Adaptive evolution of malaria parasites in French Guiana: Reversal of chloroquine resistance by acquisition of a mutation in pfcrt.

In regions with high malaria endemicity, the withdrawal of chloroquine (CQ) as first-line treatment of Plasmodium falciparum infections has typically led to the restoration of CQ susceptibility through the reexpansion of the wild-type (WT) allele K76 of the chloroquine resistance transporter gene (pfcrt) at the expense of less fit mutant alleles carrying the CQ resistance (CQR) marker K76T. In low-transmission settings, such as South America, drug resistance mutations can attain 100% prevalence, thereby precluding the return of WT parasites after the complete removal of drug pressure. In French Guiana, despite the fixation of the K76T allele, the prevalence of CQR isolates progressively dropped from >90% to <30% during 17 y after CQ withdrawal in 1995.

Automated systems for the de-identification of longitudinal clinical narratives: Overview of 2014 i2b2/UTHealth shared task Track 1.

The 2014 i2b2/UTHealth Natural Language Processing (NLP) shared task featured four tracks. The first of these was the de-identification track focused on identifying protected health information (PHI) in longitudinal clinical narratives. The longitudinal nature of clinical narratives calls particular attention to details of information that, while benign on their own in separate records, can lead to identification of patients in combination in longitudinal records.

A Survey of Registered Dietitians' Concern and Actions Regarding Climate Change in the United States.

Dietary choices are a tool to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. While registered dietitians are on the front lines of food and nutrition recommendations, it is unclear how many are concerned with climate change and take action in practice in the United States. We explored concern about climate change among registered dietitians, and identified factors that may influence practice-related behaviors.

Identifying risk factors for heart disease over time: Overview of 2014 i2b2/UTHealth shared task Track 2.

The second track of the 2014 i2b2/UTHealth natural language processing shared task focused on identifying medical risk factors related to Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) in the narratives of longitudinal medical records of diabetic patients. The risk factors included hypertension, hyperlipidemia, obesity, smoking status, and family history, as well as diabetes and CAD, and indicators that suggest the presence of those diseases. In addition to identifying the risk factors, this track of the 2014 i2b2/UTHealth shared task studied the presence and progression of the risk factors in longitudinal medical records.

Ease of adoption of clinical natural language processing software: An evaluation of five systems.

Objective: In recognition of potential barriers that may inhibit the widespread adoption of biomedical software, the 2014 i2b2 Challenge introduced a special track, Track 3 - Software Usability Assessment, in order to develop a better understanding of the adoption issues that might be associated with the state-of-the-art clinical NLP systems. This paper reports the ease of adoption assessment methods we developed for this track, and the results of evaluating five clinical NLP system submissions.

Materials And Methods: A team of human evaluators performed a series of scripted adoptability test tasks with each of the participating systems.

Laundering habits of student nurses and correlation with the presence of Staphylococcus aureus on nursing scrub tops pre- and postlaundering.

Little is known about student nurse laundering practices. Student nurses swabbed their scrub tops after clinical and after laundering, and they completed a laundry survey; 13.5% of students wore the same scrub more than once, and few followed recommended guidelines by using hot water (20%) or bleach (5.

In adult twins, visceral fat accumulation depends more on exceeding sex-specific adiposity thresholds than on genetics.

Objective: We recently reported sex-specific percent body fat (%BF) thresholds (males=23%, females=38%) above which, visceral adipose tissue (VAT) significantly increases. Using monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins, we examined the influence of genetics on regional fat distribution measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, above and below these sex-specific thresholds for VAT accumulation.

Methods: Fifty-eight twin pairs (44 MZ, 14 DZ) were recruited from the University of Washington Twin Registry.

The Integration and Excision of CTnDOT.

Bacteroides species are one of the most prevalent groups of bacteria present in the human colon. Many strains carry large, integrated elements including integrative and conjugative elements (ICEs). One such ICE is CTnDOT, which is 65 kb in size and encodes resistances to tetracycline and erythromycin.

Long-Term Change in Diet Quality Is Associated with Body Weight Change in Men and Women.

Background: Little evidence exists on change in diet quality and weight change.

Objectives: We examined the association between change of diet quality indexes and concurrent weight change over 20 y.

Methods: In this analysis we followed 50,603 women in the Nurses' Health Study (NHS), 22,973 men in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (HPFS) between 1986 and 2006, and 72,495 younger women from the Nurses' Health Study II (NHS II) between 1989 and 2007.

A COMPARISON OF CHANGE IN 3D SCAPULAR KINEMATICS WITH MAXIMAL CONTRACTIONS AND FORCE PRODUCTION WITH SCAPULAR MUSCLE TESTS BETWEEN ASYMPTOMATIC OVERHEAD ATHLETES WITH AND WITHOUT SCAPULAR DYSKINESIS.

Background: The significance of scapular dyskinesis is being challenged due to a lack of the association with pain and ability to predict injury in athletic populations. However, it is unknown whether asymptomatic overhead athletes with dyskinesis cope by normalizing scapular position with higher demand activities.

Hypothesis/purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare change in scapular kinematics from an active unweighted contraction to a maximal isometric contraction in asymptomatic overhead athletes with and without scapular dyskinesis.

The academic advantage: gender disparities in patenting.

We analyzed gender disparities in patenting by country, technological area, and type of assignee using the 4.6 million utility patents issued between 1976 and 2013 by the United States Patent and Trade Office (USPTO). Our analyses of fractionalized inventorships demonstrate that women's rate of patenting has increased from 2.

Annotating risk factors for heart disease in clinical narratives for diabetic patients.

The 2014 i2b2/UTHealth natural language processing shared task featured a track focused on identifying risk factors for heart disease (specifically, Cardiac Artery Disease) in clinical narratives. For this track, we used a "light" annotation paradigm to annotate a set of 1304 longitudinal medical records describing 296 patients for risk factors and the times they were present. We designed the annotation task for this track with the goal of balancing annotation load and time with quality, so as to generate a gold standard corpus that can benefit a clinically-relevant task.

Medicaid Expansions and Crowd-Out: Evidence from HIFA Premium Assistance Programs.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of the Oregon and New Mexico Health Insurance Flexibility and Accountability (HIFA) demonstrations. HIFA is an optional state Medicaid expansion targeted at adults and children with incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL). The study has five research questions: What type of health insurance do HIFA enrollees self report in surveys? What are the demographic characteristics of these enrollees? What type of health insurance coverage, if any, did HIFA enrollees have just prior to enrollment in the HIFA program? Among those with prior coverage, what prompted participation in the HIFA program? What type of health insurance, if any, would HIFA enrollees have in the absence of HIFA?

Methods: Data were collected via telephone interviews with a total of 406 enrollees from Oregon and 409 enrollees from New Mexico.

Modeling malaria genomics reveals transmission decline and rebound in Senegal.

To study the effects of malaria-control interventions on parasite population genomics, we examined a set of 1,007 samples of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum collected in Thiès, Senegal between 2006 and 2013. The parasite samples were genotyped using a molecular barcode of 24 SNPs. About 35% of the samples grouped into subsets with identical barcodes, varying in size by year and sometimes persisting across years.

Physical activity and food consumption: The moderating role of individual dieting tendency.

Applying theory on justification and self-control, this research examines the impact of physical activity on dieters' and nondieters' food consumption patterns. The results from two studies demonstrate that dieters, but not nondieters, consume more food after exercising as compared to situations in which no exercise is involved. In addition, dieters consume more food when they anticipate engaging in physical activity as compared to when they have completed their exercising.

Representative literature on the phytonutrients category: Phenolic acids.

Research concerning the benefits derived from dietary polyphenols, a significant class within the family of phytonutrients, has increased considerably in the last decade. Prior to the late 1990s, the nutritional spotlight focused on the antioxidant capabilities of carotenoids, vitamins, and minerals. More recently, however, research has emerged in strong support of the antioxidant capacity of polyphenols and their role in the prevention and/or treatment of certain cancers, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and inflammation.

Managing Recurrent Bacterial Vaginosis: Insights for Busy Providers.

Introduction: Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is a common clinical condition that affects millions of women annually. Serious sequelae exist from untreated infection. Recurrent BV (RBV) is also common with few approved clinical treatment modalities.

Food- and health-related correlates of self-reported body mass index among low-income mothers of young children.

Objective: To examine how income-related challenges regarding food and health are associated with variation in self-reported maternal body weight among low-income mothers.

Design: Cross-sectional design.

Setting: Two Northeastern cities.

Development of a single nucleotide polymorphism barcode to genotype Plasmodium vivax infections.

Plasmodium vivax, one of the five species of Plasmodium parasites that cause human malaria, is responsible for 25-40% of malaria cases worldwide. Malaria global elimination efforts will benefit from accurate and effective genotyping tools that will provide insight into the population genetics and diversity of this parasite. The recent sequencing of P.

Partner support and anxiety in young women with breast cancer.

Objective: Using a large prospective cohort of women age 40 or younger diagnosed with breast cancer, we examined the relationship between perceived partner support and anxiety.

Methods: Six hundred seventy-five young women with breast cancer Stages I-III, median age 36, completed a self-report baseline questionnaire. Perceived partner support was assessed using items extracted from the marital subscale of the Cancer Rehabilitation Evaluation System; generalized social support was assessed with the Medical Outcomes Study-Social Support Survey.

Exploring the relationship between fear of cancer recurrence and sleep quality in cancer survivors.

Fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) and sleep disturbance are identified as top psychosocial concerns in cancer survivorship, yet few studies have explored the association between these two factors. Using data from a study of 67 cancer survivors, hierarchical logistic regression models examined the relationships between socio-demographic characteristics, FCR, and sleep disturbance. More than half of survivors reported poor sleep quality; those with some college education and those with higher levels of FCR were at greater risk for poor sleep.

Drosophila muller f elements maintain a distinct set of genomic properties over 40 million years of evolution.

The Muller F element (4.2 Mb, ~80 protein-coding genes) is an unusual autosome of Drosophila melanogaster; it is mostly heterochromatic with a low recombination rate. To investigate how these properties impact the evolution of repeats and genes, we manually improved the sequence and annotated the genes on the D.