Detection of REM Sleep Behaviour Disorder by Automated Polysomnography Analysis

Evidence suggests Rapid-Eye-Movement (REM) Sleep Behaviour Disorder (RBD) is an early predictor of Parkinson's disease. This study proposes a fully-automated framework for RBD detection consisting of automated sleep staging followed by RBD identification. Analysis was assessed using a limited polysomnography montage from 53 participants with RBD and 53 age-matched healthy controls. Sleep stage classification was achieved using a Random Forest (RF) classifier and 156 features extracted from electroencephalogram (EEG), electrooculogram (EOG) and electromyogram (EMG) channels. For RBD detection, a RF classifier was trained combining established techniques to quantify muscle atonia with additional features that incorporate sleep architecture and the EMG fractal exponent. Automated multi-state sleep staging achieved a 0.62 Cohen's Kappa score. RBD detection accuracy improved by 10% to 96% (compared to individual established metrics) when using manually annotated sleep staging. Accuracy remained high (92%) when using automated sleep staging. This study outperforms established metrics and demonstrates that incorporating sleep architecture and sleep stage transitions can benefit RBD detection. This study also achieved automated sleep staging with a level of accuracy comparable to manual annotation. This study validates a tractable, fully-automated, and sensitive pipeline for RBD identification that could be translated to wearable take-home technology.Comment: 20 pages, 3 figure

Designing Effective Tsunami Messages: Examining the Role of Short Messages and Fear in Warning Response

Although tsunamis have the potential to be extremely destructive, relatively little research on tsunami messaging has taken place. Discovering whether tsunami warning messages can be written in a way that leads to increased protective response is crucial, particularly given the increased use of mobile message services and the role they play in notifying the public of imminent threats such as tsunami and other hazards. The purpose of this study was to examine the possibility of designing warning messages for tsunamis that improve upon message style and content used by public alerting agencies to date and to gain insight that can be applied to other hazards. This study tested the impact of tsunami messages that varied in length and content on six message outcomes—understanding, believing, personalizing, deciding, milling, and fear. Relative to the short message, revised messages resulted in significantly more understanding and deciding, known precursors to taking protective action under threat. The revised message also resulted in significantly more fear, which is believed to influence behavioral intentions. Findings suggest that shorter messages may not deliver enough content to inform message receivers about the threat they face and the protective actions they should perform. Longer messages delivered with more specific information about the location of impact, threat-associated risks, and recommended protective actions were associated with better message outcomes, including quicker intended response. Recommendations for future tsunami warnings are provided

Combined Electrospinning-Electrospraying for High-Performance Bipolar Membranes with Incorporated MCM-41 as Water Dissociation Catalysts

Electrospinning has been demonstrated as a very promising method to create bipolar membranes (BPMs), especially as it allows three-dimensional (3D) junctions of entangled anion exchange and cation exchange nanofibers. These newly developed BPMs are relevant to demanding applications, including acid and base production, fuel cells, flow batteries, ammonia removal, concentration of carbon dioxide, and hydrogen generation. However, these applications require the introduction of catalysts into the BPM to allow accelerated water dissociation, and this remains a challenge. Here, we demonstrate a versatile strategy to produce very efficient BPMs through a combined electrospinning-electrospraying approach. Moreover, this work applies the newly investigated water dissociation catalyst of nanostructured silica MCM-41. Several BPMs were produced by electrospraying MCM-41 nanoparticles into the layers directly adjacent to the main BPM 3D junction. BPMs with various loadings of MCM-41 nanoparticles and BPMs with different catalyst positions relative to the junction were investigated. The membranes were carefully characterized for their structure and performance. Interestingly, the water dissociation performance of BPMs showed a clear optimal MCM-41 loading where the performance outpaced that of a commercial BPM, recording a transmembrane voltage of approximately 1.11 V at 1000 A/m2. Such an excellent performance is very relevant to fuel cell and flow battery applications, but our results also shed light on the exact function of the catalyst in this mode of operation. Overall, we demonstrate clearly that introducing a novel BPM architecture through a novel hybrid electrospinning-electrospraying method allows the uptake of promising new catalysts (i.e., MCM-41) and the production of very relevant BPMs.</p

No One Could Say: Accessing Emergency Obstetrics Information as a Prospective Prenatal Patient in Post-Roe Oklahoma

This report by the Center for Reproductive Rights, Physicians for Human Rights, and Oklahoma Call for Reproductive Justice raises concerns about pregnant patients' ability to access life-saving obstetric care in states where abortion is banned

Expression of heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein A2/B1 changes with critical stages of mammalian lung development

Recent reports have demostrated a link between expression of members of the family of heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoproteins (hnRNPs) and cancer. Overexpression of hnRNP A2/B1 correlated with the eventual development of lung cancer in three different clinical cohorts. We have studied the expression of hnRNP A2/B1 messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein during mammalian development. The expression of hnRNP A2/B1 mRNA and protein are parallel but change dynamically during critical periods in mouse pulmonary development. hnRNP A2/B1 is first detected in the lung in the early pseudoglandular period, peaks at the beginning of the canalicular period, and remains high during the saccular (alveolar) period. In mouse and rat, hnRNP A2/B1 expression is first evident in the earliest lung buds. As lung development progresses, the cuboidal epithelial cells of the distal primitive alveoli show high levels of the ribonucleoprotein, which is almost undetectable in the proximal conducting airways. The expression of hnRNP A2/ B1 is restricted in mature lung. Similar dynamic pattern of expression through lung development was also found in rat and human lung. Upregulated expression of hnRNP A2/B1 at critical periods of lung development was comparable to the level of expression found in lung cancers and preneoplastic lesions and is consistent with hnRNP A2/B1 overexpression playing an oncodevelopmental role

Expression of proadrenomedullin derived peptides in the mammalian pituitary: co-localization of follicle stimulating hormone and proadrenomedullin N-20 terminal peptide-like peptide in the same secretory granules of the gonadotropes

Expression of proadrenomedullin-derived peptides in the rat, cow and human pituitary was studied by a variety of techniques. Immunocytochemical detection showed a widespread expression of adrenomedullin peptide in the adenohypophysis and the neural lobe, with low expression in the intermediate pituitary. Proadrenomedullin N-20 terminal peptide (PAMP)-immunoreactivity was also present in the anterior pituitary but showed a more marked heterogeneous distribution, with cells going from very strong to negative immunostaining. Lower levels of PAMP were found in the neural lobe. Interestingly, the distribution of adrenomedullin and PAMP immunoreactivity in the anterior pituitary did not completely overlap. In the present study, we concentrated our efforts to determine which cell type of the adenohypophysis expresses PAMP. Paraffin and semithin serial sections immunostained for PAMP and the classical pituitary hormones revealed that a subpopulation of the gonadotropes expresses high levels of PAMP-immunoreactive material. Ultrastructural analysis clearly showed PAMP-immunoreactivity in the follicle stimulating hormone (FSH)-containing large secretory granules of the gonadotropes, suggesting simultaneous secretion of PAMP and FSH by this cell type. Three mouse adenohypophysis-derived cell lines (AtT20, GH3, and alphaT3-1 derived from corticotropes, lacto/somatotropes and gonadotropes, respectively) were also analysed and showed expression of both proadrenomedullin-derived peptides and their mRNA. Functional studies in these three cell lines showed that neither adrenomedullin nor PAMP was able to stimulate cAMP production in our experimental conditions. Taken together, our results support that proadrenomedullin derived peptides are expressed in the pituitary in cell-specific and not overlapping patterns, that could be explained by differences in postranslational processing. Our data showing costorage of PAMP and FSH in the same secretory granules open a way by which PAMP could be involved in the control of reproductive physiology in a coordinated manner with FSH

Assessing Cost-Effectiveness in Obesity (ACE-Obesity): an overview of the ACE approach, economic methods and cost results

Background : The aim of the ACE-Obesity study was to determine the economic credentials of interventions which aim to prevent unhealthy weight gain in children and adolescents. We have reported elsewhere on the modelled effectiveness of 13 obesity prevention interventions in children. In this paper, we report on the cost results and associated methods together with the innovative approach to priority setting that underpins the ACE-Obesity study. Methods : The Assessing Cost-Effectiveness (ACE) approach combines technical rigour with \u27due process\u27 to facilitate evidence-based policy analysis. Technical rigour was achieved through use of standardised evaluation methods, a research team that assembles best available evidence and extensive uncertainty analysis. Cost estimates were based on pathway analysis, with resource usage estimated for the interventions and their \u27current practice\u27 comparator, as well as associated cost offsets. Due process was achieved through involvement of stakeholders, consensus decisions informed by briefing papers and 2nd stage filter analysis that captures broader factors that influence policy judgements in addition to cost-effectiveness results. The 2nd stage filters agreed by stakeholders were \u27equity\u27, \u27strength of the evidence\u27, \u27feasibility of implementation\u27, \u27acceptability to stakeholders\u27, \u27sustainability\u27 and \u27potential for side-effects\u27.Results : The intervention costs varied considerably, both in absolute terms (from cost saving [6 interventions] to in excess of AUD50m per annum) and when expressed as a \u27cost per child\u27 estimate (from &lt;AUD1.0 [reduction of TV advertising of high fat foods/high sugar drinks] to &gt;AUD31,000 [laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding for morbidly obese adolescents]). High costs per child reflected cost structure, target population and/or under-utilisation. Conclusions : The use of consistent methods enables valid comparison of potential intervention costs and cost-offsets for each of the interventions. ACE-Obesity informs policy-makers about cost-effectiveness, health impact, affordability and 2nd stage filters for important options for preventing unhealthy weight gain in children. In related articles cost-effectiveness results and second stage filter considerations for each intervention assessed will be presented and analysed.<br /

Analysis of transcription factors key for mouse pancreatic development establishes NKX2-2 and MNX1 mutations as causes of neonatal diabetes in man

notes: PMCID: PMC3887257This is a freely-available open access publication. Please cite the published version which is available via the DOI link in this record.Understanding transcriptional regulation of pancreatic development is required to advance current efforts in developing beta cell replacement therapies for patients with diabetes. Current knowledge of key transcriptional regulators has predominantly come from mouse studies, with rare, naturally occurring mutations establishing their relevance in man. This study used a combination of homozygosity analysis and Sanger sequencing in 37 consanguineous patients with permanent neonatal diabetes to search for homozygous mutations in 29 transcription factor genes important for murine pancreatic development. We identified homozygous mutations in 7 different genes in 11 unrelated patients and show that NKX2-2 and MNX1 are etiological genes for neonatal diabetes, thus confirming their key role in development of the human pancreas. The similar phenotype of the patients with recessive mutations and mice with inactivation of a transcription factor gene support there being common steps critical for pancreatic development and validate the use of rodent models for beta cell development.Wellcome TrustDiabetes UKEuropean Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013