Impact of co-resident health and living alone on risk of hospital admission for people with Parkinson's disease.

Background: People with Parkinson's Disease (PwP) have a higher rate of hospitalisation compared to the general population. Little is known about the impact of having a co-resident and their health on hospitalisation rates of PwP.

Methods: We utilised Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) GOLD data (2010-2015) to identify PwP and co-residents.

Active Thermochemical Barrier Coatings Using Metal Oxides: First Experimental Results.

A new concept of active thermal coating based on the use of reversible thermochemical reactions is presented in this paper. The new active thermal barrier coating uses redox reactions to buffer the temperature changes that a metallic component may suffer at high temperatures. The heat is stored when the temperature is equal/above the reduction temperature of the active coating (endothermic reaction) and the heat is released when the temperature is equal/below the oxidation temperature (exothermic reaction).

Validated frailty measures using electronic primary care records: a review of diagnostic test accuracy.

Introduction: Identification of people who have or are at risk of frailty enables targeted interventions, and the use of tools that screen for frailty using electronic records (which we term as validated electronic frailty measures (VEFMs)) within primary care is incentivised by NHS England. We carried out a systematic review to establish the sensitivity and specificity of available primary care VEFMs when compared to a reference standard in-person assessment.

Methods: Medline, Pubmed, CENTRAL, CINHAL and Embase searches identified studies comparing a primary care VEFM with in-person assessment.

Nutritional support during the hospital stay reduces mortality in patients with different types of cancers: secondary analysis of a prospective randomized trial.

Background: Nutritional support in patients with cancer aims at improving quality of life. Whether use of nutritional support is also effective in improving clinical outcomes requires further study.

Patients And Methods: In this preplanned secondary analysis of patients with cancer included in a prospective, randomized-controlled, Swiss, multicenter trial (EFFORT), we compared protocol-guided individualized nutritional support (intervention group) to standard hospital food (control group) regarding mortality at 30-day (primary endpoint) and other clinical outcomes.

Diabetes care in pediatric refugees from Africa or Middle East: experiences from Germany and Austria based on real-world data from the DPV registry.

Objective: With increasing migration to Europe, diabetes diagnosis and treatment of refugees became challenging. To describe the current experience with pediatric refugees in Germany and Austria.

Design And Methods: 43,137 patients (<21 years) with type 1 diabetes from the diabetes patient follow-up registry (DPV) were studied and divided by refugee status into patients born in Middle East (n = 365) or Africa (n = 175) and native patients (child and parents born in Germany/Austria; G/A: n = 42,597).

"It's a Race Against the Clock": A Qualitative Analysis of Barriers to Legal Abortion in Bogotá, Colombia.

Context: In 2006, the Colombian Constitutional Court issued a decision largely decriminalizing abortion; however, illegal abortion persists. Understanding the barriers that cause women to resort to unsafe, illegal abortions could help improve access to legal services.

Methods: In-depth interviews were conducted in 2014 with 17 women aged 18 or older who had had legal abortions in the past year in Bogotá, Colombia, to identify barriers to abortion access and elucidate the ways in which these barriers affect women's decision making regarding abortion.

Physician opinions concerning legal abortion in Bogotá, Colombia.

Since the decriminalisation of abortion in 2006, women in Colombia have continued to seek clandestine abortions, endangering their health and contributing to maternal mortality and morbidity. The goal of this study was to explore physicians' opinions towards and knowledge about legal abortion in Bogotá, Colombia, and key barriers to the legal abortion access. We conducted 13 key informant interviews followed by a survey with a probability sample of 49 doctors working in public hospitals in Bogotá.

Sex offender risk assessment: A reexamination of the coffee can study.

There exists a valid concern among forensic psychology scholars that measures intended for sexual offenders have plateaued in their predictive accuracy. The current study examined this concern using the "coffee can" methodology of Kroner, Mills, and Reddon (2005). The Iowa Sex Offender Risk Assessment (ISORA8), Level of Service Inventory - Revised (LSI-R), and Static-99R were used to predict various methods of detected recidivism (general, sexual, and violent recidivism) as compared to three randomly generated measures and a weighted generated measure.

Antibacterial metabolites and bacteriolytic enzymes produced by Bacillus pumilus during bacteriolysis of Arthrobacter citreus.

The marine isolate Bacillus pumilus SBUG 1800 is able to lyse living cells of Arthrobacter citreus on solid media as well as pasteurized A. citreus cells in liquid mineral salt medium. The cultivation of B.

2,5-Diketopiperazines produced by Bacillus pumilus during bacteriolysis of Arthrobacter citreus.

We report the detection by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry analyses of the secreted 2,5-diketopiperazines (DKPs) cyclo(-Ala-Pro), cyclo(-Gly-Pro), cyclo(-Val-Pro), cyclo(-Ile-Pro), cyclo(-Leu-Pro), cyclo(-Pro-Pro), cyclo(-HyP-Pro), cyclo(-Met-Pro), and cyclo(-Phe-Pro) produced by Bacillus pumilus. The study focuses on a marine isolate and a laboratory test strain of B. pumilus with capabilities to lyse pregrown living cell lawns of different bacterial species, among them Arthrobacter citreus.

Neonatal screening: identification of children with 11β-hydroxylase deficiency by second-tier testing.

Background: 21-Hydroxylase deficiency (21-OHD) is the target disease of newborn screening for congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH). We describe the additional detection of patients suffering from 11β-hydroxylase deficiency (11-OHD) by second-tier testing.

Method: Over a period of 5 years, screening for CAH was done in a total of 986,098 newborns by time-resolved immunoassay (DELFIA®) for 17α-hydroxyprogesterone (17-OHP).

Assessment of lateral line function: a potential technique for studies in ototoxicity.

In zebrafish neuromast hair cells, the process of programmed cell death ototoxic damage is strikingly similar to that of degenerating hair cells of the mammalian organ of Corti. Therefore, in vivo zebrafish assays involving the lateral line have been developed for drug ototoxicity screening. This is accomplished by examination of canal neuromast morphology in treated larvae using fluorescent dyes.

Physiological dimensions of ototoxic responses in a model fish species.

Pharmaceutical agents known to be toxic to the human auditory system also impair sensory hair cells of teleosts, and this supports the use of fish models for the screening of such compounds. However, previous investigations have focused almost exclusively on anatomical changes after drug administration without assessing macro-level physiological effects. Using the goldfish (Carassius auratus), we demonstrate that the acquisition of auditory evoked potentials offers a rapid and non-invasive means for tracking ototoxin-induced shifts in auditory thresholds.

Intravenous luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone has no effect on serum N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide in children and adolescents.

Background: Little is known about the acute effects of i.v. luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) on the heart function, therefore the aim of the present study was to measure N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (N-BNP) in children, who underwent a diagnostic work up for short stature or delayed puberty.

Feasibility of IMRT to cover pelvic nodes while escalating the dose to the prostate gland: dosimetric data on 35 consecutive patients.

Utilizing available dosimetric and acute toxicity data, we confirm the feasibility of intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) to include treatment of the pelvic nodes (PN) while escalating the dose to the prostate. Data were obtained from 35 consecutive patients with prostate cancer with > or =15% risk of PN involvement. Patients received an initial boost to the prostate, delivering 16 Gy over 8 fractions using a 6-field conformal technique, followed by an 8-field coplanar inverse planning IMRT technique delivering an additional 60 Gy over 30 fractions to the prostate (76 Gy total) and 54 Gy over 30 fractions to the seminal vesicles (SV) and PN.

Evaluating the clinical utility of stereoscopic clinical photography.

Stereoscopic imaging during clinical evaluation can provide utility to physicians and medical educators by extending clinical photography with the provision of depth. A digital SLR camera body fitted with a stereoscopic lens and an autostereoscopic display are evaluated. This paper describes the image acquisition workflow and post-processing methods required to incorporate stereoscopic images into an electronic medical record for physician review.

False negative 17-hydroxyprogesterone screening in children with classical congenital adrenal hyperplasia.

We report 5 out of 214 children with classical congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) that was not detected by neonatal 17-Hydroxyprogesterone screening. Therefore, diagnosis was only based on a suspect clinical picture and subsequent re-evaluation. In addition to 3 patients suffering from the simple virilizing form of CAH and not reported so far, the remaining 2 children whose CAH was missed by the screening suffered from the severe salt-wasting form.

Dosimetric predictors of laryngeal edema.

Purpose: To investigate dosimetric predictors of laryngeal edema after radiotherapy (RT).

Methods And Materials: A total of 66 patients were selected who had squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck with grossly uninvolved larynx at the time of RT, no prior major surgical operation except for neck dissection and tonsillectomy, treatment planning data available for analysis, and at least one fiberoptic examination of the larynx within 2 years from RT performed by a single observer. Both the biologically equivalent mean dose at 2 Gy per fraction and the cumulative biologic dose-volume histogram of the larynx were extracted for each patient.

Pollution mitigation and carbon sequestration by an urban forest.

At the beginning of the 1900s, the Canberra plain was largely treeless. Graziers had carried out extensive clearing of the original trees since the 1820s leaving only scattered remnants and some plantings near homesteads. With the selection of Canberra as the site for the new capital of Australia, extensive tree plantings began in 1911.

Carbon accounting model for forests in Australia.

CAMFor (Carbon Accounting Model for Forests) is a sophisticated spreadsheet model developed to assist in carbon accounting and projection. This model can integrate information from a range of alternate sources including user input, default parameters and third party model outputs to calculate the carbon flows associated with a stand of trees and the wood products derived from harvests of that stand. Carbon is tracked in the following pools: * Biomass (stemwood, branches, bark, fine and coarse roots, leaves and twigs) * Soil (organic matter and inert charcoal) * Debris (coarse and fine litter, slash, below ground dead material) * Products (waste wood, sawn timber, paper, biofuel, reconstituted wood products).

N-Acetyl-L-Cystein downregulates beta-amyloid precursor protein gene transcription in human neuroblastoma cells.

The causes for the sporadic form of Alzheimer's disease (AD) are still poorly understood, except from the fact that age is an important risk factor. The main component of the characteristic amyloid plaques in brains of AD patients are Abeta peptides, derivatives of the amyloid precursor protein APP. Oxidative stress may contribute to the aetiology of AD by dysregulation of APP metabolism.

Change in rate-determining step in an E1cB mechanism during aminolysis of sulfamate esters in acetonitrile.

The kinetics of the reactions of the nitrogen-sulfur(VI) esters 4-nitrophenyl N-methylsulfamate (NPMS) with a series of pyridines and a series of alicyclic amines and of 4-nitrophenyl N-benzylsulfamate (NPBS) with pyridines, alicyclic amines, and a series of quinuclidines have been investigated in acetonitrile (ACN) in the presence of excess amine at various temperatures. Pseudo-first-order rate constants (k(obsd)) have been obtained by monitoring the release of 4-nitrophenol/4-nitrophenoxide. From the slope of a plot of k(obsd) vs [amine], second-order rate constants (k'(2)) have been obtained for the pyridinolysis of NPMS, and a Brønsted plot of log k'(2) vs pK(a) of pyridine gave a straight line with beta = 0.

N-acetyl-L-cysteine protects SHSY5Y neuroblastoma cells from oxidative stress and cell cytotoxicity: effects on beta-amyloid secretion and tau phosphorylation.

Redox changes within neurones are increasingly being implicated as an important causative agent in brain ageing and neurodegenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson's disease (PD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Cells have developed a number of defensive mechanisms to maintain intracellular redox homeostasis, including the glutathione (GSH) system and antioxidant enzymes. Here we examine the effects of N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) on beta-amyloid (A beta) secretion and tau phosphorylation in SHSY5Y neuroblastoma cells after exposure to oxidative stress inducing/cytotoxic compounds (H(2)O(2), UV light and toxic A beta peptides).