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Hopkins J, McVeigh J, Hill K, Ellis KA, Jacques A, Burton E. Associations between physical activity, sedentary behaviour and cognitive domain performance of people living with mild cognitive impairment in the community. Aust Occup Ther J 2024. [PMID: 38616178 DOI: 10.1111/1440-1630.12944] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2023] [Revised: 02/16/2024] [Accepted: 02/21/2024] [Indexed: 04/16/2024]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Physical activity is known to positively influence cognitive performance. For adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), the relationship between physical activity levels and cognitive performance is unknown. This cross-sectional study aimed to determine if cognitive performance [as measured by the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA)] of people living in the community with MCI is associated with their physical activity levels or sedentary behaviour. METHODS ActivPAL™ accelerometers were used to objectively measure physical activity and sedentary behaviour for seven full days. Cognitive performance was measured using the MoCA. CONSUMER AND COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT No involvement other than as research participants RESULTS: Eighty-two participants from the Balance on the Brain randomised controlled trial were included. Most participants were retired (88%), with 33 (40%) reporting a fall in the last year. The median MoCA score was 24 (IQR 22-26). Participants achieved a mean of 6296 (±2420) steps per day and were sedentary for 10.6 (±2) hours per day. The only physical activity outcomes that had a fair, positive correlation were moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity measures of total stepping time and total number of steps (with a cadence of ≥100 steps/min) with the orientation MoCA domain score (r(82) = 0.36, p ≤ 0.001 and r(82) = 0.37, p ≤ 0.001, respectively). Higher total sedentary time had a weak, positive correlation with better visuospatial/executive performance (r(82) = 0.23, p = 0.041). The orientation outcomes remained significant when analysed in an adjusted logistic regression model. CONCLUSION This study found that performance in the MoCA orientation domain had a fair-positive correlation with moderate-intensity physical activity (i.e., stepping time and step count with a cadence of ≥100 steps/min) as measured by a thigh-worn accelerometer for community-dwelling older adults with MCI. When considering the relationship between cognitive domains and sedentary behaviour, consideration may be needed regarding whether cognitive enhancing activities (such as crosswords and other brain games) are being performed, which may confound this relationship. Further investigation is required to confirm these results.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jane Hopkins
- School of Allied Health, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
| | - Joanne McVeigh
- School of Allied Health, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
- School of Physiology, Movement Physiology Laboratory, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
- enAble Institute, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
| | - Keith Hill
- Rehabilitation Ageing and Independent Living (RAIL) Research Centre, Monash University, Frankston, Victoria, Australia
| | - Kathryn A Ellis
- Department of Psychiatry, Academic Unit for Psychiatry of Old Age, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
- School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - Angela Jacques
- School of Allied Health, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
- Institute for Health Research, University of Notre Dame Australia, Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia
| | - Elissa Burton
- School of Allied Health, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
- enAble Institute, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
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Janssens JV, Raaijmakers AJA, Weeks KL, Bell JR, Mellor KM, Curl CL, Delbridge LMD. The cardiomyocyte origins of diastolic dysfunction: cellular components of myocardial "stiffness". Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 2024; 326:H584-H598. [PMID: 38180448 DOI: 10.1152/ajpheart.00334.2023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/08/2023] [Revised: 12/07/2023] [Accepted: 12/21/2023] [Indexed: 01/06/2024]
Abstract
The impaired ability of the heart to relax and stretch to accommodate venous return is generally understood to represent a state of "diastolic dysfunction" and often described using the all-purpose noun "stiffness." Despite the now common qualitative usage of this term in fields of cardiac patho/physiology, the specific quantitative concept of stiffness as a molecular and biophysical entity with real practical interpretation in healthy and diseased hearts is sometimes obscure. The focus of this review is to characterize the concept of cardiomyocyte stiffness and to develop interpretation of "stiffness" attributes at the cellular and molecular levels. Here, we consider "stiffness"-related terminology interpretation and make links between cardiomyocyte stiffness and aspects of functional and structural cardiac performance. We discuss cross bridge-derived stiffness sources, considering the contributions of diastolic myofilament activation and impaired relaxation. This includes commentary relating to the role of cardiomyocyte Ca2+ flux and Ca2+ levels in diastole, the troponin-tropomyosin complex role as a Ca2+ effector in diastole, the myosin ADP dissociation rate as a modulator of cross bridge attachment and regulation of cross-bridge attachment by myosin binding protein C. We also discuss non-cross bridge-derived stiffness sources, including the titin sarcomeric spring protein, microtubule and intermediate filaments, and cytoskeletal extracellular matrix interactions. As the prevalence of conditions involving diastolic heart failure has escalated, a more sophisticated understanding of the molecular, cellular, and tissue determinants of cardiomyocyte stiffness offers potential to develop imaging and molecular intervention tools.
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Affiliation(s)
- Johannes V Janssens
- Department of Anatomy and Physiology, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Antonia J A Raaijmakers
- Department of Anatomy and Physiology, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Kate L Weeks
- Department of Anatomy and Physiology, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Baker Department of Cardiometabolic Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Department of Diabetes, Monash University, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - James R Bell
- Department of Anatomy and Physiology, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Department of Microbiology, Anatomy, Physiology and Pharmacology, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Kimberley M Mellor
- Department of Anatomy and Physiology, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Department of Physiology, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
- Auckland Bioengineering Institute, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
| | - Claire L Curl
- Department of Anatomy and Physiology, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Lea M D Delbridge
- Department of Anatomy and Physiology, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
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Mills TJT, Nelson TM, Pearson LA, Neilan BA. Hive Transplantation Has Minimal Impact on the Core Gut Microbiome of the Australian Stingless Bee, Tetragonula carbonaria. Microb Ecol 2023; 86:2086-2096. [PMID: 37088849 PMCID: PMC10497653 DOI: 10.1007/s00248-023-02222-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2022] [Accepted: 04/11/2023] [Indexed: 05/03/2023]
Abstract
Bacteria residing in the guts of pollinating insects play a key role in nutrient acquisition, digestion, and resistance to pests and diseases. Imbalances in microbial flora in response to environmental change and stress can therefore impact insect health and resilience. This study is aimed at defining the core gut microbiome of the Australian native stingless bee, Tetragonula carbonaria, and exploring the impact of colony transplantation on gut health. The gut microbiomes of nine forager bees from natural (log) and manufactured (box) hives were examined via 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. Some differences were observed at the ASV level between the microbiomes of log and box hive bees. However, a core microbiome, dominated by Lactobacillus spp., unclassified Acetobacteraceae spp., and Bombella spp., was maintained. Further, the inferred functional potential of the microbiomes was consistent across all individuals. This study highlights that although hive transplantation has an impact on the overall diversity of stingless bee gut microbiomes, it is unlikely to have a significant negative impact on the overall health and resilience of the colony.
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Affiliation(s)
- T J T Mills
- School of Environmental and Life Sciences, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales, Australia
| | - T M Nelson
- School of Environmental and Life Sciences, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales, Australia
| | - L A Pearson
- School of Environmental and Life Sciences, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales, Australia
| | - B A Neilan
- School of Environmental and Life Sciences, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales, Australia.
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Kiltschewskij DJ, Harrison PF, Fitzsimmons C, Beilharz T, Cairns M. Extension of mRNA poly(A) tails and 3'UTRs during neuronal differentiation exhibits variable association with post-transcriptional dynamics. Nucleic Acids Res 2023; 51:8181-8198. [PMID: 37293985 PMCID: PMC10450200 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkad499] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2021] [Revised: 05/24/2023] [Accepted: 05/26/2023] [Indexed: 06/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Differentiation of neural progenitor cells into mature neuronal phenotypes relies on extensive temporospatial coordination of mRNA expression to support the development of functional brain circuitry. Cleavage and polyadenylation of mRNA has tremendous regulatory capacity through the alteration of mRNA stability and modulation of microRNA (miRNA) function, however the extent of utilization in neuronal development is currently unclear. Here, we employed poly(A) tail sequencing, mRNA sequencing, ribosome profiling and small RNA sequencing to explore the functional relationship between mRNA abundance, translation, poly(A) tail length, alternative polyadenylation (APA) and miRNA expression in an in vitro model of neuronal differentiation. Differential analysis revealed a strong bias towards poly(A) tail and 3'UTR lengthening during differentiation, both of which were positively correlated with changes in mRNA abundance, but not translation. Globally, changes in miRNA expression were predominantly associated with mRNA abundance and translation, however several miRNA-mRNA pairings with potential to regulate poly(A) tail length were identified. Furthermore, 3'UTR lengthening was observed to significantly increase the inclusion of non-conserved miRNA binding sites, potentially enhancing the regulatory capacity of these molecules in mature neuronal cells. Together, our findings suggest poly(A) tail length and APA function as part of a rich post-transcriptional regulatory matrix during neuronal differentiation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dylan J Kiltschewskij
- School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia
- Precision Medicine Research Program, Hunter Medical Research Institute, New Lambton Heights, NSW 2305, Australia
| | - Paul F Harrison
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia
| | - Chantel Fitzsimmons
- School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia
- Precision Medicine Research Program, Hunter Medical Research Institute, New Lambton Heights, NSW 2305, Australia
| | - Traude H Beilharz
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia
| | - Murray J Cairns
- School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia
- Precision Medicine Research Program, Hunter Medical Research Institute, New Lambton Heights, NSW 2305, Australia
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Turnbull DM, Reich A. Using Foucault to (re)think localisation in chronic disease care: Insights for nursing practice. Nurs Philos 2023; 24:e12392. [PMID: 35462460 DOI: 10.1111/nup.12392] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2020] [Revised: 03/12/2022] [Accepted: 04/12/2022] [Indexed: 02/17/2024]
Abstract
Ageing populations and rising rates of chronic disease globally have shifted key elements of disease management to ideas of integrated care and self-management. The associated policies and programmes often focus on intervention and support beyond the sites of the hospital and clinic. These shifts have significantly impacted the delivery and practice of nursing for both nurses and the clients with whom they work. This article argues that Foucault's comments on space, place and heterotopia (1986) are useful in exploring these changes from a philosophical perspective, to draw out the complexity of these programmes and add texture to discussions on the ways these shifts to localisation and the dominant discourses of self-management and responsibility have reconfigured nursing practices. The theoretical discussion is augmented with illustrations from an Australian integrated health care programme.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dr Margo Turnbull
- International Research Centre for the Advancement of Health Communication, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Hong Kong, Republic of China
| | - Ann Reich
- School of International Studies and Education, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia
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Zhuang L, Visalakshan RM, Kaur P. Dermal Pericytes Exhibit Declined Ability to Promote Human Skin Regeneration with Ageing in 3D Organotypic Culture Models. Cells 2021; 10:3051. [PMID: 34831274 PMCID: PMC8616368 DOI: 10.3390/cells10113051] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/23/2021] [Revised: 11/01/2021] [Accepted: 11/03/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
The well documented decline in the regenerative ability of ageing human skin has been attributed to many factors including genomic instability, telomere shortening, poor nutrient sensing, cellular senescence, and stem cell exhaustion. However, a role for the dermal cellular and molecular microenvironment in skin ageing is just emerging. We previously showed that dermal pericytes co-operate with fibroblasts to improve human skin regeneration in an organotypic skin culture model, and even do so in the absence of fibroblasts. Here, we report that the number of dermal cells, particularly pericytes, declines significantly in human skin of donors aged > 50 years. Notably, aged pericytes promoted epidermal regeneration of neonatal keratinocytes in organotypic cultures and the resulting epithelium exhibited a Ki67+/ΔNp63+ basal layer and terminal differentiation. However, the epithelium lacked several features of homeostasis displaying lower levels of ΔNp63 expression, decreased LAMA5 deposition at the dermo-epidermal junction, and the absence of basement membrane and hemi-desmosome assembly. We conclude that a decline in pericyte incidence and function contribute to an impaired epidermal microenvironment and poor skin regeneration with ageing in the human skin.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lizhe Zhuang
- Epithelial Stem Cell Biology Laboratory, Research Division, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, VIC 3002, Australia;
- Medical Research Council Cancer Unit, Hutchison/MRC Centre, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 0XZ, UK
| | - Rahul M. Visalakshan
- Epithelial Stem Cell Biology Laboratory, Curtin Medical School, Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute, Curtin University, Perth, WA 6102, Australia;
| | - Pritinder Kaur
- Epithelial Stem Cell Biology Laboratory, Research Division, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, VIC 3002, Australia;
- Epithelial Stem Cell Biology Laboratory, Curtin Medical School, Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute, Curtin University, Perth, WA 6102, Australia;
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Oyanoghafo OO, O’ Brien C, Choat B, Tissue D, Rymer PD. Vulnerability to xylem cavitation of Hakea species (Proteaceae) from a range of biomes and life histories predicted by climatic niche. Ann Bot 2021; 127:909-918. [PMID: 33606015 PMCID: PMC8225280 DOI: 10.1093/aob/mcab020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/27/2020] [Accepted: 02/17/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND AIMS Extreme drought conditions across the globe are impacting biodiversity, with serious implications for the persistence of native species. However, quantitative data on physiological tolerance are not available for diverse flora to inform conservation management. We quantified physiological resistance to cavitation in the diverse Hakea genus (Proteaceae) to test predictions based on climatic origin, life history and functional traits. METHODS We sampled terminal branches of replicate plants of 16 species in a common garden. Xylem cavitation was induced in branches under varying water potentials (tension) in a centrifuge, and the tension generating 50 % loss of conductivity (stem P50) was characterized as a metric for cavitation resistance. The same branches were used to estimate plant functional traits, including wood density, specific leaf area and Huber value (sap flow area to leaf area ratio). KEY RESULTS There was significant variation in stem P50 among species, which was negatively associated with the species climate origin (rainfall and aridity). Cavitation resistance did not differ among life histories; however, a drought avoidance strategy with terete leaf form and greater Huber value may be important for species to colonize and persist in the arid biome. CONCLUSIONS This study highlights climate (rainfall and aridity), rather than life history and functional traits, as the key predictor of variation in cavitation resistance (stem P50). Rainfall for species origin was the best predictor of cavitation resistance, explaining variation in stem P50, which appears to be a major determinant of species distribution. This study also indicates that stem P50 is an adaptive trait, genetically determined, and hence reliable and robust for predicting species vulnerability to climate change. Our findings will contribute to future prediction of species vulnerability to drought and adaptive management under climate change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Osazee O Oyanoghafo
- Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Richmond, New South Wales 2751,Australia
- Department of Plant Biology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria
| | - Corey O’ Brien
- Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Richmond, New South Wales 2751,Australia
| | - Brendan Choat
- Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Richmond, New South Wales 2751,Australia
| | - David Tissue
- Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Richmond, New South Wales 2751,Australia
| | - Paul D Rymer
- Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Richmond, New South Wales 2751,Australia
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Pojer JM, Saiful Hilmi AJ, Kondo S, Harvey KF. Crumbs and the apical spectrin cytoskeleton regulate R8 cell fate in the Drosophila eye. PLoS Genet 2021; 17:e1009146. [PMID: 34097697 PMCID: PMC8211197 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1009146] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/02/2020] [Revised: 06/17/2021] [Accepted: 05/11/2021] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
The Hippo pathway is an important regulator of organ growth and cell fate. In the R8 photoreceptor cells of the Drosophila melanogaster eye, the Hippo pathway controls the fate choice between one of two subtypes that express either the blue light-sensitive Rhodopsin 5 (Hippo inactive R8 subtype) or the green light-sensitive Rhodopsin 6 (Hippo active R8 subtype). The degree to which the mechanism of Hippo signal transduction and the proteins that mediate it are conserved in organ growth and R8 cell fate choice is currently unclear. Here, we identify Crumbs and the apical spectrin cytoskeleton as regulators of R8 cell fate. By contrast, other proteins that influence Hippo-dependent organ growth, such as the basolateral spectrin cytoskeleton and Ajuba, are dispensable for the R8 cell fate choice. Surprisingly, Crumbs promotes the Rhodopsin 5 cell fate, which is driven by Yorkie, rather than the Rhodopsin 6 cell fate, which is driven by Warts and the Hippo pathway, which contrasts with its impact on Hippo activity in organ growth. Furthermore, neither the apical spectrin cytoskeleton nor Crumbs appear to regulate the Hippo pathway through mechanisms that have been observed in growing organs. Together, these results show that only a subset of Hippo pathway proteins regulate the R8 binary cell fate decision and that aspects of Hippo signalling differ between growing organs and post-mitotic R8 cells.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan M. Pojer
- Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - Abdul Jabbar Saiful Hilmi
- Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - Shu Kondo
- Laboratory of Invertebrate Genetics, National Institute of Genetics, Mishima, Shizuoka, Japan
| | - Kieran F. Harvey
- Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
- Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia
- * E-mail:
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Pazhakh V, Ellett F, Croker BA, O’Donnell JA, Pase L, Schulze KE, Greulich RS, Gupta A, Reyes-Aldasoro CC, Andrianopoulos A, Lieschke GJ. β-glucan-dependent shuttling of conidia from neutrophils to macrophages occurs during fungal infection establishment. PLoS Biol 2019; 17:e3000113. [PMID: 31483778 PMCID: PMC6746390 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000113] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/28/2018] [Revised: 09/16/2019] [Accepted: 08/15/2019] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
The initial host response to fungal pathogen invasion is critical to infection establishment and outcome. However, the diversity of leukocyte–pathogen interactions is only recently being appreciated. We describe a new form of interleukocyte conidial exchange called “shuttling.” In Talaromyces marneffei and Aspergillus fumigatus zebrafish in vivo infections, live imaging demonstrated conidia initially phagocytosed by neutrophils were transferred to macrophages. Shuttling is unidirectional, not a chance event, and involves alterations of phagocyte mobility, intercellular tethering, and phagosome transfer. Shuttling kinetics were fungal-species–specific, implicating a fungal determinant. β-glucan serves as a fungal-derived signal sufficient for shuttling. Murine phagocytes also shuttled in vitro. The impact of shuttling for microbiological outcomes of in vivo infections is difficult to specifically assess experimentally, but for these two pathogens, shuttling augments initial conidial redistribution away from fungicidal neutrophils into the favorable macrophage intracellular niche. Shuttling is a frequent host–pathogen interaction contributing to fungal infection establishment patterns. Imaging of the behaviour of white blood cells in living zebrafish embryos infected with fungi reveals “shuttling,” a specific and previously undescribed form of microorganism exchange between neutrophils and macrophages.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vahid Pazhakh
- Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia
| | - Felix Ellett
- Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia
- Cancer and Haematology Division, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
- Department of Medical Biology, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - Ben A. Croker
- Cancer and Haematology Division, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
- Department of Medical Biology, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
- Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Department of Pediatrics, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America
| | - Joanne A. O’Donnell
- Cancer and Haematology Division, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - Luke Pase
- Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia
- Cancer and Haematology Division, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - Keith E. Schulze
- Monash Micro Imaging, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia
| | - R. Stefan Greulich
- Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia
| | - Aakash Gupta
- Genetics, Genomics and Systems Biology, School of BioSciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | | | - Alex Andrianopoulos
- Genetics, Genomics and Systems Biology, School of BioSciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - Graham J. Lieschke
- Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia
- Cancer and Haematology Division, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
- * E-mail:
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Chen Y, Frost S, Khushi M, Cantrill LC, Yu H, Arthur JW, Bright RK, Groblewski GE, Byrne JA. Delayed recruiting of TPD52 to lipid droplets - evidence for a "second wave" of lipid droplet-associated proteins that respond to altered lipid storage induced by Brefeldin A treatment. Sci Rep 2019; 9:9790. [PMID: 31278300 PMCID: PMC6611826 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-46156-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/10/2018] [Accepted: 06/18/2019] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Tumor protein D52 (TPD52) is amplified and overexpressed in breast and prostate cancers which are frequently characterised by dysregulated lipid storage and metabolism. TPD52 expression increases lipid storage in mouse 3T3 fibroblasts, and co-distributes with the Golgi marker GM130 and lipid droplets (LDs). We examined the effects of Brefeldin A (BFA), a fungal metabolite known to disrupt the Golgi structure, in TPD52-expressing 3T3 cells, and in human AU565 and HMC-1-8 breast cancer cells that endogenously express TPD52. Five-hour BFA treatment reduced median LD numbers, but increased LD sizes. TPD52 knockdown decreased both LD sizes and numbers, and blunted BFA's effects on LD numbers. Following BFA treatment for 1-3 hours, TPD52 co-localised with the trans-Golgi network protein syntaxin 6, but after 5 hours BFA treatment, TPD52 showed increased co-localisation with LDs, which was disrupted by microtubule depolymerising agent nocodazole. BFA treatment also increased perilipin (PLIN) family protein PLIN3 but reduced PLIN2 detection at LDs in TPD52-expressing 3T3 cells, with PLIN3 recruitment to LDs preceding that of TPD52. An N-terminally deleted HA-TPD52 mutant (residues 40-184) almost exclusively targeted to LDs in both vehicle and BFA treated cells. In summary, delayed recruitment of TPD52 to LDs suggests that TPD52 participates in a temporal hierarchy of LD-associated proteins that responds to altered LD packaging requirements induced by BFA treatment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuyan Chen
- Molecular Oncology Laboratory, Children's Cancer Research Unit, Kids Research, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Westmead, NSW, 2145, Australia.
- The University of Sydney Discipline of Child and Adolescent Health, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Westmead, NSW, 2145, Australia.
| | - Sarah Frost
- Molecular Oncology Laboratory, Children's Cancer Research Unit, Kids Research, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Westmead, NSW, 2145, Australia
- The University of Sydney Discipline of Child and Adolescent Health, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Westmead, NSW, 2145, Australia
| | - Matloob Khushi
- Bioinformatics Unit, Children's Medical Research Institute, The University of Sydney, Westmead, NSW, 2145, Australia
- The University of Sydney School of Information Technologies, Darlington, NSW, 2008, Australia
| | - Laurence C Cantrill
- The University of Sydney Discipline of Child and Adolescent Health, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Westmead, NSW, 2145, Australia
- Kids Research Microscope Facility, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Westmead, NSW, 2145, Australia
| | - Hong Yu
- Cell Imaging Facility, Westmead Institute for Medical Research, Westmead, NSW, 2145, Australia
| | - Jonathan W Arthur
- Bioinformatics Unit, Children's Medical Research Institute, The University of Sydney, Westmead, NSW, 2145, Australia
| | - Robert K Bright
- Department of Immunology and Molecular Microbiology and TTUHSC Cancer Center, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, Texas, 79430, USA
| | - Guy E Groblewski
- Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, 53706, USA
| | - Jennifer A Byrne
- Molecular Oncology Laboratory, Children's Cancer Research Unit, Kids Research, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Westmead, NSW, 2145, Australia.
- The University of Sydney Discipline of Child and Adolescent Health, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Westmead, NSW, 2145, Australia.
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Nguyen MT, Lycett K, Vryer R, Burgner DP, Ranganathan S, Grobler AC, Wake M, Saffery R. Telomere length: population epidemiology and concordance in Australian children aged 11-12 years and their parents. BMJ Open 2019; 9:118-126. [PMID: 31273022 PMCID: PMC6624044 DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-020263] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVES To (1) describe the epidemiology of child and adult telomere length, and (2) investigate parent-child telomere length concordance. DESIGN Population-based cross-sectional study within the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. SETTING Assessment centres in seven major Australian cities and eight selected regional towns; February 2015 to March 2016. PARTICIPANTS Of 1874 participating families, telomere data were available for analysis for 1206 children and 1343 parents, of whom 1143 were parent-child pairs. There were 589 boys and 617 girls; 175 fathers and 1168 mothers. OUTCOME MEASURES Relative telomere length (T/S ratio), calculated by comparing telomeric DNA (T) level with the single copy (S) beta-globin gene in venous blood-derived genomic DNA by quantitative real-time PCR. RESULTS Mean T/S ratio for all children, boys and girls was 1.09 (SD 0.56), 1.05 (SD 0.53) and 1.13 (SD 0.59), respectively. Mean T/S ratio for all parents, fathers and mothers was 0.81 (SD 0.37), 0.82 (SD 0.36) and 0.81 (SD 0.38), respectively. Parent-child T/S ratio concordance was moderate (correlation 0.24). In adjusted regression models, one unit higher parent T/S ratio was associated with 0.36 (estimated linear regression coefficient (β); 95% CI 0.28 to 0.45) higher child T/S ratio. Concordance was higher in the youngest parent-age tertile (β 0.49; 95% CI 0.34 to 0.64) compared with the middle (β 0.35; 95% CI 0.21 to 0.48) and oldest tertile (β 0.26; 95% CI 0.11 to 0.41; p-trend 0.04). Father-child concordance was 0.34 (95% CI 0.18 to 0.48), while mother-child was 0.22 (95% CI 0.17 to 0.28). CONCLUSIONS We provide telomere length population values for children aged 11-12 years and their mid-life parents. Relative telomere length was shorter in adults than children, as expected. There was modest evidence of parent-child concordance, which diminished with increasing parent age.
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Affiliation(s)
- Minh Thien Nguyen
- Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
- Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - Kate Lycett
- Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
- Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
- School of Psychology, Deakin University, Burwood, Victoria, Australia
| | - Regan Vryer
- Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
- Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - David P Burgner
- Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
- Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
- Department of Paediatrics, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia
| | - Sarath Ranganathan
- Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
- Respiratory Medicine, Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - Anneke C Grobler
- Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
- Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - Melissa Wake
- Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
- Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
- Department of Paediatrics and The Liggins Institute, University of Auckland, Auckland, Grafton, New Zealand
| | - Richard Saffery
- Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
- Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
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Burns C, Yeates L, Semsarian C, Ingles J. Evaluating a custom-designed aid to improve communication of genetic results in families with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial. BMJ Open 2019; 9:e026627. [PMID: 30782759 PMCID: PMC6361342 DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-026627] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Genetic testing for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) in the era of genomics brings unique challenges for genetic counselling. The number of genes routinely included in an HCM gene panel has increased markedly, many with minimal if any robust evidence of gene-disease association. Subsequently, there is a greater chance of uncertain genetic findings. The responsibility of communicating this information with at-risk relatives lies with the index case (proband). We have developed a communication aid to assist with the delivery of genetic results to the proband. We have previously shown the aid is feasible and acceptable and have now developed a study protocol for a randomised controlled trial of a genetic counsellor-led intervention incorporating the communication aid. METHODS AND ANALYSIS This is a prospective randomised controlled trial. We will investigate the impact of a genetic counsellor-led intervention to return proband genetic results using a custom-designed communication aid. We aim to improve knowledge and empowerment. The primary outcome of this trial is the ability and confidence of the proband to communicate genetic results to at-risk relatives. Secondary outcomes will assess genetic knowledge, satisfaction with services, outcomes from genetic counselling and psychological adaptation to genetic information. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION This study has been approved by and is in strict accordance with the Sydney Local Health District Ethics Review Committee (X16-0030; 22/01/2016; version 1). Results from this trial will be prepared as a manuscript and submitted to peer-reviewed journals for publication as well as submission for presentation at national and international meetings. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER ACTRN12617000706370.
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Affiliation(s)
- Charlotte Burns
- Agnes Ginges Centre for Molecular Cardiology at Centenary Institute, The University of Sydney, Newtown, NSW, Australia
- Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Newtown, NSW, Australia
- Department of Cardiology, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Laura Yeates
- Agnes Ginges Centre for Molecular Cardiology at Centenary Institute, The University of Sydney, Newtown, NSW, Australia
- Department of Cardiology, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Christopher Semsarian
- Agnes Ginges Centre for Molecular Cardiology at Centenary Institute, The University of Sydney, Newtown, NSW, Australia
- Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Newtown, NSW, Australia
- Department of Cardiology, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Jodie Ingles
- Agnes Ginges Centre for Molecular Cardiology at Centenary Institute, The University of Sydney, Newtown, NSW, Australia
- Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Newtown, NSW, Australia
- Department of Cardiology, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, NSW, Australia
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Abstract
The genus Borrelia, originally described by Swellengrebel in 1907, contains tick- or louse-transmitted spirochetes belonging to the relapsing fever (RF) group of spirochetes, the Lyme borreliosis (LB) group of spirochetes and spirochetes that form intermittent clades. In 2014 it was proposed that the genus Borrelia should be separated into two genera; Borrelia Swellengrebel 1907 emend. Adeolu and Gupta 2014 containing RF spirochetes and Borreliella Adeolu and Gupta 2014 containing LB group of spirochetes. In this study we conducted an analysis based on a method that is suitable for bacterial genus demarcation, the percentage of conserved proteins (POCP). We included RF group species, LB group species and two species belonging to intermittent clades, Borrelia turcica Güner et al. 2004 and Candidatus Borrelia tachyglossi Loh et al. 2017. These analyses convincingly showed that all groups of spirochetes belong into one genus and we propose to emend, and re-unite all groups in, the genus Borrelia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gabriele Margos
- Bavarian Health and Food Safety Authority and National Reference Center for Borrelia, Oberschleissheim, Germany
- * E-mail:
| | - Alex Gofton
- Vector & Waterborne Pathogens Research Group, School of Veterinary & Life Sciences, Murdoch University, South St, Murdoch, Australia
| | | | - Alexandra Dangel
- Bavarian Health and Food Safety Authority and National Reference Center for Borrelia, Oberschleissheim, Germany
| | - Durdica Marosevic
- Bavarian Health and Food Safety Authority and National Reference Center for Borrelia, Oberschleissheim, Germany
| | - Siew-May Loh
- Vector & Waterborne Pathogens Research Group, School of Veterinary & Life Sciences, Murdoch University, South St, Murdoch, Australia
| | - Charlotte Oskam
- Vector & Waterborne Pathogens Research Group, School of Veterinary & Life Sciences, Murdoch University, South St, Murdoch, Australia
| | - Volker Fingerle
- Bavarian Health and Food Safety Authority and National Reference Center for Borrelia, Oberschleissheim, Germany
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Thomas FM, Vesk PA, Hauser CE. A field ecologist's adventures in the virtual world: using simulations to design data collection for complex models. Ecol Appl 2018; 28:2130-2141. [PMID: 30276923 DOI: 10.1002/eap.1801] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/18/2018] [Revised: 07/01/2018] [Accepted: 08/20/2018] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
Field data collection can be expensive, time consuming, and difficult; insightful research requires statistical analyses supported by sufficient data. Pilot studies and power analysis provide guidance on sampling design but can be challenging to perform, as ecologists increasingly collect multiple types of data over different scales. Despite a growing simulation literature, it remains unclear how to appropriately design data collection for many complex projects. Approaches that seek to achieve realism in decision-making contexts, such as management strategy evaluation and virtual ecologist simulations, can help. For a relatively complex analysis, we develop and demonstrate a flexible simulation approach that informs what data are needed and how long those data will take to collect, under realistic fieldwork constraints. We simulated data collection and analysis under different constraint scenarios that varied in deterministic (field trip length, travel, and measurement times) and stochastic (species detection and occupancy rates and inclement weather) features. In our case study, we fit plant height data to a multispecies, three-parameter, nonlinear growth model. We tested how the simulated data sets, based on the varying constraint scenarios, affected the model fit (parameter bias, uncertainty, and capture rate). Species prevalence in the field exerted a stronger influence on the data sets and downstream model performance than deterministic aspects such as travel times. When species detection and occupancy were not considered, the field time needed to collect an adequate data set was underestimated by 40%. Simulations can assist in refining fieldwork design, estimating field costs, and incorporating uncertainties into project planning. We argue that combining data collection, analysis, and decision-making processes in a flexible virtual setting can help address many of the decisions that field ecologists face when designing field-based research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Freya M Thomas
- School of BioSciences, ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, 3010, Australia
| | - Peter A Vesk
- School of BioSciences, ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, 3010, Australia
| | - Cindy E Hauser
- School of BioSciences, ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, 3010, Australia
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15
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Chou L, Ranger TA, Peiris W, Cicuttini FM, Urquhart DM, Sullivan K, Seneviwickrama M, Briggs AM, Wluka AE. Patients' perceived needs for medical services for non-specific low back pain: A systematic scoping review. PLoS One 2018; 13:e0204885. [PMID: 30408039 PMCID: PMC6224057 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0204885] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/18/2017] [Accepted: 09/17/2018] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND An improved understanding of patients' perceived needs for medical services for low back pain (LBP) will enable healthcare providers to better align service provision with patient expectations, thus improving patient and health care system outcomes. Thus, we aimed to identify the existing literature regarding patients' perceived needs for medical services for LBP. METHODS A systematic scoping review was performed of publications identified from MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL and PsycINFO (1990-2016). Descriptive data regarding each study, its design and methodology were extracted and risk of bias assessed. Aggregates of patients' perceived needs for medical services for LBP were categorised. RESULTS 50 studies (35 qualitative, 14 quantitative and 1 mixed-methods study) from 1829 were relevant. Four areas of perceived need emerged: (1) Patients with LBP sought healthcare from medical practitioners to obtain a diagnosis, receive management options, sickness certification and legitimation for their LBP. However, there was dissatisfaction with the cursory and superficial approach of care. (2) Patients had concerns about pharmacotherapy, with few studies reporting on patients' preferences for medications. (3) Of the few studies which examined the patients' perceived need of invasive therapies, these found that patients avoided injections and surgeries (4) Patients desired spinal imaging for diagnostic purposes and legitimation of symptoms. CONCLUSIONS Across many different patient populations with data obtained from a variety of study designs, common themes emerged which highlighted areas of patient dissatisfaction with the medical management of LBP, in particular, the superficial approach to care perceived by patients and concerns regarding pharmacotherapy. Patients perceive unmet needs from medical services, including the need to obtain a diagnosis, the desire for pain control and the preference for spinal imaging. These issues need to be considered in developing approaches for the management of LBP in order to improve patient outcomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Louisa Chou
- Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Tom A. Ranger
- Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Waruna Peiris
- Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Flavia M. Cicuttini
- Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Donna M. Urquhart
- Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Kaye Sullivan
- Monash University Library, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Maheeka Seneviwickrama
- Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Andrew M. Briggs
- School of Physiotherapy and Exercise Science, Curtin University, Perth, Australia
- MOVE: muscle, bone & joint health, Victoria, Australia
| | - Anita E. Wluka
- Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- * E-mail:
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Althor G, Mahood S, Witt B, Colvin RM, Watson JE. Large-scale environmental degradation results in inequitable impacts to already impoverished communities: A case study from the floating villages of Cambodia. Ambio 2018; 47:747-759. [PMID: 29460255 PMCID: PMC6188964 DOI: 10.1007/s13280-018-1022-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/09/2017] [Revised: 12/04/2017] [Accepted: 01/29/2018] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
Cambodian subsistence communities within the Tonle Sap Great Lake area rely on resource extraction from the lake to meet livelihood needs. These fishing communities-many of which consist of dwellings floating on the lake-face potentially profound livelihood challenges because of climate change and changing hydrology due to dam construction for hydroelectricity within the Mekong Basin. We conducted interviews across five village communities, with local subsistence fisher people in the Tonle Sap in 2015, and used thematic analysis methods to reveal a fishery system that is undergoing rapid ecological decline, with local fishing communities increasingly experiencing reductions in available fish stocks. As a result, over 100 000 people living in these communities are experiencing a direct loss of well-being and livelihood. We discuss these losses and consider their implications for the future viability of Cambodian floating village communities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Glenn Althor
- School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Queensland, Queensland, 4072 Australia
| | - Simon Mahood
- Wildlife Conservation Society Cambodia Program, #21, Street 21, Sangkat Tonle Bassac, PO Box 1620, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
- Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NT 0909 Australia
| | - Bradd Witt
- School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Queensland, Queensland, 4072 Australia
| | - Rebecca M. Colvin
- Climate Change Institute, Australian National University, Post: Building 141, Linnaeus Way, Canberra, ACT 2601 Australia
| | - James E.M. Watson
- School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Queensland, Queensland, 4072 Australia
- Global Conservation Program, Wildlife Conservation Society, Bronx, NY 10460 USA
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Boskovic Z, Milne MR, Qian L, Clifton HD, McGovern AE, Turnbull MT, Mazzone SB, Coulson EJ. Cholinergic basal forebrain neurons regulate fear extinction consolidation through p75 neurotrophin receptor signaling. Transl Psychiatry 2018; 8:199. [PMID: 30242146 PMCID: PMC6154972 DOI: 10.1038/s41398-018-0248-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/02/2018] [Accepted: 05/14/2018] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Cholinergic basal forebrain (cBF)-derived neurotransmission plays a crucial role in regulating neuronal function throughout the cortex, yet the mechanisms controlling cholinergic innervation to downstream targets have not been elucidated. Here we report that removing the p75 neurotrophin receptor (p75NTR) from cBF neurons induces a significant impairment in fear extinction consolidation. We demonstrate that this is achieved through alterations in synaptic connectivity and functional activity within the medial prefrontal cortex. These deficits revert back to wild-type levels upon re-expression of the active domain of p75NTR in adult animals. These findings demonstrate a novel role for cholinergic neurons in fear extinction consolidation and suggest that neurotrophic signaling is a key regulator of cholinergic-cortical innervation and function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zoran Boskovic
- Centre for Ageing Dementia Research, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia
- Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia
- Faculty of Medicine, School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia
| | - Michael R Milne
- Centre for Ageing Dementia Research, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia
- Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia
- Faculty of Medicine, School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia
| | - Lei Qian
- Centre for Ageing Dementia Research, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia
- Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia
| | - Hamish D Clifton
- Centre for Ageing Dementia Research, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia
- Department of Pharmacology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Alice E McGovern
- Faculty of Medicine, School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia
| | - Marion T Turnbull
- Centre for Ageing Dementia Research, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia
- Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia
- Faculty of Medicine, School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia
| | - Stuart B Mazzone
- Faculty of Medicine, School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia
| | - Elizabeth J Coulson
- Centre for Ageing Dementia Research, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia.
- Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia.
- Faculty of Medicine, School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia.
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18
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Smart JJ, Punt AE, Espinoza M, White WT, Simpfendorfer CA. Refining mortality estimates in shark demographic analyses: a Bayesian inverse matrix approach. Ecol Appl 2018; 28:1520-1533. [PMID: 29345743 DOI: 10.1002/eap.1687] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/17/2017] [Revised: 12/12/2017] [Accepted: 12/21/2017] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
Leslie matrix models are an important analysis tool in conservation biology that are applied to a diversity of taxa. The standard approach estimates the finite rate of population growth (λ) from a set of vital rates. In some instances, an estimate of λ is available, but the vital rates are poorly understood and can be solved for using an inverse matrix approach. However, these approaches are rarely attempted due to prerequisites of information on the structure of age or stage classes. This study addressed this issue by using a combination of Monte Carlo simulations and the sample-importance-resampling (SIR) algorithm to solve the inverse matrix problem without data on population structure. This approach was applied to the grey reef shark (Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos) from the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) in Australia to determine the demography of this population. Additionally, these outputs were applied to another heavily fished population from Papua New Guinea (PNG) that requires estimates of λ for fisheries management. The SIR analysis determined that natural mortality (M) and total mortality (Z) based on indirect methods have previously been overestimated for C. amblyrhynchos, leading to an underestimated λ. Updated distributions of Z and λ were produced for the GBR population and corrected obvious error in the demographic parameters for the PNG population. This approach provides opportunity for the inverse matrix approach to be applied more broadly to situations where information on population structure is lacking.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan J Smart
- SARDI Aquatic Sciences, 2 Hamra Avenue, West Beach, South Australia, 5024, Australia
- Centre for Sustainable Tropical Fisheries and Aquaculture, College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, 4108, Australia
| | - André E Punt
- School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington, Box 355020, Seattle, Washington, 98195-5020, USA
- CSIRO Oceans & Atmosphere, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
| | - Mario Espinoza
- Centro de Investigación en Ciencias del Mar y Limnología, Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica
- Escuela de Biología, Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica
| | - William T White
- CSIRO Oceans & Atmosphere, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
- Australian National Fish Collection, CSIRO National Research Collections Australia, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
| | - Colin A Simpfendorfer
- Centre for Sustainable Tropical Fisheries and Aquaculture, College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, 4108, Australia
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Spagnoletti BRM, Bennett LR, Kermode M, Wilopo SA. 'I wanted to enjoy our marriage first… but I got pregnant right away': a qualitative study of family planning understandings and decisions of women in urban Yogyakarta, Indonesia. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth 2018; 18:353. [PMID: 30165818 PMCID: PMC6117930 DOI: 10.1186/s12884-018-1991-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/25/2017] [Accepted: 08/22/2018] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Despite several decades of investment into family planning and maternal health systems strengthening, Indonesia's maternal mortality ratio remains among the highest in Southeast Asia. Among postpartum women unmet need for family planning is greater than at any other time, thus there is great potential to improve the reproductive health outcomes of Indonesian women through enhanced postpartum family planning access. This article explores the socially embedded nature of family planning choices in the Indonesian context, drawing on the experiences of a sample of urban dwelling and predominantly middle class women. METHODS This was an ethnographic study which explored the reproductive experiences of women residing in Yogyakarta City, and Sleman and Bantul regencies. Fieldwork was undertaken over 18 months from September 2014 to March 2016. This article draws on 31 in-depth interviews (IDIs) conducted with 20 women aged 21 to 38 years who had given birth less than two years prior. RESULTS Though there was great variance across women's reproductive trajectories, the majority had limited understandings of family planning, especially in relation to contraception. Societal norms pertaining to women's fertility and reproduction underpinned women's desires to become pregnant soon after marriage. Normative ideals concerning family size and the composition of families underpinned women's desires for a maximum of two to three children, with at least one child of each sex. Negotiations concerning timing of pregnancies and family size occurred within spousal relationships. The majority of women were using some form of fertility control to prevent or space pregnancies, with method choice decisions often informed by family members, friends and family planning providers. Quality of care among family planning providers was often lacking, perpetuating misinformation, and women's choices were not always respected. CONCLUSIONS Our analysis reveals the socially embedded nature of women's postpartum family planning understandings and choices, and the ways in which social and relational factors sometimes constrain and at other times support women's reproductive agency. We identify key areas for health sector reform to enhance women's understandings of postpartum family planning and improve family planning quality of care.
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Affiliation(s)
- Belinda Rina Marie Spagnoletti
- The Nossal Institute for Global Health, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, The University of Melbourne, 333 Exhibition Street, Melbourne, VIC 3000 Australia
- Center for Reproductive Health, Faculty of Medicine, Gadjah Mada University, Jalan Farmako Sekip Utara, Yogyakarta, 55281 Indonesia
| | - Linda Rae Bennett
- The Nossal Institute for Global Health, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, The University of Melbourne, 333 Exhibition Street, Melbourne, VIC 3000 Australia
| | - Michelle Kermode
- The Nossal Institute for Global Health, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, The University of Melbourne, 333 Exhibition Street, Melbourne, VIC 3000 Australia
| | - Siswanto Agus Wilopo
- Center for Reproductive Health, Faculty of Medicine, Gadjah Mada University, Jalan Farmako Sekip Utara, Yogyakarta, 55281 Indonesia
- Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Gadjah Mada University, Jalan Farmako Sekip Utara, Yogyakarta, 55281 Indonesia
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20
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Bhalala OG, Nath AP, Inouye M, Sibley CR. Identification of expression quantitative trait loci associated with schizophrenia and affective disorders in normal brain tissue. PLoS Genet 2018; 14:e1007607. [PMID: 30142156 PMCID: PMC6126875 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1007607] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2017] [Revised: 09/06/2018] [Accepted: 08/02/2018] [Indexed: 01/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Schizophrenia and the affective disorders, here comprising bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder, are psychiatric illnesses that lead to significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. Whilst understanding of their pathobiology remains limited, large case-control studies have recently identified single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with these disorders. However, discerning the functional effects of these SNPs has been difficult as the associated causal genes are unknown. Here we evaluated whether schizophrenia and affective disorder associated-SNPs are correlated with gene expression within human brain tissue. Specifically, to identify expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs), we leveraged disorder-associated SNPs identified from 11 genome-wide association studies with gene expression levels in post-mortem, neurologically-normal tissue from two independent human brain tissue expression datasets (UK Brain Expression Consortium (UKBEC) and Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx)). Utilizing stringent multi-region meta-analyses, we identified 2,224 cis-eQTLs associated with expression of 40 genes, including 11 non-coding RNAs. One cis-eQTL, rs16969968, results in a functionally disruptive missense mutation in CHRNA5, a schizophrenia-implicated gene. Importantly, comparing across tissues, we find that blood eQTLs capture < 10% of brain cis-eQTLs. Contrastingly, > 30% of brain-associated eQTLs are significant in tibial nerve. This study identifies putatively causal genes whose expression in region-specific tissue may contribute to the risk of schizophrenia and affective disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Oneil G. Bhalala
- Systems Genomics Lab, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- The Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne Health, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
- * E-mail: (OGB); (CRS)
| | - Artika P. Nath
- Systems Genomics Lab, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, The Peter Doherty Institute, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
- Cambridge Baker Systems Genomics Initiative, Baker Heart & Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Cambridge Baker Systems Genomics Initiative, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | | | - Michael Inouye
- Systems Genomics Lab, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Cambridge Baker Systems Genomics Initiative, Baker Heart & Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Cambridge Baker Systems Genomics Initiative, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
- Department of Clinical Pathology, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
- Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
- The Alan Turing Institute, British Library, London, United Kingdom
| | - Christopher R. Sibley
- Department of Clinical Pathology, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
- Department of Molecular Neuroscience, University College London Institute of Neurology, Russell Square House, Russell Square, London, United Kingdom
- Department of Medicine, Division of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London, Burlington Danes, London, United Kingdom
- * E-mail: (OGB); (CRS)
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McLean B, Blakeman M, Carey L, Ward R, Novak I, Valentine J, Blair E, Taylor S, Bear N, Bynevelt M, Basc E, Rose S, Reid L, Pannek K, Angeli J, Harpster K, Elliott C. Discovering the sense of touch: protocol for a randomised controlled trial examining the efficacy of a somatosensory discrimination intervention for children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy. BMC Pediatr 2018; 18:252. [PMID: 30064388 PMCID: PMC6069953 DOI: 10.1186/s12887-018-1217-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2017] [Accepted: 07/09/2018] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Of children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy, 75% have impaired somatosensory function, which contributes to learned non-use of the affected upper limb. Currently, motor learning approaches are used to improve upper-limb motor skills in these children, but few studies have examined the effect of any intervention to ameliorate somatosensory impairments. Recently, Sense© training was piloted with a paediatric sample, seven children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy, demonstrating statistically and clinically significant change in limb position sense, goal performance and bimanual hand-use. This paper describes a protocol for a Randomised Controlled Trial of Sense© for Kids training, hypothesising that its receipt will improve somatosensory discrimination ability more than placebo (dose-matched Goal Directed Therapy via Home Program). Secondary hypotheses include that it will alter brain activation in somatosensory processing regions, white-matter characteristics of the thalamocortical tracts and improve bimanual function, activity and participation more than Goal Directed Training via Home Program. METHODS AND DESIGN This is a single blind, randomised matched-pair, placebo-controlled trial. Participants will be aged 6-15 years with a confirmed description of hemiplegic cerebral palsy and somatosensory discrimination impairment, as measured by the sense©_assess Kids. Participants will be randomly allocated to receive 3h a week for 6 weeks of either Sense© for Kids or Goal Directed Therapy via Home Program. Children will be matched on age and severity of somatosensory discrimination impairment. The primary outcome will be somatosensory discrimination ability, measured by sense©_assess Kids score. Secondary outcomes will include degree of brain activation in response to a somatosensory task measured by functional MRI, changes in the white matter of the thalamocortical tract measured by diffusion MRI, bimanual motor function, activity and participation. DISCUSSION This study will assess the efficacy of an intervention to increase somatosensory discrimination ability in children with cerebral palsy. It will explore clinically important questions about the efficacy of intervening in somatosensation impairment to improve bimanual motor function, compared with focusing on motor impairment directly, and whether focusing on motor impairment alone can affect somatosensory ability. TRIAL REGISTRATION This trial is registered with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, registration number: ACTRN12618000348257. World Health Organisation universal trial number: U1111-1210-1726.
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Affiliation(s)
- Belinda McLean
- School of Adolescent and Child Health, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA Australia
- Kids Rehab Department, Perth Children’s Hospital, Perth, WA Australia
| | - Misty Blakeman
- Kids Rehab Department, Perth Children’s Hospital, Perth, WA Australia
| | - Leeanne Carey
- Department of Community and Clinical Allied Health, School of Allied Health, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC Australia
- Neurorehabilitation and Recovery, Stroke Division, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Melbourne, VIC Australia
| | - Roslyn Ward
- School of Occupational Therapy and Social Work, Curtin University, Perth, WA Australia
| | - Iona Novak
- Cerebral Palsy Alliance, Discipline of Paediatrics and Child Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW Australia
| | - Jane Valentine
- School of Adolescent and Child Health, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA Australia
- Kids Rehab Department, Perth Children’s Hospital, Perth, WA Australia
| | - Eve Blair
- Telethon Kids Institute, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA Australia
| | - Susan Taylor
- Kids Rehab Department, Perth Children’s Hospital, Perth, WA Australia
- School of Occupational Therapy and Social Work, Curtin University, Perth, WA Australia
| | - Natasha Bear
- Department of Clinical Research and Education, Child and Adolescent Health Services, Perth, WA Australia
| | - Michael Bynevelt
- Kids Rehab Department, Perth Children’s Hospital, Perth, WA Australia
- Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Perth, WA Australia
| | - Emma Basc
- Consumer Representative, Perth, WA Australia
| | - Stephen Rose
- Australian e-Health Research Centre, CSIRO, Brisbane, Queensland Australia
| | - Lee Reid
- Australian e-Health Research Centre, CSIRO, Brisbane, Queensland Australia
| | - Kerstin Pannek
- Australian e-Health Research Centre, CSIRO, Brisbane, Queensland Australia
| | - Jennifer Angeli
- School of Adolescent and Child Health, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA Australia
- Kids Rehab Department, Perth Children’s Hospital, Perth, WA Australia
| | - Karen Harpster
- Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio USA
| | - Catherine Elliott
- School of Occupational Therapy and Social Work, Curtin University, Perth, WA Australia
- Department of Clinical Research and Education, Child and Adolescent Health Services, Perth, WA Australia
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22
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Young C, Craig JC, Clapham K, Williams S, Williamson A. Stressful life events and resilience among carers of Aboriginal children in urban New South Wales: cross-sectional findings from the Study of Environment on Aboriginal Resilience and Child Health (SEARCH). BMJ Open 2018; 8:e021687. [PMID: 29880570 PMCID: PMC6009629 DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-021687] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVE In caregivers of urban Aboriginal children, to determine the frequency of major stressful life events, the proportion who meet criteria for resilience, and factors that are associated with resilience. DESIGN Cross-sectional survey. SETTING Four Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services located in urban or regional areas in New South Wales, Australia. PARTICIPANTS 574 caregivers of Aboriginal children participating in the Study of Environment on Aboriginal Resilience and Child Health. PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURE Resilience, defined as having experienced three or more stressful life events in the last 12 months, and having scores of ≤21 on the Kessler 10 Psychological Distress scale. RESULTS Over half (315, 55%) of the caregivers reported three or more stressful life events-the most common being a close family member who was hospitalised with a serious medical problem (259, 45%). Of the participants who experienced three or more stressful life events, almost three-quarters (227, 72%) met the criteria for resilience. Using multivariable analysis, two factors were independently associated with resilience: not having a physical health problem that limited normal activities (adjusted OR (aOR) 4.3; 95% CI 2.0 to 9.0), and not having problems caused by alcohol within the home (aOR 5.3; 95% CI 2.2 to 12.8). Having a child whose behaviour placed a great deal of burden on the family was associated with less resilience (aOR 0.25; 95% CI 0.09 to 0.68). CONCLUSIONS Caregivers of urban Aboriginal children experienced a large number of stressful events, the most common being the poor health of close family members, but most exhibited resilience. Resilience was associated with stable family environments and good physical health. The high number of stressful life events that caregivers experience is reflective of broader inequalities that Aboriginal communities face. The availability of easily accessible and long-term health and support services may go some way to reducing this inequality and improving social and emotional well-being for Aboriginal families.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christian Young
- Sydney School of Public Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Centre for Kidney Research, The Children's Hospital, Westmead, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Jonathan C Craig
- Sydney School of Public Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Centre for Kidney Research, The Children's Hospital, Westmead, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Kathleen Clapham
- Australian Health Services Research Institute, The University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Sandra Williams
- Tharawal Aboriginal Corporation, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
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Dann LM, McKerral JC, Smith RJ, Tobe SS, Paterson JS, Seymour JR, Oliver RL, Mitchell JG. Microbial micropatches within microbial hotspots. PLoS One 2018; 13:e0197224. [PMID: 29787564 PMCID: PMC5963804 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0197224] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2017] [Accepted: 04/28/2018] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
The spatial distributions of organism abundance and diversity are often heterogeneous. This includes the sub-centimetre distributions of microbes, which have 'hotspots' of high abundance, and 'coldspots' of low abundance. Previously we showed that 300 μl abundance hotspots, coldspots and background regions were distinct at all taxonomic levels. Here we build on these results by showing taxonomic micropatches within these 300 μl microscale hotspots, coldspots and background regions at the 1 μl scale. This heterogeneity among 1 μl subsamples was driven by heightened abundance of specific genera. The micropatches were most pronounced within hotspots. Micropatches were dominated by Pseudomonas, Bacteroides, Parasporobacterium and Lachnospiraceae incertae sedis, with Pseudomonas and Bacteroides being responsible for a shift in the most dominant genera in individual hotspot subsamples, representing up to 80.6% and 47.3% average abundance, respectively. The presence of these micropatches implies the ability these groups have to create, establish themselves in, or exploit heterogeneous microenvironments. These genera are often particle-associated, from which we infer that these micropatches are evidence for sub-millimetre aggregates and the aquatic polymer matrix. These findings support the emerging paradigm that the microscale distributions of planktonic microbes are numerically and taxonomically heterogeneous at scales of millimetres and less. We show that microscale microbial hotspots have internal structure within which specific local nutrient exchanges and cellular interactions might occur.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lisa M. Dann
- College of Science and Engineering at Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
- * E-mail:
| | - Jody C. McKerral
- School of Computer Science, Engineering and Mathematics at Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
| | - Renee J. Smith
- College of Science and Engineering at Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
| | - Shanan S. Tobe
- College of Science and Engineering at Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
| | - James S. Paterson
- College of Science and Engineering at Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
| | - Justin R. Seymour
- Plant Functional Biology and Climate Change Cluster (C3) at University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Rod L. Oliver
- CSIRO Land and Water Waite Research Institute, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
| | - James G. Mitchell
- College of Science and Engineering at Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
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Abstract
Humans can extract considerable information from scenes, even when these are presented extremely quickly. The ability of an experienced radiologist to rapidly detect an abnormality on a mammogram may build upon this general capacity. Although radiologists have been shown to be able to detect an abnormality 'above chance' at short durations, the extent to which abnormalities can be localised at brief presentations is less clear. Extending previous work, we presented radiologists with unilateral mammograms, 50% containing a mass, for 250 or 1000 ms. As the female breast varies with respect to the level of normal fibroglandular tissue, the images were categorised into high and low density (50% of each), resulting in difficult and easy searches, respectively. Participants were asked to decide whether there was an abnormality (detection) and then to locate the mass on a blank outline of the mammogram (localisation). We found both detection and localisation information for all conditions. Although there may be a dissociation between detection and localisation on a small proportion of trials, we find a number of factors that lead to the underestimation of localisation including stimulus variability, response imprecision and participant guesses. We emphasise the importance of taking these factors into account when interpreting results. The effect of density on detection and localisation highlights the importance of considering breast density in medical screening.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ann J. Carrigan
- Perception in Action Research Centre & Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition & Its Disorders, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
- Centre for Elite Performance, Expertise, and Training, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
| | - Susan G. Wardle
- Perception in Action Research Centre & Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition & Its Disorders, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
| | - Anina N. Rich
- Perception in Action Research Centre & Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition & Its Disorders, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
- Centre for Elite Performance, Expertise, and Training, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
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Chou L, Ellis L, Papandony M, Seneviwickrama KLMD, Cicuttini FM, Sullivan K, Teichtahl AJ, Wang Y, Briggs AM, Wluka AE. Patients' perceived needs of osteoarthritis health information: A systematic scoping review. PLoS One 2018; 13:e0195489. [PMID: 29659609 PMCID: PMC5901923 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0195489] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/15/2017] [Accepted: 03/23/2018] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Optimal management of osteoarthritis requires active patient participation. Understanding patients' perceived health information needs is important in order to optimize health service delivery and health outcomes in osteoarthritis. We aimed to review the existing literature regarding patients' perceived health information needs for OA. METHODS A systematic scoping review was performed of publications in MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL and PsycINFO (1990-2016). Descriptive data regarding study design and methodology were extracted and risk of bias assessed. Aggregates of patients' perceived needs of osteoarthritis health information were categorized. RESULTS 30 studies from 2876 were included: 16 qualitative, 11 quantitative and 3 mixed-methods studies. Three areas of perceived need emerged: (1) Need for clear communication: terms used were misunderstood or had unintended connotations. Patients wanted clear explanations. (2) Need for information from various sources: patients wanted accessible health professionals with specialist knowledge of arthritis. The Internet, whilst a source of information, was acknowledged to have dubious reliability. Print media, television, support groups, family and friends were utilised to fulfil diverse information needs. (3) Needs of information content: patients desired more information about diagnosis, prognosis, management and prevention. CONCLUSIONS Patients desire more information regarding the diagnosis of osteoarthritis, its impact on daily life and its long-term prognosis. They want more information not only about pharmacological management options, but also non-pharmacological options to help them manage their symptoms. Also, patients wanted this information to be delivered in a clear manner from multiple sources of health information. To address these gaps, more effective communication strategies are required. The use of a variety of sources and modes of delivery may enable the provision of complementary material to provide information more successfully, resulting in better patient adherence to guidelines and improved health outcomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Louisa Chou
- Department of Epidemiology and Preventative Medicine, School of Public Health and Preventative Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Lisa Ellis
- Department of Epidemiology and Preventative Medicine, School of Public Health and Preventative Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Michelle Papandony
- Department of Epidemiology and Preventative Medicine, School of Public Health and Preventative Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - K. L. Maheeka D. Seneviwickrama
- Department of Epidemiology and Preventative Medicine, School of Public Health and Preventative Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Flavia M. Cicuttini
- Department of Epidemiology and Preventative Medicine, School of Public Health and Preventative Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Kaye Sullivan
- Monash University Library, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Andrew J. Teichtahl
- Department of Epidemiology and Preventative Medicine, School of Public Health and Preventative Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Yuanyuan Wang
- Department of Epidemiology and Preventative Medicine, School of Public Health and Preventative Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Andrew M. Briggs
- School of Physiotherapy and Exercise Science, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
- Move: muscle, bone & joint health, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Anita E. Wluka
- Department of Epidemiology and Preventative Medicine, School of Public Health and Preventative Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
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Young S, Touyz S, Meyer C, Arcelus J, Rhodes P, Madden S, Pike K, Attia E, Crosby RD, Hay P. Relationships between compulsive exercise, quality of life, psychological distress and motivation to change in adults with anorexia nervosa. J Eat Disord 2018; 6:2. [PMID: 29441204 PMCID: PMC5799909 DOI: 10.1186/s40337-018-0188-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/12/2017] [Accepted: 01/25/2018] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND For people with anorexia nervosa (AN), compulsive exercise is characterized by extreme concerns about the perceived negative consequences of stopping/reducing exercise, dysregulation of affect, and inflexible exercise routines. It is associated with increased eating disorder psychopathology and poor clinical outcome. However, its relationships with two important clinical issues, quality of life (QoL) and motivation to change, are currently unknown. This study aimed to assess the cross-sectional relationships between compulsive exercise, QoL, psychological distress (anxiety and depressive symptoms, and obsessive-compulsive traits) and motivation to change in patients with AN. METHOD A total of 78 adults with AN participated in this study, which was nested within a randomized controlled trial of psychological treatments for AN. At baseline (pre-treatment), participants completed questionnaires assessing compulsive exercise, eating disorder (ED) psychopathology, QoL, psychological distress and motivation to change. RESULTS Baseline correlational analyses demonstrated a moderate positive relationship between compulsive exercise and ED psychopathology, and a weak positive relationship between compulsive exercise and psychological distress. There was a moderate negative relationship between compulsive exercise and eating disorder QoL. CONCLUSIONS These results indicate compulsive exercise is moderately associated with poorer QoL and weakly associated with higher distress. Targeting compulsive exercise in the treatment of anorexia nervosa may help reduce the burden of illness and improve patients' engagement in treatment. TRIAL REGISTRATION ACTRN12610000585022. Taking a LEAP forward in the treatment of anorexia nervosa: a randomized controlled trial. NHMRC grant: 634922.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah Young
- Griffith Taylor Building, School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
| | - Stephen Touyz
- School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
| | - Caroline Meyer
- WMG, University of Warwick, United Kingdom & University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, Coventry, UK
| | - Jon Arcelus
- Institute of Mental Health, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
- Leicestershire Adult Eating Disorders Service, Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust, Bennion Centre, Glenfield Hospital, Leicester, UK
| | - Paul Rhodes
- School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
| | - Sloane Madden
- School of Medicine, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
- Eating Disorders Service at the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network, Westmead, Australia
| | - Kathleen Pike
- Division of Behavioral Health Services and Policy Research, Columbia University, New York, USA
| | - Evelyn Attia
- Department of Psychiatry, College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, USA
| | - Ross D. Crosby
- Neuropsychiatric Research Institute, Fargo, North Dakota USA
- University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Fargo, North Dakota USA
| | - Phillipa Hay
- Translational Health Research Institute (THRI), School of Medicine, Western Sydney University, Campbelltown, Australia
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Holloway KL, Mohebbi M, Betson AG, Hans D, Hyde NK, Brennan-Olsen SL, Kotowicz MA, Pasco JA. Prediction of major osteoporotic and hip fractures in Australian men using FRAX scores adjusted with trabecular bone score. Osteoporos Int 2018; 29:101-108. [PMID: 28940052 DOI: 10.1007/s00198-017-4226-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2016] [Accepted: 09/14/2017] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
UNLABELLED There was no significant difference between the areas under receiver operating characteristics (AUROCs) and diagnostic indexes (sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value) for either major osteoporotic or hip fracture FRAX scores when comparing the unadjusted and trabecular bone score (TBS)-adjusted scores. INTRODUCTION FRAX 10-year probability of fracture can be calculated with adjustment for the TBS. Studies have shown that TBS can improve FRAX assessments in some populations. This study aimed to determine if TBS-adjusted FRAX score is better than the unadjusted score for predicting major osteoporotic fracture (MOF) and hip fracture in Australian men. METHODS This study involved 591 men aged 40-90 years, enrolled in the Geelong Osteoporosis Study. Incident MOF (n = 50) and hip fractures (n = 14) were ascertained using radiological reports. Median follow-up time was 9.5 years (IQR7.5-11.4). Diagnostic indexes were calculated using cut points of ≥20% for MOF and ≥3% for the hip. AUROC curves were also determined for adjusted and unadjusted scores as continuous variables. RESULTS Sensitivity was higher in the TBS-adjusted scores (MOF 4%, hip 78.6%) than the unadjusted scores (MOF 2%, hip 57.1%), with a decrease in specificity (MOF 98.9 vs 99.3%; hip 79.9 vs 83.9%). When considering TBS-adjusted and unadjusted FRAX as continuous scores, AUROCs were 0.738 and 0.740, respectively, for MOF and 0.849 and 0.848 for the hip. CONCLUSIONS Prediction of fractures by MOF or hip FRAX was not substantially improved by TBS adjustment. There was no difference in AUROCs or diagnostic indexes for cut-off points of ≥20 for MOF and ≥3% for hip FRAX.
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Affiliation(s)
- K L Holloway
- Deakin University, Geelong, Australia.
- Epi-Centre for Healthy Ageing (ECHA), IMPACT Strategic Research Centre, Deakin University,, Health Education and Research Building, PO Box 281, Geelong, VIC, 3220, Australia.
| | - M Mohebbi
- Deakin University, Geelong, Australia
| | | | - D Hans
- Center of Bone Diseases, Bone & Joint Department, Lausanne University Hospital, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - N K Hyde
- Deakin University, Geelong, Australia
| | - S L Brennan-Olsen
- Deakin University, Geelong, Australia
- The Institute for Health and Ageing, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, Australia
- Australian Institute for Musculoskeletal Science, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
| | - M A Kotowicz
- Deakin University, Geelong, Australia
- Barwon Health, Geelong, Australia
| | - J A Pasco
- Deakin University, Geelong, Australia
- Barwon Health, Geelong, Australia
- Melbourne Medical School-Western Campus, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
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Abstract
Background There is growing evidence that breastfeeding has short- and long-term cardiovascular health benefits for mothers. The objectives of this systematic review were to examine the association between breastfeeding and maternal cardiovascular risk factors and outcomes that have not previously been synthesized systematically, including metabolic syndrome, hypertension and cardiovascular disease. Methods and findings This systematic review meets PRISMA guidelines. The MEDLINE, EMBASE and CINAHL databases were systematically searched for relevant publications of any study design from the earliest publication date to March 2016. The reference lists from selected articles were reviewed, and forward and backward referencing were conducted. The methodological quality of reviewed articles was appraised using validated checklists. Twenty-one studies meeting the inclusion criteria examined the association between self-reported breastfeeding and one or more of the following outcomes: metabolic syndrome/metabolic risk factors (n = 10), inflammatory markers/adipokines (n = 2), hypertension (n = 7), subclinical cardiovascular disease (n = 2), prevalence/incidence of cardiovascular disease (n = 3) and cardiovascular disease mortality (n = 2). Overall, 19 studies (10 cross-sectional/retrospective, 9 prospective) reported significant protective effects of breastfeeding, nine studies (3 cross-sectional/retrospective, 5 prospective, 1 cluster randomized controlled trial) reported non-significant findings and none reported detrimental effects of breastfeeding. In most studies reporting significant associations, breastfeeding remained associated with both short- and long-term maternal cardiovascular health risk factors/outcomes, even after covariate adjustment. Findings from several studies suggested that the effects of breastfeeding may diminish with age and a dose-response association between breastfeeding and several metabolic risk factors. However, further longitudinal studies, including studies that measure exclusive breastfeeding, are needed to confirm these findings. Conclusions The evidence from this review suggests that breastfeeding is associated with cardiovascular health benefits. However, results should be interpreted with caution as the evidence gathered for each individual outcome was limited by the small number of observational studies. Additional prospective studies are needed. PROSPERO registration number CRD42016047766.
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Affiliation(s)
- Binh Nguyen
- Prevention Research Collaboration, Sydney School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, New South Wales, Australia
- * E-mail:
| | - Kai Jin
- Sydney Nursing School, Charles Perkins Centre, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Ding Ding
- Prevention Research Collaboration, Sydney School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, New South Wales, Australia
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Woodcock TM, Frugier T, Nguyen TT, Semple BD, Bye N, Massara M, Savino B, Besio R, Sobacchi C, Locati M, Morganti-Kossmann MC. The scavenging chemokine receptor ACKR2 has a significant impact on acute mortality rate and early lesion development after traumatic brain injury. PLoS One 2017; 12:e0188305. [PMID: 29176798 PMCID: PMC5703564 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0188305] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/09/2017] [Accepted: 11/04/2017] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
The atypical chemokine receptor ACKR2 promotes resolution of acute inflammation by operating as a scavenger receptor for inflammatory CC chemokines in several experimental models of inflammatory disorders, however its role in the brain remains unclear. Based on our previous reports of increased expression of inflammatory chemokines and their corresponding receptors following traumatic brain injury (TBI), we hypothesised that ACKR2 modulates neuroinflammation following brain trauma and that its deletion exacerbates cellular inflammation and chemokine production. We demonstrate increased CCL2 and ACKR2 mRNA expression in post-mortem human brain, whereby ACKR2 mRNA levels correlated with later times post-TBI. This data is consistent with the transient upregulation of ACKR2 observed in mouse brain after closed head injury (CHI). As compared to WT animals, ACKR2-/- mice showed a higher mortality rate after CHI, while the neurological outcome in surviving mice was similar. At day 1 post-injury, ACKR2-/- mice displayed aggravated lesion volume and no differences in CCL2 expression and macrophage recruitment relative to WT mice. Reciprocal regulation of ACKR2 and CCL2 expression was explored in cultured astrocytes, which are recognized as the major source of CCL2 and also express ACKR2. ACKR2 mRNA increased as early as 2 hours after an inflammatory challenge in WT astrocytes. As expected, CCL2 expression also dramatically increased at 4 hours in WT astrocytes but was significantly lower in ACKR2-/- astrocytes, possibly indicating a co-regulation of CCL2 and ACKR2 in these cells. Conversely, in vivo, CCL2 mRNA/protein levels were increased similarly in ACKR2-/- and WT brains at 4 and 12 hours after CHI, in line with the lack of differences in cerebral macrophage recruitment and neurological recovery. In conclusion, ACKR2 is induced after TBI and has a significant impact on mortality and lesion development acutely following CHI, while its role in chemokine expression, macrophage activation, brain pathology, and neurological recovery at later time-points is minor. Concordant to evidence in multiple sclerosis experimental models, our data corroborate a distinct role for ACKR2 in cerebral inflammatory processes compared to its reported functions in peripheral tissues.
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MESH Headings
- Animals
- Astrocytes/metabolism
- Astrocytes/pathology
- Bone and Bones/pathology
- Brain/metabolism
- Brain/pathology
- Brain/physiopathology
- Brain Injuries, Traumatic/genetics
- Brain Injuries, Traumatic/metabolism
- Brain Injuries, Traumatic/mortality
- Brain Injuries, Traumatic/physiopathology
- Cells, Cultured
- Chemokine CCL2/genetics
- Chemokine CCL2/metabolism
- Gene Deletion
- Humans
- Inflammation/pathology
- Macrophages/metabolism
- Macrophages/pathology
- Male
- Mice, Inbred C57BL
- Mortality
- RNA, Messenger/genetics
- RNA, Messenger/metabolism
- Receptors, Chemokine/genetics
- Receptors, Chemokine/metabolism
- Recovery of Function
- Up-Regulation/genetics
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas M. Woodcock
- National Trauma Research Institute, The Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, Australia
- Department of Surgery, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Tony Frugier
- Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Melboune, Australia
| | - Tan Thanh Nguyen
- National Trauma Research Institute, The Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, Australia
- Department of Surgery, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Bridgette Deanne Semple
- Department of Medicine, Royal Melbourne Hospital, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Nicole Bye
- Division of Pharmacy, School of Medicine, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia
| | - Matteo Massara
- Humanitas Clinical and Research Center, Rozzano, Italy
- Department of Medical Biotechnologies and Translational Medicine, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
| | - Benedetta Savino
- Humanitas Clinical and Research Center, Rozzano, Italy
- Department of Medical Biotechnologies and Translational Medicine, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
| | - Roberta Besio
- Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy
| | - Cristina Sobacchi
- Humanitas Clinical and Research Center, Rozzano, Italy
- Istituto di Ricerca Genetica e Biomedica Milan Unit, National Research Council, Milan, Italy
| | - Massimo Locati
- Humanitas Clinical and Research Center, Rozzano, Italy
- Department of Medical Biotechnologies and Translational Medicine, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
- * E-mail: (MCMK); (ML)
| | - Maria Cristina Morganti-Kossmann
- Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, and Australian New Zealand Intensive Care Research Centre, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
- Barrow Neurological Institute, Department of Child Health, University of Arizona, Phoenix, AZ, United States of America
- * E-mail: (MCMK); (ML)
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30
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Arentz S, Smith CA, Abbott J, Bensoussan A. Nutritional supplements and herbal medicines for women with polycystic ovary syndrome; a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Complement Altern Med 2017; 17:500. [PMID: 29178904 PMCID: PMC5702141 DOI: 10.1186/s12906-017-2011-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/12/2017] [Accepted: 11/16/2017] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common, reproductive endocrinopathy associated with serious short and long term health risks. Many women with PCOS use ingestible complementary medicines. This systematic review examined the effect on menstrual regulation and adverse effects from randomised controlled trials. METHODS Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that compared herbal or nutritional supplements to placebo or active controls in women with PCOS were eligible for inclusion. Electronic databases were searched to July 2017. Study selection and assessment of quality were conducted independently by two review authors. RESULTS Twenty four studies (1406 women) investigating seven nutritional supplements and four herbal medicines were included. No one study was assessed as having a low risk of bias. Four trials reported on the primary endpoint menstrual regulation. There was no evidence on improved menstrual regularity for calcium plus vitamin D compared to Metformin (RR: 0.66, 95% CI 0.35 to 1.23, p = 0.19), reduced amenorrhoea for Camellia sinensis compared to placebo (RR: 0.17, 95% CI 0.02 to 1.72, p = 0.13) and no difference in the number of menses per month for Cinnamomum sp. against placebo (MD 0.05, 95% CI -0.36 to 1.36, p = 0.26). Adverse effects were investigated in seven studies (164 women). Mild adverse effects were found for Cinnamomum sp. compared to placebo (17 women, RR: 0.36, 95% CI 0.03 to 0.70, p = 0.03). No difference was found for adverse effects between inositol, B complex vitamins, vitamin D, chromium and placebo. Improved reproduction, metabolic hormones and hyperandrogenism was found for inositol and improved cholesterol for omega three fish oils. CONCLUSION There is no high quality evidence to support the effectiveness of nutritional supplements and herbal medicine for women with PCOS and evidence of safety is lacking. High quality trials of nutritional supplements and herbal medicines examining menstrual regulation and adverse effects in women with PCOS are needed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Susan Arentz
- National Institute of Complementary Medicine, Western Sydney University, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith, NSW 2751 Australia
| | - Caroline A. Smith
- National Institute of Complementary Medicine, Western Sydney University, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith, NSW 2751 Australia
| | - Jason Abbott
- School of Women’s and Children’s Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
| | - Alan Bensoussan
- National Institute of Complementary Medicine, Western Sydney University, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith, NSW 2751 Australia
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31
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Chalmers AD, Bursill CA, Myerscough MR. Nonlinear dynamics of early atherosclerotic plaque formation may determine the efficacy of high density lipoproteins (HDL) in plaque regression. PLoS One 2017; 12:e0187674. [PMID: 29161303 PMCID: PMC5697811 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0187674] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2017] [Accepted: 10/24/2017] [Indexed: 01/27/2023] Open
Abstract
We use a computational model to explore the effect of foam cell accumulation on plaque regression following an increase in high density lipoprotein (HDL) influx into the plaque. Atherosclerotic plaque formation is the outcome of cellular and cytokine responses to low density lipoproteins (LDL) that penetrate the artery wall following an injury to the endothelium and become modified. We modelled the cells and cytokines that are most important in plaque formation using partial differential equations. The model includes monocytes and macrophages, foam cells, macrophage chemoattractants, endothelium-stimulating cytokines, modified low density lipoproteins (mod LDL) and HDL. We included interactions both at the endothelium surface and inside the artery wall. The model predicts that when HDL influx into a well-established plaque with large numbers of foam cells is increased, the plaque may not regress but may continue to grow at a slower rate. If HDL influx is increased when a model plaque is recently established and has fewer foam cells, then the plaque does regress. If modLDL influx into the plaque is lowered at the same time that HDL influx increased or the capacity of the HDL to remove cholesterol from foam cells is increased, then the plaque is more likely to regress. The predictions of the model are in qualitative agreement with experimental studies in mice and rabbits. The results suggest that the intrinsic dynamics of reverse cholesterol transport by HDL are important in determining the success of HDL raising in promoting plaque regression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander D. Chalmers
- School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Christina A. Bursill
- South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
| | - Mary R. Myerscough
- School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
- * E-mail:
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32
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Suárez R, Paolino A, Kozulin P, Fenlon LR, Morcom LR, Englebright R, O’Hara PJ, Murray PJ, Richards LJ. Development of body, head and brain features in the Australian fat-tailed dunnart (Sminthopsis crassicaudata; Marsupialia: Dasyuridae); A postnatal model of forebrain formation. PLoS One 2017; 12:e0184450. [PMID: 28880940 PMCID: PMC5589244 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0184450] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/23/2017] [Accepted: 08/24/2017] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Most of our understanding of forebrain development comes from research of eutherian mammals, such as rodents, primates, and carnivores. However, as the cerebral cortex forms largely prenatally, observation and manipulation of its development has required invasive and/or ex vivo procedures. Marsupials, on the other hand, are born at comparatively earlier stages of development and most events of forebrain formation occur once attached to the teat, thereby permitting continuous and non-invasive experimental access. Here, we take advantage of this aspect of marsupial biology to establish and characterise a resourceful laboratory model of forebrain development: the fat-tailed dunnart (Sminthopsis crassicaudata), a mouse-sized carnivorous Australian marsupial. We present an anatomical description of the postnatal development of the body, head and brain in dunnarts, and provide a staging system compatible with human and mouse developmental stages. As compared to eutherians, the orofacial region develops earlier in dunnarts, while forebrain development is largely protracted, extending for more than 40 days versus ca. 15 days in mice. We discuss the benefits of fat-tailed dunnarts as laboratory animals in studies of developmental biology, with an emphasis on how their accessibility in the pouch can help address new experimental questions, especially regarding mechanisms of brain development and evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rodrigo Suárez
- The University of Queensland, Queensland Brain Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
- * E-mail: (RS); (LJR)
| | - Annalisa Paolino
- The University of Queensland, Queensland Brain Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Peter Kozulin
- The University of Queensland, Queensland Brain Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Laura R. Fenlon
- The University of Queensland, Queensland Brain Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Laura R. Morcom
- The University of Queensland, Queensland Brain Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Robert Englebright
- The University of Queensland, School of Agriculture & Food Science, Gatton, Queensland, Australia
| | - Patricia J. O’Hara
- The University of Queensland, School of Agriculture & Food Science, Gatton, Queensland, Australia
| | - Peter J. Murray
- The University of Queensland, School of Agriculture & Food Science, Gatton, Queensland, Australia
| | - Linda J. Richards
- The University of Queensland, Queensland Brain Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
- The University of Queensland, School of Biomedical Sciences, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
- * E-mail: (RS); (LJR)
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33
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Armour M, Dahlen HG, Zhu X, Farquhar C, Smith CA. The role of treatment timing and mode of stimulation in the treatment of primary dysmenorrhea with acupuncture: An exploratory randomised controlled trial. PLoS One 2017; 12:e0180177. [PMID: 28700680 PMCID: PMC5507497 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0180177] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/22/2016] [Accepted: 05/18/2017] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVES We examined the effect of changing treatment timing and the use of manual, electro acupuncture on the symptoms of primary dysmenorrhea. METHODS A randomised controlled trial was performed with four arms, low frequency manual acupuncture (LF-MA), high frequency manual acupuncture (HF-MA), low frequency electro acupuncture (LF-EA) and high frequency electro acupuncture (HF-EA). A manualised trial protocol was used to allow differentiation and individualized treatment over three months. A total of 74 women were randomly assigned to one of the four groups (LF-MA n = 19, HF-MA n = 18, LF-EA n = 18, HF-EA n = 19). Twelve treatments were performed over three menstrual cycles, either once per week (LF groups) or three times in the week prior to menses (HF groups). All groups received a treatment in the first 48 hours of menses. The primary outcome was the reduction in peak menstrual pain at 12 months from trial entry. RESULTS During the treatment period and nine month follow-up all groups showed statistically significant (p < .001) reductions in peak and average menstrual pain compared to baseline but there were no differences between groups (p > 0.05). Health related quality of life increased significantly in six domains in groups having high frequency of treatment compared to two domains in low frequency groups. Manual acupuncture groups required less analgesic medication than electro-acupuncture groups (p = 0.02). HF-MA was most effective in reducing secondary menstrual symptoms compared to both-EA groups (p<0.05). CONCLUSION Acupuncture treatment reduced menstrual pain intensity and duration after three months of treatment and this was sustained for up to one year after trial entry. The effect of changing mode of stimulation or frequency of treatment on menstrual pain was not significant. This may be due to a lack of power. The role of acupuncture stimulation on menstrual pain needs to be investigated in appropriately powered randomised controlled trials.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mike Armour
- The National Institute of Complementary Medicine, Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia
- * E-mail:
| | - Hannah G. Dahlen
- School of Nursing and Midwifery, Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia
| | - Xiaoshu Zhu
- The National Institute of Complementary Medicine, Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia
| | - Cindy Farquhar
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
| | - Caroline A. Smith
- The National Institute of Complementary Medicine, Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia
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34
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Ghazanfar S, Vuocolo T, Morrison JL, Nicholas LM, McMillen IC, Yang JYH, Buckley MJ, Tellam RL. Gene expression allelic imbalance in ovine brown adipose tissue impacts energy homeostasis. PLoS One 2017; 12:e0180378. [PMID: 28665992 PMCID: PMC5493397 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0180378] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/12/2016] [Accepted: 06/14/2017] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Heritable trait variation within a population of organisms is largely governed by DNA variations that impact gene transcription and protein function. Identifying genetic variants that affect complex functional traits is a primary aim of population genetics studies, especially in the context of human disease and agricultural production traits. The identification of alleles directly altering mRNA expression and thereby biological function is challenging due to difficulty in isolating direct effects of cis-acting genetic variations from indirect trans-acting genetic effects. Allele specific gene expression or allelic imbalance in gene expression (AI) occurring at heterozygous loci provides an opportunity to identify genes directly impacted by cis-acting genetic variants as indirect trans-acting effects equally impact the expression of both alleles. However, the identification of genes showing AI in the context of the expression of all genes remains a challenge due to a variety of technical and statistical issues. The current study focuses on the discovery of genes showing AI using single nucleotide polymorphisms as allelic reporters. By developing a computational and statistical process that addressed multiple analytical challenges, we ranked 5,809 genes for evidence of AI using RNA-Seq data derived from brown adipose tissue samples from a cohort of late gestation fetal lambs and then identified a conservative subgroup of 1,293 genes. Thus, AI was extensive, representing approximately 25% of the tested genes. Genes associated with AI were enriched for multiple Gene Ontology (GO) terms relating to lipid metabolism, mitochondrial function and the extracellular matrix. These functions suggest that cis-acting genetic variations causing AI in the population are preferentially impacting genes involved in energy homeostasis and tissue remodelling. These functions may contribute to production traits likely to be under genetic selection in the population.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shila Ghazanfar
- Data61, CSIRO, North Ryde, NSW, Australia
- School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
- * E-mail: (SG); (RLT)
| | - Tony Vuocolo
- CSIRO Agriculture, Queensland Biosciences Precinct, St Lucia, QLD, Australia
| | - Janna L. Morrison
- Early Origins of Adult Health Research Group, School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences, Sansom Institute for Health Research, The University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, Australia
| | - Lisa M. Nicholas
- Early Origins of Adult Health Research Group, School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences, Sansom Institute for Health Research, The University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, Australia
| | - Isabella C. McMillen
- Early Origins of Adult Health Research Group, School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences, Sansom Institute for Health Research, The University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, Australia
| | - Jean Y. H. Yang
- School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | | | - Ross L. Tellam
- CSIRO Agriculture, Queensland Biosciences Precinct, St Lucia, QLD, Australia
- * E-mail: (SG); (RLT)
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35
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Arriaga ME, Vajdic CM, Canfell K, MacInnis R, Hull P, Magliano DJ, Banks E, Giles GG, Cumming RG, Byles JE, Taylor AW, Shaw JE, Price K, Hirani V, Mitchell P, Adelstein BA, Laaksonen MA. The burden of cancer attributable to modifiable risk factors: the Australian cancer-PAF cohort consortium. BMJ Open 2017; 7:e016178. [PMID: 28615275 PMCID: PMC5726120 DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-016178] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/30/2017] [Revised: 03/28/2017] [Accepted: 04/11/2017] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
PURPOSE To estimate the Australian cancer burden attributable to lifestyle-related risk factors and their combinations using a novel population attributable fraction (PAF) method that accounts for competing risk of death, risk factor interdependence and statistical uncertainty. PARTICIPANTS 365 173 adults from seven Australian cohort studies. We linked pooled harmonised individual participant cohort data with population-based cancer and death registries to estimate exposure-cancer and exposure-death associations. Current Australian exposure prevalence was estimated from representative external sources. To illustrate the utility of the new PAF method, we calculated fractions of cancers causally related to body fatness or both tobacco and alcohol consumption avoidable in the next 10 years by risk factor modifications, comparing them with fractions produced by traditional PAF methods. FINDINGS TO DATE Over 10 years of follow-up, we observed 27 483 incident cancers and 22 078 deaths. Of cancers related to body fatness (n=9258), 13% (95% CI 11% to 16%) could be avoided if those currently overweight or obese had body mass index of 18.5-24.9 kg/m2. Of cancers causally related to both tobacco and alcohol (n=4283), current or former smoking explains 13% (11% to 16%) and consuming more than two alcoholic drinks per day explains 6% (5% to 8%). The two factors combined explain 16% (13% to 19%): 26% (21% to 30%) in men and 8% (4% to 11%) in women. Corresponding estimates using the traditional PAF method were 20%, 31% and 10%. Our PAF estimates translate to 74 000 avoidable body fatness-related cancers and 40 000 avoidable tobacco- and alcohol-related cancers in Australia over the next 10 years (2017-2026). Traditional PAF methods not accounting for competing risk of death and interdependence of risk factors may overestimate PAFs and avoidable cancers. FUTURE PLANS We will rank the most important causal factors and their combinations for a spectrum of cancers and inform cancer control activities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria E Arriaga
- Centre for Big Data Research in Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
| | - Claire M Vajdic
- Centre for Big Data Research in Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
| | - Karen Canfell
- Cancer Research Division, Cancer Council New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
- School of Public Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
- Prince of Wales Clinical School, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
| | - Robert MacInnis
- Cancer Epidemiology Centre, Cancer Council Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Peter Hull
- Centre for Big Data Research in Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
| | - Dianna J Magliano
- Diabetes and Population Health Laboratory, Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Emily Banks
- ANU College of Medicine, Biology and Environment, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
| | - Graham G Giles
- Cancer Epidemiology Centre, Cancer Council Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Robert G Cumming
- School of Public Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
- ANZAC Research Institute, University of Sydney and Concord Hospital, Sydney, Australia
| | - Julie E Byles
- Research Centre for Gender, Health and Ageing, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia
| | - Anne W Taylor
- School of Medicine, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia
| | - Jonathan E Shaw
- Clinical Diabetes Laboratory, Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Kay Price
- School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia
| | - Vasant Hirani
- School of Public Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
- School of Life and Environmental Sciences Charles Perkins Centre, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
| | - Paul Mitchell
- Centre for Vision Research, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
| | | | - Maarit A Laaksonen
- Centre for Big Data Research in Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
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36
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Pendergast FJ, Ridgers ND, Worsley A, McNaughton SA. Evaluation of a smartphone food diary application using objectively measured energy expenditure. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act 2017; 14:30. [PMID: 28288657 PMCID: PMC5348892 DOI: 10.1186/s12966-017-0488-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 55] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/21/2016] [Accepted: 03/06/2017] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Dietary assessment methods are limited in their ability to adequately measure food and beverage consumption. Smartphone applications may provide a novel method of dietary assessment to capture real-time food intake and the contextual factors surrounding eating occasions. The aim of this study is to evaluate the capability of a Smartphone meal diary app ("FoodNow") to measure food intake using a validated objective method for assessing energy expenditure among young adults. METHODS Participants (18-30 years) used FoodNow over four non-consecutive days recording all eating occasions through a combination of written text, and/or optional images and voice recordings. A series of contextual questions were also completed. Participants wore the validated SenseWear Armband (BodyMedia Inc, USA) during the same period to measure free-living energy expenditure. Intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) estimated the reliability of FoodNow to measure estimated energy intake compared to measured energy expenditure. RESULTS Ninety participants (71 female, 19 male; mean age = 24.9 ± 4.1 years) were recruited to use the FoodNow app to record their eating occasions. Thirteen were excluded as they did not meet minimum requirements for number of reporting days (n = 3) or SenseWear Armband wear time (5 days of 11 h), while 21 participants were excluded after being identified as mis-reporters (Huang method). Among the remaining sample (n = 56), reliability between estimated energy intake and measured energy expenditure was high (ICC, 95% CI: 0.75, 0.61-0.84). CONCLUSIONS FoodNow is a suitable method for capturing estimated energy intake data from young adults. Despite wide levels of agreement at the individual level (-3709 kJ to 2056 kJ), at the group level, FoodNow appears to have potential as a dietary assessment tool. This new dietary assessment method will offer an alternative and novel method of dietary assessment which is capable of collecting both estimated energy intake and contextual factors surrounding eating occasions. Information collected may be used to inform future public health messages or research interventions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Felicity J. Pendergast
- Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN), School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Deakin University, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood, Victoria 3125 Australia
| | - Nicola D. Ridgers
- Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN), School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Deakin University, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood, Victoria 3125 Australia
| | - Anthony Worsley
- Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN), School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Deakin University, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood, Victoria 3125 Australia
| | - Sarah A. McNaughton
- Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN), School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Deakin University, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood, Victoria 3125 Australia
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37
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Dongés SC, D’Amico JM, Butler JE, Taylor JL. The effects of cervical transcutaneous spinal direct current stimulation on motor pathways supplying the upper limb in humans. PLoS One 2017; 12:e0172333. [PMID: 28225813 PMCID: PMC5321432 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0172333] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2015] [Accepted: 01/08/2017] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Non-invasive, weak direct current stimulation can induce changes in excitability of underlying neural tissue. Many studies have used transcranial direct current stimulation to induce changes in the brain, however more recently a number of studies have used transcutaneous spinal direct current stimulation to induce changes in the spinal cord. This study further characterises the effects following cervical transcutaneous spinal direct current stimulation on motor pathways supplying the upper limb. In Study 1, on two separate days, participants (n = 12, 5 F) received 20 minutes of either real or sham direct current stimulation at 3 mA through electrodes placed in an anterior-posterior configuration over the neck (anode anterior). Biceps brachii, flexor carpi radialis and first dorsal interosseous responses to transcranial magnetic stimulation (motor evoked potentials) and cervicomedullary stimulation (cervicomedullary motor evoked potentials) were measured before and after real or sham stimulation. In Study 2, on two separate days, participants (n = 12, 7 F) received either real or sham direct current stimulation in the same way as for Study 1. Before and after real or sham stimulation, median nerve stimulation elicited M waves and H reflexes in the flexor carpi radialis. H-reflex recruitment curves and homosynaptic depression of the H reflex were assessed. Results show that the effects of real and sham direct current stimulation did not differ for motor evoked potentials or cervicomedullary motor evoked potentials for any muscle, nor for H-reflex recruitment curve parameters or homosynaptic depression. Cervical transcutaneous spinal direct current stimulation with the parameters described here does not modify motor responses to corticospinal stimulation nor does it modify H reflexes of the upper limb. These results are important for the emerging field of transcutaneous spinal direct current stimulation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Siobhan C. Dongés
- Neuroscience Research Australia, Barker Street, Randwick, New South Wales, Australia
- University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Jessica M. D’Amico
- Neuroscience Research Australia, Barker Street, Randwick, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Jane E. Butler
- Neuroscience Research Australia, Barker Street, Randwick, New South Wales, Australia
- University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Janet L. Taylor
- Neuroscience Research Australia, Barker Street, Randwick, New South Wales, Australia
- University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
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38
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Wölwer CB, Gödde N, Pase LB, Elsum IA, Lim KYB, Sacirbegovic F, Walkley CR, Ellis S, Ohno S, Matsuzaki F, Russell SM, Humbert PO. The Asymmetric Cell Division Regulators Par3, Scribble and Pins/Gpsm2 Are Not Essential for Erythroid Development or Enucleation. PLoS One 2017; 12:e0170295. [PMID: 28095473 PMCID: PMC5240992 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0170295] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/07/2016] [Accepted: 01/03/2017] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Erythroid enucleation is the process by which the future red blood cell disposes of its nucleus prior to entering the blood stream. This key event during red blood cell development has been likened to an asymmetric cell division (ACD), by which the enucleating erythroblast divides into two very different daughter cells of alternate molecular composition, a nucleated cell that will be removed by associated macrophages, and the reticulocyte that will mature to the definitive erythrocyte. Here we investigated gene expression of members of the Par, Scribble and Pins/Gpsm2 asymmetric cell division complexes in erythroid cells, and functionally tested their role in erythroid enucleation in vivo and ex vivo. Despite their roles in regulating ACD in other contexts, we found that these polarity regulators are not essential for erythroid enucleation, nor for erythroid development in vivo. Together our results put into question a role for cell polarity and asymmetric cell division in erythroid enucleation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christina B. Wölwer
- Cell Cycle and Cancer Genetics, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, East Melbourne, Australia
- La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science, Department of Biochemistry and Genetics, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Nathan Gödde
- Cell Cycle and Cancer Genetics, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, East Melbourne, Australia
- La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science, Department of Biochemistry and Genetics, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Luke B. Pase
- Cell Cycle and Cancer Genetics, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, East Melbourne, Australia
| | - Imogen A. Elsum
- Cell Cycle and Cancer Genetics, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, East Melbourne, Australia
| | - Krystle Y. B. Lim
- La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science, Department of Biochemistry and Genetics, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Faruk Sacirbegovic
- Immune Signaling Laboratory, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, East Melbourne, Australia
- Department of Pathology, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - Carl R. Walkley
- St. Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research, Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia
- Department of Medicine, St. Vincent’s Hospital, The University of Melbourne, Fitzroy, Victoria
| | - Sarah Ellis
- Immune Signaling Laboratory, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, East Melbourne, Australia
- Department of Pathology, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - Shigeo Ohno
- Department of Molecular Biology, Yokohama City University Graduate School of Medical Science, Yokohama, Japan
| | - Fumio Matsuzaki
- Laboratory for Cell Asymmetry, RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology, Kobe, Japan
| | - Sarah M. Russell
- Department of Pathology, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
- Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
- Centre for Micro-Photonics, Faculty of Engineering and Industrial Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Australia
| | - Patrick O. Humbert
- Cell Cycle and Cancer Genetics, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, East Melbourne, Australia
- La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science, Department of Biochemistry and Genetics, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia
- Department of Pathology, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
- Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
- * E-mail:
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Brakenridge CL, Fjeldsoe BS, Young DC, Winkler EAH, Dunstan DW, Straker LM, Healy GN. Evaluating the effectiveness of organisational-level strategies with or without an activity tracker to reduce office workers' sitting time: a cluster-randomised trial. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act 2016; 13:115. [PMID: 27814738 PMCID: PMC5097432 DOI: 10.1186/s12966-016-0441-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 66] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2016] [Accepted: 10/26/2016] [Indexed: 02/03/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Office workers engage in high levels of sitting time. Effective, context-specific, and scalable strategies are needed to support widespread sitting reduction. This study aimed to evaluate organisational-support strategies alone or in combination with an activity tracker to reduce sitting in office workers. METHODS From one organisation, 153 desk-based office workers were cluster-randomised (by team) to organisational support only (e.g., manager support, emails; 'Group ORG', 9 teams, 87 participants), or organisational support plus LUMOback activity tracker ('Group ORG + Tracker', 9 teams, 66 participants). The waist-worn tracker provided real-time feedback and prompts on sitting and posture. ActivPAL3 monitors were used to ascertain primary outcomes (sitting time during work- and overall hours) and other activity outcomes: prolonged sitting time (≥30 min bouts), time between sitting bouts, standing time, stepping time, and number of steps. Health and work outcomes were assessed by questionnaire. Changes within each group (three- and 12 months) and differences between groups were analysed by linear mixed models. Missing data were multiply imputed. RESULTS At baseline, participants (46 % women, 23-58 years) spent (mean ± SD) 74.3 ± 9.7 % of their workday sitting, 17.5 ± 8.3 % standing and 8.1 ± 2.7 % stepping. Significant (p < 0.05) reductions in sitting time (both work and overall) were observed within both groups, but only at 12 months. For secondary activity outcomes, Group ORG significantly improved in work prolonged sitting, time between sitting bouts and standing time, and overall prolonged sitting time (12 months), and in overall standing time (three- and 12 months); while Group ORG + Tracker, significantly improved in work prolonged sitting, standing, stepping and overall standing time (12 months). Adjusted for confounders, the only significant between-group differences were a greater stepping time and step count for Group ORG + Tracker relative to Group ORG (+20.6 min/16 h day, 95 % CI: 3.1, 38.1, p = 0.021; +846.5steps/16 h day, 95 % CI: 67.8, 1625.2, p = 0.033) at 12 months. Observed changes in health and work outcomes were small and not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS Organisational-support strategies with or without an activity tracker resulted in improvements in sitting, prolonged sitting and standing; adding a tracker enhanced stepping changes. Improvements were most evident at 12 months, suggesting the organisational-support strategies may have taken time to embed within the organisation. TRIAL REGISTRATION Australian New Zealand Clinical Trial Registry: ACTRN12614000252617 . Registered 10 March 2014.
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Affiliation(s)
- C. L. Brakenridge
- School of Public Health, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
| | - B. S. Fjeldsoe
- School of Public Health, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
| | | | - E. A. H. Winkler
- School of Public Health, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
| | - D. W. Dunstan
- School of Public Health, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
- Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, Australia
- School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
- School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia
- Department of Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
- School of Sport Science, Exercise and Health, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
- Mary MacKillop Institute for Health Research, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, Australia
| | - L. M. Straker
- School of Physiotherapy and Exercise Science, Curtin University, Perth, Australia
| | - G. N. Healy
- School of Public Health, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
- Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, Australia
- School of Physiotherapy and Exercise Science, Curtin University, Perth, Australia
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Moulton CR, House MJ, Lye V, Tang CI, Krawiec M, Joseph DJ, Denham JW, Ebert MA. Prostate external beam radiotherapy combined with high-dose-rate brachytherapy: dose-volume parameters from deformably-registered plans correlate with late gastrointestinal complications. Radiat Oncol 2016; 11:144. [PMID: 27799048 PMCID: PMC5087115 DOI: 10.1186/s13014-016-0719-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2016] [Accepted: 10/17/2016] [Indexed: 01/05/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Derivation of dose-volume correlated with toxicity for multi-modal treatments can be difficult due to the perceived need for voxel-by-voxel dose accumulation. With data available for a single-institution cohort with long follow-up, an investigation was undertaken into rectal dose-volume effects for gastrointestinal toxicities after deformably-registering each phase of a combined external beam radiotherapy (EBRT)/high-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy prostate treatment. METHODS One hundred and eighteen patients received EBRT in 23 fractions of 2 Gy and HDR (TG43 algorithm) in 3 fractions of 6.5 Gy. Results for the Late Effects of Normal Tissues - Subjective, Objective, Management and Analytic toxicity assessments were available with a median follow-up of 72 months. The HDR CT was deformably-registered to the EBRT CT. Doses were corrected for dose fractionation. Rectum dose-volume histogram (DVH) parameters were calculated in two ways. (1) Distribution-adding: parameters were calculated after the EBRT dose distribution was 3D-summed with the registered HDR dose distribution. (2) Parameter-adding: the EBRT DVH parameters were added to HDR DVH parameters. Logistic regressions and Mann-Whitney U-tests were used to correlate parameters with late peak toxicity (dichotomised at grade 1 or 2). RESULTS The 48-80, 40-63 and 49-55 Gy dose regions from distribution-adding were significantly correlated with rectal bleeding, urgency/tenesmus and stool frequency respectively. Additionally, urgency/tenesmus and anorectal pain were associated with the 25-26 Gy and 44-48 Gy dose regions from distribution-adding respectively. Parameter-adding also indicated the low-mid dose region was significantly correlated with stool frequency and proctitis. CONCLUSIONS This study confirms significant dose-histogram effects for gastrointestinal toxicities after including deformable registration to combine phases of EBRT/HDR prostate cancer treatment. The findings from distribution-adding were in most cases consistent with those from parameter-adding. The mid-high dose range and near maximum doses were important for rectal bleeding. The distribution-adding mid-high dose range was also important for stool frequency and urgency/tenesmus. We encourage additional studies in a variety of institutions using a variety of dose accumulation methods with appropriate inter-fraction motion management. TRIAL REGISTRATION NCT NCT00193856 . Retrospectively registered 12 September 2005.
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Affiliation(s)
- Calyn R. Moulton
- School of Physics (M013), University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009 Australia
| | - Michael J. House
- School of Physics (M013), University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009 Australia
| | - Victoria Lye
- Radiation Oncology, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Hospital Avenue, Nedlands, WA 6009 Australia
| | - Colin I. Tang
- Radiation Oncology, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Hospital Avenue, Nedlands, WA 6009 Australia
| | - Michele Krawiec
- Radiation Oncology, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Hospital Avenue, Nedlands, WA 6009 Australia
| | - David J. Joseph
- Radiation Oncology, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Hospital Avenue, Nedlands, WA 6009 Australia
- School of Surgery, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009 Australia
| | - James W. Denham
- School of Medicine and Population Health, University of Newcastle, University Drive, Callaghan, NSW 2308 Australia
| | - Martin A. Ebert
- School of Physics (M013), University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009 Australia
- Radiation Oncology, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Hospital Avenue, Nedlands, WA 6009 Australia
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Abstract
Globally, road traffic injuries accounted for about 1.36 million deaths in 2015 and are projected to become the fourth leading cause of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost by 2030. One-fifth of these deaths occurred in South Asia where road traffic injuries are projected to increase by 144% by 2020. Despite this rapidly increasing disease burden there is limited evidence on the economic burden of road traffic injuries on households in South Asia. We applied a novel coarsened exact matching method to assess the household economic burden of road traffic injuries using nationally representative World Health Survey data from five South Asian countries- Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka collected during 2002-2003. We examined the impact of road traffic injuries on household out-of-pocket (OOP) health spending, household non-medical consumption expenditure and the employment status of the traffic injury-affected respondent. We exactly matched a household (after 'coarsening') where a respondent reported being involved in a road traffic injury to households where the respondent did not report a road traffic injury on each of multiple observed household characteristics. Our analysis found that road traffic injury-affected households had significantly higher levels of OOP health spending per member (I$0.75, p<0.01), higher OOP spending on drugs per member (I$0.30, p = 0.03), and higher OOP hospital spending per member (I$0.29, p<0.01) in the four weeks preceding the survey. Indicators of "catastrophic spending" were also significantly higher in road traffic injury-affected households: 6.45% (p<0.01) for a threshold of OOP health spending to total household spending ratio of 20%, and 7.40% (p<0.01) for a threshold of OOP health spending to household 'capacity to pay' ratio of 40%. However, no statistically significant effects were observed for household non-medical consumption expenditure, and employment status of the road traffic injury-affected individual. Our analysis points to the need for financial risk protection against the road traffic injury-related OOP health expenditure and a focus on prevention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Khurshid Alam
- Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, 50 Flemington Road, Parkville, Victoria, 3052, Australia
- Department of Pediatrics, The University of Melbourne, 50 Flemington Road, Parkville, Victoria, 3052, Australia
| | - Ajay Mahal
- Nossal Institute for Global Health, The University of Melbourne, 161 Barry Street, 4th Floor, Carlton, VIC 3053, Australia
- Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Level 6, The Alfred Centre, 99 Commercial Road, Melbourne, VIC 3004, Australia
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Zimmer HC, Offord CA, Auld TD, Baker PJ. Establishing a Wild, Ex Situ Population of a Critically Endangered Shade-Tolerant Rainforest Conifer: A Translocation Experiment. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0157559. [PMID: 27403527 PMCID: PMC4942103 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0157559] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2016] [Accepted: 06/01/2016] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Translocation can reduce extinction risk by increasing population size and geographic range, and is increasingly being used in the management of rare and threatened plant species. A critical determinant of successful plant establishment is light environment. Wollemia nobilis (Wollemi pine) is a critically endangered conifer, with a wild population of 83 mature trees and a highly restricted distribution of less than 10 km2. We used under-planting to establish a population of W. nobilis in a new rainforest site. Because its optimal establishment conditions were unknown, we conducted an experimental translocation, planting in a range of different light conditions from deeply shaded to high light gaps. Two years after the experimental translocation, 85% of plants had survived. There were two distinct responses: very high survival (94%) but very low growth, and lower survival (69%) and higher growth, associated with initial plant condition. Overall survival of translocated W. nobilis was strongly increased in planting sites with higher light, in contrast to previous studies demonstrating long-term survival of wild W. nobilis juveniles in deep shade. Translocation by under-planting may be useful in establishing new populations of shade-tolerant plant species, not least by utilizing the range of light conditions that occur in forest understories.
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Affiliation(s)
- Heidi C. Zimmer
- School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, University of Melbourne, Richmond, Victoria, Australia
- * E-mail:
| | - Catherine A. Offord
- The Australian PlantBank, Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust, The Australian Botanic Garden, Mount Annan, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Tony D. Auld
- Office of Environment and Heritage NSW, Hurstville, New South Wales, Australia
- Centre for Ecosystem Science, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
| | - Patrick J. Baker
- School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, University of Melbourne, Richmond, Victoria, Australia
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Domanova W, Krycer J, Chaudhuri R, Yang P, Vafaee F, Fazakerley D, Humphrey S, James D, Kuncic Z. Unraveling Kinase Activation Dynamics Using Kinase-Substrate Relationships from Temporal Large-Scale Phosphoproteomics Studies. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0157763. [PMID: 27336693 PMCID: PMC4918924 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0157763] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/25/2016] [Accepted: 06/03/2016] [Indexed: 01/04/2023] Open
Abstract
In response to stimuli, biological processes are tightly controlled by dynamic cellular signaling mechanisms. Reversible protein phosphorylation occurs on rapid time-scales (milliseconds to seconds), making it an ideal carrier of these signals. Advances in mass spectrometry-based proteomics have led to the identification of many tens of thousands of phosphorylation sites, yet for the majority of these the kinase is unknown and the underlying network topology of signaling networks therefore remains obscured. Identifying kinase substrate relationships (KSRs) is therefore an important goal in cell signaling research. Existing consensus sequence motif based prediction algorithms do not consider the biological context of KSRs, and are therefore insensitive to many other mechanisms guiding kinase-substrate recognition in cellular contexts. Here, we use temporal information to identify biologically relevant KSRs from Large-scale In Vivo Experiments (KSR-LIVE) in a data-dependent and automated fashion. First, we used available phosphorylation databases to construct a repository of existing experimentally-predicted KSRs. For each kinase in this database, we used time-resolved phosphoproteomics data to examine how its substrates changed in phosphorylation over time. Although substrates for a particular kinase clustered together, they often exhibited a different temporal pattern to the phosphorylation of the kinase. Therefore, although phosphorylation regulates kinase activity, our findings imply that substrate phosphorylation likely serve as a better proxy for kinase activity than kinase phosphorylation. KSR-LIVE can thereby infer which kinases are regulated within a biological context. Moreover, KSR-LIVE can also be used to automatically generate positive training sets for the subsequent prediction of novel KSRs using machine learning approaches. We demonstrate that this approach can distinguish between Akt and Rps6kb1, two kinases that share the same linear consensus motif, and provide evidence suggesting IRS-1 S265 as a novel Akt site. KSR-LIVE is an open-access algorithm that allows users to dissect phosphorylation signaling within a specific biological context, with the potential to be included in the standard analysis workflow for studying temporal high-throughput signal transduction data.
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Affiliation(s)
- Westa Domanova
- Charles Perkins Centre, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
- School of Physics, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
| | - James Krycer
- Charles Perkins Centre, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
- School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
| | - Rima Chaudhuri
- Charles Perkins Centre, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
- School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
| | - Pengyi Yang
- National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Research Triangle Park, Durham, NC 27709, United States of America
| | - Fatemeh Vafaee
- Charles Perkins Centre, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
- School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
| | - Daniel Fazakerley
- Charles Perkins Centre, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
- School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
| | - Sean Humphrey
- Department of Proteomics and Signal Transduction, Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry, Martinsried, 82152, Germany
| | - David James
- Charles Perkins Centre, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
- School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
- Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
| | - Zdenka Kuncic
- Charles Perkins Centre, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
- School of Physics, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
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Windley HR, Barron MC, Holland EP, Starrs D, Ruscoe WA, Foley WJ. Foliar Nutritional Quality Explains Patchy Browsing Damage Caused by an Invasive Mammal. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0155216. [PMID: 27171381 PMCID: PMC4865184 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0155216] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/27/2016] [Accepted: 04/26/2016] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Introduced herbivores frequently inflict significant, yet patchy damage on native ecosystems through selective browsing. However, there are few instances where the underlying cause of this patchy damage has been revealed. We aimed to determine if the nutritional quality of foliage could predict the browsing preferences of an invasive mammalian herbivore, the common brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula), in a temperate forest in New Zealand. We quantified the spatial and temporal variation in four key aspects of the foliar chemistry (total nitrogen, available nitrogen, in vitro dry matter digestibility and tannin effect) of 275 trees representing five native tree species. Simultaneously, we assessed the severity of browsing damage caused by possums on those trees in order to relate selective browsing to foliar nutritional quality. We found significant spatial and temporal variation in nutritional quality among individuals of each tree species examined, as well as among tree species. There was a positive relationship between the available nitrogen concentration of foliage (a measure of in vitro digestible protein) and the severity of damage caused by browsing by possums. This study highlights the importance of nutritional quality, specifically, the foliar available nitrogen concentration of individual trees, in predicting the impact of an invasive mammal. Revealing the underlying cause of patchy browsing by an invasive mammal provides new insights for conservation of native forests and targeted control of invasive herbivores in forest ecosystems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hannah R. Windley
- Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Acton, ACT 2601, Australia
- * E-mail:
| | | | | | - Danswell Starrs
- Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Acton, ACT 2601, Australia
| | | | - William J. Foley
- Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Acton, ACT 2601, Australia
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Ghosh M, Fisher C, Preen DB, Holman CDJ. "It has to be fixed": a qualitative inquiry into perceived ADHD behaviour among affected individuals and parents in Western Australia. BMC Health Serv Res 2016; 16:141. [PMID: 27101981 PMCID: PMC4840935 DOI: 10.1186/s12913-016-1399-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/23/2015] [Accepted: 04/12/2016] [Indexed: 01/20/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The use of stimulant medication for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) to improve classroom behaviour and sustained concentration is well known. Achieving a better academic grade has been reported as the prime motivation for stimulant use and is an increasingly discussed topic. The proliferation of stimulant use for ADHD has been a cause for public, medical and policy concern in Australia. This paper explores individuals' perceptions of ADHD, the meaning that the diagnosis carries for them and their attitudes to stimulant medication treatment. METHODS This qualitative study was underpinned by a social constructivist approach and involved semi-structured interviews with eight participants. The participants were parents of children with ADHD or were adults who themselves had been diagnosed with ADHD. Interviews were audiotaped, transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed. RESULTS There were three interrelated yet contradictory overarching themes: (i) An impairment to achieving success, which can be a double-edged sword, but has to be fixed; (ii) Diagnosis as a relief that alleviates fault and acknowledges familial inheritance; (iii) Responsibility to be normal and to fit in with societal expectations. Collectively, these perceptions and meanings were powerful drivers of stimulant use. CONCLUSIONS Paying attention to perceptions of ADHD and reasons for seeking or not seeking stimulant treatment is important when planning appropriate interventions for this condition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Manonita Ghosh
- Centre for Health Services Research, School of Population Health, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA, 6009, Australia.
| | - Colleen Fisher
- School of Population Health, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA, 6009, Australia
| | - David B Preen
- Centre for Health Services Research, School of Population Health, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA, 6009, Australia
| | - C D'Arcy J Holman
- Centre for Health Services Research, School of Population Health, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA, 6009, Australia
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Teroganova N, Girshkin L, Suter CM, Green MJ. DNA methylation in peripheral tissue of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder: a systematic review. BMC Genet 2016; 17:27. [PMID: 26809779 PMCID: PMC4727379 DOI: 10.1186/s12863-016-0332-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 69] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/29/2015] [Accepted: 01/13/2016] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Increasing evidence suggests the involvement of epigenetic processes in the development of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and recent reviews have focused on findings in post-mortem brain tissue. A systematic review was conducted to synthesise and evaluate the quality of available evidence for epigenetic modifications (specifically DNA methylation) in peripheral blood and saliva samples of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder patients in comparison to healthy controls. METHODS Original research articles using humans were identified using electronic databases. There were 33 included studies for which data were extracted and graded in duplicate on 22 items of the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) statement, to assess methodological precision and quality of reporting. RESULTS There were 15 genome-wide and 18 exclusive candidate gene loci investigations for DNA methylation studies. A number of common genes were identified as differentially methylated in schizophrenia/bipolar disorder, which were related to reelin, brain-derived neurotrophic factor, dopamine (including the catechol-O-methyltransferase gene), serotonin and glutamate, despite inconsistent findings of hyper-, hypo-, or lack of methylation at these and other loci. The mean STROBE score of 59% suggested moderate quality of available evidence; however, wide methodological variability contributed to a lack of consistency in the way methylation levels were quantified, such that meta-analysis of the results was not possible. CONCLUSIONS Moderate quality of available evidence shows some convergence of differential methylation at some common genetic loci in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, despite wide variation in methodology and reporting across studies. Improvement in the clarity of reporting clinical and other potential confounds would be useful in future studies of epigenetic processes in the context of exposure to environmental and other risk factors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nina Teroganova
- School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Randwick, NSW, Australia.
- Schizophrenia Research Institute, 405 Liverpool St, Darlinghurst, NSW, 2010, Australia.
| | - Leah Girshkin
- School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Randwick, NSW, Australia.
- Schizophrenia Research Institute, 405 Liverpool St, Darlinghurst, NSW, 2010, Australia.
| | - Catherine M Suter
- Molecular Structural and Computational Biology Division, Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, Darlinghurst, NSW, 2010, Australia.
| | - Melissa J Green
- School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Randwick, NSW, Australia.
- Schizophrenia Research Institute, 405 Liverpool St, Darlinghurst, NSW, 2010, Australia.
- Neuroscience Research Australia, Sydney, NSW, 2031, Australia.
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