LaGuardia Community College

Emotional states of consciousness, or what are typically called emotional feelings, are traditionally viewed as being innately programmed in subcortical areas of the brain, and are often treated as different from cognitive states of consciousness, such as those related to the perception of external stimuli. We argue that conscious experiences, regardless of their content, arise from one system in the brain. In this view, what differs in emotional and nonemotional states are the kinds of inputs that are processed by a general cortical network of cognition, a network essential for conscious experiences. Although subcortical circuits are not directly responsible for conscious feelings, they provide nonconscious inputs that coalesce with other kinds of neural signals in the cognitive assembly of conscious emotional experiences. In building the case for this proposal, we defend a modified version of what is known as the higher-order theory of consciousness.

[Image: see text]

The natural history of gallstone disease in 691 patients, followed for a mean +/- SD duration of 78 +/- 61.6 months (median 62.9 months), is presented. These patients are all subscribers of a large health maintenance organization and are believed to represent a cross-section of middle income Americans. Symptoms attributed to biliary tract disease were present in 556 (80.5%), and the other 135 (19.5%) patients were asymptomatic. In the symptomatic group, the mean +/- SD duration of observation was 82.9 +/- 63.2 months (median 68.5 months); 242 (44%) eventually underwent biliary tract operations most often because of persistent symptoms. Only 10% of asymptomatic patients followed for 58 +/- 50.2 months (median 46.3 months) developed symptoms of biliary calculi, and seven per cent required operations. There were 50 deaths in this series of 691 patients, 25 in the symptomatic group, and 25 in the asymptomatic. Only two of these deaths were biliary tract related, and both were in the symptomatic group. This study suggests that patients with silent stones do not need to be operated on prior to the development of symptoms. In addition, many patients with symptoms of biliary calculi can tolerate their symptoms for long periods of time and prefer this course of action to cholecystectomy.

OBJECTIVES: To measure the impact of staged implementation of full versus partial ABCDE bundle on mechanical ventilation duration, ICU and hospital lengths of stay, and cost. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SETTING: Two medical ICUs within Montefiore Healthcare Center (Bronx, NY). PATIENTS: One thousand eight hundred fifty-five mechanically ventilated patients admitted to ICUs between July 2011 and July 2014. INTERVENTIONS: At baseline, spontaneous (B)reathing trials (B) were ongoing in both ICUs; in period 1, (A)wakening and (D)elirium (AD) were implemented in both full and partial bundle ICUs; in period 2, (E)arly mobilization and structured bundle (C)oordination (EC) were implemented in the full bundle (B-AD-EC) but not the partial bundle ICU (B-AD). MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: In the full bundle ICU, 95% patient days were spent in bed before EC (period 1). After EC was implemented (period 2), 65% of patients stood, 54% walked at least once during their ICU stay, and ICU-acquired pressure ulcers and physical restraint use decreased (period 1 vs 2: 39% vs 23% of patients; 30% vs 26% patient days, respectively; p < 0.001 for both). After adjustment for patient-level covariates, implementation of the full (B-AD-EC) versus partial (B-AD) bundle was associated with reduced mechanical ventilation duration (-22.3%; 95% CI, -22.5% to -22.0%; p < 0.001), ICU length of stay (-10.3%; 95% CI, -15.6% to -4.7%; p = 0.028), and hospital length of stay (-7.8%; 95% CI, -8.7% to -6.9%; p = 0.006). Total ICU and hospital cost were also reduced by 24.2% (95% CI, -41.4% to -2.0%; p = 0.03) and 30.2% (95% CI, -46.1% to -9.5%; p = 0.007), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: In a clinical practice setting, the addition of (E)arly mobilization and structured (C)oordination of ABCDE bundle components to a spontaneous (B)reathing, (A)wakening, and (D) elirium management background led to substantial reductions in the duration of mechanical ventilation, length of stay, and cost.

(1995). Building Bridges Between Cooperative and Collaborative Learning. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning: Vol. 27, No. 4, pp. 35-40.

There is widespread agreement that science, technology, engineering, and mathematics programs should provide undergraduates with research experience. Practical issues and limited resources, however, make this a challenge. We have developed a bioinformatics project that provides a course-based research experience for students at a diverse group of schools and offers the opportunity to tailor this experience to local curriculum and institution-specific student needs. We assessed both attitude and knowledge gains, looking for insights into how students respond given this wide range of curricular and institutional variables. While different approaches all appear to result in learning gains, we find that a significant investment of course time is required to enable students to show gains commensurate to a summer research experience. An alumni survey revealed that time spent on a research project is also a significant factor in the value former students assign to the experience one or more years later. We conclude: 1) implementation of a bioinformatics project within the biology curriculum provides a mechanism for successfully engaging large numbers of students in undergraduate research; 2) benefits to students are achievable at a wide variety of academic institutions; and 3) successful implementation of course-based research experiences requires significant investment of instructional time for students to gain full benefit.

Communicative adequacy is a key construct in second language research, as the primary goal of most language learners is to communicate successfully in real-world situations. Nevertheless, little is known about what linguistic features contribute to communicatively adequate speech. This study fills this gap by investigating the extent to which complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) predict adequacy, and whether proficiency and task type moderate these relationships. In all, 20 native speakers and 80 second language users from four proficiency levels performed five tasks. Speech samples were rated for adequacy and coded for a range of CAF indices. Filled pause frequency, a feature of breakdown fluency, emerged as the strongest predictor of adequacy. Predictors with significant but smaller effects included indices of all three CAF dimensions: linguistic complexity (lexical diversity, overall syntactic complexity, syntactic complexity by subordination, and frequency of conjoined clauses), accuracy (general accuracy and accuracy of connectors), and fluency (silent pause frequency and speed fluency). For advanced speakers, incidence of false starts also emerged as predicting communicatively adequate speech. Task type did not influence the link between linguistic features and adequacy.

The IGF-I/PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway plays an important role in the regulation of cell growth, proliferation, differentiation, motility, survival, metabolism and protein synthesis. Insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) is synthesized in the liver and fibroblasts, and its biological actions are mediated by the IGF-I receptor (IGF-IR). The binding of IGF-I to IGF-IR leads to the activation of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K). Activated PI3K stimulates the production of phosphatidylinositol (4,5)-bisphosphate [PI(4,5)P2] and phosphatidylinositol (3,4,5)-trisphosphate [PI(3,4,5)P3]. The PH domain of AKT (protein kinase B, PKB) (v-AKT murine thymoma viral oncogene homolog) binds to PI(4,5)P2 and PI(3,4,5)P3, followed by phosphorylation of the Thr308 and Ser473 regulatory sites. Tuberous sclerosis complex 1 (TSC1) and TSC2 are upstream regulators of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) and downstream effectors of the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. The activation of AKT suppresses the TSC1/TSC2 heterodimer, which is an upstream regulator of mTOR. Dysregulated IGF-I/PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling has been shown to be associated with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). In this review, we discuss the emerging evidence for a functional relationship between the IGF-I/PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway and ASDs, as well as a possible role of this signaling pathway in the diagnosis and treatment of ASDs.

In post-industrial cities throughout the world abandoned railroads, demolished freeways, disused canals, and other derelict industrial ruins are being transformed into ecologically inspired and aesthetically designed leisure, consumption, and tourist spaces based upon the principles of Landscape Urbanism and ideas about sustainable park design. New York City’s High Line is one example of this growing trend. Sustainable parks like the High Line claim to provide economic, ecological, and equity benefits associated with the 3 Es of sustainability. Our research on the development of New York City’s High Line suggests that while the High Line meets the economic piece of the sustainability triad with its promise of generating growth, its success in terms of the ecological dimension of sustainability is unclear. More troubling is the High Line’s neglect of the social equity component of the discourse of sustainability. Our work brings together several key arguments in the critical literature on urban sustainability to examine how structural constraints associated with creating post-industrial ecological spaces in a climate of neoliberal urbanization play out in the paradigmatic case of the High Line.

Individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and otherwise nonstraight and/or non-cisgender (LGBTQ+) have often not felt welcome or represented in the biology community. Additionally, biology can present unique challenges for LGBTQ+ students because of the relationship between certain biology topics and their LGBTQ+ identities. Currently, there is no centralized set of guidelines to make biology learning environments more inclusive for LGBTQ+ individuals. Rooted in prior literature and the collective expertise of the authors who identify as members and allies of the LGBTQ+ community, we present a set of actionable recommendations to help biologists, biology educators, and biology education researchers be more inclusive of individuals with LGBTQ+ identities. These recommendations are intended to increase awareness of LGBTQ+ identities and spark conversations about transforming biology learning spaces and the broader academic biology community to become more inclusive of LGBTQ+ individuals.

Prolonged exposure to hyperoxia results in acute lung injury (ALI), accompanied by a significant elevation in the levels of proinflammatory cytokines and leukocyte infiltration in the lungs. However, the mechanisms underlying hyperoxia-induced proinflammatory ALI remain to be elucidated. In this study, we investigated the role of the proinflammatory cytokine high mobility group box protein 1 (HMGB1) in hyperoxic inflammatory lung injury, using an adult mouse model. The exposure of C57BL/6 mice to ≥99% O2 (hyperoxia) significantly increased the accumulation of HMGB1 in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluids (BALF) prior to the onset of severe inflammatory lung injury. In the airways of hyperoxic mice, HMGB1 was hyperacetylated and existed in various redox forms. Intratracheal administration of recombinant HMGB1 (rHMGB1) caused a significant increase in leukocyte infiltration into the lungs compared to animal treated with a non-specific peptide. Neutralizing anti-HMGB1 antibodies, administrated before hyperoxia significantly attenuated pulmonary edema and inflammatory responses, as indicated by decreased total protein content, wet/dry weight ratio, and numbers of leukocytes in the airways. This protection was also observed when HMGB1 inhibitors were administered after the onset of the hyperoxic exposure. The aliphatic antioxidant, ethyl pyruvate (EP), inhibited HMGB1 secretion from hyperoxic macrophages and attenuated hyperoxic lung injury. Overall, our data suggest that HMGB1 plays a critical role in mediating hyperoxic ALI through the recruitment of leukocytes into the lungs. If these results can be translated to humans, they suggest that HMGB1 inhibitors provide treatment regimens for oxidative inflammatory lung injury in patients receiving hyperoxia through mechanical ventilation.

Autism is a severe neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impairments in social interaction, deficits in verbal and non-verbal communication, and repetitive behavior and restricted interests. The normal brain development during fetal brain development and the first year of life is critical to the behaviors and cognitions in adulthood. Programmed cell death (apoptosis) is an important mechanism that determines the size and shape of the brain and regulates the proper wiring of developing neuronal networks. Pathological activation of apoptotic death pathways under pathological conditions may lead to neuroanatomic abnormalities and possibly to developmental disabilities. It has been demonstrated a possible association between neural cell death and autism. Here, the abnormal apoptosis found in autism from postmortem and animal studies was reviewed and the possible mechanism was discussed.

Cationic amino acid (CAA) transport is brought about by two families of proteins that are found in various tissues: Cat (CAA transporter), referred to as system y+, and Bat [broad-scope amino acid (AA) transporter], which comprises systems b0,+, B0,+, and y+L. CAA traverse the blood-brain barrier (BBB), but experiments done in vivo have only been able to examine the BBB from the luminal (blood-facing) side. In the present study, plasma membranes isolated from bovine brain microvessels were used to identify and characterize the CAA transporter(s) on both sides of the BBB. From these studies, it was concluded that system y+ was the only transporter present, with a prevalence of activity on the abluminal membrane. System y+ was voltage dependent and had a Km of 470 +/- 106 microM (SE) for lysine, a Ki of 34 microM for arginine, and a Ki of 290 microM for ornithine. In the presence of Na+, system y+ was inhibited by several essential neutral AAs. The Ki values were 3-10 times the plasma concentrations, suggesting that system y+ was not as important a point of access for these AAs as system L1. Several small nonessential AAs (serine, glutamine, alanine,and glycine) inhibited system y+ with Ki values similar to their plasma concentrations, suggesting that system y+ may account for the permeability of the BBB to these AAs. System y+ may be important in the provision of arginine for NO synthesis. Real-time PCR and Western blotting techniques established the presence of the three known nitric oxide synthases in cerebral endothelial cells: NOS-1 (neuronal), NOS-2 (inducible), and NOS-3 (endothelial). These results confirm that system y+ is the only CAA transporter in the BBB and suggest that NO can be produced in brain endothelial cells.

I would like to thank Dr Thomson for the very pertinent and relevant points that he raised in his thoughtful letter Where are we now with COVID-19?1 As my response will illustrate, and in what probably will become a defining feature of conversations surrounding COVID-19 for quite some time, attempts to answer will only make room for more questions. As COVID-19 is unfolding, every day is marked by novel developments. Since the editorial went to press,2 the outbreak has expanded considerably. Over 128 000 individuals were infected worldwide as of 13 March 2020, leading to 4720 deaths.3 In early March, while the outbreak in China appeared to start to subside,4 it started to amplify in Europe and the United States. The first fatality in the United States occurred on 29 February 2020 in a suburb of Seattle. On 4 March, the first death was reported outside WA state, in CA, and was the 11th death in the United States. On 6 March, the first two fatalities were reported in Florida. On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a pandemic.5 Some aspects about the outbreak were anticipated. Its rapid worldwide spread within and across countries was predictable, and so was the increased mortality among certain population groups. The magnitude of the outbreak in various countries, however, came somewhat as a surprise. The first two cases in Italy were detected on 29 January 2020.6 As of 13 March 2020, the country experienced 12 462 infections and 827 deaths,3 becoming to date the largest one and the one that claimed most fatalities outside of Asia. Several scenarios may explain the large outbreak and the high COVID-19 mortality rate in Italy. Prior to the first COVID-19 diagnoses in Italy, it was reported that an unusually high number of people with pneumonia were diagnosed at a hospital in the Northern part of the country, opening the possibility that they were the first cases but they had been treated as if they had the flu.7 It is also conceivable that by the time the outbreak in Italy was noticed, several transmission chains were already becoming established in the country.8 Additionally, Italy has one of the world's oldest populations. In 2015 and 2016, 21%-22% of its residents were aged 65 and over, and the average life expectancy at birth, 82.7 years, is one of the highest in the world.8, 9 The high COVID-19 mortality in Italy may at least in part reflect the disproportionately high mortality that it causes in elderly individuals. A critical facet of COVID-19, which was not always adequately underscored in the media, yet probably holds the most critical insight towards helping design and implement preventive and supportive interventions, is the breakdown of case-fatality rates by age groups. An analysis of 44 672 patients with confirmed infection in China, before 11 February 2020, helped understand the distribution of case-fatality rates across age groups. Even though the overall case fatality rate was 2.3%, higher in males (2.8%) than in females (1.7%), no fatalities were recorded for those under age 9, and the case fatality rates were 0.2% for the 10-19, 20-29 and 30-39 age groups, and increased to 0.4%, 1.3%, 3.6%, 8% and 14.8% in those 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, 70-79 ≥ 80 years old, respectively (Figure 1).10 Notably, based on these data, COVID-19 causes disproportionately higher mortality among individuals over 60 years old, and particularly over 80 years old, than among infants and children. This is markedly distinct from influenza, which causes more severe illness and higher mortality in young children, especially infants under 6 months,11-13 and in those 65 years and older.14, 15 The same study revealed that while case-fatality rates were 0.9% in patients without comorbidities, they were much higher in patients with comorbidities: 10.5% in those with cardiovascular disease, 7.3% in those with diabetes, 6.3% in those with chronic respiratory diseases, 6% for those with hypertension and 5.6% for those with cancer.10, 16 These findings stem from a single analysis conducted in China on patients affected during the early stages of the outbreak. It is important to consider that mortality rates, the age group distribution of mortality and the comorbidities that may shape the clinical course may be very different in other countries and during later stages of the outbreak. That is something that only time will tell. Population genetic analyses of 103 sequenced genomes of SARS-CoV-2 indicate that there are two strains: L, more prevalent (70%) in the early stages of the outbreak and more aggressive, and S, less prevalent (30%) and less aggressive.17 It will be important to examine whether the two strains differ with respect to incubation periods, clinical manifestations and mortality rates. Predicting patients who may have a more severe clinical course, or face higher mortality, remains one of the million-dollar questions in COVID-19. Several studies found that certain plasma biomarkers could predict the course of the illness and guide therapeutic interventions. A retrospective multicenter study that used the databases of two hospitals from China revealed that among patients infected with SARS-CoV-2, the risk of death was significantly increased among those with cardiovascular diseases. As compared to patients who were discharged, in this analysis, patients who died had significantly higher levels of cardiac troponin, myoglobin, C-reactive protein and IL-6. Secondary infections, underlying disease and elevated blood inflammatory markers emerged in this study, in addition to age, as predictors of fatal outcome after COVID-19.18 The higher risk of mortality among COVID-19 patients with cardiovascular disease was also reported in a retrospective analysis of patients admitted to the western district of Union Hospital in Wuhan between 20 January 2020 and 15 February 2020; in this study, lymphocyte counts were significantly lower in critical patients.19 It appears that SARS-CoV-2 is less pathogenic than SARS, which was fatal in ~10% of the patients and ~50% of patients over age 60, and less pathogenic than MERS, which was fatal in 40%-50% of the patients.20-23 However, COVID-19 mortality rates are preliminary, and the values may change as more individuals will be confirmed retrospectively with mild respiratory illnesses that were attributed at the time to the common cold, or to have died from COVID-19 that was believed to be another respiratory illness. One of the major differences between SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2, which may shape to a great extent the epidemiological distinctions between the two outbreaks, is the time when viral shedding is most extensive. For SARS-CoV, viral shedding in the saliva and transmission risk appeared to be low during the prodromal phase.24 Respiratory shedding increased over the first week after the onset of clinical illness and remained high during the second week, when most patients were already hospitalised.25 This partly explains why hospital workers were predominantly affected.26 In contrast, individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2 appear to shed the virus from their respiratory tract during the prodromal period,27 and viral shedding appears to occur in individuals who have minor clinical manifestations,28 contributing to the extensive community transmission that we are currently witnessing. Despite a wealth of information that emerged over the past few weeks about SARS-CoV-2, we know woefully little about the virus and about COVID-19. The learning curve will be fraught with uncertainties, unchartered territories, surprises and frustrations. While we will certainly gain more insight into COVID-19 susceptible groups, at this point it appears critical to implement social distancing in a rationally layered manner. Young, healthy adults have a relatively lower risk of mortality, while individuals over their 60s, and particularly those in their 80s, have a disproportionately higher mortality risk. Additionally, individuals with hypertension, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases and cancer are at a higher risk of mortality. It is imperative to take into consideration the increased mortality in these groups and to support social distancing interventions that are ideally positioned to protect everyone in a population and, at the same time, to more powerfully protect individuals from these highly susceptible groups. Such rationally layered social distancing interventions will constitute the most decisive determinant and predictor of successful epidemic and pandemic preparedness.

The Triangulum–Andromeda stellar clouds (TriAnd1 and TriAnd2) are a pair of concentric ring- or shell-like overdensities at large R (≈30 kpc) and Z (≈−10 kpc) in the Galactic halo that are thought to have been formed from the accretion and disruption of a satellite galaxy. This paper critically reexamines this formation scenario by comparing the number ratio of RR Lyrae to M giant stars associated with the TriAnd clouds with other structures in the Galaxy. The current data suggest a stellar population for these overdensities (fRR: MG < 0.38 at 95 per cent confidence) quite unlike any of the known satellites of the Milky Way (fRR: MG ≈ 0.5 for the very largest and fRR: MG ≫ 1 for the smaller satellites) and more like the population of stars born in the much deeper potential well inhabited by the Galactic disc (fRR: MG < 0.01). N-body simulations of a Milky Way-like galaxy perturbed by the impact of a dwarf galaxy demonstrate that, in the right circumstances, concentric rings propagating outwards from that Galactic disc can plausibly produce similar overdensities. These results provide dramatic support for the recent proposal by Xu et al. that, rather than stars accreted from other galaxies, the TriAnd clouds could represent stars kicked out from our own disc. If so, these would be the first populations of disc stars to be found in the Galactic halo and a clear signature of the importance of this second formation mechanism for stellar haloes more generally. Moreover, their existence at the very extremities of the disc places strong constraints on the nature of the interaction that formed them.

BACKGROUND: Testicular torsion is surgical emergency. Prompt diagnosis and treatment of testicular torsion is essential for testicular viability. At surgical exploration, the spermatic cord is seen twisted a variable number of times around its longitudinal axis. There is scant data regarding the degree of twisting and its association with testis outcomes. The purpose of our study is to explore how the degree of torsion factors into testicular outcome using follow-up data. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the records of adolescent males who presented with testicular torsion to our institution, looking at duration of pain symptoms, degree of torsion documented in the operative note, procedure performed (orchiopexy versus orchiectomy), and follow-up clinic data for whether testicular atrophy after orchiopexy was present. A non-salvageable testis was defined as orchiectomy or atrophy. Receiver operator characteristics (ROC), multivariate, and logistic regression analyses were performed to determine the probability of a non-salvageable torsed testis based on time and degree of twisting. RESULTS: Eighty-one patients met our study criteria, with 55 testes deemed viable and 26 non-salvageable. We found a 25.7% atrophy rate after orchiopexy. Cut-off values of 8.5 h and 495 degrees of torsion would provide sensitivities of 73% and 53%, respectively, with specificity of 80% for both. Only duration and age were correlated with the risk of non-salvage on multivariate analysis. Logistic regression generated linear probability formulas of 4 + (3 ¡Á hours) and 7 + (0.05 ¡Á degrees) in calculating the probability of non-salvage with strong correlation. CONCLUSIONS: We were able to derive separate formulas to determine the viability of the torsed testis based on symptom duration and degrees of twisting. Fifteen h of symptoms and 860 degrees of torsion gives testes a 50% salvage rate. Interestingly, we also found that about 1 out of every 4 testes undergoes atrophy after orchiopexy.

The article reviews the websites ResearchGate and Academia.edu, both of which are social networks.

This study examines the impact of the zero-tolerance policies on Black males’ educational experiences and outcomes. Individual interviews were conducted with Black males who dropped out of high school. Using counter-storytelling within a critical race theory framework, Black males discussed the influence of the zero-tolerance policies on their school experiences. These men’s narratives affirm that these policies created an inhospitable school environment and poor student–teacher relationship. Furthermore, school personnel’s use of the most punitive measures of the policies, suspension and expulsion of students, led to their school failure.

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. erecta, D. mojavensis, and D. grimshawi F elements and euchromatic domains from the Muller D element. We find that F elements have greater transposon density (25-50%) than euchromatic reference regions (3-11%). Among the F elements, D. grimshawi has the lowest transposon density (particularly DINE-1: 2% vs. 11-27%). F element genes have larger coding spans, more coding exons, larger introns, and lower codon bias. Comparison of the Effective Number of Codons with the Codon Adaptation Index shows that, in contrast to the other species, codon bias in D. grimshawi F element genes can be attributed primarily to selection instead of mutational biases, suggesting that density and types of transposons affect the degree of local heterochromatin formation. F element genes have lower estimated DNA melting temperatures than D element genes, potentially facilitating transcription through heterochromatin. Most F element genes (~90%) have remained on that element, but the F element has smaller syntenic blocks than genome averages (3.4-3.6 vs. 8.4-8.8 genes per block), indicating greater rates of inversion despite lower rates of recombination. Overall, the F element has maintained characteristics that are distinct from other autosomes in the Drosophila lineage, illuminating the constraints imposed by a heterochromatic milieu.

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.