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Towards an Ethics of Uncertainty: Authorship and Techno-Scientific Challenges to Subjectivity in Modern Greek Science Fiction Novels
Get PDFAll rights reserved © 2017, Modern Greek Studies Association of Australia and New Zealand. Reproduced with permission of the publisher
Lung Fluid Clearance in Chronic Heart Failure Patients
Get PDF© 2017 Elsevier. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
This author accepted manuscript is made available following 12 month embargo from date of publication (May 2017) in accordance with the publisher’s archiving policyChronic elevation of pulmonary microvascular pressure (Pmv) consistently leads to alveolocapillary barrier thickening and reduction in the filtration coefficient. In animal models of chronic heart failure (CHF) the lung remains dry despite hydrostatic forces. As fluid flux is bi-directional, it has been postulated that an increase in alveolar fluid clearance may facilitate the dry lung when Pmv is chronically elevated. In this study we aimed to examine alveolar fluid clearance in ambulatory patients with CHF secondary to left ventricular (LV) systolic dysfunction compared against non-CHF controls. Lung clearance following aerosol delivery of 99mtechnetium (Tc)-diethyl triaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA) was measured non-invasively by scintigraphy and half time of 99mTc-DTPA clearance (T (1/2)) was calculated by mono-exponential curve fit. Alveolar fluid clearance measured as half time DTPA clearance was significantly faster in CHF patients than controls (P = 0.001). This was further defined by NYHA classification. No correlation was found between DTPA clearance and plasma epinephrine, norepinephrine or aldosterone hormone (P > 0.05). Our results support an association between increasing alveolar fluid clearance and disease severity in CHF, and the concept of controlled bi-directional fluid flux in CHF associated with increasing Pmv, and represents another defence mechanism of the lung against pulmonary oedema
The genetic overlap between mood disorders and cardiometabolic diseases: a systematic review of genome wide and candidate gene studies
No full text© The Author(s) 2017 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material.Meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies (meta-GWASs) and candidate gene studies have identified genetic variants associated with cardiovascular diseases, metabolic diseases and mood disorders. Although previous efforts were successful for individual disease conditions (single disease), limited information exists on shared genetic risk between these disorders. This article presents a detailed review and analysis of cardiometabolic diseases risk (CMD-R) genes that are also associated with mood disorders. First, we reviewed meta-GWASs published until January 2016, for the diseases ‘type 2 diabetes, coronary artery disease, hypertension’ and/or for the risk factors ‘blood pressure, obesity, plasma lipid levels, insulin and glucose related traits’. We then searched the literature for published associations of these CMD-R genes with mood disorders. We considered studies that reported a significant association of at least one of the CMD-R genes and ‘depression’ or ‘depressive disorder’ or ‘depressive symptoms’ or ‘bipolar disorder’ or ‘lithium treatment response in bipolar disorder’, or ‘serotonin reuptake inhibitors treatment response in major depression’. Our review revealed 24 potential pleiotropic genes that are likely to be shared between mood disorders and CMD-Rs. These genes include MTHFR, CACNA1D, CACNB2, GNAS, ADRB1, NCAN, REST, FTO, POMC, BDNF, CREB, ITIH4, LEP, GSK3B, SLC18A1, TLR4, PPP1R1B, APOE, CRY2, HTR1A, ADRA2A, TCF7L2, MTNR1B and IGF1. A pathway analysis of these genes revealed significant pathways: corticotrophin-releasing hormone signaling, AMPK signaling, cAMP-mediated or G-protein coupled receptor signaling, axonal guidance signaling, serotonin or dopamine receptors signaling, dopamine-DARPP32 feedback in cAMP signaling, circadian rhythm signaling and leptin signaling. Our review provides insights into the shared biological mechanisms of mood disorders and cardiometabolic diseases
Development of a multilocus-based approach for sponge (phylum Porifera) identification: refinement and limitations
No full textThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/For sponges (phylum Porifera), there is no reliable molecular protocol available for species identification. To address this gap, we developed a multilocus-based Sponge Identification Protocol (SIP) validated by a sample of 37 sponge species belonging to 10 orders from South Australia. The universal barcode COI mtDNA, 28S rRNA gene (D3–D5), and the nuclear ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 region were evaluated for their suitability and capacity for sponge identification. The highest Bit Score was applied to infer the identity. The reliability of SIP was validated by phylogenetic analysis. The 28S rRNA gene and COI mtDNA performed better than the ITS region in classifying sponges at various taxonomic levels. A major limitation is that the databases are not well populated and possess low diversity, making it difficult to conduct the molecular identification protocol. The identification is also impacted by the accuracy of the morphological classification of the sponges whose sequences have been submitted to the database. Re-examination of the morphological identification further demonstrated and improved the reliability of sponge identification by SIP. Integrated with morphological identification, the multilocus-based SIP offers an improved protocol for more reliable and effective sponge identification, by coupling the accuracy of different DNA markers
An investigation of the longitudinal relationship between sleep and depressed mood in developing teens
No full text© 2017 Lovato et al. This work is published and licensed by Dove Medical Press Limited. The full terms of this license are available at https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution – Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/). By accessing the work
you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms (https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php).Objective: The prospective, bidirectional relationship between sleep disturbance and depressed mood was assessed in a school-based sample of adolescents.
Method: One hundred and thirty-eight Australian adolescents (mean age time 1 =15.69, standard deviation =0.92; 64% male) completed questionnaires to assess sleep parameters and depressed mood, on two occasions over 1 year.
Results: Cross-sectional associations were observed between depressed mood and sleep duration, as well as wakefulness in bed. Prospective analyses revealed depressed mood predicted less total sleep time on school nights and a longer latency to sleep onset on weekends 1 year later. There was no prospective support for sleep predicting later depressed mood.
Conclusion: Contrary to prediction, our results suggest in this case that depressed mood may act as a precursor to poor sleep rather than the converse
The Femoral Neck Mechanoresponse to Hip Extensors Exercise: A Case Study
No full textCopyright © 2017 Saulo Martelli et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Physical activity is recommended to prevent age-related bone loss. However, the proximal femur mechanoresponse is variable, possibly because of a muscle-dependant mechanoresponse. We compared the proximal femur response with the femoral strain pattern generated by the hip extensor muscles. A healthy participant underwent a six-month unilateral training of the hip extensor muscles using a resistance weight regularly adjusted to the 80% of the one-repetition maximum weight. DXA-based measurements of the areal Bone Mineral Density (aBMD) in the exercise leg were adjusted for changes in the control leg. The biomechanical stimulus for bone adaptation (BS) was calculated using published models of the musculoskeletal system and the average hip extension moment in elderly participants. Volumetric (ΔvBMD) and areal (ΔaBMD) BMD changes were calculated. The measured and calculated BMD changes consistently showed a positive and negative effect of exercise in the femoral neck (ΔaBMD = +0.7%; ΔvBMD = +0.8%) and the trochanter region (ΔaBMD = −4.1%; ΔvBMD = −0.5%), respectively. The 17% of the femoral neck exceeded the 75th percentile of the spatially heterogeneous BS distribution. Hip extensor exercises may be beneficial in the proximal femoral neck but not in the trochanteric region. DXA-based measurements may not capture significant aBMD local changes
Genetic pleiotropy between age-related macular degeneration and 16 complex diseases and traits
No full textOpen Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.Background
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a common condition of vision loss with disease development strongly influenced by environmental and genetic factors. Recently, 34 loci were associated with AMD at genome-wide significance. So far, little is known about a genetic overlap between AMD and other complex diseases or disease-relevant traits.
Methods
For each of 60 complex diseases/traits with publicly available genome-wide significant association data, the lead genetic variant per independent locus was extracted and a genetic score was calculated for each disease/trait as the weighted sum of risk alleles. The association with AMD was estimated based on 16,144 AMD cases and 17,832 controls using logistic regression.
Results
Of the respective disease/trait variance, the 60 genetic scores explained on average 4.8% (0.27–20.69%) and 16 of them were found to be significantly associated with AMD (Q-values < 0.01, p values from < 1.0 × 10–16 to 1.9 × 10–3). Notably, an increased risk for AMD was associated with reduced risk for cardiovascular diseases, increased risk for autoimmune diseases, higher HDL and lower LDL levels in serum, lower bone-mineral density as well as an increased risk for skin cancer. By restricting the analysis to 1824 variants initially used to compute the 60 genetic scores, we identified 28 novel AMD risk variants (Q-values < 0.01, p values from 1.1 × 10–7 to 3.0 × 10–4), known to be involved in cardiovascular disorders, lipid metabolism, autoimmune diseases, anthropomorphic traits, ocular disorders, and neurological diseases. The latter variants represent 20 novel AMD-associated, pleiotropic loci. Genes in the novel loci reinforce previous findings strongly implicating the complement system in AMD pathogenesis.
Conclusions
We demonstrate a substantial overlap of the genetics of several complex diseases/traits with AMD and provide statistically significant evidence for an additional 20 loci associated with AMD. This highlights the possibility that so far unrelated pathologies may have disease pathways in common
The prevalence and factors associated for anti-tuberculosis treatment non-adherence among pulmonary tuberculosis patients in public health care facilities in South Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study
No full textThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.Background
Evidence exists pointing out how non-adherence to treatment remains a major hurdle to efficient tuberculosis control in developing countries. Many tuberculosis (Tb) patients do not complete their six-month course of anti-tuberculosis medications and are not aware of the importance of sputum re-examinations, thereby putting themselves at risk of developing multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis and relapse. However, there is a dearth of publications about non-adherence towards anti-Tb medication in these settings. We assessed the prevalence of and associated factors for anti-Tb treatment non-adherence in public health care facilities of South Ethiopia.
Methods
This was a cross-sectional survey using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The quantitative study was conducted among 261 Tb patients from 17 health centers and one general hospital. The qualitative aspect included an in-depth interview of 14 key informants. For quantitative data, the analysis of descriptive statistics, bivariate and multiple logistic regression was carried out, while thematic framework analysis was applied for the qualitative data.
Results
The prevalence of non-adherence towards anti-Tb treatment was 24.5%. Multiple logistic regression analysis demonstrated that poor knowledge towards tuberculosis and its treatment (AOR = 4.6, 95%CI: 1.4-15.6), cost of medication other than Tb (AOR = 4.7, 95%CI: 1.7-13.4), having of health information at every visit (AOR = 3, 95% CI: 1.1-8.4) and distance of DOTS center from individual home (AOR = 5.7, 95%CI: 1.9-16.8) showed statistically significant association with non-adherence towards anti- tuberculosis treatment. Qualitative study also revealed that distance, lack of awareness about importance of treatment completion and cost of transportation were the major barriers for adherence.
Conclusions
A quarter of Tb patients interrupted their treatment due to knowledge, availability and accessibility of DOTS service. We recommend creating awareness about anti-Tb treatment, and decentralization of drug pick-ups to the lowest level of health institutions
In vivo targeted therapy of gastric tumors via the mechanical rotation of a flower-like Fe3O4@Au nanoprobe under an alternating magnetic field
Get PDFThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.Owing to their hypotoxicity, great spatial resolution and tomographic properties, Fe3O4 nanoparticles (NPs) are becoming one of the most promising materials for noninvasive biological imaging and shape-dependent therapeutic agents for malignant tumor therapy. Conventional spherical NPs are unable to effectively destroy cellular structure in therapy and thus result in tumors with a high risk of drug resistance. Herein we developed a novel flower-like targeting Fe3O4@Au-HPG-Glc nanoprobe (thiol-containing hyperbranched polyglycerol (HPG); 4-aminophenyl β-D-glucopyranoside (Glc)) that can enhance magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for cancer therapy. With the guidance of a targeting molecule, Fe3O4@Au-HPG-Glc nanoprobes can precisely target tumor cells. Under an alternating magnetic field (AMF), the flower-like Fe3O4@Au-HPG-Glc nanoprobes can rotate along the central axis of the core to substantially destroy tumor cells by damaging the nucleus or cell membrane. Our results showed that this shape-dependent therapeutic agent-based strategy had remarkable efficacy for MRI-guided tumor therapy. Furthermore, the inhibition of tumor growth in tumor-bearing mice was up to approximately 47.3% on the twelfth day of treatment compared with the level of inhibition in a blank group. Different from other reported methods for cancer therapy, our proposed AMF-dependent targeted cancer therapy is a novel strategy that can potentially reduce drug resistance in gastric tumors
Yarning about fall prevention: community consultation to discuss falls and appropriate approaches to fall prevention with older Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
Get PDFThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.Background
Fall related injury is an emerging issue for older Indigenous people worldwide, yet few targeted fall prevention programs are currently available for Indigenous populations. In order to inform the development of a new Aboriginal-specific fall prevention program in Australia, we conducted community consultation with older Aboriginal people to identify perceptions and beliefs about falls, and to identify desired program elements.
Methods
Yarning Circles were held with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 45 years and over. Each Yarning Circle was facilitated by an Aboriginal researcher who incorporated six indicative questions into each discussion. Questions explored the impact of falls on Yarning Circle participants, their current use of fall prevention services and investigated Yarning Circle participant’s preferences regarding the design and mode of delivery of a fall prevention program.
Results
A total of 76 older Aboriginal people participated in ten Yarning Circles across six sites in the state of New South Wales. Participants associated falls with physical disability, a loss of emotional well-being and loss of connection to family and community. Many participants did not use existing fall prevention services due to a lack of availability in their area, having no referral provided by their GP and/or being unaware of fall prevention programs in general. Program elements identified as important by participants were that it be Aboriginal-specific, group-based, and on-going, with the flexibility to be tailored to specific communities, with free transport provided to and from the program.
Conclusions
Older Aboriginal people reported falls to be a priority health issue, with a significant impact on their health and well-being. Few older Aboriginal people accessed prevention programs, suggesting there is an important need for targeted Aboriginal-specific programs. A number of important program elements were identified which if incorporated into prevention programs, may help to address the rising burden of falls