Helium in the adult critical care setting

Helium is a low-density inert gas whose physical properties are very different from those of nitrogen and oxygen. Such properties could be clinically useful in the adult critical care setting, especially in patients with upper to more distal airway obstruction requiring moderate to intermediate levels of FiO2. However, despite decades of utilization and reporting, it is still difficult to give any firm clinical recommendation in this setting. Numerous case reports are available in the context of upper airway obstruction of different origins, but there is a lack of controlled studies for this indication. One study reported a helium-induced beneficial effect on surrogates of work of breathing after extubation in non-COPD patients, possibly in relation to laryngeal consequences of tracheal intubation. Physiological benefits of helium-oxygen breathing have been demonstrated in the context of acute severe asthma, but there is a lack of large controlled studies demonstrating an effect on pertinent clinical endpoints, except for a study reported only as an abstract, which mentioned a reduction in the intubation rate in helium-treated patients. Finally, there are a number of physiological studies in the context of COLD-COPD patients demonstrating a beneficial effect, mainly by a reduction in the resistive inspiratory work of breathing but also by a reduction in hyperinflation. Reduction of hypercapnia was mainly observed in spontaneously breathing and noninvasively ventilated helium-treated patients but not in intubated patients during controlled ventilation, suggesting that the decrease in PaCO2 was mainly in relation to a diminution in CO2 production, related to the diminution in work of breathing and not an improved alveolar ventilation. Moreover, there is little evidence that helium-oxygen could improve parameters of heterogeneity in such patients. Two RCTs were unable to demonstrate a reduction in the intubation rate in such setting, but they were likely underpowered. An adequately powered international multicentric study is ongoing and will help to determinate the exact place of the helium-oxygen mixture in the future. The place of the mixture during the weaning period will deserve further evaluation

Towards an optimal sampling strategy for assessing genetic variation within and among white clover (Trifolium repens L.) cultivars using AFLP

Cost reduction in plant breeding and conservation programs depends largely on correctly defining the minimal sample size required for the trustworthy assessment of intra- and inter-cultivar genetic variation. White clover, an important pasture legume, was chosen for studying this aspect. In clonal plants, such as the aforementioned, an appropriate sampling scheme eliminates the redundant analysis of identical genotypes. The aim was to define an optimal sampling strategy, i.e., the minimum sample size and appropriate sampling scheme for white clover cultivars, by using AFLP data (283 loci) from three popular types. A grid-based sampling scheme, with an interplant distance of at least 40 cm, was sufficient to avoid any excess in replicates. Simulations revealed that the number of samples substantially influenced genetic diversity parameters. When using less than 15 per cultivar, the expected heterozygosity (He) and Shannon diversity index (I) were greatly underestimated, whereas with 20, more than 95% of total intra-cultivar genetic variation was covered. Based on AMOVA, a 20-cultivar sample was apparently sufficient to accurately quantify individual genetic structuring. The recommended sampling strategy facilitates the efficient characterization of diversity in white clover, for both conservation and exploitation

The benefits of participatory methodologies to develop effective community dialogue in the context of a microbicide trial feasibility study in Mwanza, Tanzania

BACKGROUND: As part of a microbicide trial feasibility study among women at high-risk of HIV and sexually transmitted infections in Mwanza City, northern Tanzania we used participatory research tools to facilitate open dialogue and partnership between researchers and study participants. METHODS: A mobile community-based sexual & reproductive health service was established in ten city wards. Wards were divided into seventy-eight geographical clusters and representatives at cluster and ward level elected in a process facilitated by the projects Community Liaison Officer. A city-level Community Advisory Committee (CAC) with representatives from each ward was established. Workshops and community meetings at ward and city-level were conducted to explore project-related concerns using tools adapted from participatory learning and action techniques such as listing, scoring, ranking, chapatti diagrams and pair-wise matrices. RESULTS: Key issues identified included beliefs that blood specimens were being sold for witchcraft purposes; worries about specula not being clean; inadequacy of transport allowances; and delays in reporting laboratory test results to participants. To date, the project has responded by inviting members of the CAC to visit the laboratory to observe how blood and genital specimens are prepared; demonstrated the use of the autoclave to community representatives; raised reimbursement levels; introduced HIV rapid testing in the clinic; and streamlined laboratory reporting procedures. CONCLUSIONS: Participatory techniques were instrumental in promoting meaningful dialogue between the research team, study participants and community representatives in Mwanza, allowing researchers and community representatives to gain a shared understanding of project-related priority areas for intervention

Astrocytes: biology and pathology

Astrocytes are specialized glial cells that outnumber neurons by over fivefold. They contiguously tile the entire central nervous system (CNS) and exert many essential complex functions in the healthy CNS. Astrocytes respond to all forms of CNS insults through a process referred to as reactive astrogliosis, which has become a pathological hallmark of CNS structural lesions. Substantial progress has been made recently in determining functions and mechanisms of reactive astrogliosis and in identifying roles of astrocytes in CNS disorders and pathologies. A vast molecular arsenal at the disposal of reactive astrocytes is being defined. Transgenic mouse models are dissecting specific aspects of reactive astrocytosis and glial scar formation in vivo. Astrocyte involvement in specific clinicopathological entities is being defined. It is now clear that reactive astrogliosis is not a simple all-or-none phenomenon but is a finely gradated continuum of changes that occur in context-dependent manners regulated by specific signaling events. These changes range from reversible alterations in gene expression and cell hypertrophy with preservation of cellular domains and tissue structure, to long-lasting scar formation with rearrangement of tissue structure. Increasing evidence points towards the potential of reactive astrogliosis to play either primary or contributing roles in CNS disorders via loss of normal astrocyte functions or gain of abnormal effects. This article reviews (1) astrocyte functions in healthy CNS, (2) mechanisms and functions of reactive astrogliosis and glial scar formation, and (3) ways in which reactive astrocytes may cause or contribute to specific CNS disorders and lesions

What can health inequalities researchers learn from an intersectionality perspective?:Understanding social dynamics with an inter-categorical approach

The concept of intersectionality was developed by social scientists seeking to analyse the multiple interacting influences of social location, identity and historical oppression. Despite broad take-up elsewhere, its application in public health remains underdeveloped. We consider how health inequalities research in the United Kingdom has predominantly taken class and later socioeconomic position as its key axis in a manner that tends to overlook other crucial dimensions. We especially focus on international research on ethnicity, gender and caste to argue that an intersectional perspective is relevant for health inequalities research because it compels researchers to move beyond (but not ignore) class and socioeconomic position in analysing the structural determinants of health. Drawing on these theoretical developments, we argue for an inter-categorical conceptualisation of social location that recognises differentiation without reifying social groupings – thus encouraging researchers to focus on social dynamics rather than social categories, recognising that experiences of advantage and disadvantage reflect the exercise of power across social institutions. Such an understanding may help address the historic tendency of health inequalities research to privilege methodological issues and consider different axes of inequality in isolation from one another, encouraging researchers to move beyond micro-level behaviours to consider the structural drivers of inequalities