated with the tissues present at each developmental stage. The anatomical data for compiling these hierarchies comes from the literature, from observations on embryos in the Patten Collection (Ann Arbor, MI, USA) and from comparisons with mouse tissues at similar stages of development. The ontology is available in three versions. The first gives hierarchies of the named tissues present at each Carnegie stage (http://www.ana.ed.ac.uk/anatomy/database/humat/) and is intended to help analyse both normal and abnormal human embryos; it carries hyperlinked notes on some ambiguities in the literature that have been clarified through analysing sectioned material. The second contains many additional subsidiary tissue domains and is intended for handling tissue-associated data (e.g. gene-expression) in a database. This version is available at the humat site and at http://genex.hgu.mrc.ac.uk/Resources/intro.html/), and has been designed to be interoperable with the ontology for mouse developmental anatomy, also available at the genex site. The third gives the second version in GO ontology syntax (with standard IDs for each tissue) and can be downloaded from both the genex and the Open Biological Ontology sites (http://obo.sourceforge.net/) PMID:14620375
BRAF gene: From human cancers to developmental syndromes
Hussain, Muhammad Ramzan Manwar; Baig, Mukhtiar; Mohamoud, Hussein Sheik Ali; Ulhaq, Zaheer; Hoessli, Daniel C.; Khogeer, Ghaidaa Siraj; Al-Sayed, Ranem Radwan; Al-Aama, Jumana Yousuf
The BRAF gene encodes for a serine/threonine protein kinase that participates in the MAPK/ERK signalling pathway and plays a vital role in cancers and developmental syndromes (RASopathies). The current review discusses the clinical significance of the BRAF gene and other members of RAS/RAF cascade in human cancers and RAS/MAPK syndromes, and focuses the molecular basis and clinical genetics of BRAF to better understand its parallel involvement in both tumourigenesis and RAS/MAPK syndromes—Noonan syndrome, cardio-facio-cutaneous syndrome and LEOPARD syndrome.
BRAF gene: From human cancers to developmental syndromes.
Hussain, Muhammad Ramzan Manwar; Baig, Mukhtiar; Mohamoud, Hussein Sheik Ali; Ulhaq, Zaheer; Hoessli, Daniel C; Khogeer, Ghaidaa Siraj; Al-Sayed, Ranem Radwan; Al-Aama, Jumana Yousuf
The BRAF gene encodes for a serine/threonine protein kinase that participates in the MAPK/ERK signalling pathway and plays a vital role in cancers and developmental syndromes (RASopathies). The current review discusses the clinical significance of the BRAF gene and other members of RAS/RAF cascade in human cancers and RAS/MAPK syndromes, and focuses the molecular basis and clinical genetics of BRAF to better understand its parallel involvement in both tumourigenesis and RAS/MAPK syndromes-Noonan syndrome, cardio-facio-cutaneous syndrome and LEOPARD syndrome. PMID:26150740
Modeling anesthetic developmental neurotoxicity using human stem cells
Bai, Xiaowen; Twaroski, Danielle; Bosnjak, Zeljko J.
Mounting pre-clinical evidence in rodents and non-human primates has demonstrated that prolonged exposure of developing animals to general anesthetics can induce widespread neuronal cell death followed by long-term memory and learning disabilities. In vitro experimental evidence from cultured neonatal animal neurons confirmed the in vivo findings. However, there is no direct clinical evidence of the detrimental effects of anesthetics in human fetuses, infants, or children. Development of an in vitro neurogenesis system using human stem cells has opened up avenues of research for advancing our understanding of human brain development and the issues relevant to anesthetic-induced developmental toxicity in human neuronal lineages. Recent studies from our group, as well as other groups, showed that isoflurane influences human neural stem cell proliferation and neurogenesis, while ketamine induces neuroapoptosis. Application of this high throughput in vitro stem cell neurogenesis approach is a major stride toward assuring the safety of anesthetic agents in young children. This in vitro human model allows us to (1) screen the toxic effects of various anesthetics under controlled conditions during intense neuronal growth, (2) find the trigger for the anesthetic-induced catastrophic chain of toxic events, and (3) develop prevention strategies to avoid this toxic effect. In this paper, we reviewed the current findings in anesthetic-induced neurotoxicity studies, specifically focusing on the in vitro human stem cell model. PMID:23859832
Stacking of blocks by chimpanzees: developmental processes and physical understanding
Misato Hayashi
The stacking-block task has been used to assess cognitive development in both humans and chimpanzees. The present study reports\\u000a three aspects of stacking behavior in chimpanzees: spontaneous development, acquisition process following training, and physical\\u000a understanding assessed through a cylindrical-block task. Over 3 years of longitudinal observation of block manipulation, one\\u000a of three infant chimpanzees spontaneously started to stack up cubic
Developmental Science: Integrating Knowledge About Dynamic Processes in Human Development
Herbert Scheithauer; Kay Niebank; Angela Ittel
There is an increasing need to develop an interdisciplinary model that describes the dynamic processes in human development.\\u000a During the last decades several different theories depicting dynamic developmental processes have been formulated. In this\\u000a chapter we briefly introduce these approaches and argue that developmental systems perspective (DSP) is one of the more promising\\u000a approaches to depict how developmental patterns arise.
Developmental and Individual Differences in Understanding of Fractions
Siegler, Robert S.; Pyke, Aryn A.
We examined developmental and individual differences in 6th and 8th graders' fraction arithmetic and overall mathematics achievement and related them to differences in understanding of fraction magnitudes, whole number division, executive functioning, and metacognitive judgments within a cross sectional design. Results indicated that the difference between low achieving and higher achieving children's fraction arithmetic knowledge, already substantial in 6th grade, was much greater in 8th grade. The fraction arithmetic knowledge of low achieving children was similar in the two grades, whereas higher achieving children showed much greater knowledge in 8th than 6th grade, despite both groups having been in the same classrooms, using the same textbooks, and having the same teachers and classmates. Individual differences in both fraction arithmetic and mathematics achievement test scores were predicted by differences in fraction magnitude knowledge and whole number division, even after the contributions of reading achievement and executive functioning were statistically controlled. Instructional implications of the findings are discussed. PMID:23244401
The Developmental Basis of Quantitative Craniofacial Variation in Humans and Mice.
Martínez-Abadías, Neus; Mitteroecker, Philipp; Parsons, Trish E; Esparza, Mireia; Sjřvold, Torstein; Rolian, Campbell; Richtsmeier, Joan T; Hallgrímsson, Benedikt
The human skull is a complex and highly integrated structure that has long held the fascination of anthropologists and evolutionary biologists. Recent studies of the genetics of craniofacial variation reveal a very complex and multifactorial picture. These findings contrast with older ideas that posit much simpler developmental bases for variation in cranial morphology such as the growth of the brain or the growth of the chondrocranium relative to the dermatocranium. Such processes have been shown to have major effects on cranial morphology in mice. It is not known, however, whether they are relevant to explaining normal phenotypic variation in humans. To answer this question, we obtained vectors of shape change from mutant mouse models in which the developmental basis for the craniofacial phenotype is known to varying degrees, and compared these to a homologous dataset constructed from human crania obtained from a single population with a known genealogy. Our results show that the shape vectors associated with perturbations to chondrocranial growth, brain growth, and body size in mice do largely correspond to axes of covariation in humans. This finding supports the view that the developmental basis for craniofacial variation funnels down to a relatively small number of key developmental processes that are similar across mice and humans. Understanding these processes and how they influence craniofacial shape provides fundamental insights into the developmental basis for evolutionary change in the human skull as well as the developmental-genetic basis for normal phenotypic variation in craniofacial form. PMID:23226904
Understanding Human Mobility from Twitter
Jurdak, Raja; Liu, Jiajun; AbouJaoude, Maurice; Cameron, Mark; Newth, David
We analyse a large dataset with more than six million get-tagged tweets posted in Australia, and demonstrate that Twitter can be a reliable source for studying human mobility patterns. We find that crucial information of human mobility, such as its multi-scale and multi-modal nature, returning tendency and regularity, as well as the heterogeneous moving scale among individuals, can be extracted from geo-tagged tweets using various statistical indicators. Our analysis of the spatial-temporal patterns for people with different moving scales shows that long-distance travellers have highly concentrated urban movements. Our study not only deepens overall understanding of human mobility but also opens new avenues for tracking human mobility.
Understanding Human Mobility from Twitter
Jurdak, Raja; Zhao, Kun; Liu, Jiajun; AbouJaoude, Maurice; Cameron, Mark; Newth, David
Understanding human mobility is crucial for a broad range of applications from disease prediction to communication networks. Most efforts on studying human mobility have so far used private and low resolution data, such as call data records. Here, we propose Twitter as a proxy for human mobility, as it relies on publicly available data and provides high resolution positioning when users opt to geotag their tweets with their current location. We analyse a Twitter dataset with more than six million geotagged tweets posted in Australia, and we demonstrate that Twitter can be a reliable source for studying human mobility patterns. Our analysis shows that geotagged tweets can capture rich features of human mobility, such as the diversity of movement orbits among individuals and of movements within and between cities. We also find that short- and long-distance movers both spend most of their time in large metropolitan areas, in contrast with intermediate-distance movers' movements, reflecting the impact of different modes of travel. Our study provides solid evidence that Twitter can indeed be a useful proxy for tracking and predicting human movement. PMID:26154597
Towards Computer Understanding of Human Interactions
Wrigley, Stuart
Towards Computer Understanding of Human Interactions Iain McCowan, Daniel Gatica-Perez, Samy Bengio Introduction The domain of human-computer interaction aims to help humans interact more naturally or understand human interactions : putting computers in the human interaction loop [1]. Humans naturally
Understanding empathy: Integrating counseling, developmental, and social psychology perspectives
Gerald A. Gladstein
Reviews the literature of social and developmental psychology on empathy theory and research. These 2 subdisciplines differ in their definitions and measures from each other, as well as from the counseling\\/psychotherapy area. At the same time, all 3 disciplines identify 2 major types of empathy: (a) affective empathy, or feeling the same way as another person, and (b) cognitive or
Cognitive and developmental components of understanding the nature of science
Sharon Dotger
The purpose of this study is to determine the degree to which years of education, college major, or reflective judgment stage influences individual's understandings of the nature of science. Using a cross-sectional design influenced by the literature describing the development of reflective judgment and nature of science understandings, this study encompasses the viewpoints of 323 individuals from ninth grade through
Understanding Peace and War: A Review of Developmental Psychology Research
Ilse Hakvoort; Louis Oppenheimer
Over the past decades the number of studies dealing with the developing understanding of peace and war among children and adolescents has considerably increased. No coherent overview is available despite this increase. The purpose of this review is to address this absence and to offer a systematic discussion of early and contemporary studies. Besides the absence of a coherent review,
Understanding of logical necessity: developmental antecedents and cognitive consequences.
Morris, A K; Sloutsky, V M
Does abstract reasoning develop naturally, and does instruction contribute to its development? In an attempt to answer these questions, this article specifically focuses on effects of prolonged instruction on the development of abstract deductive reasoning and, more specifically, on the development of understanding of logical necessity. It was hypothesized that instructional emphasis on the metalevel of deduction within a knowledge domain can amplify the development of deductive reasoning both within and across this domain. The article presents 2 studies that examine the development of understanding of logical necessity in algebraic and verbal deductive reasoning. In the first study, algebraic and verbal reasoning tasks were administered to 450 younger and older adolescents selected across different instructional settings in England and in Russia. In the second study, algebraic and verbal reasoning tasks were administered to 287 Russian younger and older adolescents selected across different instructional settings. The results support the hypothesis, indicating that prolonged instruction with an emphasis on the metalevel of algebraic deduction contributes to the development of understanding of logical necessity in both algebraic and verbal deductive reasoning. Findings also suggest that many adolescents do not develop an understanding of logical necessity naturally. PMID:9680681
Reading Comprehension and Understanding Idiomatic Expressions: A Developmental Study
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Chiara Levorato, Maria; Nesi, Barbara; Cacciari, Cristina
The aim of the present study was to investigate idiom comprehension in school-age Italian children with different reading comprehension skills. According to our hypothesis, the level of a child's text comprehension skills should predict his/her ability to understand idiomatic meanings. Idiom comprehension in fact requires children to go beyond a…
Promoting our understanding of neural plasticity by exploring developmental plasticity in early and adult life.
Rohlfs Domínguez, Paloma
Developmental plasticity (DP) is widely considered to be a property of early life stages, but evidence suggests it can be reactivated in mature brains. For example, recent developments on animal models suggest that experience in enriched environments (EE) can induce DP and enable adult recovery from amblyopia; even when the typical critical period for that recovery has closed. An interesting body of evidence suggests that extrapolation of the rejuvenatory power of that paradigm in mature human brains is feasible. These studies show that exposure to EE throughout life is associated with a delay, or even prevention, of age-related cognitive deficits. Consequently, it can be concluded that DP might underlie the neuroprotective effects against a neurocognitive breakdown that have been observed, and that EE exposure later in life might induce DP in a similar way to early EE exposure. Thus, the DP might exert its influence beyond the typical developing age ranges: childhood and adolescence. Although further research is still required, the observation of EE related neuroprotective effects are a breakthrough in the study of DP in humans and new advances in our understanding of neural plasticity have thus been reached. PMID:24942566
Building artificial humans to understand humans
Hiroshi Ishiguro; Shuichi Nishio
If we could build an android as a very humanlike robot, how would we humans distinguish a real human from an android? The\\u000a answer to this question is not so easy. In human–android interaction, we cannot see the internal mechanism of the android,\\u000a and thus we may simply believe that it is a human. This means that a human can
Theory of Mind "Beliefs", Developmental Characteristics and Social Understanding in Children and Adolescents with Intellectual Disabilities
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Thirion-Marissiaux, Anne-Francoise; Nader-Grosbois, Nathalie
Patterns of development of ToM belief abilities in intellectually disabled (ID) children and typically developing (TD) children matched on their developmental age were investigated. The links between cognition, language, social understanding and ToM belief abilities were examined. EDEI-R [Perron-Borelli M. (1996). "Echelles Differentielles…
Characterizing Key Developmental Understandings and Pedagogically Powerful Ideas within a Statistical Knowledge for Teaching Framework
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Groth, Randall E.
A hypothetical framework to characterize statistical knowledge for teaching (SKT) is described. Empirical grounding for the framework is provided by artifacts from an undergraduate course for prospective teachers that concentrated on the development of SKT. The theoretical notion of "key developmental understanding" (KDU) is used to identify…
The Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity: A Tool for Understanding Principals' Cultural Competence
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hernandez, Frank; Kose, Brad W.
Principals' understanding and skills pertaining to diversity are important in leading diverse schools and preparing all students for a democratic and multicultural society. Although educational leadership scholars have theorized about exemplary leadership of and for diversity, a developmental perspective on principals' diversity or cultural…
Understanding Human DNA Sequence Variation
Kidd, Kenneth
From the Department of Genetics, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar St., New Haven, CT 06520 Over the past century researchers have identified normal genetic variation and studied that variation is being used to develop an understanding of the demographic histories of the different populations
Understanding adverse events: human factors.
Reason, J
(1) Human rather than technical failures now represent the greatest threat to complex and potentially hazardous systems. This includes healthcare systems. (2) Managing the human risks will never be 100% effective. Human fallibility can be moderated, but it cannot be eliminated. (3) Different error types have different underlying mechanisms, occur in different parts of the organisation, and require different methods of risk management. The basic distinctions are between: Slips, lapses, trips, and fumbles (execution failures) and mistakes (planning or problem solving failures). Mistakes are divided into rule based mistakes and knowledge based mistakes. Errors (information-handling problems) and violations (motivational problems) Active versus latent failures. Active failures are committed by those in direct contact with the patient, latent failures arise in organisational and managerial spheres and their adverse effects may take a long time to become evident. (4) Safety significant errors occur at all levels of the system, not just at the sharp end. Decisions made in the upper echelons of the organisation create the conditions in the workplace that subsequently promote individual errors and violations. Latent failures are present long before an accident and are hence prime candidates for principled risk management. (5) Measures that involve sanctions and exhortations (that is, moralistic measures directed to those at the sharp end) have only very limited effectiveness, especially so in the case of highly trained professionals. (6) Human factors problems are a product of a chain of causes in which the individual psychological factors (that is, momentary inattention, forgetting, etc) are the last and least manageable links. Attentional "capture" (preoccupation or distraction) is a necessary condition for the commission of slips and lapses. Yet, its occurrence is almost impossible to predict or control effectively. The same is true of the factors associated with forgetting. States of mind contributing to error are thus extremely difficult to manage; they can happen to the best of people at any time. (7) People do not act in isolation. Their behaviour is shaped by circumstances. The same is true for errors and violations. The likelihood of an unsafe act being committed is heavily influenced by the nature of the task and by the local workplace conditions. These, in turn, are the product of "upstream" organisational factors. Great gains in safety can ve achieved through relatively small modifications of equipment and workplaces. (8) Automation and increasing advanced equipment do not cure human factors problems, they merely relocate them. In contrast, training people to work effectively in teams costs little, but has achieved significant enhancements of human performance in aviation. (9) Effective risk management depends critically on a confidential and preferable anonymous incident monitoring system that records the individual, task, situational, and organisational factors associated with incidents and near misses. (10) Effective risk management means the simultaneous and targeted deployment of limited remedial resources at different levels of the system: the individual or team, the task, the situation, and the organisation as a whole. PMID:10151618
Studying dialects to understand human language
Nti, Akua Afriyie
This thesis investigates the study of dialect variations as a way to understand how humans might process speech. It evaluates some of the important research in dialect identification and draws conclusions about how their ...
Understanding Movement in Humans and Robots
NSDL National Science Digital Library
This activity helps students understand how a LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT robot moves using motors and wheels. Then students relate the concepts of decision-making actuation and motion in humans to their parallels in mechanized robots, and understand the common themes associated with movement.
Human neural tube defects: developmental biology, epidemiology, and genetics.
Detrait, Eric R; George, Timothy M; Etchevers, Heather C; Gilbert, John R; Vekemans, Michel; Speer, Marcy C
Birth defects (congenital anomalies) are the leading cause of death in babies under 1 year of age. Neural tube defects (NTD), with a birth incidence of approximately 1/1000 in American Caucasians, are the second most common type of birth defect after congenital heart defects. The most common presentations of NTD are spina bifida and anencephaly. The etiologies of NTDs are complex, with both genetic and environmental factors implicated. In this manuscript, we review the evidence for genetic etiology and for environmental influences, and we present current views on the developmental processes involved in human neural tube closure. PMID:15939212
Understanding human management of automation errors
McBride, Sara E.; Rogers, Wendy A.; Fisk, Arthur D.
Automation has the potential to aid humans with a diverse set of tasks and support overall system performance. Automated systems are not always reliable, and when automation errs, humans must engage in error management, which is the process of detecting, understanding, and correcting errors. However, this process of error management in the context of human-automation interaction is not well understood. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review of the variables that contribute to error management. We examined relevant research in human-automation interaction and human error to identify critical automation, person, task, and emergent variables. We propose a framework for management of automation errors to incorporate and build upon previous models. Further, our analysis highlights variables that may be addressed through design and training to positively influence error management. Additional efforts to understand the error management process will contribute to automation designed and implemented to support safe and effective system performance. PMID:25383042
Human Developmental Enhancers Conserved between Deuterostomes and Protostomes
Clarke, Shoa L.; VanderMeer, Julia E.; Wenger, Aaron M.; Schaar, Bruce T.; Ahituv, Nadav; Bejerano, Gill
The identification of homologies, whether morphological, molecular, or genetic, is fundamental to our understanding of common biological principles. Homologies bridging the great divide between deuterostomes and protostomes have served as the basis for current models of animal evolution and development. It is now appreciated that these two clades share a common developmental toolkit consisting of conserved transcription factors and signaling pathways. These patterning genes sometimes show common expression patterns and genetic interactions, suggesting the existence of similar or even conserved regulatory apparatus. However, previous studies have found no regulatory sequence conserved between deuterostomes and protostomes. Here we describe the first such enhancers, which we call bilaterian conserved regulatory elements (Bicores). Bicores show conservation of sequence and gene synteny. Sequence conservation of Bicores reflects conserved patterns of transcription factor binding sites. We predict that Bicores act as response elements to signaling pathways, and we show that Bicores are developmental enhancers that drive expression of transcriptional repressors in the vertebrate central nervous system. Although the small number of identified Bicores suggests extensive rewiring of cis-regulation between the protostome and deuterostome clades, additional Bicores may be revealed as our understanding of cis-regulatory logic and sample of bilaterian genomes continue to grow. PMID:22876195
Assessment measures used in developmental neurotoxicology are reviewed for their comparability in humans and laboratory animals, and their ability to detect comparable, adverse effects across species. ompounds used for these comparisons include: abuse substances, anticonvulsant d...
Towards Computer Understanding of Human Interactions
Iain Mccowan; Daniel Gatica-perez; Samy Bengio; Darren Moore; Hervé Bourlard
People meet in order to interact - disseminating information, making decisions, and creating new ideas. Automatic analysis of meetings is therefore important from two points of view: extracting the informa- tion they contain, and understanding human interaction processes. Based on this view, this article presents an approach in which relevant informa- tion content of a meeting is identified from a
Evaluation of developmental toxicity using undifferentiated human embryonic stem cells.
Jung, Eui-Man; Choi, Yeo-ul; Kang, Hong-Seok; Yang, Hyun; Hong, Eui-Ju; An, Beum-Soo; Yang, Jun-young; Choi, Ki Hwan; Jeung, Eui-Bae
An embryonic stem cell test (EST) has been developed to evaluate the embryotoxic potential of chemicals with an in vitro system. In the present study, novel methods to screen toxic chemicals during the developmental process were evaluated using undifferentiated human embryonic stem (hES) cells. By using surface marker antigens (SSEA-4, TRA-1-60 and TRA-1-81), we confirmed undifferentiated conditions of the used hES cells by immunocytochemistry. We assessed the developmental toxicity of embryotoxic chemicals, 5-fluorouracil, indomethacin and non-embryotoxic penicillin G in different concentrations for up to 7 days. While expressions of the surface markers were not significantly affected, the embryotoxic chemicals influenced their response to pluripotent ES cell markers, such as OCT-4, NANOG, endothelin receptor type B (EDNRB), secreted frizzled related protein 2 (SFRP2), teratocarcinoma-derived growth factor 1 (TDGF1), and phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN). Most of the pluripotent ES cell markers were down-regulated in a dose-dependent manner after treatment with embryotoxic chemicals. After treatment with 5-fluorouracil, indomethacin and penicillin G, we observed a remarkable convergence in the degree of up-regulation of development, cell cycle and apoptosis-related genes by gene expression profiles using an Affymetrix GeneChips. Taken together, these results suggest that embryotoxic chemicals have cytotoxic effects, and modulate the expression of ES cell markers as well as development-, cell cycle- and apoptosis-related genes that have pivotal roles in undifferentiated hES cells. Therefore, we suggest that hES cells may be useful for testing the toxic effects of chemicals that could impact the embryonic developmental stage. PMID:24737281
Predicting human developmental toxicity of pharmaceuticals using human embryonic stem cells and metabolomics
West, Paul R., E-mail: email@example.com [Stemina Biomarker Discovery, Inc., 504 S. Rosa Rd., Suite 150, Madison, WI 53719 (United States); Weir, April M.; Smith, Alan M.; Donley, Elizabeth L.R. [Stemina Biomarker Discovery, Inc., 504 S. Rosa Rd., Suite 150, Madison, WI 53719 (United States); Cezar, Gabriela G. [Stemina Biomarker Discovery, Inc., 504 S. Rosa Rd., Suite 150, Madison, WI 53719 (United States); University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Animal Sciences, 1675 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI 53706 (United States)
Teratogens, substances that may cause fetal abnormalities during development, are responsible for a significant number of birth defects. Animal models used to predict teratogenicity often do not faithfully correlate to human response. Here, we seek to develop a more predictive developmental toxicity model based on an in vitro method that utilizes both human embryonic stem (hES) cells and metabolomics to discover biomarkers of developmental toxicity. We developed a method where hES cells were dosed with several drugs of known teratogenicity then LC-MS analysis was performed to measure changes in abundance levels of small molecules in response to drug dosing. Statistical analysis was employed to select for specific mass features that can provide a prediction of the developmental toxicity of a substance. These molecules can serve as biomarkers of developmental toxicity, leading to better prediction of teratogenicity. In particular, our work shows a correlation between teratogenicity and changes of greater than 10% in the ratio of arginine to asymmetric dimethylarginine levels. In addition, this study resulted in the establishment of a predictive model based on the most informative mass features. This model was subsequently tested for its predictive accuracy in two blinded studies using eight drugs of known teratogenicity, where it correctly predicted the teratogenicity for seven of the eight drugs. Thus, our initial data shows that this platform is a robust alternative to animal and other in vitro models for the prediction of the developmental toxicity of chemicals that may also provide invaluable information about the underlying biochemical pathways.
Developmental pathways for social understanding: linking social cognition to social contexts.
Brink, Kimberly A; Lane, Jonathan D; Wellman, Henry M
Contemporary research, often with looking-time tasks, reveals that infants possess foundational understandings of their social worlds. However, few studies have examined how these early social cognitions relate to the child's social interactions and behavior in early development. Does an early understanding of the social world relate to how an infant interacts with his or her parents? Do early social interactions along with social-cognitive understandings in infancy predict later preschool social competencies? In the current paper, we propose a theory in which children's later social behaviors and their understanding of the social world depend on the integration of early social understanding and experiences in infancy. We review several of our studies, as well as other research, that directly examine the pathways between these competencies to support a hypothesized network of relations between social-cognitive development and social-interactive behaviors in the development from infancy to childhood. In total, these findings reveal differences in infant social competences that both track the developmental trajectory of infants' understanding of people over the first years of life and provide external validation for the large body of social-cognitive findings emerging from laboratory looking-time paradigms. PMID:26074859
Developmental pathways for social understanding: linking social cognition to social contexts
Brink, Kimberly A.; Lane, Jonathan D.; Wellman, Henry M.
Contemporary research, often with looking-time tasks, reveals that infants possess foundational understandings of their social worlds. However, few studies have examined how these early social cognitions relate to the child's social interactions and behavior in early development. Does an early understanding of the social world relate to how an infant interacts with his or her parents? Do early social interactions along with social-cognitive understandings in infancy predict later preschool social competencies? In the current paper, we propose a theory in which children's later social behaviors and their understanding of the social world depend on the integration of early social understanding and experiences in infancy. We review several of our studies, as well as other research, that directly examine the pathways between these competencies to support a hypothesized network of relations between social-cognitive development and social-interactive behaviors in the development from infancy to childhood. In total, these findings reveal differences in infant social competences that both track the developmental trajectory of infants' understanding of people over the first years of life and provide external validation for the large body of social-cognitive findings emerging from laboratory looking-time paradigms. PMID:26074859
Developmental differences in methylation of human alu repeats
Hellmann-Blunberg, U.; McCarthy Hintz, M.F.; Gatewood, J.M.; Schmid, C.W. (Univ. of California, Davis (United States) Los Alamos National Laboratory, NM (United States))
Alu repeats are especially rich in CpG dinucleotides, the principal target sites for DNA methylation in eukaryotes. The methylation state of Alus in different human tissues is investigated by simple, direct genomic blot analysis exploiting recent theoretical and practical advances concerning Alu sequence evolution. Whereas Alus are almost completely methylated in somatic tissues such as spleen, they are hypomethylated in the male germ line and tissues which depend on the differential expression of the paternal genome complement for development. In particular, we have identified a subset enriched in young Alus whose CpGs appear to be almost completely unmethylated in sperm DNA. The existence of this subset potentially explains the conservation of CpG dinucleotides in active Alu source genes. These profound, sequence-specific developmental changes in the methylation state of Alu repeats suggest a function for Alu sequences at the DNA level, such as a role in genomic imprinting. 36 refs., 6 figs., 2 tabs.
Progress Toward Understanding Human Performance in Medicine
Bruce Thomadsen; Barrett Caldwell; Judith Stitt
This study consists of three parts that, together, complement each other to further our understanding of the process and significance of failures in High-dose-rate brachytherapy (HDRB)--where a single, very high intensity radioactive source attached to a computer-driven cable passes through hollow needles inserted into cancers. These are analysis of misadministrations, development of process trees, and assessment of treatment accuracy. Through evaluating the misadministration events and the models used in the analysis, this study hopes to both further the understanding of human performance in medical settings and hone the tools for such analyses.
Developmental changes in human dopamine neurotransmission: cortical receptors and terminators
Background Dopamine is integral to cognition, learning and memory, and dysfunctions of the frontal cortical dopamine system have been implicated in several developmental neuropsychiatric disorders. The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is critical for working memory which does not fully mature until the third decade of life. Few studies have reported on the normal development of the dopamine system in human DLPFC during postnatal life. We assessed pre- and postsynaptic components of the dopamine system including tyrosine hydroxylase, the dopamine receptors (D1, D2 short and D2 long isoforms, D4, D5), catechol-O-methyltransferase, and monoamine oxidase (A and B) in the developing human DLPFC (6 weeks -50 years). Results Gene expression was first analysed by microarray and then by quantitative real-time PCR. Protein expression was analysed by western blot. Protein levels for tyrosine hydroxylase peaked during the first year of life (p < 0.001) then gradually declined to adulthood. Similarly, mRNA levels of dopamine receptors D2S (p < 0.001) and D2L (p = 0.003) isoforms, monoamine oxidase A (p < 0.001) and catechol-O-methyltransferase (p = 0.024) were significantly higher in neonates and infants as was catechol-O-methyltransferase protein (32 kDa, p = 0.027). In contrast, dopamine D1 receptor mRNA correlated positively with age (p = 0.002) and dopamine D1 receptor protein expression increased throughout development (p < 0.001) with adults having the highest D1 protein levels (p ? 0.01). Monoamine oxidase B mRNA and protein (p < 0.001) levels also increased significantly throughout development. Interestingly, dopamine D5 receptor mRNA levels negatively correlated with age (r = -0.31, p = 0.018) in an expression profile opposite to that of the dopamine D1 receptor. Conclusions We find distinct developmental changes in key components of the dopamine system in DLPFC over postnatal life. Those genes that are highly expressed during the first year of postnatal life may influence and orchestrate the early development of cortical neural circuitry while genes portraying a pattern of increasing expression with age may indicate a role in DLPFC maturation and attainment of adult levels of cognitive function. PMID:22336227
Developmental regulation of human truncated nerve growth factor receptor
DiStefano, P.S.; Clagett-Dame, M.; Chelsea, D.M.; Loy, R. (Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Park, IL (USA))
Monoclonal antibodies (designated XIF1 and IIIG5) recognizing distinct epitopes of the human truncated nerve growth factor receptor (NGF-Rt) were used in a two-site radiometric immunosorbent assay to monitor levels of NGF-Rt in human urine as a function of age. Urine samples were collected from 70 neurologically normal subjects ranging in age from 1 month to 68 years. By using this sensitive two-site radiometric immunosorbent assay, NGF-Rt levels were found to be highest in urine from 1-month old subjects. By 2.5 months, NGF-Rt values were half of those seen at 1 month and decreased more gradually between 0.5 and 15 years. Between 15 and 68 years, urine NGF-Rt levels were relatively constant at 5% of 1-month values. No evidence for diurnal variation of adult NGF-Rt was apparent. Pregnant women in their third trimester showed significantly elevated urine NGF-Rt values compared with age-matched normals. Affinity labeling of NGF-Rt with 125I-NGF followed by immunoprecipitation with ME20.4-IgG and gel autoradiography indicated that neonatal urine contained high amounts of truncated receptor (Mr = 50 kd); decreasingly lower amounts of NGF-Rt were observed on gel autoradiograms with development, indicating that the two-site radiometric immunosorbent assay correlated well with the affinity labeling technique for measuring NGF-Rt. NGF-Rt in urines from 1-month-old and 36-year-old subjects showed no differences in affinities for NGF or for the monoclonal antibody IIIG5. These data show that NGF-Rt is developmentally regulated in human urine, and are discussed in relation to the development and maturation of the peripheral nervous system.
Understanding human dynamics in microblog posting activities
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Jiang, Zhihong; Zhang, Yubao; Wang, Hui; Li, Pei
Human activity patterns are an important issue in behavior dynamics research. Empirical evidence indicates that human activity patterns can be characterized by a heavy-tailed inter-event time distribution. However, most researchers give an understanding by only modeling the power-law feature of the inter-event time distribution, and those overlooked non-power-law features are likely to be nontrivial. In this work, we propose a behavior dynamics model, called the finite memory model, in which humans adaptively change their activity rates based on a finite memory of recent activities, which is driven by inherent individual interest. Theoretical analysis shows a finite memory model can properly explain various heavy-tailed inter-event time distributions, including a regular power law and some non-power-law deviations. To validate the model, we carry out an empirical study based on microblogging activity from thousands of microbloggers in the Celebrity Hall of the Sina microblog. The results show further that the model is reasonably effective. We conclude that finite memory is an effective dynamics element to describe the heavy-tailed human activity pattern.
Cellular manganese content is developmentally regulated in human dopaminergic neurons
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Kumar, Kevin K.; Lowe, Edward W., Jr.; Aboud, Asad A.; Neely, M. Diana; Redha, Rey; Bauer, Joshua A.; Odak, Mihir; Weaver, C. David; Meiler, Jens; Aschner, Michael; Bowman, Aaron B.
Manganese (Mn) is both an essential biological cofactor and neurotoxicant. Disruption of Mn biology in the basal ganglia has been implicated in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disorders, such as parkinsonism and Huntington's disease. Handling of other essential metals (e.g. iron and zinc) occurs via complex intracellular signaling networks that link metal detection and transport systems. However, beyond several non-selective transporters, little is known about the intracellular processes regulating neuronal Mn homeostasis. We hypothesized that small molecules that modulate intracellular Mn could provide insight into cell-level Mn regulatory mechanisms. We performed a high throughput screen of 40,167 small molecules for modifiers of cellular Mn content in a mouse striatal neuron cell line. Following stringent validation assays and chemical informatics, we obtained a chemical `toolbox' of 41 small molecules with diverse structure-activity relationships that can alter intracellular Mn levels under biologically relevant Mn exposures. We utilized this toolbox to test for differential regulation of Mn handling in human floor-plate lineage dopaminergic neurons, a lineage especially vulnerable to environmental Mn exposure. We report differential Mn accumulation between developmental stages and stage-specific differences in the Mn-altering activity of individual small molecules. This work demonstrates cell-level regulation of Mn content across neuronal differentiation.
Cellular manganese content is developmentally regulated in human dopaminergic neurons
Kumar, Kevin K.; Lowe, Jr., Edward W.; Aboud, Asad A.; Neely, M. Diana; Redha, Rey; Bauer, Joshua A.; Odak, Mihir; Weaver, C. David; Meiler, Jens; Aschner, Michael; Bowman, Aaron B.
Manganese (Mn) is both an essential biological cofactor and neurotoxicant. Disruption of Mn biology in the basal ganglia has been implicated in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disorders, such as parkinsonism and Huntington's disease. Handling of other essential metals (e.g. iron and zinc) occurs via complex intracellular signaling networks that link metal detection and transport systems. However, beyond several non-selective transporters, little is known about the intracellular processes regulating neuronal Mn homeostasis. We hypothesized that small molecules that modulate intracellular Mn could provide insight into cell-level Mn regulatory mechanisms. We performed a high throughput screen of 40,167 small molecules for modifiers of cellular Mn content in a mouse striatal neuron cell line. Following stringent validation assays and chemical informatics, we obtained a chemical 'toolbox' of 41 small molecules with diverse structure-activity relationships that can alter intracellular Mn levels under biologically relevant Mn exposures. We utilized this toolbox to test for differential regulation of Mn handling in human floor-plate lineage dopaminergic neurons, a lineage especially vulnerable to environmental Mn exposure. We report differential Mn accumulation between developmental stages and stage-specific differences in the Mn-altering activity of individual small molecules. This work demonstrates cell-level regulation of Mn content across neuronal differentiation. PMID:25348053
A scientific evaluation was made of functional aspects of developmental toxicity of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)-dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs) and dibenzofurans (PCDFs) in experimental animals and in human infants. ersistent neurobehavioral, reproductive, and endocrine alteration...
The Hazards of Human Developmental Gene Modification BY STUART A. NEWMAN
Newman, Stuart A.
engineering. Genetic modification of human em- bryos or fetuses, referred to here as developmental of development. The dis- ruption of a normal gene by insertion offoreign DNA in a mouse caused lack of eye
Understanding human perception by human-made illusions
Carbon, Claus-Christian
It may be fun to perceive illusions, but the understanding of how they work is even more stimulating and sustainable: They can tell us where the limits and capacity of our perceptual apparatus are found—they can specify how the constraints of perception are set. Furthermore, they let us analyze the cognitive sub-processes underlying our perception. Illusions in a scientific context are not mainly created to reveal the failures of our perception or the dysfunctions of our apparatus, but instead point to the specific power of human perception. The main task of human perception is to amplify and strengthen sensory inputs to be able to perceive, orientate and act very quickly, specifically and efficiently. The present paper strengthens this line of argument, strongly put forth by perceptual pioneer Richard L. Gregory (e.g., Gregory, 2009), by discussing specific visual illusions and how they can help us to understand the magic of perception. PMID:25132816
Mindful Portrayals: Using Fiction to Create Awareness, Understanding, and Support for People with Autism and Developmental Disabilities
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Brenna, Beverley
Considering the arts model as a tool for promoting awareness, understanding, and support for people with autism and developmental disabilities, this paper discusses stories as a measure of societal thinking as well as a vehicle for societal change. The author's dual perspectives are shared as a researcher of books for children and young…
Social Understanding and Social Lives: From Toddlerhood through to the Transition to School. Essays in Developmental Psychology
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hughes, Claire
Over the past thirty years, researchers have documented a remarkable growth in children's social understanding between toddlerhood and the early school years. However, it is still unclear why some children's awareness of others' thoughts and feelings lags so far behind that of their peers. Based on research that spans an extended developmental…
Understanding developmental and adaptive cues in pine through metabolite profiling and co-expression network analysis
Cańas, Rafael A.; Canales, Javier; Muńoz-Hernández, Carmen; Granados, Jose M.; Ávila, Concepción; García-Martín, María L.; Cánovas, Francisco M.
Conifers include long-lived evergreen trees of great economic and ecological importance, including pines and spruces. During their long lives conifers must respond to seasonal environmental changes, adapt to unpredictable environmental stresses, and co-ordinate their adaptive adjustments with internal developmental programmes. To gain insights into these responses, we examined metabolite and transcriptomic profiles of needles from naturally growing 25-year-old maritime pine (Pinus pinaster L. Aiton) trees over a year. The effect of environmental parameters such as temperature and rain on needle development were studied. Our results show that seasonal changes in the metabolite profiles were mainly affected by the needles' age and acclimation for winter, but changes in transcript profiles were mainly dependent on climatic factors. The relative abundance of most transcripts correlated well with temperature, particularly for genes involved in photosynthesis or winter acclimation. Gene network analysis revealed relationships between 14 co-expressed gene modules and development and adaptation to environmental stimuli. Novel Myb transcription factors were identified as candidate regulators during needle development. Our systems-based analysis provides integrated data of the seasonal regulation of maritime pine growth, opening new perspectives for understanding the complex regulatory mechanisms underlying conifers' adaptive responses. Taken together, our results suggest that the environment regulates the transcriptome for fine tuning of the metabolome during development. PMID:25873654
Understanding developmental and adaptive cues in pine through metabolite profiling and co-expression network analysis.
Cańas, Rafael A; Canales, Javier; Muńoz-Hernández, Carmen; Granados, Jose M; Ávila, Concepción; García-Martín, María L; Cánovas, Francisco M
Conifers include long-lived evergreen trees of great economic and ecological importance, including pines and spruces. During their long lives conifers must respond to seasonal environmental changes, adapt to unpredictable environmental stresses, and co-ordinate their adaptive adjustments with internal developmental programmes. To gain insights into these responses, we examined metabolite and transcriptomic profiles of needles from naturally growing 25-year-old maritime pine (Pinus pinaster L. Aiton) trees over a year. The effect of environmental parameters such as temperature and rain on needle development were studied. Our results show that seasonal changes in the metabolite profiles were mainly affected by the needles' age and acclimation for winter, but changes in transcript profiles were mainly dependent on climatic factors. The relative abundance of most transcripts correlated well with temperature, particularly for genes involved in photosynthesis or winter acclimation. Gene network analysis revealed relationships between 14 co-expressed gene modules and development and adaptation to environmental stimuli. Novel Myb transcription factors were identified as candidate regulators during needle development. Our systems-based analysis provides integrated data of the seasonal regulation of maritime pine growth, opening new perspectives for understanding the complex regulatory mechanisms underlying conifers' adaptive responses. Taken together, our results suggest that the environment regulates the transcriptome for fine tuning of the metabolome during development. PMID:25873654
Understanding MSW Student Anxiety and Resistance to Multicultural Learning: A Developmental Perspective
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Deal, Kathleen Holtz; Hyde, Cheryl A.
This article situates expected anxiety and resistance to multicultural learning within the broader context of cognitive, behavioral and affective stages through which MSW students typically progress. The authors discuss the challenges to multicultural learning and the developmental phases of students. The ways in which these developmental stages…
Promoting positive human development and social justice: Integrating theory, research and application in contemporary developmental science.
Lerner, Richard M
The bold claim that developmental science can contribute to both enhancing positive development among diverse individuals across the life span and promoting social justice in their communities, nations and regions is supported by decades of theoretical, methodological and research contributions. To explain the basis of this claim, I describe the relational developmental systems (RDS) metamodel that frames contemporary developmental science, and I present an example of a programme of research within the adolescent portion of the life span that is associated with this metamodel and is pertinent to promoting positive human development. I then discuss methodological issues associated with using RDS-based models as frames for research and application. Finally, I explain how the theoretical and methodological ideas associated with RDS thinking may provide the scholarly tools needed by developmental scientists seeking to contribute to human thriving and to advance social justice in the Global South. PMID:25782450
Understanding Youth Antisocial Behavior Using Neuroscience through a Developmental Psychopathology Lens: Review, Integration, and Directions for Research
Hyde, Luke W.; Shaw, Daniel S.; Hariri, Ahmad R.
Youth antisocial behavior (AB) is an important public health concern impacting perpetrators, victims, and society. Functional neuroimaging is becoming a more common and useful modality for understanding neural correlates of youth AB. Although there has been a recent increase in neuroimaging studies of youth AB and corresponding theoretical articles on the neurobiology of AB, there has been little work critically examining the strengths and weaknesses of individual studies and using this knowledge to inform the design of future studies. Additionally, research on neuroimaging and youth AB has not been integrated within the broader framework of developmental psychopathology. Thus, this paper provides an in-depth review of the youth AB functional neuroimaging literature with the following goals: 1. to evaluate how this literature has informed our understanding of youth AB, 2. to evaluate current neuroimaging studies of youth AB from a developmental psychopathology perspective with a focus on integrating research from neuroscience and developmental psychopathology, as well as placing this research in the context of other related areas (e.g., psychopathy, molecular genetics), and 3. to examine strengths and weaknesses of neuroimaging and behavioral studies of youth AB to suggest how future studies can develop a more informed and integrated understanding of youth AB. PMID:24273368
Understanding human trafficking in the United States.
Logan, T K; Walker, Robert; Hunt, Gretchen
The topic of modern-day slavery or human trafficking has received increased media and national attention. However, to date there has been limited research on the nature and scope of human trafficking in the United States. This article describes and synthesizes nine reports that assess the U.S. service organizations' legal representative knowledge of, and experience with, human trafficking cases, as well as information from actual cases and media reports. This article has five main goals: (a) to define what human trafficking is, and is not; (b) to describe factors identified as contributing to vulnerability to being trafficked and keeping a person entrapped in the situation; (c) to examine how the crime of human trafficking differs from other kinds of crimes in the United States; (d) to explore how human trafficking victims are identified; and, (e) to provide recommendations to better address human trafficking in the United States. PMID:19056686
Towards Understanding How Humans Teach Robots
Tasneem Kaochar; Raquel Torres Peralta; Clayton T. Morrison; Ian R. Fasel; Thomas J. Walsh; Paul R. Cohen
\\u000a Our goal is to develop methods for non-experts to teach complex behaviors to autonomous agents (such as robots) by accommodating\\u000a "natural" forms of human teaching. We built a prototype interface allowing humans to teach a simulated robot a complex task\\u000a using several techniques and report the results of 44 human participants using this interface. We found that teaching styles\\u000a varied
Developmental changes at the node and paranode in human sural nerves: morphometric and fine-structural evaluation
Markus Bertram; J. Michael Schriider
Developmental alterations of paranodal fiber segments have not been investigated systematically in human nerve fibers at the light- and electron-microscopic level. We have therefore analyzed developmental changes in the fine structure of the paranode in 43 human sural nerves during the axonal growth period up to 5 years of age, and during the subsequent myelin development up to 20 years
Understanding African American Adolescents' Identity Development: A Relational Developmental Systems Perspective
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Brittian, Aerika S.
This article examines the development of African American adolescents' identity using a relational developmental systems theory framework, which led to the expectation that identity development is linked to both the reduction of risk behaviors and the promotion of African American adolescents' healthy development. Different personological theories…
QSAR models of developmental toxicity (devtox) have met with limited regulatory acceptance due to the use of ill-defined endpoints, lack of biological interpretability, and poor model performance. More generally, the lack of biological inference of many QSAR models is often due t...
Developmental Relational Counseling: A Model for Self-Understanding in Relation to Others
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Duffey, Thelma; Haberstroh, Shane
Developmental relational counseling (DRC) is an integrative framework designed to help clients develop personal awareness and relational functioning and conceptualize personal growth. DRC emerged from both authors' clinical work and was significantly influenced by relational-cultural theory and guided by the Enneagram personality typology and…
Modeling Children's Understanding of Quantitative Relations in Texts: A Developmental Perspective.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Okamoto, Yukari
Tested three models of children's mathematics word-problem solving based on developmental differences in quantitative conceptual structures: (1) quantitative relations represented as ordered array of mental objects; (2) numbers represented on two tentatively coordinated mental number lines; and (3) numerical operations represented as objects on…
r Human Brain Mapping 00:000000 (2011) r Atypical Developmental Trajectory of Functionally
Nguyen, Danh
r Human Brain Mapping 00:000000 (2011) r Atypical Developmental Trajectory of Functionally focuses on the cortical gyrification changes that are asso- ciated with the genetic disorder in 615-year in a mouse model was recently experimentally demonstrated [Mee- chan et al., 2009], suggesting alterations
Triclosan Decreases Rat Thyroxine: Mode-of-Action, Developmental Susceptibility and Human Relevance
Triclosan (TCS) decreases serum thyroxine (T4) in the rat. In vivo and in vitro approaches were used to address three uncertainties: by what mode-of-action (MOA) does TCS decrease T4; does TCS decrease T4 developmentally; and, are effects observed in rats relevant to humans? To t...
The Workshop on the Qualitative and Quantitative Comparability of Human and Animal Developmental Neurotoxicity was convened by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse to address issues related to when testing should be required, wha...
The Juvenile Transition: A Developmental Switch Point in Human Life History
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Del Giudice, Marco; Angeleri, Romina; Manera, Valeria
This paper presents a new perspective on the transition from early to middle childhood (i.e., human juvenility), investigated in an integrative evolutionary framework. Juvenility is a crucial life history stage, when social learning and interaction with peers become central developmental functions; here it is argued that the "juvenile transition"…
Human Behavior Understanding for Robotics Albert Ali Salah1
Paris-Sud XI, Université de
Human Behavior Understanding for Robotics Albert Ali Salah1 , Javier Ruiz-del-Solar2 , C¸etin Meri, France email@example.com Abstract. Human behavior is complex, but structured along individual to correctly interpret, predict and respond to human behaviors. This paper discusses the scientific
Understanding Human-Computer Interactions in Map Revision
Zhou, Jun
Understanding Human-Computer Interactions in Map Revision Jun Zhou, Walter F. Bischof, and Terry a stream of events related to human actions in a real-time cartographic map revision system. The recorded, Human - Com- puter Interaction, and Cognitive Psychology. Surprisingly, very few research re- sults have
Understanding Human-Computer Interactions in Map Revision
Alberta, University of
Understanding Human-Computer Interactions in Map Revision Jun Zhou, Walter F. Bischof, and Terry related to human actions in a real-time map (cartographic) revision sys- tem. The recorded events, Human - Com- puter Interaction, and Cognitive Psychology. Surprisingly, very few research re- sults have
Understanding African American Adolescents' Identity Development: A Relational Developmental Systems Perspective
Brittian, Aerika S.
This article examines the development of African American adolescents' identity using a relational developmental systems theory framework, which led to the expectation that identity development is linked to both the reduction of risk behaviors and the promotion of African American adolescents' healthy development. Different personological theories of identity development were discussed, including Erikson's theory of psychosocial development and Marcia's theory of identity statuses. Developmental systems theory was used to further the literature on African American adolescents' identity development, by integrating various views of identity development as they pertain to these youth. Furthermore, the formation of many aspects of identity may be an important coping and resilience process for such youth. In addition, directions for future research are discussed, including a consideration of the complexity of diversity that exists within the African American adolescent population, and a call for more longitudinal assessments of identity development is presented. PMID:23243325
A developmental social psychology of identity: understanding the person-in-context
This essay focuses on the socialization of identity formation. It provides a theory about the developmental social psychology of identity. A set of propositions are derived from the authors'reading, research, cultural observations and clinical experience regarding adolescent identity formation. The essay covers the socialization process, nature of the self, processes of growth and development, person-in-context, and a statement on the
Toward An Understanding of Developmental Coordination Disorder: Terminological and Diagnostic Issues
Henderson, Sheila E.; Henderson, Leslie
Awareness of children who experience unexpected difficulty in the acquisition of motor skills has increased dramatically over the last twenty years. Although the positing of a distinct syndrome has proven seminal in provoking further questions, several basic terminological problems remain unresolved. In this paper, we conduct a component analysis of the three, principal competing labels for this disorder, two of them being elements derived from systematic diagnostic frameworks. Our preference for the DSM IV term Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is stated find justified. Problems in diagnosis are discussed, especially in relation to the etiology-dominated medical model. We argue that an attempt should be made to identify (pathological) positive signs that can reliably be detected rather than relying entirely on normative evidence of a lack of skills exhibited by other children of the same age. The high degree of overlap between DCD and other developmental disorders suggests that DCD might not constitute a distinct syndrome. In this context, we emphasize the need to determine whether incoordination takes a different form when it occurs alone or whether it is combined with general developmental delay or with other specific disorders in children of normal intelligence. PMID:14640303
Epigenetic-Mediated Dysfunction of the Bone Morphogenetic Protein Developmental Pathway Inhibits Differentiation of Human Glioblastoma Tumor Initiating Cells
Lee, Jeongwu; Son, Myung Jin; Woolard, Kevin; Donin, Nicholas M.; Li, Aiguo; Cheng, Chui H.; Kotliarova, Svetlana; Kotliarov, Yuri; Walling, Jennifer; Ahn, Susie; Kim, Misuk; Totonchy, Mariam; Cusack, Thomas; Ene, Chibawanye; Ma, Hilary; Su, Qin; Zenklusen, Jean Claude; Zhang, Wei; Maric, Dragan; Fine, Howard A.
SUMMARY Despite similarities between tumor initiating cells with stem-like properties (TICs) and normal neural stem cells, we hypothesized that there may be differences in their differentiation potentials. We now demonstrate that both bone morphogenetic protein (BMP)-mediated and ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF)-mediated Jak/STAT-dependent astroglial differentiation is impaired due to EZH2-dependent epigenetic silencing of BMP receptor 1B (BMPR1B) in a subset of glioblastoma TICs. Forced expression of BMPR1B either by transgene expression or demethylation of the promoter restores their differentiation capabilities and induces loss of their tumorigenicity. We propose that deregulation of the BMP developmental pathway in a subset of glioblastoma TICs contributes to their tumorigenicity both by desensitizing TICs to normal differentiation cues, and by converting otherwise cytostatic signals to pro-proliferative signals. SIGNIFICANCE Elucidation of the differentiation pathways operative and/or aberrant in both normal stem cells and TICs will be critical to fully understand the pathogenesis of primary human tumors and may help lead to better therapies. To this end, we utilized several TICs isolated from primary glioblastomas and compared them to normal human NSCs and mouse NSCs from various developmental stages. We demonstrate a major differentiation block in a subset of glioblastoma TICs is caused by the Polycomb repressor complex (PRC) mediated epigenetic silencing of the BMPR1B promoter, analogous to early embryonic NSCs. We provide here an example of a temporally deregulated and aberrantly fixed developmental block to differentiation contributing to the pathogenesis of a subset of human GBMs. PMID:18167341
Perchlorate and Radioiodide Kinetics Across Life Stages in the Human: Using PBPK Models to Predict Dosimetry and Thyroid Inhibition and Sensitive Subpopulations Based on Developmental Stage
Rebecca A. Clewell; Elaine A. Merrill; Jeffery M. Gearhart; Peter J. Robinson; Teresa R. Sterner; David R. Mattie; Harvey J. Clewell III
Perchlorate (ClO4 ?) is a drinking-water contaminant, known to disrupt thyroid hormone homeostasis in rats. This effect has only been seen in humans at high doses, yet the potential for long term effects from developmental endocrine disruption emphasizes the need for improved understanding of perchlorate's effect during the perinatal period. Physiologically based pharmacokinetic\\/dynamic (PBPK\\/PD) models for ClO4 and its effect
Developmental regulation of neural cell adhesion molecule in human prefrontal cortex.
Cox, E T; Brennaman, L H; Gable, K L; Hamer, R M; Glantz, L A; Lamantia, A-S; Lieberman, J A; Gilmore, J H; Maness, P F; Jarskog, L F
Neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) is a membrane-bound cell recognition molecule that exerts important functions in normal neurodevelopment including cell migration, neurite outgrowth, axon fasciculation, and synaptic plasticity. Alternative splicing of NCAM mRNA generates three main protein isoforms: NCAM-180, -140, and -120. Ectodomain shedding of NCAM isoforms can produce an extracellular 105-115 kilodalton soluble neural cell adhesion molecule fragment (NCAM-EC) and a smaller intracellular cytoplasmic fragment (NCAM-IC). NCAM also undergoes a unique post-translational modification in brain by the addition of polysialic acid (PSA)-NCAM. Interestingly, both PSA-NCAM and NCAM-EC have been implicated in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. The developmental expression patterns of the main NCAM isoforms and PSA-NCAM have been described in rodent brain, but no studies have examined NCAM expression across human cortical development. Western blotting was used to quantify NCAM in human postmortem prefrontal cortex in 42 individuals ranging in age from mid-gestation to early adulthood. Each NCAM isoform (NCAM-180, -140, and -120), post-translational modification (PSA-NCAM) and cleavage fragment (NCAM-EC and NCAM-IC) demonstrated developmental regulation in frontal cortex. NCAM-180, -140, and -120, as well as PSA-NCAM, and NCAM-IC all showed strong developmental regulation during fetal and early postnatal ages, consistent with their identified roles in axon growth and plasticity. NCAM-EC demonstrated a more gradual increase from the early postnatal period to reach a plateau by early adolescence, potentially implicating involvement in later developmental processes. In summary, this study implicates the major NCAM isoforms, PSA-NCAM and proteolytically cleaved NCAM in pre- and postnatal development of the human prefrontal cortex. These data provide new insights on human cortical development and also provide a basis for how altered NCAM signaling during specific developmental intervals could affect synaptic connectivity and circuit formation, and thereby contribute to neurodevelopmental disorders. PMID:19393299
Active understanding of human intention by a robot through monitoring of human behavior
T. Sato; Y. Nishida; J. Ichikawa; Y. Hatamura; H. Mizoguchi
Understanding human intention is an essential function for a robot which can offer adequate support to human beings. It requires smooth communication between the human and the robot. Human behavior is an expressive media of communication. This paper proposes a new function of "active under standing of human intentions" by a robot through monitoring of human behavior. The unique feature
Inferring Developmental Stage Composition from Gene Expression in Human Malaria
Montgomery, Jacqui; Sidhu, Amar Bir; Oh, Keunyoung; Meyer, Evan; Pierre-Louis, Willythssa; Seydel, Karl; Milner, Danny; Williamson, Kim; Wiegand, Roger; Ndiaye, Daouda; Daily, Johanna; Wirth, Dyann; Taylor, Terrie; Huttenhower, Curtis; Marti, Matthias
In the current era of malaria eradication, reducing transmission is critical. Assessment of transmissibility requires tools that can accurately identify the various developmental stages of the malaria parasite, particularly those required for transmission (sexual stages). Here, we present a method for estimating relative amounts of Plasmodium falciparum asexual and sexual stages from gene expression measurements. These are modeled using constrained linear regression to characterize stage-specific expression profiles within mixed-stage populations. The resulting profiles were analyzed functionally by gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA), confirming differentially active pathways such as increased mitochondrial activity and lipid metabolism during sexual development. We validated model predictions both from microarrays and from quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) measurements, based on the expression of a small set of key transcriptional markers. This sufficient marker set was identified by backward selection from the whole genome as available from expression arrays, targeting one sentinel marker per stage. The model as learned can be applied to any new microarray or qRT-PCR transcriptional measurement. We illustrate its use in vitro in inferring changes in stage distribution following stress and drug treatment and in vivo in identifying immature and mature sexual stage carriers within patient cohorts. We believe this approach will be a valuable resource for staging lab and field samples alike and will have wide applicability in epidemiological studies of malaria transmission. PMID:24348235
Human Computing and Machine Understanding of Human Behavior: A Survey
Maja Pantic; Alex Pentland; Anton Nijholt; Thomas S. Huang; Th. S. Huang
A widely accepted prediction is that computing will move to the background, weaving itself into the fabric of our everyday\\u000a living spaces and projecting the human user into the foreground. If this prediction is to come true, then next generation\\u000a computing should be about anticipatory user interfaces that should be human-centered, built for humans based on human models.\\u000a They should
Understanding complexity in the human brain
Bassett, Danielle S.; Gazzaniga, Michael S.
Although the ultimate aim of neuroscientific enquiry is to gain an understanding of the brain and how its workings relate to the mind, the majority of current efforts are largely focused on small questions using increasingly detailed data. However, it might be possible to successfully address the larger question of mind–brain mechanisms if the cumulative findings from these neuroscientific studies are coupled with complementary approaches from physics and philosophy. The brain, we argue, can be understood as a complex system or network, in which mental states emerge from the interaction between multiple physical and functional levels. Achieving further conceptual progress will crucially depend on broad-scale discussions regarding the properties of cognition and the tools that are currently available or must be developed in order to study mind–brain mechanisms. PMID:21497128
Life history and development--a framework for understanding developmental plasticity in lower termites.
Korb, Judith; Hartfelder, Klaus
Termites (Isoptera) are the phylogenetically oldest social insects, but in scientific research they have always stood in the shadow of the social Hymenoptera. Both groups of social insects evolved complex societies independently and hence, their different ancestry provided them with different life-history preadaptations for social evolution. Termites, the 'social cockroaches', have a hemimetabolous mode of development and both sexes are diploid, while the social Hymenoptera belong to the holometabolous insects and have a haplodiploid mode of sex determination. Despite this apparent disparity it is interesting to ask whether termites and social Hymenoptera share common principles in their individual and social ontogenies and how these are related to the evolution of their respective social life histories. Such a comparison has, however, been much hampered by the developmental complexity of the termite caste system, as well as by an idiosyncratic terminology, which makes it difficult for non-termitologists to access the literature. Here, we provide a conceptual guide to termite terminology based on the highly flexible caste system of the "lower termites". We summarise what is known about ultimate causes and underlying proximate mechanisms in the evolution and maintenance of termite sociality, and we try to embed the results and their discussion into general evolutionary theory and developmental biology. Finally, we speculate about fundamental factors that might have facilitated the unique evolution of complex societies in a diploid hemimetabolous insect taxon. This review also aims at a better integration of termites into general discussions on evolutionary and developmental biology, and it shows that the ecology of termites and their astounding phenotypic plasticity have a large yet still little explored potential to provide insights into elementary evo-devo questions. PMID:18979593
Understanding the Effect of Climate Change on Human Migration
Fischlin, Andreas
Understanding the Effect of Climate Change on Human Migration The Contribution of Mathematical In the last two decades, several researchers have predicted mass migrations as a conse- quence of climate change as a push factor for migration. This diploma thesis contributes to the understanding of this topic
Developmental Stages in Human Embryos: Revised and New Measurements
Ronan O'Rahilly; Fabiola Müller
The staging of human embryos, as distinct from seriation, depends on a morphological scheme devised by Streeter and completed by O'Rahilly, who proposed the term Carnegie stages. To avoid misconceptions and errors, and to place new findings in perspective, it is necessary to summarize the essentials of the Carnegie system: (1) Twenty-three stages cover the embryonic period, i. e. the
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rodents, dogs, and other mammals [16,307], and great diversity of immune response exists dependingxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxx CHAPTER 6 UnderstandingHumanLeishmaniasis:TheNeed foran of different species and strains of Leishmania, and the vector involved. The hosts can be humans but also
Developmental regulation of human cortex transcription and its clinical relevance at base resolution
Jaffe, Andrew E.; Shin, Jooheon; Collado-Torres, Leonardo; Leek, Jeffrey T.; Tao, Ran; Li, Chao; Gao, Yuan; Jia, Yankai; Maher, Brady J.; Hyde, Thomas M.
Transcriptome analysis of human brain provides fundamental insight about development and disease, but largely relies on existing annotation. We sequenced transcriptomes of 72 prefrontal cortex samples across six life stages, and identified 50,650 differentially expression regions (DERs) associated with developmental and aging, agnostic of annotation. While many DERs annotated to non-exonic sequence (41.1%), most were similarly regulated in cytosolic mRNA extracted from independent samples. The DERs were developmentally conserved across 16 brain regions and within the developing mouse cortex, and were expressed in diverse cell and tissue types. The DERs were further enriched for active chromatin marks and clinical risk for neurodevelopmental disorders like schizophrenia. Lastly, we demonstrate quantitatively that these DERs associate with a changing neuronal phenotype related to differentiation and maturation. These data highlight conserved molecular signatures of transcriptional dynamics across brain development, some potential clinical relevance and the incomplete annotation of the human brain transcriptome. PMID:25501035
Developmental potential of human oocytes reconstructed by transferring somatic cell nuclei into polyspermic zygote cytoplasm
Fan, Yong; Chen, Xinjie; Luo, Yumei; Chen, Xiaolin; Li, Shaoying; Huang, Yulin [Institute of Gynecology and Obstetrics, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical College, Duobao Road 63, Guangzhou, Guangdong (China)] [Institute of Gynecology and Obstetrics, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical College, Duobao Road 63, Guangzhou, Guangdong (China); Sun, Xiaofang, E-mail: email@example.com [Institute of Gynecology and Obstetrics, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical College, Duobao Road 63, Guangzhou, Guangdong (China)] [Institute of Gynecology and Obstetrics, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical College, Duobao Road 63, Guangzhou, Guangdong (China)
The generation of patient-specific nuclear transfer embryonic stem cells holds huge promise in modern regenerative medicine and cell-based drug discovery. Since human in vivo matured oocytes are not readily available, human therapeutic cloning is developing slowly. Here, we investigated for the first time whether human polyspermic zygotes could support preimplantation development of cloned embryos. Our results showed that polyspermic zygotes could be used as recipients for human somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). The preimplantation developmental potential of SCNT embryos from polyspermic zygotes was limited to the 8-cell stage. Since ES cell lines can be derived from single blastomeres, these results may have important significance for human ES cells derived by SCNT. In addition, confocal images demonstrated that all of the SCNT embryos that failed to cleave showed abnormal microtubule organization. The results of the present study suggest that polyspermic human zygotes could be used as a potential source of recipient cytoplasm for SCNT.
Non-human primates: a comparative developmental perspective on yawning.
Anderson, James R
There is a long history of yawning in Old World monkeys being viewed as a form of communication, in particular, as a kind of threat. Yawning in agonistic and tense situations is seen in adult males, in particular, and it varies with male hormonal levels and social status. Experiments are reviewed that demonstrate operant control of the rate of yawning in adult male macaques, using food rewards. This indicates a degree of flexibility in the production of yawning. However, although adult male Old World monkeys often engage in 'canine contests', there is little evidence for the contagious yawning seen in humans. Experiments are reviewed showing that chimpanzees tested under comparable conditions to human adults, namely exposed to video sequences showing yawns, may yawn contagiously to yawn stimuli. Chimpanzees also yawn to computer animations of yawns. There is controversy in the literature over whether other species, including dogs and some monkeys, may also show contagious yawning. Further research is required to address unresolved issues. A hypothesis is put forward that in modern industrial society adults' natural pattern of yawning is inhibited, and that being reminded to yawn by seeing another individual yawn (contagious yawning) can help us to catch up on missed yawns. This would explain the lack of contagious yawning reported in young children and chimpanzees in natural surroundings, as these populations do not have the same social constraints on yawning. PMID:20357464
The Developmental Origins of Voice Processing in the Human Brain
Grossmann, Tobias; Oberecker, Regine; Koch, Stefan Paul; Friederici, Angela D.
Summary In human adults, voices are processed in specialized brain regions in superior temporal cortices. We examined the development of this cortical organization during infancy by using near-infrared spectroscopy. In experiment 1, 7-month-olds but not 4-month-olds showed increased responses in left and right superior temporal cortex to the human voice when compared to nonvocal sounds, suggesting that voice-sensitive brain systems emerge between 4 and 7 months of age. In experiment 2, 7-month-old infants listened to words spoken with neutral, happy, or angry prosody. Hearing emotional prosody resulted in increased responses in a voice-sensitive region in the right hemisphere. Moreover, a region in right inferior frontal cortex taken to serve evaluative functions in the adult brain showed particular sensitivity to happy prosody. The pattern of findings suggests that temporal regions specialize in processing voices very early in development and that, already in infancy, emotions differentially modulate voice processing in the right hemisphere. PMID:20346760
Cell-Cycle Control of Developmentally Regulated Transcription Factors Accounts for Heterogeneity in Human Pluripotent Cells
Singh, Amar M.; Chappell, James; Trost, Robert; Lin, Li; Wang, Tao; Tang, Jie; Wu, Hao; Zhao, Shaying; Jin, Peng; Dalton, Stephen
Summary Heterogeneity within pluripotent stem cell (PSC) populations is indicative of dynamic changes that occur when cells drift between different states. Although the role of metastability in PSCs is unclear, it appears to reflect heterogeneity in cell signaling. Using the Fucci cell-cycle indicator system, we show that elevated expression of developmental regulators in G1 is a major determinant of heterogeneity in human embryonic stem cells. Although signaling pathways remain active throughout the cell cycle, their contribution to heterogeneous gene expression is restricted to G1. Surprisingly, we identify dramatic changes in the levels of global 5-hydroxymethylcytosine, an unanticipated source of epigenetic heterogeneity that is tightly linked to cell-cycle progression and the expression of developmental regulators. When we evaluated gene expression in differentiating cells, we found that cell-cycle regulation of developmental regulators was maintained during lineage specification. Cell-cycle regulation of developmentally regulated transcription factors is therefore an inherent feature of the mechanisms underpinning differentiation. PMID:24371808
Challenges in understanding the immunopathogenesis of Cryptosporidium infections in humans
R. J. Kothavade
Water and foodborne enteric cryptosporidiosis is a globally emerging public health issue. Although the clinical manifestations\\u000a of enteric cryptosporidiosis are generally limited to intestinal infection and subsequent diarrhoea, extra-intestinal invasion\\u000a has also been diagnosed in immunocompromised individuals, particularly in those infected with human immunodeficiency virus\\u000a (HIV) or AIDS. Due to an inadequate understanding of Cryptosporidium immunopathogenesis in humans, the development
Mental retardation genes in drosophila: New approaches to understanding and treating developmental brain disorders
Linda L. Restifo
Drosophila melanogaster is emerging as a valuable genetic model system for the study of mental retardation (MR). MR genes are remarkably similar between humans and fruit flies. Cognitive behavioral assays can detect reductions in learning and memory in flies with mutations in MR genes. Neuroanatomical methods, including some at single-neuron resolu- tion, are helping to reveal the cellular bases of
Proteome Analysis of Distinct Developmental Stages of Human Natural Killer (NK) Cells
Scheiter, Maxi; Lau, Ulrike; van Ham, Marco; Bulitta, Björn; Gröbe, Lothar; Garritsen, Henk; Klawonn, Frank; König, Sebastian; Jänsch, Lothar
The recent Natural Killer (NK) cell maturation model postulates that CD34+ hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) first develop into CD56bright NK cells, then into CD56dimCD57? and finally into terminally maturated CD56dimCD57+. The molecular mechanisms of human NK cell differentiation and maturation however are incompletely characterized. Here we present a proteome analysis of distinct developmental stages of human primary NK cells, isolated from healthy human blood donors. Peptide sequencing was used to comparatively analyze CD56bright NK cells versus CD56dim NK cells and CD56dimCD57? NK cells versus CD56dimCD57+ NK cells and revealed distinct protein signatures for all of these subsets. Quantitative data for about 3400 proteins were obtained and support the current differentiation model. Furthermore, 11 donor-independently, but developmental stage specifically regulated proteins so far undescribed in NK cells were revealed, which may contribute to NK cell development and may elucidate a molecular source for NK cell effector functions. Among those proteins, S100A4 (Calvasculin) and S100A6 (Calcyclin) were selected to study their dynamic subcellular localization. Upon activation of human primary NK cells, both proteins are recruited into the immune synapse (NKIS), where they colocalize with myosin IIa. PMID:23315794
Understanding the Human Genome Project: a biographical approach
H. A. E. Zwart
This article analyzes a number of recently published autobiographies by leading participants in the Human Genome Project (HGP), in order to determine to what extent they may further our understanding of the history, scientific significance and societal impact of this major research endeavor. Notably, I will focus on three publications that fall under this heading, namely The common thread by
Understanding the color of human skin Elli Angelopoulou
Angelopoulou, Elli
on conventional tri-color Red-Green-Blue (RGB) sensor data3 and on chroma-model based approaches9 . RGB data reflectance can be achieved through spectrographic analysis. Previous work in this field has largely been: skin, reflectance, color, BRDF. 1. INTRODUCTION The understanding of human skin reflectance
Understanding the behavior of floodplains as human-water systems
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Di Baldassarre, G.; Brandimarte, L.
Floodplains are among the most valuable ecosystems for supporting biodiversity and providing services to the environment. Moreover, they are home of approximately one-sixth of the world population as they offer favorable conditions for economic development. As a result, flood disasters currently affect more than 100 million people a year. Sadly, flood losses and fatalities are expected to increase further in many countries because of population growth as well as changes in land use and climate. Given the relevance of floodplain systems, a number of social scientists have examined how the frequency and severity of flooding often determine whether human development in floodplains is desirable or not. Meanwhile, many earth scientists have investigated the impact of human activities (e.g. land-use changes, urbanization, river training) on the frequency and magnitude of floods. In fact, as human activities change the frequency of flooding, the frequency of flooding affects human developments in floodplain areas. Yet, these dynamic interactions between floods and societies and the associated feedback mechanisms remain largely unexplored and poorly understood. As a result, we typically consider humans as external forcing (or boundary condition) without representing the feedback loops and our prediction of future trajectories are therefore extremely limited. This presentation shows a first attempt to understand the behavior of floodplains as coupled human-water systems. In particular, we analyzed a number of long time series of hydrological and population data in the Po River Basin (Italy) to explore the feedback mechanisms, reciprocal effects, surprises, and threshold mechanisms, taking place in floodplain systems. The outcomes of the study enable a better understanding of how the occurrences of floods shape human developments while, at the same time, human activities shape the magnitude and frequency of floods. The presentation also discusses the opportunities offered by the growing availability of global space-borne data to track the dynamics of floodplains as human-water systems. In particular, we can nowadays carry out global observations of floodplain topography and inundation patterns as well as human population dynamics. It is expected that these innovative observations will help understand the dynamics of floodplain systems across scales, different hydro-climatic conditions and along gradients of human impacts. Such an advanced understanding might then allow better predictions of future trajectories and therefore contribute to the reduction of flood risk.
NTP-CERHR Monograph on the Potential Human Reproductive and Developmental Effects of Propylene Glycol (PG).
The National Toxicology Program (NTP) Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction (CERHR) conducted an evaluation of the potential for propylene glycol (PG) to cause adverse effects on reproduction and development in humans. PG was selected for evaluation because of the potential for widespread human exposure through its use in food, tobacco, pharmaceutical products, cosmetics, various paints and coatings and as an antifreeze and de-icing solution. PG is a small, hydroxy-substituted hydrocarbon used as a chemical intermediate in the production of unsaturated polyester resins and in the production of plasticizers. The results of this evaluation on PG are published in an NTP-CERHR monograph which includes: 1) the NTP Brief, 2) the Expert Panel Report on the Reproductive and Developmental Toxicity of Propylene Glycol, and 3) public comments received on the Expert Panel Report. As stated in the NTP Brief, the NTP reached the following conclusions regarding the possible effects of exposure to PG on human development and reproduction. There is negligible concern for adverse developmental and reproductive effects in humans at current, proposed, or estimated exposure levels. There is no direct evidence that exposure of people to PG adversely affects reproduction or development. Studies in pregnant laboratory animals at oral doses of PG greater than 1,200 mg/kg body weight/ day and up to 10,400 mg/kg body weight/day in mice, did not produce developmental toxicity in offspring. In a continuous breeding study, no effects on fertility were observed in male or female mice at doses up to 10,100 mg/kg body weight/day in drinking water. The pharmacokinetics of PG indicates that the lack of adverse effects observed in laboratory animals is relevant to humans. The rate-limiting step in PG metabolism is conversion to the more toxic lactaldehyde product by alcohol dehydrogenase. Studies indicate that this enzyme saturates in humans at doses 8-10- fold lower than in rats and rabbits, thus affording less toxicity in humans. It is estimated that the average daily intake of PG from food products in the US is 34 mg/kg body weight/day for a 70 kg person, which is over 300 -fold lower than the highest dose tested in laboratory animals. NTP-CERHR monographs are transmitted to federal and state agencies, interested parties, and the public and are available in electronic PDF format on the CERHR web site (http://cerhr.niehs.nih.gov) and in printed text or CD-ROM from the CERHR (National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, P.O. Box 12233, MD EC-32, Research Triangle Park, NC; fax: 919-316-4511). PMID:15995735
Mitochondrial function in the human oocyte and embryo and their role in developmental competence.
Van Blerkom, Jonathan
The role of mitochondria as a nexus of developmental regulation in mammalian oogenesis and early embryogenesis is emerging from basic research in model species and from clinical studies in infertility treatments that require in vitro fertilization and embryo culture. Here, mitochondrial bioenergetic activities and roles in calcium homeostasis, regulation of cytoplasmic redox state, and signal transduction are discussed with respect to outcome in general, and as possible etiologies of chromosomal defects, maturation and fertilization failure in human oocytes, and as causative factors in early human embryo demise. At present, the ability of mitochondria to balance ATP supply and demand is considered the most critical factor with respect to fertilization competence for the oocyte and developmental competence for the embryo. mtDNA copy number, the timing of mtDNA replication during oocyte maturation, and the numerical size of the mitochondrial complement in the oocyte are evaluated with respect to their relative contribution to the establishment of developmental competence. Rather than net cytoplasmic bioenergetic capacity, the notion of functional compartmentalization of mitochondria is presented as a means by which ATP may be differentially supplied and localized within the cytoplasm by virtue of stage-specific changes in mitochondrial density and potential (??m). Abnormal patterns of calcium release and sequestration detected at fertilization in the human appear to have coincident effects on levels of mitochondrial ATP generation. These aberrations are not uncommon in oocytes obtained after ovarian hyperstimulation for in vitro fertilization. The possibility that defects in mitochondrial calcium regulation or bioenergetic homeostasis could have negative downstream development consequences, including imprinting disorders, is discussed in the context of signaling pathways and cytoplasmic redox state. PMID:20933103
Model organisms inform the search for the genes and developmental pathology underlying malformations of the human hindbrain
Aldinger, Kimberly A.; Elsen, Gina E.; Prince, Victoria E.; Millen, Kathleen J.
Congenital malformations the human hindbrain, including the cerebellum, are poorly understood largely because their recognition is a relatively recent advance for imaging diagnostics. Cerebellar malformations are the most obvious and best characterized hindbrain malformations due to their relative ease to view by MRI and the recent identification of several causative genes1. Malformations of the pons and medulla have also been described both in isolation and in association with cerebellar malformations2. Although little is understood regarding the specific developmental pathologies underlying hindbrain malformations in humans, much is known regarding the mechanisms and genes driving hindbrain development in vertebrate model organisms. Thus, studies in vertebrate models provide a developmental framework in which to categorize human hindbrain malformations and serve to inform our thinking regarding disrupted developmental processes and candidate genes. Here we survey the basic principles of vertebrate hindbrain development and integrate our current knowledge of human hindbrain malformations into this framework. PMID:19778712
Contemporary, yeast-based approaches to understanding human genetic variation
Dunham, Maitreya J.; Fowler, Douglas M.
Determining how genetic variation contributes to human health and disease is a critical challenge. As one of the most genetically tractable model organisms, yeast has played a central role in meeting this challenge. The advent of new technologies, including high-throughput DNA sequencing and synthesis, proteomics, and computational methods, has vastly increased the power of yeast-based approaches to determine the consequences of human genetic variation. Recent successes include systematic exploration of the effects of gene dosage, large-scale analysis of the effect of coding variation on gene function, and the use of humanized yeast to model disease. By virtue of its manipulability, small genome size, and genetic tractability, yeast is poised to help us understand human genetic variation. PMID:24252429
Developmental changes in the spatial organization of neurons in the neocortex of humans and common chimpanzees
Teffer, Kate; Buxhoeveden, Daniel P.; Stimpson, Cheryl D.; Fobbs, Archibald J.; Schapiro, Steven J.; Baze, Wallace B.; McArthur, Mark J.; Hopkins, William D.; Hof, Patrick R.; Sherwood, Chet C.; Semendeferi, Katerina
In adult humans, the prefrontal cortex possesses wider minicolumns and more neuropil space than other cortical regions. These aspects of prefrontal cortex architecture, furthermore, are increased in comparison to chimpanzees and other great apes. In order to determine the developmental appearance of this human cortical specialization, we examined the spatial organization of neurons in four cortical regions (frontal pole [Brodmann's area 10], primary motor [area 4], primary somatosensory [area 3b], and prestriate visual cortex [area 18]) in chimpanzees and humans from birth to approximately the time of adolescence (11 years of age). Horizontal spacing distance (HSD) and gray level ratio (GLR) of layer III neurons were measured in Nissl-stained sections. In both human and chimpanzee area 10, HSD was significantly higher in the post-weaning specimens compared to the pre-weaning ones. No significant age-related differences were seen in the other regions in either species. In concert with other recent studies, the current findings suggest that there is a relatively slower maturation of area 10 in both humans and chimpanzees as compared to other cortical regions, and that further refinement of the spatial organization of neurons within this prefrontal area in humans takes place after the post-weaning periods included here. PMID:23839595
Developmental rescue of Drosophila cephalic defects by the human Otx genes.
Nagao, T; Leuzinger, S; Acampora, D; Simeone, A; Finkelstein, R; Reichert, H; Furukubo-Tokunaga, K
The molecular mechanisms of head development are a central question in vertebrate and invertebrate developmental biology. The anteriorly expressed homeobox gene otd in Drosophila and its homolog Otx in mouse are required for the early development of the most anterior part of the body, suggesting that a fundamental genetic program of cephalic development might be conserved between vertebrates and invertebrates. We have examined this hypothesis by introducing the human Otx genes into flies. By inducing expression of the human Otx homologs with a heat shock promoter, we found that both Otx1 and Otx2 functionally complement the cephalic defects of a fly otd mutant through specific activation and inactivation of downstream genes. Combined with previous morphological studies, these results are consistent with the view that a common molecular ground plan of cephalization was invented before the diversification of the protostome and the deuterostome in the course of metazoan evolution. PMID:9520436
Understanding Dyslexia in Children through Human Development Theories
Al-Shidhani, Thuraya Ahmed; Arora, Vinita
Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin, with an estimated overall worldwide prevalence of 5–10% of the population. It is characterised by difficulties in reading, accuracy, fluency, spelling and decoding abilities. The majority of publications reviewed indicated that screening is performed at the preschool level. Screening can also be conducted at birth or the first year of life. Understanding human development theory, for example, Piaget's human development theory, may help determine at which stage of childhood development dyslexia is more detectable, and therefore guide the management of this disability. The objective of this review is to provide a brief and updated overview of dyslexia and its management in children through human development issues. PMID:23269949
Can we understand modern humans without considering pathogens?
Thomas, Frédéric; Daoust, Simon P; Raymond, Michel
Throughout our evolutionary history, humankind has always lived in contact with large numbers of pathogens. Some cultural traits, such as sedentarization and animal domestication, have considerably increased new parasitic contacts and epidemic transitions. Here, we review the various phenotypic traits that have been proposed to be affected by the highly parasitic human environment, including fertility, birth weight, fluctuating asymmetry, body odours, food recipes, sexual behaviour, pregnancy sickness, language, religion and intellectual quotient. We also discuss how such knowledge is important to understanding several aspects of the current problems faced by humanity in our changing world and to predicting the long-term consequences of parasite eradication policies on our health and well-being. The study of the evolutionary interactions between humans and parasites is a burgeoning and most promising field, as demonstrated by the recent increasing popularity of Darwinian medicine. PMID:25568057
The relevance of human fetal subplate zone for developmental neuropathology of neuronal migration disorders and cortical dysplasia.
Kostovi?, Ivica; Sedmak, Goran; Vukši?, Mario; Judaš, Miloš
The human fetal cerebral cortex develops through a series of partially overlapping histogenetic events which occur in transient cellular compartments, such as the subplate zone. The subplate serves as waiting compartment for cortical afferent fibers, the major site of early synaptogenesis and neuronal differentiation and the hub of the transient fetal cortical circuitry. Thus, the subplate has an important but hitherto neglected role in the human fetal cortical connectome. The subplate is also an important compartment for radial and tangential migration of future cortical neurons. We review the diversity of subplate neuronal phenotypes and their involvement in cortical circuitry and discuss the complexity of late neuronal migration through the subplate as well as its potential relevance for pathogenesis of migration disorders and cortical dysplasia. While migratory neurons may become misplaced within the subplate, they can easily survive by being involved in early subplate circuitry; this can enhance their subsequent survival even if they have immature or abnormal physiological activity and misrouted connections and thus survive into adulthood. Thus, better understanding of subplate developmental history and various subsets of its neurons may help to elucidate certain types of neuronal disorders, including those accompanied by epilepsy. PMID:25312583
Developmental Psychology Developmental psychology
Developmental Psychology Developmental psychology is concerned with both physical and psychological changes throughout life-- from conception until death. www.uwindsor.ca/psychology A Rigorous, Enriching Program Developmental Psychology is a specialized major within Psychology that focuses on child
The Developmental Perspective in Integral Counseling
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Cook-Greuter, Susanne R.; Soulen, Jeffrey
The process of making meaning is a core determinant of human experience. Understanding this process, developmentally, is a vital part of integral counseling. In this article, the authors introduce the concept of ego development stages as increasingly complex and flexible systems of meaning making. An understanding of ego development stages can…
Human-vehicle interaction by hand sign understanding
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Dong, Guo; Ming, Xie; Yin, Xiaoming
The interactive ability of intelligent electric vehicle with human has the capital importance of convincing public to accept the existence and usage of intelligent electric vehicle, it can greatly enhance the safety of intelligent electric vehicle in public service. In this paper, an interactive model based on hand gesture understanding is represented, it offers more compact and intuitive meanings than other interactive models in an outdoor environment. The Typical hand gestures are defined to guide the motion of vehicle by considering gesture differentiation and human tendency in the model, they are classified as motion-oriented and direction-oriented gestures for different interactive intentions. The color distribution of human skin is analyzed in different color spaces, it reveals that human skin colors cluster in a specific region with the irregular appearance, they have more differences in intensity than colors among the people. A color model of human skin is built for hand gesture segmentation by using the training procedure of RCE neural network, it has the ability of delineating the pattern class with arbitrary appearance in feature space. The quality of hand gesture segmentation is further improved by the procedure of hand-forearm separation. A hand tracking mechanism is proposed to locate the hand by camera pan-tilt and zooming. The gesture recognition is implemented by template matching of multiple features.
Combined small molecule inhibition accelerates developmental timing and converts human pluripotent stem cells into nociceptors
Chambers, Stuart M.; Qi, Yuchen; Mica, Yvonne; Lee, Gabsang; Zhang, Xin-Jun; Niu, Lei; Bilsland, James; Cao, Lishuang; Stevens, Edward; Whiting, Paul; Shi, Song-Hai; Studer, Lorenz
There has been considerable progress in identifying signaling pathways directing the differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) into specialized cell types including neurons. However, extrinsic factor-based differentiation of hPSCs is a slow, step-wise process mimicking the protracted timing of normal human development. Using a small molecule screen we identified a combination of five small molecule pathway inhibitors sufficient to yield hPSC-derived neurons at >75% efficiency within 10 days of differentiation. The resulting neurons express canonical markers and functional properties of human nociceptors including TTX-resistant, SCN10A-dependent sodium currents and response to nociceptive stimuli including ATP and capsaicin. Neuronal fate acquisition occurs three-fold faster than during in vivo1 development suggesting that use of small molecule pathway inhibitors could develop into a general strategy for accelerating developmental timing in vitro. The quick and high efficiency derivation of nociceptors offers unprecedented access to this medically relevant cell type for studies of human pain. PMID:22750882
BMP Signaling in the Human Fetal Ovary is Developmentally Regulated and Promotes Primordial Germ Cell Apoptosis
Childs, Andrew J; Kinnell, Hazel L; Collins, Craig S; Hogg, Kirsten; Bayne, Rosemary AL; Green, Samira J; McNeilly, Alan S; Anderson, Richard A
Primordial germ cells (PGCs) are the embryonic precursors of gametes in the adult organism, and their development, differentiation, and survival are regulated by a combination of growth factors collectively known as the germ cell niche. Although many candidate niche components have been identified through studies on mouse PGCs, the growth factor composition of the human PGC niche has not been studied extensively. Here we report a detailed analysis of the expression of components of the bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling apparatus in the human fetal ovary, from postmigratory PGC proliferation to the onset of primordial follicle formation. We find developmentally regulated and reciprocal patterns of expression of BMP2 and BMP4 and identify germ cells to be the exclusive targets of ovarian BMP signaling. By establishing long-term cultures of human fetal ovaries in which PGCs are retained within their physiological niche, we find that BMP4 negatively regulates postmigratory PGC numbers in the human fetal ovary by promoting PGC apoptosis. Finally, we report expression of both muscle segment homeobox (MSX)1 and MSX2 in the human fetal ovary and reveal a selective upregulation of MSX2 expression in human fetal ovary in response to BMP4, suggesting this gene may act as a downstream effector of BMP-induced apoptosis in the ovary, as in other systems. These data reveal for the first time growth factor regulation of human PGC development in a physiologically relevant context and have significant implications for the development of cultures systems for the in vitro maturation of germ cells, and their derivation from pluripotent stem cells. PMID:20506112
Utilising proteomic approaches to understand oncogenic human herpesviruses (Review)
The ?-herpesviruses Epstein-Barr virus and Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus are successful pathogens, each infecting a large proportion of the human population. These viruses persist for the life of the host and may each contribute to a number of malignancies, for which there are currently no cures. Large-scale proteomic-based approaches provide an excellent means of increasing the collective understanding of the proteomes of these complex viruses and elucidating their numerous interactions within the infected host cell. These large-scale studies are important for the identification of the intricacies of viral infection and the development of novel therapeutics against these two important pathogens. PMID:25279171
Single Transcription Factor Conversion of Human Blood Fate to NPCs with CNS and PNS Developmental Capacity.
Lee, Jong-Hee; Mitchell, Ryan R; McNicol, Jamie D; Shapovalova, Zoya; Laronde, Sarah; Tanasijevic, Borko; Milsom, Chloe; Casado, Fanny; Fiebig-Comyn, Aline; Collins, Tony J; Singh, Karun K; Bhatia, Mickie
The clinical applicability of direct cell fate conversion depends on obtaining tissue from patients that is easy to harvest, store, and manipulate for reprogramming. Here, we generate induced neural progenitor cells (iNPCs) from neonatal and adult peripheral blood using single-factor OCT4 reprogramming. Unlike fibroblasts that share molecular hallmarks of neural crest, OCT4 reprogramming of blood was facilitated by SMAD+GSK-3 inhibition to overcome restrictions on neural fate conversion. Blood-derived (BD) iNPCs differentiate in vivo and respond to guided differentiation in vitro, producing glia (astrocytes and oligodendrocytes) and multiple neuronal subtypes, including dopaminergic (CNS related) and nociceptive neurons (peripheral nervous system [PNS]). Furthermore, nociceptive neurons phenocopy chemotherapy-induced neurotoxicity in a system suitable for high-throughput drug screening. Our findings provide an easily accessible approach for generating human NPCs that harbor extensive developmental potential, enabling the study of clinically relevant neural diseases directly from patient cohorts. PMID:26004181
Developmental changes in the discrimination of dynamic human actions in infancy.
Loucks, Jeff; Sommerville, Jessica A
Recent evidence suggests that adults selectively attend to features of action, such as how a hand contacts an object, and less to configural properties of action, such as spatial trajectory, when observing human actions. The current research investigated whether this bias develops in infancy. We utilized a habituation paradigm to assess 4-month-old and 10-month-old infants' discrimination of action based on featural, configural, and temporal sources of action information. Younger infants were able to discriminate changes to all three sources of information, but older infants were only able to reliably discriminate changes to featural information. These results highlight a previously unknown aspect of early action processing, and suggest that action perception may undergo a developmental process akin to perceptual narrowing. PMID:22251298
Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities: 1981 Research Programs of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
National Inst. of Child Health and Human Development (NIH), Bethesda, MD.
The monograph reviews federal research activities and progress in biomedical and behavioral/social science research in mental retardation. Activities represent the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities branch. The following categories are addressed in terms of biomedical…
Impairments in Monkey and Human Face Recognition in 2-Year-Old Toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Developmental Delay
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Chawarska, Katarzyna; Volkmar, Fred
Face recognition impairments are well documented in older children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD); however, the developmental course of the deficit is not clear. This study investigates the progressive specialization of face recognition skills in children with and without ASD. Experiment 1 examines human and monkey face recognition in…
Do Domestic Dogs Understand Human Actions as Goal-Directed?
Marshall-Pescini, Sarah; Ceretta, Maria; Prato-Previde, Emanuela
Understanding of other's actions as goal-directed is considered a fundamental ability underlying cognitive and social development in human infants. A number of studies using the habituation-dishabituation paradigm have shown that the ability to discern intentional relations, in terms of goal-directedness of an action towards an object, appears around 5 months of age. The question of whether non-human species can perceive other's actions as goal-directed has been more controversial, however there is mounting evidence that at least some primates species do. Recently domestic dogs have been shown to be particularly sensitive to human communicative cues and more so in cooperative and intentional contexts. Furthermore, they have been shown to imitate selectively. Taken together these results suggest that dogs may perceive others' actions as goal-directed, however no study has investigated this issue directly. In the current study, adopting an infant habituation-dishabituation paradigm, we investigated whether dogs attribute intentions to an animate (a human) but not an inanimate (a black box) agent interacting with an object. Following an habituation phase in which the agent interacted always with one of two objects, two sets of 3 trials were presented: new side trials (in which the agent interacted with the same object as in the habituation trial but placed in a novel location) and new goal trials (in which the agent interacted with the other object placed in the old location). Dogs showed a similar pattern of response to that shown in infants, looking longer in the new goal than new side trials when they saw the human agent interact with the object. No such difference emerging with the inanimate agent (the black box). Results provide the first evidence that a non-primate species can perceive another individual's actions as goal-directed. We discuss results in terms of the prevailing mentalisitic and non-mentalistic hypotheses regarding goal-attribution. PMID:25229452
Understanding the human dimensions of a sustainable energy transition
Steg, Linda; Perlaviciute, Goda; van der Werff, Ellen
Global climate change threatens the health, economic prospects, and basic food and water sources of people. A wide range of changes in household energy behavior is needed to realize a sustainable energy transition. We propose a general framework to understand and encourage sustainable energy behaviors, comprising four key issues. First, we need to identify which behaviors need to be changed. A sustainable energy transition involves changes in a wide range of energy behaviors, including the adoption of sustainable energy sources and energy-efficient technology, investments in energy efficiency measures in buildings, and changes in direct and indirect energy use behavior. Second, we need to understand which factors underlie these different types of sustainable energy behaviors. We discuss three main factors that influence sustainable energy behaviors: knowledge, motivations, and contextual factors. Third, we need to test the effects of interventions aimed to promote sustainable energy behaviors. Interventions can be aimed at changing the actual costs and benefits of behavior, or at changing people's perceptions and evaluations of different costs and benefits of behavioral options. Fourth, it is important to understand which factors affect the acceptability of energy policies and energy systems changes. We discuss important findings from psychological studies on these four topics, and propose a research agenda to further explore these topics. We emphasize the need of an integrated approach in studying the human dimensions of a sustainable energy transition that increases our understanding of which general factors affect a wide range of energy behaviors as well as the acceptability of different energy policies and energy system changes. PMID:26136705
Morphological and Molecular Descriptors of the Developmental Cycle of Babesia divergens Parasites in Human Erythrocytes
Rossouw, Ingrid; Maritz-Olivier, Christine; Niemand, Jandeli; van Biljon, Riette; Smit, Annel; Olivier, Nicholas A.; Birkholtz, Lyn-Marie
Human babesiosis, especially caused by the cattle derived Babesia divergens parasite, is on the increase, resulting in renewed attentiveness to this potentially life threatening emerging zoonotic disease. The molecular mechanisms underlying the pathophysiology and intra-erythrocytic development of these parasites are poorly understood. This impedes concerted efforts aimed at the discovery of novel anti-babesiacidal agents. By applying sensitive cell biological and molecular functional genomics tools, we describe the intra-erythrocytic development cycle of B. divergens parasites from immature, mono-nucleated ring forms to bi-nucleated paired piriforms and ultimately multi-nucleated tetrads that characterizes zoonotic Babesia spp. This is further correlated for the first time to nuclear content increases during intra-erythrocytic development progression, providing insight into the part of the life cycle that occurs during human infection. High-content temporal evaluation elucidated the contribution of the different stages to life cycle progression. Moreover, molecular descriptors indicate that B. divergens parasites employ physiological adaptation to in vitro cultivation. Additionally, differential expression is observed as the parasite equilibrates its developmental stages during its life cycle. Together, this information provides the first temporal evaluation of the functional transcriptome of B. divergens parasites, information that could be useful in identifying biological processes essential to parasite survival for future anti-babesiacidal discoveries. PMID:25955414
Cellular reprogramming for understanding and treating human disease.
Kanherkar, Riya R; Bhatia-Dey, Naina; Makarev, Evgeny; Csoka, Antonei B
In the last two decades we have witnessed a paradigm shift in our understanding of cells so radical that it has rewritten the rules of biology. The study of cellular reprogramming has gone from little more than a hypothesis, to applied bioengineering, with the creation of a variety of important cell types. By way of metaphor, we can compare the discovery of reprogramming with the archeological discovery of the Rosetta stone. This stone slab made possible the initial decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphics because it allowed us to see this language in a way that was previously impossible. We propose that cellular reprogramming will have an equally profound impact on understanding and curing human disease, because it allows us to perceive and study molecular biological processes such as differentiation, epigenetics, and chromatin in ways that were likewise previously impossible. Stem cells could be called "cellular Rosetta stones" because they allow also us to perceive the connections between development, disease, cancer, aging, and regeneration in novel ways. Here we present a comprehensive historical review of stem cells and cellular reprogramming, and illustrate the developing synergy between many previously unconnected fields. We show how stem cells can be used to create in vitro models of human disease and provide examples of how reprogramming is being used to study and treat such diverse diseases as cancer, aging, and accelerated aging syndromes, infectious diseases such as AIDS, and epigenetic diseases such as polycystic ovary syndrome. While the technology of reprogramming is being developed and refined there have also been significant ongoing developments in other complementary technologies such as gene editing, progenitor cell production, and tissue engineering. These technologies are the foundations of what is becoming a fully-functional field of regenerative medicine and are converging to a point that will allow us to treat almost any disease. PMID:25429365
Moral uncertainty in bioethical argumentation: a new understanding of the pro-life view on early human embryos.
?uradzki, Tomasz
In this article, I present a new interpretation of the pro-life view on the status of early human embryos. In my understanding, this position is based not on presumptions about the ontological status of embryos and their developmental capabilities but on the specific criteria of rational decisions under uncertainty and on a cautious response to the ambiguous status of embryos. This view, which uses the decision theory model of moral reasoning, promises to reconcile the uncertainty about the ontological status of embryos with the certainty about normative obligations. I will demonstrate that my interpretation of the pro-life view, although seeming to be stronger than the standard one, has limited scope and cannot be used to limit destructive research on human embryos. PMID:25230689
The effects of neonatal basal forebrain lesions oncognition : towards understanding the developmental roleof the cholinergic basal forebrain
Joanne Berger-Sweeney
Abnormal development of the cholinergic basal forebrain has been implicated innumerous developmental disabilities such as Rett Syndrome and Down Syndrome. This reviewsummarizes recent data using two rodent animal models that involve interrupting cholinergic basalforebrain projections on postnatal day 1 and postnatal day 7 when basal forebrain fibers arebeginning to innervate their neocortical and hippocampal targets, respectively. In one model,electrolytic lesions
Understanding the Diversity: A Taxonomy for Postsecondary Education Programs and Services for Students with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
McEathron, Mary A.; Beuhring, Trisha; Maynard, Amelia; Mavis, Ann
The number of postsecondary education (PSE) programs for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) has been steadily growing over the last few decades. There has been little public information regarding these programs and schools. Consequently, students, families, and researchers alike lack details about the various…
Understanding Human Motion Skill with Peak Timing Synergy
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Ueno, Ken; Furukawa, Koichi
The careful observation of motion phenomena is important in understanding the skillful human motion. However, this is a difficult task due to the complexities in timing when dealing with the skilful control of anatomical structures. To investigate the dexterity of human motion, we decided to concentrate on timing with respect to motion, and we have proposed a method to extract the peak timing synergy from multivariate motion data. The peak timing synergy is defined as a frequent ordered graph with time stamps, which has nodes consisting of turning points in motion waveforms. A proposed algorithm, PRESTO automatically extracts the peak timing synergy. PRESTO comprises the following 3 processes: (1) detecting peak sequences with polygonal approximation; (2) generating peak-event sequences; and (3) finding frequent peak-event sequences using a sequential pattern mining method, generalized sequential patterns (GSP). Here, we measured right arm motion during the task of cello bowing and prepared a data set of the right shoulder and arm motion. We successfully extracted the peak timing synergy on cello bowing data set using the PRESTO algorithm, which consisted of common skills among cellists and personal skill differences. To evaluate the sequential pattern mining algorithm GSP in PRESTO, we compared the peak timing synergy by using GSP algorithm and the one by using filtering by reciprocal voting (FRV) algorithm as a non time-series method. We found that the support is 95 - 100% in GSP, while 83 - 96% in FRV and that the results by GSP are better than the one by FRV in the reproducibility of human motion. Therefore we show that sequential pattern mining approach is more effective to extract the peak timing synergy than non-time series analysis approach.
Relationship of Bender Gestalt Developmental Scores and Human Drawing Developmental Scores in a Sample of Turkish Preschool Children
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ozer, Serap
The Bender Gestalt test and Human Drawings are frequently utilized tests in assessing school readiness in children. This study was a pilot attempt to evaluate these two tests in a Turkish sample as they relate to first grade behaviour as measured by teacher ratings. One hundred and five children were evaluated at the end of kindergarten using the…
Kushima, Itaru; Okada, Takashi; Ozaki, Norio
Developmental disorders, which are usually diagnosed in infancy, childhood, or adolescence, include mental retardation, learning disorders, motor skills disorder, communication disorders, pervasive developmental disorders (PDD), attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and tic disorders. Epidemiological studies have indicated that these disorders are characterized not only by high heritability (e.g., 0.80 for PDD) but also by their shared genetic etiology. Furthermore, retrospective or prospective longitudinal studies have revealed that adult psychiatric disorders are often preceded either by their juvenile counterparts (homotypic continuity) or by different disorders (heterotypic continuity). Recent genetic studies have detected copy number variants (CNVs; e.g., deletions on 1q21.1, 3q29, and 22q.11.21 and duplications on 16p11.2) as shared genetic factors for PDD, mental retardation, and schizophrenia. While these CNVs are generally very rare (<1%), their effect size is much larger than that of single nucleotide polymorphisms. Although the mechanism by which CNVs cause these abnormalities remains unclear, pleiotropic effect of CNVs may provide insights into the high rate of comorbidity among developmental disorders and heterotypic continuity between developmental disorders and adult disorders. In addition, longitudinal neuroimaging studies have provided evidence for irregularities in the typical trajectories in developmental disorders. For instance, retarded cortical development is identified in ADHD in cortical trajectory, and early acceleration of brain growth is identified in PDD. Finally, we outlined several research topics as the future direction for investigation of developmental disorders: a longitudinal clinical study in subjects with specific disorder-related CNVs; detailed analysis of genetic factors relevant to developmental disorders, including smaller CNVs and INDELs; and functional analysis of genetic factors by using induced pluripotent stem cell technology or non-human primate animal models. PMID:22308259
Differential Developmental Trajectories of Magnetic Susceptibility in Human Brain Gray and White Matter Over the Lifespan
Li, Wei; Wu, Bing; Batrachenko, Anastasia; Bancroft-Wu, Vivian; Morey, Rajendra A.; Shashi, Vandana; Langkammer, Christian; De Bellis, Michael D.; Ropele, Stefan; Song, Allen W.; Liu, Chunlei
As indicated by several recent studies, magnetic susceptibility of the brain is influenced mainly by myelin in the white matter and by iron deposits in the deep nuclei. Myelination and iron deposition in the brain evolve both spatially and temporally. This evolution reflects an important characteristic of normal brain development and ageing. In this study, we assessed the changes of regional susceptibility in the human brain in vivo by examining the developmental and ageing process from 1 to 83 years of age. The evolution of magnetic susceptibility over this lifespan was found to display differential trajectories between the gray and the white matter. In both cortical and subcortical white matter, an initial decrease followed by a subsequent increase in magnetic susceptibility was observed, which could be fitted by a Poisson curve. In the gray matter, including the cortical gray matter and the iron-rich deep nuclei, magnetic susceptibility displayed a monotonic increase that can be described by an exponential growth. The rate of change varied according to functional and anatomical regions of the brain. For the brain nuclei, the age-related changes of susceptibility were in good agreement with the findings from R2* measurement. Our results suggest that magnetic susceptibility may provide valuable information regarding the spatial and temporal patterns of brain myelination and iron deposition during brain maturation and ageing. PMID:24038837
Measuring and Understanding Public Opinion on Human Evolution
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Gwon, Misook
The theory of evolution has long generated controversy in American society, but Americans' attitudes about human evolution are often neglected in studies of "culture wars" and the nature of mass belief systems more generally (Berkman and Plutzer 2010; Freeland and Houston 2009). Gallup and other survey organizations have polled about evolution, but offered limited response categories that mask complexity in public opinion (Bishop 2006; Moore 2008). The main problems concerning the leading survey questions about evolution are: first, questions measure only a single dimension, thus they ignore the potential for multidimensionality in people's attitudes. Second, depending on question wording and response options, the results of public opinion surveys vary by polling groups. This is an example of measurement error which misleads the interpretation and impression of American public opinion on the origin of humankind. A number of studies have analyzed Americans' beliefs about evolution and hypothesized about the influential effects of several factors (Deckman 2002; Mazur 2005; Mooney 2005; Miller et al. 2006; Newport 2006; Forrest 2007;Nisbet and Goidel 2007;Scott 2009). However, there remains a lack of complete understanding of what Americans know and believe about human evolution. Given the salience of this issue and the significant influence of public opinion on policy-making in America (Page and Shapiro 1992; Stimson 2004; Newport 2004), the measurement error and explanation of polling results on controversial issues related to this topic are in need of clarification. In this study, I address these deficiencies with analyses of data from a 2008 national survey by Harris Interactive (n= 4,626) that included numerous measures of factual knowledge and beliefs about evolution. The items offer more nuanced response options than the standard three-category question asked for decades by the Gallup poll. The Harris survey also had multiple measures of religiosity and the Right-Wing-Authoritarianism personality scale. Using this uniquely rich data set I develop a model of the nature and organization of these various attitude structures. Data analyses on explanation of public acceptance or rejection of evolution indicate that the Right-wing-authoritarianism and religious factors including beliefs in God's existence, views of the Bible, frequency of church attendance, and Evangelical Protestant affiliation are significant predictors across all measures. Scientific literacy, genetic science knowledge and familiarity, in general, are another contributor to prediction of public attitudes toward evolution. On measurement validity, consistency of measurement and responses are examined. The results from data analyses reveal the effect of question wording form and context is at play. In addition, public beliefs and knowledge about evolution are not consistent, rather contradictory, and are susceptible to framing effects. As scholars of public opinion warn, we should avoid the referendum view of polls on controversial issues (Schuman 2008; Moore 2008; Bishop 2005). Findings from this research lead to two key conclusions. First, great caution should be taken interpreting poll results on human evolution. Second, for better understanding of public opinion on this issue, a modified standard question should replace the current question.
The Chaotic Nature of Human Experience: An Alternative Approach to Determinacy in Understanding Emotions and Experience
Mutlu, Bilge
The Chaotic Nature of Human Experience: An Alternative Approach to Determinacy in Understanding Nature of Human Experience: An Alternative Approach to Determinacy in Understanding Emotions and Experience Bilge Mutlu and Jodi Forlizzi School of Design & Human-Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie
Borna disease virus phosphoprotein impairs the developmental program controlling neurogenesis and reduces human GABAergic neurogenesis.
Scordel, Chloé; Huttin, Alexandra; Cochet-Bernoin, Marielle; Szelechowski, Marion; Poulet, Aurélie; Richardson, Jennifer; Benchoua, Alexandra; Gonzalez-Dunia, Daniel; Eloit, Marc; Coulpier, Muriel
It is well established that persistent viral infection may impair cellular function of specialized cells without overt damage. This concept, when applied to neurotropic viruses, may help to understand certain neurologic and neuropsychiatric diseases. Borna disease virus (BDV) is an excellent example of a persistent virus that targets the brain, impairs neural functions without cell lysis, and ultimately results in neurobehavioral disturbances. Recently, we have shown that BDV infects human neural progenitor cells (hNPCs) and impairs neurogenesis, revealing a new mechanism by which BDV may interfere with brain function. Here, we sought to identify the viral proteins and molecular pathways that are involved. Using lentiviral vectors for expression of the bdv-p and bdv-x viral genes, we demonstrate that the phosphoprotein P, but not the X protein, diminishes human neurogenesis and, more particularly, GABAergic neurogenesis. We further reveal a decrease in pro-neuronal factors known to be involved in neuronal differentiation (ApoE, Noggin, TH and Scg10/Stathmin2), demonstrating that cellular dysfunction is associated with impairment of specific components of the molecular program that controls neurogenesis. Our findings thus provide the first evidence that a viral protein impairs GABAergic human neurogenesis, a process that is dysregulated in several neuropsychiatric disorders. They improve our understanding of the mechanisms by which a persistent virus may interfere with brain development and function in the adult. PMID:25923687
Borna Disease Virus Phosphoprotein Impairs the Developmental Program Controlling Neurogenesis and Reduces Human GABAergic Neurogenesis
Scordel, Chloé; Szelechowski, Marion; Poulet, Aurélie; Richardson, Jennifer; Benchoua, Alexandra; Gonzalez-Dunia, Daniel; Eloit, Marc; Coulpier, Muriel
It is well established that persistent viral infection may impair cellular function of specialized cells without overt damage. This concept, when applied to neurotropic viruses, may help to understand certain neurologic and neuropsychiatric diseases. Borna disease virus (BDV) is an excellent example of a persistent virus that targets the brain, impairs neural functions without cell lysis, and ultimately results in neurobehavioral disturbances. Recently, we have shown that BDV infects human neural progenitor cells (hNPCs) and impairs neurogenesis, revealing a new mechanism by which BDV may interfere with brain function. Here, we sought to identify the viral proteins and molecular pathways that are involved. Using lentiviral vectors for expression of the bdv-p and bdv-x viral genes, we demonstrate that the phosphoprotein P, but not the X protein, diminishes human neurogenesis and, more particularly, GABAergic neurogenesis. We further reveal a decrease in pro-neuronal factors known to be involved in neuronal differentiation (ApoE, Noggin, TH and Scg10/Stathmin2), demonstrating that cellular dysfunction is associated with impairment of specific components of the molecular program that controls neurogenesis. Our findings thus provide the first evidence that a viral protein impairs GABAergic human neurogenesis, a process that is dysregulated in several neuropsychiatric disorders. They improve our understanding of the mechanisms by which a persistent virus may interfere with brain development and function in the adult. PMID:25923687
Brain and Tissue Bank for Developmental Disorders
NSDL National Science Digital Library
The Brain and Tissue Bank at the University of Maryland at Baltimore is established to advance the research of developmental disorders and is in contract to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health. The objective of this human tissue repository is to systematically collect, store, and distribute brain and other tissue for research dedicated to the improved understanding, care and treatment of individuals with developmental disorders. A listing of disorders, tissues and request information is available, in addition to registry information for potential donors.
Simplified ontologies allowing comparison of developmental mammalian gene expression
Kruger, Adele; Hofmann, Oliver; Carninci, Piero; Hayashizaki, Yoshihide; Hide, Winston
Model organisms represent an important resource for understanding the fundamental aspects of mammalian biology. Mapping of biological phenomena between model organisms is complex and if it is to be meaningful, a simplified representation can be a powerful means for comparison. The Developmental eVOC ontologies presented here are simplified orthogonal ontologies describing the temporal and spatial distribution of developmental human and mouse anatomy. We demonstrate the ontologies by identifying genes showing a bias for developmental brain expression in human and mouse. PMID:17961239
Neuronal developmental gene and miRNA signatures induced by histone deacetylase inhibitors in human embryonic stem cells.
Meganathan, K; Jagtap, S; Srinivasan, S P; Wagh, V; Hescheler, J; Hengstler, J; Leist, M; Sachinidis, A
Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) may be applied to develop human-relevant sensitive in vitro test systems for monitoring developmental toxicants. The aim of this study was to identify potential developmental toxicity mechanisms of the histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDAC) valproic acid (VPA), suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA) and trichostatin A (TSA) relevant to the in vivo condition using a hESC model in combination with specific differentiation protocols and genome-wide gene expression and microRNA profiling. Analysis of the gene expression data showed that VPA repressed neural tube and dorsal forebrain (OTX2, ISL1, EMX2 and SOX10)-related transcripts. In addition, VPA upregulates axonogenesis and ventral forebrain-associated genes, such as SLIT1, SEMA3A, DLX2/4 and GAD2. HDACi-induced expression of miR-378 and knockdown of miR-378 increases the expression of OTX2 and EMX2, which supports our hypothesis that HDACi targets forebrain markers through miR-378. In conclusion, multilineage differentiation in vitro test system is very sensitive for monitoring molecular activities relevant to in vivo neuronal developmental toxicity. Moreover, miR-378 seems to repress the expression of the OTX2 and EMX2 and therefore could be a regulator of the development of neural tube and dorsal forebrain neurons. PMID:25950486
Classic and Golli Myelin Basic Protein have distinct developmental trajectories in human visual cortex
Siu, Caitlin R.; Balsor, Justin L.; Jones, David G.; Murphy, Kathryn M.
Traditionally, myelin is viewed as insulation around axons, however, more recent studies have shown it also plays an important role in plasticity, axonal metabolism, and neuroimmune signaling. Myelin is a complex multi-protein structure composed of hundreds of proteins, with Myelin Basic Protein (MBP) being the most studied. MBP has two families: Classic-MBP that is necessary for activity driven compaction of myelin around axons, and Golli-MBP that is found in neurons, oligodendrocytes, and T-cells. Furthermore, Golli-MBP has been called a "molecular link" between the nervous and immune systems. In visual cortex specifically, myelin proteins interact with immune processes to affect experience-dependent plasticity. We studied myelin in human visual cortex using Western blotting to quantify Classic- and Golli-MBP expression in post-mortem tissue samples ranging in age from 20 days to 80 years. We found that Classic- and Golli-MBP have different patterns of change across the lifespan. Classic-MBP gradually increases to 42 years and then declines into aging. Golli-MBP has early developmental changes that are coincident with milestones in visual system sensitive period, and gradually increases into aging. There are three stages in the balance between Classic- and Golli-MBP expression, with Golli-MBP dominating early, then shifting to Classic-MBP, and back to Golli-MBP in aging. Also Golli-MBP has a wave of high inter-individual variability during childhood. These results about cortical MBP expression are timely because they compliment recent advances in MRI techniques that produce high resolution maps of cortical myelin in normal and diseased brain. In addition, the unique pattern of Golli-MBP expression across the lifespan suggests that it supports high levels of neuroimmune interaction in cortical development and in aging. PMID:25964736
Keller, Evelyn Fox
Developmental robustness, the capacity to stay "on track" despite the myriad vicissitudes that inevitably plague a developing organism, is, I argue, a prerequisite for natural selection and key to our understanding of the evolution of developmental processes. But how is such robustness achieved? And how can we reconcile this property with the delicate precision that seems to characterize so many developmental mechanisms, with what Michael Behe calls "irreducible complexity"? By looking at context, I argue. Developmental mechanisms must be robust with respect to the kinds of insults they are most likely to face, but with respect to less likely vicissitudes, they can be fragile. More specifically, I examine the relative absence of reaction-diffusion mechanisms in development and suggest that such mechanisms, theoretically attractive though they may be, have been judged by evolution to be ill suited for providing protection against the kinds of vicissitudes developing organisms are most likely to face, and have been supplanted by more intricate mechanisms that are protected from insult by structural design. PMID:12547680
Students' Understandings of Human Organs and Organ Systems.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Reiss, Michael J.; Tunnicliffe, Sue Dale
Discusses students' understandings of their own internal structure. Analysis shows the extent to which student understanding increases with age and the degree to which students know more about some organs and organ systems than others. Gender differences in the drawings were generally not large and there were some intriguing differences in the…
The Prevalence of Chromosomal Deletions Relating to Developmental Delay and/or Intellectual Disability in Human Euploid Blastocysts
He, Wenyin; Sun, Xiaofang; Liu, Lian; Li, Man; Jin, Hua; Wang, Wei-Hua
Chromosomal anomalies in human embryos produced by in vitro fertilization are very common, which include numerical (aneuploidy) and structural (deletion, duplication or others) anomalies. Our previous study indicated that chromosomal deletion(s) is the most common structural anomaly accounting for approximately 8% of euploid blastocysts. It is still unknown if these deletions in human euploid blastocysts have clinical significance. In this study, we analyzed 15 previously diagnosed euploid blastocysts that had chromosomal deletion(s) using Agilent oligonucleotide DNA microarray platform and localized the gene location in each deletion. Then, we used OMIM gene map and phenotype database to investigate if these deletions are related with some important genes that cause genetic diseases, especially developmental delay or intellectual disability. As results, we found that the detectable chromosomal deletion size with Agilent microarray is above 2.38 Mb, while the deletions observed in human blastocysts are between 11.6 to 103 Mb. With OMIM gene map and phenotype database information, we found that deletions can result in loss of 81-464 genes. Out of these genes, 34–149 genes are related with known genetic problems. Furthermore, we found that 5 out of 15 samples lost genes in the deleted region, which were related to developmental delay and/or intellectual disability. In conclusion, our data indicates that all human euploid blastocysts with chromosomal deletion(s) are abnormal and transfer of these embryos may cause birth defects and/or developmental and intellectual disabilities. Therefore, the embryos with chromosomal deletion revealed by DNA microarray should not be transferred to the patients, or further gene map and/or phenotype seeking is necessary before making a final decision. PMID:24409323
The Emergence of Autobiographical Memory: A Social Cultural Developmental Theory
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Nelson, Katherine; Fivush, Robyn
The authors present a multicomponent dynamic developmental theory of human autobiographical memory that emerges gradually across the preschool years. The components that contribute to the process of emergence include basic memory abilities, language and narrative, adult memory talk, temporal understanding, and understanding of self and others. The…
Can human movement analysis contribute to usability understanding?
Juan-Manuel Belda-Lois; Helios de-Rosario; Romŕ Pons; Rakel Poveda; Ana Morón; Rosa Porcar; Ana-Cruz Garc?´a; Amelia Gómez
Nowadays human–machine interfaces are evaluated using different methodologies. These methodologies rarely consider the human movements involved in the interaction, and if so, the movements are considered in a simplistic manner. Another often neglected aspect is the relationship between the learning process and the use of the interface. Traditional approaches of cognitive modeling consider learning as just one continuous process. However
Genome-Wide Reprogramming of Transcript Architecture by Temperature Specifies the Developmental States of the Human Pathogen Histoplasma
Gilmore, Sarah A.; Voorhies, Mark; Gebhart, Dana; Sil, Anita
Eukaryotic cells integrate layers of gene regulation to coordinate complex cellular processes; however, mechanisms of post-transcriptional gene regulation remain poorly studied. The human fungal pathogen Histoplasma capsulatum (Hc) responds to environmental or host temperature by initiating unique transcriptional programs to specify multicellular (hyphae) or unicellular (yeast) developmental states that function in infectivity or pathogenesis, respectively. Here we used recent advances in next-generation sequencing to uncover a novel re-programming of transcript length between Hc developmental cell types. We found that ~2% percent of Hc transcripts exhibit 5' leader sequences that differ markedly in length between morphogenetic states. Ribosome density and mRNA abundance measurements of differential leader transcripts revealed nuanced transcriptional and translational regulation. One such class of regulated longer leader transcripts exhibited tight transcriptional and translational repression. Further examination of these dually repressed genes revealed that some control Hc morphology and that their strict regulation is necessary for the pathogen to make appropriate developmental decisions in response to temperature. PMID:26177267
A 3-dimensional human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-derived model to detect developmental neurotoxicity of nanoparticles.
Hoelting, Lisa; Scheinhardt, Benjamin; Bondarenko, Olesja; Schildknecht, Stefan; Kapitza, Marion; Tanavde, Vivek; Tan, Betty; Lee, Qian Yi; Mecking, Stefan; Leist, Marcel; Kadereit, Suzanne
Nanoparticles (NPs) have been shown to accumulate in organs, cross the blood-brain barrier and placenta, and have the potential to elicit developmental neurotoxicity (DNT). Here, we developed a human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-derived 3-dimensional (3-D) in vitro model that allows for testing of potential developmental neurotoxicants. Early central nervous system PAX6(+) precursor cells were generated from hESCs and differentiated further within 3-D structures. The 3-D model was characterized for neural marker expression revealing robust differentiation toward neuronal precursor cells, and gene expression profiling suggested a predominantly forebrain-like development. Altered neural gene expression due to exposure to non-cytotoxic concentrations of the known developmental neurotoxicant, methylmercury, indicated that the 3-D model could detect DNT. To test for specific toxicity of NPs, chemically inert polyethylene NPs (PE-NPs) were chosen. They penetrated deep into the 3-D structures and impacted gene expression at non-cytotoxic concentrations. NOTCH pathway genes such as HES5 and NOTCH1 were reduced in expression, as well as downstream neuronal precursor genes such as NEUROD1 and ASCL1. FOXG1, a patterning marker, was also reduced. As loss of function of these genes results in severe nervous system impairments in mice, our data suggest that the 3-D hESC-derived model could be used to test for Nano-DNT. PMID:23203475
Developmentally coordinated extrinsic signals drive human pluripotent stem cell differentiation toward authentic DARPP-32+ medium-sized spiny neurons.
Delli Carri, Alessia; Onorati, Marco; Lelos, Mariah J; Castiglioni, Valentina; Faedo, Andrea; Menon, Ramesh; Camnasio, Stefano; Vuono, Romina; Spaiardi, Paolo; Talpo, Francesca; Toselli, Mauro; Martino, Gianvito; Barker, Roger A; Dunnett, Stephen B; Biella, Gerardo; Cattaneo, Elena
Medium-sized spiny neurons (MSNs) are the only neostriatum projection neurons, and their degeneration underlies some of the clinical features of Huntington's disease. Using knowledge of human developmental biology and exposure to key neurodevelopmental molecules, human pluripotent stem (hPS) cells were induced to differentiate into MSNs. In a feeder-free adherent culture, ventral telencephalic specification is induced by BMP/TGF? inhibition and subsequent SHH/DKK1 treatment. The emerging FOXG1(+)/GSX2(+) telencephalic progenitors are then terminally differentiated, resulting in the systematic line-independent generation of FOXP1(+)/FOXP2(+)/CTIP2(+)/calbindin(+)/DARPP-32(+) MSNs. Similar to mature MSNs, these neurons carry dopamine and A2a receptors, elicit a typical firing pattern and show inhibitory postsynaptic currents, as well as dopamine neuromodulation and synaptic integration ability in vivo. When transplanted into the striatum of quinolinic acid-lesioned rats, hPS-derived neurons survive and differentiate into DARPP-32(+) neurons, leading to a restoration of apomorphine-induced rotation behavior. In summary, hPS cells can be efficiently driven to acquire a functional striatal fate using an ontogeny-recapitulating stepwise method that represents a platform for in vitro human developmental neurobiology studies and drug screening approaches. PMID:23250204
Putting the Mind in the Brain: Promoting an Appreciation of the Biological Basis to Understanding Human Behavior
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Neumann, David L.
A surprising number of students in psychology, behavioral science, and related social science classes fail to appreciate the importance of biological mechanisms to understanding behavior. To help teachers promote this understanding, this paper outlines six sources of evidence. These are (a) phylogenetic, (b) genetic/developmental, (c) clinical,…
Understanding Human Culture as an Event in the Biota
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hartley, Peter E.
The role of human feelings as well as physiologicalfacts in ecological concerns is considered. New terms are proposed to facilitate thinking about the ecosystem - the entire system of relationships on which life is contingent. (LS)
Human Nonverbal Behaviour Understanding in the Wild for New Media Art
Gunes, Hatice
Human Nonverbal Behaviour Understanding in the Wild for New Media Art Evan Morgan and Hatice Gunes nonverbal and af- fective behaviour understanding for new media art as a case study, and reports the design understanding in the wild, gestural interaction, mood, nonverbal behaviour. 1 Introduction New Media Art
Non-invasive amino acid turnover predicts human embryo developmental capacity
Franchesca D. Houghton; Judith A. Hawkhead; Peter G. Humpherson; Jan E. Hogg; Adam H. Balen; Anthony J. Rutherford; Henry J. Leese
BACKGROUND: IVF is limited by low success rates and a confounding high multiple birth rate contributing to prematurity, increased neonatal mortality and child handicap. These problems could be overcome if single embryos of known developmental competence could be selected for transfer on day 2\\/3 of development, but current methods, which rely on morphological appearance, are poor predictors of viability. METHODS:
Developmental ability of chromosomally abnormal human embryos to develop to the blastocyst stage
M. Sandalinas; S. Sadowy; M. Alikani; G. Calderon; J. Cohen
BACKGROUND: A correlation between morphology, developmental competence and chromosome abnormalities is established. However, since absolute correlations are rare, embryo selection remains one of the most arduous tasks in assisted reproduction. This study was undertaken in order to determine which chromosomal abnormalities are compatible with development to the blastocyst stage. METHODS: Embryos diagnosed by preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) as chromosomally abnormal
Agents that may affect reproductive and developmental toxicity are of great concern to the general public. espite this, both the regulatory and public health arenas have been made somewhat haphazard use of the existing data when interpreting these health effects. ppropriate infor...
The Developmental Cycle: Teachings on the Eight Stages of Growth of a Human Being.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Coyhis, Don
Ties Native American Medicine Wheel teachings on the cycle of life to Eric Erickson's work on the eight developmental stages: trust, autonomy, initiative, accomplishment, identity, intimacy, generativity, and integrity. To have healthy communities, people need to move successfully through these stages. Knowing about these stages can help a person…
Non-Mendelian developmental defects: animal models and implications for research into human disease*
The major groups of malformations in man are polygenic in origin but this review deals only with defects due to non-Mendelian factors. Animal models that help in identifying the causes and in understanding the numerous and often subtle mechanisms of human malformations are of particular value. Many chemicals, physical agents, and nutritional deficiencies affect experimental species but few are teratogenic for domestic animals and even fewer for man. The known fetopathic viruses of animals and man cross the placenta to cause chronic, nonlethal fetal damage without harm to the mother. Ionizing radiations are teratogenic for all species and hyperthermia for many, but the role of the latter in human development is uncertain. The identification of more animal species with spontaneous or induced defects comparable to those found in man and of additional causative teratogens will increase the resources available for research into the causes and mechanisms of abnormal development in man. No animal species is ideal in teratological research but each has its virtues. This report comments on the present status of research in teratology and the trends that might profitably be followed in the future. PMID:413638
Thermal comfort in outdoor urban spaces: understanding the human parameter
Marialena Nikolopoulou; Nick Baker; Koen Steemers
The research being undertaken seeks to achieve a better understanding of the richness of microclimatic characteristics in outdoor urban spaces, and the comfort implications for the people using them. The underlying hypothesis is that these conditions influence people's behaviour and usage of outdoor spaces. The initial results demonstrate that a purely physiological approach is inadequate in characterising comfort conditions outdoors,
Lifeasweknowit To understand the human genome, researchers must spread their wings to all branches of life.
Pratt, Vaughan
and a worm to its ENCODE project, which aims to catalogue all the functional parts of the human genome is moving more forcefully into purely human genomics. The biggest new projects recently announcedLifeasweknowit To understand the human genome, researchers must spread their wings to all branches
Towards Better Human Robot Interaction: Understand Human Computer Interaction in Social Gaming Using a Video-Enhanced Diary Method
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
See, Swee Lan; Tan, Mitchell; Looi, Qin En
This paper presents findings from a descriptive research on social gaming. A video-enhanced diary method was used to understand the user experience in social gaming. From this experiment, we found that natural human behavior and gamer's decision making process can be elicited and speculated during human computer interaction. These are new information that we should consider as they can help us build better human computer interfaces and human robotic interfaces in future.
Comparative genomics: the key to understanding the human genome project
M. S. Clark
Summary The sequencing of the human genome is well underway. Technology has ad- vanced, such that the total genomic sequence is possible, along with an extensive catalogue of genes via comprehensive cDNA libraries. With the recent completion of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae sequencing project and the imminent comple- tion of that of Caenorhabditis elegans, the most frequently asked question is how
Understanding the heavy-tailed dynamics in human behavior
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Ross, Gordon J.; Jones, Tim
The recent availability of electronic data sets containing large volumes of communication data has made it possible to study human behavior on a larger scale than ever before. From this, it has been discovered that across a diverse range of data sets, the interevent times between consecutive communication events obey heavy-tailed power law dynamics. Explaining this has proved controversial, and two distinct hypotheses have emerged. The first holds that these power laws are fundamental, and arise from the mechanisms such as priority queuing that humans use to schedule tasks. The second holds that they are statistical artifacts which only occur in aggregated data when features such as circadian rhythms and burstiness are ignored. We use a large social media data set to test these hypotheses, and find that although models that incorporate circadian rhythms and burstiness do explain part of the observed heavy tails, there is residual unexplained heavy-tail behavior which suggests a more fundamental cause. Based on this, we develop a quantitative model of human behavior which improves on existing approaches and gives insight into the mechanisms underlying human interactions.
Understanding the contribution of synonymous mutations to human disease
Zuben E. Sauna; Chava Kimchi-Sarfaty
Synonymous mutations — sometimes called 'silent' mutations — are now widely acknowledged to be able to cause changes in protein expression, conformation and function. The recent increase in knowledge about the association of genetic variants with disease, particularly through genome-wide association studies, has revealed a substantial contribution of synonymous SNPs to human disease risk and other complex traits. Here we
Julie A. Adams
Goal-Directed Task Analysis is being applied to assessing the needs and requirements for developing novel techniques and tools to permit a small number of humans to supervise large robotic teams. The paper presents a preliminary overall goal hierarchy as well as a preliminary communication goal hierarchy based upon the initial analysis. This research involves working directly with the Nashville Metro
Ambiguities in Spatial Language Understanding in Situated Human Robot Dialogue
system, linguistic cues and individual preferences may allow reliable disambiguation. Introduction on the perspective of a third entity, namely the chair's intrinsic right side. So which cone should the robot go to in human-robot interaction and examine different contextual factors for disambiguation. Our findings
Understanding the Types of Information Humans Associate with Geographic Objects
Gaizauskas, Rob
this information differs for objects of other types, e.g. church, museum or lake. We aim to answer this question using an online survey. In the survey we showed 184 participants 200 images pertaining to urban seeing those objects. Our analysis of 7644 questions collected in the survey shows that humans have
Applying artificial vision models to human scene understanding
Aminoff, Elissa M.; Toneva, Mariya; Shrivastava, Abhinav; Chen, Xinlei; Misra, Ishan; Gupta, Abhinav; Tarr, Michael J.
How do we understand the complex patterns of neural responses that underlie scene understanding? Studies of the network of brain regions held to be scene-selective—the parahippocampal/lingual region (PPA), the retrosplenial complex (RSC), and the occipital place area (TOS)—have typically focused on single visual dimensions (e.g., size), rather than the high-dimensional feature space in which scenes are likely to be neurally represented. Here we leverage well-specified artificial vision systems to explicate a more complex understanding of how scenes are encoded in this functional network. We correlated similarity matrices within three different scene-spaces arising from: (1) BOLD activity in scene-selective brain regions; (2) behavioral measured judgments of visually-perceived scene similarity; and (3) several different computer vision models. These correlations revealed: (1) models that relied on mid- and high-level scene attributes showed the highest correlations with the patterns of neural activity within the scene-selective network; (2) NEIL and SUN—the models that best accounted for the patterns obtained from PPA and TOS—were different from the GIST model that best accounted for the pattern obtained from RSC; (3) The best performing models outperformed behaviorally-measured judgments of scene similarity in accounting for neural data. One computer vision method—NEIL ("Never-Ending-Image-Learner"), which incorporates visual features learned as statistical regularities across web-scale numbers of scenes—showed significant correlations with neural activity in all three scene-selective regions and was one of the two models best able to account for variance in the PPA and TOS. We suggest that these results are a promising first step in explicating more fine-grained models of neural scene understanding, including developing a clearer picture of the division of labor among the components of the functional scene-selective brain network. PMID:25698964
Anogenital human papillomavirus infection. Changes in understanding and management.
Sellors, J. W.; Law, C.
Knowledge of the natural history and clinical management of anogenital human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is changing rapidly. Consequently, it is important for family physicians to keep current. This article updates the epidemiology, detection, and treatment of HPV-related disease and discusses commonly confused conditions and answers to patients' questions. Images Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 p96-a Figure 10 Figure 11 PMID:8312760
Genetic anomalies in mammalian germ cells and their significance for human reproductive and developmental risk.
Dellarco, V L
The induction of heritable mutations in germ cells represents a potential health concern. This paper highlights data from mouse germ-cell mutagenesis studies that have implications in the assessment of reproductive and developmental risks. The paper discusses the developmental and reproductive consequences of induced chromosomal damage (structural rearrangements and numerical anomalies) and describes environmental agents that have been shown to produce such anomalies. Additionally, factors that influence the yield of genetic damage are addressed. Studies showing that the various germ-cell stages vary in their susceptibility to the induction of genetic damage are summarized. Of the chemicals evaluated in the male mouse, most appear to have their predominant or strongest effect on post-stem-cell stages. The differences between males and females in the susceptibility to mutagens is examined. Recent studies have shown that the female may be uniquely sensitive to certain mutagens. Finally, an important aspect of mutagenic risk is not only effects induced in developing germ cells but also the effects of environmental agents during the period from fertilization through the zygote and the two-cell embryo. Recent work in the mouse has demonstrated that exposure during these early developmental stages leads to high frequencies of external and visceral fetal malformations, as well as mid-to-late gestational death. PMID:8243406
Gene expression profiles in the cerebellum and hippocampus following exposure to a neurotoxicant, Aroclor 1254: Developmental effects.
The developmental consequences of exposure to the polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have been widely studied, making PCBs a unique model to understand issues related to environmental mixture of persistent chemicals. PCB exposure in humans adversely affects neurocognitive developm...
A chronology of human understanding of the nitrogen cycle†
Galloway, James N.; Leach, Allison M.; Bleeker, Albert; Erisman, Jan Willem
Nitrogen over the ages! It was discovered in the eighteenth century. The following century, its importance in agriculture was documented and the basic components of its cycle were elucidated. In the twentieth century, a process to provide an inexhaustible supply of reactive N (Nr; all N species except N2) for agricultural, industrial and military uses was invented. This discovery and the extensive burning of fossil fuels meant that by the beginning of the twenty-first century, anthropogenic sources of newly created Nr were two to three times that of natural terrestrial sources. This caused a fundamental change in the nitrogen cycle; for the first time, there was the potential for enough food to sustain growing populations and changing dietary patterns. However, most Nr created by humans is lost to the environment, resulting in a cascade of negative earth systems impacts—including enhanced acid rain, smog, eutrophication, greenhouse effect and stratospheric ozone depletion, with associated impacts on human and ecosystem health. The impacts continue and will be magnified, as Nr is lost to the environment at an even greater rate. Thus, the challenge for the current century is how to optimize the uses of N while minimizing the negative impacts. PMID:23713118
Evolutionary and developmental foundations of human knowledge: a case study of mathematics
Marc D. Hauser; Elizabeth Spelke
What are the brain and cognitive systems that allow humans to play baseball, compute square roots, cook soufflés, or navigate the Tokyo subways? It may seem that studies of human infants and of non-human animals will tell us little about these abilities, because only educated, enculturated human adults engage in organized games, formal mathematics, gourmet cooking, or map-reading. In this
Fetal Liver Blood Flow Distribution: Role in Human Developmental Strategy to Prioritize Fat Deposition versus Brain Development
Godfrey, Keith M.; Haugen, Guttorm; Kiserud, Torvid; Inskip, Hazel M.; Cooper, Cyrus; Harvey, Nicholas C. W.; Crozier, Sarah R.; Robinson, Sian M.; Davies, Lucy; Hanson, Mark A.
Among primates, human neonates have the largest brains but also the highest proportion of body fat. If placental nutrient supply is limited, the fetus faces a dilemma: should resources be allocated to brain growth, or to fat deposition for use as a potential postnatal energy reserve? We hypothesised that resolving this dilemma operates at the level of umbilical blood distribution entering the fetal liver. In 381 uncomplicated pregnancies in third trimester, we measured blood flow perfusing the fetal liver, or bypassing it via the ductus venosus to supply the brain and heart using ultrasound techniques. Across the range of fetal growth and independent of the mother's adiposity and parity, greater liver blood flow was associated with greater offspring fat mass measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, both in the infant at birth (r?=?0.43, P<0.001) and at age 4 years (r?=?0.16, P?=?0.02). In contrast, smaller placentas less able to meet fetal demand for essential nutrients were associated with a brain-sparing flow pattern (r?=?0.17, p?=?0.02). This flow pattern was also associated with a higher degree of shunting through ductus venosus (P?=?0.04). We propose that humans evolved a developmental strategy to prioritize nutrient allocation for prenatal fat deposition when the supply of conditionally essential nutrients requiring hepatic inter-conversion is limited, switching resource allocation to favour the brain if the supply of essential nutrients is limited. Facilitated placental transfer mechanisms for glucose and other nutrients evolved in environments less affluent than those now prevalent in developed populations, and we propose that in circumstances of maternal adiposity and nutrient excess these mechanisms now also lead to prenatal fat deposition. Prenatal developmental influences play important roles in the human propensity to deposit fat. PMID:22927915
Mutations in the human SC4MOL gene encoding a methyl sterol oxidase cause psoriasiform dermatitis, microcephaly, and developmental delay
He, Miao; Kratz, Lisa E.; Michel, Joshua J.; Vallejo, Abbe N.; Ferris, Laura; Kelley, Richard I.; Hoover, Jacqueline J.; Jukic, Drazen; Gibson, K. Michael; Wolfe, Lynne A.; Ramachandran, Dhanya; Zwick, Michael E.; Vockley, Jerry
Defects in cholesterol synthesis result in a wide variety of symptoms, from neonatal lethality to the relatively mild dysmorphic features and developmental delay found in individuals with Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome. We report here the identification of mutations in sterol-C4-methyl oxidase–like gene (SC4MOL) as the cause of an autosomal recessive syndrome in a human patient with psoriasiform dermatitis, arthralgias, congenital cataracts, microcephaly, and developmental delay. This gene encodes a sterol-C4-methyl oxidase (SMO), which catalyzes demethylation of C4-methylsterols in the cholesterol synthesis pathway. C4-Methylsterols are meiosis-activating sterols (MASs). They exist at high concentrations in the testis and ovary and play roles in meiosis activation. In this study, we found that an accumulation of MASs in the patient led to cell overproliferation in both skin and blood. SMO deficiency also substantially altered immunocyte phenotype and in vitro function. MASs serve as ligands for liver X receptors ? and ? (LXR? and LXR?), which are important in regulating not only lipid transport in the epidermis, but also innate and adaptive immunity. Deficiency of SMO represents a biochemical defect in the cholesterol synthesis pathway, the clinical spectrum of which remains to be defined. PMID:21285510
Facilitating Conceptual Change in Ninth Grade Students' Understanding of Human Circulatory System Concepts
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Alkhawaldeh, Salem A.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of the conceptual change text oriented instruction over traditionally designed instruction on ninth grade students' understanding of the human circulatory system concepts, and their retention of this understanding. The subjects of this study consist of 73 ninth grade female students…
Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Based Developmental Toxicity Assays for Chemical Safety Screening and Systems Biology Data Generation.
Shinde, Vaibhav; Klima, Stefanie; Sureshkumar, Perumal Srinivasan; Meganathan, Kesavan; Jagtap, Smita; Rempel, Eugen; Rahnenführer, Jörg; Hengstler, Jan Georg; Waldmann, Tanja; Hescheler, Jürgen; Leist, Marcel; Sachinidis, Agapios
Efficient protocols to differentiate human pluripotent stem cells to various tissues in combination with -omics technologies opened up new horizons for in vitro toxicity testing of potential drugs. To provide a solid scientific basis for such assays, it will be important to gain quantitative information on the time course of development and on the underlying regulatory mechanisms by systems biology approaches. Two assays have therefore been tuned here for these requirements. In the UKK test system, human embryonic stem cells (hESC) (or other pluripotent cells) are left to spontaneously differentiate for 14 days in embryoid bodies, to allow generation of cells of all three germ layers. This system recapitulates key steps of early human embryonic development, and it can predict human-specific early embryonic toxicity/teratogenicity, if cells are exposed to chemicals during differentiation. The UKN1 test system is based on hESC differentiating to a population of neuroectodermal progenitor (NEP) cells for 6 days. This system recapitulates early neural development and predicts early developmental neurotoxicity and epigenetic changes triggered by chemicals. Both systems, in combination with transcriptome microarray studies, are suitable for identifying toxicity biomarkers. Moreover, they may be used in combination to generate input data for systems biology analysis. These test systems have advantages over the traditional toxicological studies requiring large amounts of animals. The test systems may contribute to a reduction of the costs for drug development and chemical safety evaluation. Their combination sheds light especially on compounds that may influence neurodevelopment specifically. PMID:26132533
Has our understanding of calcification in human coronary atherosclerosis progressed?
Otsuka, Fumiyuki; Sakakura, Kenichi; Yahagi, Kazuyuki; Joner, Michael; Virmani, Renu
Coronary artery calcification is a well-established predictor of future cardiac events; however, it is not a predictor of unstable plaque. The intimal calcification of the atherosclerotic plaques may begin with smooth muscle cell apoptosis and release of matrix vesicles and is almost always seen microscopically in pathological intimal thickening, which appears as microcalcification (?0.5 ?m, typically <15 ?m in diameter). Calcification increases with macrophage infiltration into the lipid pool in early fibroatheroma where they undergo apoptosis and release matrix vesicles. The confluence of calcified areas involves extracellular matrix and the necrotic core, which can be identified by radiography as speckled (?2 mm) or fragmented (>2, <5 mm) calcification. The calcification in thin-cap fibroatheromas and plaque rupture is generally less than what is observed in stable plaques and is usually speckled or fragmented. Fragmented calcification spreads into the surrounding collagen-rich matrix forming calcified sheets, the hallmarks of fibrocalcific plaques. The calcified sheets may break into nodules with fibrin deposition, and when accompanied by luminal protrusion, it is associated with thrombosis. Calcification is highest in fibrocalcific plaques followed by healed plaque rupture and is the least in erosion and pathological intimal thickening. The extent of calcification is greater in men than in women especially in the premenopausal period and is also greater in whites compared with blacks. The mechanisms of intimal calcification remain poorly understood in humans. Calcification often occurs in the presence of apoptosis of smooth muscle cells and macrophages with matrix vesicles accompanied by expression of osteogenic markers within the vessel wall. PMID:24558104
Understanding the human health effects of chemical mixtures.
Carpenter, David O; Arcaro, Kathleen; Spink, David C
Most research on the effects of chemicals on biologic systems is conducted on one chemical at a time. However, in the real world people are exposed to mixtures, not single chemicals. Although various substances may have totally independent actions, in many cases two substances may act at the same site in ways that can be either additive or nonadditive. Many even more complex interactions may occur if two chemicals act at different but related targets. In the extreme case there may be synergistic effects, in which case the effects of two substances together are greater than the sum of either effect alone. In reality, most persons are exposed to many chemicals, not just one or two, and therefore the effects of a chemical mixture are extremely complex and may differ for each mixture depending on the chemical composition. This complexity is a major reason why mixtures have not been well studied. In this review we attempt to illustrate some of the principles and approaches that can be used to study effects of mixtures. By the nature of the state of the science, this discussion is more a presentation of what we do not know than of what we do know about mixtures. We approach the study of mixtures at three levels, using specific examples. First, we discuss several human diseases in relation to a variety of environmental agents believed to influence the development and progression of the disease. We present results of selected cellular and animal studies in which simple mixtures have been investigated. Finally, we discuss some of the effects of mixtures at a molecular level. PMID:11834461
Automatic recognition and understanding of spoken language - a first step toward natural human-machine communication
The promise of a powerful computing device to help people in productivity as well as in recreation can only be realized with proper human-machine communication. Automatic recognition and understanding of spoken language is the first step toward natural human-machine interaction. Research in this field has produced remarkable results, leading to many exciting expectations and new challenges. We summarize the development
Isolation and functional characterization of human erythroblasts at distinct stages: implications for understanding of normal and disordered erythropoiesis in vivo
Hu, Jingping; Liu, Jing; Xue, Fumin; Halverson, Gregory; Reid, Marion; Guo, Anqi; Chen, Lixiang; Raza, Azra; Galili, Naomi; Jaffray, Julie; Lane, Joseph; Chasis, Joel Anne; Taylor, Naomi; Mohandas, Narla
Terminal erythroid differentiation starts from morphologically recognizable proerythroblasts that proliferate and differentiate to generate red cells. Although this process has been extensively studied in mice, its characterization in humans is limited. By examining the dynamic changes of expression of membrane proteins during in vitro human terminal erythroid differentiation, we identified band 3 and ?4 integrin as optimal surface markers for isolating 5 morphologically distinct populations at successive developmental stages. Functional analysis revealed that these purified cell populations have distinct mitotic capacity. Use of band 3 and ?4 integrin enabled us to isolate erythroblasts at specific developmental stages from primary human bone marrow. The ratio of erythroblasts at successive stages followed the predicted 1:2:4:8:16 pattern. In contrast, bone marrows from myelodysplastic syndrome patients exhibited altered terminal erythroid differentiation profiles. Thus, our findings not only provide new insights into the genesis of the red cell membrane during human terminal erythroid differentiation but also offer a means of isolating and quantifying each developmental stage during terminal erythropoiesis in vivo. Our findings should facilitate a comprehensive cellular and molecular characterization of each specific developmental stage of human erythroblasts and should provide a powerful means of identifying stage-specific defects in diseases associated with pathological erythropoiesis. PMID:23422750
Isolation and functional characterization of human erythroblasts at distinct stages: implications for understanding of normal and disordered erythropoiesis in vivo.
Hu, Jingping; Liu, Jing; Xue, Fumin; Halverson, Gregory; Reid, Marion; Guo, Anqi; Chen, Lixiang; Raza, Azra; Galili, Naomi; Jaffray, Julie; Lane, Joseph; Chasis, Joel Anne; Taylor, Naomi; Mohandas, Narla; An, Xiuli
Terminal erythroid differentiation starts from morphologically recognizable proerythroblasts that proliferate and differentiate to generate red cells. Although this process has been extensively studied in mice, its characterization in humans is limited. By examining the dynamic changes of expression of membrane proteins during in vitro human terminal erythroid differentiation, we identified band 3 and ?4 integrin as optimal surface markers for isolating 5 morphologically distinct populations at successive developmental stages. Functional analysis revealed that these purified cell populations have distinct mitotic capacity. Use of band 3 and ?4 integrin enabled us to isolate erythroblasts at specific developmental stages from primary human bone marrow. The ratio of erythroblasts at successive stages followed the predicted 1:2:4:8:16 pattern. In contrast, bone marrows from myelodysplastic syndrome patients exhibited altered terminal erythroid differentiation profiles. Thus, our findings not only provide new insights into the genesis of the red cell membrane during human terminal erythroid differentiation but also offer a means of isolating and quantifying each developmental stage during terminal erythropoiesis in vivo. Our findings should facilitate a comprehensive cellular and molecular characterization of each specific developmental stage of human erythroblasts and should provide a powerful means of identifying stage-specific defects in diseases associated with pathological erythropoiesis. PMID:23422750
The Concept of Human Nature in Three Cultures: A Developmental Approach.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Oerter, Rolf
This study compares the concept of human nature in Germany, Java, and the United States. The study assumes cross-cultural similarities in the formal structure of the concept of human nature, while hypothesizing variation in content, for example, in the value systems. Four components of the concept of human nature were presented (personality…
Gene Expression Profiling in Human Fetal Liver and Identification of Tissue- and Developmental-Stage-Specific Genes through Compiled Expression Profiles and Efficient Cloning of Full-Length cDNAs
Yu, Yongtao; Zhang, Chenggang; Zhou, Gangqiao; Wu, Songfeng; Qu, Xianghu; Wei, Handong; Xing, Guichun; Dong, Chunna; Zhai, Yun; Wan, Jinghong; Ouyang, Shuguang; Li, Li; Zhang, Shaowen; Zhou, Kaixin; Zhang, Yinan; Wu, Chutse; He, Fuchu
Fetal liver intriguingly consists of hepatic parenchymal cells and hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells. Human fetal liver aged 22 wk of gestation (HFL22w) corresponds to the turning point between immigration and emigration of the hematopoietic system. To gain further molecular insight into its developmental and functional characteristics, HFL22w was studied by generating expressed sequence tags (ESTs) and by analyzing the compiled expression profiles of liver at different developmental stages. A total of 13,077 ESTs were sequenced from a 3?-directed cDNA library of HFL22w, and classified as follows: 5819 (44.5%) matched to known genes; 5460 (41.8%) exhibited no significant homology to known genes; and the remaining 1798 (13.7%) were genomic sequences of unknown function, mitochondrial genomic sequences, or repetitive sequences. Integration of ESTs of known human genes generated a profile including 1660 genes that could be divided into 15 gene categories according to their functions. Genes related to general housekeeping, ESTs associated with hematopoiesis, and liver-specific genes were highly expressed. Genes for signal transduction and those associated with diseases, abnormalities, or transcription regulation were also noticeably active. By comparing the expression profiles, we identified six gene groups that were associated with different developmental stages of human fetal liver, tumorigenesis, different physiological functions of Itoh cells against the other types of hepatic cells, and fetal hematopoiesis. The gene expression profile therefore reflected the unique functional characteristics of HFL22w remarkably. Meanwhile, 110 full-length cDNAs of novel genes were cloned and sequenced. These novel genes might contribute to our understanding of the unique functional characteristics of the human fetal liver at 22 wk. [The sequence data described in this paper have been submitted to the GenBank data library under the accession nos. listed in Table 6 herein] PMID:11483580
Continuous force-displacement relationships for the human red blood cell at different erythrocytic developmental stages of Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasite
Dao, Ming
developmental stages of Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasite John P. Mills1 , Lan Qie3 , Ming Dao1 , Kevin S that the malaria parasite Plasmodium (P.) falciparum could result in significant stiffening of infected human red, the deadliest of the four species of malaria, which results in two to three million deaths annually [1]. When
The effect of human follicular fluid on bovine oocyte developmental competence and embryo quality.
Valckx, Sara D M; De Bie, Jessie; Michiels, Ellen D; Goovaerts, Ilse G; Punjabi, Usha; Ramos-Ibeas, Priscila; Gutierrez-Adan, Alfonso; Bols, Peter E; Leroy, Jo L
In this study, the hypothesis that embryo development during routine IVF procedures is determined by the pre-ovulatory follicular fluid composition was tested. Follicular fluid from women with obesity ('obese') and a 'positive' or 'negative' IVF outcome was added during the in-vitro maturation of bovine oocytes. 'Negative' and 'obese' follicular fluid reduced bovine embryo development, compared with laboratory control embryo development (P < 0.05 or P < 0.1). The addition of follicular fluid also altered bovine blastocyst gene expression. Furthermore, LDHA and PPARGC1B gene expression differed between follicular fluid groups. Data suggest that pre-ovulatory follicular fluid can potentially affect oocyte developmental competence and embryo quality. Furthermore, the bovine model may be used as a screening tool. PMID:25498595
The early origins of human charity: developmental changes in preschoolers' sharing with poor and wealthy individuals.
Paulus, Markus
Recent studies have provided evidence that young children already engage in sharing behavior. The underlying social-cognitive mechanisms, however, are still under debate. In particular, it is unclear whether or not young children's sharing is motivated by an appreciation of others' wealth. Manipulating the material needs of recipients in a sharing task (Experiment 1) and a resource allocation task (Experiment 2), we show that 5- but not 3-year-old children share more with poor than wealthy individuals. The 3-year-old children even showed a tendency to behave less selfishly towards the rich, yet not the poor recipient. This suggests that very early instances of sharing behavior are not motivated by a consideration of others' material needs. Moreover, the results show that 5-year-old children were rather inclined to give more to the poor individual than distributing the resources equally, demonstrating that their wish to support the poor overruled the otherwise very prominent inclination to share resources equally. This indicates that charity has strong developmental roots in preschool children. PMID:25018735
Adult human neural stem cell therapeutics: Current developmental status and prospect
Nam, Hyun; Lee, Kee-Hang; Nam, Do-Hyun; Joo, Kyeung Min
Over the past two decades, regenerative therapies using stem cell technologies have been developed for various neurological diseases. Although stem cell therapy is an attractive option to reverse neural tissue damage and to recover neurological deficits, it is still under development so as not to show significant treatment effects in clinical settings. In this review, we discuss the scientific and clinical basics of adult neural stem cells (aNSCs), and their current developmental status as cell therapeutics for neurological disease. Compared with other types of stem cells, aNSCs have clinical advantages, such as limited proliferation, inborn differentiation potential into functional neural cells, and no ethical issues. In spite of the merits of aNSCs, difficulties in the isolation from the normal brain, and in the in vitro expansion, have blocked preclinical and clinical study using aNSCs. However, several groups have recently developed novel techniques to isolate and expand aNSCs from normal adult brains, and showed successful applications of aNSCs to neurological diseases. With new technologies for aNSCs and their clinical strengths, previous hurdles in stem cell therapies for neurological diseases could be overcome, to realize clinically efficacious regenerative stem cell therapeutics. PMID:25621112
The model of human occupation: understanding the worker who is injured or disabled.
Kielhofner, Gary; Braveman, Brent; Baron, Kathi; Fisher, Gail; Hammel, Joy; Littleton, Mike
This paper discusses application of the model of human occupation to the worker with an injury or disability. Concepts from the model of human occupation (MOHO) are used to frame potential work-related strengths and weaknesses. Using MOHO as a framework to understand the worker with an injury or disability provides a more complete and holistic understanding of the many factors which can affect a worker. In particular, the model illuminates how factors of capacity, motivation, lifestyle, and environment inter-relate in determining a worker's success or failure. Implications for using the model to achieve a more effective work-related practice are discussed. PMID:12441441
Research Methods in Developmental Psychology Course Objectives
Klahr, David
Research Methods in Developmental Psychology Course Objectives The purpose of this course, and experimental design; (2) understanding the special methodological challenges of developmental research; (3 about a research topic; (6) designing and conducting a research project with young children; (7
Metabolic profiling of human follicular fluid identifies potential biomarkers of oocyte developmental competence.
O'Gorman, A; Wallace, M; Cottell, E; Gibney, M J; McAuliffe, F M; Wingfield, M; Brennan, L
The use of metabolomic based techniques to aid oocyte and embryo selection has gained attention in recent years. Previous work from our laboratory has demonstrated that the (1)H NMR-based metabolic profile of follicular fluid correlates with oocyte developmental potential. Patients undergoing IVF at the Merrion Fertility Clinic had follicular fluid collected at the time of oocyte retrieval. The fatty acid composition of follicular fluid from follicles where oocytes fertilised and developed into multi-cell embryos (n=15) and from oocytes that fertilised normally but failed to cleave (n=9) (cleaved vs non-cleaved) was compared. Statistical analysis was performed on the data using univariate and multivariate techniques. Analysis of the fatty acid composition revealed that there were nine fatty acids significantly different between follicular fluid from the cleaved and the non-cleaved sample groups. Of particular interest were the higher concentration of total saturated (P=0.03) and the lower concentration of total polyunsaturated fatty acids in the non-cleaved sample group (P=0.001). Random forest classification models were used to predict successful cleavage in follicular fluid samples producing models with errors rates of <10%. Receiver operating characteristic analysis demonstrated that the model had good predictability with an area under the curve of 0.96. The panel of fatty acid biomarkers identified in this study indicates that the fatty acid composition of follicular fluid may be more predictive in comparison to other previously identified biomarkers. Following validation in a larger cohort, these biomarkers may have the potential to be used in fertility clinics to aid the selection of oocytes in the future. PMID:23886995
Species-Specific Differential AhR Expression Protects Human Neural Progenitor Cells against Developmental Neurotoxicity of PAHs
Gassmann, Kathrin; Abel, Josef; Bothe, Hanno; Haarmann-Stemmann, Thomas; Merk, Hans F.; Quasthoff, Kim N.; Rockel, Thomas Dino; Schreiber, Timm; Fritsche, Ellen
Background Because of their lipophilicity, persistent organic pollutants (POPs) cross the human placenta, possibly affecting central nervous system development. Most POPs are known aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) ligands and activators of AhR signaling. Therefore, AhR activation has been suggested to cause developmental neurotoxicity (DNT). Objective We studied the effects of AhR ligands on basic processes of brain development in two comparative in vitro systems to determine whether AhR-activation is the underlying mechanism for reported DNT of POPs in humans. Methods We employed neurosphere cultures based on human neural progenitor cells (hNPCs) and wild-type and AhR-deficient mouse NPCs (mNPCs) and studied the effects of different AhR agonists [3-methylcholanthrene (3-MC), benzo(a)pyrene [B(a)P], and 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD)] and an antagonist [3?-methoxy-4?-nitroflavone (MNF)] on neurosphere development. Moreover, we analyzed expression of AhR and genes involved in AhR signaling. Results In contrast to wild-type mNPCs, hNPCs and AhR-deficient mNPCs were insensitive to AhR agonism or antagonism. Although AhR modulation attenuated wild-type mNPC proliferation and migration, hNPCs and AhR-deficient mNPCs remained unaffected. Results also suggest that species-specific differences resulted from nonfunctional AhR signaling in hNPCs. Conclusion Our findings suggest that in contrast to wild-type mNPCs, hNPCs were protected against polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon–induced DNT because of an absence of AhR. This difference may contribute to species-specific differences in sensitivity to POPs. PMID:20570779
Evolutionary Developmental Psychology
David C. Geary; David F. Bjorklund
Evolutionary developmental psychology is the study of the genetic and ecological mechanisms that govern the development of social and cognitive competencies common to all human beings and the epigenetic (geneĐ environment interactions) processes that adapt these competencies to local conditions. The basic assumptions and domains of this emerging Ţeld, as related to human life history and social and cognitive development,
Developmental ability of human oocytes with or without birefringent spindles imaged by Polscope before insemination
W. H. Wang; L. Meng; R. J. Hackett; D. L. Keefe
BACKGROUND: Birefringent spindles imaged with the Polscope can predict fertilization rates after intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). The present study examined the development of human oocytes with or without birefringent spindles, imaged with the Polscope before ICSI. METHODS: Oocytes were obtained from stimulated ovaries of consenting patients undergoing oocyte retrieval for ICSI. Spindles were imaged with the Polscope combined with a
Perception of Human and Nonhuman Facial Age by Developmentally Disabled Children
Thomas F. Gross
Human and nonhuman faces were shown to clinical controls, autistic, mentally retarded, and language-disordered children to assess their ability to detect and draw inferences about facial age. Children were asked to select from sets of three faces the one that appeared youthful or to select faces that would be associated with some age-related characteristic. In two studies, it was found
Developmental Changes in the Discrimination of Dynamic Human Actions in Infancy
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Loucks, Jeff; Sommerville, Jessica A.
Recent evidence suggests that adults selectively attend to features of action, such as how a hand contacts an object, and less to configural properties of action, such as spatial trajectory, when observing human actions. The current research investigated whether this bias develops in infancy. We utilized a habituation paradigm to assess…
Developmental and Cognitive Perspectives on Humans' Sense of the Times of Past and Future Events
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Friedman, W.J.
Mental time travel in human adults includes a sense of when past events occurred and future events are expected to occur. Studies with adults and children reveal that a number of distinct psychological processes contribute to a temporally differentiated sense of the past and future. Adults possess representations of multiple time patterns, and…
Testing the relationship between human occupancy in the landscape and tadpole developmental stress.
Eterovick, Paula C; Bar, Luís F F; Souza, Jorge B; Castro, José F M; Leite, Felipe S F; Alford, Ross A
Amphibian population declines are widespread; the main causal factors are human related and include habitat fragmentation due to agriculture, mining, fires, and urban development. Brazil is the richest country in species of amphibians, and the Brazilian regions with the greatest amphibian diversity are experiencing relatively high rates of habitat destruction, but there are presently relatively few reports of amphibian declines. It is thus important to develop research methods that will detect deterioration in population health before severe declines occur. We tested the use of measurements of fluctuating asymmetry (FA) taken on amphibian larvae to detect anthropogenic stress. We hypothesized that greater human occupancy in the landscape might result in more stressful conditions for amphibians. We conducted this study at the Espinhaço mountain range in southeastern Brazil, using as a model an endemic species (Bokermannohyla saxicola, Hylidae). We chose two tadpole denticle rows and eye-nostril distance as traits for FA measurement. We measured percent cover of human-altered habitats in the landscape around tadpole sampling points and measured FA levels in sampled tadpoles. We found FA levels to differ among localities but found no relationship between human modification of the landscape and tadpole FA levels. Levels of FA in the traits we examined may not be strongly affected by environmental conditions, or may be affected by local variables that were not captured by our landscape-scale measures. Alternatively, populations may be genetically differentiated, affecting how FA levels respond to stress and obscuring the effects of anthropogenic disturbance. PMID:25793699
Developmental toxicity and structure-activity relationships of chlorophenols using human embryonic palatal mesenchymal cells
Feng Zhao; Kittane Mayura; Richard W. Hutchinson; Richard P. Lewis; Robert C. Burghardt; Timothy D. Phillips
The chlorophenols (CPs) comprise a major class of widely distributed and frequently occurring environmental contaminants. Previous studies have demonstrated the adverse effects of CPs on embryonic and fetal development. HEPM (human embryonic palatal mesenchymal) and MOT (mouse ovarian tumor) cell lines have been utilized in complementary bioassays for the detection ofteratogens, but not the CPs. In this study, our objectives
Developmental Testing of Habitability and Human Factors Tools and Methods During Neemo 15
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Thaxton, S. S.; Litaker, H. L., Jr.; Holden, K. L.; Adolf, J. A.; Pace, J.; Morency, R. M.
Currently, no established methods exist to collect real-time human factors and habitability data while crewmembers are living aboard the International Space Station (ISS), traveling aboard other space vehicles, or living in remote habitats. Currently, human factors and habitability data regarding space vehicles and habitats are acquired at the end of missions during postflight crew debriefs. These debriefs occur weeks or often longer after events have occurred, which forces a significant reliance on incomplete human memory, which is imperfect. Without a means to collect real-time data, small issues may have a cumulative effect and continue to cause crew frustration and inefficiencies. Without timely and appropriate reporting methodologies, issues may be repeated or lost. TOOL DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION: As part of a directed research project (DRP) aiming to develop and validate tools and methods for collecting near real-time human factors and habitability data, a preliminary set of tools and methods was developed. These tools and methods were evaluated during the NASA Extreme Environments Mission Operations (NEEMO) 15 mission in October 2011. Two versions of a software tool were used to collect observational data from NEEMO crewmembers that also used targeted strategies for using video cameras to collect observations. Space habitability observation reporting tool (SHORT) was created based on a tool previously developed by NASA to capture human factors and habitability issues during spaceflight. SHORT uses a web-based interface that allows users to enter a text description of any observations they wish to report and assign a priority level if changes are needed. In addition to the web-based format, a mobile Apple (iOS) format was implemented, referred to as iSHORT. iSHORT allows users to provide text, audio, photograph, and video data to report observations. iSHORT can be deployed on an iPod Touch, iPhone, or iPad; for NEEMO 15, the app was provided on an iPad2.
Friendship estimation model for social robots to understand human relationships Takayuki Kanda, Hiroshi Ishiguro
Kanda, Takayuki
Friendship estimation model for social robots to understand human relationships Takayuki Kanda, Hiroshi Ishiguro ATR Intelligent Robotics Laboratories 2-2-2 Hikaridai, Seikacho, Sorakugun Kyoto, 619-0288, JAPAN E-mail email@example.com Abstract This paper reports our friendship estimation model for social robots
Effects of a Co-operative Learning Strategy on Ninth-Graders' Understanding of Human Nutrition.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Soyibo, Kola; Evans, Hermel G.
Looks at the effect of teaching strategies on a group's attitude toward biology and understanding human nutrition. Used an experimental group that participated in co-operative learning and a control group taught using the lecture method. Involves ninth graders (n=156) from two high schools in Jamaica. (Author/YDS)
X Chromosome Abnormalities and Cognitive Development: Implications for Understanding Normal Human Development.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Walzer, Stanley
Argues that knowledge from studies of individuals with sex chromosome abnormalities can further understanding of aspects of normal human development. Studies of XO girls, XXY boys, XXX girls, and males with a fragile X chromosome are summarized to demonstrate how results contribute to knowledge about normal cognitive development and about…
Communicating Numerical Risk: Human Factors That Aid Understanding in Health Care
Brust-Renck, Priscila G.; Royer, Caisa E.; Reyna, Valerie F.
In this chapter, we review evidence from the human factors literature that verbal and visual formats can help increase the understanding of numerical risk information in health care. These visual representations of risk are grounded in empirically supported theory. As background, we first review research showing that people often have difficulty understanding numerical risks and benefits in health information. In particular, we discuss how understanding the meanings of numbers results in healthier decisions. Then, we discuss the processes that determine how communication of numerical risks can enhance (or degrade) health judgments and decisions. Specifically, we examine two different approaches to risk communication: a traditional approach and fuzzy-trace theory. Applying research on the complications of understanding and communicating risks, we then highlight how different visual representations are best suited to communicating different risk messages (i.e., their gist). In particular, we review verbal and visual messages that highlight gist representations that can better communicate health information and improve informed decision making. This discussion is informed by human factors theories and methods, which involve the study of how to maximize the interaction between humans and the tools they use. Finally, we present implications and recommendations for future research on human factors in health care. PMID:24999307
Video-based human behavior understanding: Paulo Vinicius Koerich Borges, Nicola Conci, Andrea Cavallaro
Cavallaro, Andrea
processing, feature extraction, machine learning and 3D geometry. Application scenarios range from, it is common to use the concept of anomaly, namely a deviation from the learned behaviors [1]. In fact1 Video-based human behavior understanding: a survey Paulo Vinicius Koerich Borges, Nicola Conci
An Approach for a Social Robot to Understand Human Relationships: Friendship Estimation through Interaction with Robots
Kanda, Takayuki
activities on developing inter- action-oriented robots. Aibo was the first interactive robot to proveAn Approach for a Social Robot to Understand Human Relationships: Friendship Estimation through Interaction with Robots Takayuki Kanda1 and Hiroshi Ishiguro1,2 1 ATR, Intelligent Robotics and Communication
UNESCO and the Associated Schools Project: Symbolic Affirmation of World Community, International Understanding, and Human Rights
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Suarez, David F.; Ramirez, Francisco O.; Koo, Jeong-Woo
The UNESCO Associated Schools Project emphasizes world community, human rights, and international understanding. This article investigates the emergence and global diffusion of the project from 1953 to 2001, estimating the influence of national, regional, and world characteristics on the likelihood of a country adopting a UNESCO school. It also…
Amino acid turnover by human oocytes is influenced by gamete developmental competence, patient characteristics and gonadotrophin treatment
Hemmings, K.E.; Maruthini, D.; Vyjayanthi, S.; Hogg, J.E.; Balen, A.H.; Campbell, B.K.; Leese, H.J.; Picton, H.M.
STUDY QUESTION Can amino acid profiling differentiate between human oocytes with differing competence to mature to metaphase II (MII) in vitro? SUMMARY ANSWER Oocytes which remained arrested at the germinal vesicle (GV) stage after 24 h of in vitro maturation (IVM) displayed differences in the depletion/appearance of amino acids compared with oocytes which progressed to MII and patient age, infertile diagnosis and ovarian stimulation regime significantly affected oocyte amino acid turnover during IVM. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY Amino acid profiling has been proposed as a technique which can distinguish between human pronucleate zygotes and cleavage stage embryos with the potential to develop to the blastocyst stage and implant to produce a pregnancy and those that arrest. Most recently, the amino acid turnover by individual bovine oocytes has been shown to be predictive of oocyte developmental competence as indicated by the gamete's capacity to undergo fertilization and early cleavage divisions in vitro. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION The study was conducted between March 2005 and March 2010. A total of 216 oocytes which were at the GV or metaphase I (MI) stages at the time of ICSI were donated by 67 patients. PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTINGS, METHODS The research was conducted in university research laboratories affiliated to a hospital-based infertility clinic. Oocytes were cultured for 24 h and the depletion/appearance of amino acids was measured during the final 6 h of IVM. Amino acid turnover was analysed in relation to oocyte meiotic progression, patient age, disease aetiology and controlled ovarian stimulation regime. MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE The depletion/appearance of key amino acids was linked to the maturation potential of human oocytes in vitro. Oocytes which arrested at the GV stage (n = 9) depleted significantly more valine and isoleucine than those which progressed to MI (n = 32) or MII (n = 107) (P < 0.05). Glutamate, glutamine, arginine and valine depletion or appearance differed in MII versus degenerating oocytes (n = 20) (P < 0.05). Glutamine, arginine, methionine, phenylalanine, total depletion and total turnover all differed in oocytes from patients aged < 35 years versus patients ?35 years (P < 0.05). MII oocytes obtained following ovarian stimulation with recombinant FSH depleted more isoleucine (P < 0.05) and more alanine and lysine (P < 0.05) appeared than oocytes from hMG-stimulated cycles. MII oocytes from patients with a polycystic ovary (PCO) morphology (n = 33) depleted more serine (P < 0.05) than oocytes from women with normal ovaries (n = 61). LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION Immature oocytes collected at the time of ICSI were used as the model for human oocyte maturation. These oocytes have therefore failed to respond to the ovulatory hCG trigger in vivo (they are meiotically incompetent), and have limited capacity to support embryo development in vitro. The lack of cumulus cells and stress of the conditions in vitro may have influenced turnover of amino acids, and owing to the small sample sizes further studies are required to confirm these findings. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS The findings provide support for the hypothesis that oocyte metabolism reflects oocyte quality. Longitudinal studies are required to link these functional metabolic indices of human oocyte quality with embryo developmental competence. Oocyte amino acid profiling may be a useful tool to quantify the impact of new assisted reproduction technologies (ART) on oocyte quality. STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTERESTS This project was funded by the UK Biology and Biotechnology Research Council (BB/C007395/1) and the Medical Research Council (G 0800250). K.E.H was in receipt of a British Fertility Society/Merck Serono studentship. H.J.L. is a shareholder in Novocellus Ltd, a company which seeks to devise a non-invasive biochemical test of embryo health. PMID:23335609
To address the problem of developmental disabilities among children, CDC, the former Division of Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, which was funded by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), and the Georgia Department of Human Resources, initiate...
Successful Entrepreneurship as Developmental Outcome: A Path Model From a Lifespan Perspective of Human Development
Martin Obschonka; Rainer K. Silbereisen; Eva Schmitt-Rodermund
Applying a lifespan approach of human development, this study examined pathways to entrepreneurial success by analyzing retrospective and current data. Along the lines of McClelland's ideas of early entrepreneurship development and Rauch and Frese's Giessen-Amsterdam model on venture success, we investigated the roles of founders' adolescent years (early role models, authoritative parenting, and early entrepreneurial competence), personality traits (Big Five
The Importance of Human Reliability Analysis in Human Space Flight: Understanding the Risks
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Hamlin, Teri L.
HRA is a method used to describe, qualitatively and quantitatively, the occurrence of human failures in the operation of complex systems that affect availability and reliability. Modeling human actions with their corresponding failure in a PRA (Probabilistic Risk Assessment) provides a more complete picture of the risk and risk contributions. A high quality HRA can provide valuable information on potential areas for improvement, including training, procedural, equipment design and need for automation.
Developmental insights from early mammalian embryos and core signaling pathways that influence human pluripotent cell growth and differentiation
Chen, Kevin G.; Mallon, Barbara S.; Johnson, Kory R.; Hamilton, Rebecca S.; McKay, Ronald D.G.; Robey, Pamela G.
Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) have two potentially attractive applications: cell replacement-based therapies and drug discovery. Both require the efficient generation of large quantities of clinical-grade stem cells that are free from harmful genomic alterations. The currently employed colony-type culture methods often result in low cell yields, unavoidably heterogeneous cell populations, and substantial chromosomal abnormalities. Here, we shed light on the structural relationship between hPSC colonies/embryoid bodies and early-stage embryos in order to optimize current culture methods based on the insights from developmental biology. We further highlight core signaling pathways that underlie multiple epithelial-to-mesenchymal transitions (EMTs), cellular heterogeneity, and chromosomal instability in hPSCs. We also analyze emerging methods such as non-colony type monolayer (NCM) and suspension culture, which provide alternative growth models for hPSC expansion and differentiation. Furthermore, based on the influence of cell-cell interactions and signaling pathways, we propose concepts, strategies, and solutions for production of clinical-grade hPSCs, stem cell precursors, and miniorganoids, which are pivotal steps needed for future clinical applications. PMID:24603366
The interferon-related developmental regulator 1 is used by human papillomavirus to suppress NF?B activation.
Tummers, Bart; Goedemans, Renske; Pelascini, Laetitia P L; Jordanova, Ekaterina S; van Esch, Edith M G; Meyers, Craig; Melief, Cornelis J M; Boer, Judith M; van der Burg, Sjoerd H
High-risk human papillomaviruses (hrHPVs) infect keratinocytes and successfully evade host immunity despite the fact that keratinocytes are well equipped to respond to innate and adaptive immune signals. Using non-infected and freshly established or persistent hrHPV-infected keratinocytes we show that hrHPV impairs the acetylation of NF?B/RelA K310 in keratinocytes. As a consequence, keratinocytes display a decreased pro-inflammatory cytokine production and immune cell attraction in response to stimuli of the innate or adaptive immune pathways. HPV accomplishes this by augmenting the expression of interferon-related developmental regulator 1 (IFRD1) in an EGFR-dependent manner. Restoration of NF?B/RelA acetylation by IFRD1 shRNA, cetuximab treatment or the HDAC1/3 inhibitor entinostat increases basal and induced cytokine expression. Similar observations are made in IFRD1-overexpressing HPV-induced cancer cells. Thus, our study reveals an EGFR-IFRD1-mediated viral immune evasion mechanism, which can also be exploited by cancer cells. PMID:26055519
High-polarized (??m HIGH) mitochondria are spatially polarized in human oocytes and early embryos in stable subplasmalemmal domains: developmental significance and the concept of vanguard mitochondria
Jonathan Van Blerkom; Patrick Davis
The spatial specificity and stability of subplasmalemmal domains of high-polarized mitochondria (??mHIGH) in human oocytes and cleavage stage embryos were investigated in instances where changes in pericortical\\/subplasmalemmal organization resulted in the corresponding cytoplasm becoming translucent and largely devoid of mitochondria, either by experimental manipulation or as a result of spontaneous, stage-specific morphodynamic processes. The developmental significance of high-polarized mitochondria was
Developmental Exposure to Estrogen Alters Differentiation and Epigenetic Programming in a Human Fetal Prostate Xenograft Model
Saffarini, Camelia M.; McDonnell-Clark, Elizabeth V.; Amin, Ali; Huse, Susan M.; Boekelheide, Kim
Prostate cancer is the most frequent non-cutaneous malignancy in men. There is strong evidence in rodents that neonatal estrogen exposure plays a role in the development of this disease. However, there is little information regarding the effects of estrogen in human fetal prostate tissue. This study explored early life estrogen exposure, with and without a secondary estrogen and testosterone treatment in a human fetal prostate xenograft model. Histopathological lesions, proliferation, and serum hormone levels were evaluated at 7, 30, 90, and 200-day time-points after xenografting. The expression of 40 key genes involved in prostatic glandular and stromal growth, cell-cycle progression, apoptosis, hormone receptors and tumor suppressors was evaluated using a custom PCR array. Epigenome-wide analysis of DNA methylation was performed on whole tissue, and laser capture-microdissection (LCM) isolated epithelial and stromal compartments of 200-day prostate xenografts. Combined initial plus secondary estrogenic exposures had the most severe tissue changes as revealed by the presence of hyperplastic glands at day 200. Gene expression changes corresponded with the cellular events in the KEGG prostate cancer pathway, indicating that initial plus secondary exposure to estrogen altered the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, ultimately resulting in apoptosis inhibition and an increase in cell cycle progression. DNA methylation revealed that differentially methylated CpG sites significantly predominate in the stromal compartment as a result of estrogen-treatment, thereby providing new targets for future investigation. By using human fetal prostate tissue and eliminating the need for species extrapolation, this study provides novel insights into the gene expression and epigenetic effects related to prostate carcinogenesis following early life estrogen exposure. PMID:25799167
Developmental exposure to estrogen alters differentiation and epigenetic programming in a human fetal prostate xenograft model.
Saffarini, Camelia M; McDonnell-Clark, Elizabeth V; Amin, Ali; Huse, Susan M; Boekelheide, Kim
Prostate cancer is the most frequent non-cutaneous malignancy in men. There is strong evidence in rodents that neonatal estrogen exposure plays a role in the development of this disease. However, there is little information regarding the effects of estrogen in human fetal prostate tissue. This study explored early life estrogen exposure, with and without a secondary estrogen and testosterone treatment in a human fetal prostate xenograft model. Histopathological lesions, proliferation, and serum hormone levels were evaluated at 7, 30, 90, and 200-day time-points after xenografting. The expression of 40 key genes involved in prostatic glandular and stromal growth, cell-cycle progression, apoptosis, hormone receptors and tumor suppressors was evaluated using a custom PCR array. Epigenome-wide analysis of DNA methylation was performed on whole tissue, and laser capture-microdissection (LCM) isolated epithelial and stromal compartments of 200-day prostate xenografts. Combined initial plus secondary estrogenic exposures had the most severe tissue changes as revealed by the presence of hyperplastic glands at day 200. Gene expression changes corresponded with the cellular events in the KEGG prostate cancer pathway, indicating that initial plus secondary exposure to estrogen altered the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, ultimately resulting in apoptosis inhibition and an increase in cell cycle progression. DNA methylation revealed that differentially methylated CpG sites significantly predominate in the stromal compartment as a result of estrogen-treatment, thereby providing new targets for future investigation. By using human fetal prostate tissue and eliminating the need for species extrapolation, this study provides novel insights into the gene expression and epigenetic effects related to prostate carcinogenesis following early life estrogen exposure. PMID:25799167
Developmental regulation of neurogenesis in the pluripotent human embryonal carcinoma cell line NTERA-2.
Przyborski, S A; Morton, I E; Wood, A; Andrews, P W
Embryonal carcinoma (EC) cells provide a caricature of pluripotent embryonic stem (ES) cells and may be used as surrogates for investigating the mechanisms that regulate cell differentiation during embryonic development. NTERA-2 is a human EC cell line that differentiates in response to retinoic acid yielding cells that include terminally differentiated neurons. The expression of genes known to be involved in the formation of the vertebrate nervous system was examined during retinoic acid-induced NTERA-2 differentiation. Differentiation of these human EC cells into neurons could be divided into three sequential phases. During phase 1, in the first week of differentiation, hath1 mRNA showed a small transient increase that correlated with the rapid accumulation of nestin message, a marker of neuroprogenitors. Transcripts of nestin were quickly downregulated during phase 2 as expression of neuroD1, characteristic of neuroprogenitors exiting the cell cycle, was induced. A neural cell surface antigen, detected by the monoclonal antibody A2B5, was expressed by cells exiting the cell cycle, correlating with the expression of neuroD1 as the cells became post-mitotic. Markers of mature neural cells (e.g. synaptophysin and neuron-specific enolase) were subsequently increased during phase 3 and were maintained. This regulated pattern of gene expression and commitment to the neural lineage indicates that differentiation of NTERA-2 neurons in vitro follows a similar pathway to that observed by neural ectodermal precursors during vertebrate neurogenesis in vivo. PMID:11029621
Evidence for developmental dopaminergic alterations in the human immunodeficiency virus-1 transgenic rat.
Webb, Katy M; Aksenov, Michael Y; Mactutus, Charles F; Booze, Rosemarie M
Neurologic impairments associated with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in pediatric patients may affect quality of life, and can develop despite antiretroviral therapy (ART). Behavioral changes observed in clinical studies of HIV-infected children suggest alterations in dopaminergic neurotransmission. Findings from our model of choice, the HIV-1 transgenic rat, reveal a significant increase in phosphorylated tyrosine hydroxylase protein expression and a decrease in dopamine transporter mRNA, without changes in tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) or dopamine transporter (DAT) protein or in more general markers of protein and gene expression levels in the HIV-1 transgenic rat midbrain. Thus these findings suggest selective vulnerability of the dopamine system in developing brains to HIV-1 infection. PMID:20337512
Evidence for developmental dopaminergic alterations in the human immunodeficiency virus-1 transgenic rat
Webb, Katy M.; Aksenov, Michael Y.; Mactutus, Charles F.; Booze, Rosemarie M.
Neurologic impairments associated with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in pediatric patients may affect quality of life, and can develop despite antiretroviral therapy (ART). Behavioral changes observed in clinical studies of HIV-infected children suggest alterations in dopaminergic neurotransmission. Findings from our model of choice, the HIV-1 transgenic rat, reveal a significant increase in phosphorylated tyrosine hydroxylase protein expression and a decrease in dopamine transporter mRNA, without changes in tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) or dopamine transporter (DAT) protein or in more general markers of protein and gene expression levels in the HIV-1 transgenic rat midbrain. Thus these findings suggest selective vulnerability of the dopamine system in developing brains to HIV-1 infection. PMID:20337512
Developmental effects of endocrine-disrupting chemicals in wildlife and humans
Colborn, T. (W. Alton Jones Foundation and World Wildlife Fund, Washington, DC (United States)); vom Saal, F.S. (Univ. of Missouri, Columbia, MO (United States)); Soto, A.M. (Tufts Univ., Boston, MA (United States))
Large numbers and large quantities of endoncrine-disrupting chemicals have been released into the environment since World War II. Many of these chemicals can disturb development of the endocrine system and of the organs that respond to endocrine signals in organisms indirectly exposed during prenatal and/or early postnatal life; effects of exposure during development are permanent and irreversible. The risk to the developing organism can also stem from direct exposure of the offspring after birth or hatching. In addition, trangenerational exposure can result from the exposure of the mother to a chemical at any time throughout her life before producing offspring due to persistent of endocrine-disrupting chemicals in body fat, which is mobilized during egg laying or pregnancy and lactation. Mechanisms underlying the disruption of the development of vital systems, such as the endocrine, reproductive, and immune systems, are discussed with reference to wildlife, laboratory animals, and humans.
Modeling collective human mobility: Understanding exponential law of intra-urban movement
Liang, Xiao; Dong, Li; Xu, Ke
It is very important to understand urban mobility patterns because most trips are concentrated in urban areas. In the paper, a new model is proposed to model collective human mobility in urban areas. The model can be applied to predict individual flows not only in intra-city but also in countries or a larger range. Based on the model, it can be concluded that the exponential law of distance distribution is attributed to decreasing exponentially of average density of human travel demands. Since the distribution of human travel demands only depends on urban planning, population distribution, regional functions and so on, it illustrates that these inherent properties of cities are impetus to drive collective human movements.
Understanding the molecular mechanisms of human microtia via a pig model of HOXA1 syndrome.
Qiao, Ruimin; He, Yuyong; Pan, Bo; Xiao, Shijun; Zhang, Xufei; Li, Jing; Zhang, Zhiyan; Hong, Yuan; Xing, Yuyun; Ren, Jun
Microtia is a congenital malformation of the outer ears. Although both genetic and environmental components have been implicated in microtia, the genetic causes of this innate disorder are poorly understood. Pigs have naturally occurring diseases comparable to those in humans, providing exceptional opportunity to dissect the molecular mechanism of human inherited diseases. Here we first demonstrated that a truncating mutation in HOXA1 causes a monogenic disorder of microtia in pigs. We further performed RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) analysis on affected and healthy pig embryos (day 14.25). We identified a list of 337 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between the normal and mutant samples, shedding light on the transcriptional network involving HOXA1. The DEGs are enriched in biological processes related to cardiovascular system and embryonic development, and neurological, renal and urological diseases. Aberrant expressions of many DEGs have been implicated in human innate deformities corresponding to microtia-associated syndromes. After applying three prioritizing algorithms, we highlighted appealing candidate genes for human microtia from the 337 DEGs. We searched for coding variants of functional significance within six candidate genes in 147 microtia-affected individuals. Of note, we identified one EVC2 non-synonymous mutation (p.Asp1174Asn) as a potential disease-implicating variant for a human microtia-associated syndrome. The findings advance our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying human microtia, and provide an interesting example of the characterization of human disease-predisposing variants using pig models. PMID:26035869
Understanding the molecular mechanisms of human microtia via a pig model of HOXA1 syndrome
Qiao, Ruimin; He, Yuyong; Pan, Bo; Xiao, Shijun; Zhang, Xufei; Li, Jing; Zhang, Zhiyan; Hong, Yuan; Xing, Yuyun; Ren, Jun
ABSTRACT Microtia is a congenital malformation of the outer ears. Although both genetic and environmental components have been implicated in microtia, the genetic causes of this innate disorder are poorly understood. Pigs have naturally occurring diseases comparable to those in humans, providing exceptional opportunity to dissect the molecular mechanism of human inherited diseases. Here we first demonstrated that a truncating mutation in HOXA1 causes a monogenic disorder of microtia in pigs. We further performed RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) analysis on affected and healthy pig embryos (day 14.25). We identified a list of 337 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between the normal and mutant samples, shedding light on the transcriptional network involving HOXA1. The DEGs are enriched in biological processes related to cardiovascular system and embryonic development, and neurological, renal and urological diseases. Aberrant expressions of many DEGs have been implicated in human innate deformities corresponding to microtia-associated syndromes. After applying three prioritizing algorithms, we highlighted appealing candidate genes for human microtia from the 337 DEGs. We searched for coding variants of functional significance within six candidate genes in 147 microtia-affected individuals. Of note, we identified one EVC2 non-synonymous mutation (p.Asp1174Asn) as a potential disease-implicating variant for a human microtia-associated syndrome. The findings advance our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying human microtia, and provide an interesting example of the characterization of human disease-predisposing variants using pig models. PMID:26035869
Moving the human machine: understanding the mechanical characteristics of normal human walking
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Messenger, Neil
Analysing the motion of the human body provides a means of demonstrating the practical implications of a number of fundamental mechanical concepts. In this discussion of the apparently simple action of walking, the concepts of kinetic and potential energy and energy transfer, of Newton's second law and the impulse-momentum relationship and of basic levers and equilibrium are used to explain why individuals walk in almost identical ways.
Male-mediated developmental toxicity.
Anderson, Diana; Schmid, Thomas E; Baumgartner, Adolf
Male-mediated developmental toxicity has been of concern for many years. The public became aware of male-mediated developmental toxicity in the early 1990s when it was reported that men working at Sellafield might be causing leukemia in their children. Human and animal studies have contributed to our current understanding of male-mediated effects. Animal studies in the 1980s and 1990s suggested that genetic damage after radiation and chemical exposure might be transmitted to offspring. With the increasing understanding that there is histone retention and modification, protamine incorporation into the chromatin and DNA methylation in mature sperm and that spermatozoal RNA transcripts can play important roles in the epigenetic state of sperm, heritable studies began to be viewed differently. Recent reports using molecular approaches have demonstrated that DNA damage can be transmitted to babies from smoking fathers, and expanded simple tandem repeats minisatellite mutations were found in the germline of fathers who were exposed to radiation from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster. In epidemiological studies, it is possible to clarify whether damage is transmitted to the sons after exposure of the fathers. Paternally transmitted damage to the offspring is now recognized as a complex issue with genetic as well as epigenetic components. PMID:24369136
This document presents an evaluation of the reproductive and developmental effects of lithium and reviews toxicologic information on several specific lithium salts: ithium carbonate, lithium chloride, lithium citrate, and lithium hypochlorite. ithium (Li), an alkali metal, is a n...
Auditory learning: a developmental method
Yilu Zhang; Juyang Weng; Wey-Shiuan Hwang
Motivated by the human autonomous development process from infancy to adulthood, we have built a robot that develops its cognitive and behavioral skills through real-time interactions with the environment. We call such a robot a developmental robot. In this paper, we present the theory and the architecture to implement a developmental robot and discuss the related techniques that address an
Eight Problems for the Mirror Neuron Theory of Action Understanding in Monkeys and Humans
Hickok, Gregory
The discovery of mirror neurons in macaque frontal cortex has sparked a resurgence of interest in motor/embodied theories of cognition. This critical review examines the evidence in support of one of these theories, namely that the mirror neurons provide the basis of action understanding. It is argued that there is no evidence from monkey data that directly tests this theory, and evidence from humans makes a strong case against the position. PMID:19199415
Developmental Regulation of TAC1 in Peptidergic-Induced Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells: Implication for Spinal Cord Injury in Zebrafish
Patel, Nitixa; Klassert, Tilman E.; Greco, Steven J.; Patel, Shyam A.; Munoz, Jessian L.; Reddy, Bobby Y.; Bryan, Margarette; Campbell, Neil; Kokorina, Natalia
Human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are easy to expand, are relatively safe, and can be transplanted in allogeneic recipients as off-the-shelf cells. MSCs can be induced to form functional peptidergic neurons and express the neurotransmitter gene, TAC1. Expression of TAC1 requires that the repressor gene, RE-1 silencing transcription factor (REST), is decreased. This study investigated the molecular pathway in TAC1 induction as MSCs differentiated into neurons and then applied the findings in a model of spinal cord injury (SCI) in zebrafish. We studied the developmental roles of the 2 cAMP response element (CRE) sites: CRE1 and CRE2. Activator protein-1 (AP-1) binding site overlaps with CRE2 (CRE2/AP-1). Reporter gene studies with the 5? regulatory region of TAC1 containing wild-type or mutant CRE sites and, parallel studies with ectopically expressed inhibitor of cAMP proteins (inducible cAMP early repressor) indicated that CRE1 and CRE2/AP-1 are activated at days 6 and 12, respectively. Studies with protein kinase-A (PKA) and Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) inhibitors in the reporter gene studies, chromatin immunoprecipation assay, and ectopic expression of REST indicated the following pathways: Decrease of REST activated upstream c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK). In turn, JNK activated ATF-2 and AP-1 for interaction with CRE1 and CRE2/AP-1, respectively. To apply the finding to SCI, we transplanted 6-day-induced MSCs in transgenic HB9-GFP zebrafish larvae with SCI, in the presence or absence of JNK inhibitors. Imaging and functional studies showed significant improvement in the fish. The repair mechanism involved the activation of JNK. The findings have long-term implications for SCI repair with MSCs. PMID:21671725
Chromosomal meiotic segregation, embryonic developmental kinetics and DNA (hydroxy)methylation analysis consolidate the safety of human oocyte vitrification.
De Munck, N; Petrussa, L; Verheyen, G; Staessen, C; Vandeskelde, Y; Sterckx, J; Bocken, G; Jacobs, K; Stoop, D; De Rycke, M; Van de Velde, H
Oocyte vitrification has been introduced into clinical settings without extensive pre-clinical safety testing. In this study, we analysed major safety aspects of human oocyte vitrification in a high security closed system: (i) chromosomal meiotic segregation, (ii) embryonic developmental kinetics and (iii) DNA (hydroxy)methylation status. Fresh and vitrified sibling oocytes from young donors after intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) were compared in three different assays. Firstly, the chromosomal constitution of the fertilized zygotes was deduced from array comparative genomic hybridization results obtained from both polar bodies biopsied at Day 1. Secondly, embryo development up to Day 3 was analysed by time-lapse imaging. Ten specific time points, six morphokinetic time intervals and the average cell number on Day 3 were recorded. Thirdly, global DNA methylation and hydroxymethylation patterns were analysed by immunostaining on Day 3 embryos. The nuclear fluorescence intensity was measured by Volocity imaging software. Comprehensive chromosomal screening of the polar bodies demonstrated that at least half of the zygotes obtained after ICSI of fresh and vitrified oocytes were euploid. Time-lapse analysis showed that there was no significant difference in cleavage timings, the predictive morphokinetic time intervals nor the average cell number between embryos developed from fresh and vitrified oocytes. Finally, global DNA (hydroxy)methylation patterns were not significantly different between Day 3 embryos obtained from fresh and from vitrified oocytes. Our data further consolidate the safety of the oocyte vitrification technique. Nevertheless, additional testing in young and older sub-fertile/infertile patients and sound follow-up studies of children born after oocyte cryopreservation remain mandatory. PMID:25833840
Developmental Career Counseling.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
O'Brien, Michael T.
This paper outlines a developmental self psychology for use by career counselors with career clients. It offers a definition of a psychological self, draws from the work of Mead, Vygotsky, and Kohut to develop an understanding of the processes involved in the development and internalization of a psychological self, and connects the work of career…
A human pluripotent carcinoma stem cell-based model for in vitro developmental neurotoxicity testing: effects of methylmercury, lead and aluminum evaluated by gene expression studies.
Laurenza, Incoronata; Pallocca, Giorgia; Mennecozzi, Milena; Scelfo, Bibiana; Pamies, David; Bal-Price, Anna
The major advantage of the neuronal cell culture models derived from human stem cells is their ability to replicate the crucial stages of neurodevelopment such as the commitment of human stem cells to the neuronal lineage and their subsequent stages of differentiation into neuronal and glial-like cell. In these studies we used mixed neuronal/glial culture derived from the NTERA-2 (NT-2) cell line, which has been established from human pluripotent testicular embryonal carcinoma cells. After characterization of the different stages of cell differentiation into neuronal- and glial-like phenotype toxicity studies were performed to evaluate whether this model would be suitable for developmental neurotoxicity studies. The cells were exposed during the differentiation process to non-cytotoxic concentrations of methylmercury chloride, lead chloride and aluminum nitrate for two weeks. The toxicity was then evaluated by measuring the mRNA levels of cell specific markers (neuronal and glial). The results obtained suggest that lead chloride and aluminum nitrate at low concentrations were toxic primarily to astrocytes and at the higher concentrations it also induced neurotoxicity. In contrast, MetHgCl was toxic for both cell types, neuronal and glial, as mRNA specific for astrocytes and neuronal markers were affected. The results obtained suggest that a neuronal mixed culture derived from human NT2 precursor cells is a suitable model for developmental neurotoxicity studies and gene expression could be used as a sensitive endpoint for initial screening of potential neurotoxic compounds. PMID:23501475
Cerebral developmental venous anomalies
Diego San Millán Ruíz; Philippe Gailloud
Introduction Cerebral developmental venous anomalies (DVAs) are the most frequently encountered cerebral vascular malformation. As such,\\u000a they are often observed incidentally during routine CT and MRI studies. Yet, what DVAs represent from a clinical perspective\\u000a is frequently not common knowledge and DVAs, therefore, still generate uncertainty and concern amongst physicians. This article\\u000a reviews our current understanding of developmental venous anomalies.\\u000a \\u000a \\u000a \\u000a \\u000a Results In
NSDL National Science Digital Library
This Web portal offered through the University of North Texas aims to "promote a sense of identity and connectivity among interested scientists and students active in the burgeoning field of developmental physiology." Users will find a wide array of useful features and services, including developmental physiology news, career and funding information, regularly updated links to related publications, a searchable database of developmental physiology researchers worldwide, op-ed pieces, hundreds of related links, and more. A helpful intra-site search engine has been recently added.
A breakdown in communication? Understanding the effects of aging on the human small intestine epithelium.
Mabbott, Neil A
In the intestine, a single layer of epithelial cells sealed together at their apical surfaces by tight junctions helps to prevent the luminal commensal and pathogenic micro-organisms and their toxins from entering host tissues. The intestinal epithelium also helps to maintain homoeostasis in the mucosal immune system by expressing anti-inflammatory cytokines in the steady state and inflammatory cytokines in response to pathogens. Although the function of the mucosal immune system is impaired in elderly humans, the molecular mechanisms which cause this dramatic functional decline are poorly understood. Our current understanding of the effects of aging on the physical and immunological properties of the intestinal epithelial barrier is also very limited. In this issue of Clinical Science, Man et al. provide further insight into the effects of aging on small intestinal barrier function in humans and the influence that gut luminal micro-organisms may have on it. Using human terminal ileal biopsy tissues they show that intestinal permeability to solutes, but not macromolecules, was significantly increased in the intestines of elderly humans. This was accompanied by elevated expression of the pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin (IL)-6 which appeared to modulate claudin-2 expression and solute permeability in the epithelium. Conversely, IL-8 synthesis in response to flagellin stimulation was reduced in intestines of the elderly subjects, but was not associated with effects on Toll-like receptor 5 (TLR5) expression. These data provide an important advance in our understanding on the effects of aging on intestinal permeability and innate mucosal immune responsiveness in elderly humans. PMID:26186738
Human behavior understanding for assisted living by means of hierarchical context free grammars
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Rosani, A.; Conci, N.; De Natale, F. G. B.
Human behavior understanding has attracted the attention of researchers in various fields over the last years. Recognizing behaviors with sufficient accuracy from sensors analysis is still an unsolved problem, because of many reasons, including the low accuracy of the data, differences in the human behaviors as well as the gap between low-level sensors data and high-level scene semantics. In this context, an application that is attracting the interest of both public and industrial entities is the possibility to allow elderly or physically impaired people conducting a normal life at home. Ambient intelligence (AmI) technologies, intended as the possibility of automatically detecting and reacting to the status of the environment and of the persons, is probably the major enabling factor for the achievement of such an ambitious objective. AmI technologies require suitable networks of sensors and actuators, as well as adequate processing and communication technologies. In this paper we propose a solution based on context free grammars for human behavior understanding with an application to assisted living. First, the grammars of the different actions performed by a person in his/her daily life are discovered. Then, a longterm analysis of the behavior is used to generate a control grammar, taking care of the context when an action is performed, and adding semantics. The proposed framework is tested on a dataset acquired in a real environment and compared with state of the art methods already available for the problem considered.
Genomic Assessment of Human Cumulus Cell Marker Genes as Predictors of Oocyte Developmental Competence: Impact of Various Experimental Factors
Chevalier, Catherine; Teusan, Raluca; Cadoret, Veronique; Guerif, Fabrice; Houlgatte, Remi; Royere, Dominique
Background Single embryo transfer (SET) is the most successful way to reduce the frequency of multiple pregnancies following in vitro fertilisation. However, selecting the embryo for SET with the highest chances of pregnancy remains a difficult challenge since morphological and kinetics criteria provide poor prediction of both developmental and implantation ability. Partly through the expression of specific genes, the oocyte-cumulus interaction helps the oocyte to acquire its developmental competence. Our aim was therefore to identify at the level of cumulus cells (CCs) genes related to oocyte developmental competence. Methodology/Principal Findings 197 individual CCs were collected from 106 patients undergoing an intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection procedure. Gene expression of CCs was studied using microarray according to the nuclear maturity of the oocyte (immature vs. mature oocyte) and to the developmental competence of the oocyte (ability to reach the blastocyst stage after fertilisation). Microarray study was followed by a meta-analysis of the behaviour of these genes in other datasets available in Gene Expression Omnibus which showed the consistency of this list of genes. Finally, 8 genes were selected according to oocyte developmental competence from the 308 differentially expressed genes (p<0.0001) for further validation by quantitative PCR (qPCR). Three of these 8 selected genes were validated as potential biomarkers (PLIN2, RGS2 and ANG). Experimental factors such as inter-patient and qPCR series variability were then assessed using the Generalised Linear Mixed Model procedure, and only the expression level of RGS2 was confirmed to be related to oocyte developmental competence. The link between biomarkers and pregnancy was finally evaluated and level of RGS2 expression was also correlated with clinical pregnancy. Conclusion/Significance RGS2, known as a regulator of G protein signalling, was the only gene among our 8 selected candidates biomarkers of oocyte competence to cover many factors of variability, including inter-patient factors and experimental conditions. PMID:22848380
Human Evolution Developmental Change
Lee, Dongwon
.wge / edited by l"anc:' J\\linugh-Purvis and Kenneth]. J\\Id'am.ua. p. em. Includes bibliogr.lphieal references). These parameters are known to have changed re markably through hominid history, particularly in the phase leading that had pre\\'iously prevented the expression of these charac 189 #12;190 I The Evolution of Hominid Life-History
Animal models suggest that the immature immune system is more susceptible to xenobiotics than the fully mature system, and sequelae of developmental immunotoxicant exposure may be persistent well into adulthood. Immune maturation may be delayed by xenobiotic exposure and recover...
Understanding multicellular function and disease with human tissue-specific networks.
Greene, Casey S; Krishnan, Arjun; Wong, Aaron K; Ricciotti, Emanuela; Zelaya, Rene A; Himmelstein, Daniel S; Zhang, Ran; Hartmann, Boris M; Zaslavsky, Elena; Sealfon, Stuart C; Chasman, Daniel I; FitzGerald, Garret A; Dolinski, Kara; Grosser, Tilo; Troyanskaya, Olga G
Tissue and cell-type identity lie at the core of human physiology and disease. Understanding the genetic underpinnings of complex tissues and individual cell lineages is crucial for developing improved diagnostics and therapeutics. We present genome-wide functional interaction networks for 144 human tissues and cell types developed using a data-driven Bayesian methodology that integrates thousands of diverse experiments spanning tissue and disease states. Tissue-specific networks predict lineage-specific responses to perturbation, identify the changing functional roles of genes across tissues and illuminate relationships among diseases. We introduce NetWAS, which combines genes with nominally significant genome-wide association study (GWAS) P values and tissue-specific networks to identify disease-gene associations more accurately than GWAS alone. Our webserver, GIANT, provides an interface to human tissue networks through multi-gene queries, network visualization, analysis tools including NetWAS and downloadable networks. GIANT enables systematic exploration of the landscape of interacting genes that shape specialized cellular functions across more than a hundred human tissues and cell types. PMID:25915600
Symmetry States of the physical space: an expanded reference frame for understanding human consciousness.
Manek, Nisha J
A remarkable phenomenon is taking place around the globe, one that I have been fortunate enough to witness and in which to participate. The relics of the historical Buddha, also known as Siddhartha or Shakyamuni Buddha, still survive today over 2500 years since his enlightenment, and, for the first time in history, are traveling throughout the world. In common Buddhist practice, relics are highly venerated and treasured remains of realized Masters. It is very rare for relics to travel from city to city and be available for viewing by the general public. The Buddha relic tour is demonstrating that a direct experience of the spiritual state is not mysterious, nor is it for a select few. The spiritual state, here defined as a universal theme of unconditional love, is a component of human evolutionary unfoldment, a process through which thousands of human beings have passed, and through which thousands more will pass. We are "waking up" as a species. Consequently, more information is required about this transformation of human consciousness. The Buddha relics offer us a priceless means by which we can obtain a richer perspective about the nature of human consciousness, spiritual realities such as love, and ultimately understanding ourselves. PMID:22106870
Large-scale gene expression profiling data for the model moss Physcomitrella patens aid understanding of developmental progression, culture and stress conditions.
Hiss, Manuel; Laule, Oliver; Meskauskiene, Rasa M; Arif, Muhammad A; Decker, Eva L; Erxleben, Anika; Frank, Wolfgang; Hanke, Sebastian T; Lang, Daniel; Martin, Anja; Neu, Christina; Reski, Ralf; Richardt, Sandra; Schallenberg-Rüdinger, Mareike; Szövényi, Peter; Tiko, Theodhor; Wiedemann, Gertrud; Wolf, Luise; Zimmermann, Philip; Rensing, Stefan A
The moss Physcomitrella patens is an important model organism for studying plant evolution, development, physiology and biotechnology. Here we have generated microarray gene expression data covering the principal developmental stages, culture forms and some environmental/stress conditions. Example analyses of developmental stages and growth conditions as well as abiotic stress treatments demonstrate that (i) growth stage is dominant over culture conditions, (ii) liquid culture is not stressful for the plant, (iii) low pH might aid protoplastation by reduced expression of cell wall structure genes, (iv) largely the same gene pool mediates response to dehydration and rehydration, and (v) AP2/EREBP transcription factors play important roles in stress response reactions. With regard to the AP2 gene family, phylogenetic analysis and comparison with Arabidopsis thaliana shows commonalities as well as uniquely expressed family members under drought, light perturbations and protoplastation. Gene expression profiles for P. patens are available for the scientific community via the easy-to-use tool at https://www.genevestigator.com. By providing large-scale expression profiles, the usability of this model organism is further enhanced, for example by enabling selection of control genes for quantitative real-time PCR. Now, gene expression levels across a broad range of conditions can be accessed online for P. patens. PMID:24889180
The Significance of Human-Animal Relationships as Modulators of Trauma Effects in Children: A Developmental Neurobiological Perspective
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Yorke, Jan
Emotional stress and trauma impacts the neurobiology of children. They are especially vulnerable given the developmental plasticity of the brain. The neural synaptic circular processes between the anterior cingulated cortex, prefrontal cortex, amygdala and the hypothalamus are altered. Trauma results in the release of the peptide glucocortisoid,…
Metaphase II human oocyte morphology: contributing factors and effects on fertilization potential and embryo developmental ability in ICSI cycles.
de Cássia S Figueira, Rita; de Almeida Ferreira Braga, Daniela Paes; Semiăo-Francisco, Luciana; Madaschi, Camila; Iaconelli, Assumpto; Borges, Edson
Morphologic abnormalities in the oocyte are relevant for determining its developmental fate and could be related to controlled ovarian stimulation protocols and ovarian response. The contributing factors of oocyte dysmorphism incidence and its effects on fertilization potential and embryo development are the object of discussion in this study. PMID:20045105
Developmental neurotoxicity of PCBs in humans: What do we know and where do we go from here?
Susan L. Schantz
The potential neurotoxicity of PCBs was first recognized in 1968 when a number of Japanese people became ill after ingesting rice oil that was contaminated with PCBs during the manufacturing process (Yusho). Later a similar exposure occurred in Taiwan (YuCheng). Children born to Taiwanese mothers who consumed PCB-contaminated rice oil were followed and a number of developmental abnormalities, including lower
The Developmental Life Course Perspective: A Conceptual and Organizing Framework for Human Behavior and the Social Environment
Marianne R. Yoshioka; Eri Noguchi
The developmental life course perspective (DLC) focuses attention on the socio-historical context in which we live our lives as it influences opportunities and life events that produce cumulative advantage or disadvantage. These large contextual forces shape preference and behavior, and it is within this context that the individual exerts personal agency. This perspective has particular utility as a conceptual framework
The significance of human–animal relationships as modulators of trauma effects in children: a developmental neurobiological perspective
Jan Yorke
Emotional stress and trauma impacts the neurobiology of children. They are especially vulnerable given the developmental plasticity of the brain. The neural synaptic circular processes between the anterior cingulated cortex, prefrontal cortex, amygdala and the hypothalamus are altered. Trauma results in the release of the peptide glucocortisoid, or cortisol leading to an ongoing over?arousal of the anatomic nervous system. Kindling
The Contribution of Conceptual Change Texts Accompanied by Concept Mapping to Students' Understanding of the Human Circulatory System.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Sungur, Semra; Tekkaya, Ceren; Geban, Omer
Investigates the contribution of conceptual change texts accompanied by concept mapping instruction to 10th-grade students' understanding of the human circulatory system. Indicates that the conceptual change texts accompanied by concept mapping instruction produced a positive effect on students' understanding of concepts. Concludes that students…
Assessment of boric acid and borax using the IEHR evaluative process for assessing human developmental and reproductive toxicity of agents
This document presents an evaluation of the reproductive and developmental effects of boric acid, H3BO3 (CAS Registry No. 10043-35-3) and disodium tetraborate decahydrate or borax, Na2B4O2O(CAS Registry No. 1303-96-4). The element, boron, does not exist naturally. In dilute aqueous solution and at physiological pH (7.4), the predominant species in undissociated boric acid (greater than 98%), irrespective of whether the initial
On the Importance of Comparative Research for the Understanding of Human Behavior and Development: A Reply to Gottlieb & Lickliter (2004)
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Maestripieri, Dario
Comparative behavioral research is important for a number of reasons and can contribute to the understanding of human behavior and development in many different ways. Research with animal models of human behavior and development can be a source not only of general principles and testable hypotheses but also of empirical information that may be…
Mechanistic understanding of human-wildlife conflict through a novel application of dynamic occupancy models.
Goswami, Varun R; Medhi, Kamal; Nichols, James D; Oli, Madan K
Crop and livestock depredation by wildlife is a primary driver of human-wildlife conflict, a problem that threatens the coexistence of people and wildlife globally. Understanding mechanisms that underlie depredation patterns holds the key to mitigating conflicts across time and space. However, most studies do not consider imperfect detection and reporting of conflicts, which may lead to incorrect inference regarding its spatiotemporal drivers. We applied dynamic occupancy models to elephant crop depredation data from India between 2005 and 2011 to estimate crop depredation occurrence and model its underlying dynamics as a function of spatiotemporal covariates while accounting for imperfect detection of conflicts. The probability of detecting conflicts was consistently <1.0 and was negatively influenced by distance to roads and elevation gradient, averaging 0.08-0.56 across primary periods (distinct agricultural seasons within each year). The probability of crop depredation occurrence ranged from 0.29 (SE 0.09) to 0.96 (SE 0.04). The probability that sites raided by elephants in primary period t would not be raided in primary period t + 1 varied with elevation gradient in different seasons and was influenced negatively by mean rainfall and village density and positively by distance to forests. Negative effects of rainfall variation and distance to forests best explained variation in the probability that sites not raided by elephants in primary period t would be raided in primary period t + 1. With our novel application of occupancy models, we teased apart the spatiotemporal drivers of conflicts from factors that influence how they are observed, thereby allowing more reliable inference on mechanisms underlying observed conflict patterns. We found that factors associated with increased crop accessibility and availability (e.g., distance to forests and rainfall patterns) were key drivers of elephant crop depredation dynamics. Such an understanding is essential for rigorous prediction of future conflicts, a critical requirement for effective conflict management in the context of increasing human-wildlife interactions. PMID:25757801
... Treatment is symptomatic and supportive and may include occupational and speech therapy, and "cueing" or other forms of communication such as using pictures and hand gestures. Many children with the disorder require special education. What is the prognosis? Developmental dyspraxia is a ...
Use of Both Cumulus Cells' Transcriptomic Markers and Zona Pellucida Birefringence to Select Developmentally Competent Oocytes in Human Assisted Reproductive Technologies
Background Selection of the best oocyte for subsequent steps of fertilization and embryo transfer was shown to be the crucial step in human infertility treatment procedure. Oocyte selection using morphological criteria mainly Zona pellucida (ZP) has been the gold standard method in assisted reproductive technologies (ART) clinics, but this selection approach has limitations in terms of accuracy, objectivity and constancy. Recent studies using OMICs-based approaches have allowed the identification of key molecular markers that quantitatively and non-invasively predict the oocyte quality for higher pregnancy rates and efficient infertility treatment. These biomarkers are a valuable reinforcement of the morphological selection criteria widely used in in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics. In this context, this study was designed to investigate the relationship between transcriptomic predictors of oocyte quality found by our group and the conventional morphological parameters of oocyte quality mainly the ZP birefringence. Results Microarray data revealed that 48 and 27 differentially expressed candidate genes in cumulus cells (CCs) were respectively overexpressed and underexpressed in the ZGP (Zona Good Pregnant) versus ZBNP (Zona Bad Non Pregnant) groups. More than 70% of previously reported transcriptomic biomarkers of oocyte developmental competence were confirmed in this study. The analysis of possible association between ZP birefringence versus molecular markers approach showed an absence of correlation between them using the current set of markers. Conclusions This study suggested a new integrative approach that matches morphological and molecular approaches used to select developmentally competent oocytes able to lead to successful pregnancy and the delivery of healthy baby. For each ZP birefringence score, oocytes displayed a particular CCs' gene expression pattern. However, no correlations were found between the 7 gene biomarkers of oocyte developmental potential and the ZP birefringence score. Further studies using larger lists of candidate markers are required to identify suitable genes that are highly correlated with the morphological criteria, and therefore able to reinforce the accuracy of oocyte selection and the effectiveness of infertility treatment. PMID:25923296
Human CD43+ B cells are closely related not only to memory B cells phenotypically but also to plasmablasts developmentally in healthy individuals.
Inui, Masanori; Hirota, Saeko; Hirano, Kumiko; Fujii, Hiroshi; Sugahara-Tobinai, Akiko; Ishii, Tomonori; Harigae, Hideo; Takai, Toshiyuki
CD20(+)CD27(+)CD43(+) B (CD43(+) B) cells have been newly defined among PBMCs and proposed to be human B1 cells. However, it is controversial as to whether they are orthologs of murine B1 cells and how they are related to other B-cell populations, particularly CD20(+)CD27(+)CD43(-) memory B cells and CD20(low)CD27(high)CD43(high) plasmablasts. Our objective is to identify phenotypically the position of CD43(+) B cells among peripheral B-lineage cell compartments in healthy donors, with reference to B-cell subsets from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). We found that CD43(+) B cells among PBMCs from healthy subjects were indistinguishable phenotypically from memory B cells in terms of surface markers, and spontaneous in vitro Ig and IL-10 secretion capability, but quite different from plasmablasts. However, a moderate correlation was found in the frequency of CD43(+) B cells with that of plasmablasts in healthy donors but not in SLE patients. An in vitro differentiation experiment indicated that CD43(+) B cells give rise to plasmablasts more efficiently than do memory B cells, suggesting that they are more closely related to plasmablasts developmentally than are memory B cells, which is also supported by quantitative PCR analysis of mRNA expression of B-cell and plasma cell signature genes. Thus, we conclude that, in healthy individuals, CD43(+) B cells are closely related not only to memory B cells phenotypically but also to plasmablasts developmentally, although the developmental origin of CD43(+) B cells is not necessarily the same as that of plasmablasts. PMID:25744616
Developmental plasticity and the evolution of parental effects
Richner, Heinz
Developmental plasticity and the evolution of parental effects Tobias Uller Edward Grey Institute for evolutionary biologists is to understand how developmental plasticity can influence the evolutionary process. Devel- opmental plasticity frequently involves parental effects, which might enable adaptive and context
Aberrant expression of maternal Plk1 and Dctn3 results in the developmental failure of human in-vivo- and in-vitro-matured oocytes.
Fan, Yong; Zhao, Hong-Cui; Liu, Jianqiao; Tan, Tao; Ding, Ting; Li, Rong; Zhao, Yue; Yan, Jie; Sun, Xiaofang; Yu, Yang; Qiao, Jie
Fertilisation is the first step in embryonic development, and dynamic changes of key genes may potentially improve assisted reproduction techniques efficiency during this process. Here, we analysed genes that were differentially expressed between oocytes and zygotes and focused on cytokinesis-related genes. Plk1 and Dctn3 were identified as showing dramatic changes in expression during fertilisation and were suggested to play a key role in inducing aneuploidy in zygotes and 8-cell embryos. Moreover, we found that maternal Plk1 and Dctn3 were expressed at lower levels in in vitro matured oocytes, which may have contributed to the high ratio of resulting embryos with abnormal Plk1 and Dctn3 expression levels, thereby reducing the developmental competence of the resulting embryos. Furthermore, the overexpression of Dctn3 can silence Plk1 expression, which suggests a potential regulation mechanism. In conclusion, our present study showed that aberrant expression of Plk1 and Dctn3 increases embryo aneuploidy and developmental failure, particularly in in vitro matured oocytes. Our results facilitate a better understanding of the effects of oocyte maternal gene expression on embryonic development and can be used to improve the outcome of assisted reproduction techniques. PMID:25645239
Medical implications of understanding the functions of human small heat shock proteins.
Mymrikov, Evgeny V; Haslbeck, Martin
Small heat shock proteins (sHsps) are ubiquitous molecular chaperones that are implicated in a variety of diseases. Upon stress, they stabilize unfolding proteins and prevent them from aggregating. However, under physiological conditions without severe stress, some sHsps interact with other proteins. In a perspective view, their ability to bind specific client proteins might allow them to fine-tune the availability of the client for other, client-dependent cellular processes. Additionally, some sHsps seem to interact with specific co-chaperones. These co-chaperones are usually part of large protein machineries that are functionally modulated upon sHsps interaction. Finally, secreted human sHsps seem to interact with receptor proteins, potentially as signal molecules transmitting the stress status from one cell to another. This review focuses on the mechanistic description of these different binding modes for human sHsps and how this might help to understand and modulate the function of sHsps in the context of disease. PMID:25915440
Understanding the interaction between human serum albumin and anti-bacterial/ anti-cancer compounds.
Rehman, Md Tabish; Khan, Asad U
Human serum albumin (HSA) is the most important carrier of exogenous and endogenous molecules in human plasma. Understanding and characterizing the interaction of drugs with HSA has attracted enormous research interests from decades. The nature and magnitude of these bindings have direct consequence on drug delivery, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, therapeutic efficacy and drug designing. An overview of HSA and antibacterial/ anti-cancer ligands interaction is the need of the hour as these drugs together constitute more than half of the total drug consumption in the world. In this review, the information on the number of binding sites, binding strength, the nature of binding interactions and the location of binding sites of such drugs on the HSA are summarised. The effect of such drugs on the overall conformation, stability and function of HSA is also reviewed. This review will help to gain useful insights into the significance of the binding of anti-bacterial and anti-cancer drugs with plasma protein and the effect of binding on its overall distribution and pharmacological activities. PMID:25738491
From 'human being' to 'social subject': "unfreezing" ergonomics and the implications for understanding and intervening health-disease process.
Morales, Karen Lange; García-Acosta, Gabriel
Ergonomics has been successful in increasing productivity and comfort in the work arena. It has also contributed to reducing occupational accidents. Despite this, ergonomics is frequently limited to understanding the health-disease process related to human-technology interactions, as this process is more complex than what can be understood from an ergonomic evaluation. Recognising this limit, this work ontologically and epistemologically contrasts the notions of 'human being' and 'social subject', and concludes that the study object of ergonomics, or human-technology interaction, greatly depends on social aspects that nowadays are not tackled explicitly: route (history), project, structure, agency, motivations and power. It also analyses how participatory ergonomics tacitly includes many of these aspects, including some implications that the change of notion, from 'human being' to 'social subject', brings to the understanding of the health-disease process and the reduction of associated risks during human activities. PMID:22317190
Anatomy of the pectoral and forelimb muscles of wildtype and green fluorescent protein-transgenic axolotls and comparison with other tetrapods including humans: a basis for regenerative, evolutionary and developmental studies
Diogo, R; Tanaka, E M
The axolotl Ambystoma mexicanum is one of the most used model organisms in evolutionary, developmental and regenerative studies, particularly because it can reconstitute a fully functional and complete forelimb/hindlimb. Surprisingly, there is no publication that describes all the pectoral and forelimb muscles of this species or provides a comparative framework between these muscles and those of other model organisms and of modern humans. In the present paper we describe and illustrate all these muscles in A. mexicanum and provide the first report about the myology of adults of a model organism that is based on analyses and dissections of both wildtype animals and transgenic animals that express green fluorescent protein (GFP) in muscle fibers. On the one hand, the inclusion of GFP-transgenic animals allows us to show the muscles as more commonly seen, and thus easier to understand, by current developmental and regenerative biologists. On the other hand, by including wildtype and GFP-transgenic animals and by visualizing these latter animals with and without a simultaneous transmission laser light, we were able to obtain a more complete and clearer understanding of the exact limit of the fleshy and tendinous parts of the muscles and their specific connections with the skeletal elements. This in turn allowed us to settle some controversies in previous anatomical and comparative studies. As most developmental, regenerative and evolutionary biologists are interested in comparing their observations of A. mexicanum with observations in other model organisms, and ultimately in using this information to increase the understanding of human evolution and medicine, we also provide tables showing the homologies between the pectoral and forelimb muscles of axolotls, of model organisms such as mice, frogs and chicken, and of Homo sapiens. An example illustrating the outcomes of using our methodology and of our observations is that they revealed that, contrary to what is often stated in the literature, A. mexicanum has a muscle coracoradialis that has both a well developed proximal fleshy belly and a distal long and thin tendon, supporting the idea that this muscle very likely corresponds to at least part of the amniote biceps brachii. Our observations also: (i) confirmed that the flexores digitorum minimi, interphalangeus digiti 3, pronator quadratus and palmaris profundus 1 are present as distinct muscles in A. mexicanum, supporting the idea that the latter muscle does not correspond to the pronator accessorius of reptiles; (ii) confirmed that the so-called extensor antebrachii radialis is present as a distinct muscle in this species and, importantly, indicated that this muscle corresponds to the supinator of other tetrapods; (iii) showed that, contrary to some other urodeles, including some other Ambystoma species, there is no distinct muscle epitrochleoanconeus in A. mexicanum and; (iv) showed that the ulnar and radial bundles of the abductor et extensor digiti 1 correspond to the abductor pollicis longus and extensor pollicis longus of other tetrapods, respectively. PMID:22957800
1992 Oxford University Press Human Molecular Genetics, Vol. 1, No. 2 77--82 Identification and developmental expression of the
Tucker, Stephen J.
of human CFTR in Xenopus oocytes and in mammalian and insect cells, correlates with the appearance of a c© 1992 Oxford University Press Human Molecular Genetics, Vol. 1, No. 2 77--82 Identification homologue of the human cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene has been isolated
Integrating genetic and toxicogenomic information for determining underlying susceptibility to developmental disorders.
Robinson, Joshua F; Port, Jesse A; Yu, Xiaozhong; Faustman, Elaine M
To understand the complex etiology of developmental disorders, an understanding of both genetic and environmental risk factors is needed. Human and rodent genetic studies have identified a multitude of gene candidates for specific developmental disorders such as neural tube defects (NTDs). With the emergence of toxicogenomic-based assessments, scientists now also have the ability to compare and understand the expression of thousands of genes simultaneously across strain, time, and exposure in developmental models. Using a systems-based approach in which we are able to evaluate information from various parts and levels of the developing organism, we propose a framework for integrating genetic information with toxicogenomic-based studies to better understand gene-environmental interactions critical for developmental disorders. This approach has allowed us to characterize candidate genes in the context of variables critical for determining susceptibility such as strain, time, and exposure. Using a combination of toxicogenomic studies and complementary bioinformatic tools, we characterize NTD candidate genes during normal development by function (gene ontology), linked phenotype (disease outcome), location, and expression (temporally and strain-dependent). In addition, we show how environmental exposures (cadmium, methylmercury) can influence expression of these genes in a strain-dependent manner. Using NTDs as an example of developmental disorder, we show how simple integration of genetic information from previous studies into the standard microarray design can enhance analysis of gene-environment interactions to better define environmental exposure-disease pathways in sensitive and resistant mouse strains. PMID:20706997
Evo-Devo insights from pathological networks: exploring craniosynostosis as a developmental mechanism for modularity and complexity in the human skull.
Esteve-Altava, Borja; Rasskin-Gutman, Diego
Bone fusion has occurred repeatedly during skull evolution in all tetrapod lineages, leading to a reduction in the number of bones and an increase in their morphological complexity. The ontogeny of the human skull includes also bone fusions as part of its normal developmental process. However, several disruptions might cause premature closure of cranial sutures (craniosynostosis), reducing the number of bones and producing new skull growth patterns that causes shape changes. Here, we compare skull network models of a normal newborn with different craniosynostosis conditions, the normal adult stage, and phylogenetically reconstructed forms of a primitive tetrapod, a synapsid, and a placental mammal. Changes in morphological complexity of newborn-to-synostosed skulls are two to three times less than in newborn-to-adult; and even smaller when we compare them to the increases among the reconstructed ancestors in the evolutionary transitions. In addition, normal, synostosed, and adult human skulls show the same connectivity modules: facial and cranial. Differences arise in the internal structure of these modules. In the adult skull the facial module has an internal hierarchical organization, whereas the cranial module has a regular network organization. However, all newborn forms, normal and synostosed, do not reach such kind of internal organization. We conclude that the subtle changes in skull complexity at the developmental scale can change the modular substructure of the newborn skull to more integrated modules in the adult skull, but is not enough to generate radical changes as it occurs at a macroevolutionary scale. The timing of closure of craniofacial sutures, together with the conserved patterns of morphological modularity, highlights a potential relation between the premature fusion of bones and the evolution of the shape of the skull in hominids. PMID:25324462
Understanding human – bat interactions in NSW, Australia: improving risk communication for prevention of Australian bat lyssavirus
Background Australian bat lyssavirus (ABLV) infects a number of flying fox and insectivorous bats species in Australia. Human infection with ABLV is inevitably fatal unless prior vaccination and/or post-exposure treatment (PET) is given. Despite ongoing public health messaging about the risks associated with bat contact, surveillance data have revealed a four-fold increase in the number of people receiving PET for bat exposure in NSW between 2007 and 2011. Our study aimed to better understand these human – bat interactions in order to identify additional risk communication messages that could lower the risk of potential ABLV exposure. All people aged 18 years or over whom received PET for non-occupation related potential ABLV exposure in the Hunter New England Local Health District of Australia between July 2011 and July 2013 were considered eligible for the study. Eligible participants were invited to a telephone interview to explore the circumstances of their bat contact. Interviews were then transcribed and thematically analysed by two independent investigators. Results Of 21 eligible participants that were able to be contacted, 16 consented and participated in a telephone interview. Participants reported bats as being widespread in their environment but reported a general lack of awareness about ABLV, particularly the risk of disease from bat scratches. Participants who attempted to 'rescue' bats did so because of a deep concern for the bat's welfare. Participants reported a change in risk perception after the exposure event and provided suggestions for public health messages that could be used to raise awareness about ABLV. Conclusions Reframing the current risk messages to account for the genuine concern of people for bat welfare may enhance the communication. The potential risk to the person and possible harm to the bat from an attempted 'rescue' should be promoted, along with contact details for animal rescue groups. The potential risk of ABLV from bat scratches merits greater emphasis. PMID:24984790
Understanding Human Teaching Modalities in Reinforcement Learning Environments: A Preliminary Report
Stone, Peter
there has been a growing interest in improving such learning by leveraging humans as teachers. These human-in-the-loop knowledge. A number of recent papers have shown that human-in-the- loop techniques can be successfully
Understanding Artful Behavior as a Human Proclivity: Clues from a Pre-Kindergarten Classroom
Blatt-Gross, Carolina
is a natural human behavior, especially for children (Dewey,the everyday behavior of children and the human history ofchildren. Hence, the following questions; How might artful behavior be an innate human
Assessment of boric acid and borax using the IEHR evaluative process for assessing human developmental and reproductive toxicity of agents
Moore, J.A.
This document presents an evaluation of the reproductive and developmental effects of boric acid, H3BO3 (CAS Registry No. 10043-35-3) and disodium tetraborate decahydrate or borax, Na2B4O2O(CAS Registry No. 1303-96-4). The element, boron, does not exist naturally. In dilute aqueous solution and at physiological pH (7.4), the predominant species in undissociated boric acid (greater than 98%), irrespective of whether the initial material was boric acid of borax. Therefore, it is both useful and correct to compare exposures and dosages to boric acid and borax in terms of `boron equivalents`, since both materials form equivalent species in dilute aqueous solution with similar systemic effects. In order to be clear in this document, the term `boron` will refer to `boron equivalents` or percent boron in boric acid and borax.
An eye-tracking investigation of developmental changes in infants' exploration of upright and inverted human faces
Oakes, Lisa M.; Ellis, Ann E.
We used eye-tracking to examine 4.5- to 12.5-month-old infants' (N = 92) eye-movements during 3-s presentations of upright and inverted faces. Scanning of inverted faces was statistically indistinguishable at 4.5, 6.5, 8, and 12.5 months of age; at each of these ages infants disproportionately scanned the region containing the eyes. Scanning of upright faces changed over this age range. When viewing upright faces, 4.5-month-old and 6.5-month-old infants focused disproportionately on the region containing the eyes, whereas 12.5-month-old and 8-month-old infants distributed looking more broadly, scanning more of the internal area of the faces. These results are consistent with other observed developmental differences in face processing, and provide insight into how moment-to-moment face processing changes during infancy. PMID:23525142
Towards an understanding and application of environmental flow requirements for human welfare in East African Rivers
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
McClain, Michael
In semi-arid regions of Africa, rivers are of vital importance to humans for the many direct ecosystem services they provide and, in some cases, for their potential to irrigate and power larger-scale development. More than in most regions of the world, Africans still rely individually on rivers for domestic water, nutrition, and other materials contributing to their daily welfare. This has led to a uniquely African adaptation of the environmental flow concept to incorporate the basic water needs of people as well as ecosystems. The combined flow is referred to as the 'Reserve'. East Africa has seen comparatively little development of its water resources to-date, but ambitious initiatives are underway to increase water use in new large-scale irrigation schemes and hydropower projects. Consequently, a number of comprehensive environmental flow assessments and ecohydrological research activities have recently been carried out in the region. This presentation briefly reviews the initiatives underway across the region but focuses mainly on combined research and flow-setting efforts in the transboundary Mara River Basin of Kenya and Tanzania, home to more than 800,000 people and the region's most popular conservation areas, Masai-Mara National Reserve and Serengeti National Park. Since 2006 a team of scientists, in cooperation with water authorities and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), has investigated the hydrology, hydraulics, biology, and human uses of the Mara River in order to make initial environmental flow (reserve) recommendations. The flow regime of the still largely unregulated Mara River, based on analyses or 20+ years of data from three gauging stations, is highly variable and perennial flow in the middle reaches is dependent on inflows from two tributaries draining the heavily deforested Mau Escarpment, one of Kenya's five water towers. Downstream flows are also seasonally influenced by inflows from ephemeral tributaries that drain degraded grazing lands. Environmental flow recommendations have been made at six locations along the river, including three sites destined for the construction of new dams and multipurpose reservoirs. Flow recommendations consist of variable mean monthly base flows during normal and drought years and medium to large floods timed to achieve specific ecological objectives. The objective of water authorities, and thus of environmental flow recommendations, is to conserve the current good ecological status of the river and the many services it provides to people living along its margins. Complimentary research on the interrelationships between flow variability, ecosystem function, and human welfare is turning the Mara into a model system for better understanding these dynamics in an African development context.
Germ-line transmission and developmental regulation of a 150-kb yeast artificial chromosome containing the human beta-globin locus in transgenic mice.
Gaensler, K M; Kitamura, M; Kan, Y W
Sequential expression of the genes of the human beta-globin locus requires the formation of an erythroid-specific chromatin domain spanning > 200 kb. Regulation of this gene family involves both local interactions with proximal cis-acting sequences and long-range interactions with control elements upstream of the locus. To make it possible to analyze the interactions of cis-acting sequences of the human beta-globin locus in their normal spatial and sequence context, we characterized two yeast artificial chromosomes (YACs) 150 and 230 kb in size, containing the entire beta-globin locus. We have now successfully integrated the 150-kb YAC into the germ line of transgenic mice as a single unrearranged fragment that includes the locus control region, structural genes, and 30 kb of 3' flanking sequences present in the native locus. Expression of the transgenic human beta-globin locus is tissue- and developmental stage-specific and closely follows the pattern of expression of the endogenous mouse beta-globin locus. By using homology-directed recombination in yeast and methods for the purification and transfer of YACs into transgenic mice, it will now be feasible to study the physiological role of cis-acting sequences in specifying an erythroid-specific chromatin domain and directing expression of beta-globin genes during ontogeny. Images Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Fig. 4 Fig. 5 Fig. 6 PMID:8248258
Understanding Social Complexity Within the Wildland-Urban Interface: A New Species of Human Habitation?
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Paveglio, Travis B.; Jakes, Pamela J.; Carroll, Matthew S.; Williams, Daniel R.
The lack of knowledge regarding social diversity in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) or an in-depth understanding of the ways people living there interact to address common problems is concerning, perhaps even dangerous, given that community action is necessary for successful wildland fire preparedness and natural resource management activities. In this article, we lay out the knowledge and preliminary case study evidence needed to begin systematically documenting the differing levels and types of adaptive capacity WUI communities have for addressing collective problems such as wildland fire hazard. In order to achieve this end, we draw from two theoretical perspectives encompassing humans' interactions with their environment, including (1) Kenneth Wilkinson's interactional approach to community, (2) and certain elements of place literature. We also present case study research on wildfire protection planning in two drastically different California communities to illustrate how social diversity influences adaptive capacity to deal with hazards such as wildland fire. These perspectives promote an image of the WUI not as a monolithic entity but a complex mosaic of communities with different needs and existing capacities for wildland fire and natural resource management.
Parent-offspring conflict theory: an evolutionary framework for understanding conflict within human families.
Schlomer, Gabriel L; Del Giudice, Marco; Ellis, Bruce J
Decades of research demonstrate that conflict shapes and permeates a broad range of family processes. In the current article, we argue that greater insight, integration of knowledge, and empirical achievement in the study of family conflict can be realized by utilizing a powerful theory from evolutionary biology that is barely known within psychology: parent-offspring conflict theory (POCT). In the current article, we articulate POCT for psychological scientists, extend its scope by connecting it to the broader framework of life history theory, and draw out its implications for understanding conflict within human families. We specifically apply POCT to 2 instances of early mother-offspring interaction (prenatal conflict and weaning conflict); discuss the effects of genetic relatedness on behavioral conflict between parents, children, and their siblings; review the emerging literature on parent-offspring conflict over the choice of mates and spouses; and examine parent-offspring conflict from the perspective of imprinted genes. This review demonstrates the utility of POCT, not only for explaining what is known about conflict within families but also for generating novel hypotheses, suggesting new lines of research, and moving us toward the "big picture" by integrating across biological and psychological domains of knowledge. PMID:21604906
The many forms of a pleomorphic bacterial pathogen—the developmental network of Legionella pneumophila
Robertson, Peter; Abdelhady, Hany; Garduńo, Rafael A.
Legionella pneumophila is a natural intracellular bacterial parasite of free-living freshwater protozoa and an accidental human pathogen that causes Legionnaires' disease. L. pneumophila differentiates, and does it in style. Recent experimental data on L. pneumophila's differentiation point at the existence of a complex network that involves many developmental forms. We intend readers to: (i) understand the biological relevance of L. pneumophila's forms found in freshwater and their potential to transmit Legionnaires' disease, and (ii) learn that the common depiction of L. pneumophila's differentiation as a biphasic developmental cycle that alternates between a replicative and a transmissive form is but an oversimplification of the actual process. Our specific objectives are to provide updates on the molecular factors that regulate L. pneumophila's differentiation (Section The Differentiation Process and Its Regulation), and describe the developmental network of L. pneumophila (Section Dissecting Lp's Developmental Network), which for clarity's sake we have dissected into five separate developmental cycles. Finally, since each developmental form seems to contribute differently to the human pathogenic process and the transmission of Legionnaires' disease, readers are presented with a challenge to develop novel methods to detect the various L. pneumophila forms present in water (Section Practical Implications), as a means to improve our assessment of risk and more effectively prevent legionellosis outbreaks. PMID:25566200
Combining metagenomics, metatranscriptomics and viromics to explore novel microbial interactions: towards a systems-level understanding of human microbiome
Bikel, Shirley; Valdez-Lara, Alejandra; Cornejo-Granados, Fernanda; Rico, Karina; Canizales-Quinteros, Samuel; Soberón, Xavier; Del Pozo-Yauner, Luis; Ochoa-Leyva, Adrián
The advances in experimental methods and the development of high performance bioinformatic tools have substantially improved our understanding of microbial communities associated with human niches. Many studies have documented that changes in microbial abundance and composition of the human microbiome is associated with human health and diseased state. The majority of research on human microbiome is typically focused in the analysis of one level of biological information, i.e., metagenomics or metatranscriptomics. In this review, we describe some of the different experimental and bioinformatic strategies applied to analyze the 16S rRNA gene profiling and shotgun sequencing data of the human microbiome. We also discuss how some of the recent insights in the combination of metagenomics, metatranscriptomics and viromics can provide more detailed description on the interactions between microorganisms and viruses in oral and gut microbiomes. Recent studies on viromics have begun to gain importance due to the potential involvement of viruses in microbial dysbiosis. In addition, metatranscriptomic combined with metagenomic analysis have shown that a substantial fraction of microbial transcripts can be differentially regulated relative to their microbial genomic abundances. Thus, understanding the molecular interactions in the microbiome using the combination of metagenomics, metatranscriptomics and viromics is one of the main challenges towards a system level understanding of human microbiome. PMID:26137199
Analysis in Serum-Free Culture of the Targets of Recombinant Human Hemopoietic Growth Factors: Interleukin 3 and Granulocyte\\/Macrophage-Colony-Stimulating Factor are Specific for Early Developmental Stages
Yoshiaki Sonoda; Yu-Chung Yang; Gordon G. Wong; Steven C. Clark; Makio Ogawa
We have used a serum-free culture system for enriched human hemopoietic progenitors to analyze the developmental stages and lineage specificities of the human hemopoietic colony-stimulating factors. None of the individual factors alone efficiently supported hemopoietic colony formation. Neither interleukin 3 nor granulocyte\\/macrophage-colony-stimulating factor alone or in combination effectively supported proliferation of progenitor cells. However, when combined with granulocyte-colony-stimulating factor or
Real Time Imaging of Human Progenitor Neurogenesis
Thomas M. Keenan; Aaron D. Nelson; Jeffrey R. Grinager; Jarett C. Thelen; Clive N. Svendsen
Human neural progenitors are increasingly being employed in drug screens and emerging cell therapies targeted towards neurological disorders where neurogenesis is thought to play a key role including developmental disorders, Alzheimer's disease, and depression. Key to the success of these applications is understanding the mechanisms by which neurons arise. Our understanding of development can provide some guidance but since little
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. Linguists seek to understand the nature of the human language
Saldin, Dilano
of the human language faculty by examining the formal properties of natural- language grammars and the processLinguistics is the scientific study of language. Linguists seek to understand the nature of language acquisition. Given the central importance of language to both cognition and culture, linguistics
The Study of Human Movement by the Application of Biomechanical Musculoskeletal Leverage Physics: Understanding the Effective Lever Arm.
Cooper, Robin L.
The Study of Human Movement by the Application of Biomechanical Musculoskeletal Leverage Physics: Understanding the Effective Lever Arm. By: John S. Scherger, D.C. Biomechanical study utilizing musculo-skeletal leverage physics to produce reliable and useful results concerning the reconstruction of the musculo-skeletal
Understanding Historical Human Migration Patterns and Interbreeding (JGI Seventh Annual User Meeting 2012: Genomics of Energy and Environment)
Willerslev, Eske [University of Copenhagen
Eske Willerslev from the University of Copenhagen on "Understanding Historical Human Migration Patterns and Interbreeding Using the Ancient Genomes of a Palaeo-Eskimo and an Aboriginal Australian" at the 7th Annual Genomics of Energy & Environment Meeting on March 21, 2012 in Walnut Creek, California.
Understanding the links between humans, climate change, water and carbon and in a Corn Belt Watershed
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Secchi, S.; Perez Lapena, B.; Teshager, A. D.; Bhattarai, M. D.; Schoof, J. T.
Accounting for the value of ecosystem services is difficult for several reasons: we need to understand and model the behavior of humans, and how they respond to changes in policies, we need to quantify the changes in material fluxes or ecological responses resulting from their behavior, and finally we need to monetize the value of those material fluxes. Since coupled human-natural systems are highly idiosyncratic, integrated modeling can be challenging because it is not easy to transfer results from one system to another. Moreover, modeling changes in multiple ecosystem services often requires the simultaneous coordination of several biophysical models. In a non-static world, climate change models are also often necessary to identify future challenges and opportunities for better policy-making. We will discuss results from an integrated modeling perspective for the Raccoon River watershed in central Iowa. The watershed is in the heart of the Corn Belt, and it is under very intensive agricultural production which results in nitrate levels so high that a Total Maximum Daily Load has been put in place. The Des Moines Water Works that provides water to Iowa's capital either from the Raccoon or the Des Moines River has had to build several layers of treatment to ensure the water is safe to drink. We will present results from the integration of an agent-based model with a surface water quality model (the Soil and Water Assessment Tool) and an edge of field environmental model (the Environmental Policy Integrated Climate). The integration can simultaneously provide changes in water quality indicators - particularly nitrates, which can be monetized using the avoided cost method - and carbon sequestration - for which monetary values are readily available in the literature. This integrated system is linked to regional climate change models to help assess changes in agricultural productivity and farmers' behavior in the future. We will discuss the importance of quantifying and monetizing as many services as possible in the context of conservation and agricultural policies that compensate farmers for more environmentally friendly agricultural practices such as the use of no till or the planting of perennial grasses. Monetizing ecosystem services allows for the direct comparison of the costs and benefits of these policies.
Conducting Policy-Relevant Developmental Psychopathology Research
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Petersen, Anne C.
Policy, defined broadly to include public policy as well as institutional or organizational policy, is useful for sustaining change in human development and its contexts and systems. The role for developmental psychopathology research in policy analysis and policy making is discussed. To assure that developmental psychopathology research is useful…
Applying developmental psychology to children's road safety: Problems and prospects
James D. Demetre
This paper reviews the contributions of developmental psychology to our understanding of children's vulnerability as road users and to the formulation and assessment of appropriate intervention programs. Three limitations to the application of developmental psychology are discussed: (1) problems in the applicability to a new domain of both domain-general and domain-specific cognitive competence models; (2) the cultural relativity of developmental
The human PD1 gene: complete cDNA, genomic organization, and developmentally regulated expression in B cell progenitors
Lawrence R Finger; Jaiyu Pu; Robert Wasserman; Rajeev Vibhakar; Elaine Louie; Richard R Hardy; Peter D Burrows; Linda G Billips
We report the complete cDNA sequence and the genomic structure of the human PD-1 homologue. An analysis of the expression pattern of the human PD-1 gene (hPD-1) and the murine PD-1 gene (mPD-1) in developing bone marrow B-lineage cells was also undertaken. The full length hPD-1 cDNA is 2106 nucleotides long and encodes a predicted protein of 288 amino acid
Understanding Man's Best Friend: The Comparison of Pre-schooler's Abilities to Identify Emotions in Humans and Dogs Using Different Stimuli.
Mitchell, Holly
to adequately interpret dog behaviour. Limited research has found that children use their understanding of human emotions to guide their understanding of dogs, which often leads to misinterpretation (Lakestani, 2007; Lakestani et al., 2006; Meints, Racca...
Using Visual Analytics to Understand Social and Communicative Yi Han Agata Rozga John T. Stasko Gregory D. Abowd
Stasko, John T.
Technologies are providing new opportunities for psychologists to record and study human behaviors and communicative behaviors in children, and used this information to understand early signs of developmental and wearable sen- sors to record and analyze human behaviors in unprecedented de- tail [1]. However, the new
Developmental Cell Determining Physical Principles
Needleman, Daniel
Developmental Cell Forum Determining Physical Principles of Subcellular Organization Dan Needleman1 Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Pfotenhauerstrasse 108, 01307 Dresden, Germany 3Max Planck transformed our understanding of cell biology, but we are still unable to predict the behaviors
Vygotsky's Developmental and Educational Psychology
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Langford, Peter E.
Vygotsky is widely considered one of the most significant and influential psychologists of the twentieth century. Nevertheless, true appreciation of his theories has been hindered by a lack of understanding of the background to his thought. "Vygotsky's Developmental and Educational Psychology" aims to demonstrate how we can come to a new and…
Using Animal Models To Study Human Diseases Animal models are required for our understanding of human anatomy, physiology, health and life in
Rose, Michael R.
Using Animal Models To Study Human Diseases Animal models are required for our understanding the use of animal models, many advances in medicine and the overall scientific knowledge we have would observations. How many differently sized worms do you see? Draw each in the provided space. Do you see
Understanding our genetic inheritance: The US Human Genome Project, The first five years FY 1991--1995
The Human Genome Initiative is a worldwide research effort with the goal of analyzing the structure of human DNA and determining the location of the estimated 100,000 human genes. In parallel with this effort, the DNA of a set of model organisms will be studied to provide the comparative information necessary for understanding the functioning of the human genome. The information generated by the human genome project is expected to be the source book for biomedical science in the 21st century and will by of immense benefit to the field of medicine. It will help us to understand and eventually treat many of the more than 4000 genetic diseases that affect mankind, as well as the many multifactorial diseases in which genetic predisposition plays an important role. A centrally coordinated project focused on specific objectives is believed to be the most efficient and least expensive way of obtaining this information. The basic data produced will be collected in electronic databases that will make the information readily accessible on convenient form to all who need it. This report describes the plans for the U.S. human genome project and updates those originally prepared by the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) and the National Research Council (NRC) in 1988. In the intervening two years, improvements in technology for almost every aspect of genomics research have taken place. As a result, more specific goals can now be set for the project.
DEHP, bis(2)-ethylhexyl phthalate, alters gene expression in human cells: possible correlation with initiation of fetal developmental abnormalities
R Hokanson; W Hanneman; M Hennessey; K C Donnelly; T McDonald; R Chowdhary; D L Busbee
Diethylhexylphthalate (DEHP) is a widely distributed phthalate, to which humans are exposed to due to its variety of commercial and manufacturing uses. As a plasticiser, it is found in a wide number of products, and metabolites of DEHP have been detected in urine samples from a high percentage ofthe peoplescreened for phthalates. We utilised DNA microarray analysis to evaluate DEHP
The Perception of Four Basic Emotions in Human and Nonhuman Faces by Children With Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities
Thomas F. Gross
Children who experienced autism, mental retardation, and language disorders; and, children in a clinical control group were shown photographs of human female, orangutan, and canine (boxer) faces expressing happiness, sadness, anger, surprise and a neutral expression. For each species of faces, children were asked to identify the happy, sad, angry, or surprised expressions. In Experiment 1, error patterns suggested that
PPAR involvement in PFAA developmental toxicity
Perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) are found in the environment and in serum of wildlife and humans. Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) are developmentally toxic in rodents. The effects of in utero exposure include increas...
Evolutionary conservation of the oocyte transcriptome among vertebrates and its implications for understanding human reproductive function.
Sylvestre, Eve-Lyne; Robert, Claude; Pennetier, Sophie; Labrecque, Rémi; Gilbert, Isabelle; Dufort, Isabelle; Léveillé, Marie-Claude; Sirard, Marc-André
Cross-phylum and cross-species comparative transcriptomic analyses provide an evolutionary perspective on how specific tissues use genomic information. A significant mRNA subset present in the oocytes of most vertebrates is stabilized or stored for post-LH surge use. Since transcription is arrested in the oocyte before ovulation, this RNA is important for completing maturation and sustaining embryo development until zygotic genome activation. We compared the human oocyte transcriptome with an oocyte-enriched subset of mouse, bovine and frog (Xenopus laevis) genes in order to evaluate similarities between species. Graded temperature stringency hybridization on a multi-species oocyte cDNA array was used to measure the similarity of preferentially expressed sequences to the human oocyte library. Identity analysis of 679 human orthologs compared with each identified official gene symbol found in the subtractive (somatic-oocyte) libraries comprising our array revealed that bovine/human similarity was greater than mouse/human or frog/human similarity. However, based on protein sequence, mouse/human similarity was greater than bovine/human similarity. Among the genes over-expressed in oocytes relative to somatic tissue in Xenopus, Mus and Bos, a high level of conservation was found relative to humans, especially for genes involved in early embryonic development. PMID:23340479
Understanding and Responding to Youth Substance Use: The Contribution of a Health and Human Rights Framework
Gruskin, Sofia; Plafker, Karen; Smith-Estelle, Allison
This article examines the utility of a health and human rights framework for conceptualizing and responding to the causes and consequences of substance use among young people. It provides operational definitions of "youth" and "substances," a review of current international and national efforts to address substance use among youths, and an introduction to human rights and the intersection between health and human rights. A methodology for modeling vulnerability in relation to harmful substance use is introduced and contemporary international and national responses are discussed. When governments uphold their obligations to respect, protect, and fulfill human rights, vulnerability to harmful substance use and its consequences can be reduced. PMID:11726374
Developmental Exposure to Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers and Neurodevelopment
Mall, Jennifer K.
Exposure to polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) during sensitive developmental windows can interfere with cognitive function and behavior, which are critical components of neurodevelopment. The association between developmental exposure to PBDEs and neurodevelopment has been extensively studied using animal models. In this review, we focus on the accumulating evidence in humans. Despite methodological, geographical, and temporal differences between studies, the majority of the epidemiologic evidence supports that early life exposure to PBDEs measured during pregnancy and/or during childhood is detrimental to child neurodevelopment in domains related to child behavior, cognition, and motor skills. While the precise mechanism of action of PBDEs on neurodevelopment is unknown, PBDE-induced neurotoxicity via thyroid hormone disruption and direct action of PBDEs on the developing brain have been proposed and tested. Additional studies are suggested to better understand how early life and/or childhood PBDE exposures, including exposure to specific PBDE congeners, impact neurodevelopmental indices. PMID:25530937
Developmentally regulated expression of a human ''finger'' - containing gene encoded by the 5' half of the ret transforming gene
Takahashi, M.; Inaguma, Y.; Hiai, H.; Hirose, F.
The authors isolated and sequenced a cDNA clone of the human gene encoded by the 5' half of the ret transforming gene. The nucleotide sequence indicates that it encodes a protein with ''finger'' structures which represent putative metal- and nucleic acid-binding domains. Transcriptions of this gene was detected at high levels in a variety of human and rodent tumor cell lines, mouse testis, and embryos. In addition, a unique transcript was observed in testis RNA. When the expression of the unique transcript was examined at different stages of spermatogenesis, a striking increase in mRNA levels accompanied progression from meiotic prophase pachytene spermatocytes to postmeiotic round spermatids. This finger-containing gene may thus function in male germ cell development.
Developmental Regulation of Human Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Neurons by Calcium Entry via Transient Receptor Potential (Trp) Channels
Weick, Jason P.; Johnson, M. Austin; Zhang, Su-Chun
Spontaneous calcium (Ca2+) transients in the developing nervous system can affect proliferation, migration, neuronal subtype specification and neurite outgrowth. Here we show that telencephalic human neuroepithelia (hNE) and post-mitotic neurons (PMNs) generated from embryonic stem cells display robust Ca2+ transients. Unlike previous reports in animal models, transients occurred by a Gd3+/La3+-sensitive, but thapsigargin- and Cd2+-insensitive mechanism, strongly suggestive of a role for transient receptor potential (Trp) channels. Furthermore, Ca2+ transients in PMNs exhibited an additional sensitivity to the TrpC antagonist SKF96365 as well as shRNA-mediated knock down of the TrpC1 subunit. Functionally, inhibition of Ca2+ transients in dividing hNE cells led to a significant reduction in proliferation, while either pharmacological inhibition or shRNA-mediated knockdown of the TrpC1 and TrpC4 subunits significantly reduced neurite extension in PMNs. Primary neurons cultured from fetal human cortex displayed nearly identical Ca2+ transients and pharmacological sensitivities to Trp channel antagonists. Together these data suggest that Trp channels present a novel mechanism for controlling Ca2+ transients in human neurons and may offer a target for regulating proliferation and neurite outgrowth when engineering cells for therapeutic transplantation. PMID:19725137
Understanding the Human Genome Project: Using Stations to Provide a Comprehensive Overview
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Soto, Julio G.
A lesson was designed for lower division general education, non-major biology lecture-only course that included the historical and scientific context, some of the skills used to study the human genome, results, conclusions and ethical consideration. Students learn to examine and compare the published Human Genome maps, and employ the strategies…
Interactivity in human–computer interaction: a study of credibility, understanding, and influence
J. K. Burgoon; J. A. Bonito; B. Bengtsson; C. Cederberg; M. Lundeberg; L. Allspach
Advancements in computer technology have allowed the development of human-appearing and -behaving virtual agents. This study examined if increased richness and anthropomorphism in interface design lead to computers being more influential during a decision-making task with a human partner. In addition, user experiences of the communication format, communication process, and the task partner were evaluated for their association with various
Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) in Educational Environments: Implications of Understanding Computers as Media
This article is a review of the literature in the field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) as it may apply specifically to educational environments. The origin of HCI and its relation- ship to other areas of study such as human factors, usability, and computer interface design are examined. Additionally, the notion of computers as a medium was investigated in or-
A new approach to understanding the impact of circadian disruption on human health
Mark S Rea; Andrew Bierman; Mariana G Figueiro; John D Bullough
BACKGROUND: Light and dark patterns are the major synchronizer of circadian rhythms to the 24-hour solar day. Disruption of circadian rhythms has been associated with a variety of maladies. Ecological studies of human exposures to light are virtually nonexistent, however, making it difficult to determine if, in fact, light-induced circadian disruption directly affects human health. METHODS: A newly developed field
How has the study of the human placenta aided our understanding of partially methylated genes?
Schroeder, Diane I; LaSalle, Janine M
While the human genome sequence is relatively uniform between the cells of an individual, the DNA methylation of the genome (methylome) has unique features in different cells, tissues and stages of development. Recent genome-wide sequencing of the methylome has revealed large partially methylated domains (PMDs) in the human placenta. Unlike CpG islands and Polycomb-regulated regions, which can also have low levels of methylation, placental PMDs cover approximately 37% of the human genome and are associated with inaccessible chromatin and the repression of tissue-specific genes. Here, we summarize the interesting biological questions that have arisen as a result of finding PMDs in the human placenta, including how PMDs form, what they do, how they evolved and how they might be relevant to human disease. PMID:24283879
Developmental Systems Science: Exploring the Application of Systems Science Methods to Developmental Science Questions
Jennifer Brown Urban; Nathaniel D. Osgood; Patricia L. Mabry
Developmental science theorists fully acknowledge the wide array of complex interactions among biology, behavior, and environment that together give rise to development. However, despite this conceptual understanding of development as a system, developmental science has not fully applied analytic methods commensurate with this systems perspective. This article provides a brief introduction to systems science, an approach to problem solving that
Hepatic differentiation of human adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells and adverse effects of arsanilic acid and acetaminophen during in vitro hepatic developmental stage.
Kwon, Mi-Jeong; Kang, Seok-Jin; Park, Young-Il; Yang, Yool-Hee; Bang, Sa-Ik; Park, Yong Ho; So, ByungJae; Cho, Myung-Haing; Kang, Hwan-Goo
In the present study, we differentiated hepatocyte-like cells (HLCs) from human adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells (AT-MSCs). The hepatic differentiation was confirmed by increases in hepatic proteins or genes, the cytochrome P450 (CYP) activities, albumin secretion, and glycogen storage. To determine the developmental toxic effect of arsanilic acid (Ars) and acetaminophen (AAP) on the hepatic development, the differentiating cells were treated with the test chemicals (below IC12.5) from day 4 to day 13. The enzymatic activities of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) did not significantly differ in response to Ars treatment. AAP treatment increased the activities of all enzymes in a dose-dependent manner, significantly at concentrations of 2.5 and 5 mM of AAP. On the expressions of hepatic genes for Ars, the expressions were significantly inhibited by more than 0.5 mM for Albumin (ALB), but only 2.5 mM for ?-feto protein (AFP). In the AAP-treated group, the expressions of ALB and AFP were significantly decreased at the concentrations exceeding 0.625 mM. The activities of CYP3A4 were not changed by both treatments. The activities of CYP1A2 were increased by AAP, whereas it was decreased by Ars treatment. In conclusion, AAP could cause serious adverse effects during the hepatic development as compared to Ars. PMID:25894252
Inverse Optimal Control as a Tool to Understand Human Yoyo Playing
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Mombaur, Katja; Sreenivasa, Manish
This paper presents an inverse optimal control approach to identify objective functions of human motion from motion capture measurements. We apply it to analyze human yoyo playing. Yoyo playing may seem easy to us to learn but it is a challenging problem from a mechanical point of view involving a hybrid dynamics model. We recorded vertical yoyo playing of humans measuring yoyo height and rotation angle as well as the corresponding hand motions. Results of inverse optimal control are presented showing a mixed criterion of cycle time and terms depending on yoyo and hand acceleration and velocity.
Developmental cues for the maturation of metabolic, electrophysiological and calcium handling properties of human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes
Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), including embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells, are abundant sources of cardiomyocytes (CMs) for cell replacement therapy and other applications such as disease modeling, drug discovery and cardiotoxicity screening. However, hPSC-derived CMs display immature structural, electrophysiological, calcium-handling and metabolic properties. Here, we review various biological as well as physical and topographical cues that are known to associate with the development of native CMs in vivo to gain insights into the development of strategies for facilitated maturation of hPSC-CMs. PMID:24467782
Live dynamic imaging and analysis of developmental cardiac defects in mouse models with optical coherence tomography
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Lopez, Andrew L.; Wang, Shang; Garcia, Monica; Valladolid, Christian; Larin, Kirill V.; Larina, Irina V.
Understanding mouse embryonic development is an invaluable resource for our interpretation of normal human embryology and congenital defects. Our research focuses on developing methods for live imaging and dynamic characterization of early embryonic development in mouse models of human diseases. Using multidisciplinary methods: optical coherence tomography (OCT), live mouse embryo manipulations and static embryo culture, molecular biology, advanced image processing and computational modeling we aim to understand developmental processes. We have developed an OCT based approach to image live early mouse embryos (E8.5 - E9.5) cultured on an imaging stage and visualize developmental events with a spatial resolution of a few micrometers (less than the size of an individual cell) and a frame rate of up to hundreds of frames per second and reconstruct cardiodynamics in 4D (3D+time). We are now using these methods to study how specific embryonic lethal mutations affect cardiac morphology and function during early development.
Differential Expression of Long Noncoding RNAs in Human Cumulus Cells Related to Embryo Developmental Potential: A Microarray Analysis.
Xu, Xiao-Feng; Li, Juan; Cao, Yun-Xia; Chen, Da-Wei; Zhang, Zhi-Guo; He, Xiao-Jin; Ji, Dong-Mei; Chen, Bei-Li
Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), which are prevalently transcribed in the genome, are involved in a variety of biological functions, yet little is known about their abundance in human cumulus cells (CCs) during oocyte development. Here, we describe the expression profile of lncRNAs in 3 pairs of cumulus cells from mature oocytes that result in high-quality embryo (H-CCs) and from oocytes that result in poor-quality embryo (P-CCs) using microarray analysis. In this study, a total of 20 563 lncRNAs were expressed in human CCs. One hundred and twenty four lncRNAs were consistently upregulated, and 509 lncRNAs were consistently downregulated in all samples analyzed (fold change ? 2.0, P < .05). Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to validate 5 upregulated and 7 downregulated lncRNAs. The qRT-PCR results in the study were confirmed to be consistent with the microarray results. Network analysis was used for further research. The results displayed the differentially expressed lncRNAs in P-CCs between H-CCs, which suggested that lncRNAs may contribute to the processes of oocyte and early embryo development. PMID:25527423
Understanding human mobility patterns through mobile phone records : a cross-cultural study
Ji, Yan, S.M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
In this thesis, I present a cross-cultural study on human's trip length distribution and how it might be influenced by regional socio-economic factors, such as population density, income and unemployment rate. Mobile phone ...
The role of metagenomics in understanding the human microbiome in health and disease
Martín, Rebeca; Miquel, Sylvie; Langella, Philippe; Bermúdez-Humarán, Luis G
The term microbiome refers to the genetic material of the catalog of microbial taxa associated with humans. As in all ecosystems, the microbiota reaches a dynamic equilibrium in the human body, which can be altered by environmental factors and external stimuli. Metagenomics is a relatively new field of study of microbial genomes within diverse environmental samples, which is of increasing importance in microbiology. The introduction of this ecological perception of microbiology is the key to achieving real knowledge about the influence of the microbiota in human health and disease. The aim of this review is to summarize the link between the human microbiota (focusing on the intestinal, vaginal, skin, and airway body sites) and health from this ecological point of view, highlighting the contribution of metagenomics in the advance of this field. PMID:24429972
Understanding human-space suit interaction to prevent injury during extravehicular activity
Anderson, Allison P. (Allison Paige)
Extravehicular Activity (EVA) is a critical component of human spaceflight. Working in gas-pressurized space suits, however, causes fatigue, unnecessary energy expenditure, and injury. The problem of injury is particularly ...
Understanding the Human Genome Project — A Fact Sheet | NIH MedlinePlus the Magazine
... The Human Genome Project spurred a revolution in biotechnology innovation around the world and played a key ... the U.S. the global leader in the new biotechnology sector. In April 2003, researchers successfully completed the ...
Dialogue-based human-computer interfaces and active language understanding
Will Fitzgerald; R. James Firby
Recent developments in speech, network and embedded-computer technologies indicate that human-computer interfaces that use speech as one or the main mode of interaction will become increasingly prevalent. Such interfaces must move beyond simple voice commands to support a dialogue-based interface if they are to provide for common requirements such as description resolution, perceptual anchoring, and deixis. To support human-computer dialogue
Pathways of Understanding: the Interactions of Humanity and Global Environmental Change
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Jacobson, Harold K.; Katzenberger, John; Lousma, Jack; Mooney, Harold A.; Moss, Richard H.; Kuhn, William; Luterbacher, Urs; Wiegandt, Ellen
How humans, interacting within social systems, affect and are affected by global change is explored. Recognizing the impact human activities have on the environment and responding to the need to document the interactions among human activities, the Consortium for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) commissioned a group of 12 scientists to develop a framework illustrating the key human systems that contribute to global change. This framework, called the Social Process Diagram, will help natural and social scientists, educators, resource managers and policy makers envision and analyze how human systems interact among themselves and with the natural system. The Social Process Diagram consists of the following blocks that constitute the Diagram's structural framework: (1) fund of knowledge and experience; (2) preferences and expectations; (3) factors of production and technology; (4) population and social structure; (5) economic systems; (6) political systems and institutions; and (7) global scale environmental processes. To demonstrate potential ways the Diagram can be used, this document includes 3 hypothetical scenarios of global change issues: global warming and sea level rise; the environmental impact of human population migration; and energy and the environment. These scenarios demonstrate the Diagram's usefulness for visualizing specific processes that might be studied to evaluate a particular global change issues. The scenario also shows that interesting and unanticipated questions may emerge as links are explored between categories on the Diagram.
Challenges and opportunities in developmental integrative physiology.
Mueller, C A; Eme, J; Burggren, W W; Roghair, R D; Rundle, S D
This review explores challenges and opportunities in developmental physiology outlined by a symposium at the 2014 American Physiological Society Intersociety Meeting: Comparative Approaches to Grand Challenges in Physiology. Across animal taxa, adverse embryonic/fetal environmental conditions can alter morphological and physiological phenotypes in juveniles or adults, and capacities for developmental plasticity are common phenomena. Human neonates with body sizes at the extremes of perinatal growth are at an increased risk of adult disease, particularly hypertension and cardiovascular disease. There are many rewarding areas of current and future research in comparative developmental physiology. We present key mechanisms, models, and experimental designs that can be used across taxa to investigate patterns in, and implications of, the development of animal phenotypes. Intraspecific variation in the timing of developmental events can be increased through developmental plasticity (heterokairy), and could provide the raw material for selection to produce heterochrony--an evolutionary change in the timing of developmental events. Epigenetics and critical windows research recognizes that in ovo or fetal development represent a vulnerable period in the life history of an animal, when the developing organism may be unable to actively mitigate environmental perturbations. 'Critical windows' are periods of susceptibility or vulnerability to environmental or maternal challenges, periods when recovery from challenge is possible, and periods when the phenotype or epigenome has been altered. Developmental plasticity may allow survival in an altered environment, but it also has possible long-term consequences for the animal. "Catch-up growth" in humans after the critical perinatal window has closed elicits adult obesity and exacerbates a programmed hypertensive phenotype (one of many examples of "fetal programing"). Grand challenges for developmental physiology include integrating variation in developmental timing within and across generations, applying multiple stressor dosages and stressor exposure at different developmental timepoints, assessment of epigenetic and parental influences, developing new animal models and techniques, and assessing and implementing these designs and models in human health and development. PMID:25711780
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
van den Anker, Johannes N.
Understanding the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of drugs used in psychopharmacology across the pediatric age spectrum from infants to adolescents represents a major challenge for clinicians. In pediatrics, treatment protocols use either standard dose reductions for these drugs for children below a certain age or use less conventional…
Students' Participation in an Interdisciplinary, Socioscientific Issues Based Undergraduate Human Biology Major and Their Understanding of Scientific Inquiry
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Eastwood, Jennifer L.; Sadler, Troy D.; Sherwood, Robert D.; Schlegel, Whitney M.
The purpose of this study was to examine whether Socioscientific Issues (SSI) based learning environments affect university students' epistemological understanding of scientific inquiry differently from traditional science educational contexts. We identify and compare conceptions of scientific inquiry of students participating in an interdisciplinary, SSI-focused undergraduate human biology major (SSI) and those participating in a traditional biology major (BIO). Forty-five SSI students and 50 BIO students completed an open-ended questionnaire examining their understanding of scientific inquiry. Eight general themes including approximately 60 subthemes emerged from questionnaire responses, and the numbers of students including each subtheme in their responses were statistically compared between groups. A subset of students participated in interviews, which were used to validate and triangulate questionnaire data and probe students' understanding of scientific inquiry in relation to their majors. We found that both groups provided very similar responses, differing significantly in only five subthemes. Results indicated that both groups held generally adequate understandings of inquiry, but also a number of misconceptions. Small differences between groups supported by both questionnaires and interviews suggest that the SSI context contributed to nuanced understandings, such as a more interdisciplinary and problem-centered conception of scientific inquiry. Implications for teaching and research are discussed.
Alimentary Epigenetics: A Developmental Psychobiological Systems View of the Perception of Hunger, Thirst and Satiety
Harshaw, Christopher
Hunger, thirst and satiety have an enormous influence on cognition, behavior and development, yet we often take for granted that they are simply inborn or innate. Converging data and theory from both comparative and human domains, however, supports the conclusion that the phenomena hunger, thirst and satiety are not innate but rather emerge probabilistically as a function of experience during individual development. The metatheoretical perspective provided by developmental psychobiological systems theory provides a useful framework for organizing and synthesizing findings related to the development of the perception of hunger, thirst and satiety, or alimentary interoception. It is argued that neither developmental psychology nor the psychology of eating and drinking have adequately dealt with the ontogeny of alimentary interoception and that a more serious consideration of the species-typical developmental system of food and fluid intake and the many modifications that have been made therein is likely necessary for a full understanding of both alimentary and emotional development. PMID:19956358
Understanding the role of representations of human-leopard conflict in Mumbai through media-content analysis.
Bhatia, Saloni; Athreya, Vidya; Grenyer, Richard; MacDonald, David W
Attempts to minimize the effects of human-wildlife conflict (HWC) on conservation goals require an understanding of the mechanisms by which such conflicts are caused and sustained. This necessitates looking beyond the natural sciences to the human dimensions of wildlife management. Public dissemination of information regarding HWC occurs largely through the mass media. We conducted a content analysis of print media articles on human-leopard conflict in Mumbai, India. We sought to understand the framing of HWC and the changes in media coverage over a 10-year period (2001-2011) during which a large number of attacks on people prior to 2005 were followed by a program of trapping and relocation. After 2005, when there was a decrease in the level of conflict, the tone of English-language media reports changed. The perpetrator framing was over 5 times more likely before 2005, whereas a neutral framing was twice as likely after 2005. English-language and non-English-language print media differed significantly in their framing of HWC and in the kinds of solutions advocated. Our results also suggest the print mass media in Mumbai could be an influential conduit for content that diminishes HWC. These media outlets seem attentive to human-leopard conflict, capable of correcting erroneous perceptions and facilitating mitigation and effective management. We believe better contact and mutual understanding between conservation professionals and the mass media could be an important component of managing HWC. We further suggest that in such interactions conservation professionals need to be aware of cultural and linguistic differences in reporting within the country. PMID:23530914
State Councils on Developmental Disabilities
Administration on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AIDD) State Councils on Developmental Disabilities Fact Sheet (PDF, 338KB) | DDC Program Contacts | Program Resources State Councils on Developmental Disabilities ( ...
Cognitive neuroscience in forensic science: understanding and utilizing the human element.
Dror, Itiel E
The human element plays a critical role in forensic science. It is not limited only to issues relating to forensic decision-making, such as bias, but also relates to most aspects of forensic work (some of which even take place before a crime is ever committed or long after the verification of the forensic conclusion). In this paper, I explicate many aspects of forensic work that involve the human element and therefore show the relevance (and potential contribution) of cognitive neuroscience to forensic science. The 10 aspects covered in this paper are proactive forensic science, selection during recruitment, training, crime scene investigation, forensic decision-making, verification and conflict resolution, reporting, the role of the forensic examiner, presentation in court and judicial decisions. As the forensic community is taking on the challenges introduced by the realization that the human element is critical for forensic work, new opportunities emerge that allow for considerable improvement and enhancement of the forensic science endeavour. PMID:26101281
We're here to celebrate our colleagues and our work--of increasing understanding of the human experience. We do
California at Santa Cruz, University of
as the record of human experience isbroadanddeep,bothbypreservationandworktobringinto view elements that might acknowledged here, increase our understanding of the human experience and encourage us to reflect critically `thank you' for the wonderful humanities education that I received at UCSC." "My experience
Potential teratogenicity of methimazole: exposure of zebrafish embryos to methimazole causes similar developmental anomalies to human methimazole embryopathy.
Komoike, Yuta; Matsuoka, Masato; Kosaki, Kenjiro
While methimazole (MMI) is widely used in the therapy for hyperthyroidism, several groups have reported that maternal exposure to MMI results in a variety of congenital anomalies, including choanal and esophageal atresia, iridic and retinal coloboma, and delayed neurodevelopment. Thus, adverse effects of maternal exposure to MMI on fetal development have long been suggested; however, direct evidence for the teratogenicity of MMI has not been presented. Therefore, we studied the effects of MMI on early development by using zebrafish as a model organism. The fertilized eggs of zebrafish were collected immediately after spawning and grown in egg culture water containing MMI at various concentrations. External observation of the embryos revealed that exposure to high concentrations of MMI resulted in loss of pigmentation, hypoplastic hindbrain, turbid tissue in the forebrain, swelling of the notochord, and curly trunk. Furthermore, these effects occurred in a dose-dependent manner. Precise observation of the serial cross-sections of MMI-exposed embryos elucidated delayed development and hypoplasia of the whole brain and spinal cord, narrowing of the pharynx and esophagus, severe disruption of the retina, and aberrant structure of the notochord. These neuronal, pharyngeal, esophageal, and retinal anomalous morphologies have a direct analogy to the congenital anomalies observed in children exposed to MMI in utero. Here, we show the teratogenic effects of MMI on the development of zebrafish and provide the first experimental evidence for the connection between exposure to MMI and human MMI embryopathy. PMID:23630110
Luminal hydrolysis of recombinant human epidermal growth factor in the rat gastrointestinal tract: segmental and developmental differences
Britton, J.R.; George-Nascimento, C.; Koldovsky, O.
Epidermal growth factor (EGF), present in high concentrations in the milk of various species, is biologically active following oral administration to young animals. To characterize the luminal metabolism of dietary EGF in the developing gastrointestinal tract, the authors incubated human recombinant /sup 125/I-EGF in vitro at 37/sup 0/ with luminal fluid from the stomach and various segments of the small intestine of 12 day old suckling and 31 day old weanling rats and analyzed the resulting reaction products. The rate of EGF hydrolysis as determined by generation of acid soluble material was greater in weanling small intestine than in suckling, with maximal hydrolytic capacity observed in the mid-jejunum and ilium. Minimal hydrolysis was observed with stomach fluid from both age groups, and EGF retained its ability to elute as a single species on Sephadex G-25 columns and to bind to monospecific affinity columns and placental membrane receptors. Incubation with suckling small intestinal fluid produced little change in the chromatographic profile on Sephadex G-25, but a reduction in antibody and receptor binding was observed. In contrast, incubation with weanling small intestinal fluid yielded both a more pronounced loss of EGF-like material on G-25 columns and a greater reduction in receptor and antibody binding.
Connectionism and developmental psychology.
Plunkett, K; Karmiloff-Smith, A; Bates, E; Elman, J L; Johnson, M H
What features of brain processing and neural development support linguistic and cognitive development in young children? To what extent are the profile and timing of development in young children determined by a preordained genetic programme? Does the environment play a crucial role in determining the patterns of change observed in children growing up? These questions have been of central concern to developmental psychologists for well over a century. Yet none of them have received answers that are generally accepted by the profession. This article reviews some recent computational modelling of developmental change in children that promises to contribute to a deeper understanding of the issues behind these questions. The modelling work exploits artificial neural networks that mimic some of the basic properties of neural processing in the brain. These networks involve densely connected webs of simple processing units that propagate and transform complex patterns of activity. When exposed to a training environment, they undergo a process of self-organisation, yielding information processing systems that support new forms of behaviour. The study of the dynamics of these systems and their learning capabilities promises to provide us with important clues as to the nature of the mechanisms underlying development in infants and young children. PMID:9232458
Understanding human--coyote encounters in urban ecosystems using citizen science data: what do socioeconomics tell us?
Wine, Stuart; Gagné, Sara A; Meentemeyer, Ross K
The coyote (Canis latrans) has dramatically expanded its range to include the cities and suburbs of the western US and those of the Eastern Seaboard. Highly adaptable, this newcomer's success causes conflicts with residents, necessitating research to understand the distribution of coyotes in urban landscapes. Citizen science can be a powerful approach toward this aim. However, to date, the few studies that have used publicly reported coyote sighting data have lacked an in-depth consideration of human socioeconomic variables, which we suggest are an important source of overlooked variation in data that describe the simultaneous occurrence of coyotes and humans. We explored the relative importance of socioeconomic variables compared to those describing coyote habitat in predicting human-coyote encounters in highly-urbanized Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, USA using 707 public reports of coyote sightings, high-resolution land cover, US Census data, and an autologistic multi-model inference approach. Three of the four socioeconomic variables which we hypothesized would have an important influence on encounter probability, namely building density, household income, and occupation, had effects at least as large as or larger than coyote habitat variables. Our results indicate that the consideration of readily available socioeconomic variables in the analysis of citizen science data improves the prediction of species distributions by providing insight into the effects of important factors for which data are often lacking, such as resource availability for coyotes on private property and observer experience. Managers should take advantage of citizen scientists in human-dominated landscapes to monitor coyotes in order to understand their interactions with humans. PMID:25234049
Understanding Human-Coyote Encounters in Urban Ecosystems Using Citizen Science Data: What Do Socioeconomics Tell Us?
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Wine, Stuart; Gagné, Sara A.; Meentemeyer, Ross K.
The coyote ( Canis latrans) has dramatically expanded its range to include the cities and suburbs of the western US and those of the Eastern Seaboard. Highly adaptable, this newcomer's success causes conflicts with residents, necessitating research to understand the distribution of coyotes in urban landscapes. Citizen science can be a powerful approach toward this aim. However, to date, the few studies that have used publicly reported coyote sighting data have lacked an in-depth consideration of human socioeconomic variables, which we suggest are an important source of overlooked variation in data that describe the simultaneous occurrence of coyotes and humans. We explored the relative importance of socioeconomic variables compared to those describing coyote habitat in predicting human-coyote encounters in highly-urbanized Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, USA using 707 public reports of coyote sightings, high-resolution land cover, US Census data, and an autologistic multi-model inference approach. Three of the four socioeconomic variables which we hypothesized would have an important influence on encounter probability, namely building density, household income, and occupation, had effects at least as large as or larger than coyote habitat variables. Our results indicate that the consideration of readily available socioeconomic variables in the analysis of citizen science data improves the prediction of species distributions by providing insight into the effects of important factors for which data are often lacking, such as resource availability for coyotes on private property and observer experience. Managers should take advantage of citizen scientists in human-dominated landscapes to monitor coyotes in order to understand their interactions with humans.
Contributions and complexities from the use of in vivo animal models to improve understanding of human neuroimaging signals
Martin, Chris
Many of the major advances in our understanding of how functional brain imaging signals relate to neuronal activity over the previous two decades have arisen from physiological research studies involving experimental animal models. This approach has been successful partly because it provides opportunities to measure both the hemodynamic changes that underpin many human functional brain imaging techniques and the neuronal activity about which we wish to make inferences. Although research into the coupling of neuronal and hemodynamic responses using animal models has provided a general validation of the correspondence of neuroimaging signals to specific types of neuronal activity, it is also highlighting the key complexities and uncertainties in estimating neural signals from hemodynamic markers. This review will detail how research in animal models is contributing to our rapidly evolving understanding of what human neuroimaging techniques tell us about neuronal activity. It will highlight emerging issues in the interpretation of neuroimaging data that arise from in vivo research studies, for example spatial and temporal constraints to neuroimaging signal interpretation, or the effects of disease and modulatory neurotransmitters upon neurovascular coupling. We will also give critical consideration to the limitations and possible complexities of translating data acquired in the typical animals models used in this area to the arena of human fMRI. These include the commonplace use of anesthesia in animal research studies and the fact that many neuropsychological questions that are being actively explored in humans have limited homologs within current animal models for neuroimaging research. Finally we will highlighting approaches, both in experimental animals models (e.g. imaging in conscious, behaving animals) and human studies (e.g. combined fMRI-EEG), that mitigate against these challenges. PMID:25191214
Leveraging Small Aquarium Fishes to Advance Understanding of Environmentally Influenced Human Disorders and Diseases
Small aquarium fishes provide a model organism that recapitulates the development, physiology and specific disease processes present in humans without the many limitations of rodent-based models currently in use. Fish models offer advantages in cost, rapid life-cycles, and extern...
Understanding and modulating mammalian-microbial communication for improved human health.
Mani, Sridhar; Boelsterli, Urs A; Redinbo, Matthew R
The fact that the bacteria in the human gastrointestinal (GI) tract play a symbiotic role was noted as early as 1885, well before we began to manage microbial infections using antibiotics. However, even with the first antimicrobial compounds used in humans, the sulfa drugs, microbes were recognized to be critically involved in the biotransformation of these therapeutics. Thus, the roles played by the microbiota in physiology and in the management of human health have long been appreciated. Detailed examinations of GI symbiotic bacteria that started in the early 2000s and the first phases of the Human Microbiome Project that were completed in 2012 have ushered in an exciting period of granularity with respect to the ecology, genetics, and chemistry of the mammalian-microbial axes of communication. Here we review aspects of the biochemical pathways at play between commensal GI bacteria and several mammalian systems, including both local-epithelia and nonlocal responses impacting inflammation, immunology, metabolism, and neurobiology. Finally, we discuss how the microbial biotransformation of therapeutic compounds, such as anticancer or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, can be modulated to reduce toxicity and potentially improve therapeutic efficacy. PMID:24160697
Understanding hereditary diseases using the dog and human as companion model systems
Tsai, Kate L.; Clark, Leigh Anne
Animal models are requisite for genetic dissection of, and improved treatment regimens for, human hereditary diseases. While several animals have been used in academic and industrial research, the primary model for dissection of hereditary diseases has been the many strains of the laboratory mouse. However, given its greater (than the mouse) genetic similarity to the human, high number of naturally occurring hereditary diseases, unique population structure, and the availability of the complete genome sequence, the purebred dog has emerged as a powerful model for study of diseases. The major advantage the dog provides is that it is afflicted with approximately 450 hereditary diseases, about half of which have remarkable clinical similarities to corresponding diseases of the human. In addition, humankind has a strong desire to cure diseases of the dog so these two facts make the dog an ideal clinical and genetic model. This review highlights several of these shared hereditary diseases. Specifically, the canine models discussed herein have played important roles in identification of causative genes and/or have been utilized in novel therapeutic approaches of interest to the dog and human. PMID:17653794
Mechanisms of Disease: understanding resistance to HER2-targeted therapy in human breast cancer
Dihua Yu; Mien-Chie Hung; Gabriel N Hortobagyi; Rita Nahta; Francisco J Esteva
Trastuzumab is a monoclonal antibody targeted against the human epidermal growth factor receptor (HER) 2 tyrosine kinase receptor, which is overexpressed in approximately 25% of invasive breast cancers. The majority of patients with metastatic breast cancer who initially respond to trastuzumab, however, demonstrate disease progression within 1 year of treatment initiation. Preclinical studies have indicated several molecular mechanisms that could
Students' Understanding of Connections between Human Engineered and Natural Environmental Systems
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Tsurusaki, Blakely K.; Anderson, Charles W.
This research draws on developments in educational research where "learning progressions" are emerging as a strategy for synthesizing research on science learning and applying that research to policy and practice, and advances in the natural sciences, where "interdisciplinary research on coupled human and natural systems" has become increasingly…
`Unwilling' versus `unable': capuchin monkeys' (Cebus apella) understanding of human intentional action
Santos, Laurie R.
1. Department of Psychology, Yale University, USA 2. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences are performed by inanimate rods instead of human hands (for a similar logic, see Woodward, 1998). Taken together, attitudes, and intentions, and this leads to our expectations about future behavior. Over the past decade
A Dialectic Analysis of Learning Theory Contributions to Understanding Human Development.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Dusek, J. B.; Meyer, W. J.
The philosophies underlying the learning and structural theories used in psychology are described in this article. It is argued that a dialectical view provides some ways to breach the chasm between learning theory and the study of human development. (Author/DB)
Toward a 21st-Century Understanding of Humans' Relation to Nature: Two Hats?
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Rennie, Scott
From its inception, environmental education (EE) has shouldered the imposition of impartiality on its methods and practices. Considering the reality of global climate change, the author urges the adoption of the more accurate theory of humans' relation to the natural world. This theory necessitates partiality toward healthy, functioning natural…
Robots at home: Understanding long-term human-robot interaction
Cory D. Kidd; Cynthia Breazeal
Human-robot interaction (HRI) is now well enough understood to allow us to build useful systems that can function outside of the laboratory. We are studying long- term interaction in natural user environments and describe the implementation of a robot designed to help individuals effect behavior change while dieting. Our robotic weight loss coach is compared to a standalone computer and
Assessment of the United States Military Academy's Academic Program Outcome Goal: Understand Human Behavior.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Beach, Johnston
The assessment model used to examine the human behavior outcome goal had three components: purpose, principles, and process. The purpose was to improve programs and respond to external agencies. Six principles provided a framework and addressed three general criteria: effectiveness, efficiency, and accuracy. The process contained four components:…
Understanding Generational Diversity: Strategic Human Resource Management and Development across the Generational "Divide"
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Amayah, Angela Titi; Gedro, Julie
There are more generations in today's workforce than ever before, which has the possibility to create challenges for Human Resource professionals. The purpose of this article is to interrogate existing stereotypes and generalities about the characteristics of different generations with respect to the workplace, and to offer suggestions for…
Vitamin D signaling in the bovine immune system: A model for understanding human vitamin D requirements
Technology Transfer Automated Retrieval System (TEKTRAN)
The endocrine physiology of vitamin D in cattle has been rigorously investigated and has yielded information on vitamin D requirements, endocrine function in health and disease, general metabolism, and maintenance of calcium homeostasis in cattle. These results are relevant to human vitamin D endocr...
Gentile, Lori F.; Nacionales, Dina C.; Lopez, M. Cecilia; Vanzant, Erin; Cuenca, Angela; Cuenca, Alex G.; Ungaro, Ricardo; Baslanti, Tezcan Ozrazgat; McKinley, Bruce A.; Bihorac, Azra; Cuschieri, Joseph; Maier, Ronald V.; Moore, Frederick A.; Leeuwenburgh, Christiaan; Baker, Henry V.; Moldawer, Lyle L.; Efron, Philip A.
Objective Genomic analyses from blood leukocytes have concluded that mouse injury poorly reflects human trauma at the leukocyte transcriptome. Concerns have focused on the modest severity of murine injury models, differences in murine compared to human age, dissimilar circulating leukocyte populations between species, and whether similar signaling pathways are involved. We sought to examine whether the transcriptomic response to severe trauma in mice could be explained by these extrinsic factors, by utilizing an increasing severity of murine trauma and shock in young and aged mice over time, and examining the response in isolated neutrophil populations. Design Pre-clinical controlled in vivo laboratory study and retrospective cohort study Setting Laboratory of Inflammation Biology and Surgical Science and multi-institution level 1 trauma centers Subjects 6–10 week old and 20–24 month old C57BL/6 (B6) mice and two cohorts of 167 and 244 severely traumatized (ISS >15) adult (>18 yo) patients. Interventions Mice underwent one of two severity polytrauma models of injury. Total blood leukocyte and neutrophil samples were collected. Measurements and Main Results Fold expression changes in leukocyte and neutrophil genome-wide expression analyses between healthy and injured mice (p<0.001) were compared to human total and enriched blood leukocyte expression analyses of severe trauma patients at 0.5, 1, 4, 7, 14, and 28 days after injury (Glue Grant TRDB). We found that increasing the severity of the murine trauma model only modestly improved the correlation in the transcriptomic response with humans, whereas the age of the mice did not. In addition, the genome-wide response to blood neutrophils (rather than total WBC) was also not well correlated between humans and mice. However, the expression of many individual gene families was much more strongly correlated after injury in mice and humans. Conclusions Although overall transcriptomic association remained weak even after adjusting for the severity of injury, age of the animals, timing, and individual leukocyte populations, there were individual signaling pathways and ontogenies that were strongly correlated between mice and humans. These genes are involved in early inflammation and innate/adaptive immunity. PMID:24413577
Understanding the nano-topography changes and cellular influences resulting from the surface adsorption of human hair keratins.
Taraballi, Francesca; Wang, Shuai; Li, Jian; Lee, Fiona Yann Yann; Venkatraman, Subbu S; Birch, William R; Teoh, Swee Hin; Boey, Freddy Yin Chiang; Ng, Kee Woei
Recent interest in the use of human hair keratins as a biomaterial has grown, fuelled by improvements in keratin extraction methods and better understanding of keratin bioactivity. The use of keratins as a bioactive coating for in vitro cell culture studies is an attractive proposition. In this light, the surface adsorption of human hair keratins onto tissue culture polystyrene surfaces has been investigated. Keratin density, nano-topography and hydrophobicity of keratin coated surfaces were characterized. To understand the cellular influence of these coated surfaces, murine L929 fibroblasts were cultured on them and evaluated for cytotoxicity, proliferation, metabolic activity and detachment behaviors compared to collagen type 1 coated surfaces. Keratins were deposited up to a density of 650 ng/cm(2) when a coating concentration of 80 ?g/ml or higher was used. The surface features formed by adsorbed keratins also changed in a coating concentration dependent manner. These surfaces improved L929 mouse fibroblast adhesion and proliferation in comparison to uncoated and collagen type 1 coated tissue culture polystyrene. Furthermore, the expression of fibronectin was accelerated on surfaces coated with solutions of higher keratin concentrations. These results suggest that human hair keratins can be used as a viable surface coating material to enhance substrate compliance for culturing cells. PMID:23184785
The Schistosoma mansoni Tegumental-Allergen-Like (TAL) Protein Family: Influence of Developmental Expression on Human IgE Responses
Fitzsimmons, Colin M.; Jones, Frances M.; Stearn, Alex; Chalmers, Iain W.; Hoffmann, Karl F.; Wawrzyniak, Jakub; Wilson, Shona; Kabatereine, Narcis B.; Dunne, David W.
Background A human IgE response to Sm22.6 (a dominant IgE target in Schistosoma mansoni) is associated with the development of partial immunity. Located inside the tegument, the molecule belongs to a family of proteins from parasitic platyhelminths, the Tegument-Allergen-Like proteins (TALs). In addition to containing dynein-light-chain domains, these TALs also contain EF-hand domains similar to those found in numerous EF-hand allergens. Methodology/Principal Findings S. mansoni genome searches revealed 13 members (SmTAL1-13) within the species. Recent microarray data demonstrated they have a wide range of life-cycle transcriptional profiles. We expressed SmTAL1 (Sm22.6), SmTAL2, 3, 4, 5 and 13 as recombinant proteins and measured IgE and IgG4 in 200 infected males (7–60 years) from a schistosomiasis endemic region in Uganda. For SmTAL1 and 3 (transcribed in schistosomula through adult-worms and adult-worms, respectively) and SmTAL5 (transcribed in cercariae through adult-worms), detectable IgE responses were rare in 7–9 year olds, but increased with age. At all ages, IgE to SmTAL2 (expressed constitutively), was rare while anti-SmTAL2 IgG4 was common. Levels of IgE and IgG4 to SmTAL4 and 13 (transcribed predominantly in the cercariae/skin stage) were all low. Conclusions We have not measured SmTAL protein abundance or exposure in live parasites, but the antibody data suggests to us that, in endemic areas, there is priming and boosting of IgE to adult-worm SmTALs by occasional death of long-lived worms, desensitization to egg SmTALs through continuous exposure to dying eggs and low immunogenicity of larval SmTALs due to immunosuppression in the skin by the parasite. Of these, it is the gradual increase in IgE to the worm antigens that parallels age-dependent immunity seen in endemic areas. PMID:22509417
A Mid-Layer Model for Human Reliability Analysis: Understanding the Cognitive Causes of Human Failure Events
Stacey M. L. Hendrickson; April M. Whaley; Ronald L. Boring; James Y. H. Chang; Song-Hua Shen; Ali Mosleh; Johanna H. Oxstrand; John A. Forester; Dana L. Kelly; Erasmia L. Lois
The Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research (RES) is sponsoring work in response to a Staff Requirements Memorandum (SRM) directing an effort to establish a single human reliability analysis (HRA) method for the agency or guidance for the use of multiple methods. As part of this effort an attempt to develop a comprehensive HRA qualitative approach is being pursued. This paper presents a draft of the method's middle layer, a part of the qualitative analysis phase that links failure mechanisms to performance shaping factors. Starting with a Crew Response Tree (CRT) that has identified human failure events, analysts identify potential failure mechanisms using the mid-layer model. The mid-layer model presented in this paper traces the identification of the failure mechanisms using the Information-Diagnosis/Decision-Action (IDA) model and cognitive models from the psychological literature. Each failure mechanism is grouped according to a phase of IDA. Under each phase of IDA, the cognitive models help identify the relevant performance shaping factors for the failure mechanism. The use of IDA and cognitive models can be traced through fault trees, which provide a detailed complement to the CRT.
Developmental prosopagnosia in childhood
Dalrymple, Kirsten A.; Corrow, Sherryse; Yonas, Albert; Duchaine, Brad
Developmental prosopagnosia (DP) is defined by severe face recognition problems resulting from a failure to develop the necessary visual mechanisms for processing faces. While there is a growing literature on DP in adults, little has been done to study this disorder in children. The profound impact of abnormal face perception on social functioning and the general lack of awareness of childhood DP can result in severe social and psychological consequences for children. This review discusses possible etiologies of DP and summarizes the few cases of childhood DP that have been reported. It also outlines key objectives for the growth of this emerging research area and special considerations for studying DP in children. With clear goals and concerted efforts, the study of DP in childhood will be an exciting avenue for enhancing our understanding of normal and abnormal face perception for all age groups. PMID:23140142
Application of chemometrics in understanding the spatial distribution of human pharmaceuticals in surface water.
Al-Odaini, Najat Ahmed; Zakaria, Mohamad Pauzi; Zali, Muniirah Abdul; Juahir, Hafizan; Yaziz, Mohamad Ismail; Surif, Salmijah
The growing interest in the environmental occurrence of veterinary and human pharmaceuticals is essentially due to their possible health implications to humans and ecosystem. This study assesses the occurrence of human pharmaceuticals in a Malaysian tropical aquatic environment taking a chemometric approach using cluster analysis, discriminant analysis and principal component analysis. Water samples were collected from seven sampling stations along the heavily populated Langat River basin on the west coast of peninsular Malaysia and its main tributaries. Water samples were extracted using solid-phase extraction and analyzed using liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) for 18 pharmaceuticals and one metabolite, which cover a range of six therapeutic classes widely consumed in Malaysia. Cluster analysis was applied to group both pharmaceutical pollutants and sampling stations. Cluster analysis successfully clustered sampling stations and pollutants into three major clusters. Discriminant analysis was applied to identify those pollutants which had a significant impact in the definition of clusters. Finally, principal component analysis using a three-component model determined the constitution and data variance explained by each of the three main principal components. PMID:22193630
Measurement of Androgen and Estrogen Concentrations in Cord Blood: Accuracy, Biological Interpretation, and Applications to Understanding Human Behavioral Development
Hollier, Lauren P.; Keelan, Jeffrey A.; Hickey, Martha; Maybery, Murray T.; Whitehouse, Andrew J. O.
Accurately measuring hormone exposure during prenatal life presents a methodological challenge and there is currently no "gold standard" approach. Ideally, circulating fetal hormone levels would be measured at repeated time points during pregnancy. However, it is not currently possible to obtain fetal blood samples without significant risk to the fetus, and therefore surrogate markers of fetal hormone levels must be utilized. Umbilical cord blood can be readily obtained at birth and largely reflects fetal circulation in late gestation. This review examines the accuracy and biological interpretation of the measurement of androgens and estrogens in cord blood. The use of cord blood hormones to understand and investigate human development is then discussed. PMID:24829559
Children's Understanding of Animal Minds
Collins, Timothy
developmental and species differences in children' basic cognitive reasoning about animal and human minds. Experiment 2 incorporated a modified mental-capacity rating task in three age-groups (3-4-, 7-8 years, and adults) to investigate developmental changes...
Development of an Intelligent Digital Watershed to understand water-human interaction for a sustainable Agroeconomy in Midwest USA
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Mishra, S. K.; Rapolu, U.; Ding, D.; Muste, M.; Bennett, D.; Schnoor, J. L.
Human activity is intricately linked to the quality and quantity of water resources. Although many studies have examined water-human interaction, the complexity of such coupled systems is not well understood largely because of gaps in our knowledge of water-cycle processes which are heavily influenced by socio-economic drivers. Considerable research has been performed to develop an understanding of the impact of local land use decisions on field and catchment processes at an annual basis. Still less is known about the impact of economic and environmental outcomes on decision-making processes at the local and national level. Traditional geographic information management systems lack the ability to support the modeling and analysis of complex spatial processes. New frameworks are needed to track, query, and analyze the massive amounts of data generated by ensembles of simulations produced by multiple models that couple socioeconomic and natural system processes. On this context, we propose to develop an Intelligent Digital Watershed (IDW) which fuses emerging concepts of Digital Watershed (DW). DW is a comprehensive characterization of the eco hydrologic systems based on the best available digital data generated by measurements and simulations models. Prototype IDW in the form of a cyber infrastructure based engineered system will facilitate novel insights into human/environment interactions through multi-disciplinary research focused on watershed-related processes at multiple spatio-temporal scales. In ongoing effort, the prototype IDW is applied to Clear Creek watershed, an agricultural dominating catchment in Iowa, to understand water-human processes relevant to management decisions by farmers regarding agro ecosystems. This paper would also lay out the database design that stores metadata about simulation scenarios, scenario inputs and outputs, and connections among these elements- essentially the database. The paper describes the cyber infrastructure and workflows developed for connecting the IDW modeling tools: ABM, Data-Driven Modeling, and SWAT.
Developmental and comparative perspectives of contagious yawning.
Senju, Atsushi
Contagious yawning (i.e. yawning triggered by perceiving others' yawning) is a well-documented phenomenon, but the mechanism underlying it is still unclear. In this chapter, I review the current evidence about: (1) developmental studies with typically and atypically developing populations, and (2) comparative studies in non-human animals. Developmental studies have revealed that contagious yawning is disturbed in individuals with autism spectrum disorders, suggesting that contagious yawning may share a developmental basis with the capacity for theory of mind. Comparative studies have suggested that contagious yawning can be observed in non-primate species, such as domestic dogs. As dogs are known to have exceptional skills in communicating with humans, it has also been suggested that contagious yawning may be related to the capacity for social communication. These results from developmental and comparative studies are consistent with the claim that the mechanism underlying contagious yawning relates to the capacity for empathy. PMID:20357469
Toxoplasma gondii infection, from predation to schizophrenia: can animal behaviour help us understand human behaviour?
Webster, Joanne P.; Kaushik, Maya; Bristow, Greg C.; McConkey, Glenn A.
Summary We examine the role of the protozoan Toxoplasma gondii as a manipulatory parasite and question what role study of infections in its natural intermediate rodent hosts and other secondary hosts, including humans, may elucidate in terms of the epidemiology, evolution and clinical applications of infection. In particular, we focus on the potential association between T. gondii and schizophrenia. We introduce the novel term 'T. gondii–rat manipulation–schizophrenia model' and propose how future behavioural research on this model should be performed from a biological, clinical and ethically appropriate perspective. PMID:23225872
Neuroimaging Study of the Human Amygdala - Toward an Understanding of Emotional and Stress Responses -
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Iidaka, Tetsuya
The amygdala plays a critical role in the neural system involved in emotional responses and conditioned fear. The dysfunction of this system is thought to be a cause of several neuropsychiatric disorders. A neuroimaging study provides a unique opportunity for noninvasive investigation of the human amygdala. We studied the activity of this structure in normal subjects and patients with schizophrenia by using the face recognition task. Our results showed that the amygdala was activated by presentation of face stimuli, and negative face activated the amygdala to a greater extent than a neutral face. Under the happy face condition, the activation of the amygdala was higher in the schizophrenic patients than in control subjects. A single nucleotide polymorphism in the regulatory region of the serotonin type 3 receptor gene had modulatory effects on the amygdaloid activity. The emotion regulation had a significant impact on neural interaction between the amygdala and prefrontal cortices. Thus, studies on the human amygdala would greatly contribute to the elucidation of the neural system that determines emotional and stress responses. To clarify the relevance of the neural dysfunction and neuropsychiatric disorders, further studies using physiological, genetic, and hormonal approaches are essential.
Understanding human visual systems and its impact on our intelligent instruments
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Strojnik Scholl, Marija; Páez, Gonzalo; Scholl, Michelle K.
We review the evolution of machine vision and comment on the cross-fertilization from the neural sciences onto flourishing fields of neural processing, parallel processing, and associative memory in optical sciences and computing. Then we examine how the intensive efforts in mapping the human brain have been influenced by concepts in computer sciences, control theory, and electronic circuits. We discuss two neural paths that employ the input from the vision sense to determine the navigational options and object recognition. They are ventral temporal pathway for object recognition (what?) and dorsal parietal pathway for navigation (where?), respectively. We describe the reflexive and conscious decision centers in cerebral cortex involved with visual attention and gaze control. Interestingly, these require return path though the midbrain for ocular muscle control. We find that the cognitive psychologists currently study human brain employing low-spatial-resolution fMRI with temporal response on the order of a second. In recent years, the life scientists have concentrated on insect brains to study neural processes. We discuss how reflexive and conscious gaze-control decisions are made in the frontal eye field and inferior parietal lobe, constituting the fronto-parietal attention network. We note that ethical and experiential learnings impact our conscious decisions.
Developmental and Comparative Perspectives of Contagious Yawning
Atsushi Senju
Contagious yawning (i.e. yawning triggered by perceiving others' yawning) is a well-documented phenomenon, but the mechanism underlying it is still unclear. In this chapter, I review the current evidence about: (1) developmental studies with typically and atypically developing populations, and (2) comparative studies in non-human animals. Developmental studies have revealed that contagious yawning is disturbed in individuals with autism spectrum
Developmental decisions in Dictyostelium discoideum.
Gross, J D
A few hours after the onset of starvation, amoebae of Dictyostelium discoideum start to form multicellular aggregates by chemotaxis to centers that emit periodic cyclic AMP signals. There are two major developmental decisions: first, the aggregates either construct fruiting bodies directly, in a process known as culmination, or they migrate for a period as "slugs." Second, the amoebae differentiate into either prestalk or prespore cells. These are at first randomly distributed within aggregates and then sort out from each other to form polarized structures with the prestalk cells at the apex, before eventually maturing into the stalk cells and spores of fruiting bodies. Developmental gene expression seems to be driven primarily by cyclic AMP signaling between cells, and this review summarizes what is known of the cyclic AMP-based signaling mechanism and of the signal transduction pathways leading from cell surface cyclic AMP receptors to gene expression. Current understanding of the factors controlling the two major developmental choices is emphasized. The weak base ammonia appears to play a key role in preventing culmination by inhibiting activation of cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase, whereas the prestalk cell-inducing factor DIF-1 is central to the choice of cell differentiation pathway. The mode of action of DIF-1 and of ammonia in the developmental choices is discussed. Images PMID:7968918
Transformation from Developmental Mathematics Student to Mathematics Teacher: Narratives of Adult Learning Experiences
Wright, Gary L.
The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of the experiences of developmental mathematics students who, after successful completion of their developmental courses, chose a career in teaching and to gain ...
Understanding the tissue effects of tribo-corrosion: uptake, distribution, and speciation of cobalt and chromium in human bone cells.
Shah, Karan M; Quinn, Paul D; Gartland, Alison; Wilkinson, J Mark
Cobalt and chromium species are released in the local tissues as a result of tribo-corrosion, and affect bone cell survival and function. However we have little understanding of the mechanisms of cellular entry, intracellular distribution, and speciation of the metals that result in impaired bone health. Here we used synchrotron based X-ray fluorescence (XRF), X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), and fluorescent-probing approaches of candidate receptors P2X7R and divalent metal transporter-1 (DMT-1), to better understand the entry, intra-cellular distribution and speciation of cobalt (Co) and chromium (Cr) in human osteoblasts and primary human osteoclasts. We found that both Co and Cr were most highly localized at nuclear and perinuclear sites in osteoblasts, suggesting uptake through cell membrane transporters, and supported by a finding that P2X7 receptor blockade reduced cellular entry of Co. In contrast, metal species were present at discrete sites corresponding to the basolateral membrane in osteoclasts, suggesting cell entry by endocytosis and trafficking through a functional secretory domain. An intracellular reduction of Cr6+ to Cr3+ was the only redox change observed in cells treated with Co2+, Cr3+, and Cr6+. Our data suggest that the cellular uptake and processing of Co and Cr differs between osteoblasts and osteoclasts. PMID:25251692
Enhancing Understanding Of Coupled Human-Natural Systems Through Collaborative Learning
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Santelmann, M. V.; Chan, S.; Morzillo, A.; Stebbins, A.; Wright, M.
In the past decade, it has become clear that the dynamic nature of coupled human-natural systems must be better understood and incorporated into decision making. If the interactions between society and the rest of the ecosystem are poorly represented in system models, our ability to explore the potential consequences of feedbacks between the biophysical system and policy or management actions will be limited. Teams of researchers from three Oregon universities are collaborating with regional experts, water managers, and decision-makers to examine how climate change, population growth, and economic growth may alter the availability and use of water in the Willamette River Basin over the next one hundred years. A central project component is development of a version of the ENVISION modeling framework that will provide decision makers with a way to visualize the Willamette water system and evaluate the interaction of management choices with changing environmental and socioeconomic conditions. Key objectives of the project broader impacts team include: 1) assist with incorporating the human component of the system into the model, (2) fostering growth of the research team as an interdependent, interdisciplinary research community, and (3) communicating effectively with regional stakeholders. Through Learning-Action Networks we have been able to gather insightful, project-relevant knowledge on water use, management, policies and issues that impact water management in the region. We have identified the types of project outputs that managers and decision makers would find useful for anticipating water scarcity and informing integrative water systems responses. Events and processes used to accomplish our objectives began with field trips involving researchers, educators, and other stakeholders. Follow-up meetings and an all day symposium featured focus group interviews, plenary sessions on project progress, and interactive poster sessions in which participants could help identify water related policies and actions they would like to see modeled. Participants assisted in compiling an interactive table of potential policies and actions organized by water use sector and policy type (e.g., regulatory vs. incentive based). Involvement of K-12 educators and development of innovative interdisciplinary courses has enhanced the broader impacts of the project and helped us achieve multiple project objectives. We present plans to build on initial collaborative learning experiences to promote project outcomes that will advance coupled human-natural systems research and enhance the utility of model outcomes in water management.
Human development II: we need an integrated theory for matter, life and consciousness to understand life and healing.
Ventegodt, Sřren; Hermansen, Tyge Dahl; Nielsen, Maj Lyck; Clausen, Birgitte; Merrick, Joav
For almost a decade, we have experimented with supporting the philosophical development of severely ill patients to induce recovery and spontaneous healing. Recently, we have observed a new pattern of extremely rapid, spontaneous healing that apparently can facilitate even the spontaneous remission of cancer and the spontaneous recovery of mental diseases like schizophrenia and borderline schizophrenia. Our working hypothesis is that the accelerated healing is a function of the patient's brain-mind and body-mind coming closer together due to the development of what we call "deep" cosmology. To understand and describe what happens at a biological level, we have suggested naming the process adult human metamorphosis, a possibility that is opened by the human genome showing full generic equipment for metamorphosis. To understand the mechanistic details in the complicated interaction between consciousness and biology, we need an adequate theory for biological information. In a series of papers, we propose what we call "holistic biology for holistic medicine". We suggest that a relatively simple model based on interacting wholenesses instead of isolated parts can shed a new light on a number of difficult issues that we need to explain and understand in biology and medicine in order to understand and use metamorphosis in the holistic medical clinic. We aim to give a holistic theoretical interpretation of biological phenomena at large, morphogenesis, evolution, immune system regulation (self-nonself discrimination), brain function, consciousness, and health in particular. We start at the most fundamental problem: what is biological information at the subcellular, cellular, and supracellular levels if we presume that it is the same phenomenon on all levels (using Occam's razor), and how can this be described scientifically? The problems we address are all connected to the information flow in the functioning, living organism: function of the brain and consciousness, the regulations of the immune system and cell growth, the dynamics of health and disease. We suggest that life utilizes an unseen fine structure of the physical energy of the universe at a subparticular or quantum level to give information-directed self-organization; we give a first sketch of a possible fractal structure of the energy able to both contain and communicate biological information and carry individual and collective consciousness. Finally, thorough our analysis, we put up a model for adult human metamorphosis. PMID:16830047
Understanding the foundations of the structural similarities between marketed drugs and endogenous human metabolites
O'Hagan, Steve; Kell, Douglas B.
Background: A recent comparison showed the extensive similarities between the structural properties of metabolites in the reconstructed human metabolic network ("endogenites") and those of successful, marketed drugs ("drugs"). Results: Clustering indicated the related but differential population of chemical space by endogenites and drugs. Differences between the drug-endogenite similarities resulting from various encodings and judged by Tanimoto similarity could be related simply to the fraction of the bitstrings set to 1. By extracting drug/endogenite substructures, we develop a novel family of fingerprints, the Drug Endogenite Substructure (DES) encodings, based on the ranked frequency of the various substructures. These provide a natural assessment of drug-endogenite likeness, and may be used as descriptors with which to derive quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSARs). Conclusions: "Drug-endogenite likeness" seems to have utility, and leads to a simple, novel and interpretable substructure-based molecular encoding for cheminformatics.
[Contribution of first polar body analysis to understanding of human aneuploidy mechanism].
Selva, Jacqueline; Bergere, Marianne; Molina-Gomes, Denise; Hammoud, Ibrahim; Lombroso, Raoul; Vialard, François
In our species, reproduction failure rate is high. Clinical evidence is miscarriage where chromosomal origin was largely involved (66% of cases). The development of assisted reproduction techniques made possible to analyse unfertilized oocytes and preimplantation embryos. The results have shown a high rate of chromosome abnormalities before implantation (50%). Two mechanisms were identified which could generate aneuploidy, the meiosis non-disjunction and the premature separation of sister chromatids (PSSC). A FISH analysis of the first polar body, a cell complementary to the oocyte after meiosis, can be performed before intracytoplasmic sperm injection. We studied 2 distinct populations (patients over 38 years old and patients with recurrent implantation failure) and we confirmed that PSSC is the major mechanism linked to advanced maternal age in human. PMID:16737101
Understanding the limits of animal models as predictors of human biology: lessons learned from the sbv IMPROVER Species Translation Challenge
Mathis, Carole; Dulize, Rémi H. J.; Ivanov, Nikolai V.; Alexopoulos, Leonidas; Jeremy Rice, J.; Peitsch, Manuel C.; Stolovitzky, Gustavo; Meyer, Pablo; Hoeng, Julia
Motivation: Inferring how humans respond to external cues such as drugs, chemicals, viruses or hormones is an essential question in biomedicine. Very often, however, this question cannot be addressed because it is not possible to perform experiments in humans. A reasonable alternative consists of generating responses in animal models and 'translating' those results to humans. The limitations of such translation, however, are far from clear, and systematic assessments of its actual potential are urgently needed. sbv IMPROVER (systems biology verification for Industrial Methodology for PROcess VErification in Research) was designed as a series of challenges to address translatability between humans and rodents. This collaborative crowd-sourcing initiative invited scientists from around the world to apply their own computational methodologies on a multilayer systems biology dataset composed of phosphoproteomics, transcriptomics and cytokine data derived from normal human and rat bronchial epithelial cells exposed in parallel to 52 different stimuli under identical conditions. Our aim was to understand the limits of species-to-species translatability at different levels of biological organization: signaling, transcriptional and release of secreted factors (such as cytokines). Participating teams submitted 49 different solutions across the sub-challenges, two-thirds of which were statistically significantly better than random. Additionally, similar computational methods were found to range widely in their performance within the same challenge, and no single method emerged as a clear winner across all sub-challenges. Finally, computational methods were able to effectively translate some specific stimuli and biological processes in the lung epithelial system, such as DNA synthesis, cytoskeleton and extracellular matrix, translation, immune/inflammation and growth factor/proliferation pathways, better than the expected response similarity between species. Contact: firstname.lastname@example.com or firstname.lastname@example.com Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. PMID:25236459
Understanding the complexity of the Lvy-walk nature of human mobility with a multi-scale cost/benefit model
Scafetta, Nicola
Understanding the complexity of the Lévy-walk nature of human mobility with a multi-scale cost/benefit://chaos.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissions #12;Understanding the complexity of the Le´vy-walk nature of human mobility with a multi-scale cost=benefit determined as displacements within a city, visits to nearby cities that may occur within just one-day trips
Long-term experiments to better understand soil-human interactions
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Bormann, B. T.; Homann, P. S.
Interactions between soils and people may be transforming global conditions, but the interactions are poorly understood. Changes in soils have proven difficult to quantify, especially in complex ecosystems manifesting large spatiotemporal variability. Long-term ecosystem experiments that evaluate soil change and demonstrate alternative choices are important to understanding changes, discovering new controls and drivers, and influencing decisions. Inspired by agriculture studies, like Rothamsted, the US Forest Service established in 1990 a network of operational-scale experiments across the Pacific Northwest to evaluate long-term effects of different forest management and disturbance regimes. With a strong experimental design, these experiments are now helping to better understand the long-term effects of managing tree harvesting (clearcutting and thinning), woody debris, and tree and understory species composition, and-serendipitously-the effects of fire. Initial results from the Southern Oregon experimental site indicate surprisingly rapid soil changes in some regimes but not others. We've also learned that rapid change presents challenges to repeat sampling. We present our sample-archive and comparable-layer approaches that seek to accommodate changes in surface elevation, aggregation and disaggregation, and mineral-soil exports. Thinning mature forest stands (80-100 yrs old) did not significantly change soil C in 11-yrs. A small upper-layer C increase was observed after thinning, but it was similar to the control. Significant increases in upper-layer soil N were observed with most treatments, but all increases were similar to the control. Leaving woody debris had little effect. The most remarkable change occurred when mature stands were clearcut and Douglas-firs were planted and tended. Associated with rapid growth of Douglas-fir, an average of 8 Mg C ha-1 was lost from weathered soil 4-18 cm deep. This contrasts with clearcuts where early-seral hardwoods and knobcone pines were established, that trended positively with 2 Mg C ha-1. Soil changes resulting from wild and prescribed fire were substantial. About 50% of the soil C (3-21 Mg ha-1) and 36% of soil N (41-650 kg ha-1) were lost from the upper profile (0-6.2 cm) compared to pre-fire conditions. Intense wildfire that killed most forest trees had about double the losses of C and N than forests burned at lower temperature with fewer trees killed. Average wildfire C losses were more than twice prescribed-fire losses. A long-term perspective is needed to compare episodic influences on soils, like harvesting and wildfire, to day-in, day-out effects of different species mixtures. Especially important is the effect of shrubs, that can rapidly achieve full leaf area but that lack the woody stem structure to store captured C as well as conifers. In theory, therefore, extending shrub cover will increase soil C. The annual profile soil C loss in Douglas-fir (-0.8 Mg ha-1yr-1), if continued beyond 11 yrs, would be similar to the effects of a fire-return interval of less than a third of the historical interval of about 100 years. National and regional soil-C monitoring would benefit from being grounded in existing experimental studies to help integrate large-scale changes with an unfolding understanding of processes in ways useful to decisionmakers.
Developmental and Reproductive Toxicology of Methanol
Methanol is a high production volume chemical used as a feedstock for chemical syntheses and as a solvent and fuel additive. Methanol is acutely toxic to humans, causing acidosis, blindness in death at high dosages, but its developmental and reproductive toxicity in humans is poo...
Extended evolutionary psychology: the importance of transgenerational developmental plasticity.
Stotz, Karola
What kind mechanisms one deems central for the evolutionary process deeply influences one's understanding of the nature of organisms, including cognition. Reversely, adopting a certain approach to the nature of life and cognition and the relationship between them or between the organism and its environment should affect one's view of evolutionary theory. This paper explores this reciprocal relationship in more detail. In particular it argues that the view of living and cognitive systems, especially humans, as deeply integrated beings embedded in and transformed by their genetic, epigenetic (molecular and cellular), behavioral, ecological, socio-cultural and cognitive-symbolic legacies calls for an extended evolutionary synthesis that goes beyond either a theory of genes juxtaposed against a theory of cultural evolution and or even more sophisticated theories of gene-culture coevolution and niche construction. Environments, particularly in the form of developmental environments, do not just select for variation, they also create new variation by influencing development through the reliable transmission of non-genetic but heritable information. This paper stresses particularly views of embodied, embedded, enacted and extended cognition, and their relationship to those aspects of extended inheritance that lie between genetic and cultural inheritance, the still gray area of epigenetic and behavioral inheritance systems that play a role in parental effect. These are the processes that can be regarded as transgenerational developmental plasticity and that I think can most fruitfully contribute to, and be investigated by, developmental psychology. PMID:25191292
Extended evolutionary psychology: the importance of transgenerational developmental plasticity
Stotz, Karola
What kind mechanisms one deems central for the evolutionary process deeply influences one's understanding of the nature of organisms, including cognition. Reversely, adopting a certain approach to the nature of life and cognition and the relationship between them or between the organism and its environment should affect one's view of evolutionary theory. This paper explores this reciprocal relationship in more detail. In particular it argues that the view of living and cognitive systems, especially humans, as deeply integrated beings embedded in and transformed by their genetic, epigenetic (molecular and cellular), behavioral, ecological, socio-cultural and cognitive-symbolic legacies calls for an extended evolutionary synthesis that goes beyond either a theory of genes juxtaposed against a theory of cultural evolution and or even more sophisticated theories of gene-culture coevolution and niche construction. Environments, particularly in the form of developmental environments, do not just select for variation, they also create new variation by influencing development through the reliable transmission of non-genetic but heritable information. This paper stresses particularly views of embodied, embedded, enacted and extended cognition, and their relationship to those aspects of extended inheritance that lie between genetic and cultural inheritance, the still gray area of epigenetic and behavioral inheritance systems that play a role in parental effect. These are the processes that can be regarded as transgenerational developmental plasticity and that I think can most fruitfully contribute to, and be investigated by, developmental psychology. PMID:25191292
Genomic Science in Understanding Cholera Outbreaks and Evolution of Vibrio cholerae as a Human Pathogen
Mekalanos, John J.
Modern genomic and bioinformatic approaches have been applied to interrogate the V. cholerae genome, the role of genomic elements in cholera disease, and the origin, relatedness, and dissemination of epidemic strains. A universal attribute of choleragenic strains includes a repertoire of pathogenicity islands and virulence genes, namely the CTX–? prophage and Toxin Co-regulated Pilus (TCP) in addition to other virulent genetic elements including those referred to as Seventh Pandemic Islands. During the last decade, the advent of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) has provided highly resolved and often complete genomic sequences of epidemic isolates in addition to both clinical and environmental strains isolated from geographically unconnected regions. Genomic comparisons of these strains, as was completed during and following the Haitian outbreak in 2010, reveals that most epidemic strains appear closely related, regardless of region of origin. Non-O1 clinical or environmental strains may also possess some virulence islands, but phylogenic analysis of the core genome suggests they are more diverse and distantly related than those isolated during epidemics. Like Haiti, genomic studies that examine both the Vibrio core- and pan-genome in addition to Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) conclude that a number of epidemics are caused by strains that closely resemble those in Asia, and often appear to originate there and then spread globally. The accumulation of SNPs in the epidemic strains over time can then be applied to better understand the evolution of the V. cholerae genome as an etiological agent. PMID:24590676
Ethics or Morals: Understanding Students' Values Related to Genetic Tests on Humans
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Lindahl, Mats Gunnar
To make meaning of scientific knowledge in such a way that concepts and values of the life-world are not threatened is difficult for students and laymen. Ethics and morals pertaining to the use of genetic tests for hereditary diseases have been investigated and discussed by educators, anthropologists, medical doctors and philosophers giving, at least in part, diverging results. This study investigates how students explain and understand their argumentation about dilemmas concerning gene testing for the purpose to reduce hereditary diseases. Thirteen students were interviewed about their views on this issue. Qualitative analysis was done primarily by relating students' argumentation to their movements between ethics and morals as opposing poles. Students used either objective or subjective knowledge but had difficulties to integrate them. They tried to negotiate ethic arguments using utilitarian motives and medical knowledge with sympathy or irrational and personal arguments. They discussed the embryo's moral status to decide if it was replaceable in a social group or not. The educational implications of the students' use of knowledge in personal arguments are discussed.
Understanding protein synthesis: a role-play approach in large undergraduate human anatomy and physiology classes
NSDL National Science Digital Library
Diana Sturges (Georgia Southern University)
This study investigated the effectiveness of role play in a large undergraduate science class. The targeted population consisted of 298 students enrolled in 2 sections of an undergraduate Human Anatomy and Physiology course taught by the same instructor. The section engaged in the role-play activity served as the study group, whereas the section presented with a traditional lecture served as the control group. A pretest/posttest assessment and a survey were administered to both sections and used in data analysis. In addition, overall test scores and item analysis were examined. The analysis revealed that participants in both groups improved significantly from pretest to posttest, but there were no significant differences between the groups in posttest scores. Neither group showed a significant change from posttest to the exam. However, there was a moderate positive effect on engagement and satisfaction survey questions from being in the study group (based on 255 total surveys returned by both groups). The role-play activity was at least as effective as the lecture in terms of student performance on the above-mentioned assessments. In addition, it proved successful in engaging students in the learning process and increasing their satisfaction.
Use of Gene Ontology Annotation to understand the peroxisome proteome in humans
Mutowo-Meullenet, Prudence; Huntley, Rachael P.; Dimmer, Emily C.; Alam-Faruque, Yasmin; Sawford, Tony; Jesus Martin, Maria; O'Donovan, Claire; Apweiler, Rolf
The Gene Ontology (GO) is the de facto standard for the functional description of gene products, providing a consistent, information-rich terminology applicable across species and information repositories. The UniProt Consortium uses both manual and automatic GO annotation approaches to curate UniProt Knowledgebase (UniProtKB) entries. The selection of a protein set prioritized for manual annotation has implications for the characteristics of the information provided to users working in a specific field or interested in particular pathways or processes. In this article, we describe an organelle-focused, manual curation initiative targeting proteins from the human peroxisome. We discuss the steps taken to define the peroxisome proteome and the challenges encountered in defining the boundaries of this protein set. We illustrate with the use of examples how GO annotations now capture cell and tissue type information and the advantages that such an annotation approach provides to users. Database URL: http://www.ebi.ac.uk/GOA/ and http://www.uniprot.org PMID:23327938
Clay modeling versus written modules as effective interventions in understanding human anatomy.
Bareither, Mary Lou; Arbel, Vered; Growe, Meghan; Muszczynski, Emily; Rudd, Adam; Marone, Jane R
The effectiveness of clay modeling to written modules is examined to determine the degree of improvement in learning and retention of anatomical 3D relationships among students with different learning preferences. Thirty-nine undergraduate students enrolled in a cadaver dissection course completed a pre-assessment examination and the VARK questionnaire, classifying learning preference as visual, auditory, read/write, or kinesthetic. Students were divided into clay, module, and control groups with preference for learning style distributed among groups. The clay and module groups participated in weekly one-hour classes using either clay models or answering written questions (modules) about anatomical relationships, respectively. The control group received no intervention. Post-assessment and retention examinations were administered at the end of the semester, and three months later, respectively. Two variables (?1, ?2) represented examination score differences between pre- and post-assessment and between post-assessment and retention examinations, respectively. The ?1 for clay and module groups were each significantly higher than controls (21.46 ± 8.2 vs. 15.70 ± 7.5, P ? 0.05; and 21.31 ± 6.9 vs. 15.70 ± 7.5, P ?0.05, respectively). The ?2 for clay and module groups approached but did not achieve significance over controls (-6.09 ± 5.07 vs. -8.80 ± 4.60, P = 0.16 and -5.73 ± 4.47 vs. -8.80 ± 4.60, P = 0.12, respectively). No significant differences were seen between interventions or learning preferences in any group. However, students of some learning styles tended to perform better when engaging in certain modalities. Multiple teaching modalities may accommodate learning preferences and improve understanding of anatomy. PMID:23027681
Development and Validation of a Two-Tier Instrument to Examine Understanding of Internal Transport in Plants and the Human Circulatory System
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Wang, Jing-Ru
This study is intended to develop an assessment instrument to investigate students' understandings about internal transport in plants and human circulatory system. A refined process of a two-tier diagnostic test was used to develop the instrument. Finally, three versions of the Internal Transport in Plants and the Human Circulatory System test…
Socio-hydrologic Modeling to Understand and Mediate the Competition for Water between Humans and Ecosystems: Murrumbidgee River Basin, Australia
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
van Emmerik, Tim; Sivapalan, Murugesu; Li, Zheng; Pande, Saket; Savenije, Hubert
Around the world the demand for water resources is growing in order to satisfy rapidly increasing human populations, leading to competition for water between humans and ecosystems. An entirely new and comprehensive quantitative framework is needed to establish a holistic understanding of that competition, thereby enabling development and evaluation of effective mediation strategies. We present a case study centered on the Murrumbidgee river basin in eastern Australia that illustrates the dynamics of the balance between water extraction and use for food production and efforts to mitigate and reverse consequent degradation of the riparian environment. Interactions between patterns of water resources management and climate driven hydrological variability within the prevailing socio-economic environment have contributed to the emergence of new whole system dynamics over the last 100 years. In particular, data analysis reveals a pendulum swing between an exclusive focus on agricultural development and food production in the initial stages of water resources development and its attendant socio-economic benefits, followed by the gradual realization of the adverse environmental impacts, efforts to mitigate these with the use of remedial measures, and ultimately concerted efforts and externally imposed solutions to restore environmental health and ecosystem services. A quasi-distributed coupled socio-hydrologic system model that explicitly includes the two-way coupling between human and hydrological systems, including evolution of human values/norms relating to water and the environment, is able to mimic broad features of this pendulum swing. The model consists of coupled nonlinear differential equations that include four state variables describing the co-evolution of storage capacity, irrigated area, human population, and ecosystem health, which are all connected by feedback mechanisms. The model is used to generate insights into the dominant controls of the trajectory of co-evolution of the coupled human-water system, to serve as the theoretical framework for more detailed analysis of the system, and to generate organizing principles that may be transferable to other systems in different climatic and socio-economic settings.
Imaging opioid analgesia in the human brain and its potential relevance for understanding opioid use in chronic pain
Lee, Michael C.; Wanigasekera, Vishvarani; Tracey, Irene
Opioids play an important role for the management of acute pain and in palliative care. The role of long-term opioid therapy in chronic non-malignant pain remains unclear and is the focus of much clinical research. There are concerns regarding analgesic tolerance, paradoxical pain and issues with dependence that can occur with chronic opioid use in the susceptible patient. In this review, we discuss how far human neuroimaging research has come in providing a mechanistic understanding of pain relief provided by opioids, and suggest avenues for further studies that are relevant to the management of chronic pain with opioids. This article is part of the Special Issue Section entitled 'Neuroimaging in Neuropharmacology'. PMID:23891639
THE DEVELOPMENTAL APPROACH TO MULTIMEDIA SPEECH LEARNING Juyang Weng, Yong-Beom Lee and Colin H. Evans
THE DEVELOPMENTAL APPROACH TO MULTIMEDIA SPEECH LEARNING Juyang Weng, Yong-Beom Lee and Colin H ABSTRACT This paper introduces the developmental approach to speech learning, motivated by human cognitive the developmental algorithm. We introduce AA-learning as a basic learning mode for our developmental algorithm
Prevention or therapy and the politics of trust: inspiring a new human agenda
James W. Prescott
This paper gives a brief overview of the developmental origins of human alienation, depression, violence and drug abuse. It provides a foundation for understand- ing how the politics of culture structure the human condition. The most critical early life experiences are formed in the mother-infant\\/child relationship. This affects all future rela- tionships and the development of culture. The role of
Reflections on multiple personality disorder as a developmentally complex adaptation.
Armstrong, J G
Recent advances in the understanding of multiple personality disorder provide the groundwork for its creative reconciliation with psychoanalysis. This paper uses psychoanalytic, modern developmental, and psychological assessment perspectives to conceptualize multiple personality disorder as a developmentally protective response to chronic childhood trauma. Implications of this theory for clinical work with these patients are discussed. PMID:7809294
Contextualizing the Investigator: The Case of Developmental Psychology
James V. Wertsch; James Youniss
This article examines some of the ways in which sociohistorical contexts influence the formulation of issues in developmental psychology. It is essential to examine social, political, and historical forces when trying to understand the discipline. Two examples are provided, the first having to do with child care and the origins of developmental psychology in the USA, the second having to
Fluency Interventions for Developmental Readers: Repeated Readings and Wide Reading
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ari, Omer
Despite recent findings that show fluency deficits in developmental readers, the field of developmental reading remains remiss in fluency instruction. This article provides a summary intended to increase college reading teachers' understanding of reading fluency and fluency instruction. In addition, included are the step-by-step procedures of…
Adaptation to a Myocardial Infarction from a Developmental Perspective.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Meyer, Robert
Explored the interactional effect between victims' (N=30) adult developmental stage and their coping and emotional reactions following a myocardial infarction (MI). The findings point to the usefulness of adult developmental psychology in understanding the divergent emotional and coping reactions of MI patients across the life-cycle. (Author/JAC)
The Need for Developmental Models in Supervising School Counselors
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Gallo, Laura L.
Developmental models, like Stoltenberg, McNeil, and Delworth's integrated developmental model (IDM) for supervision (1998), provide supervisors with an important resource in understanding and managing the counseling student's development and experience. The current status of school counseling supervision is discussed as well as the…
Coronary arteries form by developmental reprogramming of venous cells
Krasnow, Mark A.
ARTICLES Coronary arteries form by developmental reprogramming of venous cells Kristy Red-Horse1 , Hiroo Ueno2 , Irving L. Weissman2 & Mark A. Krasnow1 Coronary artery disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. Determining the coronary artery developmental program could aid understanding
A Developmental Roadmap for Learning by Imitation in Robots
Manuel Lopes; José Santos-victor
In this paper, we present a strategy whereby a robot acquires the capability to learn by imitation following a developmental pathway consisting on three levels: 1) sensory-motor coordination; 2) world interaction; and 3) imitation. With these stages, the system is able to learn tasks by imitating human demonstrators. We describe results of the different developmental stages, involving perceptual and motor
Genetics and Developmental Psychology
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Plomin, Robert
One of the major changes in developmental psychology during the past 50 years has been the acceptance of the important role of nature (genetics) as well as nurture (environment). Past research consisting of twin and adoption studies has shown that genetic influence is substantial for most domains of developmental psychology. Present research…
Developmental Education: A Definition.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Beckett, Gene
A discussion is provided of the distinguishing characteristics of developmental education. First, the reasons for the lack of a clear definition are discussed, and the consequences of this ambiguity are highlighted in terms of the existing confusion over the purposes of developmental education. Next, the linguistic and theoretical bases of…
The potent developmental toxicity of dioxin in multiple species has been known for a number of years. owever, recent studies have indicated that dioxin also induces functional developmental defects, many of which are delayed. subtle structural deficits, not detectable at birth, h...
Developmental Dyslexia: A Review of Biological Interactions.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Galaburda, Albert M.
The author considers cerebral dominance and brain asymmetry, the development of the cerebral cortex and examples of aberrancy, and diseases of the immune system, all of which relate to recent anatomical and epidemiological findings in developmental dyslexia. These discoveries have led to testable hypotheses which may enhance current understandings…
Kids and the internet: a developmental summary
Miki Baumgarten
When planning and developing successful internet programs for children, it is vital to clearly understand and carefully consider kids' innate developmental capabilities and proclivities. It is necessary to keep in mind that children of different ages have vastly different physical, cognitive, and psycho-social characteristics, as well as disparate interests, likes, dislikes, and fears. A four-year old child may not posses
Attitudes towards Graphing Calculators in Developmental Mathematics
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Rajan, Shaun Thomas
The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine instructor and student attitudes towards the use of the graphing calculator in the developmental mathematics classroom. A focus of the study was to see if instructors or students believed there were changes in the conceptual understanding of mathematics as a result of graphing calculator…
Elinson, Richard P.; del Pino, Eugenia M.
The current model amphibian, Xenopus laevis, develops rapidly in water to a tadpole which metamorphoses into a frog. Many amphibians deviate from the X. laevis developmental pattern. Among other adaptations, their embryos develop in foam nests on land or in pouches on their mother's back or on a leaf guarded by a parent. The diversity of developmental patterns includes multinucleated oogenesis, lack of RNA localization, huge non-pigmented eggs, and asynchronous, irregular early cleavages. Variations in patterns of gastrulation highlight the modularity of this critical developmental period. Many species have eliminated the larva or tadpole and directly develop to the adult. The wealth of developmental diversity among amphibians coupled with the wealth of mechanistic information from X. laevis permit comparisons that provide deeper insights into developmental processes. PMID:22662314
Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) are developmentally toxic in rodents. To better understand the mechanism(s) associated with this toxicity, we have conducted transcript profiling in mice. In an initial study, pregnant animals were dosed througho...
Is Hunting Still Healthy? Understanding the Interrelationships between Indigenous Participation in Land-Based Practices and Human-Environmental Health
King, Ursula; Furgal, Christopher
Indigenous participation in land-based practices such as hunting, fishing, ceremony, and land care has a long history. In recent years, researchers and policy makers have advocated the benefits of these practices for both Indigenous people and the places they live. However, there have also been documented risks associated with participation in these activities. Environmental change brought about by shifts in land use, climate changes, and the accumulation of contaminants in the food chain sit alongside equally rapid shifts in social, economic and cultural circumstances, preferences and practices. To date, the literature has not offered a wide-ranging review of the available cross-disciplinary or cross-ecozone evidence for these intersecting benefits and risks, for both human and environmental health and wellbeing. By utilising hunting as a case study, this paper seeks to fill part of that gap through a transdisciplinary meta-analysis of the international literature exploring the ways in which Indigenous participation in land-based practices and human-environmental health have been studied, where the current gaps are, and how these findings could be used to inform research and policy. The result is an intriguing summary of disparate research that highlights the patchwork of contradictory understandings, and uneven regional emphasis, that have been documented. A new model was subsequently developed that facilitates a more in-depth consideration of these complex issues within local-global scale considerations. These findings challenge the bounded disciplinary and geographic spaces in which much of this work has occurred to date, and opens a dialogue to consider the importance of approaching these issues holistically. PMID:24879487
Normal and leukemic human stem cells assayed in SCID mice
John E. Dick
Understanding the processes that regulate the developmental program of normal stem cells and those that initiate proliferative diseases such as leukemia remains one of the major challenges in biology. Progress to address these major questions in the human hematopoietic system have been hampered, until recently, by the lack of in-vivo assays for normal and leukemic stem cells. The recent development
What Happened, and Why: Toward an Understanding of Human Error Based on Automated Analyses of Incident Reports. Volume 2
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Ferryman, Thomas A.; Posse, Christian; Rosenthal, Loren J.; Srivastava, Ashok N.; Statler, Irving C.
The objective of the Aviation System Monitoring and Modeling project of NASA's Aviation Safety and Security Program was to develop technologies to enable proactive management of safety risk, which entails identifying the precursor events and conditions that foreshadow most accidents. Information about what happened can be extracted from quantitative data sources, but the experiential account of the incident reporter is the best available source of information about why an incident happened. In Volume I, the concept of the Scenario was introduced as a pragmatic guide for identifying similarities of what happened based on the objective parameters that define the Context and the Outcome of a Scenario. In this Volume II, that study continues into the analyses of the free narratives to gain understanding as to why the incident occurred from the reporter s perspective. While this is just the first experiment, the results of our approach are encouraging and indicate that it will be possible to design an automated analysis process guided by the structure of the Scenario that can achieve the level of consistency and reliability of human analysis of narrative reports.
Animal models of intestinal fibrosis: new tools for the understanding of pathogenesis and therapy of human disease
Rieder, Florian; Kessler, Sean; Sans, Miquel
Fibrosis is a serious condition complicating chronic inflammatory processes affecting the intestinal tract. Advances in this field that rely on human studies have been slow and seriously restricted by practical and logistic reasons. As a consequence, well-characterized animal models of intestinal fibrosis have emerged as logical and essential systems to better define and understand the pathophysiology of fibrosis. In point of fact, animal models allow the execution of mechanistic studies as well as the implementation of clinical trials with novel, pathophysiology-based therapeutic approaches. This review provides an overview of the currently available animal models of intestinal fibrosis, taking into consideration the methods of induction, key characteristics of each model, and underlying mechanisms. Currently available models will be classified into seven categories: spontaneous, gene-targeted, chemical-, immune-, bacteria-, and radiation-induced as well as postoperative fibrosis. Each model will be discussed in regard to its potential to create research opportunities to gain insights into the mechanisms of intestinal fibrosis and stricture formation and assist in the development of effective and specific antifibrotic therapies. PMID:22878121
Cognitive and affective components of mental workload: Understanding the effects of each on human decision making behavior
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Nygren, Thomas E.
Human factors and ergonomics researchers have recognized for some time the increasing importance of understanding the role of the construct of mental workload in flight research. Current models of mental workload suggest that it is a multidimensional and complex construct, but one that has proved difficult to measure. Because of this difficulty, emphasis has usually been placed on using direct reports through subjective measures such as rating scales to assess levels of mental workload. The NASA Task Load Index (NASA/TLX, Hart and Staveland) has been shown to be a highly reliable and sensitive measure of perceived mental workload. But a problem with measures like TLX is that there is still considerable disagreement as to what it is about mental workload that these subjective measures are actually measuring. The empirical use of subjective workload measures has largely been to provide estimates of the cognitive components of the actual mental workload required for a task. However, my research suggests that these measures may, in fact have greater potential in accurately assessing the affective components of workload. That is, for example, TLX may be more likely to assess the positive and negative feelings associated with varying workload levels, which in turn may potentially influence the decision making behavior that directly bears on performance and safety issues. Pilots, for example, are often called upon to complete many complex tasks that are high in mental workload, stress, and frustration, and that have significant dynamic decision making components -- often ones that involve risk as well.
The evolution of plasticity of dauer larva developmental arrest in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans
Diaz, S. Anaid; Viney, Mark
. Some species can developmentally arrest (also known as diapause) to avoid these otherwise unfavourable conditions. Developmental arrest is a well-documented example of developmental phenotypic plasticity among invertebrates and is common among insects... and nema- todes, as well as other invertebrates (Danks 1987; Denlin- ger 2002; West-Eberhard 2003; Chen and Glazer 2004). Despite developmental arrest being common in nature, there is no general understanding of the selective pressures that favour this, nor...
Pediatric HIV Infection and Developmental Disabilities.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Seidel, John F.
This paper presents an overview of the developmental disabilities associated with pediatric Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection, and examines efficacious practices for assessment and intervention programming. The focus population is early childhood into school age. The paper describes the complex array of challenges presented by these…
Developmental Social Cognitive Neuroscience: Insights from Deafness
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Corina, David; Singleton, Jenny
The condition of deafness presents a developmental context that provides insight into the biological, cultural, and linguistic factors underlying the development of neural systems that impact social cognition. Studies of visual attention, behavioral regulation, language development, and face and human action perception are discussed. Visually…
Is Developmentally Appropriate Practice for Everyone?
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Lubeck, Sally
Suggests that the National Association for the Education of Young Children guidelines for developmentally appropriate practice are supported by modern values of stability and certainty. Maintains that there is a shift to a new world view, based on views that human beings are subjects; science cannot be value-neutral; and that context affects what…
Toward a Developmental Theory of Prosocial Motivation.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hoffman, Martin L.
This paper presents a summary of behavior concepts that together provide the outline of a possible developmental theory of prosocial motivation. These concepts, based on human role-taking capacities, include empathic distress, sympathetic distress, personal guilt, and existential guild. At first, a child cannot discriminate between himself and…
This book is an outgrowth of the Guidelines for the Health' Assessment of Suspect Developmental Toxicants. n that document, several general areas of esearch were identified that were needed to fill data gaps or to reduce uncertainties associated with estimating risks for human de...
Ciliary dysfunction in developmental abnormalities and diseases.
Sharma, Neeraj; Berbari, Nicolas F; Yoder, Bradley K
Cilia are small microtubule-based cellular appendages that are broadly classified as being either motile or immotile (primary cilia). Since their initial discovery several centuries ago, motile cilia have been of general interest to basic scientists and others who study the dynamics and physiological relevance of their motility. More recent discoveries have found that motile and immotile cilia, the later of which are present on nearly all cells in the mammalian body, also have major roles during development and in postnatal life. Dysfunction of the cilium is the basis for multiple human genetic disorders that have collectively been called the ciliopathies. The phenotypes associated with cilia dysfunction in mammals are diverse and include randomization of the left-right body axis, abnormalities in neural tube closure and patterning, skeletal defects such as polydactyly, cystic kidney, liver, and pancreatic diseases, blindness and anosmia, behavioral and cognitive defects, and obesity. The connection between disease and developmental defects due to the loss of ciliary function has brought the efforts of the biomedical research establishment to bear on this underappreciated and long overlooked organelle. Several groups have applied en silico, genetic, and biochemical approaches to identify the components of the cilia proteome. The resulting datasets have contributed to a remarkable increase in the rate at which human ciliopathy disease loci are being identified. This intense basic and clinical research interest has revealed that the cilium is a very complex sensory machine involved in transducing extracellular stimuli involved in many different signaling pathways into cellular responses. Although major advances have been made in understanding the importance of the cilium, it remains enigmatic how the cilium functions to coordinate signaling pathways and how loss of this organelle results in the severe defects observed in human ciliopathies. PMID:19147012
Epigenetics and Developmental Plasticity Across Species
Champagne, Frances A.
Plasticity is a typical feature of development and can lead to divergent phenotypes. There is increasing evidence that epigenetic mechanisms, such as DNA methylation, are present across species, are modifiable by the environment, and are involved in developmental plasticity. Thus, in the context of the concept of developmental homology, epigenetic mechanisms may serve to create a process homology between species by providing a common molecular pathway through which environmental experiences shape development, ultimately leading to phenotypic diversity. This article will highlight evidence derived from across-species investigations of epigenetics, development, and plasticity which may contribute to our understanding of the homology that exists between species and between ancestors and descendants. PMID:22711291
The developmental origins of adipose tissue
Berry, Daniel C.; Stenesen, Drew; Zeve, Daniel; Graff, Jonathan M.
Adipose tissue is formed at stereotypic times and locations in a diverse array of organisms. Once formed, the tissue is dynamic, responding to homeostatic and external cues and capable of a 15-fold expansion. The formation and maintenance of adipose tissue is essential to many biological processes and when perturbed leads to significant diseases. Despite this basic and clinical significance, understanding of the developmental biology of adipose tissue has languished. In this Review, we highlight recent efforts to unveil adipose developmental cues, adipose stem cell biology and the regulators of adipose tissue homeostasis and dynamism. PMID:24046315
COGEDE-1030; NO. OF PAGES 7 Please cite this article in press as: Dunham MJ, Fowler DM. Contemporary, yeast-based approaches to understanding human genetic variation, Curr Opin Genet Dev (2013), http://dx.doi.org/
Borenstein, Elhanan
. Contemporary, yeast-based approaches to understanding human genetic variation, Curr Opin Genet Dev (2013), http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/j.gde.2013.10.001 Contemporary, yeast-based approaches to understanding human genetic variation Maitreya J Dunham and Douglas M Fowler Determining how genetic variation contributes to human
Management of Developmentally Disabled Children with Chronic Infections.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Andersen, Richard D.
The nature of chronic infections in developmentally disabled children is reviewed, along with appropriate management strategies for care providers and implications for other children. Discussed are herpes simplex virus, cytomegalovirus, hepatitis B virus, and human immunodeficiency virus. (Author/JDD)
Clinical and epidemiological studies have shown significant correlations between conditions during development and various diseases later in life. In humans, low birth weight has been used as a surrogate for adverse developmental conditions, but the specific conditions affecting...
Gaps in college biology students' understanding of photosynthesis: Implications for human constructivist learning theory and college classroom practice
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Griffard, Phyllis Baudoin
The main research question of this study was: What gaps in biochemical understanding are revealed by a range of university introductory biology students as they work through a critically acclaimed multimedia program on photosynthesis, and what are the corresponding implications for elaboration of the Ausubel-Novak-Gowin Learning Theory (ANG, now Human Constructivism)? Twelve students, mixed for ability, gender and ethnicity, were recruited from two sections of "Bio 101." Before and after instruction in photosynthesis, in-depth clinical interviews were conducted during which participants completed a range of cognitive tasks such as sorting, concept mapping, explaining and predicting. Some tasks involved interacting with a computer simulation of photosynthesis. This study primarily employed qualitative case study and verbal analysis methods. Verbal analysis of the clinical interviews revealed numerous gaps that were categorized into typologies. The two major categories were propositional gaps and processing gaps. Propositional gaps were evident in development of participants' concepts, links and constructs. Significant among these were conceptual distance gaps and continuity of matter gaps. Gaps such as convention gaps and relative significance gaps seem to be due to naivete in the discipline. Processing gaps included gaps in graphic decoding skills and relevant cognitive habits such as self-monitoring and consulting prior knowledge. Although the gaps were easier to detect and isolate with the above-average participants, all participants showed evidence of at least some of these gaps. Since some gaps are not unexpected at all but the highest literacy levels, not all the gaps identified are to be considered deficiencies. The gaps identified support the attention given by ANG theorists to the role of prior knowledge and metacognition as well as the value of graphic organizers in knowledge construction. In addition, this study revealed numerous gaps in graphic decoding, indicating that both direct experience and explicit instruction are needed if students are to "learn how to learn with graphics," especially those graphics central to understanding a computer simulation's representations of structures, inputs, processes and outputs. It is hypothesized that gaps similar to those revealed in this study may be at the root of some alternative conceptions documented in the literature.
The Importance of Ecology-Based Nature Education Project in Terms of Nature Integration and Understanding the Human-Ecosystem Relationship
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Meydan, Ali
The aim of this project is to define the importance of 12-day ecology-based education training upon integration with nature and understanding the human-ecosystem relationship. In accordance with this purpose, there has been collected some survey data interviewing with the participants of "Lake Beysehir National Park and Ecology-based Nature…
75 FR 63186 - Administration on Developmental Disabilities; Statement of Organization, Functions, and...
Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014
...DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Administration for Children and Families Administration on Developmental Disabilities; Statement...and Delegations of Authority AGENCY: Administration for Children and Families, HHS....
Understanding human original actions directed at real-world goals: the role of the lateral prefrontal cortex.
Sitnikova, Tatiana; Rosen, Bruce R; Lord, Louis-David; West, W Caroline
Adaptive, original actions, which can succeed in multiple contextual situations, require understanding of what is relevant to a goal. Recognizing what is relevant may also help in predicting kinematics of observed, original actions. During action observation, comparisons between sensory input and expected action kinematics have been argued critical to accurate goal inference. Experimental studies with laboratory tasks, both in humans and nonhuman primates, demonstrated that the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) can learn, hierarchically organize, and use goal-relevant information. To determine whether this LPFC capacity is generalizable to real-world cognition, we recorded functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data in the human brain during comprehension of original and usual object-directed actions embedded in video-depictions of real-life behaviors. We hypothesized that LPFC will contribute to forming goal-relevant representations necessary for kinematic predictions of original actions. Additionally, resting-state fMRI was employed to examine functional connectivity between the brain regions delineated in the video fMRI experiment. According to behavioral data, original videos could be understood by identifying elements relevant to real-life goals at different levels of abstraction. Patterns of enhanced activity in four regions in the left LPFC, evoked by original, relative to usual, video scenes, were consistent with previous neuroimaging findings on representing abstract and concrete stimuli dimensions relevant to laboratory goals. In the anterior left LPFC, the activity increased selectively when representations of broad classes of objects and actions, which could achieve the perceived overall behavioral goal, were likely to bias kinematic predictions of original actions. In contrast, in the more posterior regions, the activity increased even when concrete properties of the target object were more likely to bias the kinematic prediction. Functional connectivity was observed between contiguous regions along the rostro-caudal LPFC axis, but not between the regions that were not immediately adjacent. These findings generalize the representational hierarchy account of LPFC function to diverse core principles that can govern both production and comprehension of flexible real-life behavior. PMID:25224997
Body mass of wild bornean orangutans living in human-dominated landscapes: Implications for understanding their ecology and conservation.
Rayadin, Yaya; Spehar, Stephanie N
Body mass is a key determinant of a species' ecology, including locomotion, foraging strategies, and energetics. Accurate information on the body mass of wild primates allows us to develop explanatory models for relationships among body size, ecology, and behavior and is crucial for reconstructing the ecology and behavior of fossil primates and hominins. Information on body mass can also provide indirect information on health and can be an important tool for conservation in the context of increasingly widespread habitat disturbance. This study reports body mass data recorded for wild Northeast Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus morio) during relocation efforts in forestry and oil palm plantations in East Kalimantan, Indonesia. The average mass of flanged adult males (n = 12, 74 ± 9.78 kg) and adult females (n = 7, 35.29 ± 7.32 kg) from this study were 13.6% and 9% lower, respectively, than the only other published wild Bornean orangutan body mass measurements, but the range of weights for both males and females was larger for this study. This pattern could be due to sampling error, data collection differences, or the influence of habitat disturbance, specifically a lack of access to resources, on individual health. When necessary relocations present the opportunity, we encourage researchers to prioritize the collection of body size data for the purposes of understanding ecology but also as an indirect means of monitoring population viability. As primate habitat becomes increasingly fragmented and altered by humans such data will become critical to our ability to make informed conservation decisions. Am J Phys Anthropol 157:339-346, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. PMID:25682922
Inquiry cantos: poetics of developmental disability.
Smith, P
Postmodern thought is increasingly critical of foundations central to modern, positivist research into the lives of people labeled as having so-called developmental disabilities and mental retardation. This approach has brought about changes in how developmental disability is both understood and, ultimately, created. Responding to what has been called the postmodern turn, some disability studies scholars are choosing to represent their work in alternative textual formats, including poetry and fiction. These texts, representing multiple subjectivities, offer ways to explicate, problematize, and reconstruct new ways of understanding so-called developmental disability that are complex and plural. Examples of alternative research texts are provided from a recent qualitative research project with self-advocates and their construction of choice, control, and power. PMID:11710849
Using Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship Modeling to Quantitatively Predict the Developmental Toxicity of Halogenated Azole compounds
Developmental toxicity is a relevant endpoint for the comprehensive assessment of human health risk from chemical exposure. However, animal developmental toxicity studies remain unavailable for many environmental contaminants due to the complexity and cost of these types of analy...
Gene expression profiles in the cerebellum and hippocampus following exposure to a neurotoxicant, Aroclor 1254: Developmental effects
Royland, Joyce E. [Neurotoxicology Divisions, NHEERL, ORD, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC (United States); Wu, Jinfang; Zawia, Nasser H. [Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmaceutical, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI 02881 (United States); Kodavanti, Prasada Rao S. [Neurotoxicology Divisions, NHEERL, ORD, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC (United States)], E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com
The developmental consequences of exposure to the polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have been widely studied, making PCBs a unique model to understand issues related to environmental mixture of persistent chemicals. PCB exposure in humans adversely affects neurocognitive development, causes psychomotor difficulties, and contributes to attention deficits in children, all of which seem to be associated with altered patterns of neuronal connectivity. In the present study, we examined gene expression profiles in the rat nervous system following PCB developmental exposure. Pregnant rats (Long-Evans) were dosed perinatally with 0 or 6 mg/kg/day of Aroclor 1254 from gestation day 6 through postnatal day (PND) 21. Gene expression in cerebellum and hippocampus from PND7 and PND14 animals was analyzed with an emphasis on developmental aspects. Changes in gene expression ({>=} 1.5 fold) in control animals identified normal developmental changes. These basal levels of expression were compared to data from Aroclor 1254-treated animals to determine the impact of gestational PCB exposure on developmental parameters. The results indicate that the expression of a number of developmental genes related to cell cycle, synaptic function, cell maintenance, and neurogenesis is significantly altered from PND7 to PND14. Aroclor 1254 treatment appears to dampen the overall growth-related gene expression levels in both regions with the effect being more pronounced in the cerebellum. Functional analysis suggests that Aroclor 1254 delays maturation of the developing nervous system, with the consequences dependent on the ontological state of the brain area and the functional role of the individual gene. Such changes may underlie learning and memory deficits observed in PCB exposed animals and humans.
Deconstructing Pancreas Development to Reconstruct Human Islets from Pluripotent Stem Cells
McKnight, Kristen D.; Wang, Pei; Kim, Seung K.
There is considerable excitement about harnessing the potential of human stem cells to replace pancreatic islets that are destroyed in type 1 diabetes mellitus. However, our current understanding of the mechanisms underlying pancreas and islet ontogeny has come largely from the powerful genetic, developmental, and embryological approaches available in nonhuman organisms. Successful islet reconstruction from human pluripotent cells will require greater attention to "deconstructing" human pancreas and islet developmental biology and consistent application of conditional genetics, lineage tracing, and cell purification to stem cell biology. PMID:20362535
Johnson, Mark
Western culture has inherited a view of understanding as an intellectual cognitive operation of grasping of concepts and their relations. However, cognitive science research has shown that this received intellectualist conception is substantially out of touch with how humans actually make and experience meaning. The view emerging from the mind sciences recognizes that understanding is profoundly embodied, insofar as our conceptualization and reasoning recruit sensory, motor, and affective patterns and processes to structure our understanding of, and engagement with, our world. A psychologically realistic account of understanding must begin with the patterns of ongoing interaction between an organism and its physical and cultural environments and must include both our emotional responses to changes in our body and environment, and also the actions by which we continuously transform our experience. Consequently, embodied understanding is not merely a conceptual/propositional activity of thought, but rather constitutes our most basic way of being in, and engaging with, our surroundings in a deep visceral manner. PMID:26175701
Johnson, Mark
Western culture has inherited a view of understanding as an intellectual cognitive operation of grasping of concepts and their relations. However, cognitive science research has shown that this received intellectualist conception is substantially out of touch with how humans actually make and experience meaning. The view emerging from the mind sciences recognizes that understanding is profoundly embodied, insofar as our conceptualization and reasoning recruit sensory, motor, and affective patterns and processes to structure our understanding of, and engagement with, our world. A psychologically realistic account of understanding must begin with the patterns of ongoing interaction between an organism and its physical and cultural environments and must include both our emotional responses to changes in our body and environment, and also the actions by which we continuously transform our experience. Consequently, embodied understanding is not merely a conceptual/propositional activity of thought, but rather constitutes our most basic way of being in, and engaging with, our surroundings in a deep visceral manner. PMID:26175701
Stress physiology and developmental psychopathology: past, present, and future.
Doom, Jenalee R; Gunnar, Megan R
Research on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis has emerged as a vital area within the field of developmental psychopathology in the past 25 years. Extensive animal research has provided knowledge of the substrates and physiological mechanisms that guide development of stress reactivity and regulation using methods that are not feasible in humans. Recent advances in understanding the anatomy and physiology of the HPA axis in humans and its interactions with other stress-mediating systems, including accurate assessment of salivary cortisol, more sophisticated neuroimaging methods, and a variety of genetic analyses, have led to greater knowledge of how psychological and biological processes impact functioning. A growing body of research on HPA axis regulation and reactivity in relation to psychopathology has drawn increased focus on the prenatal period, infancy, and the pubertal transition as potentially sensitive periods of stress system development in children. Theories such as the allostatic load model have guided research by integrating multiple physiological systems and mechanisms by which stress can affect mental and physical health. However, almost none of the prominent theoretical models in stress physiology are truly developmental, and future work must incorporate how systems interact with the environment across the life span in normal and atypical development. Our theoretical advancement will depend on our ability to integrate biological and psychological models. Researchers are increasingly realizing the importance of communication across disciplinary boundaries in order to understand how experiences influence neurobehavioral development. It is important that knowledge gained over the past 25 years has been translated to prevention and treatment interventions, and we look forward to the dissemination of interventions that promote recovery from adversity. PMID:24342845
Production of genetically and developmentally modified seaweeds: exploiting the potential of artificial selection techniques.
Charrier, Bénédicte; Rolland, Elodie; Gupta, Vishal; Reddy, C R K
Plant feedstock with specific, modified developmental features has been a quest for centuries. Since the development and spread of agriculture, there has been a desire for plants producing disproportionate-or more abundant and more nutritional-biomass that meet human needs better than their native counterparts. Seaweed aquaculture, targeted for human consumption and the production of various raw materials, is a rapidly expanding field and its stakeholders have increasing vested interest for cost-effective and lucrative seaweed cultivation processes. Thus, scientific research on seaweed development is particularly timely: the potential for expansion of seaweed cultivation depends on the sector's capacity to produce seaweeds with modified morphological features (e.g., thicker blades), higher growth rates or delayed (or even no) fertility. Here, we review the various technical approaches used to modify development in macroalgae, which have attracted little attention from developmental biologists to date. Because seaweed (or marine macroalgae) anatomy is much less complex than that of land plants and because seaweeds belong to three different eukaryotic phyla, the mechanisms controlling their morphogenesis are key to understanding their development. Here, we present efficient sources of developmentally and genetically modified seaweeds-somatic variants, artificial hybrids and mutants-as well as the future potential of these techniques. PMID:25852700
What imitation tells us about social cognition: a rapprochement between developmental psychology and cognitive neuroscience.
Meltzoff, Andrew N; Decety, Jean
Both developmental and neurophysiological research suggest a common coding between perceived and generated actions. This shared representational network is innately wired in humans. We review psychological evidence concerning the imitative behaviour of newborn human infants. We suggest that the mechanisms involved in infant imitation provide the foundation for understanding that others are 'like me' and underlie the development of theory of mind and empathy for others. We also analyse functional neuroimaging studies that explore the neurophysiological substrate of imitation in adults. We marshal evidence that imitation recruits not only shared neural representations between the self and the other but also cortical regions in the parietal cortex that are crucial for distinguishing between the perspective of self and other. Imitation is doubly revealing: it is used by infants to learn about adults, and by scientists to understand the organization and functioning of the brain. PMID:12689375
Triethylene Glycol Ethers: Evaluations of In Vitro Absorption Through Human Epidermis, 21Day Dermal Toxicity in Rabbits, and a Developmental Toxicity Screen in Rats
A. Philip Leber; R. C. Scott; M. C. E. Hodge; D. Johnson; W. J. Krasavage
The methyl, ethyl, and butyl ethers of triethylene glycol (TM, TE, and TB, respectively) were evaluated in three screening studies to assess their potential hazards to humans. The assessments included (1) an in vitro procedure to determine the ability of the materials to penetrate human skin, (2) a 21-day dermal limit test in rabbits to determine potential systemic toxicities, and
Capitalizing on Basic Brain Processes in Developmental Algebra--Part 2
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Laughbaum, Edward D.
Basic brain function is not a mystery. Given that neuroscientists understand its basic functioning processes, one wonders what their research suggests to teachers of developmental algebra. What if we knew how to teach so as to improve understanding of the algebra taught to developmental algebra students? What if we knew how the brain processes…
Capitalizing on Basic Brain Processes in Developmental Algebra--Part One
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Laughbaum, Edward D.
Basic brain function is not a mystery. Given that neuroscientists understand the brain's basic functioning processes, one wonders what their research suggests to teachers of developmental algebra. What if we knew how to teach so as to improve understanding of the algebra taught to developmental algebra students? What if we knew how the brain…
Two on Stem Cells from NIH: Memorandum of Understanding Between WiCell Research Institute, Inc. and the Public Health Service (US Dept. of Health and Human Services)
NSDL National Science Digital Library
United States. Dept. of Health and Human Services.
In response to President Bush's August 9 address, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has released online their statement on use of existing human embryonic stem cells. Additionally, the NIH site offers the text of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the WiCell Research Institute, Inc., of Madison, Wisconsin (.pdf). Signed on September 5, the MOU outlines plans for research use of WiCell's five human embryonic stem cell lines that meet the criteria set by the President.
Developmental Neurotoxicology: History and Outline of Developmental Neurotoxicity Study Guidelines.
The present work provides a brief review of basic concepts in developmental neurotoxicology, as well as current representative testing guidelines for evaluating developmental neurotoxicity (DNT) of xenobiotics. Historically, DNT was initially recognized as a ?functional? teratoge...
Characterizing fine-scale variation in human recombination rates is important, both to deepen understanding of the
Stephens, Matthew
Characterizing fine-scale variation in human recombination rates is important, both to deepen is difficult. Sperm-typing experiments46 have characterized regions where crossovers cluster into 12-kb hot spots are a common feature of the human genome: 47% (35 of 74) of genes showed substantive evidence
Rare events in earth history include the LB1 human skeleton from Flores, Indonesia, as a developmental singularity, not a unique taxon.
Eckhardt, Robert B; Henneberg, Maciej; Weller, Alex S; Hsü, Kenneth J
The original centrally defining features of "Homo floresiensis" are based on bones represented only in the single specimen LB1. Initial published values of 380-mL endocranial volume and 1.06-m stature are markedly lower than later attempts to confirm them, and facial asymmetry originally unreported, then denied, has been established by our group and later confirmed independently. Of nearly 200 syndromes in which microcephaly is one sign, more than half include asymmetry as another sign and more than one-fourth also explicitly include short stature. The original diagnosis of the putative new species noted and dismissed just three developmental abnormalities. Subsequent independent attempts at diagnosis (Laron Syndrome, Majewski osteodysplastic primordial dwarfism type II, cretinism) have been hampered a priori by selectively restricted access to specimens, and disparaged a posteriori using data previously unpublished, without acknowledging that all of the independent diagnoses corroborate the patent abnormal singularity of LB1. In this report we establish in detail that even in the absence of a particular syndromic diagnosis, the originally defining features of LB1 do not establish either the uniqueness or normality necessary to meet the formal criteria for a type specimen of a new species. In a companion paper we present a new syndromic diagnosis for LB1. PMID:25092307
Differential Cell Surface Expression of the STRO-1 and Alkaline Phosphatase Antigens on Discrete Developmental Stages in Primary Cultures of Human Bone Cells
Human osteoblast-like cells can be readily cultured from explants of trabecular bone, reproducibly expressing the characteristics of cells belonging to the osteoblastic lineage. Dual-color fluorescence-activated cell sorting was employed to develop a model of bone cell development in primary cultures of normal human bone cells (NHBCs) based on the cell surface expression of the stromal precursor cell marker STRO-1 and
Cognitive-Developmental Assessments 1 Designing Cognitive-Developmental Assessments
Junker, Brian
for promoting further development. To this end, we integrate research on cognition and development with advancesCognitive-Developmental Assessments 1 Designing Cognitive-Developmental Assessments: A Case Study or quote without permission of the authors. #12;Cognitive-Developmental Assessments 2 Designing Cognitive
"You've Got to Learn the Rules": A Classroom-Level Look at Low Pass Rates in Developmental Math
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Cox, Rebecca D.
Objective: Given the current concern across the United States with improving community-college student outcomes, particularly in developmental education, understanding what students encounter inside developmental education classrooms is a necessary first step. Method: Drawing on data from a study of teaching practices inside developmental math…
Theory of Multiple/Multiethnic Perspective-Taking Ability for Teachers' Developmentally and Culturally Appropriate Practice (DCAP).
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hyun, Eunsook; Marshall, J. Dan
Introduces a recursive-based developmental theory of multiple/multiethnic perspective-taking ability for teachers' developmentally and culturally congruent pedagogy: a way to understand and facilitate growth in teachers' interpersonal pedagogical coordination for developmentally and culturally congruent teaching as "teaching for all individuals."…
Neuroblastoma: Developmental Biology, Cancer Genomics, and Immunotherapy
Cheung, Nai-Kong V.; Dyer, Michael A.
Neuroblastoma is a solid tumor that arises from the developing sympathetic nervous system. Over the past decade, our understanding of this disease has advanced tremendously. The future challenge is to apply the knowledge gained toward developing risk-based therapies and ultimately improving outcome. Here we review the key discoveries in the developmental biology, molecular genetics, and immunology of neuroblastoma, as well as new translational tools to bring these promising scientific advances into the clinic. PMID:23702928
The Developmental Biology of Cereal Endosperm
R. C. Brown; B. E. Lemmon
This chapter summarizes the current understanding of structural aspects of cereal endosperm development\\u000a with emphasis on the cytoskeleton and its role in morphogenesis. The developmental pathway of nuclear-type\\u000a endosperm includes unusual cell and microtubule cycles and methods of wall placement. After double fertilization,\\u000a the primary endosperm nucleus divides repeatedly without cytokinesis resulting in a large syncytium\\u000a that lines the periphery and
CFP: Thematic Issue on Computer Vision for Ambient Intelligence in JAISE: The vision of ambient intelligence revolves around understanding human
Salah, Albert
. While many novel sensory modalities are offering the designers of ambient intelligence modality in providing rich information in an unobtrusive manner. We solicit contributions to a thematic to): Scene and event modeling, representation, and reconstruction Human activity analysis
Handbook of Developmental Disabilities
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Odom, Samuel L., Ed.; Horner, Robert H., Ed.; Snell, Martha E., Ed.; Blacher, Jan, Ed.
This authoritative handbook reviews the breadth of current knowledge about developmental disabilities: neuroscientific and genetic foundations; the impact on health, learning, and behavior; and effective educational and clinical practices. Leading authorities analyze what works in intervening with diverse children and families, from infancy…
Persistence of Developmental Students.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Snyder, Fred A.; Blocker, Clyde E.
Students entering Harrisburg Area Community College (H.A.C.C.), Pennsylvania, who are identified as being inadequately prepared for regular coursework are assigned to appropriate developmental courses, to prepare them for subsequent entry into the regular career or transfer curricula. A recent analysis of the program outlines such factors as…
Interactive Fly: Developmental Pathways
NSDL National Science Digital Library
PhD Thomas B Brody (NIH Laboratory of Neurochemistry)
this site describes evolutionarily conserved developmental pathways. The pathways are named according to the processes they govern, and not by the names of the genes involved: for example, "lateral inhibition" rather than "the Notch pathway." Inevitably, there will be cases where the function is less well understood: hence, "the Wingless pathway."
Temporal and spatial aspects of fragmentation in early human embryos: possible effects on developmental competence and association with the differential elimination of regulatory proteins from polarized domains
Michael Antczak; Jonathan Van Blerkom
This study examined the relationship between blastomere fragmentation in cultured human embryos obtained by in- vitro fertilization and the effect of fragmentation on the distribution of the following eight regulatory proteins found to be: (i) localized in the mature oocyte in subplasma- lemmal, polarized domains; and (ii) unequally inherited by the blastomeres during cleavage: leptin, signal trans- ducer and activator
Regulations of enzymes in animals: effects of developmental processes, cancer, and radiation. Final report. [Analysis of enzymes in human cancer tissue
Low grade tumors of various origins are chemically very different. High grade tumors, whatever their origin, are chemically very similar to one another and to embryonic tissues. Analyses of human tumor tissues and sera from cancer patients were conducted for two new groups of enzymes expected to be informative about the physiological state of the tissue. The enzymes measured in
The phthalates are a family of environmentally important compounds with diverse uses. Reproductive toxicity has been demonstrated for some members of this family. The NTP Center for the Evaluation of Risk to Human Reproduction (CERHR) convened an expert panel charged with examini...
The phthalates are a family of environmentally important compounds with diverse uses. Reproductive toxicity has been demonstrated for some members of this family. The NTP Center for the Evaluation of Risk to Human Reproduction (CERHR) convened an expert panel charged with examini...
Developmental stress predicts social network position
Boogert, Neeltje J.; Farine, Damien R.; Spencer, Karen A.
The quantity and quality of social relationships, as captured by social network analysis, can have major fitness consequences. Various studies have shown that individual differences in social behaviour can be due to variation in exposure to developmental stress. However, whether these developmental differences translate to consistent differences in social network position is not known. We experimentally increased levels of the avian stress hormone corticosterone (CORT) in nestling zebra finches in a fully balanced design. Upon reaching nutritional independence, we released chicks and their families into two free-flying rooms, where we measured daily social networks over five weeks using passive integrated transponder tags. Developmental stress had a significant effect on social behaviour: despite having similar foraging patterns, CORT chicks had weaker associations to their parents than control chicks. Instead, CORT chicks foraged with a greater number of flock mates and were less choosy with whom they foraged, resulting in more central network positions. These findings highlight the importance of taking developmental history into account to understand the drivers of social organization in gregarious species. PMID:25354917
Understanding Treatment: Principles and Approaches
Ronald Jay Werner-Wilson; Kathleen M. Morrissey
In order to understand adolescent treatment, service providers should understand the developmental psychopathology perspective,\\u000a risk factors associated with problem behavior, aspects of attachment that influence presenting problems and interventions,\\u000a and diversity issues. Treatment providers should also be able to identify evidence-based treatments (i.e., treatments that\\u000a have been empirically tested and found to be efficacious and\\/or effective in ameliorating the mental
Issues in Applying Bio-Inspiration, Cognitive Critical Mass and Developmental-Inspired Principles to Advanced Intelligent Systems
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Berg-Cross, Gary; Samsonovich, Alexei V.
This Chapter summarizes ideas presented at the special PerMIS 2008 session on Biological Inspiration for Intelligent Systems. Bio-inspired principles of development and evolution are a special part of the bio-models and principles that can be used to improve intelligent systems and related artifacts. Such principles are not always explicit. They represent an alternative to incremental engineering expansion using new technology to replicate human intelligent capabilities. They are more evident in efforts to replicate and produce a "critical mass" of higher cognitive functions of the human mind or their emergence through cognitive developmental robotics (DR) and self-regulated learning (SRL). DR approaches takes inspiration from natural processes, so that intelligently engineered systems may create solutions to problems in ways similar to what we hypothesize is occurring with biologics in their natural environment. This Chapter discusses how an SRL-based approach to bootstrap a "critical mass" can be assessed by a set of cognitive tests. It also uses a three-level bio-inspired framework to illustrate methodological issues in DR research. The approach stresses the importance of using bio-realistic developmental principles to guide and constrain research. Of particular importance is keeping models and implementation separate to avoid the possible of falling into a Ptolemaic paradigm that may lead to endless tweaking of models. Several of Lungarella's design principles [36] for developmental robotics are discussed as constraints on intelligence as it emerges from an ecologically balanced, three-way interaction between an agents' control systems, physical embodiment, and the external environment. The direction proposed herein is to explore such principles to avoid slavish following of superficial bio-inspiration. Rather we should proceed with a mature and informed developmental approach using developmental principles based on our incremental understanding of how intelligence develops.
Students' Participation in an Interdisciplinary, Socioscientific Issues Based Undergraduate Human Biology Major and Their Understanding of Scientific Inquiry
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Eastwood, Jennifer L.; Sadler, Troy D.; Sherwood, Robert D.; Schlegel, Whitney M.
The purpose of this study was to examine whether Socioscientific Issues (SSI) based learning environments affect university students' epistemological understanding of scientific inquiry differently from traditional science educational contexts. We identify and compare conceptions of scientific inquiry of students participating in an…
Understanding wild-type and mutant p53 activities in human cancer: new landmarks on the way to targeted therapies
I Goldstein; V Marcel; M Olivier; M Oren; V Rotter; P Hainaut
Three decades of p53 research have led to many advances in understanding the basic biology of normal and cancer cells. Nonetheless, the detailed functions of p53 in normal cells, and even more so in cancer cells, remain obscure. A major breakthrough is the realization that mutant p53 has a life of its own: it contributes to cancer not only through
Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis as developmental instability.
Goldberg, C J; Dowling, F E; Fogarty, E E; Moore, D P
Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis is the most common spinal deformity affecting children, with a prevalence from mass screening programmes of 1-3%. Despite centuries of study, it remains a problem with no generally accepted theory of aetiology, and disagreement on its natural history and management. Because the deformity consists ultimately of gross left-right asymmetry, a study was undertaken to test the hypothesis that it might be a manifestation of developmental instability. Palmar dermatoglyphics in 112 normal subjects, 62 with non-scoliosis trunk asymmetry and 85 with defined adolescent idiopathic scoliosis were examined and both the absolute right-left difference and the ratio of this to the total were considered. There was increased fluctuating asymmetry of atd difference in those with any asymmetry, scoliotic or not, and increased directional asymmetry of ab and cd ridge counts only in those with pure scoliosis. This suggests that, at adolescence, developmental instability may result in a loss of symmetry in growth, and that in the presence of an increased developmental left-right gradient, this may be of sufficient severity to be classified as deformity and come to the attention of orthopaedic surgeons. This interpretation changes the focus of many previous observations on scoliosis and raises the prospect that developmental stability in humans has relevance to problems hitherto restricted to clinical practice. PMID:8522164
1,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D3 Production and Vitamin D3 Receptor Expression Are Developmentally Regulated During Differentiation of Human Monocytes Into Macrophages
Marina Kreutz; Reinhard Andreesen; Stefan W. Krause; Andras Szabo; Eberhard Ritz; Helmut Reichel
It has been well established that human mononuclear phagocytes have the capacity to produce 1.25-dihydroxy- vitamin D3 (l ,25(OH),D3) and express thevitamin D recep- tor (VDR). However, la-hydroxylase activity and VDR re- ceptor expression during differentiation of monocytes (MO) into mature macrophages (MAC) have not been previ- ously examined. The in vitro maturation of blood MO can serve as a
Doppler flow velocity waveforms in the embryonic chicken heart at developmental stages corresponding to 5-8 weeks of human gestation
A. M. Oosterbaan; N. T. C. Ursem; P. C. Struijk; J. G. Bosch; E. A. P. Steegers
OBJECTIVES: To obtain Doppler velocity waveforms from the early embryonic chicken heart by means of ultrasound biomicroscopy and to compare these waveforms at different stages of embryonic development. METHODS: We collected cardiac waveforms using high-frequency Doppler ultrasound with a 55-MHz transducer at Hamburger-Hamilton (HH) stages 18, 21 and 23, which are comparable to humans at 5 to 8 weeks of
Understanding Human Papillomavirus: An Internet Survey of Knowledge, Risk, and Experience among Female and Male College Students in Hawaii
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Bertram, Cathy C.; Niederhauser, Victoria P.
Background: Persistent Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is an etiologic agent in the development of cervical cancer. Despite the increasingly high prevalence of HPV, people at risk of exposure lack knowledge about the virus, its relationship to cervical cancer, and a realistic perspective regarding HPV consequences. Purpose: To describe knowledge about…
Toward understanding social cues and signals in human–robot interaction: effects of robot gaze and proxemic behavior
Fiore, Stephen M.; Wiltshire, Travis J.; Lobato, Emilio J. C.; Jentsch, Florian G.; Huang, Wesley H.; Axelrod, Benjamin
As robots are increasingly deployed in settings requiring social interaction, research is needed to examine the social signals perceived by humans when robots display certain social cues. In this paper, we report a study designed to examine how humans interpret social cues exhibited by robots. We first provide a brief overview of perspectives from social cognition in humans and how these processes are applicable to human–robot interaction (HRI). We then discuss the need to examine the relationship between social cues and signals as a function of the degree to which a robot is perceived as a socially present agent. We describe an experiment in which social cues were manipulated on an iRobot AvaTM mobile robotics platform in a hallway navigation scenario. Cues associated with the robot's proxemic behavior were found to significantly affect participant perceptions of the robot's social presence and emotional state while cues associated with the robot's gaze behavior were not found to be significant. Further, regardless of the proxemic behavior, participants attributed more social presence and emotional states to the robot over repeated interactions than when they first interacted with it. Generally, these results indicate the importance for HRI research to consider how social cues expressed by a robot can differentially affect perceptions of the robot's mental states and intentions. The discussion focuses on implications for the design of robotic systems and future directions for research on the relationship between social cues and signals. PMID:24348434
Understanding and changing human behaviour--antibiotic mainstreaming as an approach to facilitate modification of provider and consumer behaviour.
Stĺlsby Lundborg, Cecilia; Tamhankar, Ashok J
This paper addresses: 1) Situations where human behaviour is involved in relation to antibiotics, focusing on providers and consumers; 2) Theories about human behaviour and factors influencing behaviour in relation to antibiotics; 3) How behaviour in relation to antibiotics can change; and, 4) Antibiotic mainstreaming as an approach to facilitate changes in human behaviour as regards antibiotics. Influencing human behaviour in relation to antibiotics is a complex process which includes factors like knowledge, attitudes, social norms, socio-economic conditions, peer pressure, experiences, and bio-physical and socio-behavioural environment. Further, key concepts are often perceived in different ways by different individuals. While designing and implementing projects or programmes for behavioural change with respect to antibiotics for professionals or consumers it is helpful to consider theories or models of behaviour change, e.g. the 'stages of change model', including pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance. People in different stages of change are susceptible to different behaviour modification strategies. Application of marketing principles to 'global good', so-called 'social marketing', to improve 'welfare of the individual and society' is gaining increased attention in public health. In conclusion, just providing correct knowledge is not sufficient although it is a pre-requisite for behaviour modification in the desired direction. We can never change the behaviour of any other human, but we can facilitate for others to change their own behaviour. One possibility is to implement 'antibiotic mainstreaming' as a potentially effective way for behaviour modification, i.e. to address consequences for maintaining effective antibiotics in all activities and decisions in society. PMID:24735112
A human systemic lupus erythematosus-related anti-cardiolipin/single-stranded DNA autoantibody is encoded by a somatically mutated variant of the developmentally restricted 51P1 V[sub H] gene
Van Es, J.H.; Aanstoot, H.; Gmelig-Meyling, F.H.J.; Derksen, R.H.W.M.; Logtenberg, T. (Univ. Hospital Utrecht (Netherlands))
The authors report the Ig H and L chain V region sequences from the cDNAs encoding a monoclonal human IgG anti-cardiolipin/ssDNA autoantibody (R149) derived from a patient with active SLE. Comparison with the germ-line V-gene repertoire of this patient revealed that R149 likely arose as a consequence of an Ag-driven selection process. The Ag-binding portions of the V regions were characterized by a high number of arginine residues, a property that has been associated with anti-dsDNA autoantibodies from lupus-prone mice and patients with SLE. The V[sub H] gene encoding autoantibody R149 was a somatically mutated variant of the 51P1 gene segment, which is frequently associated with the restricted fetal B cell repertoire, malignant CD5 B cells, and natural antibodies. These data suggest that in SLE patients a common antigenic stimulus may evoke anti-DNA and anti-cardiolipin autoantibodies and provide further evidence that a small set of developmentally restricted V[sub H] genes can give rise to disease-associated autoantibodies through Ag-selected somatic mutations. 42 refs., 5 figs.
Understanding the impacts of medical tourism on health human resources in Barbados: a prospective, qualitative study of stakeholder perceptions
Background Medical tourism is a global health practice where patients travel internationally with the intention of receiving medical services. A range of low, middle, and high income countries are encouraging investment in the medical tourism sector, including countries in the Caribbean targeting patients in North America and Europe. While medical tourism has the potential to provide economic and employment opportunities in destination countries, there are concerns that it could encourage the movement of health workers from the public to private health sector. Methods We present findings from 19 semi-structured interviews with stakeholders across the public health care, private health care, government, allied business, and civil society sectors. These interviews were conducted in-person in Barbados and via phone. The interview transcripts were coded and a thematic analysis developed. Results Three themes were identified: 1) Stakeholder perceptions of the patterns and plans for health human resource usage by current and planned medical tourism facilities in Barbados. We found that while health human resource usage in the medical tourism sector has been limited, it is likely to grow in the future; 2) Anticipated positive impacts of medical tourism on health human resources and access to care in the public system. These benefits included improved quality control, training opportunities, and health worker retention; and 3) Anticipated negative impacts of medical tourism on health human resources and access to care in the public system. These impacts included longer wait times for care and a shift in planning priorities driven by the medical tourism sector. Conclusions Stakeholders interviewed who were connected to medical tourism expansion or the tourism sector took a generally positive view of the likely impacts of medical tourism on health human resources in Barbados. However, stakeholders associated with the public health system and health equity expressed concern that medical tourism may spread inequities in this country. The mechanisms by which observed negative health equity impacts in other countries will be avoided in Barbados are unclear. Continued study in Barbados and comparison with the regulatory frameworks in other countries is needed to help enhance positive and mitigate negative impacts of medical tourism on health human resources in Barbados. These findings will likely have import for other Caribbean nations investing in medical tourism and beyond. PMID:23289812
NSDL National Science Digital Library
Understanding Life is the educational website of The Physiological Society, providing "support for the teaching and learning of physiology." A good place to start is the What is Physiology? area, which offers an overview of this field of human inquiry. The Resources area is a well-designed archive of instructional materials that include "The story of a single heartbeat," "The Science of Life," and "Planning an experiment." It's worth noting that visitors can create their own accounts on the site so they can receive specialized newsletters, tailored website content, and become eligible to enter scientific competitions. Moving along, the Events area lists important goings-on that will be of interest to educators and those involved with science pedagogy. [KMG
The intersubjective and cooperative origins of consciousness: an evolutionary-developmental approach.
Cortina, Mauricio; Liotti, Giovanni
We discuss consciousness from evolutionary and developmental perspectives. The expansion of communicative abilities was a necessary step for the emergence of a new type of cooperation based on equality that probably appeared for the first time among nomadic hunter gatherers during the upper Paleolithic era. In turn, this new level of cooperation gave raise to an expanded form of consciousness. From a developmental perspective an expansion of intersubjective abilities and consciousness go together. Three basic levels of intersubjectivity are present in humans. A primary form of intersubjective communication is accompanied by a primary form of consciousness that is not easily accessible for conscious scrutiny. During the second year of human life secondary forms of intersubjectivity expand consciousness from the immediacy of one-to-one interactions, to include a shared understanding of intentions and goals with caregivers. Secondary forms of intersubjectivity give raise to the type of consciousness characterized by preverbal symbols and images--a primordial form of conceptual knowledge. A further step in intersubjective communication uses the meanings and concepts that have emerged earlier in development and transforms them into words. The leap into language allows our species to conceive past, present, and future simultaneously. The cultural transmission of knowledge and social mores depends on these abilities. This further expands the scope of consciousness and creates conditions for self reflection, a type of consciousness that is uniquely human. PMID:20528141
Understanding the association between chromosomally integrated human herpesvirus 6 and HIV disease: a cross-sectional study
Kainth, Mundeep K.
We conducted a cross-sectional investigation to identify evidence of a potential modifying effect of chromosomally integrated human herpes virus 6 (ciHHV-6) on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease progression and/or severity. ciHHV-6 was identified by detecting HHV-6 DNA in hair follicle specimens of 439 subjects. There was no statistically significant relationship between the presence of ciHHV-6 and HIV disease progression to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. However, after adjusting for use of antiretroviral therapy, all subjects with ciHHV-6 had low severity HIV disease; these findings were not statistically significant. A multi-center study with a larger sample size will be needed to more precisely determine if there is an association between ciHHV-6 and low HIV disease severity. PMID:24555113
Understanding the association between chromosomally integrated human herpesvirus 6 and HIV disease: a cross-sectional study.
Kainth, Mundeep K; Fisher, Susan G; Fernandez, Diana; Luque, Amneris; Hall, Caroline B; Hoang, Anh Thi; Lashkari, Anisha; Peck, Alexandra; Hasan, Lubaba; Caserta, Mary T
We conducted a cross-sectional investigation to identify evidence of a potential modifying effect of chromosomally integrated human herpes virus 6 (ciHHV-6) on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease progression and/or severity. ciHHV-6 was identified by detecting HHV-6 DNA in hair follicle specimens of 439 subjects. There was no statistically significant relationship between the presence of ciHHV-6 and HIV disease progression to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. However, after adjusting for use of antiretroviral therapy, all subjects with ciHHV-6 had low severity HIV disease; these findings were not statistically significant. A multi-center study with a larger sample size will be needed to more precisely determine if there is an association between ciHHV-6 and low HIV disease severity. PMID:24555113
On developmental mental architectures
Juyang Weng
This paper presents a computational theory of developmental mental architectures for artificial and natural systems, motivated by neuroscience. The work is an attempt to approximately model biological mental architectures using mathematical tools. Six types of architecture are presented, beginning with the observation-driven Markov decision process as Type-1. From Type-1 to Type-6, the architecture progressively becomes more complete toward the necessary
An organogenesis network-based comparative transcriptome analysis for understanding early human development in vivo and in vitro
Hai Fang; Wen Jin; Ying Yang; Ying Jin; Ji Zhang; Kankan Wang
Background Integrated networks hold great promise in a variety of contexts. In a recent study, we have combined expression and interaction\\u000a data to identify a putative network underlying early human organogenesis that contains two modules, the stemness-relevant\\u000a module (hStemModule) and the differentiation-relevant module (hDiffModule). However, owing to its hypothetical nature, it\\u000a remains unclear whether this network allows for comparative transcriptome analysis
Functional neuroanatomy of developmental dyslexia: the role of orthographic depth
Richlan, Fabio
Orthographic depth (OD) (i.e., the complexity, consistency, or transparency of grapheme-phoneme correspondences in written alphabetic language) plays an important role in the acquisition of reading skills. Correspondingly, developmental dyslexia is characterized by different behavioral manifestations across languages varying in OD. This review focuses on the question of whether these different behavioral manifestations are associated with different functional neuroanatomical manifestations. It provides a review and critique of cross-linguistic brain imaging studies of developmental dyslexia. In addition, it includes an analysis of state-of-the-art functional neuroanatomical models of developmental dyslexia together with orthography-specific predictions derived from these models. These predictions should be tested in future brain imaging studies of typical and atypical reading in order to refine the current neurobiological understanding of developmental dyslexia, especially with respect to orthography-specific and universal aspects. PMID:24904383
NASA Developmental Biology Workshop: A summary
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Souza, K. A. (editor); Halstead, T. W. (editor)
The Life Sciences Division of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of its continuing assessment of its research program, convened a workshop on Developmental Biology to determine whether there are important scientific studies in this area which warrant continued or expanded NASA support. The workshop consisted of six panels, each of which focused on a single major phylogenetic group. The objectives of each panel were to determine whether gravity plays a role in the ontogeny of their subject group, to determine whether the microgravity of spaceflight can be used to help understand fundamental problems in developmental biology, to develop the rationale and hypotheses for conducting NASA-relevant research in development biology both on the ground and in space, and to identify any unique equipment and facilities that would be required to support both ground-based and spaceflight experiments.
Developmental regulation of embryonic genes in plants
Borkird, C.; Choi, Jung, H.; Jin, Zhenghua; Franz, G.; Hatzopoulos, P.; Chorneaus, R.; Bonas, U.; Pelegri, F.; Sung, Z.R.
Somatic embryogenesis from cultured carrot cells progresses through successive morphogenetic stages termed globular, heart, and torpedo. To understand the molecular mechanisms underlying plant embryogenesis, the authors isolated two genes differentially expressed during embryo development. The expression of these two genes is associated with heart-stage embryogenesis. By altering the culture conditions and examining their expressions in a developmental variant cell line, they found that these genes were controlled by the developmental program of embryogenesis and were not directly regulated by 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, the growth regulator that promotes unorganized growth of cultured cells and suppresses embryo morphogenesis. These genes are also expressed in carrot zygotic embryos but not in seedlings or mature plants.
Antisocial behavior from a developmental psychopathology perspective.
Frick, Paul J; Viding, Essi
This paper reviews research on chronic patterns of antisocial behavior and places this research into a developmental psychopathology framework. Specifically, research suggests that there are at least three important pathways through which children and adolescents can develop severe antisocial behaviors. One group of youth shows antisocial behavior that begins in adolescence, and two groups show antisocial behavior that begins in childhood but differ on the presence or absence of callous-unemotional traits. In outlining these distinct pathways to antisocial behavior, we have tried to illustrate some key concepts from developmental psychopathology such as equifinality and multifinality, the importance of understanding the interface between normal and abnormal development, and the importance of using multiple levels of analyses to advance causal theories. Finally, we discuss how this development model can be used to enhance existing interventions for antisocial individuals. PMID:19825260
Multiresolution identification of germ layer components in teratomas derived from human and nonhuman primate embryonic stem cells
Amina Chebira; John A. Ozolek; Carlos A. Castro; William G. Jenkinson; Mukta Gore; Ramamurthy Bhagavatula; Irina Khaimovich; Shauna E. Ormon; Christopher S. Navara; Meena Sukhwani; Kyle E. Orwig; Ahmi Ben-yehudah; Gerald Schatten; Gustavo K. Rohde; Jelena Kovacevic
We propose a system for identification of germ layer components in teratomas derived from human and nonhuman primate embryonic stem cells. Tissue regeneration and repair, drug testing and discov- ery, the cure of genetic and developmental syndromes all may rest on the understanding of the biology and behavior of embryonic stem (ES) cells. Within the field of stem cell biology,
Understanding MHC class I presentation of viral antigens by human dendritic cells as a basis for rational design of therapeutic vaccines.
van Montfoort, Nadine; van der Aa, Evelyn; Woltman, Andrea M
Effective viral clearance requires the induction of virus-specific CD8(+) cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL). Since dendritic cells (DC) have a central role in initiating and shaping virus-specific CTL responses, it is important to understand how DC initiate virus-specific CTL responses. Some viruses can directly infect DC, which theoretically allow direct presentation of viral antigens to CTL, but many viruses target other cells than DC and thus the host depends on the cross-presentation of viral antigens by DC to activate virus-specific CTL. Research in mouse models has highly enhanced our understanding of the mechanisms underlying cross-presentation and the dendritic cells (DC) subsets involved, however, these results cannot be readily translated toward the role of human DC in MHC class I-antigen presentation of human viruses. Here, we summarize the insights gained in the past 20?years on MHC class I presentation of viral antigen by human DC and add to the current debate on the capacities of different human DC subsets herein. Furthermore, possible sources of viral antigens and essential DC characteristics for effective induction of virus-specific CTL are evaluated. We conclude that cross-presentation is not only an efficient mechanism exploited by DC to initiate immunity to viruses that do not infect DC but also to viruses that do infect DC, because cross-presentation has many conceptual advantages and bypasses direct immune modulatory effects of the virus on its infected target cells. Since knowledge on the mechanism of viral antigen presentation and the preferred DC subsets is crucial for rational vaccine design, the obtained insights are very instrumental for the development of effective anti-viral immunotherapy. PMID:24795724
Understanding MHC Class I Presentation of Viral Antigens by Human Dendritic Cells as a Basis for Rational Design of Therapeutic Vaccines
van Montfoort, Nadine; van der Aa, Evelyn; Woltman, Andrea M.
Effective viral clearance requires the induction of virus-specific CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL). Since dendritic cells (DC) have a central role in initiating and shaping virus-specific CTL responses, it is important to understand how DC initiate virus-specific CTL responses. Some viruses can directly infect DC, which theoretically allow direct presentation of viral antigens to CTL, but many viruses target other cells than DC and thus the host depends on the cross-presentation of viral antigens by DC to activate virus-specific CTL. Research in mouse models has highly enhanced our understanding of the mechanisms underlying cross-presentation and the dendritic cells (DC) subsets involved, however, these results cannot be readily translated toward the role of human DC in MHC class I-antigen presentation of human viruses. Here, we summarize the insights gained in the past 20?years on MHC class I presentation of viral antigen by human DC and add to the current debate on the capacities of different human DC subsets herein. Furthermore, possible sources of viral antigens and essential DC characteristics for effective induction of virus-specific CTL are evaluated. We conclude that cross-presentation is not only an efficient mechanism exploited by DC to initiate immunity to viruses that do not infect DC but also to viruses that do infect DC, because cross-presentation has many conceptual advantages and bypasses direct immune modulatory effects of the virus on its infected target cells. Since knowledge on the mechanism of viral antigen presentation and the preferred DC subsets is crucial for rational vaccine design, the obtained insights are very instrumental for the development of effective anti-viral immunotherapy. PMID:24795724
The Importance of the Ionic Product for Water to Understand the Physiology of the Acid-Base Balance in Humans
Adeva-Andany, María M.; Carneiro-Freire, Natalia; Donapetry-García, Cristóbal; Rańal-Muíńo, Eva; López-Pereiro, Yosua
Human plasma is an aqueous solution that has to abide by chemical rules such as the principle of electrical neutrality and the constancy of the ionic product for water. These rules define the acid-base balance in the human body. According to the electroneutrality principle, plasma has to be electrically neutral and the sum of its cations equals the sum of its anions. In addition, the ionic product for water has to be constant. Therefore, the plasma concentration of hydrogen ions depends on the plasma ionic composition. Variations in the concentration of plasma ions that alter the relative proportion of anions and cations predictably lead to a change in the plasma concentration of hydrogen ions by driving adaptive adjustments in water ionization that allow plasma electroneutrality while maintaining constant the ionic product for water. The accumulation of plasma anions out of proportion of cations induces an electrical imbalance compensated by a fall of hydroxide ions that brings about a rise in hydrogen ions (acidosis). By contrast, the deficiency of chloride relative to sodium generates plasma alkalosis by increasing hydroxide ions. The adjustment of plasma bicarbonate concentration to these changes is an important compensatory mechanism that protects plasma pH from severe deviations. PMID:24877130
Long-lasting neural circuit dysfunction following developmental ethanol exposure.
Sadrian, Benjamin; Wilson, Donald A; Saito, Mariko
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is a general diagnosis for those exhibiting long-lasting neurobehavioral and cognitive deficiencies as a result of fetal alcohol exposure. It is among the most common causes of mental deficits today. Those impacted are left to rely on advances in our understanding of the nature of early alcohol-induced disorders toward human therapies. Research findings over the last decade have developed a model where ethanol-induced neurodegeneration impacts early neural circuit development, thereby perpetuating subsequent integration and plasticity in vulnerable brain regions. Here we review our current knowledge of FASD neuropathology based on discoveries of long-lasting neurophysiological effects of acute developmental ethanol exposure in animal models. We discuss the important balance between synaptic excitation and inhibition in normal neural network function, and relate the significance of that balance to human FASD as well as related disease states. Finally, we postulate that excitation/inhibition imbalance caused by early ethanol-induced neurodegeneration results in perturbed local and regional network signaling and therefore neurobehavioral pathology. PMID:24027632
Long-Lasting Neural Circuit Dysfunction Following Developmental Ethanol Exposure
Sadrian, Benjamin; Wilson, Donald A.; Saito, Mariko
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is a general diagnosis for those exhibiting long-lasting neurobehavioral and cognitive deficiencies as a result of fetal alcohol exposure. It is among the most common causes of mental deficits today. Those impacted are left to rely on advances in our understanding of the nature of early alcohol-induced disorders toward human therapies. Research findings over the last decade have developed a model where ethanol-induced neurodegeneration impacts early neural circuit development, thereby perpetuating subsequent integration and plasticity in vulnerable brain regions. Here we review our current knowledge of FASD neuropathology based on discoveries of long-lasting neurophysiological effects of acute developmental ethanol exposure in animal models. We discuss the important balance between synaptic excitation and inhibition in normal neural network function, and relate the significance of that balance to human FASD as well as related disease states. Finally, we postulate that excitation/inhibition imbalance caused by early ethanol-induced neurodegeneration results in perturbed local and regional network signaling and therefore neurobehavioral pathology. PMID:24027632
Patch-Clamp Recordings and Calcium Imaging Followed by Single-Cell PCR Reveal the Developmental Profile of 13 Genes in iPSC-Derived Human Neurons
Belinsky, Glenn S.; Rich, Matthew T.; Sirois, Carissa L.; Short, Shaina M.; Pedrosa, Erika; Lachman, Herbert M.; Antic, Srdjan D.
Molecular genetic studies are typically performed on homogenized biological samples, resulting in contamination from non-neuronal cells. To improve expression profiling of neurons we combined patch recordings with single-cell PCR. Two iPSC lines (healthy subject and 22q11.2 deletion), were differentiated into neurons. Patch electrode recordings were performed on 229 human cells from Day-13 to Day-88, followed by capture and single-cell PCR for 13 genes: ACTB, HPRT, vGLUT1, ?TUBIII, COMT, DISC1, GAD1, PAX6, DTNBP1, ERBB4, FOXP1, FOXP2, and GIRK2. Neurons derived from both iPSC lines expressed ?TUBIII, fired action potentials, and experienced spontaneous depolarizations (UP states) ~2 weeks before vGLUT1, GAD1 and GIRK2 appeared. Multisite calcium imaging revealed that these UP states were not synchronized among hESC-H9-derived neurons. The expression of FOXP1, FOXP2 and vGLUT1 was lost after 50 days in culture, in contrast to other continuously expressed genes. When gene expression was combined with electrophysiology, two subsets of genes were apparent; those irrelevant to spontaneous depolarizations (including vGLUT1, GIRK2, FOXP2 and DISC1) and those associated with spontaneous depolarizations (GAD1 and ERBB4). The results demonstrate that in the earliest stages of neuron development, it is useful to combine genetic analysis with physiological characterizations, on a cell-to-cell basis. PMID:24157591
Context-dependent EKLF responsiveness defines the developmental specificity of the human ?-globin gene in erythroid cells of YAC transgenic mice
Tanimoto, Keiji; Liu, Qinghui; Grosveld, Frank; Bungert, Jörg; Engel, James Douglas
We explored the mechanism of definitive-stage ?-globin transcriptional inactivity within a human ?-globin YAC expressed in transgenic mice. We focused on the globin CAC and CAAT promoter motifs, as previous laboratory and clinical studies indicated a pivotal role for these elements in globin gene activation. A high-affinity CAC-binding site for the erythroid krüppel-like factor (EKLF) was placed in the ?-globin promoter at a position corresponding to that in the adult ?-globin promoter, thereby simultaneously ablating a direct repeat (DR) element. This mutation led to EKLF-independent ?-globin transcription during definitive erythropoiesis. A second 4-bp substitution in the ?-globin CAAT sequence, which simultaneously disrupts a second DR element, further enhanced ectopic definitive erythroid activation of ?-globin transcription, which surprisingly became EKLF dependent. We finally examined factors in nuclear extracts prepared from embryonic or adult erythroid cells that bound these elements in vitro, and we identified a novel DR-binding protein (DRED) whose properties are consistent with those expected for a definitive-stage ?-globin repressor. We conclude that the suppression of ?-globin transcription during definitive erythropoiesis is mediated by the binding of a repressor that prevents EKLF from activating the ?-globin gene. PMID:11069894
Applied Developmental Science, Social Justice, and Socio-Political Well-Being
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Fisher, Celia B.; Busch-Rossnagel, Nancy A.; Jopp, Daniela S.; Brown, Joshua L.
In this article we present a vision of applied developmental science (ADS) as a means of promoting social justice and socio-political well-being. This vision draws upon the field's significant accomplishments in identifying and strengthening developmental assets in marginalized youth communities, understanding the effects of poverty and racial…
Stresses and Coping Strategies of Chinese Families with Children with Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Wang, Peishi; Michaels, Craig A.; Day, Matthew S.
Data from 368 families of children with autism and other developmental disabilities in the People's Republic of China were gathered to understand the stresses that families experience and the coping strategies they employ. Chinese families of children with developmental disabilities perceived high levels of stress related to pessimism, child…
Modeling Relations among Discrete Developmental Processes: A General Approach to Associative Latent Transition Analysis
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Bray, Bethany C.; Lanza, Stephanie T.; Collins, Linda M.
To understand one developmental process, it is often helpful to investigate its relations with other developmental processes. Statistical methods that model development in multiple processes simultaneously over time include latent growth curve models with time-varying covariates, multivariate latent growth curve models, and dual trajectory models.…
A Methodology for Assessing the Functions of Emerging Speech in Children with Developmental Disabilities
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Lerman, Dorothea C.; Parten, Mandy; Addison, Laura R.; Vorndran, Christina M.; Volkert, Valerie M.; Kodak, Tiffany
An approach based on Skinner's (1957) theory of verbal behavior has been developed to understand and teach elementary communication skills to children with autism and developmental disabilities (Sundberg & Partington, 1998). However, few studies have directly examined the characteristics of emerging language in children with developmental…
[Models and Foundations of Developmental Education.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Boylan, Hunter R., Ed.; Kerstiens, Gene, Ed.
These five issues of "Research in Developmental Education," examine the theoretical models and foundations of developmental education. Included are the following: (1) "Theoretical Foundations of Developmental Education," by Hunter R. Boylan, which examines the behaviorist, humanist, and developmental theories underpinning developmental education;…
Connecting Professional Development to Current Practices: An Examination of Implementation of Developmentally Appropriate Practices in Early Childhood Education
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Sadlovsky, Kelly R.
This study uses a basic qualitative research design to uncover and understand how early childhood teachers apply developmentally appropriate practices and what successes and barriers they encounter. The new knowledge produced might help professional development practitioners by increasing their understanding of how developmentally appropriate…
Socio-hydrologic Modeling to Understand and Mediate the Competition for Water between Humans and Ecosystems: Murrumbidgee River Basin, Australia (Invited)
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Sivapalan, M.
Competition for water between humans and ecosystems is set to become a flash point in coming decades in all parts of the world. An entirely new and comprehensive quantitative framework is needed to establish a holistic understanding of that competition, thereby enabling development of effective mediation strategies. This paper presents a case study centered on the Murrumbidgee river basin in eastern Australia that illustrates the dynamics of the balance between water extraction and use for food production and efforts to mitigate and reverse consequent degradation of the riparian environment. Interactions between patterns of water management and climate driven hydrological variability within the prevailing socio-economic environment have contributed to the emergence of new whole system dynamics over the last 100 years. In particular, data analysis reveals a pendulum swing between an exclusive focus on agricultural development and food production in the initial stages of water resource development and its attendant socio-economic benefits, followed by the gradual realization of the adverse environmental impacts, efforts to mitigate these with the use of remedial measures, and ultimately concerted efforts and externally imposed solutions to restore environmental health and ecosystem services. A quasi-distributed coupled socio-hydrologic system model that explicitly includes the two-way coupling between human and hydrological systems, including evolution of human values/norms relating to water and the environment, is able to mimic broad features of this pendulum swing. The model consists of coupled nonlinear differential equations that include four state variables describing the co-evolution of storage capacity, irrigated area, human population, and ecosystem health. The model is used to generate insights into the dominant controls of the trajectory of co-evolution of the coupled human-water system, to serve as the theoretical framework for more detailed analysis of the system, and to generate organizing principles that may be transferable to other systems in different climatic and socio-economic settings.
The Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project (HSPDP): Understanding the paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic context of human origins through continental drilling
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Cohen, Andrew S.; Campisano, Christopher; Asrat, Asfawossen; Arrowsmith, Ramon; Deino, Alan; Feibel, Craig; Hill, Andrew; Kingston, John; Lamb, Henry; Lowenstein, Tim; Olago, Daniel; Bernhart Owen, R.; Renaut, Robin; Schabitz, Frank; Trauth, Martin
The influence of climate and environmental history on human evolution is an existential question that continues to be hotly debated, in part because of the paucity of high resolution records collected in close proximity to the key fossil and archaeological evidence. To address this issue and transform the scientific debate, the HSPDP was developed to collect lacustrine sediment drill cores from basins in Kenya and Ethiopia that collectively encompass critical time intervals and locations for Plio-Quaternary human evolution in East Africa. After a 17 month campaign, drilling was completed in November, 2014, with over 1750m of core collected from 11 boreholes from five areas (1930m total drilling length, avg. 91% recovery). The sites, from oldest to youngest, include 1) N. Awash, Ethiopia (~3.5-2.9Ma core interval); 2) Baringo-Tugen Hills, Kenya (~3.3-2.5Ma); 3) West Turkana, Kenya (~1.9-1.4Ma); L. Magadi, Kenya (0.8-0Ma) and the Chew Bahir Basin, Ethiopia (~0.5-0Ma). Initial core description (ICD) and sampling for geochronology, geochemistry and paleoecology studies had been completed by mid2014, with the two remaining sites (Magadi and Chew Bahir) scheduled for ICD work in early 2015. Whereas the primary scientific targets were the lacustrine deposits from the hominin-bearing basin depocenters, many intervals of paleosols (representative of low lake stands and probable arid periods) were also encountered in drill cores. Preliminary analyses of drill core sedimentology and geochemistry show both long-term lake level changes and cyclic variability in lake levels, both of which may be indicative of climatic forcing events of interest to paleoanthropologists. Authors of this abstract also include the entire HSPDP field team.
8/1/12 To Know A Tiger: Better Understanding Breeds More Tolerance -Science News -redOrbit 1/3www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112667333/tiger-knowledge-human-tolerance/
8/1/12 To Know A Tiger: Better Understanding Breeds More Tolerance - Science News - redOrbit 1/3www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112667333/tiger-knowledge-human-tolerance/ Last updated on August 1, 2012 at 15:12 EDT Log In and Sign Up Study Shows That Understanding The Tiger Breeds More Human Tolerance August 1, 2012 0 Image Credit
Human Wharton's jelly-derived mesenchymal stem cells express oocyte developmental genes during co-culture with placental cells
Asgari, Hamid Reza; Akbari, Mohammad; Abbasi, Mehdi; Ai, Jafar; Korouji, Morteza; Aliakbari, Fereshte; Babatunde, Kehinde Adebayo; Aval, Fereydoon Sargolzaei; Joghataei, Mohammad Taghi
Objective(s): The present day challenge is how to obtain germ cells from stem cells to treat patients with cancer and infertility. Much more efforts have been made to develop a procedure for attaining germ cells in vitro. Recently, human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells (HUMSCs) have been introduced with higher efficacy for differentiation. In this work, we tried to explore the efficacy of HUMSCs and some effective products of placental cells such as transforming growth factors. This study is aimed to optimize a co-culture condition for HUMSCs with placental cells to obtain primordial germ cells (PGCs) and reach into oocyte-like cells in vitro. Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, HUMSCs and placental cells were co-cultured for 14 days without any external inducer in vitro. Then HUMSCs were assessed for expression of PGC markers; Octamer-binding transcription factor 4(OCT4), Tyrosine-protein kinase Kit (CKIT), Stage specific embryonic antigen 4 (SSEA4), DEAD (Asp-Glu-Ala-Asp) box polypeptide 4(DDX4) and oocyte specific markers; Growth differentiation factor-9(GDF9), Zona pellucida glycoprotein 3(ZP3). The pertinent markers were assessed by immunocytochemistry and Q-PCR. Results: Co-cultured HUMSCs with placental cells (including amniotic and chorionic cells) presented Oct4 and DDX4, primordial germ cells specific markers significantly, but increment in expression of oocyte-like cell specific markers, GDF9 and ZP3 did not reach to statistically significant threshold. Conclusion: Placental cell supplements Transforming growth factor (TGF ?, ?) and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) in a co-culture model can provide proper environment for induction of HUMSCs into PGCs and expression of oocyte-like markers. PMID:25810872
Designing prospective cohort studies for assessing reproductive and developmental toxicity during sensitive windows of human reproduction and development--the LIFE Study.
Buck Louis, Germaine M; Schisterman, Enrique F; Sweeney, Anne M; Wilcosky, Timothy C; Gore-Langton, Robert E; Lynch, Courtney D; Boyd Barr, Dana; Schrader, Steven M; Kim, Sungduk; Chen, Zhen; Sundaram, Rajeshwari
The relationship between the environment and human fecundity and fertility remains virtually unstudied from a couple-based perspective in which longitudinal exposure data and biospecimens are captured across sensitive windows. In response, we completed the LIFE Study with methodology that intended to empirically evaluate a priori purported methodological challenges: implementation of population-based sampling frameworks suitable for recruiting couples planning pregnancy; obtaining environmental data across sensitive windows of reproduction and development; home-based biospecimen collection; and development of a data management system for hierarchical exposome data. We used two sampling frameworks (i.e., fish/wildlife licence registry and a direct marketing database) for 16 targeted counties with presumed environmental exposures to persistent organochlorine chemicals to recruit 501 couples planning pregnancies for prospective longitudinal follow-up while trying to conceive and throughout pregnancy. Enrolment rates varied from <1% of the targeted population (n =?424,423) to 42% of eligible couples who were successfully screened; 84% of the targeted population could not be reached, while 36% refused screening. Among enrolled couples, ? 85% completed daily journals while trying; 82% of pregnant women completed daily early pregnancy journals, and 80% completed monthly pregnancy journals. All couples provided baseline blood/urine samples; 94% of men provided one or more semen samples and 98% of women provided one or more saliva samples. Women successfully used urinary fertility monitors for identifying ovulation and home pregnancy test kits. Couples can be recruited for preconception cohorts and will comply with intensive data collection across sensitive windows. However, appropriately sized sampling frameworks are critical, given the small percentage of couples contacted found eligible and reportedly planning pregnancy at any point in time. PMID:21819423
Earliest evidence of modern human life history in North African early Homo sapiens
Smith, Tanya M.; Tafforeau, Paul; Reid, Donald J.; Grün, Rainer; Eggins, Stephen; Boutakiout, Mohamed; Hublin, Jean-Jacques
Recent developmental studies demonstrate that early fossil hominins possessed shorter growth periods than living humans, implying disparate life histories. Analyses of incremental features in teeth provide an accurate means of assessing the age at death of developing dentitions, facilitating direct comparisons with fossil and modern humans. It is currently unknown when and where the prolonged modern human developmental condition originated. Here, an application of x-ray synchrotron microtomography reveals that an early Homo sapiens juvenile from Morocco dated at 160,000 years before present displays an equivalent degree of tooth development to modern European children at the same age. Crown formation times in the juvenile's macrodont dentition are higher than modern human mean values, whereas root development is accelerated relative to modern humans but is less than living apes and some fossil hominins. The juvenile from Jebel Irhoud is currently the oldest-known member of Homo with a developmental pattern (degree of eruption, developmental stage, and crown formation time) that is more similar to modern H. sapiens than to earlier members of Homo. This study also underscores the continuing importance of North Africa for understanding the origins of human anatomical and behavioral modernity. Corresponding biological and cultural changes may have appeared relatively late in the course of human evolution. PMID:17372199
Human development XIII: the connection between the structure of the overtone system and the tone language of music. Some implications for our understanding of the human brain.
Ventegodt, Sřren; Hermansen, Tyge Dahl; Kandel, Isack; Merrick, Joav
The functioning brain behaves like one highly-structured, coherent, informational field. It can be popularly described as a "coherent ball of energy", making the idea of a local highly-structured quantum field that carries the consciousness very appealing. If that is so, the structure of the experience of music might be a quite unique window into a hidden quantum reality of the brain, and even of life itself. The structure of music is then a mirror of a much more complex, but similar, structure of the energetic field of the working brain. This paper discusses how the perception of music is organized in the human brain with respect to the known tone scales of major and minor. The patterns used by the brain seem to be similar to the overtones of vibrating matter, giving a positive experience of harmonies in major. However, we also like the minor scale, which can explain brain patterns as fractal-like, giving a symmetric "downward reflection" of the major scale into the minor scale. We analyze the implication of beautiful and ugly tones and harmonies for the model. We conclude that when it comes to simple perception of harmonies, the most simple is the most beautiful and the most complex is the most ugly, but in music, even the most disharmonic harmony can be beautiful, if experienced as a part of a dynamic release of musical tension. This can be taken as a general metaphor of painful, yet meaningful, and developing experiences in human life. PMID:18661052
Investigating the Human Dimension of Unprecedented Global Climate Change in northeastern Siberia, Russia: Understandings, Perceptions and Responses
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Crate, S.
An urgent challenge of the 21st century is to investigate understandings, perceptions and responses of populations confronting the local effects of global climate change. This paper describes the most recent results of one such project working with rural native Viliui Sakha communities, Turkic-speaking horse & cattle breeders in northeastern Siberia, Russia. The research questions are: 1) What local effects of global climate change are Viliui Sakha communities observing, how are Viliui Sakha perceiving these changes and how are the changes affecting both their subsistence survival and their cultural orientations? 2) What local knowledge exists about past climate perturbations and how does that knowledge influence contemporary adaptation to global climate change? 3) How can anecdotal (local) knowledge and regional scientific knowledge about the local effects of global climate change be integrated to enhance both local adaptive responses and policy efforts? The four-village, three-year study is a collaborative effort involving the active participation of the targeted communities, field assistants, native specialists, an in-country research team and an international collaborator. The project is founded on the PI's 20 years of ongoing research and work with rural Viliui Sakha communities and on her fluency in both the Sakha and Russian languages. A central focus of this project is the integration of local and scientific knowledges. We are documenting local knowledge on the community, elder and archival levels. We are collaborating with scientists in Yakutsk for regional scientific data. Our project team has just returned from the second summer of field work and this presentation will cover the project results to date. Hayfields are inundated with water.
Developmental mechanisms of vertebrate limb evolution.
Cohn, M J
Over the past few years, our understanding of the evolution of limbs has been improved by important new discoveries in the fossil record. Additionally, rapid progress has been made in identifying the molecular basis of vertebrate limb development. It is now possible to integrate these two areas of research in order to identify the molecular developmental mechanisms underlying the evolution of paired appendages in vertebrates. After the origin of paired appendages, several vertebrate lineages reduced or eliminated fins and limbs and returned to the limbless condition. Examples include eels, caecilians, snakes, slow worms and several marine mammals. Analyses of fossil and extant vertebrates show that evolution of limblessness frequently occurred together with elongation of the trunk and loss of clear morphological boundaries in the vertebral column. This may be suggestive of a common developmental mechanism linking these two processes. We have addressed this question by analysing python embryonic development at tissue, cellular and molecular levels, and we have identified a developmental mechanism which may account for evolution of limb loss in these animals. PMID:11277086
[Pervasive developmental disorders. Clinical and genetics aspects].
Ruggieri, Victor; Arberas, Claudia
Pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) encompass a heterogeneous group of children with deficits of verbal and non-verbal language, social communication, and with a restricted repertoire of activities or repetitive behaviours. The frequency in general population is considered 27.5/10,000. In this study, we analyzed the clinical and genetic aspects of Autism, Asperger Syndrome, PDD Not Otherwise Specified, Rett Syndrome and Childhood Disintegrative Disorder. We analyzed clinical, behavioural and neuropsychological features. We revised different medical genetics associated conditions and divided the genetics aspects of pervasive developmental disorders into two groups: Syndromic forms (around 20%) and non syndromic forms (currently proposed to be 80%). The early recognition of pervasive developmental disorders and the diagnosis of specific associated syndromes allow early therapy, correct genetic counselling, and follow up anticipating possible complications related to the entity. Finally, although the genetic bases of autism have not yet been identified, the following candidate genes have been proposed: 15q, 2q, 17q, 7q, 12q, and X related genes, among others; which are analyzed in this study and will allow a better understanding of these disorders in the future. PMID:18422083
29 CFR 1952.371 - Developmental schedule.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR
...DEPARTMENT OF LABOR (CONTINUED) APPROVED STATE PLANS FOR ENFORCEMENT OF STATE STANDARDS Virginia § 1952.371 Developmental schedule. The Virginia plan is developmental. Following is a schedule of major developmental steps:...
Dibutyltin (DBT), a widely used plastic stabilizer, is detected in the environment and human tissues. While teratological and developmental effects are known, we could find no published report of DBT effects on the developing nervous system. As part of a developmental neurotoxi...
Spatial Localisation of Actin Filaments across Developmental Stages of the Malaria Parasite
McFadden, Geoff
Spatial Localisation of Actin Filaments across Developmental Stages of the Malaria Parasite Fiona of developmental processes during the malaria parasite lifecycle. Parasite motility, in particular, is thought to different lifecycle stages (merozoites, sporozoites and ookinetes) of the human and mouse malaria parasite
Contemplative Practices and Orders of Consciousness: A Constructive-Developmental Approach
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Silverstein, Charles H.
This qualitative study explores the correspondence between contemplative practices and "orders of consciousness" from a constructive-developmental perspective, using Robert Kegan's approach. Adult developmental growth is becoming an increasingly important influence on humanity's ability to deal effectively with the growing…
A Developmental Toxicity Database to Support Computational Toxicology; A Collaborative Project for Data Sharing and Harmonization
Developmental toxicity is one of the most important non-cancer endpoints for both environmental and human health. Despite the fact that numerous developmental studies are being conducted, as required for regulatory decisions, there are not yet sufficient data available to develop...
Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (MRDD) Branch. NICHD Report to the NACHHD Council
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), 2005
This document is the quadrennial report of the Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (MRDD) Branch to the National Advisory Child Health and Human Development (NACHHD) Council. The MRDD Branch is a vital, evolving entity within the Center for Developmental Biology and Perinatal Medicine (CDBPM) at the National Institute of Child …
Developmental toxicity of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs): a systematic review of experimental data
Beate Ulbrich; Ralf Stahlmann
Experimental reproductive and developmental toxicity studies with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are reviewed in brief to determine their relevance for current environmental exposure of humans during the prenatal and postnatal developmental periods. Additional material is published in electronic form only, which contains graphic overviews on individual PCBs and various mixtures that are linked with the relevant citations. In this comprehensive article
Sexuality and Developmental Disability: Obstacles to Healthy Sexuality throughout the Lifespan
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Richards, Deborah; Miodrag, Nancy; Watson, Shelley L.
This paper presents a lifespan perspective of sexuality issues for individuals with developmental disabilities. Individuals with developmental disabilities are human beings who have historically been denied the right to express their sexuality or engage in sexual relationships due to misconceptions or negative attitudes. Using a hypothetical case…
Undergraduates' Evaluations of Developmental Claims and Their Identification of Information Sources
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Bain, Sherry K.; Williams, Robert L.; Isaacs, Rachael; Williams, Ashley; Stockdale, Susan
Students in a large human development course rated the accuracy of 50 developmental claims. Half of the claims were specifically embedded in the course content, but the remaining claims were not addressed in the course. Students also identified the major information source for each developmental claim rated. From the beginning to the end of the…