Body Composition Measurement in Children with Cerebral Palsy, Spina Bifida and Spinal Cord Injury: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Pediatric obesity is a major health concern that has an increased prevalence in children with special needs. In order to categorize a child’s weight, an assessment of body composition is needed. Obtaining an accurate body composition measurement in children with special needs has many challenges associated with it. This perplexing scenario limits the provider’s ability to screen, prevent and treat an abnormal weight status in this vulnerable population. This systematic review summarizes common methods of body composition measurements, their strengths and limitations and reviews the literature when measurements were used in children with cerebral palsy, spina bifida and spinal cord injury. Following PRISMA guidelines, 222 studies were identified. The application of the inclusion and exclusion criteria yielded a final sample of nine studies included in this review. Overall, articles reinforced the inconsistencies of body composition measurement and methodology when used with children with special needs. Concerns include small sample sizes, the need to validate prediction equations for this population, and the lack of controlled trials and reporting of measurement methodology. Healthcare providers need to be aware of the complexities associated with measuring body composition in children with special needs and advocate for further testing of these measurements. Additional studies addressing the reliability and validity of these measures are needed to facilitate appropriate health promotion in children

Novel Qualitative Structure-Activity Relationships for the Antinociceptive Actions of H 2 Antagonists, H 3 Antagonists and Derivatives 1

ABSTRACT Recent studies have shown that cimetidine, burimamide and improgan (also known as SKF92374, a cimetidine congener lacking H 2 antagonist activity) induce antinociception after intracerebroventricular administration in rodents. Because these substances closely resemble the structure of histamine (a known mediator of some endogenous analgesic responses), yet no role for known histamine receptors has been found in the analgesic actions of these agents, the structure-activity relationships for the antinociceptive effects of 21 compounds chemically related to H 2 and H 3 antagonists were investigated in this study. Antinociceptive activity was assessed on the hot-plate and tail-flick tests after intracerebroventricular administration in rats. Eleven compounds induced time-dependent (10-min peak) and dose-dependent antinociceptive activity with no observable behavioral impairment. ED 50 values, estimated by nonlinear regression, were highly correlated across nociceptive assays (r 2 ϭ 0.98, n ϭ 11). Antinociceptive potencies varied more than 6-fold (80 -464 nmol), but were not correlated with activity on H 1 , H 2 or H 3 receptors. Although highly potent H 3 antagonists such as thioperamide lacked antinociceptive activity, homologs of burimamide and thioperamide containing N-aromatic substituents retained H 3 antagonist activity and also showed potent, effective analgesia. A literature review of the pharmacology of these agents did not find a basis for their antinociceptive effects. Taken with previous findings, the present results suggest: 1) these compounds act on the brain to activate powerful analgesic responses that are independent of known histamine receptors, 2) the structure-activity profile of these agents is novel and 3) brain-penetrating derivatives of these compounds could be clinically useful analgesics

The natural capital accounting opportunity: Let s really do the numbers

This work was conducted as a part of the “Accounting for U.S. Ecosystem Services at National and Subnational Scales” working group supported by the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center under funding received from the National Science Foundation (grant no. DBI-1052875) and the US Geological Survey John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis (grant no. GX16EW00ECSV00)

The Problematization of Sexuality among Women Living with HIV and a New Feminist Approach for Understanding and Enhancing Women’s Sexual Lives

In the context of HIV, women’s sexual rights and sexual autonomy are important but frequently overlooked and violated. Guided by community voices, feminist theories, and qualitative empirical research, we reviewed two decades of global quantitative research on sexuality among women living with HIV. In the 32 studies we found, conducted in 25 countries and composed mostly of cis-gender heterosexual women, sexuality was narrowly constructed as sexual behaviours involving risk (namely, penetration) and physiological dysfunctions relating to HIV illness, with far less attention given to the fullness of sexual lives in context, including more positive and rewarding experiences such as satisfaction and pleasure. Findings suggest that women experience declines in sexual activity, function, satisfaction, and pleasure following HIV diagnosis, at least for some period. The extent of such declines, however, is varied, with numerous contextual forces shaping women’s sexual well-being. Clinical markers of HIV (e.g., viral load, CD4 cell count) poorly predicted sexual outcomes, interrupting widely held assumptions about sexuality for women with HIV. Instead, the effects of HIV-related stigma intersecting with inequities related to trauma, violence, intimate relations, substance use, poverty, aging, and other social and cultural conditions primarily influenced the ways in which women experienced and enacted their sexuality. However, studies framed through a medical lens tended to pathologize outcomes as individual “problems,” whereas others driven by a public health agenda remained primarily preoccupied with protecting the public from HIV. In light of these findings, we present a new feminist approach for research, policy, and practice toward understanding and enhancing women’s sexual lives—one that affirms sexual diversity; engages deeply with society, politics, and history; and is grounded in women’s sexual rights

Shaping the growth behaviour of biofilms initiated from bacterial aggregates

Bacterial biofilms are usually assumed to originate from individual cells deposited on a surface. However, many biofilm-forming bacteria tend to aggregate in the planktonic phase so that it is possible that many natural and infectious biofilms originate wholly or partially from pre-formed cell aggregates. Here, we use agent-based computer simulations to investigate the role of pre-formed aggregates in biofilm development. Focusing on the initial shape the aggregate forms on the surface, we find that the degree of spreading of an aggregate on a surface can play an important role in determining its eventual fate during biofilm development. Specifically, initially spread aggregates perform better when competition with surrounding unaggregated bacterial cells is low, while initially rounded aggregates perform better when competition with surrounding unaggregated cells is high. These contrasting outcomes are governed by a trade-off between aggregate surface area and height. Our results provide new insight into biofilm formation and development, and reveal new factors that may be at play in the social evolution of biofilm communities

A survey of wintering bald eagles in southeastern Montana

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Conformational Restriction Leading to a Selective CB 2

The CB2 cannabinoid receptor has been implicated in the regulation of intestinal inflammation. Following on from the promising activity of a series of 4-oxo-1,4-dihydroquinoline-3-carboxamide, we developed constrained analogues based on a 2H-pyrazolo[4,3-c]quinolin-3(5H)-one scaffold, with improved affinity for the hCB2 receptor and had very high selectivity over the hCB1 receptor. Importantly, the lead of this series (26, hCB2: K i = 0.39 nM, hCB1: K i > 3000 nM) was found to protect mice against experimental colitis after oral administration