Using a stepped-care approach to help severely obese children and young people

Weight management is a game of chance for most children and young people, and is dependent on service availability and the expertise of the provider. Many localities are without established weight-management services, and the effectiveness of those provided is often not well-known. SHINE (Self Help, Independence, Nutrition and Exercise) is the only documented tier 3 community-based service provider in the UK. It offers a plethora of interventions tailored to each child or young person using a stepped-care approach (SCA) to treat severe obesity: as the severity of obesity increases, so does the intensity of intervention. This article describes an SCA and uses this model to demonstrate a range of appropriate, available interventions. A SCA can provide a holistic and integrative care pathway for children and young people with severe obesity when implemented at tier 3

Roles of IL-6-gp130 Signaling in Vascular Inflammation

Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a well-established, independent indicator of multiple distinct types of cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality. In this review, we present current understanding of the multiple roles that IL-6 and its signaling pathways through glycoprotein 130 (gp130) play in cardiovascular homeostasis. IL-6 is highly inducible in vascular tissues through the actions of the angiotensin II (Ang II) peptide, where it acts in a paracrine manner to signal through two distinct mechanisms, the first being a classic membrane receptor initiated pathway and the second, a trans-signaling pathway, being able to induce responses even in tissues lacking the IL-6 receptor. Recent advances and new concepts in how its intracellular signaling pathways operate via the Janus kinase (JAK)-Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription (STAT) are described. IL-6 has diverse actions in multiple cell types of cardiovascular importance, including endothelial cells, monocytes, platelets, hepatocytes and adipocytes. We discuss central roles of IL-6 in endothelial dysfunction, cellular inflammation by affecting monocyte activation/differentiation, cellular cytoprotective functions from reactive oxygen species (ROS) stress, modulation of pro-coagulant state, myocardial growth control, and its implications in metabolic control and insulin resistance. These multiple actions indicate that IL-6 is not merely a passive biomarker, but actively modulates adaptive and pathological responses to cardiovascular stress

MOESM3 of PDGF-AA mediates mesenchymal stromal cell chemotaxis to the head and neck squamous cell carcinoma tumor microenvironment

Additional file 3: Figure S4. The MSC markers gremlin-1 and CD105 are co-localized in the TM of patient with OCSCC (oral tongue). High power resolution confocal images from representative sections of human OCSCC specimens (A) demonstrate TM cells positive for the MSC markers anti-gremlin-1 (red) and anti-CD105 (green). An orange color on merged images indicates co-localization of gremlin-1 and CD105. In addition, TM MSCs were detected by anti-gremlin-1 (red) and anti-CD90 (blue). A magenta color on merged images indicates co-localization of gremlin and CD90 that did not co-localize with the hematopoietic marker, anti-CD45 (green) (B). The nuclei are depicted as grey

Spoof surface plasmon photonics

In undergraduate courses on classical electromagnetism, it is taught that a perfect conductor expels the electromagnetic (EM) field, and hence its surface is not able to support the propagation of bound EM waves. However, when the surface of a perfect conductor is structured at a length scale much smaller than the operating wavelength, geometrically induced surface EM modes can be supported. Owing to their similarities with the surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) in the optical regime, these surface EM modes were named spoof surface plasmons. The concept of spoof surface plasmons has opened up a new line of research within plasmonics with the aim of transferring all the potentialities of SPPs in the optical regime to lower frequencies (microwave, terahertz, and midinfrared regimes) in which a metal behaves as a quasiperfect conductor. In recent years, several research groups have extended this concept from planar surfaces to waveguides, and eventually to resonators, covering the entire range of structures studied in standard plasmonics. This review provides a detailed perspective on the recent developments in spoof surface plasmon photonics from both the fundamental and applied sides.F.J. G.-V and A.I.F.-D. acknowledge funding from the Ministry of Science and Innovation and “ERDF: A Way of Making Europe” through Grants No. RTI2018-099737-B-I00 and No. CEX2018-000805-M (through the María de Maeztu Program for Units of Excellence in R&D), as well as 2020 CAM Synergy Project No. Y2020/TCS-6545 (NanoQuCo-CM). L.M.-M acknowledges Project No. PID2020-115221GB-C41, which was financed by the Spanish State Research Agency and the Aragon Government through Project No. Q-503 MAD. T.J. C. acknowledges the support of the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grants No. 2017YFA0700201, No. 2017YFA0700202, and No. 2017YFA0700203), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants No. 61631007 and No. 61571117), and the 111 Project (Grant No. 111-2-05).Peer reviewe