Response Parameters for SMS Text Message Assessments Among Pregnant and General Smokers Participating in SMS Cessation Trials.

INTRODUCTION: Despite a substantial increase in use of SMS text messages for collecting smoking-related data, there is limited knowledge on the parameters of response. This study assessed response rates, response speed, impact of reminders and predictors of response to text message assessments among smokers. METHODS: Data were from two SMS cessation intervention trials using clinical samples of pregnant (n = 198) and general smokers (n = 293) sent text message assessments during 3-month cessation programs. Response rates were calculated using data from the host web-server. Changes in response over time, impact of reminders and potential demographic (age, gender, ethnicity, parity, and deprivation) and smoking (nicotine dependence, determination to quit, prenatal smoking history, smoking status at follow-up) predictors of response were analyzed. RESULTS: Mean response rates were 61.9% (pregnant) and 67.8% (general) with aggregated median response times of 0.35 (pregnant) and 0.64 (general) hours. Response rate reduced over time (P = .003) for general smokers only. Text message reminders had a significant effect on response (Ps < .001), with observed mean increases of 13.8% (pregnant) and 17.7% (general). Age (odds ratio [OR] = 0.95, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.90-1.00) and deprivation (OR = 0.98, 95% CI 0.96-1.00) weakly predicted response among pregnant smokers and nonsmoking status at 4 weeks follow-up (OR = 8.63, 95% CI 3.03-24.58) predicted response among general smokers. CONCLUSIONS: Text message assessments within trial-based cessation programs yield rapid responses from a sizable proportion of smokers, which can be increased using text reminders. While few sources of nonresponse bias were identified for general smokers, older and more deprived pregnant women were less likely to respond. IMPLICATIONS: This study demonstrates that most pregnant and general smokers enrolled in a cessation trial will respond to a small number of questions about their smoking sent by text message, mostly within 1 hour of being sent the assessment text message. For those who do not initially respond, our findings suggest that 24- and 48-hour text message reminders are likely to increase response a small but meaningful amount. However, older age and higher deprivation among pregnant smokers and relapse among general smokers is likely to reduce the chance of response.The MiQuit feasibility trial was funded by Cancer Research UK (CR-UK) grant number C1345/A5809. The iQuit in Practice trial was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) School for Primary Care Research (SPCR).This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Oxford University Press via http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ntr/ntv26

Neonatal Glycemia and Neurodevelopmental Outcomes at 2 Years

From McKinlay, C. J. D., Alsweiler, J. M., Ansell, J. M., Anstice, N. S., Chase, J. G., Gamble, G. D., … Harding, J. E. (2015). Neonatal Glycemia and Neurodevelopmental Outcomes at 2 Years. New England Journal of Medicine, 373(16), 1507–1518. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa1504909 Copyright © 2015 Massachusetts Medical Society. Reprinted with permission.Neonatal hypoglycemia is a common and readily treatable risk factor for neurologic impairment in children. Although associations between prolonged symptomatic neonatal hypoglycemia and brain injury are well established,1 the effect of milder hypoglycemia on neurologic development is uncertain.2 Consequently, large numbers of newborns are screened and treated for low blood glucose concentrations, which involves heel-stick blood tests, substantial costs, and the possibility of iatrogenic harm. Under current guidelines,3 up to 30% of neonates are considered to be at risk for hypoglycemia, 15% receive a diagnosis of hypoglycemia, and approximately 10% require admission to a neonatal intensive care unit,4 costing an estimated $2.1 billion annually in the United States alone.5 Associated formula feeding and possible separation of mother and baby reduce breast-feeding rates,6 with potentially adverse effects on broader infant health and development. In addition, pain-induced stress in neonates, such as repeated heel sticks, may itself impair brain development.7 Thus, to determine appropriate glycemic thresholds for treatment, there have been repeated calls for studies of the effect of neonatal hypoglycemia on long-term development.2,8 We report the results of the Children with Hypoglycaemia and Their Later Development (CHYLD) study, a large prospective cohort study of term and late-preterm neonates born at risk for hypoglycemia. The study investigated the relation between the duration, frequency, and severity of low glucose concentrations in the neonatal period and neuropsychological development at 2 years.Supported by grants from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01HD069622), the Health Research Council of New Zealand (10-399), and the Auckland Medical Research Foundation (1110009)

Global motion perception is associated with motor function in 2-year-old children

The final publication is available at Elsevier via https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neulet.2017.08.062 © 2017. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/The dorsal visual processing stream that includes V1, motion sensitive area V5 and the posterior parietal lobe, supports visually guided motor function. Two recent studies have reported associations between global motion perception, a behavioural measure of processing in V5, and motor function in pre-school and school aged children. This indicates a relationship between visual and motor development and also supports the use of global motion perception to assess overall dorsal stream function in studies of human neurodevelopment. We investigated whether associations between vision and motor function were present at 2 years of age, a substantially earlier stage of development. The Bayley III test of Infant and Toddler Development and measures of vision including visual acuity (Cardiff Acuity Cards), stereopsis (Lang stereotest) and global motion perception were attempted in 404 2-year-old children (±4 weeks). Global motion perception (quantified as a motion coherence threshold) was assessed by observing optokinetic nystagmus in response to random dot kinematograms of varying coherence. Linear regression revealed that global motion perception was modestly, but statistically significantly associated with Bayley III composite motor (r2 = 0.06, P < 0.001, n = 375) and gross motor scores (r2 = 0.06, p < 0.001, n = 375). The associations remained significant when language score was included in the regression model. In addition, when language score was included in the model, stereopsis was significantly associated with composite motor and fine motor scores, but unaided visual acuity was not statistically significantly associated with any of the motor scores. These results demonstrate that global motion perception and binocular vision are associated with motor function at an early stage of development. Global motion perception can be used as a partial measure of dorsal stream function from early childhood.Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health Human Development of the National Institutes of Health || award number R01HD0692201 Auckland Medical Research Foundation

Biochemical and antiparasitic properties of inhibitors of the Plasmodium falciparum calcium-dependent protein kinase PfCDPK1.

PfCDPK1 is a Plasmodium falciparum calcium-dependent protein kinase, which has been identified as a potential target for novel antimalarial chemotherapeutics. In order to further investigate the role of PfCDPK1, we established a high-throughput in vitro biochemical assay and used it to screen a library of over 35,000 small molecules. Five chemical series of inhibitors were initially identified from the screen, from which series 1 and 2 were selected for chemical optimization. Indicative of their mechanism of action, enzyme inhibition by these compounds was found to be sensitive to both the ATP concentration and substitution of the amino acid residue present at the "gatekeeper" position at the ATP-binding site of the enzyme. Medicinal chemistry efforts led to a series of PfCDPK1 inhibitors with 50% inhibitory concentrations (IC50s) below 10 nM against PfCDPK1 in a biochemical assay and 50% effective concentrations (EC50s) less than 100 nM for inhibition of parasite growth in vitro. Potent inhibition was combined with acceptable absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity (ADMET) properties and equipotent inhibition of Plasmodium vivax CDPK1. However, we were unable to correlate biochemical inhibition with parasite growth inhibition for this series overall. Inhibition of Plasmodium berghei CDPK1 correlated well with PfCDPK1 inhibition, enabling progression of a set of compounds to in vivo evaluation in the P. berghei rodent model for malaria. These chemical series have potential for further development as inhibitors of CDPK1

Executive function assessment in New Zealand 2-year olds born at risk of neonatal hypoglycemia.

A growing number of babies are born with perinatal risk factors that may impair later development. These children are often assessed at 2 years to help predict outcome and direct support services. Executive function is an important predictor of academic achievement and behavior, but there are limited assessments of executive function in 2-year-olds and few have been tested in at-risk populations. Therefore, we developed a battery of four age-appropriate tasks to assess executive function in 2-year-olds. At 24 months' corrected age 368 children completed tasks assessing attention, inhibition, working memory and cognitive flexibility. Scores on different tasks were weakly correlated, suggesting that they measured separate aspects of executive function, with combined scores for this cohort approximating a normal distribution. Significantly more boys (67%) than girls (57%) were unable to inhibit their behavior on the Snack Delay Task and girls (M = 3.24, SD = 2.4) had higher mean scores than boys (M = 2.7, SD = 2.7) on the Ducks and Buckets Reverse Categorization Task of working memory. Performance was significantly affected by family socioeconomic status. Mean scores were lower on all four individual tasks and on the global score of overall performance in children from a low household income ($70,001). Maternal education was only associated with scores on the working memory task and the global score; and a measure of neighborhood deprivation was only associated with scores on the two inhibitory tasks and the global score. Our findings confirm the feasibility of assessing executive function in 2-year-olds, and its ability to discriminate effects of socioeconomic status, a common confounder in child development research. Further development and standardization of this test battery comparing at-risk children with a normative population would provide a much-needed measure of executive function in early childhood

Executive function scores for the cohort and girls and boys for high, medium and low groups of household income, neighbourhood deprivation and maternal education.

<p>Executive function scores for the cohort and girls and boys for high, medium and low groups of household income, neighbourhood deprivation and maternal education.</p

Assessed EF tasks in order of presentation, showing domains assessed and scoring.

<p>Assessed EF tasks in order of presentation, showing domains assessed and scoring.</p