Community-based cardiovascular Risk Factors Intervention Strategies (CORFIS) in managing hypertension: A pragmatic non-randomised controlled trial

BACKGROUND: Hypertension is the number one cardiovascular risk factor in Malaysia. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a Community-Based Cardiovascular Risk Factors Intervention Strategies (CORFIS) in the management of hypertension in primary care. METHODS: This is a pragmatic, non-randomized controlled trial. Seventy general practitioners (GPs) were selected to provide either CORFIS (44 GPs) or conventional care (26 GPs) for 6 months. A total of 486 hypertensive patients were recruited; 309 were in the intervention and 177 in the control groups. Primary outcome was the proportion of hypertensive patients who achieved target blood pressure (BP) of <140/90mmHg (for those without diabetes mellitus) and <130/80mmHg (with diabetes mellitus). Secondary outcomes include change in the mean/median BP at 6-month as compared to baseline. RESULTS: The proportion of hypertensive patients who achieved target BP at 6-month was significantly higher in the CORFIS arm (69.6) as compared to the control arm (57.6), P=0.008. Amongst those who had uncontrolled BP at baseline, the proportion who achieved target BP at 6-month was also significantly higher in the CORFIS arm (56.6) as compared to the control arm (34.1), p<0.001. There was no difference in the patients who had already achieved BP control at baseline. There were significant reductions in SBP in the CORFIS arm (median -9.0mmHg; -60 to 50) versus control (median -2mmHg; -50 to 48), p=0.003; as well as in DBP (CORFIS arm: median -6.0mmHg; ranged from -53 to 30 versus control arm: median 0.0mmHg; ranged from -42 to 30), p<0.001. CONCLUSIONS: Patients who received CORFIS care demonstrated significant improvements in achieving target BP

Effects of sleep deprivation on neural functioning: an integrative review

Sleep deprivation has a broad variety of effects on human performance and neural functioning that manifest themselves at different levels of description. On a macroscopic level, sleep deprivation mainly affects executive functions, especially in novel tasks. Macroscopic and mesoscopic effects of sleep deprivation on brain activity include reduced cortical responsiveness to incoming stimuli, reflecting reduced attention. On a microscopic level, sleep deprivation is associated with increased levels of adenosine, a neuromodulator that has a general inhibitory effect on neural activity. The inhibition of cholinergic nuclei appears particularly relevant, as the associated decrease in cortical acetylcholine seems to cause effects of sleep deprivation on macroscopic brain activity. In general, however, the relationships between the neural effects of sleep deprivation across observation scales are poorly understood and uncovering these relationships should be a primary target in future research

Age at first birth in women is genetically associated with increased risk of schizophrenia

Prof. Paunio on PGC:n jäsenPrevious studies have shown an increased risk for mental health problems in children born to both younger and older parents compared to children of average-aged parents. We previously used a novel design to reveal a latent mechanism of genetic association between schizophrenia and age at first birth in women (AFB). Here, we use independent data from the UK Biobank (N = 38,892) to replicate the finding of an association between predicted genetic risk of schizophrenia and AFB in women, and to estimate the genetic correlation between schizophrenia and AFB in women stratified into younger and older groups. We find evidence for an association between predicted genetic risk of schizophrenia and AFB in women (P-value = 1.12E-05), and we show genetic heterogeneity between younger and older AFB groups (P-value = 3.45E-03). The genetic correlation between schizophrenia and AFB in the younger AFB group is -0.16 (SE = 0.04) while that between schizophrenia and AFB in the older AFB group is 0.14 (SE = 0.08). Our results suggest that early, and perhaps also late, age at first birth in women is associated with increased genetic risk for schizophrenia in the UK Biobank sample. These findings contribute new insights into factors contributing to the complex bio-social risk architecture underpinning the association between parental age and offspring mental health.Peer reviewe

Associations of autozygosity with a broad range of human phenotypes

In many species, the offspring of related parents suffer reduced reproductive success, a phenomenon known as inbreeding depression. In humans, the importance of this effect has remained unclear, partly because reproduction between close relatives is both rare and frequently associated with confounding social factors. Here, using genomic inbreeding coefficients (FROH) for >1.4 million individuals, we show that FROH is significantly associated (p < 0.0005) with apparently deleterious changes in 32 out of 100 traits analysed. These changes are associated with runs of homozygosity (ROH), but not with common variant homozygosity, suggesting that genetic variants associated with inbreeding depression are predominantly rare. The effect on fertility is striking: FROH equivalent to the offspring of first cousins is associated with a 55% decrease [95% CI 44–66%] in the odds of having children. Finally, the effects of FROH are confirmed within full-sibling pairs, where the variation in FROH is independent of all environmental confounding

Microwave extraction of phthalate esters from marine sediment and soil

Chromatographia427-8378-384CHRG

Optimization of the microwave-assisted solvent extraction of petroleum hydrocarbons in marine sediment and soil

10.1023/A:1005704218842Environmental Monitoring and Assessment441-3587-603EMAS

Determination of 4-Nonylphenol - Part 2: Orthogonal Array Design as a Chemometric Method for the Solid-Phase Microextraction of 4-Nonylphenol in Water

Journal of Microcolumn Separations82131-136JMSE

Optimization of sample preparation techniques for the determination of 4-nonylphenol in water and sediment

Journal of Liquid Chromatography and Related Technologies192259-275JLCT

Determination of organochlorine pesticides in water by membranous solid-phase extraction, and in sediment by microwave-assisted solvent extraction with gas chromatography and electron-capture and mass spectrometric detection

Journal of Chromatography A7361-2211-218JCRA