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AimBackgroundDesign and methodsResultsConclusionTo assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices of Registered Nurses working in residential aged care facilities pertaining to pain management for residents living with dementia.Sub-optimal pain management continues for people living with dementia in residential aged care. Registered Nurses are the pivotal staff responsible for complex assessment and management of people residing in residential aged care facilities.:This integrative literature review was informed by Whittemore (2005). Searching and screening followed the PRISMA guidelines.Thirteen papers were identified, the major themes identified were gaps in knowledge and skills, uncertainty of assessment, and delays in treatment.Registered Nurses require education on pain management for people living with dementia in residential aged care. Broader issues in residential aged care contribute to the problem and require examination. Research pertaining to Registered Nurses’ roles pain management for residents living with dementia is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article delves into Paul Gardner's discovery of his Badrian ancestry, tracing back to Joseph Badrian in early 19th-century Breslau (Wrocław). Topics include the Badrian family's origins in Prussia, their migration to the United States in the 1880s, and subsequent generations, detailing their lives and connections across continents.

The article focuses on unraveling the author's origin story, stemming from his parents' refugee status from Nazi Germany and his birth in Melbourne. Topics include the author's extensive genealogical research uncovering the pivotal roles of relatives such as Joseph Kronheimer and Jacob Engländer, as well as the discovery of the true identity of Julius Kronheimer, previously known as Joel, and his significant impact on the family's history.

The article focuses on Paul Gardner's pursuit to trace the fate of his distant relative, Helene Badrian, uncovering a connection between her and Lina Badrian through an email from Gabriel Lieban. Topics include the challenges of genealogical research, the significance of corroborating evidence in family history, and the unexpected discoveries that arise from tracing familial connections across generations.

The preparation of student teachers to be effective teachers of writing requires attention to both their writing skills and their personal confidence. When teachers have confidence in themselves as writers and strong writer identities, they are likely to better placed to develop strong writer identities in their own students. It is suggested confidence and secure writer identity contribute to high self‐efficacy. However, studies suggest student teachers often lack confidence as writers. Improving the quality of school students' writing may depend on producing more teacher graduates with high levels of confidence and self‐efficacy, as writers. This investigation with Year One Primary B. Ed students adopted an immersive approach to the study and development of writing. Student teachers engaged in a series of open‐ended writing prompts and were asked to reflect on their experiences and confidence as writers. Findings suggest an 'immersive approach' may enable many student teachers to develop greater confidence and positivity towards writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on genealogical mistakes and the challenges faced by amateur genealogists in their research, emphasizing the importance of maintaining a healthy level of skepticism. It mentions various types of errors, such as incorrect relationships, misspellings, and name conflation, while also highlighting how these errors can sometimes lead to unexpected positive outcomes in family history research.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen that causes a wide range of problematic infections in individuals with predisposing conditions. Infections can be treated with colistin but some isolates are resistant to this antibiotic. To better understand the genetic basis of resistance, we experimentally evolved 19 independent resistant mutants from the susceptible laboratory strain PAO1. Whole genome sequencing identified mutations in multiple genes including phoQ and pmrB that have previously been associated with resistance, pitA that encodes a phosphate transporter, and carB and eno that encode enzymes of metabolism. Individual mutations were engineered into the genome of strain PAO1. Mutations in pitA, pmrB and phoQ increased the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) for colistin 8-fold, making the bacteria resistant. Engineered pitA/phoQ and pitA/pmrB double mutants had higher MICs than single mutants, demonstrating additive effects on colistin susceptibility. Single carB and eno mutations did not increase the MIC suggesting that their effect is dependent on the presence of other mutations. Many of the resistant mutants had increased susceptibility to β-lactams and lower growth rates than the parental strain demonstrating that colistin resistance can impose a fitness cost. Two hundred and fourteen P. aeruginosa isolates from a range of sources were tested and 18 (7.8%) were colistin resistant. Sequence variants in genes identified by experimental evolution were present in the 18 resistant isolates and may contribute to resistance. Overall our results identify pitA mutations as novel contributors to colistin resistance and demonstrate that resistance can reduce fitness of the bacteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the author's search for information about their Badrian family history and specifically the name of their Badrian patriarch. Topics include the author's attempts to find documentary records, the contributions of Elke Kehrmann and Roger Lustig to their research, and the discovery of conflicting evidence regarding the name and existence of the patriarch Mendel Badrian.

The abstract nature of grammar makes metalinguistic thinking a challenge for both teachers and students. However, it is suggested writing conferences in which students are encouraged to reflect on grammatical choices and their impact on meaning may be an effective means to develop metalinguistic awareness. This paper draws on cognitive linguistics and mentor texts to investigate what impact a concept-led, dialogic approach to grammar teaching has in the context of student-teacher discussions. By means of writing conferences between a teacher and three Year Five students, the paper explores how students made effective grammatical choices, as a result of metalinguistic dialogue with their teacher. Six concepts, scope, action chains, deixis, attentional windowing, fictive motion, and figure and ground, provided the explicit foci for imagining narrative scenes and appropriate grammatical choices. The findings suggest these concepts may have an enduring effect on students' ability to make independent and creative choices in their writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on a new potential ancestor, Minna Badrian, who was discovered through a death record sent by a German colleague. Minna's maiden name, Badrian, suggests a possible connection to the author's known Badrian ancestors from two families living in Silesia, Prussia. The author presents three theories on Minna's connection to his family, including the possibility that she may have been the first recorded Badrian in the district where she lived.

Separation-of-powers studies of judicial decision-making largely focus on congressional influences. Less attention is given to the role of presidents, which is surprising given their vast policy-making powers. Accordingly, we develop a new theory of how presidents influence the Supreme Court's review of statutes through potential legislative and administrative action. Using a data set of all federal laws passed between 1948 and 2015, we find, like others, that judicial review is less likely to occur when the court faces an ideologically hostile Congress. Unlike previous work, we reveal that such constraint is only effective when Congress is aligned with the president, who is less inclined to veto court-curbing legislation. We also find that the court's distance to the president is constraining given threats of nonenforcement, but only when the law is salient, the president and public align, and the president exerts more control over implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A personal narrative is presented which explores the author's experience of his family history research and searching for information about his Badrian ancestors and descendants.

The article pays attention to genealogical research of a man's family history. It emphasizes the need to address six question to learned about endogamous relationship which includes collecting information related to parents and earlier ancestors, information about children of spouse or partner and information regarding siblings and death.

The article reports that Horst Kerpen's whereabouts in the period following his sudden removal from the Amsterdam Jewish Orphanage. Topics include Dutch Jews and Jewish refugees were imprisoned prior to their deportation and murdered at Auschwitz or Sobibor; and Dutch Red Cross document sent to the lawyer refers to Horst's period in Westerbork with entries on a Westerbork card and mentioned in the Bad Arolsen.

The article describes a genealogical research on Horst Kerpen, a Jewish relative of the author who is a German-born child in the Netherlands. Topics covered include how the search began with the author's mothers' family in JewishGen, how Dutch researcher Frieda Voorhorst gave the author assistance and the attitudes essential in all areas of research. It also describes what motivated Voorhorst's interest in the Badrian family and how the author discovered Horst's name.

The article offers information on Kurt Walter Badrian and his search for knowledge about his mother. Topics include examines that Courtenay Harris, with the surname of the family that adopted him after the five-year-old boy was sent on a Kindertransport from Nazi Germany to England in 1939; and reports that Reverend title reflects his upbringing in a caring Christian family that led to his ordination as a minister of the church.

This paper synthesises aspects of functional grammar and cognitive stylistics to posit a theoretical approach to the teaching of the grammar of narrative writing to upper primary and lower secondary students. It is argued the development of students' metalinguistic understanding is essential if they are to make informed language choices as they write. Cognitive stylistics is an embodied theory of grammar derived from literary studies, which is used here to construct a theoretical framework for teaching metalinguistic understanding in writing. The proposed framework includes concepts to support the way writers might focus their 'readerly' attention via devices such as 'figure' and 'ground', 'scope', 'attentional windowing' and 'deixis', to create narrative perspectives and interactions between narrative participants, by means of 'clausal action chains'. The theory is premised on the idea that students can be taught to 'embody' the imagined narrative world, and make specific grammatical choices to effectively capture, for the reader, each element of their story. The framework outlines the role of the teacher, when supporting the student, in both the 'embodiment' of their narrative, and their grammatical decision‐making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Litigation by private parties is authorized by dozens of federal statutes, resulting in thousands of lawsuits every year. Recent scholarship has suggested that Congress authorizes litigation by private parties to enforce federal law in order to limit the ability of the president to influence enforcement. I argue, however, that the apparent influence of presidential partisanship on adoption of private enforcement regimes is spurious, resulting from the increased use of this enforcement mechanism beginning in the 1960s. Further, I show that presidents meaningfully influence the rate of private litigation. Specifically, for statutes with liberal policy goals, litigation rates are substantially higher when a Democratic president is in office and when agencies are more politicized. Therefore, if Congress desires to insulate policy from the president, private enforcement regimes are unlikely to be a useful policy tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The substrates O2 and NO cooperatively activate the NO dioxygenase function of Escherichia coli flavohemoglobin. Steady-state and transient kinetic measurements support a structure-based mechanistic model in which O2 and NO movements and conserved amino acids at the E11, G8, E2, E7, B10, and F7 positions within the globin domain control activation. In the cooperative and allosteric mechanism, O2 migrates to the catalytic heme site via a long hydrophobic tunnel and displaces LeuE11 away from the ferric iron, which forces open a short tunnel to the catalytic site gated by the ValG8/IleE15 pair and LeuE11. NO permeates this tunnel and leverages upon the gating side chains triggering the CD loop to furl, which moves the E and F-helices and switches an electron transfer gate formed by LysF7, GlnE7, and water. This allows FADH2 to reduce the ferric iron, which forms the stable ferric-superoxide-TyrB10/GlnE7 complex. This complex reacts with internalized NO with a bimolecular rate constant of 1010 M-1 s-1 forming nitrate, which migrates to the CD loop and unfurls the spring-like structure. To restart the cycle, LeuE11 toggles back to the ferric iron. Actuating electron transfer with O2 and NO movements averts irreversible NO poisoning and reductive inactivation of the enzyme. Together, structure snapshots and kinetic constants provide glimpses of intermediate conformational states, time scales for motion, and associated energies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation Recombinant protein production is a widely used technique in the biotechnology and biomedical industries, yet only a quarter of target proteins are soluble and can therefore be purified. Results We have discovered that global structural flexibility, which can be modeled by normalized B -factors, accurately predicts the solubility of 12 216 recombinant proteins expressed in Escherichia coli. We have optimized these B -factors, and derived a new set of values for solubility scoring that further improves prediction accuracy. We call this new predictor the 'Solubility-Weighted Index' (SWI). Importantly, SWI outperforms many existing protein solubility prediction tools. Furthermore, we have developed 'SoDoPE' (Soluble Domain for Protein Expression), a web interface that allows users to choose a protein region of interest for predicting and maximizing both protein expression and solubility. Availability and implementation The SoDoPE web server and source code are freely available at https://tisigner.com/sodope and https://github.com/Gardner-BinfLab/TISIGNER-ReactJS , respectively. The code and data for reproducing our analysis can be found at https://github.com/Gardner-BinfLab/SoDoPE%5fpaper%5f2020. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transcranial approaches to the orbit provide familiar and flexible approaches with wide access to the majority of the orbit, only limited in the inferomedial orbit. A pterional craniotomy is the predominant approach but can be expanded with an orbital or zygomatic osteotomy for even wider access. Minimally invasive approaches, such as the lateral supraorbital or "eyebrow" supraorbital approach, are options for selected pathologies and minimize morbidity related to the approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Global Education Reform Movement (GERM), emerged in the 1980s and has influenced the education systems of the USA, England and, increasingly, Australia (Sahlberg 2012). Perhaps the GERM juggernaut has been a little slower to arrive in Australia, but it is now coming down the road at breakneck speed and it looks remarkably like the one witnessed in England, following the 'Rose Report' (2006). Needless to say, the 'primacy' of synthetic phonics is emblazoned in large capital letters down the side of the vehicle. At the steering wheel are drivers who look remarkably like those driving the English counterpart: a Minister of Education of a newly elected neo-liberal government and appointed 'reading experts', some of whom have pecuniary interests in commercial synthetic phonic programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article, published in the Journal of Neurological Surgery, introduces a novel outcome metric called the 30-day hospitalization ratio (HR) for patients with pituitary adenomas. The metric combines the length of stay and readmission rates within a 30-day period to provide a comprehensive measure of the economic burden of treatment. The study analyzed the clinical records of 468 patients who underwent endoscopic endonasal surgery for pituitary adenoma. Factors associated with a high HR included high preoperative ASA scores, postoperative lumbar drain placement, intradural extension, and employment status. Understanding these risk factors can lead to personalized monitoring and care, ultimately reducing burden and improving outcomes. [Extracted from the article]

Objectives Pituitary tumor treatment is hampered by the relative rarity of the disease, absence of a multicenter collaborative platform, and limited translational–clinical research partnerships. Prior studies offer limited insight into the formation of a multicenter consortium. Design The authors describe the establishment of a multicenter research initiative, Registry of Adenomas of the Pituitary and Related Disorders (RAPID), to encourage quality improvement and research, promote scholarship, and apply innovative solutions in outcomes research. Methods The challenges encountered during the formation of other research registries were reviewed with those lessons applied to the development of RAPID. Setting/Participants RAPID was formed by 11 academic U.S. pituitary centers. Results A Steering Committee, bylaws, data coordination center, and leadership team have been established. Clinical modules with standardized data fields for nonfunctioning adenoma, prolactinoma, acromegaly, Cushing's disease, craniopharyngioma, and Rathke's cleft cyst were created using a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act-compliant cloud-based platform. Currently, RAPID has received institutional review board approval at all centers, compiled retrospective data and agreements from most centers, and begun prospective data collection at one site. Existing institutional databases are being mapped to one central repository. Conclusion The RAPID consortium has laid the foundation for a multicenter collaboration to facilitate pituitary tumor and surgical research. We sought to share our experiences so that other groups also contemplating this approach may benefit. Future studies may include outcomes benchmarking, clinically annotated biobank tissue, multicenter outcomes studies, prospective intervention studies, translational research, and health economics studies focused on value-based care questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last few decades, model updating has become popular in structural dynamics, as it can be used to calibrate (finite element) models, with applications in assessing whether damage has occurred in a structural health monitoring context. Early approaches focused on determining the "best" fitting model in a deterministic manner. For example, mathematical optimisation was employed to minimise the discrepancy between measured and simulated modal parameters. More up-to-date approaches take uncertainties, e.g., due to measurement errors or model discrepancy, into account. In this context, Bayesian model updating has become increasingly popular. Recently, "likelihood-free" approaches have been proposed as an alternative to (exact) Bayesian model updating, with Bayesian history matching (BHM) being a promising "likelihood-free" technique. However, since BHM is based on an approximation of the simulation model using a Gaussian process regression (GPR), it can become inaccurate for highly non-linear and especially for (quasi-)discontinuous problems. Therefore, in this work, a new non-implausibility-motivated optimisation (NIMO) approach is proposed, which overcomes the non-linear space problem. The method is a combination of global optimisation and GPR. Global optimisation is used to accurately determine a non-implausible region in the design space, even for discontinuous problems. Subsequently, a GPR is fitted within the non-implausible region to efficiently approximate a posterior distribution. First, the NIMO approach is verified using test functions. Second, a validation is conducted by localising damage on a laboratory beam structure. It is demonstrated that the NIMO approach yields more robust results compared to BHM, while its computing times are manageable and – depending on the objective function – even smaller compared to BHM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kinetic and structural investigations of the flavohemoglobin-type NO dioxygenase have suggested critical roles for transient Fe(III)O 2 complex formation and O 2 -forced movements affecting hydride transfer to the FAD cofactor and electron-transfer to the Fe(III)O 2 complex. Stark-effect theory together with structural models and dipole and internal electrostatic field determinations provided a semi-quantitative spectroscopic method for investigating the proposed Fe(III)O 2 complex and O 2 -forced movements. Deoxygenation of the enzyme causes Stark effects on the ferric heme Soret and charge-transfer bands revealing the Fe(III)O 2 complex. Deoxygenation also elicits Stark effects on the FAD that expose forces and motions that create a more restricted NADH access to FAD for hydride transfer and switch electron-transfer off. Glucose also forces the enzyme toward an off state. Amino acid substitutions at the B10, E7, E11, G8, D5, and F7 positions influence the Stark effects of O 2 on resting heme spin states and FAD consistent with the proposed roles of the side chains in the enzyme mechanism. Deoxygenation of ferric myoglobin and hemoglobin A also induces Stark effects on the hemes suggesting a common 'oxy-met' state. The ferric myoglobin and hemoglobin heme spectra are also glucose-responsive. A conserved glucose or glucose-6-phosphate binding site is found bridging the BC-corner and G-helix in flavohemoglobin and myoglobin suggesting novel allosteric effector roles for glucose or glucose-6-phosphate in the NO dioxygenase and O 2 storage functions. The results support the proposed roles of a ferric O 2 intermediate and protein motions in regulating electron-transfer during NO dioxygenase turnover. [Display omitted] • O 2 binds Fe(III) heme in flavohemoglobin as detected by Stark-effect spectroscopy. • O 2 also forces motion of the CD loop, FAD and electron-transfer switch. • Glucose binding opposes the O 2 -driven motions in flavohemoglobin. • O 2 binds Fe(III) heme in myoglobin and hemoglobin. • Glucose or glucose-6-phosphate bind myoglobin and presumably other globins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Endoscopic skull‐base surgery (ESBS) is a rapidly growing discipline that often combines the expertise of otolaryngology–head and neck surgeons and neurosurgeons to provide care for these challenging conditions. As the field has grown, so too has the literature evaluating this surgical approach and the challenges and complications associated with these interventions. An international, multidisciplinary effort to critically evaluate and grade the current literature on ESBS has resulted in the International Consensus Statement on Endoscopic Skull Base Surgery (ICAR:SB). This Executive Summary highlights the key findings of the ICAR:SB document. Methods: Following the prior methodology of the ICAR statements, the ICAR:SB document consists of 98 topics in ESBS that underwent a systematic review. When sufficient evidence exists, an evidence‐based review with recommendation (EBRR) or evidence‐based review (EBR) was created and then underwent an iterative review process until consensus was achieved. This Executive Summary recapitulates these findings. Results: This summary complies the EBR and EBRR from the ICAR:SB document in the management of numerous skull‐base pathologies including cerebrospinal fluid rhinorrhea, intradural tumors, sinonasal malignancies, and clival tumors, as well as the key issues of reconstruction after and the complications associated with ESBS. Conclusion: The ICAR:SB Executive Summary recaps the evidenced‐based recommendations concerning the advantages, limitations and challenges of ESBS in the management of diverse skull‐base pathologies. Although multifactorial in nature, the overall level of evidence in ESBS is modest. This represents an opportunity to address these knowledge gaps moving forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding how new genes originate and integrate into cellular networks is key to understanding evolution. Bacteria present unique opportunities for both the natural history and experimental study of gene origins, due to their large effective population sizes, rapid generation times, and ease of genetic manipulation. Bacterial small noncoding RNAs (sRNAs), in particular, many of which operate through a simple antisense regulatory logic, may serve as tractable models for exploring processes of gene origin and adaptation. Understanding how and on what timescales these regulatory molecules arise has important implications for understanding the evolution of bacterial regulatory networks, in particular, for the design of comparative studies of sRNA function. Here, we introduce relevant concepts from evolutionary biology and review recent work that has begun to shed light on the timescales and processes through which non-functional transcriptional noise is co-opted to provide regulatory functions. We explore possible scenarios for sRNA origin, focusing on the co-option, or exaptation, of existing genomic structures which may provide protected spaces for sRNA evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on findings of comparative international research on students’ poetic writing about the natural environment in the context of the classroom and a naturalistic setting. The study involved 97, nine- to 10-year-olds in four classes: two classes were in an English primary school with their counterparts in a Western Australian primary school. One class in each school had vicarious contact with nature as a stimulus for writing, using a previously taught technique for writing poetry; the other class in each school used the same technique but had direct contact with nature. The study has implications for students’ literacy development, creativity and agency and suggests that students’ poetic writing is enhanced through direct contact with nature. Teachers in both England and Australia, countries where ‘high stakes’ testing dominates the literacy curriculum, may find that standards of writing improve when students are given direct contact with natural spaces and are scaffolded to elicit their poetic voice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging pathogens are a major threat to public health, however understanding how pathogens adapt to new niches remains a challenge. New methods are urgently required to provide functional insights into pathogens from the massive genomic data sets now being generated from routine pathogen surveillance for epidemiological purposes. Here, we measure the burden of atypical mutations in protein coding genes across independently evolved Salmonella enterica lineages, and use these as input to train a random forest classifier to identify strains associated with extraintestinal disease. Members of the species fall along a continuum, from pathovars which cause gastrointestinal infection and low mortality, associated with a broad host-range, to those that cause invasive infection and high mortality, associated with a narrowed host range. Our random forest classifier learned to perfectly discriminate long-established gastrointestinal and invasive serovars of Salmonella. Additionally, it was able to discriminate recently emerged Salmonella Enteritidis and Typhimurium lineages associated with invasive disease in immunocompromised populations in sub-Saharan Africa, and within-host adaptation to invasive infection. We dissect the architecture of the model to identify the genes that were most informative of phenotype, revealing a common theme of degradation of metabolic pathways in extraintestinal lineages. This approach accurately identifies patterns of gene degradation and diversifying selection specific to invasive serovars that have been captured by more labour-intensive investigations, but can be readily scaled to larger analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The teaching of writing has been a relatively neglected aspect of research in literacy. Cultural and socio‐economic reasons for this are suggested. In addition, teachers often readily acknowledge themselves as readers, but rarely as writers. Without a solid grasp of compositional processes, teachers are perhaps prone to adopt schemes that promote mechanistic writing approaches, which are reinforced by top‐down discourses of literacy. This ‘schooling literacy’ is often at odds with children's lives and their narratives of social being. After discussing theories of writing, tensions between ‘schooling literacy’ and ‘personal literacy’ are debated. It is suggested that the disjuncture of the two exposes gaps that provide teachers with spaces in which to construct a writing curriculum embedded in children's language and funds of knowledge. The elevation of this ‘personal literacy’ is viewed as an imperative to enhance children's identities as writers, as well as their engagement with writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation: The aim of this study is to assess the performance of RNA-RNA interaction prediction tools for all domains of life. Results: Minimum free energy (MFE) and alignment methods constitute most of the current RNA interaction prediction algorithms. The MFE tools that include accessibility (i.e. RNAup, IntaRNA and RNAplex) to the final predicted binding energy have better true positive rates (TPRs) with a high positive predictive values (PPVs) in all datasets than other methods. They can also differentiate almost half of the native interactions from background. The algorithms that include effects of internal binding energies to their model and alignment methods seem to have high TPR but relatively low associated PPV compared to accessibility based methods. Availability and Implementation: We shared our wrapper scripts and datasets at Github (github.- com/UCanCompBio/RNA_Interactions_Benchmark). All parameters are documented for personal use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clinicians, social scientists, researchers, and policy makers appreciate the need to understand the neurobiology of nicotine addiction and how this information can lead to new treatments and provide support for public policy debates on parity and preventing adolescent tobacco use. In a "bench-to-bedside" manner, this review covers both clinical and basic science perspectives. Both the reward and sensitization-homeostasis theories of nicotine addiction are supported by new understanding of clinical issues of rapid tolerance, withdrawal, sensitization, and craving when examined by functional brain imaging, genetics, and basic science studies of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. This review provides information to help shape public policy, fight stigma, and improve clinical treatment and research. The fight for parity in health care requires education about the neurobiological basis of addiction versus the stigmatized bad habit or simple socialization. Parity must support reimbursement for nicotine replacement medications or other FDA approved medications and psychosocial treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Preservation of the temporal branches of the facial nerve during anterolateral craniotomies is important. Damaging it can inflict undesirable cosmetic defects to the patient. The supraorbital trans-eyebrow approach (SOTE) is a versatile keyhole craniotomy but still has a high rate of frontalis muscle (FM) palsy. Objective Anatomical study to implement the interfascial dissection during the SOTE to preserve the nerves to the FM. Methods Slight modification of the standard technique of the SOTE was performed in 6 cadaveric specimens (12 sides). Results Distal rami to the FMwere exposed. The standard "U-shape" incision of the FM can cross over the nerves. Alternatively, an "L-shape" incision was performed until the superior temporal line (STL). An interfascial dissection was performed near to the STL and the interfascial fat pad was used as a protective layer for the nerves. Conclusion Various pathologies can be addressed with the SOTE. In themajority of the cases the cosmetic results are good, but FM palsy remains a drawback of this approach. The interfascial dissection may be used in an attempt to prevent frontalis rami palsy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives To evaluate the incidence and discuss the pathogenesis of early postoperative conductive hearing loss (CHL) after microvascular decompression (MVD) for hemifacial spasm (HFS). Design Pre- and postoperative audiogram data and brainstem auditory evoked potentials (BAEPs) from patients who had underwent MVD for HFS were analyzed. Setting The study was conducted at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Participants MVD for HFS patients who had pre- and postoperative audiogram data, BAEP data, and normal structure of the external and middle ear were included in the study. Main OutcomeMeasures CHL was diagnosed if there was an air-bone gap in pure tone audiometry of at least 10 dB at 0.5, 1, 2, or 4 kHz. Results The incidence of early postoperative CHL in the ipsilateral ear was 18.7% postoperatively. No CHL was observed in the contralateral side. No significant relationship between CHL and intraoperative BAEP changes was found. Demographic parameters were not significantly different between groups with and without CHL. Conclusions Early postoperative CHL is a significant complication after MVD. Fluid entering themastoid air cells and/or bone-dust deposition during craniotomymay result in CHL. Long-term audiograms will be needed to evaluate the risk factors that lead to permanent CHL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ferrous myoglobin was oxidized by sulfur trioxide anion radical (STAR) during the free radical chain oxidation of sulfite. Oxidation was inhibited by the STAR scavenger GSH and by the heme ligand CO. Bimolecular rate constants for the reaction of STAR with several ferrous globins and biomolecules were determined by kinetic competition. Reaction rate constants for myoglobin, hemoglobin, neuroglobin, and flavohemoglobin are large at 38, 120, 2,600, and ≥ 7,500 × 106 M-1 s-1, respectively, and correlate with redox potentials. Measured rate constants for O2, GSH, ascorbate, and NAD(P)H are also large at ~100, 10, 130, and 30 × 106 M-1 s-1, respectively, but nevertheless allow for favorable competition by globins and a capacity for STAR scavenging in vivo. Saccharomyces cerevisiae lacking sulfite oxidase and deleted of flavohemoglobin showed an O2-dependent growth impairment with nonfermentable substrates that was exacerbated by sulfide, a precursor to mitochondrial sulfite formation. Higher O2 exposures inactivated the superoxide-sensitive mitochondrial aconitase in cells, and hypoxia elicited both aconitase and NADP+-isocitrate dehydrogenase activity losses. Roles for STAR-derived peroxysulfate radical, superoxide radical, and sulfo-NAD(P) in the mechanism of STAR toxicity and flavohemoglobin protection in yeast are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective Microsurgical clipping of intracranial aneurysms requires meticulous technique and is usually performed through open approaches. Endoscopic endonasal clipping of intracranial aneurysms may use the same techniques through an alternative corridor. The aim of this article is to report a series of patients who underwent an endoscopic endonasal approach (EEA) for microsurgical clipping of intracranial aneurysms. Methods We conducted a retrospective chart review. Surgical outcome and complications were noted. The conceptual application and the technical nuances of these procedures are discussed. Results Ten patients underwent EEA for clipping of 11 intracranial aneurysms arising from the paraclinoidal internal carotid artery (n = 9) and vertebrobasilar system (n = 2). The internal carotid artery aneurysms projected medially, whereas the vertebrobasilar artery aneurysms were directly ventral to the brainstem with low-lying basilar apices. One patient required craniotomy for distal control given the size and thrombosed nature of the aneurysm. Proximal and distal vascular control with direct visualization of the aneurysm was obtained in all patients. In all cases, aneurysms were completely occluded. Among complications, 3 patients had postoperative cerebrospinal fluid leakage and 2 other patients had meningitis. Two patients suffered lacunar strokes. One recovered completely and the other remains with mild disabling symptoms. Conclusions EEAs can provide direct access for microsurgical clipping of rare and carefully selected intracranial aneurysms. The basic principles of cerebrovascular surgery have to be followed throughout the procedure. These surgeries require a skull base team with a neurosurgeon well versed in both endoscopic endonasal and cerebrovascular surgery, working in concert with an otolaryngologist experienced in skull base endoscopy and reconstruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cerebellopontine angle tumor resection and cranial nerve microvascular decompression are usually performed with the aid of the surgical microscope. The endoscope is commonly used as an adjuvant. Method: A retrosigmoid craniectomy is done. Upon dural opening, the endoscope is inserted into the operative field along the petrotentorial junction. Cerebrospinal fluid drainage provides a wider space for introduction of the endoscope and surgical instruments. Traditional microsurgical techniques are used during the entire procedure. Conclusion: A fully endoscopic retrosigmoid approach is a safe and effective procedure for cerebellopontine angle tumor resection and cranial nerve microvascular decompression. Key points: • Careful examination of preoperative studies is needed to identify anatomical peculiarities. • Patient positioning: the head must be gently flexed and its vertex gently tilted toward the floor. • Neurophysiologic monitoring and intraoperative navigation. • Craniectomy: partial exposure of the transverse and sigmoid sinuses. • Curvilinear dural incision reflected laterally to minimize the risk of sinus injury. • Opening the cerebellomedullary cistern for CSF drainage and cerebellar relaxation. • Dynamic endoscopy enhances depth perception and must be performed by a team with experience in endoscopic intracranial surgery. • Traditional microsurgical techniques have to be applied during the entire operation. • Multilayer reconstruction, including watertight dural closure. • Meningiomas causing brainstem shift are not suitable for endoscopic resection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here we present the results of a large-scale bioinformatics annotation of non-coding RNA loci in 48 avian genomes. Our approach uses probabilistic models of hand-curated families from the Rfam database to infer conserved RNA families within each avian genome. We supplement these annotations with predictions from the tRNA annotation tool, tRNAscan-SE and microRNAs from miRBase. We identify 34 lncRNA-associated loci that are conserved between birds and mammals and validate 12 of these in chicken. We report several intriguing cases where a reported mammalian lncRNA, but not its function, is conserved. We also demonstrate extensive conservation of classical ncRNAs (e.g., tRNAs) and more recently discovered ncRNAs (e.g., snoRNAs and miRNAs) in birds. Furthermore, we describe numerous “losses” of several RNA families, and attribute these to either genuine loss, divergence or missing data. In particular, we show that many of these losses are due to the challenges associated with assembling avian microchromosomes. These combined results illustrate the utility of applying homology-based methods for annotating novel vertebrate genomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To describe an algorithm to guide surgeons in choosing the most appropriate approach to orbital pathology. Methods A review of 12 selected illustrative cases operated on at the neurosurgical department of University of Pittsburgh Medical Center over 3 years from 2009 to 2011 was performed. Preoperative coronal magnetic resonance imaging and/or computed tomography views were compared using a "clock model" of the orbit with its center at the optic nerve. The rationale for choosing an external, endoscopic, or combined approach is discussed for each case. Results Using the right orbit for demonstration of the clock model, the medial transconjunctival approach provides access to the anterior orbit from 1 to 6 o'clock; endoscopic endonasal approaches provide access to the mid and posterior orbit and orbital apex from 1 to 7 o'clock. The lateral micro-orbitotomy gives access to the orbit from 8 to 10 o'clock. The frontotemporal craniotomy with orbital osteotomy accesses the orbit from 9 to 1 o'clock; addition of a zygomatic osteotomy to this extends access from 6 to 8 o'clock. Conclusions Combined, the approaches described provide 360 degrees of access to the entire orbit with the choice of the optimal approach guided primarily by the avoidance of crossing the plane of the optic nerve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Bayesian formulation for robust equation discovery considering model discrepancy. • Efficient parameter estimation based on expectation maximisation algorithm. • Examples with parametric study, synthetic and real data. Computational models are widely used to describe engineering systems and to predict their behaviour. However, in many applications, these computational models do not capture the complete physics of the real system, leading to model discrepancy. Model discrepancy causes bias in the inferred model parameters when it is not properly accounted for. This paper proposes a novel approach that seeks to capture the functional form of the model discrepancy and reduce bias in the estimated model parameters through and equation discovery procedure. A sparse Bayesian model is proposed, where sparsity is introduced through a hierarchical prior structure, providing a mechanism for removing erroneous candidate model terms from a series of potential equations as a part of an equation discovery procedure. At the same time, a Gaussian process model is used to account for model discrepancy. These two modelling assumptions are combined in a Bayesian formulation, allowing the system parameters and model discrepancy to be inferred in a probabilistic manner with associated uncertainties quantified based on their posterior distributions. The resulting method is capable of simultaneously providing physical insights into the system behaviour, by selecting the appropriate candidate model components and their respective system parameters, whilst compensating for model discrepancy that may occur due to an incomplete set of candidate terms. In order to efficiently solve the statistical model, an expectation maximisation algorithm is proposed for performing inference, and illustrative examples are presented to validate the proposed method. It is shown that compared to using a conventional sparse Bayesian approach for performing equation discovery, such as the Relevance Vector Machine, the proposed method provides better equation selection and parameter estimation, with less bias in the parameter estimates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which examined patients with rare infundibular tumors and assessed the use of endoscopic endonasal approach (EEA) in their management. It cites histopathologically confirmed diagnosis which include pituicytomas, granular cell tumors and pilocytic astrocytomas. The clinical presentation of these tumors includes visual impairment and headache. The study concluded that surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy all have a role in the management of infundibular tumors.