Highly conserved molecular pathways, including Wnt signaling, promote functional recovery from spinal cord injury in lampreys

© The Author(s), 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Scientific Reports 8 (2018): 742, doi:10.1038/s41598-017-18757-1.In mammals, spinal cord injury (SCI) leads to dramatic losses in neurons and synaptic connections, and consequently function. Unlike mammals, lampreys are vertebrates that undergo spontaneous regeneration and achieve functional recovery after SCI. Therefore our goal was to determine the complete transcriptional responses that occur after SCI in lampreys and to identify deeply conserved pathways that promote regeneration. We performed RNA-Seq on lamprey spinal cord and brain throughout the course of functional recovery. We describe complex transcriptional responses in the injured spinal cord, and somewhat surprisingly, also in the brain. Transcriptional responses to SCI in lampreys included transcription factor networks that promote peripheral nerve regeneration in mammals such as Atf3 and Jun. Furthermore, a number of highly conserved axon guidance, extracellular matrix, and proliferation genes were also differentially expressed after SCI in lampreys. Strikingly, ~3% of differentially expressed transcripts belonged to the Wnt pathways. These included members of the Wnt and Frizzled gene families, and genes involved in downstream signaling. Pharmacological inhibition of Wnt signaling inhibited functional recovery, confirming a critical role for this pathway. These data indicate that molecular signals present in mammals are also involved in regeneration in lampreys, supporting translational relevance of the model.We gratefully acknowledge support from the National Institutes of Health (R03NS078519 to OB; R01GM104123 to JJS; R01NS078165 to JRM), The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research and The Marine Biological Laboratory, including the Charles Evans Foundation Research Award, the Albert and Ellen Grass Foundation Faculty Research Award, and The Eugene and Millicent Bell Fellowship Fund in Tissue Engineering

The impact of surgical delay on resectability of colorectal cancer: An international prospective cohort study

AIM: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has provided a unique opportunity to explore the impact of surgical delays on cancer resectability. This study aimed to compare resectability for colorectal cancer patients undergoing delayed versus non-delayed surgery. METHODS: This was an international prospective cohort study of consecutive colorectal cancer patients with a decision for curative surgery (January-April 2020). Surgical delay was defined as an operation taking place more than 4 weeks after treatment decision, in a patient who did not receive neoadjuvant therapy. A subgroup analysis explored the effects of delay in elective patients only. The impact of longer delays was explored in a sensitivity analysis. The primary outcome was complete resection, defined as curative resection with an R0 margin. RESULTS: Overall, 5453 patients from 304 hospitals in 47 countries were included, of whom 6.6% (358/5453) did not receive their planned operation. Of the 4304 operated patients without neoadjuvant therapy, 40.5% (1744/4304) were delayed beyond 4 weeks. Delayed patients were more likely to be older, men, more comorbid, have higher body mass index and have rectal cancer and early stage disease. Delayed patients had higher unadjusted rates of complete resection (93.7% vs. 91.9%, P = 0.032) and lower rates of emergency surgery (4.5% vs. 22.5%, P < 0.001). After adjustment, delay was not associated with a lower rate of complete resection (OR 1.18, 95% CI 0.90-1.55, P = 0.224), which was consistent in elective patients only (OR 0.94, 95% CI 0.69-1.27, P = 0.672). Longer delays were not associated with poorer outcomes. CONCLUSION: One in 15 colorectal cancer patients did not receive their planned operation during the first wave of COVID-19. Surgical delay did not appear to compromise resectability, raising the hypothesis that any reduction in long-term survival attributable to delays is likely to be due to micro-metastatic disease

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

Using qualitative research methods for the improvement of collaborative information searching tools design

Regarding the change of information seeking to a collaborative activity, DLs as dynamic information systems, have to adopt collaboration searching tools. This study investigates the degree of collaboration in information retrieval and the extent of collaboration tools usage in DLs. The collaborative tools of a prototype digital library are assessed through a qualitative study by the aspects of usefulness, usability and usage. Results show that information search transforms to a collective form, while they prove that usefulness and usability have a significant effect on usage and on user satisfaction. The results also show that collaboration tools evolve into indispensable design parameters for modern digital libraries

An exploration of the research trends in the digital library evaluation domain

Evaluation is a vital research area in the digital library domain, demonstrating a growing literature in conference and journal papers. In this poster we present the research trends that governed the field within the decade 2001–2010 in the JCDL and ECDL conferences. The DL evaluation literature was annotated using the domain ontology DiLEO, which defines explicitly the main concepts of the digital library evaluation field and their correlations. Several findings from this study underline the persistent character of quantitative research in evaluation initiatives

Aυτοδιάλογος: η αλληλεπίδραση του με τα ψυχολογικά χαρακτηριστικά και την αυτοαποτελεσματικοτητά στην αγωνιστική αντισφαίριση

Η αθλητική ψυχολογία έχει υιοθετήσει τα τελευταία χρόνια τη χρήση του αυτοδιαλόγου (self-talking), γνωστική τεχνική, η οποία εφαρμόζεται από αθλητές και απλούς ασκούμενους, τόσο στην αντισφαίριση όσο και σε λοιπά αθλήματα. Ο αυτοδιάλογος μέσα από τις λειτουργίες του, οι οποίες είναι εξίσου παρακινητικές και γνωστικές, συνεισφέρει στον έλεγχο και στην οργάνωση της ποιότητας των σκέψεων του αθλητή. Σκοπός της έρευνας είναι η διερεύνηση της σχέσης του αυτοδιαλόγου με το αγωνιστικό άγχος προδιάθεσης, την αγωνιστική αυτοπεποίθηση προδιάθεσης και την αυτοαποτελεσματικότητα στο αγωνιστικό τένις, σε εφήβους και ενήλικες αθλητές. Δευτερευόντως, ερευνώνται τυχόν συσχετίσεις μεταξύ του φαινομένου και διαφόρων επί μέρους ατομικών χαρακτηριστικών, όπως το φύλο, η εμπειρία, η αγωνιστική (και ηλικιακή) κατηγορία. Αυτό πραγματοποιήθηκε με τη μελέτη σε βάθος της μέχρι τώρα διαθέσιμης επιστημονικής βιβλιογραφίας επί του θέματος και με την έρευνα, στην οποία συμμετείχαν εβδομήντα τέσσερις (74) αθλητές αντισφαίρισης (43 άνδρες, 31 γυναίκες), η ηλικία των οποίων κυμάνθηκε από δεκατρία (13) έως εικοσιπέντε (25) έτη, ενώ η προπονητική εμπειρία τους από τρία (3) έως δεκαοκτώ (18) έτη. Για τους σκοπούς της μελέτης χρησιμοποιήθηκαν τα εξής ερωτηματολόγια: Ερωτηματολόγιο Αγωνιστικού Άγχους Προδιάθεσης, Ερωτηματολόγιο Αθλητικής Αυτοπεποίθησης, Ερωτηματολόγιο Αυτοδιαλόγου στον αθλητισμό και Κλίμακα Αξιολόγησης της Αυτοαποτελεσματικότητας. Η διαδικασία της έρευνας περιλάμβανε τη χορήγηση και συμπλήρωση των ερωτηματολογίων σε μια προαγωνιστική κατάσταση, μέχρι και τριάντα λεπτά πριν την έναρξη του αγωνίσματος. Τα αποτελέσματα έδειξαν μια μικρή μόνο αλληλεπίδραση του αυτοδιαλόγου με τα ψυχολογικά χαρακτηριστικά και δεν ανέδειξαν συσχέτισή του με την αυτοαποτελεσματικότητα. Ωστόσο, η τελευταία φάνηκε να σχετίζεται με το αγωνιστικό άγχος προδιάθεσης και, κυρίως, με την αυτοπεποίθηση. Δεν παρουσιάστηκε αξιόλογη διαφορά ως προς το φύλο και την αγωνιστική κατηγορία στο σύνολο των αθλητών, πάρα μόνο στο φύλο ως προς το αγωνιστικό επίπεδο. Τέλος, βρέθηκε ότι η εμπειρία και η αυτοπεποίθηση προβλέπουν την αυτοαποτελεσματικότητα. Τα ευρήματα της μελέτης ερμηνεύονται με βάση τις ιδιαιτερότητες του αγωνίσματος, καθώς και τον πειραματικό σχεδιασμό της έρευνας και συμφωνούν εν μέρει με τα αποτελέσματα προγενέστερων ερευνών.Sports psychology has in recent years adopted the use of self-talking as a cognitive technique applied by athletes and ordinary practitioners in both tennis and other sports. Self-talk through its functions, which are equally motivational and cognitive, contributes to the control and organization of the athlete&apos;s quality of thought. The aim of the research is to investigate the relationship between self-talk and trait competitive anxiety, sport confidence and self-efficacy in competitive tennis among adolescents and adult athletes. Secondly, any correlations between the phenomenon and various individual characteristics such as gender, experience, racing (and age) category are investigated. This was accomplished by studying in depth the literature on the subject and by the current research. Seventy-four (74) tennis athletes (43 men, 31 women), whose age ranged from thirteen (13) to eighteen (18) years, while their coaching experience ranged from three (3) to eighteen (18) years were involved in the study. For the purposes of the study, the following questionnaires were used: the Trait Anxiety Questionnaire, the Athletic Confidence Questionnaire, the Self-Talk Questionnaire in Sport, and Questions for the Evaluation of Self-Efficacy. The investigation process included the completion of the questionnaires in a pre-game phase, up to thirty minutes before the start of the competition. The results showed only a slight interaction of the self-talk with the psychological characteristics and did not show its correlation with self-efficacy. However, the latter seemed to be related to racial anxiety and, above all, to self-confidence. Generally, there was no significant difference according to gender and category among all athletes, except the competitive category of athletes. Finally, it has been found that experience and self-confidence predict self-efficacy. The findings of the study are interpreted on the basis of the particularities of the competition as well as the experimental design of the research and are in part consistent with the results of previous research

Inflammation induces irreversible biophysical changes in isolated nucleus pulposus cells.

Intervertebral disc degeneration is accompanied by elevated levels of inflammatory cytokines that have been implicated in disease etiology and matrix degradation. While the effects of inflammatory stimulation on disc cell metabolism have been well-studied, their effects on cell biophysical properties have not been investigated. The hypothesis of this study is that inflammatory stimulation alters the biomechanical properties of isolated disc cells and volume responses to step osmotic loading. Cells from the nucleus pulposus (NP) of bovine discs were isolated and treated with either lipopolysaccharide (LPS), an inflammatory ligand, or with the recombinant cytokine TNF-α for 24 hours. We measured cellular volume regulation responses to osmotic loading either immediately after stimulation or after a 1 week recovery period from the inflammatory stimuli. Cells from each group were tested under step osmotic loading and the transient volume-response was captured via time-lapse microscopy. Volume-responses were analyzed using mixture theory framework to investigate two biomechanical properties of the cell, the intracellular water content and the hydraulic permeability. Intracellular water content did not vary between treatment groups, but hydraulic permeability increased significantly with inflammatory treatment. In the 1 week recovery group, hydraulic permeability remained elevated relative to the untreated recovery control. Cell radius was also significantly increased both after 24 hours of treatment and after 1 week recovery. A significant linear correlation was observed between hydraulic permeability and cell radius in untreated cells at 24 hours and at 1-week recovery, though not in the inflammatory stimulated groups at either time point. This loss of correlation between cell size and hydraulic permeability suggests that regulation of volume change is disrupted irreversibly due to inflammatory stimulation. Inflammatory treated cells exhibited altered F-actin cytoskeleton expression relative to untreated cells. We also found a significant decrease in the expression of aquaporin-1, the predominant water channel in disc NP cells, with inflammatory stimulation. To our knowledge, this is the first study providing evidence that inflammatory stimulation directly alters the mechanobiology of NP cells. The cellular biophysical changes observed in this study are coincident with documented changes in the extracellular matrix induced by inflammation, and may be important in disease etiology

Cytoskeletal structure of rounded NP cells.

<p>Representative cytoskeletal staining of NP cells in each treatment group for (A–F) F-actin (red) and (G–L) β-tubulin (green), scale bar = 5 µm. Confocal z-stack images were acquired with 2 µm spacing throughout cell cross-sections, and images represent the slice acquired nearest the center of the cell (midplane).</p