Factor analysis and clustering of motor and psychiatric dimensions in idiopathic blepharospasm.

Introduction: Idiopathic blepharospasm is a clinically heterogeneous form of focal dystonia, also associated with psychiatric symptoms. The identification of the most relevant sets of motor and psychiatric manifestations may help better understand the specific phenomenology of the condition and delineate blepharospasm subtypes more accurately.

Methods: Patients with idiopathic blepharospasm were from the Dystonia Coalition project.

The CARE Overdose Response Team in Chicago: A multidisciplinary out-of-hospital post-opioid overdose intervention.

Objectives: In 2021, the opioid overdose crisis led to 1,441 fatalities in Chicago, the highest number ever recorded. Interdisciplinary post-overdose follow-up teams provide care at a critical window to mitigate opioid-related risk and associated fatalities. Our objective was to describe a pilot follow-up program in Chicago including eligible overdose incidents, provision of response team services, and program barriers and successes.

Tree demographic drivers across temperate rain forests, after accounting for site-, species-, and stem-level attributes.

Diverse drivers such as climate, soil fertility, neighborhood competition, and functional traits all contribute to variation in tree stem demographic rates. However, these demographic drivers operate at different scales, making it difficult to compare the relative importance of each driver on tree demography. Using c.

Nursing advocacy and activism: A critical analysis of regulatory documents.

Advocacy and activism are dynamic terms representing a spectrum of political action, aiming to achieve social or political change. The extent to which nursing advocacy and activism are legitimate nursing roles has been debated for around 50 years. Nursing regulatory documents, such as codes of conduct and professional standards, may provide direction to nurses on how they should act in the context of advocacy and activism.

External Factors Modulating Pain and Pain-Related Functional Impairment in Cervical Dystonia.

Background: Little is known about factors modulating pain and pain-related functional impairment in isolated cervical dystonia (CD).

Objective: The aim was to assess the prevalence and interrelationship between pain-modulating factors and pain-related determinants of functional impairment and quality of life in CD.

Methods: We analyzed pain-aggravating and pain-relieving external factors, the degree of pain-related functional impact on routine activities, and the relationship between these and pain severity, using cross-sectional data collected using the Pain in Dystonia Scale (PIDS) from 85 participants with CD.

Long-read transcript sequencing identifies differential isoform expression in the entorhinal cortex in a transgenic model of tau pathology.

Increasing evidence suggests that alternative splicing plays an important role in Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology. We used long-read sequencing in combination with a novel bioinformatics tool (FICLE) to profile transcript diversity in the entorhinal cortex of female transgenic (TG) mice harboring a mutant form of human tau. Our analyses revealed hundreds of novel isoforms and identified differentially expressed transcripts - including specific isoforms of Apoe, App, Cd33, Clu, Fyn and Trem2 - associated with the development of tau pathology in TG mice.

Mesenchymal stromal cells and their secretory products reduce the inflammatory crosstalk between islets and endothelial cells.

Purpose: Preculturing isolated islets with Mesenchymal Stromal Cells (MSCs) improves their functional survival in vitro and subsequent transplantation outcomes in vivo. The MSC secretory product Annexin A1 (ANXA1) is a key modulator of MSC-mediated improvements in islet function. The current study aims to determine the influence of MSCs and defined MSC secretory products, including ANXA1, on the inflammatory crosstalk between isolated islets and Endothelial Cells (ECs), using in vitro models of the clinically-preferred intraportal islet transplantation niche.

Detecting Nonadditive Biotic Interactions and Assessing Their Biological Relevance among Temperate Rainforest Trees.

AbstractInteractions between and within abiotic and biotic processes generate nonadditive density-dependent effects on species performance that can vary in strength or direction across environments. If ignored, nonadditivities can lead to inaccurate predictions of species responses to environmental and compositional changes. While there are increasing empirical efforts to test the constancy of pairwise biotic interactions along environmental and compositional gradients, few assess both simultaneously.

Political action in nursing and medical codes of ethics.

Political action has a long history in the health workforce. There are multiple historical examples, from civil disobedience to marches and even sabotage that can be attributed to health workers. Such actions remain a feature of the healthcare community to this day; their status with professional and regulatory bodies is far less clear, however.

The interrelationship between multiple long-term conditions (MLTC) and delirium: a scoping review.

Introduction: Delirium and multiple long-term conditions (MLTC) share numerous risk factors and have been shown individually to be associated with adverse outcomes following hospitalisation. However, the extent to which these common ageing syndromes have been studied together is unknown. This scoping review aims to summarise our knowledge to date on the interrelationship between MLTC and delirium.

Regulation of STAT1 Signaling in Human Pancreatic β-Cells by the Lysine Deacetylase HDAC6: A New Therapeutic Opportunity in Type 1 Diabetes?

Type 1 diabetes arises from the selective destruction of pancreatic β-cells by autoimmune mechanisms, and intracellular pathways driven by Janus kinase (JAK)-mediated phosphorylation of STAT isoforms (especially STAT1 and STAT2) are implicated as mediators of β-cell demise. Despite this, the molecular mechanisms that regulate JAK-STAT signaling in β-cells during the autoimmune attack remain only partially disclosed, and the factors acting to antagonize proinflammatory STAT1 signaling are uncertain. We have recently implicated signal regulatory protein α (SIRPα) in promoting β-cell viability in the face of ongoing islet autoimmunity and have now revealed that this protein controls the availability of a cytosolic lysine deacetylase, HDAC6, whose activity regulates the phosphorylation and activation of STAT1.

Developmentally dynamic changes in DNA methylation in the human pancreas.

Development of the human pancreas requires the precise temporal control of gene expression via epigenetic mechanisms and the binding of key transcription factors. We quantified genome-wide patterns of DNA methylation in human fetal pancreatic samples from donors aged 6 to 21 post-conception weeks. We found dramatic changes in DNA methylation across pancreas development, with > 21% of sites characterized as developmental differentially methylated positions (dDMPs) including many annotated to genes associated with monogenic diabetes.

Identification of high-performing antibodies for the reliable detection of Tau proteoforms by Western blotting and immunohistochemistry.

Antibodies are essential research tools whose performance directly impacts research conclusions and reproducibility. Owing to its central role in Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, hundreds of distinct antibody clones have been developed against the microtubule-associated protein Tau and its multiple proteoforms. Despite this breadth of offer, limited understanding of their performance and poor antibody selectivity have hindered research progress.

Eating disorders and COVID-19 - different or just more?

Background: COVID-19 saw an increase in child mental health presentations internationally. Clinicians analogised the exponential increase in anorexia nervosa to a 'tsunami' or 'outbreak', raising parallel concerns regarding medical and psychological risks (Marsh in The Guardian, 2021; Leask in NZ Herald, 2021; Monteleone et al. in Eat Weight Disord 26(8):2443-2452, 2021) .

Sex contextualism in laboratory research: Enhancing rigor and precision in the study of sex-related variables.

Understanding sex-related variation in health and illness requires rigorous and precise approaches to revealing underlying mechanisms. A first step is to recognize that sex is not in and of itself a causal mechanism; rather, it is a classification system comprising a set of categories, usually assigned according to a range of varying traits. Moving beyond sex as a system of classification to working with concrete and measurable sex-related variables is necessary for precision.

Rising to the challenge of defining and operationalising multimorbidity in a UK hospital setting: the ADMISSION research collaborative.

Purpose: Greater transparency and consistency when defining multimorbidity in different settings is needed. We aimed to: (1) adapt published principles that can guide the selection of long-term conditions for inclusion in research studies of multimorbidity in hospitals; (2) apply these principles and identify a list of long-term conditions; (3) operationalise this list by mapping it to International Classification of Diseases 10th revision (ICD-10) codes.

Methods: Review by independent assessors and ratification by an interdisciplinary programme management group.

Coxsackievirus infection induces direct pancreatic β cell killing but poor antiviral CD8 T cell responses.

Coxsackievirus B (CVB) infection of pancreatic β cells is associated with β cell autoimmunity and type 1 diabetes. We investigated how CVB affects human β cells and anti-CVB T cell responses. β cells were efficiently infected by CVB in vitro, down-regulated human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I, and presented few, selected HLA-bound viral peptides.