Determining the Attitudes & Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) Among Collegiate Athletes

There are many different approaches to medicine, so it is necessary to expand current knowledge on what patients and clinicians are using. Efforts to expand complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) research will enhance clinicians’ perspectives by not only creating an interest in becoming educated on the topic, but also by challenging negative perspectives to become more unbiased. Clinicians should educate themselves and patients in a way that is non-discriminatory. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to gain insight on what medicinal practices collegiate-level athletes are utilizing in effort to heal themselves, whether that be physically, mentally, or spiritually. METHODS: A Qualtrics survey was sent via email to collegiate-level athletes in Texas. All division colleges are welcome to participate. There was a brief explanation in every email describing the purpose of the study and a concise definition of CAM. The data from the survey was reported based on the specified demographics including biological sex, ethnicity, sport played, number of years playing, eligibility classification, and attending college rank. The data was analyzed using mean, median, and mode for all individual questions. An independent samples t-test was utilized to analyze the variance of responses based upon demographic information. RESULTS: 41 completed survey responses were recorded with 78% of participants attending a NCAA Division 1 college. 78% of all participants also stated that they had sustained a sports-related injury with 90% stating that an athletic trainer or team physician treated the injury. 39% of participating athletes stated that healthcare personnel suggested CAM to them and 32% were unsure. According to the data analysis ascertained by an independent samples t-test, there was statistical significance between biological sex and if the participant had taken part in CAM, as demonstrated by p=0.55. 32% of athletes said they had taken part in CAM with 64% of total respondents reporting they were comfortable incorporating this avenue into their treatments. Participants’ agreeance when compared to ethnicity was noted to be statistically insignificant as demonstrated by p=0.25 on an independent samples t-test. CONCLUSION: According to the statistical analysis, there is limited significance between biological sex or ethnicity in accordance with how answer choices were selected. There was not enough variable data from participants to compare responses regarding sport played, number of years playing, college attended, or eligibility classification. Future research can be conducted to ascertain the involvement of CAM in collegiate athletes care and the impact regarding patient reported outcomes

Mental Health Service Use for Adult Patients With Co-occurring Depression and Physical Chronic Health Care Needs, 2007–2010

Individuals with mental illness experience poor health and may die prematurely from chronic illness. Understanding whether the presence of co-occurring chronic physical health conditions complicates mental health treatment is important, particularly among patients seeking treatment in primary care settings

Ab initio calculation of the neutron-proton mass difference

The existence and stability of atoms rely on the fact that neutrons are more massive than protons. The measured mass difference is only 0.14\% of the average of the two masses. A slightly smaller or larger value would have led to a dramatically different universe. Here, we show that this difference results from the competition between electromagnetic and mass isospin breaking effects. We performed lattice quantum-chromodynamics and quantum-electrodynamics computations with four nondegenerate Wilson fermion flavors and computed the neutron-proton mass-splitting with an accuracy of $300$ kilo-electron volts, which is greater than $0$ by $5$ standard deviations. We also determine the splittings in the $\Sigma$, $\Xi$, $D$ and $\Xi_{cc}$ isospin multiplets, exceeding in some cases the precision of experimental measurements.Comment: 57 pages, 15 figures, 6 tables, revised versio

Dentate gyrus abnormalities in sudden unexplained death in infants: morphological marker of underlying brain vulnerability

Sudden unexplained death in infants, including the sudden infant death syndrome, is likely due to heterogeneous causes that involve different intrinsic vulnerabilities and/or environmental factors. Neuropathologic research focuses upon the role of brain regions, particularly the brainstem, that regulate or modulate autonomic and respiratory control during sleep or transitions to waking. The hippocampus is a key component of the forebrain–limbic network that modulates autonomic/respiratory control via brainstem connections, but its role in sudden infant death has received little attention. We tested the hypothesis that a well-established marker of hippocampal pathology in temporal lobe epilepsy—focal granule cell bilamination in the dentate, a variant of granule cell dispersion—is associated with sudden unexplained death in infants. In a blinded study of hippocampal morphology in 153 infants with sudden and unexpected death autopsied in the San Diego County medical examiner’s office, deaths were classified as unexplained or explained based upon autopsy and scene investigation. Focal granule cell bilamination was present in 41.2 % (47/114) of the unexplained group compared to 7.7 % (3/39) of the explained (control) group (p < 0.001). It was associated with a cluster of other dentate developmental abnormalities that reflect defective neuronal proliferation, migration, and/or survival. Dentate lesions in a large subset of infants with sudden unexplained death may represent a developmental vulnerability that leads to autonomic/respiratory instability or autonomic seizures, and sleep-related death when the infants are challenged with homeostatic stressors. Importantly, these lesions can be recognized in microscopic sections prepared in current forensic practice. Future research is needed to determine the relationship between hippocampal and previously reported brainstem pathology in sudden infant death. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00401-014-1357-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Targeted Development of Registries of Biological Parts

BACKGROUND: The design and construction of novel biological systems by combining basic building blocks represents a dominant paradigm in synthetic biology. Creating and maintaining a database of these building blocks is a way to streamline the fabrication of complex constructs. The Registry of Standard Biological Parts (Registry) is the most advanced implementation of this idea. METHODS/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: By analyzing inclusion relationships between the sequences of the Registry entries, we build a network that can be related to the Registry abstraction hierarchy. The distribution of entry reuse and complexity was extracted from this network. The collection of clones associated with the database entries was also analyzed. The plasmid inserts were amplified and sequenced. The sequences of 162 inserts could be confirmed experimentally but unexpected discrepancies have also been identified. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Organizational guidelines are proposed to help design and manage this new type of scientific resources. In particular, it appears necessary to compare the cost of ensuring the integrity of database entries and associated biological samples with their value to the users. The initial strategy that permits including any combination of parts irrespective of its potential value leads to an exponential and economically unsustainable growth that may be detrimental to the quality and long-term value of the resource to its users

AI is a viable alternative to high throughput screening: a 318-target study

: High throughput screening (HTS) is routinely used to identify bioactive small molecules. This requires physical compounds, which limits coverage of accessible chemical space. Computational approaches combined with vast on-demand chemical libraries can access far greater chemical space, provided that the predictive accuracy is sufficient to identify useful molecules. Through the largest and most diverse virtual HTS campaign reported to date, comprising 318 individual projects, we demonstrate that our AtomNet® convolutional neural network successfully finds novel hits across every major therapeutic area and protein class. We address historical limitations of computational screening by demonstrating success for target proteins without known binders, high-quality X-ray crystal structures, or manual cherry-picking of compounds. We show that the molecules selected by the AtomNet® model are novel drug-like scaffolds rather than minor modifications to known bioactive compounds. Our empirical results suggest that computational methods can substantially replace HTS as the first step of small-molecule drug discovery

Environmental determinants of islet autoimmunity (ENDIA): a pregnancy to early life cohort study in children at-risk of type 1 diabetes

Members of ENDIA Study Group: Peter Baghurst, Simon Barry, Jodie Dodd, Maria Makrides for the University of Adelaide.BACKGROUND The incidence of type 1 diabetes has increased worldwide, particularly in younger children and those with lower genetic susceptibility. These observations suggest factors in the modern environment promote pancreatic islet autoimmunity and destruction of insulin-producing beta cells. The Environmental Determinants of Islet Autoimmunity (ENDIA) Study is investigating candidate environmental exposures and gene-environment interactions that may contribute to the development of islet autoimmunity and type 1 diabetes. METHODS/DESIGN ENDIA is the only prospective pregnancy/birth cohort study in the Southern Hemisphere investigating the determinants of type 1 diabetes in at-risk children. The study will recruit 1,400 unborn infants or infants less than six months of age with a first-degree relative (i.e. mother, father or sibling) with type 1 diabetes, across five Australian states. Pregnant mothers/infants will be followed prospectively from early pregnancy through childhood to investigate relationships between genotype, the development of islet autoimmunity (and subsequently type 1 diabetes), and prenatal and postnatal environmental factors. ENDIA will evaluate the microbiome, nutrition, bodyweight/composition, metabolome-lipidome, insulin resistance, innate and adaptive immune function and viral infections. A systems biology approach will be used to integrate these data. Investigation will be by 3-monthly assessments of the mother during pregnancy, then 3-monthly assessments of the child until 24 months of age and 6-monthly thereafter. The primary outcome measure is persistent islet autoimmunity, defined as the presence of autoantibodies to one or more islet autoantigens on consecutive tests. DISCUSSION Defining gene-environment interactions that initiate and/or promote destruction of the insulin-producing beta cells in early life will inform approaches to primary prevention of type 1 diabetes. The strength of ENDIA is the prospective, comprehensive and frequent systems-wide profiling from early pregnancy through to early childhood, to capture dynamic environmental exposures that may shape the development of islet autoimmunity. TRIAL REGISTRATION Australia New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12613000794707.Megan AS Penno, Jennifer J Couper, Maria E Craig, Peter G Colman, William D Rawlinson, Andrew M Cotterill, Timothy W Jones, Leonard C Harrison and ENDIA Study Grou

Dipeptidyl peptidase-1 inhibition in patients hospitalised with COVID-19: a multicentre, double-blind, randomised, parallel-group, placebo-controlled trial

Background Neutrophil serine proteases are involved in the pathogenesis of COVID-19 and increased serine protease activity has been reported in severe and fatal infection. We investigated whether brensocatib, an inhibitor of dipeptidyl peptidase-1 (DPP-1; an enzyme responsible for the activation of neutrophil serine proteases), would improve outcomes in patients hospitalised with COVID-19. Methods In a multicentre, double-blind, randomised, parallel-group, placebo-controlled trial, across 14 hospitals in the UK, patients aged 16 years and older who were hospitalised with COVID-19 and had at least one risk factor for severe disease were randomly assigned 1:1, within 96 h of hospital admission, to once-daily brensocatib 25 mg or placebo orally for 28 days. Patients were randomly assigned via a central web-based randomisation system (TruST). Randomisation was stratified by site and age (65 years or ≥65 years), and within each stratum, blocks were of random sizes of two, four, or six patients. Participants in both groups continued to receive other therapies required to manage their condition. Participants, study staff, and investigators were masked to the study assignment. The primary outcome was the 7-point WHO ordinal scale for clinical status at day 29 after random assignment. The intention-to-treat population included all patients who were randomly assigned and met the enrolment criteria. The safety population included all participants who received at least one dose of study medication. This study was registered with the ISRCTN registry, ISRCTN30564012. Findings Between June 5, 2020, and Jan 25, 2021, 406 patients were randomly assigned to brensocatib or placebo; 192 (47·3%) to the brensocatib group and 214 (52·7%) to the placebo group. Two participants were excluded after being randomly assigned in the brensocatib group (214 patients included in the placebo group and 190 included in the brensocatib group in the intention-to-treat population). Primary outcome data was unavailable for six patients (three in the brensocatib group and three in the placebo group). Patients in the brensocatib group had worse clinical status at day 29 after being randomly assigned than those in the placebo group (adjusted odds ratio 0·72 [95% CI 0·57–0·92]). Prespecified subgroup analyses of the primary outcome supported the primary results. 185 participants reported at least one adverse event; 99 (46%) in the placebo group and 86 (45%) in the brensocatib group. The most common adverse events were gastrointestinal disorders and infections. One death in the placebo group was judged as possibly related to study drug. Interpretation Brensocatib treatment did not improve clinical status at day 29 in patients hospitalised with COVID-19