Fast and frugal food choices: uncovering individual decision heuristics.

Research on food decision making is often based on the assumption that people take many different aspects into account and weight and add them according to their personally assessed importance. Yet there is a growing body of research suggesting that people's decisions can often be better described by simple heuristics-rules of thumb that people use to make choices based on only a few important pieces of information. To test empirically whether a simple heuristic is able to account for individual food decisions, we ran a computerized experiment in which participants (N = 50) repeatedly chose between pairs of 20 lunch dishes that were sampled from a local food court.

Clinical consequences of rotavirus acute gastroenteritis in Europe, 2004-2005: the REVEAL study.

Background: The availability of comprehensive, up-to-date epidemiologic data would improve the understanding of the disease burden and clinical consequences of rotavirus gastroenteritis (RVGE) in Europe.

Methods: During the 2004-2005 season, a prospective, multicenter, observational study was conducted in children <5 years of age in primary care, emergency department, and hospital settings in selected areas of Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The clinical consequences of acute gastroenteritis (AGE) and RVGE were estimated.

Distribution of rotavirus genotypes in Europe, 2004-2005: the REVEAL Study.

Background: Rotavirus gastroenteritis (RVGE) constitutes a significant burden of pediatric disease. Knowledge of currently cocirculating rotavirus genotypes is required to help guide immunization strategies.

Methods: During the 2004-2005 RVGE season, a prospective, multicenter, observational study of RVGE was conducted in children <5 years of age seeking health care in primary care, emergency department, and hospital settings in selected areas of Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

Assessing the Impact of a School Subsidy Program in Mexico: Using a Social Experiment to Validate a Dynamic Behavioral Model of Child Schooling and Fertility.

This paper uses data from a randomized social experiment in Mexico to estimate and validate a dynamic behavioral model of parental decisions about fertility and child schooling, to evaluate the effects of the PROGRESA school subsidy program, and to perform a variety of counterfactual experiments of policy alternatives. Our method of validation estimates the model without using post-program data and then compares the model’s predictions about program impacts to the experimental impact estimates. The results show that the model’s predicted program impacts track the experimental results.

Prospective surveillance study of severe hyperbilirubinaemia in the newborn in the UK and Ireland.

Objectives: To determine the incidence of severe hyperbilirubinaemia in the newborn, and to identify associated clinical and demographic variables, and short-term outcomes.

Design: Prospective, population-based study.

Setting: UK and Republic of Ireland, between 1 May 2003 and 31 May 2005.

Aggregate age-at-marriage patterns from individual mate-search heuristics.

The distribution of age at first marriage shows well-known strong regularities across many countries and recent historical periods. We accounted for these patterns by developing agent-based models that simulate the aggregate behavior of individuals who are searching for marriage partners. Past models assumed fully rational agents with complete knowledge of the marriage market; our simulated agents used psychologically plausible simple heuristic mate search rules that adjust aspiration levels on the basis of a sequence of encounters with potential partners.

Overview of SHOT hardware capabilities and range of cell biology experiment designs.

Cell science hardware is currently available for lease or production by SHOT(R). The SHOT Avian Development Facility (ADF) is a single middeck locker experiment containing two carousels capable of rotating at variable g. Each carousel accommodates 18 40-ml vessels that can be adapted for the cultivation of avian or reptilian eggs, small invertebrates, zebra fish, small plants, seeds, spores, cells or tissues.

Overview of the spaceflight radiation environment and its impact on cell biology experiments.

Variables studied in typical cellular radiation biology experiments are cell killing, mutagenesis, transformation to malignancy, heritable damage, and DNA damage and repair. Dose response curves for cells exposed to low-LET radiations and some high LET radiations are well known. The low-LET dose rate in low earth orbit is roughly 1.

Diet as a factor in behavioral radiation protection following exposure to heavy particles.

Major risks associated with radiation exposures on deep space missions include carcinogenesis due to heavy-particle exposure of cancer-prone tissues and performance decrements due to neurological damage produced by heavy particles. Because exposure to heavy particles can cause oxidative stress, it is possible that antioxidants can be used to mitigate these risks (and possibly some health risks of microgravity). To assess the capacity of antioxidant diets to mitigate the effects of exposure to heavy particles, rats were maintained on antioxidant diets containing 2% blueberry or strawberry extract or a control diet for 8 weeks prior to exposure to 1.

Goodpasture autoantibodies unmask cryptic epitopes by selectively dissociating autoantigen complexes lacking structural reinforcement: novel mechanisms for immune privilege and autoimmune pathogenesis.

Rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis in Goodpasture disease is mediated by autoantibodies binding to the non-collagenous NC1 domain of alpha3(IV) collagen in the glomerular basement membrane. Goodpasture epitopes in the native autoantigen are cryptic (sequestered) within the NC1 hexamers of the alpha3alpha4alpha5(IV) collagen network. The biochemical mechanism for crypticity and exposure for autoantibody binding is not known.

Experiments with osteoblasts cultured under hypergravity conditions.

To understand further the role of gravity in osteoblast attachment, osteoblasts were subjected to hypergravity conditions in vitro. Scanning electron microscopy of all confluent coverslips from FPA units show that the number of attached osteoblasts was similar among gravitational levels and growth durations (~90 cells/microscopic field). Specifically, confluent 1.

Hidradenitis suppurativa, Dowling-Degos and multiple epidermal cysts: a new follicular occlusion triad.

This case illustrates the rare association between hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) and Dowling-Degos disease (DDD). Furthermore the association of HS, DDD and multiple epidermal cysts has not to our knowledge been described before, but their coexistence in the same patient is likely to reflect the same follicular anomaly. It is possible that a single underlying defect of follicular proliferation may account for the coexistence of these conditions.

Evidence-based databases versus primary medical literature: an in-house investigation on their optimal use.

Objective: The objective is to investigate the effectiveness of evidence-based medicine (EBM) resources in providing evidence for complex clinical questions versus general care management questions to identify situations for their optimal use.

Methods: In this investigation, forty complex clinical questions were randomly selected from an in-house archival database of questions received by librarians during clinical rounds. An additional forty questions were selected from a list of general care management questions received by the library from Pathways teams.

Secondary ion images of the developing rat brain.

Secondary ion images were obtained from sections of rat brain over a 21 day postnatal period, using the intensity of m/z 184, phosphocholine. When compared with corresponding optical images of similar, but stained sections from the same animal, the secondary ion images appear to reflect less developed brains. During development, myelination occurs after axon extension.

Osteoblasts subjected to spaceflight and simulated space shuttle launch conditions.

To understand further the effects of spaceflight on osteoblast-enriched cultures, normal chicken calvarial osteoblasts were flown aboard shuttle flight STS-77, and the total number of attached cells was determined. Spaceflight and control cultures were chemically fixed 3 h and 3 d after launch. These fixed cultures were processed for scanning electron microscopy (SEM).

Emergent patterns of mate choice in human populations.

We present a model of human mate choice that shows how realistic population-level patterns of assortative mating can self-organize and emerge from the behavior of individuals using simple mate search rules. In particular, we model plausible psychological mechanisms for mate search and choice in a realistic social ecology. Through individual interactions, patterns emerge that match those observed in typical human societies, particularly with regard to correlated quality levels within couples, distributions of the ages at which couples mate, and effects of skewed sex ratios on these mating age distributions.

The fragile X mental retardation protein is required for type-I metabotropic glutamate receptor-dependent translation of PSD-95.

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is a common inherited cause of mental retardation resulting from the absence of the fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP). FMRP is thought to regulate the translation of target mRNAs, including its own transcript. Here we show that the levels of FMRP are rapidly up-regulated in primary cortical neurons in response to the type-I metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR) agonist S-3,5-dihydrophenylglycine.

Unusual susceptibility of heme proteins to damage by glucose during non-enzymatic glycation.

Glucose modifies the amino groups of proteins by a process of non-enzymatic glycation, leading to potentially deleterious effects on structure and function that have been implicated in the pathogenesis of diabetic complications. These changes are extremely complex and occur very slowly. We demonstrate here that hemoglobin and myoglobin are extremely susceptible to damage by glucose in vitro through a process that leads to complete destruction of the essential heme group.