Everyday memory deficits associated with anabolic-androgenic steroid use in regular gymnasium users

Background: This study compared a group of 47 regular gym users who take androgenic-anabolic steroids (the AAS group) as part of their recreational sport, with a group of 48 regular gym users who do not use AAS (the Non-AAS group) on self-reports of Retrospective memory (RM), executive function (EF) and prospective memory (PM), which are all critical to everyday remembering. Methods: All participants were tested using an on-line Survey Monkey method. The Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire (PRMQ) assessed everyday RM and PM deficits and the Executive Function Questionnaire (EFQ) assessed self-reported problems in EF. A drug-use questionnaire and a mood questionnaire were also administered Results: After observing no between-group differences on alcohol or mood, omitting anyone who drank excessively or had drank recently, smoked or reported using any illegal drug, three one-way ANCOVAs (controlling for age) revealed that the ASS group reported significantly more RM deficits, EF deficits, and PM deficits, when compared with the NonASS group. Conclusion: It was concluded that AAS use in a recreational sports context is associated with RM, EF and PM deficits, indicating that AAS use may damage everyday remembering

The Political Integration of Immigrant and Visible Minority Women

This article examines how immigrant and visible minority status, and the intersection of the two, affect women’s ability and willingness to participate in conventional and unconventional political activities. Using a telephone survey undertaken with English-speaking women in nine of Canada’s ten provinces, we find that women’s political integration varies by the type of political activity in question but that it is particularly weak for immigrant women from an ethnic minority. We also find that resource and socio-demographic profiles are limited in their ability to explain participation deficits, especially for unconventional political activity, and that mobilizing networks offer some possible insight into women’s propensity to participate politically

Health-related welfare prioritisation of canine disorders using electronic health records in primary care practice in the UK.

BACKGROUND: Evidence-based comparison of the disorder-specific welfare burdens of major canine conditions could better inform targeting of stakeholder resources, to maximise improvement of health-related welfare in UK dogs. Population-level disease related welfare impact offers a quantitative, welfare-centred framework for objective disorder prioritisation, but practical applications have been limited to date due to sparse reliable evidence on disorder-specific prevalence, severity and duration across the canine disease spectrum. The VetCompass™ Programme collects de-identified electronic health record data from dogs attending primary-care clinics UK-wide, and is well placed to fill these information gaps. RESULTS: The eight common, breed-related conditions assessed were anal sac disorder, conjunctivitis, dental disease, dermatitis, overweight/obese, lipoma, osteoarthritis and otitis externa. Annual period prevalence estimates (based on confirming 250 cases from total potential cases identified from denominator population of 455, 557 dogs) were highest for dental disorder (9.6%), overweight/obese (5.7%) and anal sac disorder (4.5%). Dental disorder (76% of study year), osteoarthritis (82%), and overweight/obese (70%) had highest annual duration scores. Osteoarthritis (scoring 13/21), otitis externa (11/21) and dermatitis demonstrated (10/21) highest overall severity scores. Dental disorder (2.47/3.00 summative score), osteoarthritis (2.24/3.00) and overweight/obese (1.67/3.00) had highest VetCompass Welfare Impact scores overall. DISCUSSION: Of the eight common, breed-related disorders assessed, dental disorder, osteoarthritis and overweight/obese demonstrated particular welfare impact, based on combinations of high prevalence, duration and severity. Future work could extend this methodology to cover a wider range of disorders. CONCLUSIONS: Dental disorders, osteoarthritis and overweight/obese have emerged as priority areas for health-related welfare improvement in the UK dog population. This study demonstrated applicability of a standardised methodology to assess the relative health-related welfare impact across a range of canine disorders using VetCompass clinical data

Building scientific skills in first year biology undergraduates

PROBLEM Many first-year undergraduate students transitioning from a high school education, in our experience, have very limited scientific and research skills. This impacts on their transition to the study of science in higher education. Since 2012, we have been grappling with the challenge of explicitly and authentically teaching these skills to a cohort of 2000 first year biology students (Gleeson et al., 2017). INTERVENTION We developed two parallel approaches to teaching scientific skills. A large-scale approach has enabled all first-year biology students to develop skills through explicit teaching in dedicated workshops. These workshops are closely linked to the students’ practical program in the subject and employ peer-to-peer interactions and group discussions to improve skills such as: experimental design, data analysis, critical interpretation of data and science communication. A small-scale approach involves a group within this larger cohort who were invited to experience the uncertainty and complexity of authentic research through undertaking their own research project. Our intention was to pilot this approach and assess its viability at scale. REFLECTION We will reflect on the effectiveness of teaching scientific skills at these two scales and share how they have shaped the design of a new curriculum, which will have biology knowledge crafted around a framework of scientific skill development

Safety Recommendations for Evaluation and Surgery of the Head and Neck During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Importance The rapidly expanding novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, has challenged the medical community to an unprecedented degree. Physicians and health care workers are at added risk of exposure and infection during the course of patient care. Because of the rapid spread of this disease through respiratory droplets, health care workers who come in close contact with the upper aerodigestive tract during diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, such as otolaryngologists–head and neck surgeons, are particularly at risk. A set of safety recommendations was created based on a review of the literature and communications with physicians with firsthand knowledge of safety procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic. Observations A high number of health care workers were infected during the first phase of the pandemic in the city of Wuhan, China. Subsequently, by adopting strict safety precautions, other regions were able to achieve high levels of safety for health care workers without jeopardizing the care of patients. The most common procedures related to the examination and treatment of upper aerodigestive tract diseases were reviewed. Each category was reviewed based on the potential risk imposed to health care workers. Specific recommendations were made based on the literature, when available, or consensus best practices. Specific safety recommendations were made for performing tracheostomy in patients with COVID-19. Conclusions and Relevance Preserving a highly skilled health care workforce is a top priority for any community and health care system. Based on the experience of health care systems in Asia and Europe, by following strict safety guidelines, the risk of exposure and infection of health care workers could be greatly reduced while providing high levels of care. The provided recommendations, which may evolve over time, could be used as broad guidance for all health care workers who are involved in the care of patients with COVID-19

Greater utility of molecular subtype rather than epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) markers for prognosis in high-risk non-muscle-invasive (HGT1) bladder cancer

Funding Information: ECO and AEK were funded by CRUK programme grant C5255/A23755. We would like to thank Marcus Green for cutting the sections and giving advice on optimisation of antibodies and to Dr Jong‐Wei Hsu for advice on antibody selection. LB was supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Oxford Biomedical Research Centre (BRC). The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the National Health Service (NHS), the NIHR or the Department of Health. LB is part of the PathLAKE digital pathology consortium. These new Centres are supported by a £50m investment from the Data to Early Diagnosis and Precision Medicine strand of the UK government's Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, managed and delivered by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Exercise rehabilitation following intensive care unit discharge for recovery from critical illness:executive summary of a Cochrane Collaboration systematic review

Skeletal muscle wasting and weakness are major complications of critical illness and underlie the profound physical and func-\ud tional impairments experienced by survivors after discharge from the intensive care unit (ICU). Exercise-based rehabilitation\ud has been shown to be bene\ud fi\ud cial when delivered during ICU admission. This review aimed to determine the effectiveness of\ud exercise rehabilitation initiated after ICU discharge on primary outcomes of functional exercise capacity and health-related\ud quality of life. We sought randomized controlled trials, quasi-randomized controlled trials, and controlled clinical trials compar-\ud ing an exercise intervention commenced after ICU discharge vs. any other intervention or a control or\ud ‘\ud usual care\ud ’\ud programme\ud in adult survivors of critical illness. Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval Sys-\ud tem Online (MEDLINE), Excerpta Medica Database, and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature databases\ud were searched up to February 2015. Dual, independent screening of results, data extraction, and quality appraisal were per-\ud formed. We included six trials involving 483 patients. Overall quality of evidence for both outcomes was very low. All studies\ud evaluated functional exercise capacity, with three reporting positive effects in favour of the intervention. Only two studies\ud evaluated health-related quality of life and neither reported differences between intervention and control groups. Meta-\ud analyses of data were precluded due to variation in study design, types of interventions, and selection and reporting of out-\ud come measurements. We were unable to determine an overall effect on functional exercise capacity or health-related quality\ud of life of interventions initiated after ICU discharge for survivors of critical illness. Findings from ongoing studies are awaited.\ud Future studies need to address methodological aspects of study design and conduct to enhance rigour, quality, and synthesis

Breast milk-derived human milk oligosaccharides promote Bifidobacterium interactions within a single ecosystem

Diet-microbe interactions play an important role in modulating the early-life microbiota, with Bifidobacterium strains and species dominating the gut of breast-fed infants. Here, we sought to explore how infant diet drives distinct bifidobacterial community composition and dynamics within individual infant ecosystems. Genomic characterisation of 19 strains isolated from breast-fed infants revealed a diverse genomic architecture enriched in carbohydrate metabolism genes, which was distinct to each strain, but collectively formed a pangenome across infants. Presence of gene clusters implicated in digestion of human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) varied between species, with growth studies indicating that within single infants there were differences in the ability to utilise 2'FL and LNnT HMOs between strains. Cross-feeding experiments were performed with HMO degraders and non-HMO users (using spent or 'conditioned' media and direct co-culture). Further H-NMR analysis identified fucose, galactose, acetate, and N-acetylglucosamine as key by-products of HMO metabolism; as demonstrated by modest growth of non-HMO users on spend media from HMO metabolism. These experiments indicate how HMO metabolism permits the sharing of resources to maximise nutrient consumption from the diet and highlights the cooperative nature of bifidobacterial strains and their role as 'foundation' species in the infant ecosystem. The intra- and inter-infant bifidobacterial community behaviour may contribute to the diversity and dominance of Bifidobacterium in early life and suggests avenues for future development of new diet and microbiota-based therapies to promote infant health