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Selection of reference genes for studies of human retinal endothelial cell gene expression by reverse transcriptionquantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction
Get PDF© 2017 Elsevier. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
This author accepted manuscript is made available following 12 month embargo from date of publication (Nov 2017) in accordance with the publisher’s archiving policyBackground
Human retinal endothelial cells are employed increasingly for investigations of retinal vascular diseases. Analysis of gene expression response to disease-associated stimuli by reverse transcription-quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) is common. However, most reported work does not follow the minimum information for publication of qPCR experiments (MIQE) recommendation that multiple, stably expressed reference genes be used for normalization.
Methods
Two human retinal endothelial cell lines were treated with medium alone or containing stimuli that included: glucose at supraphysiological concentration, dimethyloxalyl-glycine, vascular endothelial growth factor, tumor necrosis factor-α, lipopolysaccharide and Toxoplasma gondii tachyzoites. Biological response of cells was confirmed by measuring significant increase in a stimulus-relevant transcript. Total RNA was reverse transcribed and analyzed by commercial PCR arrays designed to detect 28 reference genes. Stability of reference gene expression, for each and both cell lines, and for each and all conditions, was judged on gene-stability measure (M-value) < 0.2 and coefficient of variation (CV-value) < 0.1.
Results
Reference gene expression varied substantially across stimulations and between cell lines. Of 27 detectable reference genes, 11–21 (41–78%) maintained expression stability across stimuli and cell lines. Ranking indicated substantial diversity in the most stable reference genes under different conditions, and no reference gene was expressed stably under all conditions of stimulation and for both cell lines. Four reference genes were expressed stably under 5 conditions: HSP90AB1, IPO8, PSMC4 and RPLPO.
Conclusions
We observed variation in stability of reference gene expression with different stimuli and between human retinal endothelial cell lines. Our findings support adherence to MIQE recommendations regarding normalization in RT-qPCR studies of human retinal endothelial cells
Understanding child disadvantage from a social determinants perspective
Get PDFCopyright information: © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.Background Child health and developmental inequities exist in all countries. Comprehensive and robust concepts of disadvantage are fundamental to growing an evidence base that can reveal the extent of inequities in childhood, and identify modifiable leverage points for change. We conceptualise and test a multidimensional framework of child disadvantage aligned to a social determinants and bioecological perspective.
Methods The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children is a nationally representative sample of two cohorts of Australian children, including the birth cohort of 5107 infants, which commenced in May 2004. The analysis focused on disadvantage indicators collected at age 4–5 years. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test a theoretically informed model of disadvantage. Concurrent validity was examined through associations with academic performance at 8–9 years.
Results The model comprising four latent factors of sociodemographic (10 indicators), geographical environments (three indicators), health conditions (three indicators) and risk factors (14 indicators) was found to provide a better fit for the data than alternative models. Each factor was associated with academic performance, providing evidence of concurrent validity.
Conclusion The study provides a theoretically informed and empirically tested framework for operationalising relative child disadvantage. Understanding and addressing inequities will be facilitated by capturing the complexity of children’s experiences of disadvantage across the multiple environments in which their development unfolds
Organization Capital and Firm Life Cycle
Get PDF© 2017 Elsevier. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
This author accepted manuscript is made available following 24 month embargo from date of publication (Dec 2017) in accordance with the publisher’s archiving policyWe hypothesize, and examine empirically, two types of association between organization capital and firm life cycle. Are firms with high organization capital more likely to be in a particular stage of their life cycle than firms with low organization capital? Are firms' transitions from one life cycle stage to another over time associated with how much they invest in organization capital? Our findings suggest that firms with high (low) organization capital are more likely to be in the introduction and decline (growth and maturity) stages. Our results also show that firms that invest more in organization capital (i.e., changes in organization capital) are less (more) likely to move to the introduction, shake-out and decline (growth and maturity) stages in the subsequent five years. Our results are robust to alternative specifications of organization capital, life cycle proxies and endogeneity concerns
Clozapine withdrawal catatonia, psychosis and associated neuroleptic malignant syndrome
Get PDF© 2017 Elsevier. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
This author accepted manuscript is made available following 12 month embargo from date of publication (August 2017) in accordance with the publisher's archiving policy
What Indigenous Australian clients value about primary health care: a systematic review of qualitative evidence
Get PDFThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.Objective: To synthesise client perceptions of the unique characteristics and value of care provided in Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (ACCHOs) compared to mainstream/general practitioner services, and implications for improving access to quality, appropriate primary health care for Indigenous Australians.
Method: Standardised systematic review methods with modification informed by ethical and methodological considerations in research involving Indigenous Australians.
Results: Perceived unique valued characteristics of ACCHOs were: 1) accessibility, facilitated by ACCHOs welcoming social spaces and additional services; 2) culturally safe care; and 3) appropriate care, responsive to holistic needs.
Conclusion: Provider‐client relationships characterised by shared understanding of clients' needs, Indigenous staff, and relationships between clients who share the same culture, are central to ACCHO clients' perceptions of ACCHOs' unique value. The client perceptions provide insights about how ACCHOs address socio‐economic factors that contribute to high levels of chronic disease in Indigenous communities, why mainstream PHC provider care cannot substitute for ACCHO care, and how to improve accessibility and quality of care in mainstream providers.
Implications for public health: To increase utilisation of PHC services in Indigenous Australian communities, and help close the gaps between the health status of Indigenous and non‐Indigenous Australians, Indigenous community leaders and Australian governments should prioritise implementing effective initiatives to support quality health care provision by ACCHOs
Octupolar organometallic Pt(II) NCN-pincer complexes; Synthesis, electronic, photophysical, and NLO properties
Get PDF© 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).A series of organometallic octupolar 1,3,5-substituted-2,4,6-styryl-benzene complexes was synthesized
by post-modification of parent [PtCl(NCN-CHO-4)], i.e. 1,3,5-tri-R-2,4,6-tris[(4-(PtCl)(3,5-bis[(dimethylamino)
methyl]styryl)]benzene (NCN ¼ [C6H2(CH2NMe2)2-2,6]e in which R ¼OMe, H, Br (1e3). Their
synthesis involved a triple Horner-Wadsworth-Emmons reaction of [PtCl(NCN-CHO-4)] with the
appropriate tris[(diethoxyphosphoryl)]methyl]benzene derivative. The 195Pt{1H} NMR chemical shift
reflects the electronic properties of the p-system to which it is connected. The UV/Vis bands of the
octupolar platinum complexes are only slightly red-shifted (by 5e12 nm) with respect to those of corresponding
stilbenoid Pt-Cl pincer compounds (i.e., the separate branches), suggesting that there is only
a limited electronic interaction between these branches. The fluorescence Stokes shift, quantum yields
and lifetimes of 1e3 also are of the same order of magnitude as those of stilbenoid Pt-Cl pincer compounds,
indicating that a dipolar excited state is formed, which is localized on one of the three branches.
The hyper-Rayleigh scattering technique revealed hyperpolarizabilites bHRS of 430, 870 and
183 10 30 esu for 1, 2 and 3, respectively, which are among the highest for transition metal complexes.
The highest value was found for the compound lacking a donor or acceptor group at the central core,
lending support to the idea that dispersion overwhelms charge transfer in determining the magnitude of
the first hyperpolarizability in octupolar compounds
Including Health in Environmental Assessments of Major Transport Infrastructure Projects: A Documentary Analysis
Get PDFThis is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Transport policy and practice impacts health. Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) are regulated public policy mechanisms that can be used to consider the health impacts of major transport projects before they are approved. The way health is considered in these environmental assessments (EAs) is not well known. This research asked: How and to what extent was human health considered in EAs of four major transport projects in Australia.
Methods
We developed a comprehensive coding framework to analyse the Environmental Impact Statements (EISs) of four transport infrastructure projects: three road and one light rail. The coding framework was designed to capture how health was directly and indirectly included.
Results
We found that health was partially considered in all four EISs. In the three New South Wales (NSW) projects, but not the one South Australian project, this was influenced by the requirements issued to proponents by the government which directed the content of the EIS. Health was assessed using human health risk assessment (HHRA). We found this to be narrow in focus and revealed a need for a broader social determinants of health approach, using multiple methods. The road assessments emphasised air quality and noise risks, concluding these were minimal or predicted to improve. The South Australian project was the only road project not to include health data explicitly. The light rail EIS considered the health benefits of the project whereas the others focused on risk. Only one project considered mental health, although in less detail than air quality or noise.
Conclusion
Our findings suggest EIAs lag behind the known evidence linking transport infrastructure to health. If health is to be comprehensively included, a more complete model of health is required, as well as a shift away from health risk assessment as the main method used. This needs to be mandatory for all significant developments. We also found that considering health only at the EIA stage may be a significant limitation, and there is a need for health issues to be considered when earlier, fundamental decisions about the project are being made.The study was funded by a grant from the Henry Halloran
Trust, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia. Patrick Harris was funded for this research by the Australian
National Health and Medical Research Council, Canberra,
ACT, Australia (APP1090644)
Prevalence of metabolic syndrome and metabolic syndrome components in young adults: A pooled analysis
Get PDF© 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).Metabolic syndrome (MetSyn) represents a clustering of different metabolic abnormalities. MetSyn prevalence is present in approximately 25% of all adults with increased prevalence in advanced ages. The presence of one component of MetSyn increases the risk of developing MetSyn later in life and likely represents a high lifetime burden of cardiovascular disease risk. Therefore we pooled data from multiple studies to establish the prevalence of MetSyn and MetSyn component prevalence across a broad range of ethnicities. PubMed, SCOPUS and Medline databases were searched to find papers presenting MetSyn and MetSyn component data for 18–30 year olds who were apparently healthy, free of disease, and MetSyn was assessed using either the harmonized, National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III (NCEP-ATPIII), American Heart Association/National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute (AHA/NHBLI), or International Diabetes Federation (IDF) definitions of MetSyn. After reviewing returned articles, 26,609 participants' data from 34 studies were included in the analysis and the data were pooled. MetSyn was present in 4.8–7% of young adults. Atherogenic dyslipidaemia defined as low high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol was the most prevalent MetSyn component (26.9–41.2%), followed by elevated blood pressure (16.6–26.6%), abdominal obesity (6.8–23.6%), atherogenic dyslipidaemia defined as raised triglycerides (8.6–15.6%), and raised fasting glucose (2.8–15.4%). These findings highlight that MetSyn is prevalent in young adults. Establishing the reason why low HDL is the most prevalent component may represent an important step in promoting primary prevention of MetSyn and reducing the incidence of subsequent clinical disease
Benchmarking Aided Decision Making in a Signal Detection Task
Get PDFCopyright © 2017 Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications.Objective:
A series of experiments examined human operators’ strategies for interacting with highly (93%) reliable automated decision aids in a binary signal detection task.
Background:
Operators often interact with automated decision aids in a suboptimal way, achieving performance levels lower than predicted by a statistically ideal model of information integration. To better understand operators’ inefficient use of decision aids, we compared participants’ automation-aided performance levels with the predictions of seven statistical models of collaborative decision making.
Method:
Participants performed a binary signal detection task that asked them to classify random dot images as either blue or orange dominant. They made their judgments either unaided or with assistance from a 93% reliable automated decision aid that provided either graded (Experiments 1 and 3) or binary (Experiment 2) cues. We compared automation-aided performance with the predictions of seven statistical models of collaborative decision making, including a statistically optimal model and Robinson and Sorkin’s contingent criterion model.
Results and Conclusion:
Automation-aided sensitivity hewed closest to the predictions of the two least efficient collaborative models, well short of statistically ideal levels. Performance was similar whether the aid provided graded or binary judgments. Model comparisons identified potential strategies by which participants integrated their judgments with the aid’s.
Application:
Results lend insight into participants’ automation-aided decision strategies and provide benchmarks for predicting automation-aided performance levels
Multicultural workforce development model and resources in aged care
Get PDFThis publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.
Full-text embargoed for 24 months until 31 Dec 2019