Promoting community health and climate justice co-benefits: insights from a rural and remote island climate planning process.

Climate change is an environmental crisis, a health crisis, a socio-political and an economic crisis that illuminates the ways in which our human-environment relationships are arriving at crucial tipping points. Through these relational axes, social structures, and institutional practices, patterns of inequity are produced, wherein climate change disproportionately impacts several priority populations, including rural and remote communities. To make evidence-based change, it is important that engagements with climate change are informed by data that convey the nuance of various living realities and forms of knowledge; decisions are rooted in the social, structural, and ecological determinants of health; and an intersectional lens informs the research to action cycle.

[Psychological support for patients in pain].

Whether acute or chronic, pain leads to a reorganization of the subject's psychic functioning, and thus to a different interpretation of his or her own painful experience. To transform the experience, pain must be addressed in all its biopsychosocial components, and through the use of various therapeutic devices, with the hope of overcoming it.

Impact of COVID-19 on chronic pain structures: data from French national survey.

The authors evaluated the impact of the first COVID-19 pandemic wave on French chronic pain structures (CPS). An online survey assessed CPS resource allocation, workflow and perceived impact on patient care. All CPS workflow was severely impacted by the reallocation of 42% of specialists.

Pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments for neuropathic pain: Systematic review and French recommendations.

Neuropathic pain remains a significant unmet medical need. Several recommendations have recently been proposed concerning pharmacotherapy, neurostimulation techniques and interventional management, but no comprehensive guideline encompassing all these treatments has yet been issued. We performed a systematic review of pharmacotherapy, neurostimulation, surgery, psychotherapies and other types of therapy for peripheral or central neuropathic pain, based on studies published in peer-reviewed journals before January 2018.

Earth's field NMR detection of oil under arctic ice-water suppression.

Earth's field NMR has been developed to detect oil trapped under or in Arctic sea-ice. A large challenge, addressed here, is the suppression of the water signal that dominates the oil signal. Selective suppression of water is based on relaxation time T because of the negligible chemical shifts in the weak earth's magnetic field, making all proton signals overlap spectroscopically.

Adiabatic sweep pulses for earth's field NMR with a surface coil.

Adiabatic NMR sweep pulses are described for inversion and excitation in very low magnetic fields B and with broad distribution of excitation field amplitude B. Two aspects distinguish the low field case: (1) when B is comparable to or greater than B, the rotating field approximation fails and (2) inversion sweeps cannot extend to values well below the Larmor frequency because they would approach or pass through zero frequency. Three approaches to inversion are described.

Pre-polarization fields for earth's field NMR: Fast discharge for use with short T and large coils.

The sensitivity of earth's field NMR is greatly increased by the use of a pre-polarizing field B. When used with short T samples, the field must be decreased rapidly to avoid loss of the pre-polarized magnetization by relaxation. Such a rapid decrease in the field requires rapid discharge (∼10ms) of a large stored magnetic field energy (∼700J).

TEMPORAL LINKS BETWEEN ENDOTOXIN ACTIVITY LEVELS AND INTERLEUKIN 6 CONCENTRATIONS IN ABDOMINAL SEPSIS.

In severe human peritonitis, the precise pathophysiological importance of endotoxin is controversial. Prognostic and therapeutic studies have yielded conflicting results. The current study wanted to investigate qualitative, quantitative, and temporal associations between blood endotoxin activity (EA) levels and acute inflammatory reactions.

Increased iron sequestration in alveolar macrophages in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Free iron in lung can cause the generation of reactive oxygen species, an important factor in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) pathogenesis. Iron accumulation has been implicated in oxidative stress in other diseases, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, but little is known about iron accumulation in COPD. We sought to determine if iron content and the expression of iron transport and/or storage genes in lung differ between controls and COPD subjects, and whether changes in these correlate with airway obstruction.

Accurate measurement of small airways on low-dose thoracic CT scans in smokers.

Background: Partial volume averaging and tilt relative to the scan plane on transverse images limit the accuracy of airway wall thickness measurements on CT scan, confounding assessment of the relationship between airway remodeling and clinical status in COPD. The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of partial volume averaging and tilt corrections on airway wall thickness measurement accuracy and on relationships between airway wall thickening and clinical status in COPD.

Methods: Airway wall thickness measurements in 80 heavy smokers were obtained on transverse images from low-dose CT scan using the open-source program Airway Inspector.

Breastfeeding is associated with lower risk for multiple sclerosis.

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease with known genetic and environmental susceptibility factors. Breastfeeding has been shown to be protective in other autoimmune diseases.

Objective: This case-control study analyzed the association of breastfeeding in infancy on the risk of developing MS.

Measles IgG antibody index correlates with T2 lesion load on MRI in patients with early multiple sclerosis.

Background: B cells and humoral immune responses play an important role in the pathogenesis and diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS). A characteristic finding in patients with MS is a polyspecific intrathecal B cell response against neurotropic viruses, specifically against measles virus, rubella virus, and varicella zoster virus, also known as an MRZ reaction (MRZR). Here, we correlated from the routine clinical diagnostics individual IgG antibody indices (AIs) of MRZR with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings in patients with first MS diagnosis.

Environmental factors in early childhood are associated with multiple sclerosis: a case-control study.

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS) with increasing incidence mainly in high-income countries. One explanation of this phenomenon may be a higher prevalence of allergic and autoimmune diseases in industrialized countries as a consequence of otherwise beneficial advances in sanitation (hygiene hypothesis). We investigated environmental factors in early childhood associated with MS.

Equating quantitative emphysema measurements on different CT image reconstructions.

Purpose: To mathematically model the relationship between CT measurements of emphysema obtained from images reconstructed using different section thicknesses and kernels and to evaluate the accuracy of the models for converting measurements to those of a reference reconstruction.

Methods: CT raw data from the lung cancer screening examinations of 138 heavy smokers were reconstructed at 15 different combinations of section thickness and kernel. An emphysema index was quantified as the percentage of the lung with attenuation below -950 HU (EI950).

The role of matrix metalloproteinase-9 in cigarette smoke-induced emphysema.

Rationale: Matrix metalloprotease (MMP)-9 is an elastolytic endopeptidase produced by activated macrophages that may be involved in the development of human pulmonary emphysema and could be inhibited with existing compounds. Mouse models have demonstrated that excess MMP-9 production can result in permanent alveolar destruction.

Objectives: To determine if MMP-9 causes cigarette smoke-induced emphysema using MMP-9 knockout mice and human samples.

Measuring small airways in transverse CT images correction for partial volume averaging and airway tilt.

Rationale And Objectives: Airway wall dimensions can be determined in vivo using transverse computed tomographic (CT) images, but the measurement of airway phantoms shows that the wall thickness is consistently overestimated for small airways. This phantom study was performed to derive and test corrections to the measurements on the basis of consideration of partial volume averaging and tilt effects.

Materials And Methods: A lung phantom with six polycarbonate tubes embedded in foam was scanned, and the cross-sectional dimensions of the tubes were determined using the full width at half maximum, zero crossing, and phase congruency edge detection methods.

Cigarette smoke induces nucleic-acid oxidation in lung fibroblasts.

Oxidative stress is widely proposed as a pathogenic mechanism for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but the molecular pathway connecting oxidative damage to tissue destruction remains to be fully defined. We suggest that reactive oxygen species (ROS) oxidatively damage nucleic acids, and this effect requires multiple repair mechanisms, particularly base excision pathway components 8-oxoguanine-DNA glycosylase (OGG1), endonuclease III homologue 1 (NTH1), and single-strand-selective monofunctional uracil-DNA glycosylase 1 (SMUG1), as well as the nucleic acid-binding protein, Y-box binding protein 1 (YB1). This study was therefore designed to define the levels of nucleic-acid oxidation and expression of genes involved in the repair of COPD and in corresponding models of this disease.

Elastin expression in very severe human COPD.

Alveolar elastic fibres are key targets of proteases during the pathogenesis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In the current study, we hypothesised that a response to injury leads to enhanced alveolar elastin gene expression in very severe COPD. Lung samples obtained from 43 patients, including 11 with very severe COPD (stage 4), 10 donors, 10 with moderate/severe COPD (stage 2-3) and 12 non-COPD subjects, were analysed for elastin mRNA expression by real-time RT-PCR and in situ hybridisation.

Oxidative damage to nucleic acids in severe emphysema.

Background: Oxidative stress is a key element in the pathogenesis of emphysema, but oxidation of nucleic acids has been largely overlooked. The aim of this study was to investigate oxidative damage to nucleic acids in severe emphysematous lungs.

Methods: Thirteen human severe emphysematous lungs, including five with alpha(1)-antitrypsin deficiency (AATD), were obtained from patients receiving lung transplantation.

Elevated levels of transcripts encoding a human retroviral envelope protein (syncytin) in muscles from patients with motor neuron disease.

Retroviral components of both exogenous and endogenous origins have been associated with nervous system diseases in both animals and humans. In the present study, the levels of transcripts from elements in the human endogenous retrovirus (HERV) W family were determined in muscle biopsies from patients with motor neuron disease (MND) and control subjects. Transcripts from the HERV-W element on chromosome 7q21.

Reproducibility of chronic and acute infarct size measurement by delayed enhancement-magnetic resonance imaging.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the reproducibility of acute and chronic infarct size (IS) by delayed enhancement (DE) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Background: Infarct size measurements can be used as surrogate end point to reduce the sample size in studies comparing different reperfusion strategies in myocardial infarction (MI). Delayed enhancement MRI is a rather new technique, and so far infarct IS reproducibility has not been established appropriately.

Determination of phenols in lake and ground water samples by stir bar sorptive extraction-thermal desorption-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

A simple and inexpensive method for sorptive extraction of phenols from water samples is presented. A polydimethyl siloxane (PDMS) stir bar (Twister) is used as an extraction medium for derivatized phenols, which is thermally desorbed and analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Its performance was illustrated and evaluated for the enrichment of microg l(-1) to ng l(-1) of phenol and selected chlorophenols in water samples.

Changing a diagnosis: the importance of neonatal autopsy.

In this review of a clinical case and the subsequent autopsy findings, the importance of autopsy in determining the cause of death is highlighted. The importance of an autopsy in the neonatal age group is especially important since the yield of unexpected findings is considerably greater than in other groups, and the information may prove invaluable for parents and families in planning other pregnancies.