University of Iowa

About: University of Iowa is a education organization based out in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 49229 authors who have published 109171 publications receiving 5021465 citations. The organization is also known as: UI & The University of Iowa.

Post-translational disruption of dystroglycan-ligand interactions in congenital muscular dystrophies

Abstract: In the CST, there was a first fixation period of 1 s, followed by a brief presentation (100 ms) of a cue at 208 to the left or to the right The monkey had to maintain his gaze at the fixation spot during a delay period of 1 s The fixation spot then disappeared and the target appeared at the same position as the cue In half of the trials, another spot appeared at the alternative position (distracter) The monkey had to make a saccade to the target position within 500 ms, and was rewarded with a drop of water for a correct saccade After recording neurons in the CST (experiment 2), we re-applied the BST (experiment 1) for at least 80 trials to confirm the reproducibility of neuronal activity Data analysis Pre-target neurons were defined as neurons that showed a statistically reliable increase in the spike count 215 s to 0 s before target onset (‘pre-target window’) as compared with the spike count 2 3s to215 s before target onset All pair-wise comparisons were evaluated by two-tailed t-tests, P , 001 We used the Bonferroni procedure to correct for family-wise error with multiple t-tests To quantify the separation of population distributions from contralateral versus ipsilateral conditions, we calculated the area under the ROC in a sliding window of 200 ms To test the adaptation of saccade latency and pre-target activity to a reversal of position-reward contingency, we compared the second trial after a reversal against the third trial after a reversal (test 1) We also compared the second trial after a reversal against the pooled data from the sixth to twentieth trial (test 2) Both tests consisted of paired twotailed t-tests on the mean data from individual neurons Adaptation was judged complete if there was no significant difference between the measures Tests 1 and 2 produced similar results in all cases For comparison between the two tasks (BST versus CST), we considered the neuronal activity from 2500 to 0 ms before target onset in both tasks, in the computation of absolute firing rates as well as ROC areas

Target ranges of oxygen saturation in extremely preterm infants

Abstract: BACKGROUND Previous studies have suggested that the incidence of retinopathy is lower in preterm infants with exposure to reduced levels of oxygenation than in those exposed to higher levels of oxygenation. However, it is unclear what range of oxygen saturation is appropriate to minimize retinopathy without increasing adverse outcomes. METHODS We performed a randomized trial with a 2-by-2 factorial design to compare target ranges of oxygen saturation of 85 to 89% or 91 to 95% among 1316 infants who were born between 24 weeks 0 days and 27 weeks 6 days of gestation. The primary outcome was a composite of severe retinopathy of prematurity (defined as the presence of threshold retinopathy, the need for surgical ophthalmologic intervention, or the use of bevacizumab), death before discharge from the hospital, or both. All infants were also randomly assigned to continuous positive airway pressure or intubation and surfactant. RESULTS The rates of severe retinopathy or death did not differ significantly between the lower-oxygen-saturation group and the higher-oxygen-saturation group (28.3% and 32.1%, respectively; relative risk with lower oxygen saturation, 0.90; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.76 to 1.06; P=0.21). Death before discharge occurred more frequently in the lower-oxygen-saturation group (in 19.9% of infants vs. 16.2%; relative risk, 1.27; 95% CI, 1.01 to 1.60; P=0.04), whereas severe retinopathy among survivors occurred less often in this group (8.6% vs. 17.9%; relative risk, 0.52; 95% CI, 0.37 to 0.73; P<0.001). There were no significant differences in the rates of other adverse events. CONCLUSIONS A lower target range of oxygenation (85 to 89%), as compared with a higher range (91 to 95%), did not significantly decrease the composite outcome of severe retinopathy or death, but it resulted in an increase in mortality and a substantial decrease in severe retinopathy among survivors. The increase in mortality is a major concern, since a lower target range of oxygen saturation is increasingly being advocated to prevent retinopathy of prematurity. (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00233324.)

Comparative Democracy: the Economic Development Thesis

Abstract: In comparative politics, an established finding—that economic development fosters democratic performance—has recently come under challenge. We counter this challenge with a dynamic pooled time series analysis of a major, but neglected data set from 131 nations. The final generalized least squares-autoregressive moving averages estimates (N = 2,096) appear robust and indicate strong economic development effects, dependent in part on the nation's position in the world system. For the first time, rather hard evidence is offered on the causal relationship between economics and democracy. According to Granger tests, economic development “causes” democracy, but democracy does not “cause” economic development. Overall, the various tests would seem to advance sharply the modeling of democratic performance.

Draft genome sequence of the sexually transmitted pathogen Trichomonas vaginalis

Abstract: We describe the genome sequence of the protist Trichomonas vaginalis, a sexually transmitted human pathogen. Repeats and transposable elements comprise about two-thirds of the similar to 160-megabase genome, reflecting a recent massive expansion of genetic material. This expansion, in conjunction with the shaping of metabolic pathways that likely transpired through lateral gene transfer from bacteria, and amplification of specific gene families implicated in pathogenesis and phagocytosis of host proteins may exemplify adaptations of the parasite during its transition to a urogenital environment. The genome sequence predicts previously unknown functions for the hydrogenosome, which support a common evolutionary origin of this unusual organelle with mitochondria.