Sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) is a signaling lysolipid critical to heart development, immunity, and hearing. Accordingly, mutations in the S1P transporter SPNS2 are associated with reduced white cell count and hearing defects. SPNS2 also exports the S1P-mimicking FTY720-P (Fingolimod) and thereby is central to the pharmacokinetics of this drug when treating multiple sclerosis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSleepiness-related errors are a leading cause of driving accidents, requiring drivers to effectively monitor sleepiness levels. However, there are inter-individual differences in driving performance after sleep loss, with some showing poor driving performance while others show minimal impairment. This research explored if there are differences in self-reported sleepiness and driving performance in healthy drivers who exhibited vulnerability or resistance to objective driving impairment following extended wakefulness.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Development of a paediatric palliative care child and family centred outcome measure is a priority for health care professionals, researchers and advocates. It is methodologically challenging to develop a measure relevant for such a heterogenous population with complex needs. Involving children in measuring development is vital.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: This study examined the unique and interactive effects of PA volume and within-person fluctuations in PA volume (i.e., intraindividual variability in PA volume; PA-var) on preschoolers' ( = 141; 47.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Fetal growth restriction (FGR) is commonly associated with placental dysfunction, increasing perinatal morbidity and mortality. Visualizing placental vessels in utero would be advantageous for identifying functional FGR cause and determining proper management strategies. We aimed to utilize high-sensitivity ultrasound microvessel imaging (HUMI) for quantifying placental vessel density (VD) in pregnancies diagnosed with FGR.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStudy Objectives: Shiftwork is associated with cognitive impairment and reduced sleep time and quality, largely due to circadian misalignment. This study tested if circadian-informed lighting could improve cognitive performance and sleep during simulated night shifts versus dim control lighting.
Methods: Nineteen healthy participants (mean ± SD 29 ± 10 years, 12 males, 7 females) were recruited to a laboratory study consisting of two counterbalanced 8-day lighting conditions (order randomized) 1-month apart: (1) control lighting condition - dim, blue-depleted and (2) circadian-informed lighting condition - blue-enriched and blue-depleted where appropriate.
Integr Environ Assess Manag
November 2024
Foraging provides a multitude of individual, social, and environmental benefits. With green spaces decreasing in the United Kingdom, there is an opportunity for roadside verges to become valuable foraging resources; however, there is public concern over the safety of roadside forage. Human ingestion of heavy metal contaminants, such as copper (Cu), lead (Pb), and cadmium (Cd), originating from traffic activity, induces toxic effects in the body.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: LGBTQ+ people experience higher burdens of life-limiting illnesses, poorer health outcomes, and multilevel barriers to accessing palliative, end-of-life, and bereavement care. High quality evidence is needed to inform interventions to address these inequities, and inform inclusive practices and policies. Despite global initiatives to improve availability of peer-reviewed journal articles, the minority of research is open access (OA).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStudy Objective: Night work has detrimental impacts on sleep and performance, primarily due to misalignment between sleep-wake schedules and underlying circadian rhythms. This study tested whether circadian-informed lighting accelerated circadian phase delay, and thus adjustment to night work, compared to blue-depleted standard lighting under simulated submariner work conditions.
Methods: Nineteen healthy sleepers (12 males; mean ± SD aged 29 ± 10 years) participated in two separate 8-day visits approximately 1 month apart to receive, in random order, circadian-informed lighting (blue-enriched and dim, blue-depleted lighting at specific times) and standard lighting (dim, blue-depleted lighting).
By design, tripolar concentric ring electrodes (TCRE) provide more focal brain activity signals than conventional electroencephalography (EEG) electrodes placed further apart. This study compared spectral characteristics and rates of data loss to noisy epochs with TCRE versus conventional EEG signals recorded during sleep. A total of 20 healthy sleepers (12 females; mean [standard deviation] age 27.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSnoring may be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease independent of other co-morbidities. However, most prior studies have relied on subjective, self-report, snoring evaluation. This study assessed snoring prevalence objectively over multiple months using in-home monitoring technology, and its association with hypertension prevalence.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPredicting vigilance impairment in high-risk shift work occupations is critical to help to reduce workplace errors and accidents. Current methods rely on multi-night, often manually entered, sleep data. This study developed a machine learning model for predicting vigilance errors based on a single prior sleep period, derived from an under-mattress sensor.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe purpose of this paper is to explore the use of sobriety date as recovery start date, from the perspective of those in recovery, using a mixed methods approach. We report findings from 389 individuals who identify as being in recovery from a substance and/or alcohol use disorder concerning how they define their recovery start date. We report findings from logistic regression examining how the use of a sobriety date as a recovery start date differs across age, 12-step group engagement, and previous relapse occurrence.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Evidence-based guidelines recommend that adults should sleep 7-9 h/night for optimal health and function. This study used noninvasive, multinight, objective sleep monitoring to determine average sleep duration and sleep duration variability in a large global community sample, and how often participants met the recommended sleep duration range.
Methods: Data were analyzed from registered users of the Withings under-mattress Sleep Analyzer (predominantly located in Europe and North America) who had ≥28 nights of sleep recordings, averaging ≥4 per week.
Interferon-induced ubiquitin (Ub)-like modifier ISG15 covalently modifies host and viral proteins to restrict viral infections. Its function is counteracted by the canonical deISGylase USP18 or Ub-specific protease 18. Notwithstanding indications for the existence of other ISG15 cross-reactive proteases, these remain to be identified.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: #KindnessByPost (KbP) is a participatory public health initiative in which people anonymously send and receive cards containing messages of goodwill with others also taking part in the programme. Quantitative evaluations of KbP consistently find evidence of improvements to people's mental wellbeing and feelings of loneliness after participation and three months later. Our aim in the present study is to develop a programme theory of KbP, which describes for whom the KbP intervention improves mental wellbeing, other reported impacts, in which contexts it has these effects, and the mechanisms by which it works.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSeveral professional societies have provided recommendations for prescribing medications for insomnia. None has provided an integrative analysis that concurrently quantifies safety and efficacy (e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: BCG confers reduced, variable protection against pulmonary tuberculosis. A more effective vaccine is needed. We evaluated the safety and immunogenicity of candidate regimen ChAdOx1 85A-MVA85A compared with BCG revaccination among Ugandan adolescents.
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