Mutations in lipid regulator genes are a frequent cause of autism spectrum disorder, including those regulating phosphatidylinositol (PI) and phosphoinositide 3-kinase signaling. encodes a key acyltransferase in PI synthesis and is mutated in an autism-related condition with neurodevelopmental delay and epilepsy. Using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, we analyzed the PI-associated glycerolipidome in mice and humans during neurodevelopment and found dynamic regulation at times corresponding to neural apoptosis in the brains of knockout mice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: To determine if a priori standardization of outcome hemostatic definitions alone was adequate to enable useful comparison between two cohorts of pediatric extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) patients, managed according to local practice and protocol.
Design: Comparison of two separate prospective cohort studies performed at different centers with standardized outcome definitions agreed upon a priori.
Setting: General and cardiac PICUs at the Royal Children's Hospital (RCH) in Melbourne, Australia, and the Sophia Children's Hospital (SCH) in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Background: Using [F]altanserin, a serotonin 2A receptor (5-HTR) antagonist Positron Emission Tomography (PET) tracer, a positive association between cortical 5-HTR binding and the inward-directed facets of neuroticism has been demonstrated in healthy individuals. Psilocybin, a 5-HTR agonist, shows promise for the treatment of depression, reducing neuroticism and mood symptoms potentially via hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) modulation. 5-HTR and neuroticism are both modulated by HPA axis function.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: TCF21 (transcription factor 21) is a bHLH (basic helix-loop-helix) protein required for the developmental specification of cardiac fibroblasts (CFs) from epicardial progenitor cells that surround the embryonic heart. In the adult heart, TCF21 is expressed in tissue-resident fibroblasts and is downregulated in response to injury or stimuli leading to myofibroblast differentiation. These findings led to the hypothesis that TCF21 regulates fibroblast differentiation in the adult mammalian heart to affect fibrosis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExp Clin Psychopharmacol
December 2024
Alcohol use disorder is prevalent, and various risk factors inform drinking onset and drinking patterns. Existing data suggest that alcohol sweet taste preference may be associated with harmful levels of alcohol use and alcohol-related harm. The present exploratory study aimed to characterize people's first alcohol use experience, probe the association between sweet taste preferences and drinking patterns over time, and evaluate the relationship between sweet taste preferences and behavioral economic variables.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Objective: Post-operative periprosthetic femoral fractures (POPFF) present a growing challenge for healthcare services, but there are limited national data on patient profiles, short-term outcomes, and post-discharge follow-up. We aimed to fill these gaps.
Methods: Using Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), we identified POPFF discharges from hospitals in England for patients aged 18 and above between April 2016 and December 2022.
Background: Non-human primates play a critical role in neuroscience research. Though they are social animals, laboratory study requirements can sometimes require single housing and thereby prevent social housing.
New Method: To eliminate single housing and promote well-being within our squirrel monkey colony, we used positive reinforcement training in combination with magnetic/mechanical clasps and custom jackets to permit pair housing of catheterized squirrel monkeys used in behavioral studies.
Mineral aerosols form a key component of Earth's dynamic biogeochemical systems, yet their composition and mass are variable in time. We reconstruct patterns in mineral aerosol flux from East Asia, the second largest global dust source, in a peat mire in northern Japan. Using geochemical fingerprinting, we show for the past ~3600 years that high but variable tephra flux dominated regional aerosol loads.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTrials
October 2024
Rocky planets may acquire a primordial atmosphere by the outgassing of volatiles from their magma ocean. The distribution of O between HO, CO, and CO in chemical equilibrium subsequently changes significantly with decreasing temperature. We consider here two chemical models: one where CH and NH are assumed to be irrevocably destroyed by photolysis and second where these molecules persist.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Hip fractures are common and cause a huge socioeconomic burden to patients, their carers, and healthcare services worldwide. Our aim was to examine how much hip fracture numbers would be expected to rise over coming decades, simply as a consequence of the ageing of the population.
Methods: We used data from the National Hip Fracture Database on the volume of hip fractures occurring in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in the year 2019 (n = 67,210).
When an infant dies in a neonatal intensive care unit in Norway, healthcare professionals provide bereaved parents with objects intended to help them processing their loss. Such objects can be clothes, blankets, soft animal toys, hand- and footprints, hair, as well as scrapbooks where the short life is documented through text and photo. By interviewing bereaved parents in three focus groups, we investigated the parents' use of these objects.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Aims: Development of novel treatments for celiac disease is dependent on precise tools to monitor changes in gluten-induced mucosal damage. Current histology measures are subjective and difficult to standardize. Biopsy proteome scoring is an objective alternative to histology which is based on robust changes in biological pathways that directly reflect gluten-induced mucosal damage.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To characterize surface-bound proteins and to measure the thickness of fibrin fibers bound to extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) circuits used in children.
Design: Single-center observational prospective study, April to November 2021.
Setting: PICU, Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia.
Introduction: Monitoring healthcare quality is challenging in paediatric critical care due to measure variability, data collection burden, and uncertainty regarding consumer and clinician priorities.
Objective: We sought to establish a core quality measure set that (i) is meaningful to consumers and clinicians and (ii) promotes alignment of measure use and collection across paediatric critical care.
Design: We conducted a multi-stakeholder Delphi study with embedded consumer prioritisation survey.
Purpose: To determine the relationship between three postoperative physiotherapy activities (time to first postoperative walk, activity on the day after surgery, and physiotherapy frequency), and the outcomes of hospital length of stay (LOS) and discharge destination after hip fracture.
Methods: A cohort study was conducted on 437 hip fracture surgery patients aged ≥ 50 years across 36 participating hospitals from the Australian and New Zealand Hip Fracture Registry Acute Rehabilitation Sprint Audit during June 2022. Study outcomes included hospital LOS and discharge destination.
Harmful cyanobacterial blooms will be more intense and frequent in the future, contaminating surface waters with cyanotoxins and posing a threat to communities heavily reliant on surface water usage for crop irrigation. Constructed wetlands (CWs) are proposed to ensure safe crop irrigation, but more research is needed before implementation. The present study operated 28 mesocosms in continuous mode mimicking horizontal sub-surface flow CWs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Aim: Many children with an FH mutation also exhibit elevated lipoprotein(a) levels, which is an independent risk factor for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Studies have reported higher levels of lipoprotein(a) in adult and middle-aged women than men. There is limited knowledge on the concentration and change of lipoprotein(a) levels in children with genetic FH, and therefore we investigated sex-differences in lipoprotein(a) level and change in lipoprotein(a) in girls and boys with genetically confirmed FH.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThere is an overwhelming demand for new scaffolding materials for tissue engineering (TE) purposes. Polymeric scaffolds have been explored as TE materials; however, their high glass transition state (T) limits their applicability. In this study, a novel materials platform for fabricating TE scaffolds is proposed based on solvent-free two-component heterocyclic triazine-trione (TATO) formulations, which cure at room temperature via thiol-ene/yne photochemistry.
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