952 research outputs found
The Taiwan Birth Panel Study: a prospective cohort study for environmentally- related child health
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The Taiwan Birth Panel Study (TBPS) is a prospective follow-up study to investigate the development of child health and disease in relation to in-utero and/or early childhood environmental exposures. The rationale behind the establishment of such a cohort includes the magnitude of potential environmental exposures, the timing of exposure window, fatal and children's susceptibility to toxicants, early exposure delayed effects, and low-level or unknown neurodevelopmental toxicants.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A total of 486 mother-infant paired was enrolled from April 2004 to January 2005 in this study. Maternal blood before delivery, placenta and umbilical cord blood at birth, and mothers' urine after delivery were collected. The follow-up was scheduled at birth, 4, 6 months, and 1, 2, 3 and 5 years. The children's blood, urine, hair, and saliva were collected at 2 years of age and children's urine was collected at 5 years of age as well. The study has been approved by the ethical committee of National Taiwan University Hospital. All the subjects signed the inform consent on entering the study and each of the follow up.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Through this prospective birth cohort, the main health outcomes were focused on child growth, neurodevelopment, behaviour problem and atopic diseases. We investigated the main prenatal and postnatal factors including smoking, heavy metals, perfluorinated chemicals, and non-persistent pesticides under the consideration of interaction of the environment and genes.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This cohort study bridges knowledge gaps and answers unsolved issues in the low-level, prenatal or postnatal, and multiple exposures, genetic effect modification, and the initiation and progression of "environmentally-related childhood diseases."</p
A Multi-Channel DART algorithm
Tomography deals with the reconstruction of objects from their projections, acquired along a range of angles. Discrete tomography is concerned with objects that consist of a small number of materials, which makes it possible to compute accurate reconstructions from highly limited projection data. For cases where the allowed intensity values in the reconstruction are known a priori, the discrete algebraic reconstruction technique (DART) has shown to yield accurate reconstructions from few projections. However, a key limitation is that the benefit of DART diminishes as the number of different materials increases. Many tomographic imaging techniques can simultaneously record tomographic data at multiple channels, each corresponding to a different weighting of the materials in the object. Whenever projection data from more than one channel is available, this additional information can potentially be exploited by the reconstruction algorithm. In this paper we present Multi-Channel DART (MC-DART), which deals effectively with multi-channel data. This class of algorithms is a generalization of DART to multiple channels and combines the information for each separate channel-reconstruction in a multi-channel segmentation step. We demonstrate that in a range of simulation experiments, MC-DART is capable of producing more accurate reconstructions compared to single-channel DART
Silver hake tracks changes in Northwest Atlantic circulation
Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2011. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Nature Publishing Group for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Nature Communications 2 (2011): 412, doi:10.1038/ncomms1420.Recent studies documenting shifts in spatial distribution of many organisms in response
to a warming climate highlight the need to understand the mechanisms underlying species
distribution at large spatial scales. Here we present one noteworthy example of remote
oceanographic processes governing the spatial distribution of adult silver hake, Merluccius
bilinearis, a commercially important fish in the Northeast US shelf region. Changes in spatial
distribution of silver hake over the last 40 years are highly correlated with the position of the
Gulf Stream (GS). These changes in distribution are in direct response to local changes in
bottom temperature on the continental shelf that are responding to the same large scale
circulation change affecting the GS path, namely changes in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning
Circulation (AMOC). If AMOC weakens as is suggested by global climate models, silver hake
distribution will remain in a poleward position, the extent to which could be forecast at both
decadal and multidecadal scales.J.A.N. was supported by the NOAA
Fisheries and the Environment program (FATE). T.M.J. and Y.O.K. were supported by the
WHOI Ocean Climate Change Institute and Ocean Life Institute
Microdevices for extensional rheometry of low viscosity elastic liquids : a review
Extensional flows and the underlying stability/instability mechanisms are of extreme relevance to the efficient operation of inkjet printing, coating processes and drug delivery systems, as well as for the generation of micro droplets. The development of an extensional rheometer to characterize the extensional properties of low viscosity fluids has therefore stimulated great interest of researchers, particularly in the last decade. Microfluidics has proven to be an extraordinary working platform and different configurations of potential extensional microrheometers have been proposed. In this review, we present an overview of several successful designs, together with a critical assessment of their capabilities and limitations
Syndromic Recognition of Influenza A Infection in a Low Prevalence Community Setting
BACKGROUND: With epidemics of influenza A virus infection, people and medical professionals are all concerned about symptoms or syndromes that may indicate the infection with influenza A virus. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: A prospective study was performed at a community clinic of a metropolitan area. Throat swab was sampled for 3-6 consecutive adult patients with new episode (<3 days) of respiratory tract infection every weekday from Dec. 8, 2005 to Mar. 31, 2006. Demographic data, relevant history, symptoms and signs were recorded. Samples were processed with multiplex real time PCR for 9 common respiratory tract pathogens and by virus culture. Throat swab samples were positive for Influenza A virus with multiplex real time PCR system in 12 of 240 patients. The 12 influenza A positive cases were with more clusters and chills than the other 228. Certain symptoms and syndromes increased the likelihood of influenza A virus infection. The syndrome of high fever plus chills plus cough, better with clustering of cases in household or workplace, is with the highest likelihood (positive likelihood ratio 95; 95% CI 12-750). Absence of both cluster and chills provides moderate evidence against the infection (negative likelihood ratio 0.51; 95% CI 0.29-0.90). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Syndromic recognition is not diagnostic but is useful for discriminating between influenza A infection and common cold. In addition to relevant travel history, confirmatory molecular test can be applied to subjects with high likelihood when the disease prevalence is low
Hyperemesis gravidarum and subsequent breast cancer risk
Both parity and a young age at first pregnancy are associated with a reduction in breast cancer risk. The hormones involved in this process are not fully investigated. Human chorionic gonadotropin is a placental hormone, which in rats and in human breast cells in vitro has been shown to prevent against breast cancer. Hyperemesis, a severe nausea combined with vomiting during pregnancy, is associated with increased levels of human chorionic gonadotropin. We investigated the possible relationship between hyperemesis and subsequent breast cancer risk in a case–control study based on registry data. Among 13 079 breast cancer cases and 34 348 individually matched controls we found 148 cases and 405 controls who had been hospitalised for hyperemesis. Hyperemesis was not associated with breast cancer risk (adjusted odds ratio 1.05, 95% confidence interval 0.86–1.27), and similar risks were observed regardless of age at diagnosis, number of hospitalisations for hyperemesis or time of follow-up. Our results do not support the hypothesis that human chorionic gonadotropin is responsible for the protective effect of pregnancies upon breast cancer risk
Hyperthyroidism and human chorionic gonadotrophin production in gestational trophoblastic disease
Background: Gestational trophoblastic disease (GTD) is a rare complication of pregnancy, ranging from molar pregnancy to choriocarcinoma. Patients with persistent disease require treatment with chemotherapy. For the vast majority, prognosis is excellent. Occasionally, GTD is complicated by hyperthyroidism, which may require treatment. This is thought to occur due to molecular mimicry between human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG) and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), and hence cross-reactivity with the TSH receptor. Hyperthyroidism usually resolves as the GTD is successfully treated and correspondingly HCG levels normalise.
Methods: This paper reviews cases of GTD treated over a 5-year period at one of the three UK centres and identifies the prevalence of hyperthyroidism in this population. Four cases with clinical hyperthyroidism are discussed.
Results: On review of the 196 patients with gestational trophoblastic neoplasia treated with chemotherapy in Sheffield since 2005, 14 (7%) had biochemical hyperthyroidism. Of these, four had evidence of clinical hyperthyroidism.
Conclusion: Concomitant biochemical thyroid disease in patients with GTD is relatively common, and measurement of thyroid function in patients with persistent GTD is, therefore, important. The development of hyperthyroidism is largely influenced by the level of HCG and disease burden, and usually settles with treatment of the persistent GTD. However, rarely the thyroid stimulation can have potentially life-threatening consequences
2019 international consensus on cardiopulmonary resuscitation and emergency cardiovascular care science with treatment recommendations : summary from the basic life support; advanced life support; pediatric life support; neonatal life support; education, implementation, and teams; and first aid task forces
The International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation has initiated a continuous review of new, peer-reviewed, published cardiopulmonary resuscitation science. This is the third annual summary of the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation International Consensus on Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular Care Science With Treatment Recommendations. It addresses the most recent published resuscitation evidence reviewed by International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation Task Force science experts. This summary addresses the role of cardiac arrest centers and dispatcher-assisted cardiopulmonary resuscitation, the role of extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation in adults and children, vasopressors in adults, advanced airway interventions in adults and children, targeted temperature management in children after cardiac arrest, initial oxygen concentration during resuscitation of newborns, and interventions for presyncope by first aid providers. Members from 6 International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation task forces have assessed, discussed, and debated the certainty of the evidence on the basis of the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation criteria, and their statements include consensus treatment recommendations. Insights into the deliberations of the task forces are provided in the Justification and Evidence to Decision Framework Highlights sections. The task forces also listed priority knowledge gaps for further research
Neuroinflammation, Mast Cells, and Glia: Dangerous Liaisons
The perspective of neuroinflammation as an epiphenomenon following neuron damage is being replaced by the awareness of glia and their importance in neural functions and disorders. Systemic inflammation generates signals that communicate with the brain and leads to changes in metabolism and behavior, with microglia assuming a pro-inflammatory phenotype. Identification of potential peripheral-to-central cellular links is thus a critical step in designing effective therapeutics. Mast cells may fulfill such a role. These resident immune cells are found close to and within peripheral nerves and in brain parenchyma/meninges, where they exercise a key role in orchestrating the inflammatory process from initiation through chronic activation. Mast cells and glia engage in crosstalk that contributes to accelerate disease progression; such interactions become exaggerated with aging and increased cell sensitivity to stress. Emerging evidence for oligodendrocytes, independent of myelin and support of axonal integrity, points to their having strong immune functions, innate immune receptor expression, and production/response to chemokines and cytokines that modulate immune responses in the central nervous system while engaging in crosstalk with microglia and astrocytes. In this review, we summarize the findings related to our understanding of the biology and cellular signaling mechanisms of neuroinflammation, with emphasis on mast cell-glia interactions
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