Determination of Teachers’ Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Management Self-efficacy and Knowledge Levels

Introduction:This study aims to determine teachers’ food allergy and anaphylaxis management self-efficacy and knowledge levels. Methods: This descriptive study was conducted with 399 teachers who worked in kindergarten and primary schools in a city center between March and June 2022. Data were collected through the Descriptive Characteristics Form and the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Management Self-efficacy Scale for School Personnel. Results: The average age of participating teachers was 31.18± 6.79 years, and 67.2% were females, 61.9% were married, 63.7% were classroom teachers, and 56.6% did not have children. Teachers’ Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Management Self-Efficacy Scale mean score was 21.21±6.22. Self-efficacy was higher in kindergarten teachers, teachers who had a student with food allergy, those who received first aid education after starting to work, those who think that food allergy and anaphylaxis management in school is the teachers’ duty, and those who wanted to know about food allergy and anaphylaxis management. Teachers with low self-efficacy felt/would feel most frequently panic while managing a child with food allergy (p<0.05). Conclusions: This study found that food allergy and anaphylaxis management self-efficacy was affected by teachers’ area of specialization, presence of a student with food allergy, receiving first aid education, and thinking that teachers are responsible for the management of the process. Keywords: Food allergy, Anaphylaxis, Child, School Health, Teacher, Public health nursin

Insulin-induced long-term potentiation in the dentate gyrus of hippocampal formation

The discovery that brain areas involving in learning and memory express receptors for insulin hormone, led to the idea that insulin signaling may have a role in regulating cognitive function. Although previous studies have shown a role for insulin in regulation of the threshold of plasticity induction, no study has addressed whether insulin can induce a chemical plasticity per se. Young-adult male rats that are fed with standard diets with or without carbohydrate syrup (sucrose or high-fructose corn syrups) were enrolled in this study. Extracellular field potentials were recorded from the dentate gyrus in response to perforant pathway stimulation at 0.033 Hz in anesthetized rats. The slope of field excitatory postsynaptic potentials (fEPSPs) and the amplitude of population spike (PS) were measured 15 min after a 60-min infusion of insulin (500 nM), NT157 (an IRS inhibitor, 6 μM), alone or together, or physiological saline. mRNA expressions of insulin signaling proteins were measured by rt-PCR in the whole hippocampus. We did not observe any appreciable change in the fEPSP slope and the PS amplitude before and after saline infusion. However, intra-hippocampal insulin application results in the induction of LTP of fEPSP and of PS in the dentate gyrus. Insulin infusion together with NT157 inhibited fEPSP-LTP, but not PS-LTP, and rats that are fed with carbohydrate syrup did not express synaptic LTP. In rats that additional carbohydrate syrup is not given, insulin-induced LTP was accompanied with an increase in PI3K-mRNA, AKT-mRNA, and GSK-3β-mRNA which was not observed when co-administered with NT157. The GSK-3β-mRNA and IRS1-mRNA levels were found to be lower in rats that received supplemental carbohydrate and that not express insulin-induced synaptic LTP, compared to the rats expressing synaptic LTP and fed by standard diet. The results obtained provide a mechanistic link between insulin and synaptic plasticity. We concluded that insulin not only functions as a modulator of synaptic plasticity but also acts as a chemical inducer of LTP

Stratification of the gut microbiota composition landscape across the alzheimer's disease continuum in a Turkish cohort

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a heterogeneous disorder that spans a continuum with multiple phases, including preclinical, mild cognitive impairment, and dementia. Unlike for most other chronic diseases, human studies reporting on AD gut microbiota in the literature are very limited. With the scarcity of approved drugs for AD therapies, the rational and precise modulation of gut microbiota composition using diet and other tools is a promising approach to the management of AD. Such an approach could be personalized if an AD continuum can first be deconstructed into multiple strata based on specific microbiota features by using single or multiomics techniques. However, stratification of AD gut microbiota has not been systematically investigated before, leaving an important research gap for gut microbiota-based therapeutic approaches. Here, we analyze 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing of stool samples from 27 patients with mild cognitive impairment, 47 patients with AD, and 51 nondemented control subjects by using tools compatible with the compositional nature of microbiota. To stratify the AD gut microbiota community, we applied four machine learning techniques, including partitioning around the medoid clustering and fitting a probabilistic Dirichlet mixture model, the latent Dirichlet allocation model, and we performed topological data analysis for population-scale microbiome stratification based on the Mapper algorithm. These four distinct techniques all converge on Prevotella and Bacteroides stratification of the gut microbiota across the AD continuum, while some methods provided fine-scale resolution in stratifying the community landscape. Finally, we demonstrate that the signature taxa and neuropsychometric parameters together robustly classify the groups. Our results provide a framework for precision nutrition approaches aiming to modulate the AD gut microbiota

Evaluation of abdominal computed tomography findings in patients with COVID-19: a multicenter study

PURPOSE: To evaluate the frequency of abdominal computed tomography (CT) findings in patients with coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) and interrogate the relationship between abdominal CT findings and patient demographic features, clinical findings, and laboratory test results as well as the CT atherosclerosis score in the abdominal aorta. METHODS: This study was designed as a multicenter retrospective study. The abdominal CT findings of 1.181 patients with positive abdominal symptoms from 26 tertiary medical centers with a positive polymerase chain-reaction test for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 were reviewed. The frequency of ischemic and non-ischemic CT findings as well as the association between CT findings, clinical features, and abdominal aortic calcific atherosclerosis score (AA-CAS) were recorded. RESULTS: Ischemic and non-ischemic abdominal CT findings were detected in 240 (20.3%) and 328 (27.7%) patients, respectively. In 147 patients (12.4%), intra-abdominal malignancy was present. The most frequent ischemic abdominal CT findings were bowel wall thickening (n = 120; 10.2%) and perivascular infiltration (n = 40; 3.4%). As for non-ischemic findings, colitis (n = 91; 7.7%) and small bowel inflammation (n = 73; 6.2%) constituted the most frequent disease processes. The duration of hospital stay was found to be higher in patients with abdominal CT findings than in patients without any positive findings (13.8 ± 13 vs. 10.4 ± 12.8 days, P 0.001). The frequency of abdominal CT findings was significantly higher in patients who did not survive the infection than in patients who were discharged after recovery (41.7% vs. 27.4%, P 0.001). Increased AA-CAS was found to be associated with a higher risk of ischemic conditions in abdominal CT examinations. CONCLUSION: Abdominal symptoms in patients with COVID-19 are usually associated with positive CT findings. The presence of ischemic findings on CT correlates with poor COVID-19 outcomes. A high AA-CAS is associated with abdominal ischemic findings in patients with COVID-19