Pain catastrophising predicts alcohol hangover severity and symptoms

Alcohol hangover is a cause of considerable social and economic burden. Identification of predictors of alcohol hangover severity have the potential to contribute to reductions in costs associated with both absenteeism/presenteeism and health care. Pain catastrophising (PC) is the tendency to ruminate and describe a pain experience in more exaggerated terms. The current study examines the possibility that this cognitive coping strategy may influence experience of alcohol hangover. The aims of the current study were to (1) examine the relationship between hangover severity and PC, (2) explore and identify discreet factors within the Acute Hangover Scale (AHS) and (3) explore whether independent factors/dimensions of acute hangover are differentially predicted by PC. A retrospective survey (n = 86) was conducted in which participants completed the Acute Hangover Scale (AHS); the Pain Catastrophising Scale (PCS); a questionnaire pertaining to the amount of alcohol consumed; and a demographic information questionnaire. Regression analyses showed a significant relationship between PC and hangover severity scores and demonstrated that PC was, in fact, a stronger predictor of perceived hangover severity than estimated peak blood alcohol concentrations (eBACs). Factor analysis of the AHS scale, resulted in the identification of two distinct symptom dimensions; ‘Headache and thirst’, and ‘Gastric and cardiovascular’ symptoms. Regression analyses showed that both eBAC and PCS score were significantly associated with ‘Headache and thirst’. However, only PCS score was associated with ‘Gastric and cardiovascular’ symptoms. These novel findings implicate a role for cognitive coping strategies in self-reports of alcohol hangover severity, and may have implications for understanding behavioural response to hangover, as well as suggesting that hangover and PC may be important factors mediating the motivation to drink and/or abuse alcohol, with potential implications in addiction research. Furthermore, these findings suggest that distinct alcohol hangover symptoms may be associated with different mechanisms underlying the experience of alcohol hangover

Measuring the unmeasurable? A method to quantify adoption of integrated pest management practices in temperate arable farming systems

BACKGROUND: The impetus to adopt integrated pest management (IPM) practices has re-emerged in the last decade, mainly as a result of legislative and environmental drivers. However a significant deficit exists in the ability to practically monitor and measure IPM adoption across arable farms; therefore the aim of the project reported here was to establish a universal metric for quantifying adoption of IPM in temperate arable farming. This was achieved by: (a) identifying a set of key activities that contribute to IPM; (b) weighting these in terms of their importance to the achievement of IPM using panels of expert stakeholders in order to create the metric (scoring system from 0-100 indicating level of IPM practiced); (c) surveying arable farmers in the UK and Ireland about their pest management practices; and (d) measuring level of farmer adoption of IPM using the new metric. RESULTS. This new metric was found to be based on a consistent conception of IPM between countries and professional groups. The survey results showed that, while level of adoption of IPM practices varied over the sample, all farmers had adopted IPM to some extent (minimum 27.2 points, mean score of 65.1), but only 13 of 225 farmers (5.8%) had adopted more than 85% of what is theoretically possible, as measured by the new metric. CONCLUSION. We believe that this new metric would be a viable and cost-effective system to use to facilitate the benchmarking and monitoring of national IPM programmes in temperate zone countries with large scale arable farming systems

A systematic review of biomarkers for disease progression in Parkinson's disease

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

A genetically encoded reporter of synaptic activity in vivo

To image synaptic activity within neural circuits, we tethered the genetically encoded calcium indicator (GECI) GCaMP2 to synaptic vesicles by fusion to synaptophysin. The resulting reporter, SyGCaMP2, detected the electrical activity of neurons with two advantages over existing cytoplasmic GECIs: it identified the locations of synapses and had a linear response over a wider range of spike frequencies. Simulations and experimental measurements indicated that linearity arises because SyGCaMP2 samples the brief calcium transient passing through the presynaptic compartment close to voltage-sensitive calcium channels rather than changes in bulk calcium concentration. In vivo imaging in zebrafish demonstrated that SyGCaMP2 can assess electrical activity in conventional synapses of spiking neurons in the optic tectum and graded voltage signals transmitted by ribbon synapses of retinal bipolar cells. Localizing a GECI to synaptic terminals provides a strategy for monitoring activity across large groups of neurons at the level of individual synapses

Brain age predicts mortality

Age-associated disease and disability are placing a growing burden on society. However, ageing does not affect people uniformly. Hence, markers of the underlying biological ageing process are needed to help identify people at increased risk of age-associated physical and cognitive impairments and ultimately, death. Here, we present such a biomarker, ‘brain-predicted age’, derived using structural neuroimaging. Brain-predicted age was calculated using machine-learning analysis, trained on neuroimaging data from a large healthy reference sample (N=2001), then tested in the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 (N=669), to determine relationships with age-associated functional measures and mortality. Having a brain-predicted age indicative of an older-appearing brain was associated with: weaker grip strength, poorer lung function, slower walking speed, lower fluid intelligence, higher allostatic load and increased mortality risk. Furthermore, while combining brain-predicted age with grey matter and cerebrospinal fluid volumes (themselves strong predictors) not did improve mortality risk prediction, the combination of brain-predicted age and DNA-methylation-predicted age did. This indicates that neuroimaging and epigenetics measures of ageing can provide complementary data regarding health outcomes. Our study introduces a clinically-relevant neuroimaging ageing biomarker and demonstrates that combining distinct measurements of biological ageing further helps to determine risk of age-related deterioration and death

Modeling Trap-Awareness and Related Phenomena in Capture-Recapture Studies

Trap-awareness and related phenomena whereby successive capture events are not independent is a feature of the majority of capture-recapture studies. This phenomenon was up to now difficult to incorporate in open population models and most authors have chosen to neglect it although this may have damaging consequences. Focusing on the situation where animals exhibit a trap response at the occasion immediately following one where they have been trapped but revert to their original naïve state if they are missed once, we show that trap-dependence is more naturally viewed as a state transition and is amenable to the current models of capture-recapture. This approach has the potential to accommodate lasting or progressively waning trap effects

Autopsy as a site and mode of inquiry: de/composing the ghoulish hu/man gaze

For centuries the autopsy has been a key technology in Western culture for generating clinical/medical as well as cultural knowledge about bodies. This article hails the anato-medical autopsy as a generative trope and apparatus in reconfiguring Western humanist knowledge of bodies and bodies of knowledge and takes up the possibilities of working with the concept of autopsy in disrupting qualitative research methodology. In doing so, the article outlines and returns (to) a series of research-creation experiments assembled at an academic conference, which engaged with the challenges for social science knowledge laid out by Law’s (2004) After Method book. Our research-creation experiments centred autopsy as a theoretical-methodological gaze and apparatus for de-composing qualitative research methodology by engaging with post-humanist and new material feminist thinking

Genomics Meets Glycomics—The First GWAS Study of Human N-Glycome Identifies HNF1α as a Master Regulator of Plasma Protein Fucosylation

Over half of all proteins are glycosylated, and alterations in glycosylation have been observed in numerous physiological and pathological processes. Attached glycans significantly affect protein function; but, contrary to polypeptides, they are not directly encoded by genes, and the complex processes that regulate their assembly are poorly understood. A novel approach combining genome-wide association and high-throughput glycomics analysis of 2,705 individuals in three population cohorts showed that common variants in the Hepatocyte Nuclear Factor 1α (HNF1α) and fucosyltransferase genes FUT6 and FUT8 influence N-glycan levels in human plasma. We show that HNF1α and its downstream target HNF4α regulate the expression of key fucosyltransferase and fucose biosynthesis genes. Moreover, we show that HNF1α is both necessary and sufficient to drive the expression of these genes in hepatic cells. These results reveal a new role for HNF1α as a master transcriptional regulator of multiple stages in the fucosylation process. This mechanism has implications for the regulation of immunity, embryonic development, and protein folding, as well as for our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying cancer, coronary heart disease, and metabolic and inflammatory disorders

Whey protein reduces early life weight gain in mice fed a high-fat diet.

An increasing number of studies indicate that dairy products, including whey protein, alleviate several disorders of the metabolic syndrome. Here, we investigated the effects of whey protein isolate (whey) in mice fed a high-fat diet hypothesising that the metabolic effects of whey would be associated with changes in the gut microbiota composition. Five-week-old male C57BL/6 mice were fed a high-fat diet ad libitum for 14 weeks with the protein source being either whey or casein. Faeces were collected at week 0, 7, and 13 and the fecal microbiota was analysed by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis analyses of PCR-derived 16S rRNA gene (V3-region) amplicons. At the end of the study, plasma samples were collected and assayed for glucose, insulin and lipids. Whey significantly reduced body weight gain during the first four weeks of the study compared with casein (P<0.001-0.05). Hereafter weight gain was similar resulting in a 15% lower final body weight in the whey group relative to casein (34.0±1.0 g vs. 40.2±1.3 g, P<0.001). Food intake was unaffected by protein source throughout the study period. Fasting insulin was lower in the whey group (P<0.01) and glucose clearance was improved after an oral glucose challenge (P<0.05). Plasma cholesterol was lowered by whey compared to casein (P<0.001). The composition of the fecal microbiota differed between high- and low-fat groups at 13 weeks (P<0.05) whereas no difference was seen between whey and casein. In conclusion, whey initially reduced weight gain in young C57BL/6 mice fed a high-fat diet compared to casein. Although the effect on weight gain ceased, whey alleviated glucose intolerance, improved insulin sensitivity and reduced plasma cholesterol. These findings could not be explained by changes in food intake or gut microbiota composition. Further studies are needed to clarify the mechanisms behind the metabolic effects of whey