Environmental impact of pressurised metered dose inhalers versus dry powder and soft mist inhalers at a tertiary Melbourne hospital.

The carbon footprint of devices to deliver inhaled respiratory medications has come into focus as climate change has been identified as a worldwide emergency. Metered dose inhalers (MDIs) contain hydrofluorocarbons that have significant global warming potential compared to dry powder inhalers (DPIs) and soft mist inhalers (SMIs), which do not use a propellant gas. A 12-month pharmacy inpatient dispensing audit demonstrated that inpatient MDI use significantly outweighed that of DPIs and SMIs and accounted for approximately 99% of inhaler-related greenhouse gas emissions at our hospital.

Estimating the national carbon footprint of inhalers in healthcare.

Background: Metered dose inhalers (MDIs) contain greenhouse gases which have a disproportionate effect on the carbon footprint of healthcare. There are more environmentally friendly alternatives such as dry powder inhalers (DPIs) or soft mist inhalers (SMIs).

Aims: This study aims to approximate the carbon footprint of inhalers dispensed in Irish healthcare.

A critical evaluation of dynamical systems models of bipolar disorder.

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a mood disorder involving recurring (hypo)manic and depressive episodes. The inherently temporal nature of BD has inspired its conceptualization using dynamical systems theory, which is a mathematical framework for understanding systems that evolve over time. In this paper, we provide a critical review of the dynamical systems models of BD.

Mapping frontoinsular cortex from diffusion microstructure.

We developed a novel method for mapping the location, surface area, thickness, and volume of frontoinsular cortex (FI) using structural and diffusion magnetic resonance imaging. FI lies in the ventral part of anterior insular cortex and is characterized by its distinctive population von Economo neurons (VENs). Functional neuroimaging studies have revealed its involvement in affective processing, and histopathology has implicated VEN loss in behavioral-variant frontotemporal dementia and chronic alcoholism; however, structural neuroimaging of FI has been relatively limited.

Attitudes On The Role Of Nutrition In GP Training.

Aim Nutrition is the leading cause of chronic disease globally, yet it is unknown how much nutritional education GP trainees receive. The aim is to identify GP trainee attitudes to nutrition and compare with the programme directors who deliver this training. Methods A multicentre online survey questionnaire of 542 GP trainees in Ireland and 63 programme directors over 2 weeks in September 2019.

Frontoinsular cortical microstructure is linked to life satisfaction in young adulthood.

Life satisfaction is a component of subjective well-being that reflects a global judgement of the quality of life according to an individual's own needs and expectations. As a psychological construct, it has attracted attention due to its relationship to mental health, resilience to stress, and other factors. Neuroimaging studies have identified neurobiological correlates of life satisfaction; however, they are limited to functional connectivity and gray matter morphometry.

The connections of the insular VEN area in great apes: A histologically-guided ex vivo diffusion tractography study.

We mapped the connections of the insular von Economo neuron (VEN) area in ex vivo brains of a bonobo, an orangutan and two gorillas with high angular resolution diffusion MRI imaging acquired in 36 h imaging sessions for each brain. The apes died of natural causes without neurological disorders. The localization of the insular VEN area was based on cresyl violet-stained histological sections from each brain that were coregistered with structural and diffusion images from the same individuals.

THC Exposure is Reflected in the Microstructure of the Cerebral Cortex and Amygdala of Young Adults.

The endocannabinoid system serves a critical role in homeostatic regulation through its influence on processes underlying appetite, pain, reward, and stress, and cannabis has long been used for the related modulatory effects it provides through tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). We investigated how THC exposure relates to tissue microstructure of the cerebral cortex and subcortical nuclei using computational modeling of diffusion magnetic resonance imaging data in a large cohort of young adults from the Human Connectome Project. We report strong associations between biospecimen-defined THC exposure and microstructure parameters in discrete gray matter brain areas, including frontoinsular cortex, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and the lateral amygdala subfields, with independent effects in behavioral measures of memory performance, negative intrusive thinking, and paternal substance abuse.

Isoprene: New insights into the control of emission and mediation of stress tolerance by gene expression.

Isoprene is a volatile compound produced in large amounts by some, but not all, plants by the enzyme isoprene synthase. Plants emit vast quantities of isoprene, with a net global output of 600 Tg per year, and typical emission rates from individual plants around 2% of net carbon assimilation. There is significant debate about whether global climate change resulting from increasing CO in the atmosphere will increase or decrease global isoprene emission in the future.

Determinants of early initiation of breastfeeding in rural Niger: cross-sectional study of community based child healthcare promotion.

Background: Most child deaths are preventable and caused by behaviorally modifiable factors. By promoting optimal breastfeeding, we can reduce neonatal and child mortality risks by 45%. This paper provides new family and community based perspectives to identify factors interfering with the program impact on promoting early initiation of breastfeeding among the most vulnerable populations in rural Niger.

Medial Prefrontal and Anterior Insular Connectivity in Early Schizophrenia and Major Depressive Disorder: A Resting Functional MRI Evaluation of Large-Scale Brain Network Models.

Anomalies in the medial prefrontal cortex, anterior insulae, and large-scale brain networks associated with them have been proposed to underlie the pathophysiology of schizophrenia and major depressive disorder (MDD). In this study, we examined the connectivity of the medial prefrontal cortices and anterior insulae in 24 healthy controls, 24 patients with schizophrenia, and 24 patients with MDD early in illness with seed-based resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging analysis using Statistical Probability Mapping. As hypothesized, reduced connectivity was found between the medial prefrontal cortex and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and other nodes associated with directed effort in patients with schizophrenia compared to controls while patients with MDD had reduced connectivity between the medial prefrontal cortex and ventral prefrontal emotional encoding regions compared to controls.

Treatment Failure With Atorvastatin After Change From Rosuvastatin to Atorvastatin.

Lipid levels remained largely unchanged, and patients experienced few adverse events following the conversion of patients from rosuvastatin to atorvastatin therapy at the Huntington VAMC.

Retinotopic organization of extrastriate cortex in the owl monkey--dorsal and lateral areas.

Dense retinotopy data sets were obtained by microelectrode visual receptive field mapping in dorsal and lateral visual cortex of anesthetized owl monkeys. The cortex was then physically flatmounted and stained for myelin or cytochrome oxidase. Retinotopic mapping data were digitized, interpolated to a uniform grid, analyzed using the visual field sign technique-which locally distinguishes mirror image from nonmirror image visual field representations-and correlated with the myelin or cytochrome oxidase patterns.

Synthesis of phylogeny and taxonomy into a comprehensive tree of life.

Reconstructing the phylogenetic relationships that unite all lineages (the tree of life) is a grand challenge. The paucity of homologous character data across disparately related lineages currently renders direct phylogenetic inference untenable. To reconstruct a comprehensive tree of life, we therefore synthesized published phylogenies, together with taxonomic classifications for taxa never incorporated into a phylogeny.

Phylesystem: a git-based data store for community-curated phylogenetic estimates.

Motivation: Phylogenetic estimates from published studies can be archived using general platforms like Dryad (Vision, 2010) or TreeBASE (Sanderson et al., 1994). Such services fulfill a crucial role in ensuring transparency and reproducibility in phylogenetic research.

The Fossil Calibration Database-A New Resource for Divergence Dating.

Fossils provide the principal basis for temporal calibrations, which are critical to the accuracy of divergence dating analyses. Translating fossil data into minimum and maximum bounds for calibrations is the most important-often least appreciated-step of divergence dating. Properly justified calibrations require the synthesis of phylogenetic, paleontological, and geological evidence and can be difficult for nonspecialists to formulate.

A volumetric comparison of the insular cortex and its subregions in primates.

The neuronal composition of the insula in primates displays a gradient, transitioning from granular neocortex in the posterior-dorsal insula to agranular neocortex in the anterior-ventral insula with an intermediate zone of dysgranularity. Additionally, apes and humans exhibit a distinctive subdomain in the agranular insula, the frontoinsular cortex (FI), defined by the presence of clusters of von Economo neurons (VENs). Studies in humans indicate that the ventral anterior insula, including agranular insular cortex and FI, is involved in social awareness, and that the posterodorsal insula, including granular and dysgranular cortices, produces an internal representation of the body’s homeostatic state.

Evidence does not support a role for gallic acid in Phragmites australis invasion success.

Gallic acid has been reported to be responsible for the invasive success of nonnative genotypes of Phragmites australis in North America. We have been unable to confirm previous reports of persistent high concentrations of gallic acid in the rhizosphere of invasive P. australis, and of high concentrations of gallic acid and gallotannins in P.

A framework for interpreting functional networks in schizophrenia.

Some promising genetic correlates of schizophrenia have emerged in recent years but none explain more than a small fraction of cases. The challenge of our time is to characterize the neuronal networks underlying schizophrenia and other neuropsychiatric illnesses. Early models of schizophrenia have been limited by the ability to readily evaluate large-scale networks in living patients.

The Claustrum and Insula in Microcebus murinus: A High Resolution Diffusion Imaging Study.

The claustrum and the insula are closely juxtaposed in the brain of the prosimian primate, the gray mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus). Whether the claustrum has closer affinities with the cortex or the striatum has been debated for many decades. Our observation of histological sections from primate brains and genomic data in the mouse suggest former.

Neuronal populations in the basolateral nuclei of the amygdala are differentially increased in humans compared with apes: a stereological study.

In human and nonhuman primates, the amygdala is known to play critical roles in emotional and social behavior. Anatomically, individual amygdaloid nuclei are connected with many neural systems that are either differentially expanded or conserved over the course of primate evolution. To address amygdala evolution in humans and our closest living relatives, the apes, we used design-based stereological methods to obtain neuron counts for the amygdala and each of four major amygdaloid nuclei (the lateral, basal, accessory basal, and central nuclei) in humans, all great ape species, lesser apes, and one monkey species.

Microglia in the cerebral cortex in autism.

We immunocytochemically identified microglia in fronto-insular (FI) and visual cortex (VC) in autopsy brains of well-phenotyped subjects with autism and matched controls, and stereologically quantified the microglial densities. Densities were determined blind to phenotype using an optical fractionator probe. In FI, individuals with autism had significantly more microglia compared to controls (p = 0.

Distinctive neurons of the anterior cingulate and frontoinsular cortex: a historical perspective.

Human anterior cingulate and frontoinsular cortices participate in healthy social-emotional processing. These regions feature 2 related layer 5 neuronal morphotypes, the von Economo neurons and fork cells. In this paper, we review the historical accounts of these neurons and provide a German-to-English translation of von Economo's seminal paper describing the neurons which have come to bear his name.