Does the healthy vaccinee bias rule them all? Association of COVID-19 vaccination status and all-cause mortality from an analysis of data from 2.2 million individual health records

OBJECTIVES

We investigated the validity of claims of the healthy vaccinee effect (HVE) in COVID-vaccine studies by analyzing associations between all-cause mortality (ACM) and COVID-19 vaccination status.

METHODS

Approximately 2.2 million individual records from two Czech health insurance companies were retrospectively analyzed. Each age group was stratified according to the vaccination status (unvaccinated vs. individuals less than 4 weeks vs. more than 4 weeks from Doses 1, 2, 3, and 4 or more doses of vaccine). ACMs in these groups were computed and compared.

RESULTS

Consistently over datasets and age categories, ACM was substantially lower in the vaccinated than unvaccinated groups regardless of the presence or absence of a wave of COVID-19 deaths. Moreover, the ACMs in groups more than 4 weeks from Doses 1, 2, or 3 were consistently several times higher than in those less than 4 weeks from the respective dose. HVE appears to be the only plausible explanation for this, which is further corroborated by a created mathematical model.

CONCLUSIONS

In view of the presence of HVE, the baseline difference in the frailty of vaccinated and unvaccinated populations in periods without COVID-19 must be taken into account when estimating COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness from observational data.

Reference-Class Problems Are Real: Health-Adjusted Reference Classes and Low Bone Mineral Density

Elselijn Kingma argues that Christopher Boorse's biostatistical theory (the BST) does not show how the reference classes it uses are objective and naturalistic. Recently, philosophers of medicine have attempted to rebut Kingma's concerns. I argue that these rebuttals are theoretically unconvincing, and that there are clear examples of physicians adjusting their reference classes according to their prior knowledge of health and disease. I focus on the use of age-adjusted reference classes to diagnose low bone mineral density in children. In addition to using the BST's age, sex, and species, physicians also choose to use other factors to define reference classes, such as pubertal status, bone age, body size, and muscle mass. I show that physicians calibrate the reference classes they use according to their prior knowledge of health and disease. Reference classes are also chosen for pragmatic reasons, such as to predict fragility fractures.

Net benefit of smaller human populations to environmental integrity and individual health and wellbeing

Introduction

The global human population is still growing such that our collective enterprise is driving environmental catastrophe. Despite a decline in average population growth rate, we are still experiencing the highest annual increase of global human population size in the history of our species-averaging an additional 84 million people per year since 1990. No review to date has accumulated the available evidence describing the associations between increasing population and environmental decline, nor solutions for mitigating the problems arising.

Methods

We summarize the available evidence of the relationships between human population size and growth and environmental integrity, human prosperity and wellbeing, and climate change. We used PubMed, Google Scholar, and Web of Science to identify all relevant peer-reviewed and gray-literature sources examining the consequences of human population size and growth on the biosphere. We reviewed papers describing and quantifying the risks associated with population growth, especially relating to climate change.

Results

These risks are global in scale, such as greenhouse-gas emissions, climate disruption, pollution, loss of biodiversity, and spread of disease-all potentially catastrophic for human standards of living, health, and general wellbeing. The trends increasing the risks of global population growth are country development, demographics, maternal education, access to family planning, and child and maternal health.

Conclusion

Support for nations still going through a demographic transition is required to ensure progress occurs within planetary boundaries and promotes equity and human rights. Ensuring the wellbeing for all under this aim itself will lower population growth and further promote environmental sustainability.

Family Environment, Loneliness, Hope, and Subjective Well-Being of Asian Older Adults

The current study examined the interactions between family environment, hope, and loneliness, and their subsequent influence on the subjective well-being (SWB) of 345 noninstitutionalized older adults (aged 60 years and above) in Singapore. Door-to-door surveys information was collected on family environment (cohesiveness, relationship closeness, and support), hope, loneliness, and SWB (life satisfaction, happiness, and absence of negative affect). Structural equation modelling was conducted to test competing hypotheses derived from life stress and integrated resource theories. The results revealed that family environment influenced SWB both directly and indirectly. Family environment decreased loneliness and increased SWB. Additionally, family environment influenced SWB by offering increased hope. Family environment sets the context for the SWB of older adults in Singapore. Families should therefore be targeted for interventions to reduce loneliness, increase psychological resources, and raise SWB during old age.

A concerted neuron-astrocyte program declines in ageing and schizophrenia

Human brains vary across people and over time; such variation is not yet understood in cellular terms. Here we describe a relationship between people's cortical neurons and cortical astrocytes. We used single-nucleus RNA sequencing to analyse the prefrontal cortex of 191 human donors aged 22-97 years, including healthy individuals and people with schizophrenia. Latent-factor analysis of these data revealed that, in people whose cortical neurons more strongly expressed genes encoding synaptic components, cortical astrocytes more strongly expressed distinct genes with synaptic functions and genes for synthesizing cholesterol, an astrocyte-supplied component of synaptic membranes. We call this relationship the synaptic neuron and astrocyte program (SNAP). In schizophrenia and ageing-two conditions that involve declines in cognitive flexibility and plasticity1,2-cells divested from SNAP: astrocytes, glutamatergic (excitatory) neurons and GABAergic (inhibitory) neurons all showed reduced SNAP expression to corresponding degrees. The distinct astrocytic and neuronal components of SNAP both involved genes in which genetic risk factors for schizophrenia were strongly concentrated. SNAP, which varies quantitatively even among healthy people of similar age, may underlie many aspects of normal human interindividual differences and may be an important point of convergence for multiple kinds of pathophysiology.

Wind turbine database for intelligent operation and maintenance strategies

With the aim of helping researchers to develop intelligent operation and maintenance strategies, in this manuscript, an extensive 3-years Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition database of five Fuhrländer FL2500 2.5 MW wind turbines is presented. The database contains 312 analogous variables recorded at 5-minute intervals, from 78 different sensors. The reported values for each sensor are minimum, maximum, mean, and standard deviation. The database also contains the alarm events, indicating the system and subsystem and a small description. Finally, a set of functions to download specific subsets of the whole database is freely available in Matlab, R, and Python. To demonstrate the usefulness of this database, an illustrative example is given. In this example, different gearbox variables are selected to estimate a target variable to detect whether or not the estimate differs from the actual value provided for the sensor. By using this normality modelling approach, it is possible to detect rotor malfunction when the estimate differs from the actual measured value.

Four Defining Health Issues of the 2024 Presidential Election

This Viewpoint discusses 4 defining health issues that will likely influence not only the 2024 presidential election but also congressional and state races.

The relationship between sense of coherence and emotional intelligence as individual health assets for mental health promotion in students and healthcare professionals: a scoping review

Introduction

Workplace Mental health promotion in healthcare sector, is a global priority due to the stress associated with caregiving environments and the increase of mental health problems among health professionals and students. The role of emotional intelligence (EI) and sense of coherence (SOC) have been identified as critical health protectors. However, the relationship between them as well as the underlying mechanisms of these relationships on health benefits in this population is still unclear.

Aim

To synthetize the existing literature on the relationship between emotional intelligence and sense of coherence, as well as their mutual impact on healthcare workers' and student's well-being.

Method

A scoping review was conducted following the Joanna Briggs Institute guidelines. A systematic search was conducted in PsyCINFO, CINHAL, SCOPUS and PUBMED databases, using key-terms such as students, health professionals, emotional intelligence, and sense of coherence.

Results

A total of 11 articles were included, with a range of years from 2014 to 2022. Evidence was found to support the positive relationship between sense of coherence and emotional intelligence. The use of EI as a training pathway to improve SOC and health promoting behaviors is suggested. The benefits of intervening on these factors contribute to improved health professionals' and students' general well-being and motivation for a better performance, either in their studies or clinical work.

Conclusion

The positive relationship between emotional intelligence and a sense of coherence has direct and indirect benefits on students' and healthcare professionals' well-being. Future studies should address longitudinal and experimental analysis to confirm these findings.

Household physical activity and subjective well-being: An international comparison among East Asian older adult populations

PURPOSE

Engaging in lifelong physical activity has multiple health benefits for older populations. Household physical activity occupies older adults' awake time, and they can be an important energy expenditure during the day. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between older adults' household physical activity and subjective well-being in four East Asian societies.

METHODS

The study design was a secondary data analysis. Data were retrieved from the module of Families 2016 in the database of the East Asian Social Survey. Participants were community-dwelling older adults with a mean age of 70.30±7.50 years and who lived in China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Data were collected by interviews via structured questionnaires between 2016 and 2018. Descriptive analyses, independent t-tests, and an analysis of covariance were performed for the statistical analyses.

RESULTS

In total, there were 3,432 valid responses. Participants who lived in Taiwan had significantly lower levels of total household physical activity than those living in other societies. Older adults' household physical activity was found to significantly differ by age, educational degree, gender, religion, marital status, occupation, and whether living alone. Older adults with high levels of household physical activity had significantly higher self-rated health and marital satisfaction than those with low levels.

CONCLUSIONS

Household physical activity has potential benefits for subjective well-being across international older adult populations. Increasing household physical activity is recommended for older married couples to maintain marital satisfaction.

A study on Internet use and subjective well-being among Chinese older adults: based on CGSS (2012-2018) five-wave mixed interface survey data

Objective

This study is designed to investigate the relationship between Internet use and subjective well-being of the older adults in China, and to analyze the mediating role of subjective social fairness in the above relationship.

Methods

Based on the five-wave mixed interface survey data of China General Social Survey (CGSS) in 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, and 2018, we select a total of 18,458 older adults aged 60 and above, and comprehensively used ordered probit regression, propensity score matching (PSM), and Karlson-Holm-Breen (KHB) mediating effect test methods.

Results

The analysis results show that (1) Internet use is significantly positively correlated with the subjective well-being of the older adults, and the higher the frequency of use, the stronger the subjective well-being. (2) Place of residence, education, and regional factors moderated the effect of Internet use on subjective well-being. The subjective well-being effect of Internet use is significant among male older adults, as well as on urban, educated, or eastern older adults. (3) Subjective social fairness plays a negative mediating role in the relationship between Internet use and subjective well-being of older adults.

Conclusion

The findings suggest that Internet use contributes to the improvement of subjective well-being in older adults, but attenuates this effect by reducing the subjective social fairness. Future research should further consider other factors such as the purpose, specific function, intensity of Internet use, etc., to gain a deeper understanding of how the Internet can help promote well-being.

Clinical Research Risks, Climate Change, and Human Health

This Viewpoint discusses ways in which clinical research directly and indirectly contributes to anthropogenic climate change, highlights the need for increased scientific soundness and value in research, and calls for the development of tools for calculating the environmental impact of studies and a strategy for ensuring that research does not compromise the rights and welfare of nonparticipants and future generations.

Organ aging signatures in the plasma proteome track health and disease

Animal studies show aging varies between individuals as well as between organs within an individual1-4, but whether this is true in humans and its effect on age-related diseases is unknown. We utilized levels of human blood plasma proteins originating from specific organs to measure organ-specific aging differences in living individuals. Using machine learning models, we analysed aging in 11 major organs and estimated organ age reproducibly in five independent cohorts encompassing 5,676 adults across the human lifespan. We discovered nearly 20% of the population show strongly accelerated age in one organ and 1.7% are multi-organ agers. Accelerated organ aging confers 20-50% higher mortality risk, and organ-specific diseases relate to faster aging of those organs. We find individuals with accelerated heart aging have a 250% increased heart failure risk and accelerated brain and vascular aging predict Alzheimer's disease (AD) progression independently from and as strongly as plasma pTau-181 (ref. 5), the current best blood-based biomarker for AD. Our models link vascular calcification, extracellular matrix alterations and synaptic protein shedding to early cognitive decline. We introduce a simple and interpretable method to study organ aging using plasma proteomics data, predicting diseases and aging effects.

Covariate-adjusted response-adaptive designs based on semiparametric approaches

We consider theoretical and practical issues for innovatively using a large number of covariates in clinical trials to achieve various design objectives without model misspecification. Specifically, we propose a new family of semiparametric covariate-adjusted response-adaptive randomization (CARA) designs and we use the target maximum likelihood estimation (TMLE) to analyze the correlated data from CARA designs. Our approach can flexibly achieve multiple objectives and correctly incorporate the effect of a large number of covariates on the responses without model misspecification. We also obtain the consistency and asymptotic normality of the target parameters, allocation probabilities, and allocation proportions. Numerical studies demonstrate that our approach has advantages over existing approaches, even when the data-generating distribution is complicated.

The power and potential of mitochondria transfer

Mitochondria are believed to have originated through an ancient endosymbiotic process in which proteobacteria were captured and co-opted for energy production and cellular metabolism. Mitochondria segregate during cell division and differentiation, with vertical inheritance of mitochondria and the mitochondrial DNA genome from parent to daughter cells. However, an emerging body of literature indicates that some cell types export their mitochondria for delivery to developmentally unrelated cell types, a process called intercellular mitochondria transfer. In this Review, we describe the mechanisms by which mitochondria are transferred between cells and discuss how intercellular mitochondria transfer regulates the physiology and function of various organ systems in health and disease. In particular, we discuss the role of mitochondria transfer in regulating cellular metabolism, cancer, the immune system, maintenance of tissue homeostasis, mitochondrial quality control, wound healing and adipose tissue function. We also highlight the potential of targeting intercellular mitochondria transfer as a therapeutic strategy to treat human diseases and augment cellular therapies.

Y chromosome proteins in female tissues

Unreliable protein-based tools are impeding sex-based research.

Plasma proteomic associations with genetics and health in the UK Biobank

The Pharma Proteomics Project is a precompetitive biopharmaceutical consortium characterizing the plasma proteomic profiles of 54,219 UK Biobank participants. Here we provide a detailed summary of this initiative, including technical and biological validations, insights into proteomic disease signatures, and prediction modelling for various demographic and health indicators. We present comprehensive protein quantitative trait locus (pQTL) mapping of 2,923 proteins that identifies 14,287 primary genetic associations, of which 81% are previously undescribed, alongside ancestry-specific pQTL mapping in non-European individuals. The study provides an updated characterization of the genetic architecture of the plasma proteome, contextualized with projected pQTL discovery rates as sample sizes and proteomic assay coverages increase over time. We offer extensive insights into trans pQTLs across multiple biological domains, highlight genetic influences on ligand-receptor interactions and pathway perturbations across a diverse collection of cytokines and complement networks, and illustrate long-range epistatic effects of ABO blood group and FUT2 secretor status on proteins with gastrointestinal tissue-enriched expression. We demonstrate the utility of these data for drug discovery by extending the genetic proxied effects of protein targets, such as PCSK9, on additional endpoints, and disentangle specific genes and proteins perturbed at loci associated with COVID-19 susceptibility. This public-private partnership provides the scientific community with an open-access proteomics resource of considerable breadth and depth to help to elucidate the biological mechanisms underlying proteo-genomic discoveries and accelerate the development of biomarkers, predictive models and therapeutics1.

Socioeconomic status and subjective well-being: The mediating role of class identity and social activities

BACKGROUND

Subjective well-being has a significant impact on an individual's physical and mental health. Socioeconomic status, class identity, and social activity participation play important roles in subjective well-being. Therefore, the aim of this study was to uncover the mechanisms through which these factors influence subjective well-being.

METHODS

A total of 1926 valid samples were recruited using the Chinese General Social Survey 2021 (CGSS 2021). The Chinese Citizen's Subjective Well-Being Scale (SWBS-CC) was employed to assess subjective well-being. Socioeconomic status was measured using income and education, and class identity and social activity participation were measured using Likert scales. Pearson correlation analysis and the chain mediation model were conducted to explore the relationship between these factors. Finally, the Bootstrap method was used to examine the path coefficients.

RESULTS

A significant correlation was found between socioeconomic status, class identity, social activity, and subjective well-being (p < 0.01). The indirect effect of socioeconomic status on subjective well-being mediated by class identity was 0.351 (95% CI: 0.721, 1.587), while the indirect effect of socioeconomic status on subjective well-being mediated by social activity was 0.380 (95% CI: 0.059, 0.240). The effect mediated by both class status and social activities was 0.011 (95% CI: 0.010, 0.093).

CONCLUSIONS

The study showed that socioeconomic status, class identity, and social activity had significant effects on subjective well-being. Class identity and social activity partially mediated the effects of socioeconomic status on subjective well-being, and they had a chain mediating effect between socioeconomic status and subjective well-being. Therefore, policymakers have the opportunity to enhance subjective well-being in lower socioeconomic status groups by promoting individual class identity and encouraging greater social activity participation.

Health and well-being of the Portuguese citizens: impacts of the COVID-19

BACKGROUND

COVID-19 pandemic placed unprecedented pressure on societies and healthcare systems around the world. Over the last years, measures imposed in almost all countries dealing with the pandemic sent the entire world into an extensive crisis and thus into a deep global recession. Since the outbreak began, many European countries have faced three/four waves of pandemic. Portugal has mainly dealt with three waves (March/April'2020; October/November'2020; January/February'2021), the third being the deadliest one. The purpose of this article is to provide evidence on the impact of the COVID-19 on health-related quality of life (HRQol) and well-being (W-B) of Portuguese citizens. It aims to (i) characterize these outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic; (ii) compare them to pre-COVID-19 Portuguese population; and (iii) identify the social determinants that may affect these outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

METHODS

This study used data from a survey that collected data on HRQoL, W-B, satisfaction with life, economic and labour impacts, access to healthcare, mental and physical health, amongst others. The survey was implemented by telephone to a representative random sample of 1,255 respondents from the general adult Portuguese population, stratified by sex, age group and region. Data was collected during the end of the second national lockdown. For comparison purposes, we have also used two other representative databases from the general Portuguese population: (i) data from before the pandemic (n = 1,006); and (ii) data from a survey conducted during the first lockdown, (n = 904).

RESULTS

Looking at health and access to healthcare, 4% of citizens had their surgeries postponed or cancelled because of COVID-19, more than a quarter had medical appointments or complementary exams postponed or cancelled, with 7% over 65 years old with surgeries cancelled or postponed and 32% medical appointments. COVID-19 pandemic also impacted negatively on the HRQoL of citizens, especially in the first lockdown. Half of the respondents reported feeling nervous, anxious, or on edge, about 45% of citizens felt sad or depressed. Sleeping problems were reported for almost 39% of citizens, and loneliness is reported by 29% of citizens. For about 70-85% of citizens, these feelings were more so than before the pandemic. Citizens with fair/strong economic stability were the most economically affected by the pandemic.

CONCLUSIONS

We provided evidence on the impact of COVID-19 on health and W-B of Portuguese citizens. Their health was worse than before the pandemic and the access to healthcare was highly affected.

Next steps: Operationalizing resilience research

The National Institutes of Health have recently gathered internal and external input towards a shared understanding of resilience in the wide context of human health and the biomedical sciences that would help accelerate advances in human health and its maintenance. We suggest the current view that resilience refers in general to a system's capacity to recover, grow, adapt, or resist perturbation from a challenge or stressor. To help harmonize the design and reporting of resilience research studies across multiple domains we have developed and are proposing a Resilience Research Design (ResD) Tool. Researchers can use the Resilience ResD Tool to proceed through a flowchart of six questions that will guide identification of key features in a resilience research study. Through this special supplement, we have shown the application of the Resilience ResD Tool and suggest opportunities and gaps with respect to next steps towards operationalizing resilience research.

The relationship between social capital and health from a configuration perspective: an evidence from China

BACKGROUND

The debate on the relationship between social capital and health is still ongoing. To enhance previous research, this study uses data drawn from China to analyse the situations in which social capital is related to good health and the various configurations that result in good health outcomes.

METHODS

Using the data of China Family Panel Studies, the conditions of age, gender, marriage, education, income, structural social capital and cognitive social capital were included to analyse the sufficient and necessary conditions for achieving good general health and their different configurations using the fsQCA method.

RESULTS

None of the listed conditions were prerequisites for excellent general health in terms of either their presence or their absence. The sufficiency analysis found 11 configurations with an average of 3-4 conditions per configuration; in no configuration was the condition of social capital present alone. Structured social capital and cognitive social capital exhibited negative states in configurations 1 and 2, respectively. The most prevalent factor in all configurations was the condition of age.

CONCLUSIONS

The relationship between social capital and health is both positive and negative, with cognitive social capital playing a larger role in the positive relationship than structural social capital. Social capital is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for health, and it must be combined with a variety of other factors to promote health. A variety of methods can be used to promote an individual's health, as different populations require different approaches to good general health, and no single pathway applies to all populations. In the Chinese population, an individual's age is a significant determinant of their health status.

Individual health-disease phase diagrams for disease prevention based on machine learning

Early disease detection and prevention methods based on effective interventions are gaining attention worldwide. Progress in precision medicine has revealed that substantial heterogeneity exists in health data at the individual level and that complex health factors are involved in chronic disease development. Machine-learning techniques have enabled precise personal-level disease prediction by capturing individual differences in multivariate data. However, it is challenging to identify what aspects should be improved for disease prevention based on future disease-onset prediction because of the complex relationships among multiple biomarkers. Here, we present a health-disease phase diagram (HDPD) that represents an individual's health state by visualizing the future-onset boundary values of multiple biomarkers that fluctuate early in the disease progression process. In HDPDs, future-onset predictions are represented by perturbing multiple biomarker values while accounting for dependencies among variables. We constructed HDPDs for 11 diseases using longitudinal health checkup cohort data of 3,238 individuals, comprising 3,215 measurement items and genetic data. The improvement of biomarker values to the non-onset region in HDPD remarkably prevented future disease onset in 7 out of 11 diseases. HDPDs can represent individual physiological states in the onset process and be used as intervention goals for disease prevention.

The relationships between burnout, general wellbeing, and psychological detachment with turnover intention in Chinese nurses: a cross-sectional study

Background

It is critical to minimize nurse turnover to improve the quality of care and patient safety. In-depth investigation is required to better understand the factors related to nurses' turnover intentions.

Aim

This study aimed to determine the relationships between burnout, general wellbeing, and psychological detachment with turnover intention among nurses in China.

Methods

A cross-sectional survey using convenience sampling was conducted in one hospital in China between January 2023 and March 2023. A total of 536 nurses were surveyed using the General Wellbeing Schedule (GWB), the Maslach Burnout Inventory scale (MBI), the Psychological Detachment scale, and the Turnover Intention scale. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 26.0 statistical software. The chi-square test and binary logistic regression analysis were used to explore the factors related to turnover intention.

Results

Our data demonstrated that the turnover intention scores were 13 (10, 15.75), with 56% of nurses exhibiting a high level of turnover intention. Binary logistic regression analysis results indicated that being on a contract (OR = 4.385, 95% CI = 2.196-8.754), working in the pediatrics (OR = 2.392, 95% CI = 1.267-4.514) or obstetrics (OR = 2.423, 95% CI = 1.145-5.126) department, and experiencing burnout (OR = 1.024, 95% CI = 1.008-1.041) were associated with a heightened level of turnover intention. Conversely, organizational satisfaction (OR = 0.162, 95% CI = 0.033-0.787) and general wellbeing (OR = 0.967, 95% CI = 0.946-0.989) were identified as factors that hindered the intention to leave.

Conclusions

Findings from this study suggest that nurses were employed on a contract basis, working in pediatric or obstetric departments, expressing dissatisfaction with the organization, reporting low general wellbeing, and experiencing high levels of burnout that require special attention. The identification of these risk factors can inform targeted interventions and support programs aimed at improving the wellbeing and retention of nurses in these settings.

Active aging needs from the perspectives of older adults and geriatric experts: a qualitative study

Introduction

With an increasing rate of population aging and its consequences, preparation for active aging based on older adults' needs is an unavoidable priority. Active aging needs must be identified to help strategic planning for older adults' health and wellbeing. This study aimed to explore the active aging needs from the perspectives of older adults and geriatric experts.

Methods

This exploratory-descriptive qualitative study was conducted in four provinces with the oldest populations in Iran. Semi-structured and focus group interviews were conducted with 41 participants (20 older adults and 21 geriatric experts), who were chosen through purposive and snowball sampling. Data were analyzed using the conventional content analysis.

Results

This study identified three themes and thirteen categories from the data: (1) basic individual needs with three categories of physiological, psycho-emotional, and spiritual needs; and (2) managerial needs with seven categories of political-legal, socio-economic, and cultural-spiritual infrastructures, academic strategies, an age-friendly environment; technological services, and provision of specialized services and daycare for older adults, and (3) educational needs with three categories of training self-care and self-efficacy, empowering the health care workers; and empowering the family.

Conclusion

The results revealed personal, managerial, and educational needs for active aging and could assist policymakers and geriatric experts to promote and meet active aging needs successfully.

Structural and functional asymmetry of the neonatal cerebral cortex

Features of brain asymmetry have been implicated in a broad range of cognitive processes; however, their origins are still poorly understood. Here we investigated cortical asymmetries in 442 healthy term-born neonates using structural and functional magnetic resonance images from the Developing Human Connectome Project. Our results demonstrate that the neonatal cortex is markedly asymmetric in both structure and function. Cortical asymmetries observed in the term cohort were contextualized in two ways: by comparing them against cortical asymmetries observed in 103 preterm neonates scanned at term-equivalent age, and by comparing structural asymmetries against those observed in 1,110 healthy young adults from the Human Connectome Project. While associations with preterm birth and biological sex were minimal, significant differences exist between birth and adulthood.

Exploring the role of task on kinematic variability and assessing consistency in individual responses across repetitive manual tasks

To gain a greater understanding of motor variability (MV) as an individual trait, the effect of task type on MV and individual consistency in MV across three tasks was investigated. Twenty participants performed repetitive carrying, lifting, and simulated sawing tasks. MV was assessed using the linear measure of mean point-by-point standard deviation in three-dimensional upper body joint angles. Task type affected MV, where carrying showed higher MV compared to sawing (23-29%) and lifting (12-19%). Furthermore, MV was higher in lifting compared to sawing (12-25%). Poor to moderate individual consistency (ICC = 0.42-0.63) was found across tasks. Task type determined MV and only some support for MV as an individual trait across tasks was found. Based on this work, differences in degrees of freedom afforded by the task influence the opportunity to exploit MV, and possibly individual consistency in MV magnitude is specific to the degrees of freedom afforded by the task. Practitioner summary: In repetitive tasks, movement variability has been proposed as an individual characteristic independent of task characteristics, where repeaters show consistently low variability, while replacers show consistently high variability. In the current study, only moderate support was demonstrated for variability as a consistent individual characteristic across different manual tasks.AbbreviationMV: Motor variability; WRMSDs: Work-related musculoskeletal disorders; DOF: Degrees of freedom; meanSD: Mean standard deviation; SD: Standard deviation; H: Handle (of simulated sawing setup); T: Track (of simulated sawing setup); F: Frame (of simulated sawing setup); ICC: Intraclass correlation; UE: Upper extremity; MMH: Manual material handling; EMG: Electromyography.

Mini-review: Interaction between intestinal microbes and enteric glia in health and disease

Enteric glia are a unique population of peripheral neuroglia associated with the enteric nervous system (ENS) throughout the digestive tract. The emerging data from the latest glial biology studies unveiled enteric glia as a heterogenic population with plastic and adaptative abilities that display phenotypic and functional changes upon distinct extrinsic cues. This aspect is essential in the dynamic signaling that enteric glia engage with neurons and other neighboring cells within the intestinal wall, such as epithelial, endocrine, and immune cells to maintain local homeostasis. Likewise, enteric glia sense signals from luminal microbes, although the extent of this active communication is still unclear. In this minireview, we discuss the recent findings that support glia-microbes crosstalk in the intestine in health and disease, pointing out the critical aspects that require further investigation.

Notch1 signaling is limited in healthy mature kidneys in vivo

OBJECTIVE

A Delta-Notch signaling component, Notch1, is involved in the normal development and multiple disorders of the kidney. Although the increase in Notch1 signaling is crucial to these pathogeneses, the basal signaling level in 'healthy' mature kidneys is still unclear. To address this question, we used an artificial Notch1 receptor fused with Gal4/UAS components in addition to the Cre/loxP system and fluorescent proteins in mice. This transgenic reporter mouse system enabled labeling of past and ongoing Notch1 signaling with tdsRed or Cre recombinase, respectively.

RESULTS

We confirmed that our transgenic reporter mouse system mimicked the previously reported Notch1 signaling pattern. Using this successful system, we infrequently observed cells with ongoing Notch1 signaling only in Bowman's capsule and tubules. We consider that Notch1 activation in several lines of disease model mice was pathologically significant itself.

Sleep Debt Mediates the Relationship between Work-Related Social Factors, Presenteeism, and Well-Being in Japanese Workers

Sleep debt is associated with presenteeism and mental health; however, the association of sleep debt with presenteeism and well-being in the context of work-related social factors (commuting time, workdays, and working hours) has not been fully elucidated. This study aimed to examine whether work-related social factors are associated with presenteeism and well-being via sleep debt. The participant group comprised 872 full-time and 526 part-time workers (mean age: 44.65 ± 12.37 and 48.47 ± 12.93 years, respectively). For both the full-time and part-time workers, increased sleep debt was significantly associated with presenteeism (β = -0.171; β = -0.160) and low well-being (β = -0.135; β = -0.153). Notably, commuting time was significantly associated with increased sleep debt in full-time workers (β = 0.09). In contrast, the number of workdays was significantly associated with increased sleep debt in part-time workers (β = -0.102). Working hours were not significantly associated with sleep debt for both full- and part-time workers. These results reveal that sleep debt might lead to various risks among workers, elucidating the work-related social factors related to sleep debt. They also highlight the importance of considering work-related social factors when addressing sleep debt.

Applying Structural Equation Modelling to Understand the Implementation of Social Distancing in the Professional Lives of Healthcare Workers

This study, based on the normalization process theory (NPT), explores the implementation of nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs)-specifically social distancing (SD)-in the professional lives of healthcare workers in three Pakistani hospitals. We collected and analysed health workers' data using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) and assessed the policy implications of the results. Violations of normality assumptions in the quantitative data and the need for scores of independent variables for follow-up analysis guided the researchers to adopt a structural equation modelling process that involved a stepwise evaluation process for convergent validity, individual item validity, discriminant validity, the structural model relationship, and overall model fitness. Theoretical constructs coherence, cognitive participation, collective action, and reflexive monitoring were found to influence the normalization of SD. The results show that SD was normalized in the professional lives of healthcare workers through strong collective action (resources required) and reflexive monitoring (appraisal) but weak cognitive participation (actors' engagement) and coherence (sense-making). Low and middle-income countries (LMICs) should work more on actors' sense-making and engagement in dealing with healthcare crises that require SD. The research findings can aid policy institutions in better understanding the loopholes in the implementation process and making better policies.

Seminars in immunology special issue: Nutrition, microbiota and immunity The unexplored microbes in health and disease

Functional characterization of the microbiome's influence on host physiology has been dominated by a few characteristic example strains that have been studied in detail. However, the extensive development of methods for high-throughput bacterial isolation and culture over the past decade is enabling functional characterization of the broader microbiota that may impact human health. Characterizing the understudied majority of human microbes and expanding our functional understanding of the diversity of the gut microbiota could enable new insights into diseases with unknown etiology, provide disease-predictive microbiome signatures, and advance microbial therapeutics. We summarize high-throughput culture-dependent platforms for characterizing bacterial strain function and host-interactions. We elaborate on the importance of these technologies in facilitating mechanistic studies of previously unexplored microbes, highlight new opportunities for large-scale in vitro screens of host-relevant microbial functions, and discuss the potential translational applications for microbiome science.

An Arbitrary Scale Super-Resolution Approach for 3D MR Images via Implicit Neural Representation

High Resolution (HR) medical images provide rich anatomical structure details to facilitate early and accurate diagnosis. In magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), restricted by hardware capacity, scan time, and patient cooperation ability, isotropic 3-dimensional (3D) HR image acquisition typically requests long scan time and, results in small spatial coverage and low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Recent studies showed that, with deep convolutional neural networks, isotropic HR MR images could be recovered from low-resolution (LR) input via single image super-resolution (SISR) algorithms. However, most existing SISR methods tend to approach scale-specific projection between LR and HR images, thus these methods can only deal with fixed up-sampling rates. In this paper, we propose ArSSR, an Arbitrary Scale Super-Resolution approach for recovering 3D HR MR images. In the ArSSR model, the LR image and the HR image are represented using the same implicit neural voxel function with different sampling rates. Due to the continuity of the learned implicit function, a single ArSSR model is able to achieve arbitrary and infinite up-sampling rate reconstructions of HR images from any input LR image. Then the SR task is converted to approach the implicit voxel function via deep neural networks from a set of paired HR and LR training examples. The ArSSR model consists of an encoder network and a decoder network. Specifically, the convolutional encoder network is to extract feature maps from the LR input images and the fully-connected decoder network is to approximate the implicit voxel function. Experimental results on three datasets show that the ArSSR model can achieve state-of-the-art SR performance for 3D HR MR image reconstruction while using a single trained model to achieve arbitrary up-sampling scales.

Family Resilience Progress from the Perspective of Parents of Adolescents with Depression: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

Family resilience plays an important role in the healthy family development of adolescents with depression, but few studies have explored the specific process of family resilience. This study aims to explore the dynamic processes of family resilience from parents of adolescents with depression. Data were collected from 14 Chinese parents of adolescents with depression by interpretative phenomenological analysis method. Four themes and 12 sub-themes emerged: (1) decompensation phase: (i) misinterpretations of illness, (ii) heavy psychological burden, (iii) chaotic rhythms in family; (2) launch phase: (i) potential influences of labeling, (ii) we must cure my child anyway, (iii) begin adjusting to family roles; (3) recovery phase: (i) family reflection, (ii) subsequent reorganization of family resources, (iii) ultimately establishing a new balance; (4) normality phase: (i) adaption for medical seeking process, (ii) actively lower expectations, (iii) concerns of future needs. Mental health professionals could provide targeted suggestions to help the parents achieve family resilience by assessing its different phases.

[Modern approaches to developing a system of valid methods for monitoring individual health and maintaining active longevity]

Life expectancy In Russia in 2023, according to preliminary data, exceeded 73 years, returning to the pre-pandemic level. The increase in life expectancy is associated both with an improvement in the quality of medical care In Russia and with a more responsible attitude towards the health of citizens, which is confirmed by an improvement in the quality of nutrition, a decrease in alcohol consumption and an increase in the number of people involved in sports. At the same time, there are many signs of aging, both cellular and molecular, some of the main ones are genome stability, telomere shortening, epigenetic alterations, impaired proteostasis and nutrient recognition, mitochondrial dysfunction, depletion of the stem cell pool and changes in intercellular interactions, extracellular matrix rigidity, as well as retrotransposon activation and chronic inflammation. For these reasons, in modern healthcare, the tasks of preventing premature aging and treating age-related diseases are becoming priorities.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

In total, at the first stage of work (in 2023), we examined 80 people, whose average age was 59.6±0.7 years. When analyzing and assessing data, the study adopted a division into age groups (WHO). The following indicators were studied: HbA1, fructosamine, HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, insulin, homocysteine, C-peptide, TSH, free T4, prolactin, total testosterone, cortisol, arginine, asymmetric dimethylarginine, leptin, TNF-a, ferritin, interleukin 1 and 6, telomere length, creatinine, uric acid and urea.

RESULTS

As a result of the study, it was revealed that the aging process of the body affects many indicators, while the main markers that changed in men aged 18 to 44 years were total testosterone, leptin and telomere length; aged 44 to 60 years - HbA1, fructosamine, HDL cholesterol, homocysteine, C-peptide, total testosterone, leptin and telomere length; from 60 to 75 years - fructosamine, HDL cholesterol and telomere length and for 75-90 years - HbA1, HDL cholesterol, insulin, total testosterone, leptin and telomere length, interleukin 6 and uric acid. In women aged 18 to 44 years, only an increase in leptin was observed against the background of shortening telomere length; at the age of 44 to 60 years, the main markers that changed were total testosterone, leptin and telomere length; for the age group 60-75 years - indicators of HbA1, homocysteine, C-peptide, prolactin, total testosterone and leptin, interleukin 6 and uric acid, telomere length was shorter by only 2%; in the age group of 75-90 years, the main markers that changed were insulin, total testosterone, leptin, interleukin 6, while the indicators of uric acid, urea and telomere length differed from the reference values by 2-4%. Shortening of telomere length in all age groups, both men and women, indicates the presence of signs of premature aging. In an individual analysis, data were obtained on a more dramatic shortening of telomeres in 16 subjects in the presence of impaired glucose tolerance and insulin secretion, especially in comparison with healthy subjects, which was confirmed by the data of glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), while, with shortening of telomere length, the HbA1 indicator was significantly higher (6.8±0.5) than in individuals with long telomeres and no chronic pathology (5.1±0.4).

CONCLUSION

A system of highly valid methods and panels of markers has been developed that indicate the presence of aging processes, taking into account gender and age characteristics, which can be used to identify premature aging processes, monitor individual health and maintain active longevity, as well as for the prevention of age-associated diseases.

Osteoporosis and risk of fracture: reference class problems are real

Elselijn Kingma argues that Christopher Boorse's biostatistical theory does not show how the reference classes it uses-namely, age groups of a sex of a species-are objective and naturalistic. Boorse has replied that this objection is of no concern, because there are no examples of clinicians' choosing to use reference classes other than the ones he suggests. Boorse argues that clinicians use the reference classes they do because these reflect the natural classes of organisms to which their patients belong. Drawing on a thorough exploration of how the disease osteoporosis is defined in adults, I argue that clinicians do indeed make choices about which reference classes to use in diagnosis. Clinicians use young adult reference classes to diagnose osteoporosis in elderly patients. They also use young female reference classes to diagnose osteoporosis in elderly males. Clinicians adjust their reference classes so that the diagnosis of osteoporosis reflects a person's risk of sustaining a fragility fracture. The ethical intuition that people with the same risk of fracture should receive the same diagnosis overwhelms the naturalistic intuition that reference classes should reflect natural classes of organisms of uniform functional design. Clinicians construct a variety of reference class types, including pathological reference classes and epidemiological population-specific reference classes, to serve this ethical intuition. I show how clinicians use several reference classes at once so that they can more accurately predict risk of fracture. Ultimately, the reference classes chosen and used in medical practice are quite different from those proposed in naturalistic philosophy of medicine.