The use of a mini-ridge filter with cyclotron-based pencil beam scanning proton therapy.

Background: Pencil beam scanning (PBS) proton therapy allows for far superior dose conformality compared with passive scattering techniques. However, one drawback of PBS is that the beam delivery time can be long, particularly when treating superficial disease. Minimizing beam delivery time is important for patient comfort and precision of treatment delivery.

Words of agency: Executed and observed vocal actions induce a temporal binding effect.

Humans generally experience a sense of agency over the outcomes produced by their motor actions. This has been well established in the case of manual actions that directly affect the physical environment. Vocalizations are also actions, but they typically have only indirect effects on the environment.

From Gaze Perception to Social Cognition: The Shared-Attention System.

When two people look at the same object in the environment and are aware of each other's attentional state, they find themselves in a shared-attention episode. This can occur through intentional or incidental signaling and, in either case, causes an exchange of information between the two parties about the environment and each other's mental states. In this article, we give an overview of what is known about the building blocks of shared attention (gaze perception and joint attention) and focus on bringing to bear new findings on the initiation of shared attention that complement knowledge about gaze following and incorporate new insights from research into the sense of agency.

The N170 event-related potential differentiates congruent and incongruent gaze responses in gaze leading.

To facilitate social interactions, humans need to process the responses that other people make to their actions, including eye movements that could establish joint attention. Here, we investigated the neurophysiological correlates of the processing of observed gaze responses following the participants' own eye movement. These observed gaze responses could either establish, or fail to establish, joint attention.

"Improving Access to Early Childhood Developmental Surveillance for Children from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) Background".

Introduction: Developmental vulnerabilities in pre-school aged children from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds with low English proficiency are less likely to be identified through universal developmental surveillance. Barriers include low parental health literacy and low rates of attendance to mainstream child and family health services. Late detection of developmental vulnerabilities can have lifelong impacts on life trajectory.

Eyes that bind us: Gaze leading induces an implicit sense of agency.

Humans feel a sense of agency over the effects their motor system causes. This is the case for manual actions such as pushing buttons, kicking footballs, and all acts that affect the physical environment. We ask whether initiating joint attention - causing another person to follow our eye movement - can elicit an implicit sense of agency over this congruent gaze response.

An evaluation of the use of short message service during an avian influenza outbreak on a poultry farm in Young.

In 2013 an avian influenza outbreak occurred in a large poultry farm in Young (approximately 2 hours north-west of Canberra.) The responsible strain was H7N2, which is highly pathogenic and can affect humans. Daily surveillance was required for those individuals who were possibly exposed.

Social orienting in gaze leading: a mechanism for shared attention.

Here, we report a novel social orienting response that occurs after viewing averted gaze. We show, in three experiments, that when a person looks from one location to an object, attention then shifts towards the face of an individual who has subsequently followed the person's gaze to that same object. That is, contrary to 'gaze following', attention instead orients in the opposite direction to observed gaze and towards the gazing face.

Diagnosis of treponemal co-infection in HIV-infected West Africans.

Objectives: To evaluate the performance of two enzyme immunoassays (EIA), Murex and ICE, and the Determine TP point-of-care test (POCT) in diagnosing treponemal infection (syphilis or yaws) in patients attending a large HIV clinic in Ghana; to determine the prevalence of treponemal co-infections; and to characterise demographic and clinical features of patients with infection.

Methods: Samples were tested with EIAs and rapid plasma reagin (RPR), then POCT and reference assays for Treponema pallidum to determine prevalence of active and past infection. Sensitivity and specificity of each assay were calculated and demographic and clinical characteristics of patients compared.

Immunisation of the equine uterus against Streptococcus equi subspecies zooepidemicus using an intranasal attenuated Salmonella vector.

Attenuated Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium MGN707, expressing the SzP protective protein of the MB9 serovar of Streptococcus equi subspecies zooepidemicus (SzP-MB9) was tested for its safety and efficacy as a nebulised intranasal vaccine against streptococcal uterine infections in mares. In a preliminary study, vaccinated mares (n=5) displayed serum, nasal and uterine responses (P<0.05) to S.

Identification and functional characterization of the human glutathione S-transferase P1 gene as a novel transcriptional target of the p53 tumor suppressor gene.

The glutathione S-transferase P1 (GSTP1) is involved in multiple cellular functions, including phase II metabolism, stress response, signaling, and apoptosis. The mechanisms underlying the significantly high GSTP1 expression in many human tumors are, however, currently not well understood. We report here that the GSTP1 gene is a heretofore unrecognized downstream transcriptional target of the tumor suppressor p53.

Resolution of obstructive sleep apnea with epilepsy surgery? Expanding the relationship between sleep and epilepsy.

Recent studies suggest a higher than expected prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in patients with refractory epilepsy. In some cases, treatment of OSA improves seizure control. We report a case in which clinically significant OSA disappeared after left frontal lobe resection that produced a near seizure free state.

The equine immune response to Streptococcus equi subspecies zooepidemicus during uterine infection.

The purpose of this study was to describe strain-specific immune responses to Streptococcus equi subspecies zooepidemicus (S. zooepidemicus) during uterine infection in horses. Five isolates of S.

Effects of orthographic and phonological word length on memory for lists shown at RSVP and STM rates.

This article reports 3 experiments in which effects of orthographic and phonological word length on memory were examined for short lists shown at rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) and short-term memory (STM) rates. Only visual-orthographic length reduced RSVP serial recall, whereas both orthographic and phonological length lowered recall for STM lists in Experiment 1. Word-length effects may arise from output processes or from the temporal duration of output in recall.

Cigarette smoking, glutathione-s-transferase M1 and t1 genetic polymorphisms, and breast cancer risk (United States).

Objective: It has been suggested that functional polymorphisms in genes encoding tobacco carcinogen-metabolizing enzymes may modify the relationship between tobacco smoking and breast cancer risk. We sought to determine if there is a gene-environment interaction between GSTM I (GSTM1A and GSTM1B), and GSTT1 genotypes and cigarette smoking in the risk of breast cancer.

Methods: Cases and controls were recruited in a case-control study conducted in Connecticut from 1994 to 1998.

A comparison of whole-genome shotgun-derived mouse chromosome 16 and the human genome.

The high degree of similarity between the mouse and human genomes is demonstrated through analysis of the sequence of mouse chromosome 16 (Mmu 16), which was obtained as part of a whole-genome shotgun assembly of the mouse genome. The mouse genome is about 10% smaller than the human genome, owing to a lower repetitive DNA content. Comparison of the structure and protein-coding potential of Mmu 16 with that of the homologous segments of the human genome identifies regions of conserved synteny with human chromosomes (Hsa) 3, 8, 12, 16, 21, and 22.