The association between loneliness and frailty among community-dwelling older adults in five European countries: a longitudinal study.

Background: Loneliness is described as the subjective experience of unfulfilled personal and social needs, with emotional and social domains. Frailty is a state of vulnerability to stressors, which is often characterised by impairment in the physical, psychological and/or social domain.

Objective: This study aims to examine the bidirectional association between loneliness and frailty across the different domains.

Impaired Microvascular Reactivity in Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease Submitted to Kidney Transplantation: A Prospective Observational Study.

Introduction: The effect of kidney transplantation on endothelial dysfunction and autonomic dysfunction in uremia remains controversial, and few studies have evaluated this question. Endothelial dysfunction and autonomic dysfunction, both, be assessed noninvasively using laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF). This study evaluated cutaneous microvascular blood flow and reactivity using LDF in patients undergoing kidney transplantation.

Interplay of Physical, Psychological, and Social Frailty among Community-Dwelling Older Adults in Five European Countries: A Longitudinal Study.

Frailty is a dynamic condition encompassing physical, psychological, and social domains. While certain factors are associated with overall or specific frailty domains, research on the correlations between physical, psychological, and social frailty is lacking. This study aims to investigate the associations between physical, psychological, and social frailty in European older adults.

Phytoremediation and phytoextraction in Sub-Saharan Africa: Addressing economic and social challenges.

Mining and mineral processing continues to be a source of lasting environmental problems in many developing economies. Phytoremediation has proven to be a viable strategy to remediate contaminated lands and limit environmental damage, but it has not been widely implemented partially due to social and economic challenges. However, by encouraging phytoremediation with a focus on phytoextraction, it may be possible to rehabilitate contaminated lands while simultaneously providing economic support to local communities.

Effect of Kangaroo Position on microcirculation of preterm newborns: a controlled randomized clinical trial.

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of Kangaroo Position (KP) in microcirculation (MC) of the flexor muscles of preterm newborns.

Method: A controlled clinical trial was conducted in the city of Recife, Brazil, with 26 preterm children randomized in the Kangaroo Group (13) and in the Control Group (13). Assessments of blood flow, temperature, and tissue oxygen saturation (SO) were made at two different times and in the biceps brachii muscle and hamstrings muscle group: before the KP and after 24 h of KP.

Longitudinal Association Between Physical Activity and Frailty Among Community-Dwelling Older Adults.

Objectives: To examine the longitudinal association between frequency of moderate physical activity (PA) and overall, physical, psychological, and social frailty among community-dwelling older adults older than 70 years. Second, we assessed the association between a 12-month change in frequency of moderate PA and frailty.

Design: Longitudinal cohort study.

Synbiotics Alter Fecal Microbiomes, But Not Liver Fat or Fibrosis, in a Randomized Trial of Patients With Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease.

Background & Aims: Dysbiosis of the intestinal microbiota has been associated with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). We investigated whether administration of a synbiotic combination of probiotic and prebiotic agents affected liver fat content, biomarkers of liver fibrosis, and the composition of the fecal microbiome in patients with NAFLD.

Methods: We performed a double-blind phase 2 trial of 104 patients with NAFLD in the United Kingdom.

Attractor Reconstruction Analysis for Blood Flow Signals.

Attractor reconstruction analysis has been previously used to determine changes in the shape and variability of fairly periodic signals such as arterial blood pressure signals and electroencephalogram signals, providing a two-dimensional attractor with features like density and symmetry. Since BF signals are fairly periodic and quasi-stationary, we set out to investigate whether attractor reconstruction method could be applied in signals derived from the microvascular perfusion. We describe the basis and the implementation of attractor reconstruction analysis of the microvascular blood flux (BF) signals recorded from the skin of 15 healthy male volunteers, age 29.

Multiscale, multidomain analysis of microvascular flow dynamics.

New Findings: What is the topic of this review? We describe a range of techniques in the time, frequency and information domains and their application alone and together for the analysis of blood flux signals acquired using laser Doppler fluximetry. What advances does it highlight? This review highlights the idea of using quantitative measures in different domains and scales to gain a better mechanistic understanding of the complex behaviours in the microcirculation.

Abstract: To date, time- and frequency-domain metrics of signals acquired through laser Doppler fluximetry have been unable to provide consistent and robust measures of the changes that occur in the microcirculation in healthy individuals at rest or in response to a provocation, or in patient cohorts.

The impact of a volunteer-led community cancer awareness programme on knowledge of cancer risk factors and symptoms, screening, and barriers to seeking help.

Objective: To analyse the impact of a community cancer awareness programme on knowledge of cancer risk factors and symptoms, screening, and barriers to seeking help.

Methods: Personalised information through peer-led champions was delivered to 5500 people in a range of settings and Cancer Awareness Measures questionnaires were completed by 119 participants at pre-arranged sessions (convenience sampling) before and after the intervention. Data were analysed using McNemar tests, Mann-Whitney U test and a Wilcoxon Signed Rank test.

Enhanced flow-motion complexity of skin microvascular perfusion in Sherpas and lowlanders during ascent to high altitude.

An increased and more effective microvascular perfusion is postulated to play a key role in the physiological adaptation of Sherpa highlanders to the hypobaric hypoxia encountered at high altitude. To investigate this, we used Lempel-Ziv complexity (LZC) analysis to explore the spatiotemporal dynamics of the variability of the skin microvascular blood flux (BF) signals measured at the forearm and finger, in 32 lowlanders (LL) and 46 Sherpa highlanders (SH) during the Xtreme Everest 2 expedition. Measurements were made at baseline (BL) (LL: London 35 m; SH: Kathmandu 1300 m) and at Everest base camp (LL and SH: EBC 5,300 m).

A coordinated preventive care approach for healthy ageing in five European cities: A mixed methods study of process evaluation components.

Aims: To evaluate specific process components of the Urban Health Centres Europe (UHCE) approach; a coordinated preventive care approach aimed at healthy ageing by decreasing falls, polypharmacy, loneliness and frailty among older persons in community settings of five cities in the United Kingdom, Greece, Croatia, the Netherlands and Spain.

Design: Mixed methods evaluation of specific process components of the UHCE approach: reach of the target population, dose of the intervention actually delivered and received by participants and satisfaction and experience of main stakeholders involved in the approach.

Methods: The UHCE approach intervention consisted of a preventive assessment, shared decision-making on a care plan and enrolment in one or more of four coordinated care-pathways that targeted falls, polypharmacy, loneliness and frailty.

Monitoring biomolecule concentrations in tissue using a wearable droplet microfluidic-based sensor.

Knowing how biomarker levels vary within biological fluids over time can produce valuable insight into tissue physiology and pathology, and could inform personalised clinical treatment. We describe here a wearable sensor for monitoring biomolecule levels that combines continuous fluid sampling with in situ analysis using wet-chemical assays (with the specific assay interchangeable depending on the target biomolecule). The microfluidic device employs a droplet flow regime to maximise the temporal response of the device, using a screw-driven push-pull peristaltic micropump to robustly produce nanolitre-sized droplets.

Skin microdialysis: methods, applications and future opportunities-an EAACI position paper.

Skin microdialysis (SMD) is a versatile sampling technique that can be used to recover soluble endogenous and exogenous molecules from the extracellular compartment of human skin. Due to its minimally invasive character, SMD can be applied in both clinical and preclinical settings. Despite being available since the 1990s, the technique has still not reached its full potential use as a tool to explore pathophysiological mechanisms of allergic and inflammatory reactions in the skin.

Multi-domain analysis of microvascular flow motion dynamics in NAFLD.

Objective: To determine whether analysis of microvascular network perfusion using complexity-based methods can discriminate between groups of individuals at an increased risk of developing CVD.

Methods: Data were obtained from laser Doppler recordings of skin blood flux at the forearm in 50 participants with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease grouped for absence (n = 28) or presence (n = 14) of type 2 diabetes and use of calcium channel blocker medication (n = 8). Power spectral density was evaluated and Lempel-Ziv complexity determined to quantify signal information content at single and multiple time-scales to account for the different processes modulating network perfusion.

Analysis of microvascular blood flow and oxygenation: Discrimination between two haemodynamic steady states using nonlinear measures and multiscale analysis.

Objective: This study investigates the feasibility of the use of nonlinear complexity methods as a tool to identify altered microvascular function often associated with pathological conditions. We evaluate the efficacy of multiscale nonlinear complexity methods to account for the multiple time-scales of processes modulating microvascular network perfusion.

Methods: Microvascular blood flux (BF) and oxygenation (OXY: oxyHb, deoxyHb, totalHb and SO%) signals were recorded simultaneously at the same site, from the skin of 15 healthy young male volunteers using combined laser Doppler fluximetry (LDF) and white light spectroscopy.

Sustained vasomotor control of skin microcirculation in Sherpas versus altitude-naive lowlanders: Experimental evidence from Xtreme Everest 2.

New Findings: What is the central question of this study? Do Sherpa highlanders, when exposed to graded hypobaric hypoxia, exhibit enhanced vasomotor and neurovascular control to maintain microcirculatory flux, and thus tissue oxygenation, when compared with altitude-naive lowlanders? What is the main finding and its importance? Sherpas, when exposed to hypobaric hypoxia at high altitude, demonstrated superior preservation of their peripheral microcirculatory perfusion, a greater oxygen unloading rate and sustained microvascular reactivity with enhanced vasomotion, when compared with altitude-naive lowlanders. These differences have not been reported previously and may improve our understanding of the multifactorial responses to sustained environmental hypoxia.

Abstract: Enhanced oxygen delivery, consequent to an increased microvascular perfusion, has been postulated to play a key role in the physiological adaptation of Tibetan highlanders to the hypobaric hypoxia encountered at high altitude.

Marine omega-3 fatty acid supplementation in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: Plasma proteomics in the randomized WELCOME* trial.

Background & Aims: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a liver condition characterised by liver fat accumulation and often considered to be the liver manifestation of metabolic syndrome. The aim of this study was to examine in patients with NAFLD the system-wide effects of treatment with docosahexaenoic acid + eicosapentaenoic acid (DHA + EPA) versus placebo on the plasma proteome.

Methods: Plasma from patients that participated in a 15-18 months randomised, double-blind placebo-controlled trial testing the effects of 4 g DHA + EPA daily was analysed using depletion-free quantitative proteomics.

Design and rationale of the INSYTE study: A randomised, placebo controlled study to test the efficacy of a synbiotic on liver fat, disease biomarkers and intestinal microbiota in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Background: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) represents a spectrum of fat-related conditions ranging from simple fatty liver, to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), fibrosis and cirrhosis. There is growing evidence that NAFLD is a multisystem disease, affecting several extra-hepatic organs and regulatory pathways. Furthermore, since the gut and liver are linked anatomically via the portal vein, disturbances of the gut microbiota (dysbiosis) can affect the liver.

Using high resolution X-ray computed tomography to create an image based model of a lymph node.

Lymph nodes are an important part of the immune system. They filter the lymphatic fluid as it is transported from the tissues before being returned to the blood stream. The fluid flow through the nodes influences the behaviour of the immune cells that gather within the nodes and the structure of the node itself.

Leukocyte extracellular vesicle concentration is inversely associated with liver fibrosis severity in NAFLD.

The enhanced liver fibrosis (LFS) score and the nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) fibrosis score (NFS) are algorithmic-derived scores for diagnosing severe (F3/F4) liver fibrosis. In a pilot, substudy of the Wessex Evaluation of fatty Liver and Cardiovascular markers in NAFLD with OMacor thErapy (WELCOME) trial, we tested whether measurements of plasma platelet-, endothelial-, and leukocyte-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) counts are (a) associated with, and predict, F3/F4 fibrosis and (b) able to improve risk prediction of F3/F4 fibrosis in NAFLD, building upon LFS or NFS algorithms. Twenty-six individuals with NAFLD had liver fibrosis severity determined by Kleiner scoring after liver biopsy.

Investigation of microvascular morphological measures for skeletal muscle tissue oxygenation by image-based modelling in three dimensions.

The supply of oxygen in sufficient quantity is vital for the correct functioning of all organs in the human body, especially for skeletal muscle during exercise. Traditionally, microvascular oxygen supply capability is assessed by the analysis of morphological measures on transverse cross-sections of muscle, e.g.

Evaluation design of Urban Health Centres Europe (UHCE): preventive integrated health and social care for community-dwelling older persons in five European cities.

Background: Older persons often have interacting physical and social problems and complex care needs. An integrated care approach in the local context with collaborations between community-, social-, and health-focused organisations can contribute to the promotion of independent living and quality of life. In the Urban Health Centres Europe (UHCE) project, five European cities (Greater Manchester, United Kingdom; Pallini (in Greater Athens Area), Greece; Rijeka, Croatia; Rotterdam, the Netherlands; and Valencia, Spain) develop and implement a care template that integrates health and social care and includes a preventive approach.