Using life course charts to assess and compare trajectories of amphetamine type stimulant consumption in different user groups: a cross-sectional study.

Background: Amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) are the second most commonly used illicit drugs in Europe and globally. However, there is limited understanding of what shapes patterns of ATS use over the life course. The ATTUNE project "Understanding Pathways to Stimulant Use: a mixed methods examination of the individual, social and cultural factors shaping illicit stimulant use across Europe" aims to fill this gap.

Social work involvement in palliative care heart failure research: a review of recent literature.

Purpose Of Review: The aim of the review is to examine the findings of empirical studies of palliative care interventions for patients with heart failure in which a social worker was identified as a key member of the interprofessional clinical team.

Recent Findings: Our systematic review of the empirical literature from January 2016 to August 2019 found five palliative care interventions with heart failure patients that cited involvement of a social worker as a key team member. The reviewed studies highlighted social workers' roles in the areas of psychosocial assessments and support, advance care planning, and patient-medical team communication.

Increased protease activated receptors in the colon of patients with Hirschsprung's disease.

Purpose: The pathophysiology of Hirschsprung's associated enterocolitis (HAEC) is not understood. Abnormal intestinal motility and altered intestinal epithelial barrier function have been suggested to play a key role in the causation of HAEC. Protease-activated receptors (PARs) 1 and 2, have been implicated in inflammatory reactions, intestinal permeability and modulation of motility in the gut.

Tuft Cells: A New Player in Hirschsprung's Disease.

Introduction:  "Tuft" cells, also known as brush or caveolated cells, are characteristically fusiform shaped, with a distinct apical "tuft" of microvilli extending into the lumen. Double cortin-like kinase 1 (DCLK1) is a microtubule kinase and is a specific marker of intestinal tuft cells. DCLK1-positive tuft cells have been shown to play a key role in gastrointestinal chemosensation, inflammation, and neurotransmission.

When and How Video Games Can Be Good: A Review of the Positive Effects of Video Games on Well-Being.

Video games are a source of entertainment for a wide population and have varied effects on well-being. The purpose of this article is to comprehensively examine game-play research to identify the factors that contribute to these disparate well-being outcomes and to highlight the potential positive effects. On the basis of existing literature, we argue that the effects of gaming on well-being are moderated by other variables, such as motivations for gaming and video-game characteristics.

Adaptive phenotypic plasticity in malaria parasites is not constrained by previous responses to environmental change.

Background And Objectives: Phenotypic plasticity enables organisms to maximize fitness by matching trait values to different environments. Such adaptive phenotypic plasticity is exhibited by parasites, which experience frequent environmental changes during their life cycle, between individual hosts and also in within-host conditions experienced during infections. Life history theory predicts that the evolution of adaptive phenotypic plasticity is limited by costs and constraints, but tests of these concepts are scarce.

Study protocol for a systematic review of evidence for digital interventions for comorbid excessive drinking and depression in community-dwelling populations.

Introduction: Excessive drinking and depression are frequently comorbid and make a substantial contribution to the global non-communicable disease burden. A range of effective interventions and treatments exist for either excessive drinking or depression alone, including a positive emerging evidence base for the use of digital interventions. Computerised and/or smartphone delivered advice could provide flexible, coordinated support for patients with comorbid excessive drinking and depression.

Impact of the introduction and withdrawal of financial incentives on the delivery of alcohol screening and brief advice in English primary health care: an interrupted time-series analysis.

Aim: To evaluate the impact of the introduction and withdrawal of financial incentives on alcohol screening and brief advice delivery in English primary care.

Design: Interrupted time-series using data from The Health Improvement Network (THIN) database. Data were split into three periods: (1) before the introduction of financial incentives (1 January 2006-31 March 2008); (2) during the implementation of financial incentives (1 April 2008-31 March 2015); and (3) after the withdrawal of financial incentives (1 April 2015-31 December 2016).

Human Milk Use in the Preoperative Period Is Associated with a Lower Risk for Necrotizing Enterocolitis in Neonates with Complex Congenital Heart Disease.

Objective: To evaluate the hypothesis that feeding volumes exceeding 100 mL/kg/d and exposure to cow's milk formula preoperatively increase the risk for preoperative necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) in infants with complex congenital heart disease.

Study Design: All infants, of any gestational age, with an isolated cardiac lesion at high risk for NEC (ductal-dependent lesions, transposition of the great arteries, truncus arteriosus, and aorto-pulmonary window) admitted to Texas Children's Hospital from 2010 to 2016 were included. NEC was defined based on the modified Bell criteria.

Immediate impact of minimum unit pricing on alcohol purchases in Scotland: controlled interrupted time series analysis for 2015-18.

Objective: To assess the immediate impact of the introduction of minimum unit pricing in Scotland on household alcohol purchases.

Design: Controlled interrupted time series analysis.

Setting: Purchase data from Kantar Worldpanel's household shopping panel for 2015-18.

Decreased expression of TRAAK channels in Hirschsprung's disease: a possible cause of postoperative dysmotility.

Aim Of The Study: Potassium (K) channels with a two-pore domain (K2P) are a large family of hyperpolarising ion channels which play a key role in cell excitability. This family comprises three members: TREK-1, TREK-2 and TRAAK. TRAAK channels have previously been reported to be expressed in murine enteric ganglia.

Syk-dependent glycolytic reprogramming in dendritic cells regulates IL-1β production to β-glucan ligands in a TLR-independent manner.

Dendritic cells (DCs) activated via TLR ligation experience metabolic reprogramming, in which the cells are heavily dependent on glucose and glycolysis for the synthesis of molecular building blocks essential for maturation, cytokine production, and the ability to stimulate T cells. Although the TLR-driven metabolic reprogramming events are well documented, fungal-mediated metabolic regulation via C-type lectin receptors such as Dectin-1 and Dectin-2 is not clearly understood. Here, we show that activation of DCs with fungal-associated β-glucan ligands induces acute glycolytic reprogramming that supports the production of IL-1β and its secretion subsequent to NOD-, LRR- and pyrin domain-containing protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome activation.

Examining the Impact of a Personalized Self-Management Lifestyle Program Using Mobile Technology on the Health and Well-Being of Cancer Survivors: Protocol and Rationale for a Randomized Controlled Trial (The Moving On Study).

Background: Cancer survivorship in Ireland is increasing in both frequency and longevity. However, a significant proportion of cancer survivors are overweight. This has negative implications for long-term health outcomes, including increased risk of subsequent and secondary cancers.

Community engagement in patient-centered outcomes research: Benefits, barriers, and measurement.

Introduction: This study employed the Delphi method, an exploratory method used for group consensus building, to determine the benefits and challenges associated with community engagement in patient-centered outcomes research.

Methods: A series of email surveys were sent to the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI)-funded researchers ( = 103) in New England. Consensus was achieved through gathering themes and engaging participants in ranking their level of agreement over three rounds.

Understanding pathways to stimulant use: a mixed-methods examination of the individual, social and cultural factors shaping illicit stimulant use across Europe (ATTUNE): study protocol.

Introduction: Amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) including amphetamine, methylenedioxymethamphetamine/'ecstasy', methamphetamine, synthetic cathinones and 'Ritalin' are the second most commonly used illicit drugs globally. Yet, there is little evidence on which factors are associated with the development of different patterns of ATS use over the life course. This study aims to examine which individual, social and environmental factors shape different pathways and trajectories of ATS consumption.

Host circadian rhythms are disrupted during malaria infection in parasite genotype-specific manners.

Infection can dramatically alter behavioural and physiological traits as hosts become sick and subsequently return to health. Such "sickness behaviours" include disrupted circadian rhythms in both locomotor activity and body temperature. Host sickness behaviours vary in pathogen species-specific manners but the influence of pathogen intraspecific variation is rarely studied.

Reconditioning Degraded Mine Site Soils With Exogenous Soil Microbes: Plant Fitness and Soil Microbiome Outcomes.

Mining of mineral resources substantially alters both the above and below-ground soil ecosystem, which then requires rehabilitation back to a pre-mining state. For belowground rehabilitation, recovery of the soil microbiome to a state which can support key biogeochemical cycles, and effective plant colonization is usually required. One solution proposed has been to translate microbial inocula from agricultural systems to mine rehabilitation scenarios, as a means of reconditioning the soil microbiome for planting.

Addressing alcohol in routine healthcare in Sweden-population-based surveys in 2010 and 2017.

Background: The aim of the study was to compare how alcohol was addressed in routine healthcare practice in Sweden in 2010 and 2017, following the 2011 implementation of national drinking guidelines.

Methods: Population-based cross-sectional surveys were conducted in 2010 and in 2017. Subjects were 3200 respondents in 2010 (response rate 54%) and 3000 respondents in 2017 (response rate 51%) in Sweden.

Investigating strategies to improve clinical trial opportunities for patients with cancer in New Zealand-INSIGHT.

Aims: Fewer than 5% of adult cancer patients participate in clinical trials, with multiple patient, clinician and institutional barriers identified. This study aimed to explore patient factors that impact access to cancer trials in New Zealand.

Methods: A questionnaire that included demographics and factors that might impact trial participation was circulated via nine district health boards (DHBs) and four cancer foundations to patients with a cancer diagnosis.

Altered ryanodine receptor gene expression in Hirschsprung's disease.

Aim Of The Study: Ryanodine receptors are the largest of all ion channels, named after their exogenous ligand, ryanodine. The ryanodine receptor calcium release channel is central to cytoplasmic Ca signalling in skeletal muscle, the heart, and many other tissues, playing a vital role in muscular contraction. Three ryanodine receptors exist, Ryr1, Ryr2 and Ryr3.

Time-of-day of blood-feeding: effects on mosquito life history and malaria transmission.

Background: Biological rhythms allow organisms to compartmentalise and coordinate behaviours, physiologies, and cellular processes with the predictable daily rhythms of their environment. There is increasing recognition that the biological rhythms of mosquitoes that vector parasites are important for global health. For example, whether perturbations in blood foraging rhythms as a consequence of vector control measures can undermine disease control.

Altered expression of caveolin-1 in the colon of patients with Hirschsprung's disease.

Background/purpose: The pathogenesis of Hirschsprung's disease-associated enterocolitis (HAEC) is unclear. Caveolin-1 (Cav-1) regulates the functions of different nitric oxide synthase (NOS) isoforms, which play critical roles in inflammation and intestinal epithelial barrier function. We designed this study to investigate the hypothesis that Cav-1 expression is altered in the bowel of patients with Hirschsprung's disease (HSCR).

Prioritization of Outcomes in Efficacy and Effectiveness of Alcohol Brief Intervention Trials: International Multi-Stakeholder e-Delphi Consensus Study to Inform a Core Outcome Set.

Objective: Outcomes used in alcohol brief intervention trials vary considerably. Achieving consensus about key outcomes can enhance evidence synthesis and improve healthcare guidelines. This international, e-Delphi study sought to prioritize outcomes for alcohol brief intervention trials as part of a larger program of work develop an alcohol brief intervention core outcome set.

The Variability of Outcomes Used in Efficacy and Effectiveness Trials of Alcohol Brief Interventions: A Systematic Review.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to characterize recent alcohol brief intervention (ABI) efficacy and effectiveness trials, summarize outcomes, and show how variability in outcomes and reporting compromises the evidence base.

Method: A systematic review and narrative synthesis of articles from 10 databases were undertaken (January 2000-November 2017); study selection represented recent, readily available publications. The National Institute of Care Excellence (NICE) Public Health Guideline 24 (Alcohol use disorders: prevention) informed ABI definitions.