Evaluation of ‘Eyelander’: a video game designed to engage children and young people with homonymous visual field loss in compensatory training

Introduction: Rehabilitation can improve visual outcomes for adults with acquired homonymous visual field loss. However, it is unclear whether (re)habilitation improves visual outcomes for children because previous training schedules have been tiresome, uninteresting, and failed to keep them engaged. In this study we assessed whether children and young people with homonymous visual field loss would adhere to six weeks of unsupervised compensatory training using a specialised video game. Methods: Participants aged between 7 and 25 with homonymous visual field loss completed table-top assessments of visual search across four site visits. Two baseline assessments separated by four weeks evaluated spontaneous improvements before training began. Participants were then given a copy of the video game to use unsupervised at home for six weeks. Two follow-up assessments separated by four weeks were then conducted to evaluate immediate and acutely maintained effects of training. Results. 15 candidates met the inclusion-exclusion criteria, 9 participated, and 8 completed the study. Participants completed an average of 5.6 hours training unsupervised over the six weeks. Improvements on in-game metrics plateaued during week 3 of training. The time taken to find objects during table-top activities improved by an average of 24% (95% CI [2%, 46%]) after training. Discussion: The findings demonstrate that children and young people with homonymous visual field loss will engage with gamified compensatory training, and can improve visual outcomes with less time commitment than adults have required with non-gamified training in previous studies. Appropriately powered, randomised controlled trials are required to evaluate the validity and generalisability of observed training effects. Implications for practitioners: We conclude that (re)habilitation specialists can use specialist video games and gamification to engage children and young people with homonymous visual field loss in long-term unsupervised training schedules

Predicting the future of ALS: the impact of demographic change and potential new treatments on the prevalence of ALS in the United Kingdom, 2020-2116

OBJECTIVE To model the effects of demographic change under various scenarios of possible future treatment developments in ALS. METHODS Patients diagnosed with ALS at the King's College Hospital Motor Nerve Clinic between 2004 and 2017, and living within the London boroughs of Lambeth, Southwark, and Lewisham (LSL), were included as incident cases. We also ascertained incident cases from the Canterbury region over the same period. Future incidence of ALS was estimated by applying the calculated age- and sex-specific incidence rates to the UK population projections from 2020 to 2116. The number of prevalent cases for each future year was estimated based on an established method. Assuming constant incidence, we modelled four possible future prevalence scenarios by altering the median disease duration for varying subsets of the population, to represent the impact of new treatments. RESULTS The total number of people newly diagnosed with ALS per year in the UK is projected to rise from a baseline of 1415 UK cases in 2010 to 1701 in 2020 and 2635 in 2116. Overall prevalence of ALS was predicted to increase from 8.58 per 100,000 persons in 2020 to 9.67 per 100,000 persons in 2116. Halting disease progression in patients with C9orf72 mutations would yield the greatest impact of the modelled treatment scenarios, increasing prevalence in the year 2066 from a baseline of 9.50 per 100,000 persons to 15.68 per 100,000 persons. CONCLUSIONS Future developments in treatment would combine with the effects of demographic change to result in more people living longer with ALS

Importance of Indigenous Peoples' lands for the conservation of Intact Forest Landscapes

Intact Forest Landscapes (IFLs) are critical strongholds for the environmental services that they provide, not least for their role in climate protection. On the basis of information about the distributions of IFLs and Indigenous Peoples’ lands, we examined the importance of these areas for conserving the world's remaining intact forests. We determined that at least 36% of IFLs are within Indigenous Peoples’ lands, making these areas crucial to the mitigation action needed to avoid catastrophic climate change. We also provide evidence that IFL loss rates have been considerably lower on Indigenous Peoples’ lands than on other lands, although these forests are still vulnerable to clearing and other threats. World governments must recognize Indigenous Peoples’ rights, including land tenure rights, to ensure that Indigenous Peoples play active roles in decision‐making processes that affect IFLs on their lands. Such recognition is critical given the urgent need to reduce deforestation rates in the face of escalating climate change and global biodiversity loss.Intact Forest Landscapes (IFLs) are critical strongholds for the environmental services that they provide, not least for their role in climate protection. On the basis of information about the distributions of IFLs and Indigenous Peoples' lands, we examined the importance of these areas for conserving the world's remaining intact forests. We determined that at least 36% of IFLs are within Indigenous Peoples' lands, making these areas crucial to the mitigation action needed to avoid catastrophic climate change. We also provide evidence that IFL loss rates have been considerably lower on Indigenous Peoples' lands than on other lands, although these forests are still vulnerable to clearing and other threats. World governments must recognize Indigenous Peoples' rights, including land tenure rights, to ensure that Indigenous Peoples play active roles in decision-making processes that affect IFLs on their lands. Such recognition is critical given the urgent need to reduce deforestation rates in the face of escalating climate change and global biodiversity loss.Peer reviewe

SPIRE - combining SGI-110 with cisplatin and gemcitabine chemotherapy for solid malignancies including bladder cancer: study protocol for a phase Ib/randomised IIa open label clinical trial

Background Urothelial bladder cancer (UBC) accounts for 10,000 new diagnoses and 5000 deaths annually in the UK (Cancer Research UK, http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/health-professional/cancer-statistics/statistics-by-cancer-type/bladder-cancer, Cancer Research UK, Accessed 26 Mar 2018). Cisplatin-based chemotherapy is standard of care therapy for UBC for both palliative first-line treatment of advanced/metastatic disease and radical neoadjuvant treatment of localised muscle invasive bladder cancer. However, cisplatin resistance remains a critical cause of treatment failure and a barrier to therapeutic advance in UBC. Based on supportive pre-clinical data, we hypothesised that DNA methyltransferase inhibition would circumvent cisplatin resistance in UBC and potentially other cancers. Methods The addition of SGI-110 (guadecitabine, a DNA methyltransferase inhibitor) to conventional doublet therapy of gemcitabine and cisplatin (GC) is being tested within the phase Ib/IIa SPIRE clinical trial. SPIRE incorporates an initial, modified rolling six-dose escalation phase Ib design of up to 36 patients with advanced solid tumours followed by a 20-patient open-label randomised controlled dose expansion phase IIa component as neoadjuvant treatment for UBC. Patients are being recruited from UK secondary care sites. The dose escalation phase will determine a recommended phase II dose (RP2D, primary endpoint) of SGI-110, by subcutaneous injection, on days 1–5 for combination with GC at conventional doses (cisplatin 70 mg/m2, IV infusion, day 8; gemcitabine 1000 mg/m2, IV infusion, days 8 and 15) in every 21-day cycle. In the dose expansion phase, patients will be randomised 1:1 to GC with or without SGI-110 at the proposed RP2D. Secondary endpoints will include toxicity profiles, SGI-110 pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamic biomarkers, and pathological complete response rates in the dose expansion phase. Analyses will not be powered for formal statistical comparisons and descriptive statistics will be used to describe rates of toxicity, efficacy and translational endpoints by treatment arm. Discussion SPIRE will provide evidence for whether SGI-110 in combination with GC chemotherapy is safe and biologically effective prior to future phase II/III trials as a neoadjuvant therapy for UBC and potentially in other cancers treated with GC

Effects of antiplatelet therapy on stroke risk by brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases: subgroup analyses of the RESTART randomised, open-label trial

Background Findings from the RESTART trial suggest that starting antiplatelet therapy might reduce the risk of recurrent symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage compared with avoiding antiplatelet therapy. Brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases (such as cerebral microbleeds) are associated with greater risks of recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage. We did subgroup analyses of the RESTART trial to explore whether these brain imaging features modify the effects of antiplatelet therapy

A longitudinal examination of the relationship between trauma-related cognitive factors and internalising and externalising psychopathology in physically injured children

Cognitive models of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) highlight maladaptive posttrauma appraisals, trauma memory qualities, and coping strategies, such as rumination or thought suppression, as key processes that maintain PTSD symptoms. Anxiety, depression and externalising symptoms can also present in children in the aftermath of trauma, yet there has been little empirical investigation of the potential relevance of posttrauma cognitive processes for such difficulties. Here, we examined whether: a) acute maladaptive cognitive processes (specifically, maladaptive appraisals, memory qualities, and cognitive coping) were associated with symptoms of PTSD, internalising, and externalising at 1-month posttrauma (T1); and b) changes in these cognitive processes predicted symptom change at a follow-up assessment 6 months later (T2). We recruited 132 6–13 year old children and their parents from emergency departments following the child’s experience of an acute trauma. Children self-reported on their maladaptive appraisals, trauma-memory and cognitive coping strategies, along with symptoms of PTSD, anxiety and depression. Parents also rated children’s internalising and externalising symptoms. We found each cognitive process to be robustly associated with PTSD and non-PTSD internalising symptoms at T1, and change in each predicted change in symptoms to T2. Maladaptive appraisals and cognitive coping were unique predictors of children’s posttrauma internalising. Effects were partially retained even controlling for co-occurring PTSD symptoms. There was less evidence that trauma-specific cognitive processes were associated with externalising symptoms. Findings suggest aspects of cognitive models of PTSD are applicable to broader posttrauma psychopathology, and have implications for how we understand and target children’s posttrauma psychological adjustment

Synaptically-Competent Neurons Derived from Canine Embryonic Stem Cells by Lineage Selection with EGF and Noggin

Pluripotent stem cell lines have been generated in several domestic animal species; however, these lines traditionally show poor self-renewal and differentiation. Using canine embryonic stem cell (cESC) lines previously shown to have sufficient self-renewal capacity and potency, we generated and compared canine neural stem cell (cNSC) lines derived by lineage selection with epidermal growth factor (EGF) or Noggin along the neural default differentiation pathway, or by directed differentiation with retinoic acid (RA)-induced floating sphere assay. Lineage selection produced large populations of SOX2+ neural stem/progenitor cell populations and neuronal derivatives while directed differentiation produced few and improper neuronal derivatives. Primary canine neural lines were generated from fetal tissue and used as a positive control for differentiation and electrophysiology. Differentiation of EGF- and Noggin-directed cNSC lines in N2B27 with low-dose growth factors (BDNF/NT-3 or PDGFαα) produced phenotypes equivalent to primary canine neural cells including 3CB2+ radial progenitors, MOSP+ glia restricted precursors, VIM+/GFAP+ astrocytes, and TUBB3+/MAP2+/NFH+/SYN+ neurons. Conversely, induction with RA and neuronal differentiation produced inadequate putative neurons for further study, even though appropriate neuronal gene expression profiles were observed by RT-PCR (including Nestin, TUBB3, PSD95, STX1A, SYNPR, MAP2). Co-culture of cESC-derived neurons with primary canine fetal cells on canine astrocytes was used to test functional maturity of putative neurons. Canine ESC-derived neurons received functional GABAA- and AMPA-receptor mediated synaptic input, but only when co-cultured with primary neurons. This study presents established neural stem/progenitor cell populations and functional neural derivatives in the dog, providing the proof-of-concept required to translate stem cell transplantation strategies into a clinically relevant animal model