Search

Emerging reports of rare neurological complications associated with COVID-19 infection and vaccinations are leading to regulatory, clinical and public health concerns. We undertook a self-controlled case series study to investigate hospital admissions from neurological complications in the 28 days after a first dose of ChAdOx1nCoV-19 (n = 20,417,752) or BNT162b2 (n = 12,134,782), and after a SARS-CoV-2-positive test (n = 2,005,280). There was an increased risk of Guillain-Barré syndrome (incidence rate ratio (IRR), 2.90; 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.15-3.92 at 15-21 days after vaccination) and Bell's palsy (IRR, 1.29; 95% CI: 1.08-1.56 at 15-21 days) with ChAdOx1nCoV-19. There was an increased risk of hemorrhagic stroke (IRR, 1.38; 95% CI: 1.12-1.71 at 15-21 days) with BNT162b2. An independent Scottish cohort provided further support for the association between ChAdOx1nCoV and Guillain-Barré syndrome (IRR, 2.32; 95% CI: 1.08-5.02 at 1-28 days). There was a substantially higher risk of all neurological outcomes in the 28 days after a positive SARS-CoV-2 test including Guillain-Barré syndrome (IRR, 5.25; 95% CI: 3.00-9.18). Overall, we estimated 38 excess cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome per 10 million people receiving ChAdOx1nCoV-19 and 145 excess cases per 10 million people after a positive SARS-CoV-2 test. In summary, although we find an increased risk of neurological complications in those who received COVID-19 vaccines, the risk of these complications is greater following a positive SARS-CoV-2 test. A self-controlled case series analysis of nearly 32 million people in England shows an increased risk of rare neurological complications in those who received COVID-19 vaccines and following SARS-CoV-2 infection. The results highlight 38 excess cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome per 10 million ChAdOx1nCoV-19 vaccinations., Author(s): Martina Patone [sup.1] , Lahiru Handunnetthi [sup.2] [sup.3] , Defne Saatci [sup.1] , Jiafeng Pan [sup.4] , Srinivasa Vittal Katikireddi [sup.5] , Saif Razvi [sup.6] , David Hunt [sup.7] [...]

Allegations have been made that a university professor, an analytics company and a social media giant, through their actions and inactions, improperly influenced the 2016 U.S. presidential election with analytics. [...]

In 2017, Pro Bono Analytics moved from an initiative to an official INFORMS program, and the response has been overwhelming. In addition to helping nonprofit organizations across the country and [...]

In the Mekong Delta province of My Tho, village populations paid attention to print and electronic media controlled by the Government of Vietnam in Saigon and by the National Liberation Front during the early 1960s. They also relied for news on rumours and on information circulating on the grapevine. At first, NLF militants benefited from their dialogue with an ascendant rural public. But after 1965 mounting violence complicated Front efforts to stay in touch with its mass base, and the grapevine assumed an even greater importance for people in the countryside. On the eve of the Tet Offensive of 1968, the choices made by rural dwellers helped to determine the course of the Second Indochina War. Keywords: Second Indochina War, National Liberation Front, Government of Vietnam, rural public, newspapers and radio broadcasts, rumours and the grapevine, Tet Offensive., This is an article on propaganda wars between the National Liberation Front (NLF) and the Saigon-based Government of Vietnam (GVN), and it is also about the evolution of public opinion [...]

There are two fundamental philosophies for operating a freight railroad: tonnage-based and scheduled. In a tonnage-based operation, a train will be held in a yard until it has been loaded [...]

Author(s): Martina Patone [sup.1], Lahiru Handunnetthi [sup.2] [sup.3], Defne Saatci [sup.1], Jiafeng Pan [sup.4], Srinivasa Vittal Katikireddi [sup.5], Saif Razvi [sup.6], David Hunt [sup.7], Xue W. Mei [sup.1], Sharon Dixon [...]

We know relationship building is critical to improving patient outcomes, and strong communication is especially important. Good communication can result not only in more efficient, effective care, but also greater [...]

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2009.06.002 Byline: Mark Peterson (a), Ahmet Ekici (b), David M. Hunt (a) Keywords: Business' contribution to QOL; Consumer trust for market-related institutions; Consumer attitude toward marketing; Quality of life; QOL; Economic crisis; Subsistence marketplaces Abstract: This study proposes and tests a three-step model of business' contribution to quality of life 5years after a devastating national economic crisis in a developing country. The model incorporates both a beneficent dimension of the marketplace (represented by consumer attitude toward marketing -- CATM) and a non-maleficent dimension (represented by consumer trust for market-related institutions -- CTMRI). This study compares how the poor and the non-poor draw differently on these two dimensions in forming their perceptions about how business contributes to their quality of life. Beginning with the exogenous construct attitude toward changes in marketing practices since the last economic crisis (5years ago), this study 1) proposes a causal model that introduces a first-order construct -- Business' Contribution to My Quality of Life (BCM-QOL), and 2) explains how BCM-QOL serves as a mediator between marketplace perceptions of both beneficence and non-maleficence and quality of life. Results reveal differences between how the poor and the non-poor in a developing country think about the effects of market changes after an economic crisis. Consumers living below the Turkish poverty line, although not within the UN-defined ranks of the global poor (e.g., $2 per-day earnings) tend to see their place in the market in a manner similar to subsistence consumers. Author Affiliation: (a) University of Wyoming, College of Business, Department of Management and Marketing, Dept. 3275, 1000 E. University Ave., Laramie, WY 82071, United States (b) Bilkent University, Faculty of Business Administration, 06800 Bilkent-Ankara, Turkey

Familial macular degeneration is a clinically and genetically heterogeneous group of disorders characterized by progressive central vision loss. Here we show that an R373C missense mutation in the prominin 1 gene (PROM1) causes 3 forms of autosomal-dominant macular degeneration. In transgenic mice expressing R373C mutant human PROM1, both mutant and endogenous PROM1 were found throughout the layers of the photoreceptors, rather than at the base of the photoreceptor outer segments, where PROM1 is normally localized. Moreover, the outer segment disk membranes were greatly overgrown and misoriented, indicating defective disk morphogenesis. Immunoprecipitation studies showed that PROM1 interacted with protocadherin 21 (PCDH21), a photoreceptor-specific cadherin, and with actin filaments, both of which play critical roles in disk membrane morphogenesis. Collectively, our results identify what we believe to be a novel complex involved in photoreceptor disk morphogenesis and indicate a possible role for PROM1 and PCDH21 in macular degeneration., Introduction Retinal photoreceptor cells are highly specialized. One compartment, organized as an outer segment (OS) in vertebrates, contains a stack of over 1,000 disks harboring rhodopsin and the phototransduction machinery. [...]

Abstract Colour associations are analysed indirectly by a study of oral traditions and legends, using methods developed in structural anthropology. Colours are considered not in isolation, but mainly in contrasting [...]

'Cone dystrophy with supernormal rod electroretinogram (ERG) disorder is linked to a 0.98-cM (1.5-Mb) region on chromosome 9p24, flanked by rs1112534 and rs1074449 by using homozygosity mapping in a large consanguineous pedigree. It is suggested that mutations might perturb or abrogate the potassium current within vertebrate photoreceptor inner segments, which are shown to set their resting potential and voltage response.

An experiment is conducted to examine whether vertebrate opsins belonging to different classes vary in constitutively active properties. Results show that mutations in the conserved salt bridge cause constitutive activation in all classes of vertebrate opsins and although opsins of different classes have an overall similar structure, differences do exist, which might result in changes in activation properties as well as active conformations.

Robert J. Terry began collecting human skeletal remains in the area of St. Louis, Missouri for research and educational purposes in 1898. He continued collecting skeletal specimens in the Anatomy Department at Washington University until his retirement in 1941. Mildred Trotter succeeded Terry as anatomy professor and continued his collecting, and strove to balance the demographic distribution of the collection. In 1967, after her retirement, the collection was moved to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History. As with several other well-documented collections, the Terry Collection is widely used for a diverse range of anthropological and medical research. Despite its extensive use, there has been limited discussion of the collection's history and incomplete description of holdings and associated materials of this collection. In this paper, the historical background of the collection and the collection process is described; the demographic composition of the collection, and a description of the documentary and supporting data are presented; and the quality and of these data are assessed. The Terry Collection consists of 1,728 individuals. Age at death ranges from 14-102 years, with the majority of the individuals ranging from 20-80 years. Year of birth ranges from 1828-1943; the mean year of birth for males is 1880, and for females it is 1884. The mean age at death for males is 53 years, and for females it is 58 years. Terry's strict protocols for the processing of cadavers and the recording of documentary data make the Terry Collection a valuable resource for anthropological and medical research. Am J Phys Anthropol 127:406-417, 2005. KEY WORDS history of physical anthropology; history of human skeletal collections; Hamann-Todd Collection; Huntington Collection

A meta-analysis that compares benefits and risks of routine invasive vs. selective invasive strategies is conducted. A routine invasive strategy exceeded a selective invasive strategy in reducing myocardial infarction (MI), severe angina, and rehospitalization over a mean follow-up to 17 months.

Objective: To assess the accuracy of the Australian National Death Index (NDI) in identifying deaths and recording cardiovascular and cancer causes of death. Methods: Adjudicated mortality data from Australian participants in the Long-term Intervention with Pravastatin in Ischaemic Disease (LIPID) study up until September 1999 were used as reference. Nine hundred and eighty deceased subjects and 4,841 surviving subjects were matched to the NDI by name, date of birth, date of death and postcode. Matching rigour was confirmed by manual review. Deaths ascribed to cardiovascular and cancer causes within the NDI were also compared against LIPID-adjudicated causes. Results: The NDI displayed 93.7% sensitivity and 100% specificity for the identification of deaths. Mis-recording of identifiers was responsible for 69% of known deaths not matching to the NDI and, if eliminated, would have increased the sensitivity to 98.0%. Among deceased subjects who matched to the NDI, cause of death was recorded in 96.2%. The sensitivity and specificity for cardiovascular deaths were 92.5% and 89.6%, respectively, and for cancer deaths 95.2% and 99.2%, respectively. Conclusion: Much of the inaccuracy of the NDI could potentially be overcome by the use of unique identifiers. Among deaths identified by the NDI, those due to cardiovascular disease are more likely to be inaccurately recorded than cancer-related deaths, probably because less uncertainty surrounds the presence or absence of terminal malignant disease.

Abstract Written evidence from the hunting folk literature of the Caucasus is presented together with the suggestion that the origin of the unicorn lies in hunting mythology and that remnants [...]

Research has been conducted on the nodulisporic acid and ivermectin. The (super)35 S-labeled derivatives of these insecticides have been synthesized and the results indicate that they bind to the population receptors in Drosophila melanogaster head membrane associated with the glutamate-gated GluCl(alpha) chloride channel.

Research has been conducted on the SWS2 class of visual pigments which are G-protein-coupled receptors. The evolution of these visual pigments in the cottoid fish species exposed to photic environments and the spectral tuning within the SWS2 group of visual pigments have been investigated and discussed.

The problem of evil is discussed in relation to theistic minimalism. The case for a presumption in favor of theistic minimalism based on the problem of evil is found to be flawed.

Pravastatin may reduce the risk of stroke in patients with elevated cholesterol levels. Some studies have found that elevated cholesterol levels are a risk factor for stroke. Pravastatin is a drug that lowers blood cholesterol levels. In a study of 9,014 patients with a history of heart attack or angina, those who were taking pravastatin had a slightly lower risk of stroke than those taking a placebo, or inactive substance.

Results show that amino acid sequences of two pigments from Humbolt penguin and pigeon reveal five amino acid sites that are prone for substitution leading to spectral differences between the species.

Mutations in the photoreceptor membrane guanylyl cyclase RetGC-1 have been linked to autosomal dominant cone-rod dystrophy. Three mutations were identified that alter strictly conserved residues within the RetGC-1 dimerization domain, a region predicted to form an amphipathic [Alpha]-helical coil. Here we report on a biochemical characterization of one of the mutations, a substitution of cysteine for arginine at residue 838. We generated this mutation in vitro and measured its catalytic activity and sensitivity to guanylyl cyclase activating protein 1 (GCAP-1) and GCAP.2. The R838C substitution has several effects. It reduces the overall catalytic ability of RetGC-1 and dramatically reduces stimulation by GCAP-2, although GCAP-2 still appears to interact with the protein. The R838C substitution also increases the apparent affinity of RetGC-1 for GCAP-1 and alters the [Ca.sup.2+] sensitivity of the GCAP-1 response, allowing the mutant to be stimulated by GCAP-1 at higher [Ca.sup.2+] concentrations than wild type. The diminished response to GCAP-2, which we propose is not likely the cause of cone-rod degeneration in these patients, is interesting mechanistically because it separates the ability to bind a specific GCAP from the ability to be stimulated by it, and it also discriminates between the mechanisms of activation of GCAP-1 vs. GCAP-2. We suggest that the gain-of-function effects of R838C on RetGC-1 stimulated by GCAP-1, which are dominant in vitro and may cause an abnormal increase in cGMP synthesis in dark-adapted photoreceptors, may be the cause of the cone-rod degeneration.

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) researchers aim to accurately predict aerodynamic forces from numerical simulations. A momentum balance approach has developed a system of integrals reducing the task of force computation to the integration of certain flow parameters in a crossflow plane. The decomposition of the drag can be used to formulate methods to evaluate drag accurately.

A medical practice by two young internists had cash-flow problems and was investigated. The two doctors were close friends and decided to establish a practice but they were so different and failed to reach agreements so that their staff became confused and disorganized. Attempts to resolve their differences failed to reach any compromises. Eventually, the two doctors went their separate ways and had a difficult time dividing their assets., Trying to follow conflicting orders, staffers were spinning their wheels and little was getting done. Walking into their office suite was like entering a furniture showroom. The rooms to the [...]

Plato's main interest in the 'Timaeus' is how phenomena should be talked about in light of their problematic behavior. The text has been analyzed by scholars extensively. The most-discussed syntactical dispute is over a phrase that translates into 'not this but the suchlike to call fire,' which occurs three times in the given passage. Analysis suggests that Plato rejects the idea of individual material substances.

Some see the problem of theological fatalism as coming from a mistaken commitment to the principle of alternate possibilities. It is a metaphysical problem, not just a theological one. Augustine's 'On Free Choice' adds to fatalism a requirement that prior truths be known in advance by God. This could be called theological fatalism. The problem for fatalism, the theory that free agency is an illusion because the future is no more open than the past, is that ordinary determinism implies a kind of necessity that is less strong than that in what has already happened. Fatalism extends the temporal necessity of that which is past to take in the future.

Knowledge is a good thing. But might it be one of those good things of which one can have too much? Perhaps so, if the knowledge in question is foreknowledge. [...]

The porphyria theory developed when King George III was retrospectively diagnosed by psychiatrists Ida Macalpine and Richard Hunter to be suffering from heme production disturbance. The King's complaints of stomach pains, tachycardia, constipation and polyneuritis prompted this observation. Macalpine and Hunter, egged on by the hereditary characteristic of the disease, started a series of investigations to find proof that the King's relatives also had the same disease. Although some interesting findings were reported, Royal porphyria remains undocumented and is still a theory.

Supposed Upper Proterozoic strata in the southwest Taoudeni Basin, Guinea and Senegal, and from the Mauritanide fold belt, Mauritania, have yielded mostly poorly preserved small skeletal fossils of metazoan and protistan origin. Problematic, but possible echinoderm material and spicules of the heteractinid sponge Eiffelia dominate the Taoudeni Basin assemblage. The age of the material is not certain but the paleontologic data suggest an Early Cambrian age for the stratigraphically lowest faunas, and a Middle Cambrian age is possible for the stratigraphically highest collections.

This study examined the use of juxtaposed scales, a type of self-report response scale used to study numerous attitudinal and behavioral concepts. This research is an extension of the exploratory work on the bias associated with juxtaposed scales begun by Hunt and Miller in 1983. Findings support the hypothesis that juxtaposed scales will elicit different responses than separate scales. When are these differences explicit and when are they an unwanted bias? Results and attendant discussion and recommendations are used to call attention to the importance of planning for the method bias which can be created by the use of juxtaposed scales.

Theological fatalism is the position that (libertarianly) free agency is incompatible with the existence of an everlasting and essentially omniscient being.(1) The classic argument for this conclusion begins with the [...]

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this volume on quangos. In the daily business of politics there is often little time to take a longer look at an issue, [...]