Mining and analysis of audiology data to find significant factors associated with tinnitus masker

Objectives: The objective of this research is to find the factors associated with tinnitus masker from the literature, and by using the large amount of audiology data available from a large NHS (National Health Services, UK) hearing aid clinic. The factors evaluated were hearing impairment, age, gender, hearing aid type, mould and clinical comments. Design: The research includes literature survey for factors associated with tinnitus masker, and performs the analysis of audiology data using statistical and data mining techniques. Setting: This research uses a large audiology data but it also faced the problem of limited data for tinnitus. Participants: It uses 1,316 records for tinnitus and other diagnoses, and 10,437 records of clinical comments from a hearing aid clinic. Primary and secondary outcome measures: The research is looking for variables associated with tinnitus masker, and in future, these variables can be combined into a single model to develop a decision support system to predict about tinnitus masker for a patient. Results: The results demonstrated that tinnitus maskers are more likely to be fit to individuals with milder forms of hearing loss, and the factors age, gender, type of hearing aid and mould were all found significantly associated with tinnitus masker. In particular, those patients having Age<=55 years were more likely to wear a tinnitus masker, as well as those with milder forms of hearing loss. ITE (in the ear) hearing aids were also found associated with tinnitus masker. A feedback on the results of association of mould with tinnitus masker from a professional audiologist of a large NHS (National Health Services, UK) was also taken to better understand them. The results were obtained with different accuracy for different techniques. For example, the chi-squared test results were obtained with 95% accuracy, for Support and Confidence only those results were retained which had more than 1% Support and 80% Confidence. Conclusions: The variables audiograms, age, gender, hearing aid type and mould were found associated with the choice of tinnitus masker in the literature and by using statistical and data mining techniques. The further work in this research would lead to the development of a decision support system for tinnitus masker with an explanation that how that decision was obtained

Drifters, Party Boys and Incumbents: The Life Patterns of Male Street-based Sex Workers

This paper is based on a qualitative study of male street-based prostitution. It suggests that the street-based sector is more varied, with sellers adopting a wider range of working practices, than is commonly acknowledged in the literature on male prostitution. Drawing on data from Manchester, England I identify a number of ‘life patterns’ among male street sellers that reflect varied working practices based on issues around rational decision-making and the sex worker’s relationship to place and environment. The discussion has implications for urban policies around street-based sex work but also for a more general understanding of male sex work in international and comparative perspective

Chromosomal-level assembly of the Asian Seabass genome using long sequence reads and multi-layered scaffolding

We report here the ~670 Mb genome assembly of the Asian seabass (Lates calcarifer), a tropical marine teleost. We used long-read sequencing augmented by transcriptomics, optical and genetic mapping along with shared synteny from closely related fish species to derive a chromosome-level assembly with a contig N50 size over 1 Mb and scaffold N50 size over 25 Mb that span ~90% of the genome. The population structure of L. calcarifer species complex was analyzed by re-sequencing 61 individuals representing various regions across the species' native range. SNP analyses identified high levels of genetic diversity and confirmed earlier indications of a population stratification comprising three clades with signs of admixture apparent in the South-East Asian population. The quality of the Asian seabass genome assembly far exceeds that of any other fish species, and will serve as a new standard for fish genomics

Biomechanics and the thermotolerance of development

Successful completion of development requires coordination of patterning events with morphogenetic movements. Environmental variability challenges this coordination. For example, developing organisms encounter varying environmental temperatures that can strongly influence developmental rates. We hypothesized that the mechanics of morphogenesis would have to be finely adjusted to allow for normal morphogenesis across a wide range of developmental rates. We formulated our hypothesis as a simple model incorporating time-dependent application of force to a viscoelastic tissue. This model suggested that the capacity to maintain normal morphogenesis across a range of temperatures would depend on how both tissue viscoelasticity and the forces that drive deformation vary with temperature. To test this model we investigated how the mechanical behavior of embryonic tissue (Xenopus laevis) changed with temperature; we used a combination of micropipette aspiration to measure viscoelasticity, electrically induced contractions to measure cellular force generation, and confocal microscopy to measure endogenous contractility. Contrary to expectations, the viscoelasticity of the tissues and peak contractile tension proved invariant with temperature even as rates of force generation and gastrulation movements varied three-fold. Furthermore, the relative rates of different gastrulation movements varied with temperature: the speed of blastopore closure increased more slowly with temperature than the speed of the dorsal-to-ventral progression of involution. The changes in the relative rates of different tissue movements can be explained by the viscoelastic deformation model given observed viscoelastic properties, but only if morphogenetic forces increase slowly rather than all at once. © 2014 von Dassow et al

Dietary levels of pure flavonoids improve spatial memory performance and increase hippocampal brain-derived neurotrophic factor.

Evidence suggests that flavonoid-rich foods are capable of inducing improvements in memory and cognition in animals and humans. However, there is a lack of clarity concerning whether flavonoids are the causal agents in inducing such behavioral responses. Here we show that supplementation with pure anthocyanins or pure flavanols for 6 weeks, at levels similar to that found in blueberry (2% w/w), results in an enhancement of spatial memory in 18 month old rats. Pure flavanols and pure anthocyanins were observed to induce significant improvements in spatial working memory (p = 0.002 and p = 0.006 respectively), to a similar extent to that following blueberry supplementation (p = 0.002). These behavioral changes were paralleled by increases in hippocampal brain-derived neurotrophic factor (R = 0.46, p<0.01), suggesting a common mechanism for the enhancement of memory. However, unlike protein levels of BDNF, the regional enhancement of BDNF mRNA expression in the hippocampus appeared to be predominantly enhanced by anthocyanins. Our data support the claim that flavonoids are likely causal agents in mediating the cognitive effects of flavonoid-rich foods

SPARC 2017 retrospect & prospects : Salford postgraduate annual research conference book of abstracts

Welcome to the Book of Abstracts for the 2017 SPARC conference. This year we not only celebrate the work of our PGRs but also the 50th anniversary of Salford as a University, which makes this year’s conference extra special. Once again we have received a tremendous contribution from our postgraduate research community; with over 130 presenters, the conference truly showcases a vibrant PGR community at Salford. These abstracts provide a taster of the research strengths of their works, and provide delegates with a reference point for networking and initiating critical debate. With such wide-ranging topics being showcased, we encourage you to exploit this great opportunity to engage with researchers working in different subject areas to your own. To meet global challenges, high impact research inevitably requires interdisciplinary collaboration. This is recognised by all major research funders. Therefore engaging with the work of others and forging collaborations across subject areas is an essential skill for the next generation of researchers

Large Tandem, Higher Order Repeats and Regularly Dispersed Repeat Units Contribute Substantially to Divergence Between Human and Chimpanzee Y Chromosomes

Comparison of human and chimpanzee genomes has received much attention, because of paramount role for understanding evolutionary step distinguishing us from our closest living relative. In order to contribute to insight into Y chromosome evolutionary history, we study and compare tandems, higher order repeats (HORs), and regularly dispersed repeats in human and chimpanzee Y chromosome contigs, using robust Global Repeat Map algorithm. We find a new type of long-range acceleration, human-accelerated HOR regions. In peripheral domains of 35mer human alphoid HORs, we find riddled features with ten additional repeat monomers. In chimpanzee, we identify 30mer alphoid HOR. We construct alphoid HOR schemes showing significant human-chimpanzee difference, revealing rapid evolution after human-chimpanzee separation. We identify and analyze over 20 large repeat units, most of them reported here for the first time as: chimpanzee and human ~1.6 kb 3mer secondary repeat unit (SRU) and ~23.5 kb tertiary repeat unit (~0.55 kb primary repeat unit, PRU); human 10848, 15775, 20309, 60910, and 72140 bp PRUs; human 3mer SRU (~2.4 kb PRU); 715mer and 1123mer SRUs (5mer PRU); chimpanzee 5096, 10762, 10853, 60523 bp PRUs; and chimpanzee 64624 bp SRU (10853 bp PRU). We show that substantial human-chimpanzee differences are concentrated in large repeat structures, at the level of as much as ~70% divergence, sizably exceeding previous numerical estimates for some selected noncoding sequences. Smeared over the whole sequenced assembly (25 Mb) this gives ~14% human--chimpanzee divergence. This is significantly higher estimate of divergence between human and chimpanzee than previous estimates.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figures, 12 tables. Published in Journal of Molecular Evolutio

Foraging patterns of acorn woodpeckers (Melanerpes formicivorus) on valley oak (Quercus lobata Née) in two California oak savanna-woodlands

Landscape characteristics and social behavior can affect the foraging patterns of seed-dependent animals. We examine the movement of acorns from valley oak (Quercus lobata) trees to granaries maintained by acorn woodpeckers (Melanerpes formicivorus) in two California oak savanna-woodlands differing in the distribution of Q. lobata within each site. In 2004, we sampled Q. lobata acorns from 16 granaries at Sedgwick Reserve in Santa Barbara County and 18 granaries at Hastings Reserve in Monterey County. Sedgwick has lower site-wide density of Q. lobata than Hastings as well as different frequencies of other Quercus species common to both sites. We found acorn woodpeckers foraged from fewer Q. lobata seed source trees (Kg = 4.1 ± 0.5) at Sedgwick than at Hastings (Kg = 7.6 ± 0.6) and from fewer effective seed sources (Nem* = 2.00 and 5.78, respectively). The differences between sites are due to a greater number of incidental seed sources used per granary at Hastings than at Sedgwick. We also found very low levels of seed source sharing between adjacent granaries, indicating that territoriality is strong at both sites and that each social group forages on its own subset of trees. We discovered an interesting spatial pattern in the location of granaries. At Sedgwick, acorn woodpeckers situated their granaries within areas of higher-than-average tree density, while at Hastings, they placed them within areas of lower-than-average tree density, with the outcome that granaries at the two sites were located in areas of similar valley oak density. Our results illustrate that landscape characteristics might influence the number of trees visited by acorn woodpeckers and the locations of territories, while woodpecker social behavior, such as territoriality, shapes which trees are visited and whether they are shared with other social groups

Microbial community composition in sediments resists perturbation by nutrient enrichment

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2010. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Nature Publishing Group for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in The ISME Journal 5 (2011): 1540–1548, doi:10.1038/ismej.2011.22.Functional redundancy in bacterial communities is expected to allow microbial assemblages to survive perturbation by allowing continuity in function despite compositional changes in communities. Recent evidence suggests, however, that microbial communities change both composition and function as a result of disturbance. We present evidence for a third response: resistance. We examined microbial community response to perturbation caused by nutrient enrichment in salt marsh sediments using deep pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA and functional gene microarrays targeting the nirS gene. Composition of the microbial community, as demonstrated by both genes, was unaffected by significant variations in external nutrient supply, despite demonstrable and diverse nutrient–induced changes in many aspects of marsh ecology. The lack of response to external forcing demonstrates a remarkable uncoupling between microbial composition and ecosystem-level biogeochemical processes and suggests that sediment microbial communities are able to resist some forms of perturbation.Funding for this research came from NSF(DEB-0717155 to JEH, DBI-0400819 to JLB). Support for the sequencing facility came from NIH and NSF (NIH/NIEHS-P50-ES012742-01 and NSF/OCE 0430724-J Stegeman PI to HGM and MLS, and WM Keck Foundation to MLS). Salary support provided from Princeton University Council on Science and Technology to JLB. Support for development of the functional gene microarray provided by NSF/OCE99-081482 to BBW. The Plum Island fertilization experiment was funded by NSF (DEB 0213767 and DEB 0816963)

Aerobic nonylphenol degradation and nitro-nonylphenol formation by microbial cultures from sediments

Nonylphenol (NP) is an estrogenic pollutant which is widely present in the aquatic environment. Biodegradation of NP can reduce the toxicological risk. In this study, aerobic biodegradation of NP in river sediment was investigated. The sediment used for the microcosm experiments was aged polluted with NP. The biodegradation of NP in the sediment occurred within 8 days with a lag phase of 2 days at 30°C. During the biodegradation, nitro-nonylphenol metabolites were formed, which were further degraded to unknown compounds. The attached nitro-group originated from the ammonium in the medium. Five subsequent transfers were performed from original sediment and yielded a final stable population. In this NP-degrading culture, the microorganisms possibly involved in the biotransformation of NP to nitro-nonylphenol were related to ammonium-oxidizing bacteria. Besides the degradation of NP via nitro-nonylphenol, bacteria related to phenol-degrading species, which degrade phenol via ring cleavage, are abundantly present