Biopsychosocial analysis of task engagement among preschool-age children

The relation between physiological regulation, caregiver emotional support, and task engagement was examined among a diverse sample of 4-year old children (N = 244). It was predicted that physiological regulation and caregiver emotional support would facilitate greater behavioral task engagement. It was also hypothesized that caregiver emotional support would moderate the relation between physiological regulation and engagement, as children who receive greater support would be less reliant on their physiological resources. Children were observed on six dimensions of engagement during a frustrating puzzle task, during which child vagal tone was also measured. Primary caregivers were observed for emotional responsiveness during a parent-child problem-solving game. Factor analysis was conducted to examine factor structure of task engagement. The resulting engagement factor was predicted by child physiological regulation: Children with greater vagal withdrawal exhibited greater behavioral engagement. However, caregiver emotional support was unrelated to engagement and its moderating effect on the relation between physiological regulation and task engagement was not significant. This study demonstrates the role of physiological regulation in facilitating observable behavioral engagement among preschool age children, but failed to replicate a relation between caregiver support and engagement

The effect of physical activity and nutrition on the stress management, interpersonal relationships, and alcohol consumption of college freshmen

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the changes of health behaviors in college students as they transition through their freshman year. Methods: At a southern public university, the author surveyed 167 freshmen, ages 18 to 25, to examine the effects of physical activity and nutrition on stress management, interpersonal relationships and alcohol consumption in college freshmen. The participant’s responses were assessed at two time points: baseline exposure and 3 month outcome and 3 month exposure and 6 month outcome. The Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile (HPLP) II questionnaire and the Daily Drinking questionnaire (DDQ) examined the health behaviors and drinking consumption of college freshmen. Results: Students with moderate physical activity had nearly half the odds of better stress management as compared to students with higher physical activity. However, this result was not statistically significant; baseline exposure to 3 month outcome (OR= 0.49, 95% CI: 0.24, 1.01); 3 month exposure to 6 month outcome (OR= 0.52 95% CI: 0.25, 1.29). Students with moderate nutrition had nearly 1.5 times the odds of having poor interpersonal relationships as compared to students with high nutrition. This result was not statistically significant: baseline exposure to 3 month outcome (OR=1.49, 95% CI: 0.23, 2.34); 3 month exposure to 6 month outcome (OR=1.57, 95% CI: 0.89, 4.35). Discussion: Few studies have evaluated physical activity and nutrition and the health behaviors of stress management, interpersonal relationships and alcohol consumption. This study can provide further understanding of health promotion behaviors in college students

Investigating gene–environment interaction as a contributor to language performance.

This study investigated the potential moderating role of genetic predisposition for language performance on the association between various environmental variables and children’s receptive and expressive language performance. Participants included 1150 preschool-aged monozygotic and dizygotic twins from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study- Birth Cohort (ECLS-B). Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to explore interaction effect between genetic predisposition for language and singular environmental variables, genetic predisposition for language and indices of environmental risk and advantage, and genetic predisposition for language, indices of environmental risk and advantage, and gender. Findings provide tentative support for the interaction of genetic predisposition and environmental factors as a contributor to language performance. Three gene–environment interaction terms were found to be significant predictors of language performance. One two-way interaction and one threeway interaction were found to significantly contribute to their respective models’ ability to account for variance in children’s language performance

Hyaluronidase recruits mesenchymal-like cells to the lung and ameliorates fibrosis

Hyaluronidases (HYALs) comprise a group of enzymes that degrade hyaluronic acid (HA). In this report, we reveal that a single intranasal inoculation of HYAL induces an increase in mononuclear cells within the bronchoalveolar space demonstrating a mesenchymal-like phenotype, expressing stem cell antigen-1 (SCA-1), CD44 and CD73 but not CD34, CD45, CD3, CD4, CD8 or CD19. This influx of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-like cells was dependent on leukotriene production within the lung parenchyma. These findings prompted experiments demonstrating that HYAL treatment potently blocked bleomycin-induced lung injury and fibrosis while decreasing transforming growth factor (TGF)-β production and collagen deposition. These data suggest that HYAL is a novel and promising tool to use autologous MSC-like cells in the treatment of pulmonary fibrosis

Prevalence, patterns, and predictors of patient-reported non-motor outcomes at 30 days after acute stroke: prospective observational hospital cohort study

Background: Adverse non-motor outcomes are common after acute stroke and likely to substantially affect quality of life, yet few studies have comprehensively assessed their prevalence, patterns, and predictors across multiple health domains.// Aims: We aim to identify the prevalence, patterns and the factors associated with non-motor outcomes 30 days after stroke.// Methods: This prospective observational hospital cohort study (Stroke Investigation in North and Central London (SIGNAL) identified patients with acute ischaemic stroke or intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH) admitted to the Hyperacute Stroke Unit (HASU) University College Hospital (UCH), London, between August 1st 2018 and August 31st 2019. We assessed non-motor outcomes (anxiety, depression, fatigue, sleep, participation in social roles and activities, pain, bowel, and bladder function) at 30-day follow-up using the Patient Reported Outcome Measurement Information System-Version 29 (PROMIS-29) scale and Barthel Index scale.// Results: We obtained follow-up data for 605/719 (84.1%) eligible patients (mean age 72.0 years; 48.3% female; 521 with ischaemic stroke, 84 with ICH). Anxiety (57.0%), fatigue (52.7%), bladder dysfunction (50.2%), reduced social participation (49.2%), and pain (47.9%) were the commonest adverse non-motor outcomes. The rates of adverse non-motor outcomes in ≥1, ≥2 and ≥3 domains were 89%, 66.3% and 45.8%, respectively; in adjusted analyses, stroke due to ICH (compared to ischaemic stroke) and admission stroke severity were the strongest and most consistent predictors. There were significant correlations between; bowel dysfunction and bladder dysfunction (κ= 0.908); reduced social participation and bladder dysfunction (κ= 0.844); and anxiety and fatigue (κ= 0.613). We did not identify correlation for other pairs of non-motor domains.// Conclusions: Adverse non-motor outcomes are very common at one month after stroke, affecting nearly 90% of evaluated patients in at least one health domain, about two-thirds in two or more domains, and almost 50% in three or more domains. Stroke due to ICH and admission stroke severity were the strongest and most consistent predictors. Adverse outcomes occur in pairs of domains such as with anxiety and fatigue.Our findings emphasise the importance of a multi-domain approach to effectively identify adverse non-motor outcomes after stroke to inform the development of more holistic patient recovery programs

Rich Polymorphism of a Metal-Organic Framework in Pressure-Temperature Space.

We present an in situ powder X-ray diffraction study on the phase stability and polymorphism of the metal-organic framework ZIF-4, Zn(imidazolate)2, at simultaneous high pressure and high temperature, up to 8 GPa and 600 °C. The resulting pressure-temperature phase diagram reveals four, previously unknown, high-pressure-high-temperature ZIF phases. The crystal structures of two new phases-ZIF-4-cp-II and ZIF-hPT-II-were solved by powder diffraction methods. The total energy of ZIF-4-cp-II was evaluated using density functional theory calculations and was found to lie in between that of ZIF-4 and the most thermodynamically stable polymorph, ZIF- zni. ZIF-hPT-II was found to possess a doubly interpenetrated diamondoid topology and is isostructural with previously reported Cd(Imidazolate)2 and Hg(Imidazolate)2 phases. This phase exhibited extreme resistance to both temperature and pressure. The other two new phases could be assigned with a unit cell and space group, although their structures remain unknown. The pressure-temperature phase diagram of ZIF-4 is strikingly complicated when compared with that of the previously investigated, closely related ZIF-62 and demonstrates the ability to traverse complex energy landscapes of metal-organic systems using the combined application of pressure and temperature

Co-targeting of Bcl-2 and mTOR pathway triggers synergistic apoptosis in BH3 mimetics resistant acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Several chemo-resistance mechanisms including the Bcl-2 protein family overexpression and constitutive activation of the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling have been documented in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), encouraging targeted approaches to circumvent this clinical problem. Here we analyzed the activity of the BH3 mimetic ABT-737 in ALL, exploring the synergistic effects with the mTOR inhibitor CCI-779 on ABT-737 resistant cells. We showed that a low Mcl-1/Bcl-2 plus Bcl-xL protein ratio determined ABT-737 responsiveness. ABT-737 exposure further decreased Mcl-1, inducing apoptosis on sensitive models and primary samples, while not affecting resistant cells. Co-inhibition of Bcl-2 and the mTOR pathway resulted cytotoxic on ABT-737 resistant models, by downregulating mTORC1 activity and Mcl-1 in a proteasome-independent manner. Although Mcl-1 seemed to be critical, ectopic modulation did not correlate with apoptosis changes. Importantly, dual targeting proved effective on ABT-737 resistant samples, showing additive/synergistic effects. Together, our results show the efficacy of BH3 mimetics as single agent in the majority of the ALL samples and demonstrate that resistance to ABT-737 mostly correlated with Mcl-1 overexpression. Co-targeting of the Bcl-2 protein family and mTOR pathway enhanced drug-induced cytotoxicity by suppressing Mcl-1, providing a novel therapeutic approach to overcome BH3 mimetics resistance in ALL

A behavioral comparison of male and female adults with high functioning autism spectrum conditions

Autism spectrum conditions (ASC) affect more males than females in the general population. However, within ASC it is unclear if there are phenotypic sex differences. Testing for similarities and differences between the sexes is important not only for clinical assessment but also has implications for theories of typical sex differences and of autism. Using cognitive and behavioral measures, we investigated similarities and differences between the sexes in age- and IQ-matched adults with ASC (high-functioning autism or Asperger syndrome). Of the 83 (45 males and 38 females) participants, 62 (33 males and 29 females) met Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) cut-off criteria for autism in childhood and were included in all subsequent analyses. The severity of childhood core autism symptoms did not differ between the sexes. Males and females also did not differ in self-reported empathy, systemizing, anxiety, depression, and obsessive-compulsive traits/symptoms or mentalizing performance. However, adult females with ASC showed more lifetime sensory symptoms (p = 0.036), fewer current socio-communication difficulties (p = 0.001), and more self-reported autistic traits (p = 0.012) than males. In addition, females with ASC who also had developmental language delay had lower current performance IQ than those without developmental language delay (p<0.001), a pattern not seen in males. The absence of typical sex differences in empathizing-systemizing profiles within the autism spectrum confirms a prediction from the extreme male brain theory. Behavioral sex differences within ASC may also reflect different developmental mechanisms between males and females with ASC. We discuss the importance of the superficially better socio-communication ability in adult females with ASC in terms of why females with ASC may more often go under-recognized, and receive their diagnosis later, than males