Smoking reduction intervention for smokers not willing to quit smoking: a randomised controlled trial

Key Messages 1. This smoking reduction study examined the effectiveness of smoking reduction counselling together with free nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) for smoking cessation and tested the effectiveness of brief counselling on adherence to NRT among Chinese smokers who were not willing to quit but intended to reduce cigarette consumption. 2. The smoking reduction intervention was effective in helping the unmotivated smokers in quitting (intervention: 17.0% vs control: 10.2%, P=0.012) and in reducing their daily cigarette consumption by 50% or more (intervention: 50.9% vs control: 25.7%, P<0.001) at 6-month follow-up. 3. Our results provided evidence for the effectiveness of smoking reduction intervention, which is important for planning smoking cessation services. 4. Free NRT was widely accepted by participants (8-week NRT adherence rate: 54.5%). Free NRT together with smoking reduction counselling was a feasible and cost-effective approach to help unmotivated smokers to reduce and quit smoking, especially in developing countries like China where NRT is expensive and not used extensively. 5. The motivation to quit smoking was not undermined by smoking reduction intervention. To the contrary, offering assistance to reduce smoking could attract smokers who were not willing or ready to quit.published_or_final_versio

Acupressure, reflexology, and auricular acupressure for insomnia: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials

Previous randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have shown that acupuncture may be efficacious for insomnia. Instead of needling, acupressure, reflexology, and auricular acupressure are procedures involving physical pressure on acupoints or reflex areas. These variants of acupuncture are gaining popularity, perhaps due to their non-invasive nature. A systematic review has therefore been conducted to examine their efficacy and safety for insomnia. Two independent researchers searched five English and 10 Chinese databases from inception to May 2010. Forty RCTs were identified for analysis. Only 10 studies used sham controls, four used double-blind design, nine studies scored three or more by the Jadad scale, and all had at least one domain with high risk of bias. Meta-analyses of the moderate-quality RCTs found that acupressure as monotherapy fared marginally better than sham control. Studies that compared auricular acupressure and sham control showed equivocal results. It was also found that acupressure, reflexology, or auricular acupressure as monotherapy or combined with routine care was significantly more efficacious than routine care or no treatment. Owing to the methodological limitations of the studies and equivocal results, the current evidence does not allow a clear conclusion on the benefits of acupressure, reflexology, and auricular acupressure for insomnia. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.postprin

Adjacent Nucleotide Dependence in ncRNA and Order-1 SCFG for ncRNA Identification

Background: Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) are known to be involved in many critical biological processes, and identification of ncRNAs is an important task in biological research. A popular software, Infernal, is the most successful prediction tool and exhibits high sensitivity. The application of Infernal has been mainly focused on small suspected regions. We tried to apply Infernal on a chromosome level; the results have high sensitivity, yet contain many false positives. Further enhancing Infernal for chromosome level or genome wide study is desirable. Methodology: Based on the conjecture that adjacent nucleotide dependence affects the stability of the secondary structure of an ncRNA, we first conduct a systematic study on human ncRNAs and find that adjacent nucleotide dependence in human ncRNA should be useful for identifying ncRNAs. We then incorporate this dependence in the SCFG model and develop a new order-1 SCFG model for identifying ncRNAs. Conclusions: With respect to our experiments on human chromosomes, the proposed new model can eliminate more than 50 % false positives reported by Infernal while maintaining the same sensitivity. The executable and the source code of programs are freely available a

Local structural alignment of RNA with affine gap model

BACKGROUND: Predicting new non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) of a family can be done by aligning the potential candidate with a member of the family with known sequence and secondary structure. Existing tools either only consider the sequence similarity or cannot handle local alignment with gaps. RESULTS: In this paper, we consider the problem of finding the optimal local structural alignment between a query RNA sequence (with known secondary structure) and a target sequence (with unknown secondary structure) with the affine gap penalty model. We provide the algorithm to solve the problem. CONCLUSIONS: Based on an experiment, we show that there are ncRNA families in which considering local structural alignment with gap penalty model can identify real hits more effectively than using global alignment or local alignment without gap penalty model.published_or_final_versio

Interferon-α resistance in renal carcinoma cells is associated with defective induction of signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 which can be restored by a supernatant of phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells

Therapy of selected human malignancies with interferon-α is widely accepted but often complicated by the emergence of interferon-α resistance. Interferon is a pleiotropic cytokine with antiproliferative, antitumour, antiviral and immunmodulatory effect; it signals through the Jak-STAT signal transduction pathway where signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 plays an important role. Here we report both, a lack of signal transducer and activator of transcription induction in interferon-α resistant renal cell carcinoma cells and signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 reinduction of phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate-stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells supernatant. Preliminary experiments on the identification of the molecules that reinducing signal transducers and activators of transcription 1 indicate that interferon-γ may be the responsible candidate cytokine, but several others may be involved as well. This work provides the basis for therapeutic strategies directed at the molecular modulation of interferon-α resistance in human neoplasms

An integrated 1D–2D hydraulic modelling approach to assess the sensitivity of a coastal region to compound flooding hazard under climate change

Coastal regions are dynamic areas that often lie at the junction of different natural hazards. Extreme events such as storm surges and high precipitation are significant sources of concern for flood management. As climatic changes and sea-level rise put further pressure on these vulnerable systems, there is a need for a better understanding of the implications of compounding hazards. Recent computational advances in hydraulic modelling offer new opportunities to support decision-making and adaptation. Our research makes use of recently released features in the HEC-RAS version 5.0 software to develop an integrated 1D–2D hydrodynamic model. Using extreme value analysis with the Peaks-Over-Threshold method to define extreme scenarios, the model was applied to the eastern coast of the UK. The sensitivity of the protected wetland known as the Broads to a combination of fluvial, tidal and coastal sources of flooding was assessed, accounting for different rates of twenty-first century sea-level rise up to the year 2100. The 1D–2D approach led to a more detailed representation of inundation in coastal urban areas, while allowing for interactions with more fluvially dominated inland areas to be captured. While flooding was primarily driven by increased sea levels, combined events exacerbated flooded area by 5–40% and average depth by 10–32%, affecting different locations depending on the scenario. The results emphasise the importance of catchment-scale strategies that account for potentially interacting sources of flooding

Update on the Risk of Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Chronic Hepatitis B Virus Infection

Chronic hepatitis B virus infection is an important cause of liver-related morbidity and mortality, with hepatocellular carcinoma being the most life-threatening complication. Because of the highly variable clinical course of the disease, enormous research efforts have been made with the aim of revealing the factors in the natural history that are relevant to hepatocarcinogenesis. These include epidemiological studies of predisposing risk groups, viral studies of mutations within the hepatitis B viral genome, and clinical correlation of these risk factors in predicting the likelihood of development of hepatocellular cancer in susceptible hosts. This update addresses these risks, with emphasis on the latest research relevant to hepatocarcinogenesis

Population-Specific Responses to Interspecific Competition in the Gut Microbiota of Two Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar) Populations

The gut microbial community in vertebrates plays a role in nutrient digestion and absorption, development of intestine and immune systems, resistance to infection, regulation of bone mass and even host behavior and can thus impact host fitness. Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) reintroduction efforts into Lake Ontario, Canada, have been unsuccessful, likely due to competition with non-native salmonids. In this study, we explored interspecific competition effects on the gut microbiota of two Atlantic salmon populations (LaHave and Sebago) resulting from four non-native salmonids. After 10 months of rearing in semi-natural stream tanks under six interspecific competition treatments, we characterized the gut microbiota of 178 Atlantic salmon by parallel sequencing the 16S rRNA gene. We found 3978 bacterial OTUs across all samples. Microbiota alpha diversity and abundance of 27 OTUs significantly differed between the two populations. Interspecific competition reduced relative abundance of potential beneficial bacteria (six genera of lactic acid bacteria) as well as 13 OTUs, but only in the LaHave population, indicating population-specific competition effects. The pattern of gut microbiota response to interspecific competition may reflect local adaptation of the host-microbiota interactions and can be used to select candidate populations for improved species reintroduction success

The Effect of Axial Length on the Thickness of Intraretinal Layers of the Macula.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of axial length (AL) on the thickness of intraretinal layers in the macula using optical coherence tomography (OCT) image analysis. METHODS: Fifty three randomly selected eyes of 53 healthy subjects were recruited for this study. The median age of the participants was 29 years (range: 6 to 67 years). AL was measured for each eye using a Lenstar LS 900 device. OCT imaging of the macula was also performed by Stratus OCT. OCTRIMA software was used to process the raw OCT scans and to determine the weighted mean thickness of 6 intraretinal layers and the total retina. Partial correlation test was performed to assess the correlation between the AL and the thickness values. RESULTS: Total retinal thickness showed moderate negative correlation with AL (r = -0.378, p = 0.0007), while no correlation was observed between the thickness of the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL), ganglion cell layer (GCC), retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) and AL. Moderate negative correlation was observed also between the thickness of the ganglion cell layer and inner plexiform layer complex (GCL+IPL), inner nuclear layer (INL), outer plexiform layer (OPL), outer nuclear layer (ONL) and AL which were more pronounced in the peripheral ring (r = -0.402, p = 0.004; r = -0.429, p = 0.002; r = -0.360, p = 0.01; r = -0.448, p = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Our results have shown that the thickness of the nuclear layers and the total retina is correlated with AL. The reason underlying this could be the lateral stretching capability of these layers; however, further research is warranted to prove this theory. Our results suggest that the effect of AL on retinal layers should be taken into account in future studies

Malignant melanoma arising from a perianal fistula and harbouring a BRAF gene mutation: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Melanoma of the anal region is a very uncommon disease, accounting for only 0.2-0.3% of all melanoma cases. Mutations of the <it>BRAF </it>gene are usually absent in melanomas occurring in this region as well as in other sun-protected regions. The development of a tumour in a longstanding perianal fistula is also extremely rare. More frequent is the case of a tumour presenting as a fistula, that is, the fistula being a consequence of the cancerous process, although we have found only two cases of fistula-generating melanomas reported in the literature.</p> <p>Case Presentation</p> <p>Here we report the case of a 38-year-old male who presented with a perianal fistula of four years of evolution. Histopathological examination of the fistulous tract confirmed the presence of malignant melanoma. Due to the small size and the central location of the melanoma inside the fistulous tract, we believe the melanoma reported here developed in the epithelium of the fistula once the latter was already formed. Resected sentinel lymph nodes were negative and the patient, after going through a wide local excision, remains disease-free nine years after diagnosis. DNA obtained from melanoma tissue was analysed by automated direct sequencing and the <it>V600E </it>(<it>T1799A</it>) mutation was detected in exon 15 of the <it>BRAF </it>gene.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Since fistulae experience persistent inflammation, the fact that this melanoma harbours a <it>BRAF </it>mutation strengthens the view that oxidative stress caused by inflammatory processes plays an important role in the genesis of <it>BRAF </it>gene mutations.</p