A reliable measure of similarity based on dependency for short time series: an application to gene expression networks

Background: Microarray techniques have become an important tool to the investigation of genetic relationships and the assignment of different phenotypes. Since microarrays are still very expensive, most of the experiments are performed with small samples. This paper introduces a method to quantify dependency between data series composed of few sample points. The method is used to construct gene co-expression subnetworks of highly significant edges. Results: The results shown here are for an adapted subset of a Saccharomyces cerevisiae gene expression data set with low temporal resolution and poor statistics. The method reveals common transcription factors with a high confidence level and allows the construction of subnetworks with high biological relevance that reveals characteristic features of the processes driving the organism adaptations to specific environmental conditions. Conclusion: Our method allows a reliable and sophisticated analysis of microarray data even under severe constraints. The utilization of systems biology improves the biologists ability to elucidate the mechanisms underlying celular processes and to formulate new hypotheses.

Determination of Threshold Dose of Photodynamic Therapy to Measure Superficial Necrosis

Background Data: Photodynamic therapy (PDT) involves the photoinduction of cytotoxicity using a photosensitizer agent, a light source of the proper wavelength, and the presence of molecular oxygen. A model for tissue response to PDT based on the photodynamic threshold dose (Dth) has been widely used. In this model cells exposed to doses below Dth survive while at doses above the Dth necrosis takes place. Objective: This study evaluated the light Dth values by using two different methods of determination. One model concerns the depth of necrosis and the other the width of superficial necrosis. Materials and Methods: Using normal rat liver we investigated the depth and width of necrosis induced by PDT when a laser with a gaussian intensity profile is used. Different light doses, photosensitizers (Photogem, Photofrin, Photosan, Foscan, Photodithazine, and Radachlorin), and concentrations were employed. Each experiment was performed on five animals and the average and standard deviations were calculated. Results: A simple depth and width of necrosis model analysis allows us to determine the threshold dose by measuring both depth and surface data. Comparison shows that both measurements provide the same value within the degree of experimental error. Conclusion: This work demonstrates that by knowing the extent of the superficial necrotic area of a target tissue irradiated by a gaussian light beam, it is possible to estimate the threshold dose. This technique may find application where the determination of Dth must be done without cutting the tissue.

Alternative fidelity measure between quantum states

We propose an alternative fidelity measure (namely, a measure of the degree of similarity) between quantum states and benchmark it against a number of properties of the standard Uhlmann-Jozsa fidelity. This measure is a simple function of the linear entropy and the Hilbert-Schmidt inner product between the given states and is thus, in comparison, not as computationally demanding. It also features several remarkable properties such as being jointly concave and satisfying all of Jozsa's axioms. The trade-off, however, is that it is supermultiplicative and does not behave monotonically under quantum operations. In addition, metrics for the space of density matrices are identified and the joint concavity of the Uhlmann-Jozsa fidelity for qubit states is established.

A new approach for in vitro bioassay to measure tannin biological effects based on a gas production technique

The aim of this paper was to study a method based on gas production technique to measure the biological effects of tannins on rumen fermentation. Six feeds were used as fermentation substrates in a semi-automated gas method: feed A - aroeira (Astronium urundeuva); feed B - jurema preta (Mimosa hostilis), feed C - sorghum grains (Sorghum bicolor); feed D - Tifton-85 (Cynodon sp.); and two others prepared mixing 450 g sorghum leaves, 450 g concentrate (maize and soybean meal) and 100 g either of acacia (Acacia mearnsii) tannin extract (feed E) or quebracho (Schinopsis lorentzii) tannin extract (feed F) per kg (w:w). Three assays were carried out to standardize the bioassay for tannins. The first assay compared two binding agents (polyethylene glycol - PEG - and polyvinyl polypirrolidone - PVPP) to attenuate the tannin effects. The complex formed by PEG and tannins showed to be more stable than PVPP and tannins. Then, in the second assay, PEG was used as binding agent, and this assay was done to evaluate levels of PEG (0, 500, 750, 1000 and 1250 mg/g DM) to minimize the tannin effect. All the tested levels of PEG produced a response to evaluate tannin effects but the best response was for dose of 1000 mg/g DM. Using this dose of PEG, the final assay was carried out to test three compounds (tannic acid, quebracho extract and acacia extract) to establish a curve of biological equivalent effect of tannins. For this, five levels of each compound were added to I g of a standard feed (Lucerne hay). The equivalent effect showed not to be directly related to the chemical analysis for tannins. It was shown that different sources of tannins had different activities or reactivities. The curves of biological equivalence can provide information about tannin reactivity and its use seems to be important as an additional factor for chemical analysis. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Fatigue in Brazilian cancer patients, caregivers, and nursing students: a psychometric validation study of the Piper Fatigue Scale-Revised

The objective of this study was to validate the Piper Fatigue Scale-Revised (PFS-R) for use in Brazilian culture. Translation of the PFS-R into Portuguese and validity and reliability tests were performed. Convenience samples in Brazil we as follows: 584 cancer patients (mean age 57 +/- 13 years; 51.3% female); 184 caregivers (mean age 50 +/- 12.7 years; 65.8% female); and 189 undergraduate nursing students (mean age 21.6 +/- 2.8 years; 96.2% female); Instruments used were as follows: Brazilian PFS, Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and Karnofsky Performance Scale (KPS). The 22 items of the Brazilian PFS loaded well (factor loading > 0.35) on three dimensions identified by factor analysis (behavioral, affective, and sensorial-psychological). These dimensions explained 65% of the variance. Internal consistency reliability was very good (Cronbach`s alpha ranged from 0.841 to 0.943 for the total scale and its dimensions). Cancer patients and their caregivers completed the Brazilian PFS twice for test-retest reliability and results showed good stability (Pearson`s r a parts per thousand yenaEuro parts per thousand 0,60, p < 0,001). Correlations among the Brazilian PFS and other scales were significant, in hypothesized directions, and mostly moderate contributing to divergent (Brazilian PFS x KPS) and convergent validity (Brazilian PFS x BDI). Mild, moderate, and severe fatigue in patients were reported by 73 (12.5%), 167 (28.6%), and 83 (14.2%), respectively. Surprisingly, students had the highest mean total fatigue scores; no significant differences were observed between patients and caregivers showing poor discriminant validity. While the Brazilian PFS is a reliable and valid instrument to measure fatigue in Brazilian cancer patients, further work is needed to evaluate the discriminant validity of the scale in Brazil.

EFFECTS OF 14-WEEK SWIMMING TRAINING PROGRAM ON THE PSYCHOLOGICAL, HORMONAL, AND PHYSIOLOGICAL PARAMETERS OF ELITE WOMEN ATHLETES

Santhiago, V, da Silva, ASR, Papoti, M, and Gobatto, CA. Effects of 14-week swimming training program on the psychological, hormonal, and physiological parameters of elite women athletes. J Strength Cond Res 25(3): 825-832, 2011-The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of a 14-week swimming training program on psychological, hormonal, and performance parameters of elite women swimmers. Ten Olympic and international-level elite women swimmers were evaluated 4 times along the experiment (i.e., in T1, T2, T3, and T4). On the first day at 8: 00 AM, before the blood collecting at rest for the determination of hormonal parameters, the athletes had their psychological parameters assessed by the profile of mood-state questionnaire. At 3: 00 AM, the swimmers had their anaerobic threshold assessed. On the second day at 3: 00 AM, the athletes had their alactic anaerobic performance measured. Vigor score and testosterone levels were lower (p <= 0.05) in T4 compared with T3. In addition, the rate between the peak blood lactate concentration and the median velocity obtained in the alactic anaerobic performance test increased in T4 compared with T3 (p < 0.05). For practical applications, the swimming coaches should not use a tapering with the present characteristics to avoid unexpected results.

Quality of life after coronary artery bypass surgery

This study assessed the quality of life (QoL) of 124 people with coronary artery disease who had coronary artery bypass surgery in a hospital in Brazil, by using the Modified Flanagan`s QoL instrument as the outcome measure. In addition, we studied the association between QoL and demographic, clinical, and perceived health status (using SF-36 Health Survey) measures. The mean for the Modified Flanagan`s QoL was high (M = 84.8, SD = 13.6) when compared to similar studies in the United States. In a linear regression analysis, the SF-36 subscales of vitality, and general and mental health were statistically significant (p < .01 for all), after adjusting for other demographic and clinical variables. Increasing values of those SF-36 subscales corresponded to increasing Modified Flanagan`s QoL. Despite the limitations of the study, this result suggests that future clinical interventions aimed to improve QoL in this population could focus on the patient`s psychological conditions after the surgery.

SENSORY APPROACH TO MEASURE FRAGRANCE INTENSITY ON THE SKIN

Sensory analysis is a precise and descriptive measuring technique to quantify human responses to stimuli. Odor, one of these stimuli, is basically the result of the interaction between a chemical stimulus and the olfactory receptor system, which can be described using a number of different dimensions and measures through different sensory tests: threshold, intensity and quality. To measure fragrance performance on the skin, these parameters are very important, but the main attribute to be evaluated is substantivity, thus the importance of the sensory scale chosen to measure perception, discriminate different intensities and determine the substantivity of the fragrance. Some studies comparing the labeled magnitude scale (LMS) with other magnitude scales and their derivations showed that the use of the LMS scale to measure fragrance intensity could semantically understand the intensity of the stimulus. Tests using this scale confirmed the applicability and efficiency of the LMS. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS The objective of this article is to review the techniques used to measure odor and fragrance intensities applied on the skin. The review shows general sensory techniques and their goals, the newest olfactory mechanism and its contribution to sensory evaluation and which attributes should be considered to measure odor. Substantivity/retentivity or longevity can be regarded as the most important attributes if you want to measure fragrance performance on the skin. Past studies showed different scales tested to measure odor, and some of them demonstrated that the labeled magnitude scale is very suitable to measure fragrance on the skin.

A matching pursuit-based signal complexity measure for the analysis of newborn EEG

This paper presents a new relative measure of signal complexity, referred to here as relative structural complexity, which is based on the matching pursuit (MP) decomposition. By relative, we refer to the fact that this new measure is highly dependent on the decomposition dictionary used by MP. The structural part of the definition points to the fact that this new measure is related to the structure, or composition, of the signal under analysis. After a formal definition, the proposed relative structural complexity measure is used in the analysis of newborn EEG. To do this, firstly, a time-frequency (TF) decomposition dictionary is specifically designed to compactly represent the newborn EEG seizure state using MP. We then show, through the analysis of synthetic and real newborn EEG data, that the relative structural complexity measure can indicate changes in EEG structure as it transitions between the two EEG states; namely seizure and background (non-seizure).

Comparison of surveys used to measure physical activity

Objective: To compare the level of agreement in results obtained from four physical activity (PA) measurement instruments that are in use in Australia and around the world. Methods: 1,280 randomly selected participants answered two sets of PA questions by telephone. 428 answered the Active Australia (AA) and National Health Surveys, 427 answered the AA and CDC Behavioural Risk Factor Surveillance System surveys (BRFSS), and 425 answered the AA survey and the short International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). Results: Among the three pairs of survey items, the difference in mean total PA time was lowest when the AA and NHS items were asked (difference=24) (SE:17) minutes, compared with 144 (SE:21) mins for AA/BRFSS and 406 (SE:27) mins for AA/IPAQ). Correspondingly, prevalence estimates for 'sufficiently active' were similar for AA and NHS (56% and 55% respectively), but about 10% higher when BRFSS data were used, and about 26% higher when the IPAQ items were used, compared with estimates from the AA survey. Conclusions: The findings clearly demonstrate that there are large differences in reported PA times and hence in prevalence estimates of 'sufficient activity' from these four measures. Implications: It is important to consistently use the same survey for population monitoring purposes. As the AA survey has now been used three times in national surveys, its continued use for population surveys is recommended so that trend data ever a longer period of time can be established.

Should the health community promote smokeless tobacco (snus) as a harm reduction measure?

Background to the debate: The tobacco control community is divided on whether or not to inform the public that using oral, smokeless tobacco (Swedish snus) is less hazardous to health than smoking tobacco. Proponents of 'harm reduction' point to the Swedish experience. Snus seems to be widely used as an alternative to cigarettes in Sweden, say these proponents, contributing to the low overall prevalence of smoking and smoking-related disease. Harm reduction proponents thus argue that the health community should actively inform inveterate cigarette smokers of the benefits of switching to snus. However, critics of harm reduction say that snus has its own risks, that no form of tobacco should ever be promoted, and that Sweden’s experience is likely to be specific to that culture and not transferable to other settings. Critics also remain deeply suspicious that the tobacco industry will use snus marketing as a 'gateway' to promote cigarettes. In the interests of promoting debate, the authors (who are collaborators on a research project on the future of tobacco control) have agreed to outline the strongest arguments for and against promoting Swedish snus as a form of harm reduction.

Psychological science in Australia

This paper is a brief account of the Australian Strategic Review of the Psychology Discipline and its Research. Issues discussed include Australia's contribution to world research in psychological science, research funding, the age and qualifications of researchers, the social and economic benefits arising from the applications of research outcomes, multidisciplinary issues, the role of psychology in industry, links between the discipline and the profession of psychology, professional training, cross-cultural issues, and educational issues. Priorities for development of research and postgraduate training are identified, and include human factors and other areas related to technological change, clinical psychology with particular attention to health psychology, industrial and organizational psychology, and neuroscience and physiological psychology.