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Long-term exposure to residential greenness and cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality in China
Get PDFBackground
Influence of residential greenness on CVD risk has garnered increasing attention, however, evidence from large-scale cohort studies in developing nations, such as China, remains sparse. This study aimed to evaluate the association of residential greenness with CVD and mortality, and explore the potential mediating role of modifiable risk factors in the associations.
Methods
A total of 22,702 participants aged 35 years and above were enrolled between October 2012 and December 2015. Residential greenness was assessed using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) within radii of 300 m, 500 m, and 1000 m from participants' residential address (NDVI300 m, NDVI500 m, and NDVI1000 m). Primary outcomes comprised CVD events and all-cause mortality, with follow-up from 2018 to 2019. Multivariable Cox regression models were employed to estimate hazard ratios (HRs), and causal mediation analysis was conducted to assess the role of modifiable risk factors in the observed associations.
Results
Residential greenness demonstrated a significant association with the risk of CVD, with HRs per tertile increment of 0.84 (95% confidential interval [CI]: 0.77–0.92) for NDVI300 m, 0.86 (95% CI: 0.79–0.94) for NDVI500 m, and 0.90 (95% CI: 0.82–0.98) for NDVI1000 m, separately. Compared to areas with the lowest NDVI500 m, the HR for CVD incidence in areas with medium and high NDVI500 m were 0.89 (95% CI: 0.76–1.06), and 0.74 (95% CI: 0.62–0.89), respectively. Utilizing a newly proposed two-stage regression method in mediation analysis, approximately 16.18%, 5.34%, 4.04%, and 2.45% of the total effect of NDVI500 m on CVD risk were mediated by high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, physical activity, body mass index, and diabetes mellitus, respectively.
Conclusion
This study provides compelling evidence that higher residential greenness is associated with a reduced risk of CVD among the adult Chinese population, with specific modifiable risk factors playing a mediating role. These findings underscore the significance of incorporating green space interventions into CVD prevention strategies
Matter of fact: using creative film to disseminate sensitive research in medical sociology
Get PDFMatter of Fact is a talking heads film based on extracts from qualitative interviews with a range of different health professionals. The film sought to co-productively and sensitively tell the story of baby loss and post-mortem from different healthcare perspectives. In the film, interview extracts are read by four actors from the applied theatre specialists Dead Earnest, who are each playing the roles of mortuary technician, pathologist, obstetrician, and midwife. The film was one of several installations in a project exhibition Remembering Baby, which used sound and visual art as well as acting to present and represent qualitative data. It had significant impact on parents, professionals, and public exhibition attendees and has subsequently been used as a bereavement support tool, and to run training events for health professionals. We use Matter of Fact in this article to show how a talking heads film can be used to directly but sensitively illuminate hidden and emotive aspects of healthcare, and in doing so provide a unique conceptual, substantive, and methodological contribution to sociology. We conclude by arguing that this film provides a novel example of what Bradby refers to as a progressive sociology of health and illness
Mental health and labour productivity
Get PDFWe present novel evidence of the effect of mental health on productivity using a direct measure of productivity from the COVID-19 modules of the UK Household Longitudinal Study. We employ spatial variation in COVID-19 deaths as an instrumental variable and supplement results by computing bounds by considering coefficient stability to observable factors to infer the influence of unobservables. Our findings reveal a substantive positive relationship between poor mental health and decreased productivity. Our estimates suggest productivity losses of around 54 minutes per week (on average) for individuals who report a decline in mental health
Best practices in plant fluorescence imaging and reporting: A primer
Get PDFMicroscopy is a fundamental approach for plant cell and developmental biology as well as an essential tool for mechanistic studies in plant research. However, setting up a new microscopy-based experiment can be challenging, especially for beginner users, when implementing new imaging workflows or when working in an imaging facility where staff may not have extensive experience with plant samples. The basic principles of optics, chemistry, imaging, and data handling are shared among all cell types. However, unique challenges are faced when imaging plant specimens due to their waxy cuticles, strong/broad spectrum autofluorescence, recalcitrant cell walls, and air spaces that impede fixation or live imaging, impacting sample preparation and image quality. As expert plant microscopists, we share our collective experience on best practices to improve the quality of published microscopy results and promote transparency, reproducibility, and data reuse for meta-analyses. We offer plant-specific advice and examples for microscope users at all stages of fluorescence microscopy workflows, from experimental design through sample preparation, image acquisition, processing, and analyses, to image display and methods reporting in manuscripts. We also present standards for methods reporting that will be valuable to all users and offer tools to improve reproducibility and data sharing
A single session of motor imagery paired with spinal stimulation improves manual dexterity and increases cortical excitability after spinal cord injury
Get PDFObjective
Non-invasive stimulation of the spinal cord at the cervical level (TSCS) can induce neural plasticity and improve upper limb function in people living with cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) when paired with task practice. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of a session of motor imagery (MI) paired with TSCS on manual dexterity, corticospinal and spinal excitability in people living with cervical SCI.
Methods
Eight participants (4 females, mean age 46yrs ± 17) completed three sessions of: 1) MI; 2) TSCS at C5–C6 level; 3) MI + TSCS, listening to the MI script while receiving TSCS. Manual dexterity was assessed with the Purdue Pegboard Test (PPT), corticospinal excitability was assessed with Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) delivered at motor threshold and suprathreshold (120 % intensities, and spinal excitability delivered at motor threshold and suprathreshold (110 %, 120 %) intensities was assessed with single pulses of TSCS.
Results
Manual dexterity increased from baseline after all three conditions (p = 0.016). Corticospinal excitability increased from baseline after MI (p = 0.002] and MI + TSCS (p = 0.031], but not TSCS (p = 0.343). Spinal excitability was not affected by any of the conditions (p = 0.425).
Conclusions
These findings demonstrate that a single session of MI and TSCS, either alone or in combination, can increase manual dexterity in people living with cervical SCI. The increase in dexterity was paralleled by increases in corticospinal excitability for the MI and MI + TSCS conditions.
Significance
Our findings indicate that MI and TSCS improve manual dexterity and increase corticospinal excitability in people living with cervical SCI when employed in isolation or in combination
Towards the prediction of spontaneous preterm birth by cervical collagen imaging using polarization-sensitive OCT
Get PDFIntroduction: Preterm birth (PTB) remains one of the leading risk factors of neonatal mortality despite the ongoing research to reduce its incidence. Spontaneous PTB (sPTB) can arise as a result of premature remodeling of the collagenrich extracellular matrix (ECM) of the cervix. Non-invasive biomarkers of cervical collagen content, such as birefringence, may thus have diagnostic value in predicting sPTB. In our previous work, we showed that polarizationsensitive OCT (PS-OCT) can characterize in vitro cervical collagen alignment through measurements of the backscattered light’s polarization state, differentiating collagen from the surrounding ECM of the cervical epithelium. To advance this towards in vivo measurements, we have developed a PS-OCT system, based on Jones Matrix calculus (JMOCT), which is an extension of PS-OCT optimized for fiber-optic beam delivery. We have coupled this to an in-house designed colposcopic probe, to characterize changes in cervical collagen organization during term and preterm pregnancies. This study aims to assess the performance of this system prior to clinical studies.
Methods: JM-OCT images of several material and biological samples with expected birefringent properties and depthbased landmarks were obtained with the colposcopic probe, including in vitro ovine cervix. OCT B-scans containing 700 A-scans were acquired with filtered phase retardance to assess the system’s resolution, imaging depth and area, and ability to present changes in sample birefringence.
Results: The system successfully produced high intensity OCT B-scans with high axial resolution (14 μm) and imaging depth (up to 2.1 mm), displaying depth-resolved landmarks including blood vessels within the in vivo skin’s papillary dermis. Changes in material and ECM birefringence were clearly displayed in phase retardance images.
Conclusion: The performance of our in-house designed colposcopic probe coupled with the in-house built JM-OCT engine shows great potential to image in vivo cervical collagen orientation and abundance in future studies. With its high axial resolution and phase retardance imaging, we aim to investigate the application of our imaging system clinically, to assess its value in understanding, predicting, and preventing PTB
Accuracy of the Manchester Triage System in predicting need for time-critical treatment: retrospective diagnostic accuracy cohort study
Get PDFOn the mechanism of soft self‐assembly from melt: the ubiquitous heat capacity hump and spontaneous melt chirality
Get PDFWe investigate two unusual phenomena in self-assembly of anisotropic molecules from isotropic (Iso) melt: a heat-capacity (Cp) maximum and spontaneous formation of the recently discovered chiral liquid (Iso*). Based on experiments on new nonchiral monomers, dimers, and polymers, we construct a statistical theory that shows why many complex meso-structures form in two stages: continuous equilibrium growth of nano-clusters in melt through strong interactions, causing the Cp-maximum, followed by establishment of positional long-range order (LRO) through a weak first-order transition. We also show why many achiral compounds additionally form an intermediate chiral Iso* liquid through what we find is a second-order transition. We propose that the first process is equivalent to “supramolecular polymerization” in solutions, where the lack of intercluster interaction rules out LRO. Furthermore, we argue that separation into a broad and a sharp transition is universal in condensed matter where strong interactions by themselves cannot lead to LRO, either because the clusters are 1D or due to strong frustration. Clusters must first grow to critical size when, at Tc, the combined weak interactions reach ∼kBTc, prompting LRO formation. A situation similar to that in soft self-assembly is seen in spin ordering in magnetic crystals, but only near 0 K
Modelling erratic dispersal accounting for shifting ice flow geometries: A new method and explanations of erratic dispersal of the British–Irish Ice Sheet
Get PDFGlacial erratics are geologically distinctive rocks transported away from their source area by ice sheets and deposited in lithologically different bedrock areas. They have attracted much scientific curiosity with >24 000 observations across the British Isles. A common misinterpretation is that they took a nearly direct line of transport from source to resting position, neglecting to change ice flow directions during ice sheet growth and decay. To rectify this, we sequentially modelled erratic time-space trajectories at 1000-year timesteps using ice flowlines in an empirically constrained ice sheet model simulation to predict erratic deposition areas. We addressed the processes of entrainment and deposition by combining all potential trajectories into a single footprint of possible locations. Erratic dispersal is predicted for three geologically distinctive lithologies; Shap Granite of Northern England, Galway Granite of Ireland and the Glen Fyne igneous complex from Scotland. The footprint of predicted trajectories compared against 1883 observations of erratic locations was found to successfully explain 77% of the observed erratics. Most erratics were explained by flow directions during ice retreat; however, some required earlier ice divide shifts to produce potentially long-duration, multiphase pathways. Our analysis demonstrates the possibility of explaining many erratics without explicitly modelling the complex processes of entrainment and deposition
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