Tobacco Use on College Campuses: Should Smoking Be Banned?

Millions of people continue to use tobacco products, despite the well-known adverse health effects that they cause to the human body. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more deaths are caused each year by tobacco use than by all deaths from HIV, illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides, and murders combined. The trend in tobacco and smoke-free college campuses is a step towards decreasing the use of these dangerous, habit forming products. Research also shows that there are no safe levels of secondhand smoke, therefore, preventing exposure is a key component to a healthy campus community. Although there are many different reasons for these programs, and many different approaches to implementing these programs, it is important to understand the highlights and the difficulties of these policies on college campuses. This thesis works to explore and explain the positive and negative aspects of college campus tobacco-free policies in the United States while working to highlight and reiterate the dangers of smoking and its effect on the surrounding community via secondhand smoke

Sex-Specific Effects of Prenatal Glucocorticoids on Placental Development

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Creatine supplementation during pregnancy: summary of experimental studies suggestion a treatment to improve fetal and neonatal morbidity and reduce mortality in high-risk human pregnancy

While the use of creatine in human pregnancy is yet to be fully evaluated, its long-term use in healthy adults appears to be safe, and its well documented neuroprotective properties have recently been extended by demonstrations that creatine improves cognitive function in normal and elderly people, and motor skills in sleep-deprived subjects. Creatine has many actions likely to benefit the fetus and newborn, because pregnancy is a state of heightened metabolic activity, and the placenta is a key source of free radicals of oxygen and nitrogen. The multiple benefits of supplementary creatine arise from the fact that the creatine-phosphocreatine [PCr] system has physiologically important roles that include maintenance of intracellular ATP and acid–base balance, post-ischaemic recovery of protein synthesis, cerebral vasodilation, antioxidant actions, and stabilisation of lipid membranes. In the brain, creatine not only reduces lipid peroxidation and improves cerebral perfusion, its interaction with the benzodiazepine site of the GABAA receptor is likely to counteract the effects of glutamate excitotoxicity – actions that may protect the preterm and term fetal brain from the effects of birth hypoxia. In this review we discuss the development of creatine synthesis during fetal life, the transfer of creatine from mother to fetus, and propose that creatine supplementation during pregnancy may have benefits for the fetus and neonate whenever oxidative stress or feto-placental hypoxia arise, as in cases of fetal growth restriction, premature birth, or when parturition is delayed or complicated by oxygen deprivation of the newborn

Prostate MR image quality of apparent diffusion coefficient maps versus fractional intracellular volume maps from VERDICT MRI using the PI-QUAL score and a dedicated Likert scale for artefacts

PURPOSE: This study aimed to assess the image quality of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps derived from conventional diffusion-weighted MRI and fractional intracellular volume maps (FIC) from VERDICT MRI (Vascular, Extracellular, Restricted Diffusion for Cytometry in Tumours) in patients from the INNOVATE trial. The inter-reader agreement was also assessed. METHODS: Two readers analysed both ADC and FIC maps from 57 patients enrolled in the INNOVATE prospective trial. Image quality was assessed using the Prostate Imaging Quality (PI-QUAL) score and a subjective image quality Likert score (Likert-IQ). The image quality of FIC and ADC were compared using a Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test. The inter-reader agreement was assessed with Cohen's kappa. RESULTS: There was no statistically significant difference between the PI-QUAL score for FIC datasets compared to ADC datasets for either reader (p = 0.240 and p = 0.614). Using the Likert-IQ score, FIC image quality was higher compared to ADC (p = 0.021) as assessed by reader-1 but not for reader-2 (p = 0.663). The inter-reader agreement was 'fair' for PI-QUAL scoring of datasets with FIC maps at 0.27 (95% confidence interval; 0.08-0.46) and ADC datasets at 0.39 (95% confidence interval 0.22-0.57). For Likert scoring, the inter-reader agreement was also 'fair' for FIC maps at 0.38 (95% confidence interval; 0.10-0.65) and substantial for ADC maps at 0.62 (95% confidence interval; 0.39-0.86). CONCLUSION: Image quality was comparable for FIC and ADC. The inter-reader agreement was similar when using PIQUAL for both FIC and ADC datasets but higher for ADC maps compared to FIC maps using the image quality Likert score

Role of the Placental Vitamin D Receptor in Modulating Feto-Placental Growth in Fetal Growth Restriction and Preeclampsia-Affected Pregnancies

Fetal growth restriction (FGR) is a common pregnancy complication that affects up to 5% of pregnancies worldwide. Recent studies demonstrate that Vitamin D deficiency is implicated in reduced fetal growth, which may be rescued by supplementation of Vitamin D. Despite this, the pathway(s) by which Vitamin D modulate fetal growth remains to be investigated. Our own studies demonstrate that the Vitamin D receptor (VDR) is significantly decreased in placentae from human pregnancies complicated by FGR and contributes to abnormal placental trophoblast apoptosis and differentiation and regulation of cell-cycle genes in vitro. Thus, Vitamin D signaling is important for normal placental function and fetal growth. This review discusses the association of Vitamin D with fetal growth, the function of Vitamin D and its receptor in pregnancy, as well as the functional significance of a placental source of Vitamin D in FGR. Additionally, we propose that for Vitamin D to be clinically effective to prevent and manage FGR, the molecular mechanisms of Vitamin D and its receptor in modulating fetal growth requires further investigation

UNICORN Babies: Understanding Circulating and Cerebral Creatine Levels of the Preterm Infant. An Observational Study Protocol

Creatine is an essential metabolite for brain function, with a fundamental role in cellular (ATP) energy homeostasis. It is hypothesized that preterm infants will become creatine deplete in the early postnatal period, due to premature delivery from a maternal source of creatine and a limited supply of creatine in newborn nutrition. This potential alteration to brain metabolism may contribute to, or compound, poor neurological outcomes in this high-risk population. Understanding Creatine for Neurological Health in Babies (UNICORN) is an observational study of circulating and cerebral creatine levels in preterm infants. We will recruit preterm infants at gestational ages 23+0–26+6, 27+0–29+6, 30+0–32+6, 33+0–36+6, and a term reference group at 39+0–40+6 weeks of gestation, with 20 infants in each gestational age group. At birth, a maternal capillary blood sample, as well as a venous cord blood sample, will be collected. For preterm infants, serial infant plasma (heel prick), urine, and nutrition samples [total parenteral nutrition (TPN), breast milk, or formula] will be collected between birth and term “due date.” Key fetomaternal information, including demographics, smoking status, and maternal diet, will also be collected. At term corrected postnatal age (CPA), each infant will undergo an MRI/1H-MRS scan to evaluate brain structure and measure cerebral creatine content. A general movements assessment (GMA) will also be conducted. At 3 months of CPA, infants will undergo a second GMA as well as further neurodevelopmental evaluation using the Developmental Assessment of Young Children – Second Edition (DAYC-2) assessment tool. The primary outcome measures for this study are cerebral creatine content at CPA and plasma and urine creatine and guanidinoacetate (creatine precursor) concentrations in the early postnatal period. We will also determine associations between (1) creatine levels at term CPA and neurodevelopmental outcomes (MRI, GMA, and DAY-C); (2) dietary creatine intake and circulating and cerebral creatine content; and (3) creatine levels and maternal characteristics. Novel approaches are needed to try and improve preterm-associated brain injury. Inclusion of creatine in preterm nutrition may better support ex utero brain development through improved cerebral cellular energy availability during a period of significant brain growth and development.Ethics Ref: HDEC 18/CEN/7 New Zealand.ACTRN: ACTRN12618000871246

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

Variable responses of individual species to tropical forest degradation

The functional stability of ecosystems depends greatly on interspecific differences in responses to environmental perturbation. However, responses to perturbation are not necessarily invariant among populations of the same species, so intraspecific variation in responses might also contribute. Such inter-population response diversity has recently been shown to occur spatially across species ranges, but we lack estimates of the extent to which individual populations across an entire community might have perturbation responses that vary through time. We assess this using 524 taxa that have been repeatedly surveyed for the effects of tropical forest logging at a focal landscape in Sabah, Malaysia. Just 39 % of taxa – all with non-significant responses to forest degradation – had invariant responses. All other taxa (61 %) showed significantly different responses to the same forest degradation gradient across surveys, with 6 % of taxa responding to forest degradation in opposite directions across multiple surveys. Individual surveys had low power (< 80 %) to determine the correct direction of response to forest degradation for one-fifth of all taxa. Recurrent rounds of logging disturbance increased the prevalence of intra-population response diversity, while uncontrollable environmental variation and/or turnover of intraspecific phenotypes generated variable responses in at least 44 % of taxa. Our results show that the responses of individual species to local environmental perturbations are remarkably flexible, likely providing an unrealised boost to the stability of disturbed habitats such as logged tropical forests