Risks to healthcare organizations and staff who manage obese (bariatric) patients and use of obesity data to mitigate risks: A literature review

This literature review explores obesity risks to healthcare staff and organizations that manage and caring for obese (bariatric) patients. These risks are anticipated to increase due to Australian population obesity rate projections increasing from 31% in 2018 to 42% by the year 2035, which will result in increased hospital admissions of patients with obesity. Literature searches were conducted through the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), MEDLINE, Scopus, and Web of Science. Thirty studies met the inclusion criteria and were tabulated and critiqued using appropriate appraisal techniques. High risk of injury to healthcare staff was identified relating to bariatric patient handling tasks. High liability and financial risks of organizations were also identified relating to workers’ compensation and common law claims by injured staff and medical negligence claims by patients with obesity. Availability of obesity data was identified within clinically captured information, which could be utilized to inform obesity risk management programs. Future research should focus on improving the use and quality of obesity data to better understand obesity risks to healthcare organizations and staff, including accurate identification of obese patient admissions, enhanced ability to measure bariatric patient handling hazards and related staff injuries and improved assessment of bariatric intervention effectiveness

Inhibition of Quorum Sensing-Controlled Virulence Factor Production in Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 by Ayurveda Spice Clove (Syzygium Aromaticum) Bud Extract

Quorum sensing controls the virulence determinants in most proteobacteria. In this work, the hexane, chloroform and methanol extracts of an Ayurveda spice, namely clove (Syzygium aromaticum), shown anti-quorum sensing activity. Hexane and methanol extracts of clove inhibited the response of C. violaceum CV026 to exogenously supplied N‐hexanoylhomoserine lactone, in turn preventing violacein production. Chloroform and methanol extracts of clove significantly reduced bioluminescence production by E. coli [pSB1075] grown in the presence of N-(3-oxododecanoyl)-l-homoserine lactone. We demonstrated that clove extract inhibited quorum sensing-regulated phenotypes in Pseudomonas aeruginosa PA01, including expression of lecA::lux (by hexane extract), swarming (maximum inhibition by methanol extract), pyocyanin (maximum inhibition by hexane extract). This study shows that the presence of natural compounds that exhibit anti-quorum sensing activity in the clove extracts may be useful as the lead of anti-infective drugs

A Combined DNA-Affinic Molecule and N-Mustard Alkylating Agent Has an Anti-Cancer Effect and Induces Autophagy in Oral Cancer Cells

Although surgery or the combination of chemotherapy and radiation are reported to improve the quality of life and reduce symptoms in patients with oral cancer, the prognosis of oral cancer remains generally poor. DNA alkylating agents, such as N-mustard, play an important role in cancer drug development. BO-1051 is a new 9-anilinoacridine N-mustard-derivative anti-cancer drug that can effectively target a variety of cancer cell lines and inhibit tumorigenesis in vivo. However, the underlying mechanism of BO-1051-mediated tumor suppression remains undetermined. In the present study, BO-1051 suppressed cell viability with a low IC50 in oral cancer cells, but not in normal gingival fibroblasts. Cell cycle analysis revealed that the tumor suppression by BO-1051 was accompanied by cell cycle arrest and downregulation of stemness genes. The enhanced conversion of LC3-I to LC3-II and the formation of acidic vesicular organelles indicated that BO-1501 induced autophagy. The expression of checkpoint kinases was upregulated as demonstrated with Western blot analysis, showing that BO-1051 could induce DNA damage and participate in DNA repair mechanisms. Furthermore, BO-1051 treatment alone exhibited a moderate tumor suppressive effect against xenograft tumor growth in immunocompromised mice. Importantly, the combination of BO-1051 and radiation led to a potent inhibition on xenograft tumorigenesis. Collectively, our findings demonstrated that BO-1051 exhibited a cytotoxic effect via cell cycle arrest and the induction of autophagy. Thus, the combination of BO-1051 and radiotherapy may be a feasible therapeutic strategy against oral cancer in the future

Discovering context-specific relationships from biological literature by using multi-level context terms

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The Swanson's ABC model is powerful to infer hidden relationships buried in biological literature. However, the model is inadequate to infer relations with context information. In addition, the model generates a very large amount of candidates from biological text, and it is a semi-automatic, labor-intensive technique requiring human expert's manual input. To tackle these problems, we incorporate context terms to infer relations between AB interactions and BC interactions.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We propose 3 steps to discover meaningful hidden relationships between drugs and diseases: 1) multi-level (gene, drug, disease, symptom) entity recognition, 2) interaction extraction (drug-gene, gene-disease) from literature, 3) context vector based similarity score calculation. Subsequently, we evaluate our hypothesis with the datasets of the "Alzheimer's disease" related 77,711 PubMed abstracts. As golden standards, PharmGKB and CTD databases are used. Evaluation is conducted in 2 ways: first, comparing precision of the proposed method and the previous method and second, analysing top 10 ranked results to examine whether highly ranked interactions are truly meaningful or not.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The results indicate that context-based relation inference achieved better precision than the previous ABC model approach. The literature analysis also shows that interactions inferred by the context-based approach are more meaningful than interactions by the previous ABC model.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We propose a novel interaction inference technique that incorporates context term vectors into the ABC model to discover meaningful hidden relationships. By utilizing multi-level context terms, our model shows better performance than the previous ABC model.</p

The GLP-1 Receptor Agonist Exenatide Ameliorates Bone Composition and Tissue Material Properties in High Fat Fed Diabetic Mice

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) has recently been recognized as a significant risk factor for bone fragility. Careful investigations of bone mechanical properties in human studies suggested possible alterations of bone composition, although this axis has poorly been investigated. The main aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of high fat diet-induced diabetes and therapy using the clinically approved GLP-1 receptor agonist, exenatide, on tissue bone mechanical properties and compositional parameters. Male mice had free access to high fat diet for 16 weeks to induce diabetes prior to commencement of the study. Exenatide was administered twice daily by i.p. injection at a dose of 25 nmol/kg for 52 days. Normal and high fat diet fed (HFD) mice injected with saline were used as controls. Bone mechanical properties was assessed at the organ level by 3-point bending and at the tissue level by nanoindentation. Bone microarchitecture was investigated by microcomputed tomography and bone composition was evaluated by Fourier transform infrared imaging. HFD mice exhibited profound alterations of bone mechanical properties at both the organ and tissue level. Collagen maturity as well as trabecular and cortical bone microarchitectures were abnormal. Administration of exenatide, led to clear ameliorations in bone mechanical properties at the organ and tissue levels by modifications of both cortical microarchitecture and bone compositional parameters (collagen maturity, mineral crystallinity, carbonate/phosphate ratio, acid phosphate content). These results bring new light on the mode of action of exenatide in bone physiology and demonstrate the value of GLP-1 mimetics in the treatment of fragility fractures in diabetes

Circulation and intrusions northeast of Taiwan : chasing and predicting uncertainty in the cold dome

Author Posting. © The Oceanography Society, 2011. This article is posted here by permission of The Oceanography Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Oceanography 24 no. 4 (2011): 110–121, doi:10.5670/oceanog.2011.99.An important element of present oceanographic research is the assessment and quantification of uncertainty. These studies are challenging in the coastal ocean due to the wide variety of physical processes occurring on a broad range of spatial and temporal scales. In order to assess new methods for quantifying and predicting uncertainty, a joint Taiwan-US field program was undertaken in August/September 2009 to compare model forecasts of uncertainties in ocean circulation and acoustic propagation, with high-resolution in situ observations. The geographical setting was the continental shelf and slope northeast of Taiwan, where a feature called the "cold dome" frequently forms. Even though it is hypothesized that Kuroshio subsurface intrusions are the water sources for the cold dome, the dome's dynamics are highly uncertain, involving multiple scales and many interacting ocean features. During the experiment, a combination of near-surface and profiling drifters, broad-scale and high-resolution hydrography, mooring arrays, remote sensing, and regional ocean model forecasts of fields and uncertainties were used to assess mean fields and uncertainties in the region. River runoff from Typhoon Morakot, which hit Taiwan August 7–8, 2009, strongly affected shelf stratification. In addition to the river runoff, a cold cyclonic eddy advected into the region north of the Kuroshio, resulting in a cold dome formation event. Uncertainty forecasts were successfully employed to guide the hydrographic sampling plans. Measurements and forecasts also shed light on the evolution of cold dome waters, including the frequency of eddy shedding to the north-northeast, and interactions with the Kuroshio and tides. For the first time in such a complex region, comparisons between uncertainty forecasts and the model skill at measurement locations validated uncertainty forecasts. To complement the real-time model simulations, historical simulations with another model show that large Kuroshio intrusions were associated with low sea surface height anomalies east of Taiwan, suggesting that there may be some degree of predictability for Kuroshio intrusions.We thank the National Science Council of Taiwan as well as the Office of Naval Research for generous support of this effort

Measures of body habitus are associated with lung function in adults with cystic fibrosis: a population-based study

Background Body habitus differences may explain some of the variation in lung function between individuals with cystic fibrosis (CF). We tested the hypothesis that measures of lean muscle mass and obesity are independently associated with lung function in CF. Methods Cross-sectional study design using UK CF registry data from 2096 clinically stable adults. Results Serum creatinine and BMI were positively and independently associated with FEV1 and FVC. One standard deviation increment in serum creatinine was associated with an FEV1 increase of 171 ml (95% confidence intervals CI: + 116 to + 227 ml) in males and 90 ml (95% CI: + 46 to + 133 ml) in females. Compared to the reference group of 20–24.9 kg/m2, those with a BMI < 20 kg/m2 had lower FEV1 with values of − 642 ml (95%CI: − 784 to − 500 ml) for males and − 468 ml (95%CI: − 564 to − 372 ml) for females. Conclusions Prospective studies and controlled trials are required to ascertain if these associations have therapeutic potential in modifying disease progression