Marathon Month Promotes Healthful Lifestyles for Extension Employees

This article describes Marathon Month, a workplace wellness program for Extension employees. The program promoted physical activity by challenging employees to walk or run the length of a marathon (26.2 mi) or half marathon (13.1 mi) over the course of 1 month. Of the 317 participants, 90% achieved a self-set goal of completing a full or half marathon, and 31% reported losing weight, with an average weight loss of 4.2 lb per person. Another reported benefit was increased workplace camaraderie. A number of practical ideas, such as sending email reminders and using social media, are provided to facilitate replication in other states

Evaluation of a midwife-led, hospital based vaccination service for pregnant women.

Background: Vaccines against whooping cough (pertussis) and seasonal-influenza are recommended for pregnant women in England. Uptake however varies regionally and by ethnicity. Pregnant women are traditionally vaccinated in primary care, though some hospitals now offer vaccines through antenatal clinics. This mixed-methods evaluation describes the demographic characteristics of women seen in a hospital midwife-led antenatal vaccine clinic and explores vaccine decision making. Methods: Descriptive statistics of women seen in a London hospital's midwife-led vaccine clinic were generated from electronic routine maternity records, including data on ethnicity, parity, age and deprivation indices. Reasons for vaccine decline given by women to midwives were categorized by themes. Qualitative interviews of women seen in the clinic were also undertaken. Results: Between 1st April 2017 and 31st March 2018 the vaccine clinic saw 1501 pregnant women. Of these, 83% received pertussis vaccine and (during flu season) 51% received influenza vaccine, from the clinic. Fewer Black Afro-Caribbean women seen by the clinic were vaccinated, compared to other ethnicities with only 68% receiving pertussis and 34% flu vaccines respectively (p < .05). Among all women delivering at the hospital over the year, 42%, (1334/3147) were vaccinated by the clinic. Qualitative interviews found that reassurance from healthcare professionals, particularly midwives, was the most important factor influencing maternal vaccine decisions. Conclusions: Midwife-led hospital clinics can offer an effective alternative to primary care provision for vaccines in pregnancy. Consistent with previous work, vaccine uptake varied by ethnicity. Midwives play a key role in the provision of vaccine services and influence women's vaccine decisions

Update on Transplacental Transfer of IgG Subclasses: Impact of Maternal and Fetal Factors.

Transplacental antibody transfer from mother to fetus provides protection from infection in the first weeks of life, and the four different subclasses of IgG (IgG1, IgG2, IgG3, and IgG4) have diverse roles in protection against infection. In this study, we evaluated concentrations and transplacental transfer ratios of the IgG subclasses in a healthy UK-based cohort of mother-cord pairs, and investigated associations with maternal, obstetric, and fetal factors. In agreement with previous studies, we found a strong association between maternal and cord IgG for all subclasses. We report a transfer efficiency hierarchy of IgG1>IgG3>IgG4=IgG2 in our study population, and our review of the literature demonstrates that there is no consensus in the hierarchy of subclass transfer, despite the commonly made statement that the order is IgG1>IgG4>IgG3>IgG2. We report additional data regarding negative associations between elevated maternal IgG concentrations and maternal/cord transfer ratios, finding an effect on IgG1, IgG2, and IgG3 subclasses. Levels of IgG subclasses were the same between venous and arterial blood samples from the umbilical cord, but there was a significantly higher level of total IgG in arterial blood. We found no correlation between placental FcRn protein levels and IgG transfer in our cohort, suggesting that IgG is the main determinant of observed differences in transplacental transfer ratios at term. Neonatal IgG1 and IgG4 levels were increased with later gestation at delivery, independent of any increase in transplacental transfer, indicating that the benefit of later gestation is through accumulation of these subclasses in the fetus. Neonatal IgG2 levels and transfer ratios were reduced in rhesus-negative pregnancies, suggesting that administered anti-D antibodies may compete for transplacental transfer of this subclass. Maternal influenza vaccination resulted in elevated maternal and neonatal levels of IgG4, whereas maternal Tdap vaccination had no impact on neonatal levels of the subclasses, nor transfer. However, within Tdap vaccinated pregnancies, later gestation at Tdap vaccination was associated with higher transplacental transfer. Our study provides information regarding levels and transfer of IgG subclasses in healthy term pregnancies and demonstrates the importance of recording detailed clinical information in studies of antibody transfer, including parity, ethnicity, and timing of maternal vaccine delivery

A brief introduction to mixed effects modelling and multi-model inference in ecology

Acknowledgements This paper is the result of a University of Exeter workshop on best practice for the application of mixed effects models and model selection in ecological studies Funding Xavier A. Harrison was funded by an Institute of Zoology Research Fellowship. David Fisher was funded by NERC studentship NE/H02249X/1. Lynda Donaldson was funded by NERC studentship NE/L501669/1. Beth S. Robinson was funded by the University of Exeter and the Animal and Plant Health Agency as part of ‘Wildlife Research Co-Operative’. Maria Correa-Cano was funded by CONACYT (The Mexican National Council for Science and Technology) and SEP (The Mexican Ministry of Education). Cecily Goodwin was funded by the Forestry Commission and NERC studentship NE/L501669/1. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Modification of innate immune responses to Bordetella pertussis in babies from pertussis vaccinated pregnancies

BACKGROUND: Tetanus, diphtheria, acellular pertussis, inactivated polio (Tdap-IPV) vaccines administered during pregnancy protect young infants from Bordetella pertussis (B. pertussis) infection. Whilst the impact of maternal Tdap-IPV vaccination on infants' humoral response to subsequent pertussis immunisation has been investigated, little is known about any impact on innate responses. METHODS: We investigated the immune response to B. pertussis in mothers and infants from Tdap-IPV-vaccinated and unvaccinated pregnancies, utilising a whole blood assay and flow cytometric phenotyping of neonatal natural killer (NK) cells, monocytes and dendritic cells. Blood was collected from mother and umbilical cord at birth, and from infants at seven weeks (one week pre-primary pertussis immunisation) and five months of age (one month post-primary pertussis immunisation). 21 mothers and 67 infants were studied. FINDINGS: Vaccinated women had elevated pro-inflammatory cytokine responses to B. pertussis. At birth, babies of vaccinated women had elevated IL-2 and IL-12 responses, elevated classical monocyte proportions, and reduced monocyte and NK cell cytokine responses. The elevated IL-2 response persisted to seven weeks-of-age, when lower IL-10 and IL-13 responses were also seen. One-month post-primary pertussis vaccination, infants from vaccinated pregnancies still had lower IL-10 responses to B. pertussis, as well as lower IL-4. INTERPRETATION: This study suggests that pertussis vaccination during pregnancy impacts infant cellular immune responses, potentially contributing to the modification of antibody responses already reported following primary immunisation against B. pertussis. FUNDING: National Institute for Health Research Imperial Biomedical Research Centre and IMmunising PRegnant women and INfants neTwork (funded by the GCRF Networks in Vaccines R&D)

Acute inhalation of hypertonic saline does not improve mucociliary clearance in all children with cystic fibrosis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Little is known of how mucociliary clearance (MCC) in children with cystic fibrosis (CF) and normal pulmonary function compares with healthy adults, or how an acute inhalation of 7% hypertonic saline (HS) aerosol affects MCC in these same children.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We compared MCC in 12 children with CF and normal pulmonary function after an acute inhalation of 0.12% saline (placebo), or HS, admixed with the radioisotope ^{99 m}technetium sulfur colloid in a double-blind, randomized, cross-over study. Mucociliary clearance on the placebo day in the children was also compared to MCC in 10 healthy, non-CF adults. Mucociliary clearance was quantified over a 90 min period, using gamma scintigraphy, and is reported as MCC at 60 min (MCC60) and 90 min (MCC90).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Median [interquartile range] MCC60 and MCC90 in the children on the placebo visit were 15.4 [12.4-24.5]% and 19.3 [17.3-27.8%]%, respectively, which were similar to the adults with 17.8 [6.4-28.7]% and 29.6 [16.1-43.5]%, respectively. There was no significant improvement in MCC60 (2.2 [-6.2-11.8]%) or MCC90 (2.3 [-1.2-10.5]%) with HS, compared to placebo. In addition, 5/12 and 4/12 of the children showed a decrease in MCC60 and MCC90, respectively, after inhalation of HS. A <it>post hoc </it>subgroup analysis of the change in MCC90 after HS showed a significantly greater improvement in MCC in children with lower placebo MCC90 compared to those with higher placebo MCC90 (p = 0.045).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These data suggest that percent MCC varies significantly between children with CF lung disease and normal pulmonary functions, with some children demonstrating MCC values within the normal range and others showing MCC values that are below normal values. In addition, although MCC did not improve in all children after inhalation of HS, improvement did occur in children with relatively low MCC values after placebo. This finding suggests that acute inhalation of hypertonic saline may benefit a subset of children with low MCC values.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p>ClinicalTrials.gov: <a href="http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01293084">NCT01293084</a></p

Fractionating Human Intelligence

What makes one person more intellectually able than another? Can the entire distribution of human intelligence be accounted for by just one general factor? Is intelligence supported by a single neural system? Here, we provide a perspective on human intelligence that takes into account how general abilities or ‘‘factors’’ reflect the functional organiza- tion of the brain. By comparing factor models of individual differences in performance with factor models of brain functional organization, we demon- strate that different components of intelligence have their analogs in distinct brain networks. Using simulations based on neuroimaging data, we show that the higher-order factor ‘‘g’’ is accounted for by cognitive tasks corecruiting multiple networks. Finally, we confirm the independence of these com- ponents of intelligence by dissociating them using questionnaire variables. We propose that intelli- gence is an emergent property of anatomically distinct cognitive systems, each of which has its own capacity

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

The SUN Protein Mps3 Is Required for Spindle Pole Body Insertion into the Nuclear Membrane and Nuclear Envelope Homeostasis

The budding yeast spindle pole body (SPB) is anchored in the nuclear envelope so that it can simultaneously nucleate both nuclear and cytoplasmic microtubules. During SPB duplication, the newly formed SPB is inserted into the nuclear membrane. The mechanism of SPB insertion is poorly understood but likely involves the action of integral membrane proteins to mediate changes in the nuclear envelope itself, such as fusion of the inner and outer nuclear membranes. Analysis of the functional domains of the budding yeast SUN protein and SPB component Mps3 revealed that most regions are not essential for growth or SPB duplication under wild-type conditions. However, a novel dominant allele in the P-loop region, MPS3-G186K, displays defects in multiple steps in SPB duplication, including SPB insertion, indicating a previously unknown role for Mps3 in this step of SPB assembly. Characterization of the MPS3-G186K mutant by electron microscopy revealed severe over-proliferation of the inner nuclear membrane, which could be rescued by altering the characteristics of the nuclear envelope using both chemical and genetic methods. Lipid profiling revealed that cells lacking MPS3 contain abnormal amounts of certain types of polar and neutral lipids, and deletion or mutation of MPS3 can suppress growth defects associated with inhibition of sterol biosynthesis, suggesting that Mps3 directly affects lipid homeostasis. Therefore, we propose that Mps3 facilitates insertion of SPBs in the nuclear membrane by modulating nuclear envelope composition