Protocol for the Brain Health Support Program Study of the Canadian Therapeutic Platform Trial for Multidomain Interventions to Prevent Dementia (CAN-THUMBS UP): A Prospective 12-Month Intervention Study.

Background/objectives: CAN-THUMBS UP is designed as a comprehensive and innovative fully remote program to 1) develop an interactive and compelling online Brain Health Support Program intervention, with potential to positively influence dementia literacy, self-efficacy and lifestyle risk factors; 2) enroll and retain a community-dwelling Platform Trial Cohort of individuals at risk of dementia who will participate in the intervention; 3) support an open platform trial to test a variety of multidomain interventions that might further benefit individuals at risk of dementia. This manuscript presents the Brain Health Support Program Study protocol.

Design/setting: Twelve-month prospective multi-center longitudinal study to evaluate a fully remote web-based educational intervention.

Home EEG sleep assessment shows reduced slow-wave sleep in mild-moderate Alzheimer's disease.

Introduction: Sleep disturbances are common in Alzheimer's disease (AD), with estimates of prevalence as high as 65%. Recent work suggests that specific sleep stages, such as slow-wave sleep (SWS) and rapid eye movement (REM), may directly impact AD pathophysiology. A major limitation to sleep staging is the requirement for clinical polysomnography (PSG), which is often not well tolerated in patients with dementia.

Liaison psychiatry services in Wales.

Aims and methodRecent funding from Welsh Government for mental health has helped to develop liaison psychiatry services in Wales. Systematic data collection was undertaken to map the liaison psychiatry services in Wales in collaboration with the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Wales and Public Health Wales 1000 Lives Improvement. A questionnaire was designed and circulated to all the health boards in Wales to gather information to map liaison psychiatry services in Wales.

Gray matter changes in asymptomatic and mutation carriers.

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a neurodegenerative disease with a strong genetic basis. Understanding the structural brain changes during pre-symptomatic stages may allow for earlier diagnosis of patients suffering from FTD; therefore, we investigated asymptomatic members of FTD families with mutations in and granulin () genes. Clinically asymptomatic subjects from families with mutation (15 mutation carriers, +; and 23 non-carriers, -) and mutations (9 mutation carriers, +; and 15 non-carriers, -) underwent structural neuroimaging (MRI).

Searching for prohibited items in mental-health hospitals: A randomised controlled trial of two metal-detecting technologies.

Weapons and other items with potential to cause harm are usually prohibited in mental-health hospitals and other psychiatric facilities. Detecting such prohibited items (PIs) can be problematic, particularly if concealed, and metal detectors are commonly used to search for such items. Our study compared two types of metal detection: continuous wave detection (CWD) by hand-held metal detector (HHMD) and magnetic anomaly detection (MAD) by a static pole device.

Ceiling of care decisions at an older person's mental health unit in Gloucestershire.

This quality improvement project was inspired as an answer to a problem that many fellow psychiatric trainees had been struggling with while on-call covering the old age mental health hospital which includes a specialist dementia ward. The issue was that decisions around ceilings of care for patients were often not discussed or at least recorded in the electronic notes and as a result when reviewing deteriorating patients out of hours trainees would find themselves without any guidance on the treating medics opinion on what was in the best interests of the patient. This led to situations where unnecessary transfers to the acute hospital would occur overnight which could have been avoided with more consistent planning.

Early neuropsychological characteristics of progranulin mutation carriers.

Mutations in the progranulin gene (GRN) are a common cause of familial frontotemporal dementia. We used a comprehensive neuropsychological battery to investigate whether early cognitive changes could be detected in GRN mutation carriers before dementia onset. Twenty-four at-risk members from six families with known GRN mutations underwent detailed neuropsychological testing.

Distribution assessment comparing continuous and periodic wound instillation in conjunction with negative pressure wound therapy using an agar-based model.

Negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) is a widely accepted and effective treatment for various wound types, including complex wounds. Negative pressure with instillation was initially used as a gravity-fed system whereby reticulated, open-cell foam in the wound bed was periodically exposed to cycles of soaking with instillation solution followed by NPWT. Recent publications have alluded to positive outcomes with continuous instillation, where fluid is delivered simultaneously with negative pressure.

Negative Pressure Wound Therapy With Controlled Saline Instillation (NPWTi): Dressing Properties and Granulation Response In Vivo.

Negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) with reticulated open-cell foam (ROCF) dressings (ROCF G, V.A.C.

Evaluating research and impact: a bibliometric analysis of research by the NIH/NIAID HIV/AIDS clinical trials networks.

Evaluative bibliometrics uses advanced techniques to assess the impact of scholarly work in the context of other scientific work and usually compares the relative scientific contributions of research groups or institutions. Using publications from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) HIV/AIDS extramural clinical trials networks, we assessed the presence, performance, and impact of papers published in 2006-2008. Through this approach, we sought to expand traditional bibliometric analyses beyond citation counts to include normative comparisons across journals and fields, visualization of co-authorship across the networks, and assess the inclusion of publications in reviews and syntheses.

Plasma choline depletion is associated with decreased peripheral blood leukocyte acetylcholine in children with cystic fibrosis.

Background: Choline is an important constituent of acetylcholine. Choline is needed for acetylcholine in the nonneuronal acetylcholine system that includes epithelial cells of the lung and intestine, endothelial cells, and immune cells. Plasma free choline concentrations are low in children with cystic fibrosis (CF), but the implications for acetylcholine are unknown.

The effect of supporting a surgeon's wrist on their hand tremor.

Background: Operative tremor can greatly influence the outcome of certain, precise, microsurgical operations. Reducing a surgeons tremor may not only improve the operative results but decrease the operative time. Previous studies have only measured uni or bi directional tremor and therefore have been unable to calculate both the overall tremor amplitude and the tremor reduction by resting the wrists.

The effect of operating time on surgeons' muscular fatigue.

Introduction: A study was completed to determine if operating has an effect on a surgeon's muscular fatigue.

Subjects And Methods: Six head and neck surgery consultants, two ENT registrars, 20 normal controls from two tertiary referral centres in the West Midlands participated in the study. Electromyography (EMG) measurements were taken throughout a day of operating and fatigue indices were compared to controls performing desk work.

The effect of operating time on surgeon's hand tremor.

The objective of this prospective study, performed at two tertiary referral centers in the West Midlands, was to determine if operating has an effect on a surgeon's baseline tremor. A total of 10 head and neck surgery consultants, 2 ENT registrars and 19 normal controls participated in the study. The interventions were preoperative and postoperative tremor measurements for surgeons and pre and post-days' desk work for controls, with the main outcomes measure being the percentage change in tremor.

Expression of a modified Mannheimia haemolytica GS60 outer membrane lipoprotein in transgenic alfalfa for the development of an edible vaccine against bovine pneumonic pasteurellosis.

The GS60 antigen is one of the protective antigens of Mannheimia haemolytica A1. GS60 contains conserved domains belonging to the LppC family of bacterial outer membrane lipoproteins. A high antibody titer to GS60 has been shown to be significantly correlated with resistance to pneumonic pasteurellosis.

Determination of muscle fatigue using dynamically embedded signals.

This paper explores a new method of analysing muscle fatigue within the muscles predominantly used during microsurgery. The captured electromyographic (EMG) data retrieved from these muscles are analysed for any defining patterns relating to muscle fatigue. The analysis consists of dynamically embedding the EMG signals from a single muscle channel into an embedded matrix.

Time dependency assessment of muscular fatigue index and hand tremor under operating conditions.

The aim of this paper is to determine if operating has an effect on a surgeon's muscular fatigue and hand tremor. Electromyography and tremor measurements were taken throughout a day of operating from the brachioradialis (BR) and mid deltoid (MD) muscles of six head and neck surgery consultants and two Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) registrars. The percent change in Mean Frequency (MF) of their EMG signal and tremor amplitudes was compared to twenty normal controls performing desk work.

Dietary polyunsaturated fat that is low in (n-3) and high in (n-6) fatty acids alters the SNARE protein complex and nitrosylation in rat hippocampus.

Docosahexaenoic acid [DHA, 22:6(n-3)] is enriched in brain membrane phospholipids and is important to brain development and function through its influence on neurite outgrowth and neurotransmitter secretion. Fusion of intracellular vesicles with the plasma membrane involving SNARE [soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive fusion (NSF) protein attachment protein receptor] protein assembly, membrane fusion, and then disassembly are events common in membrane extension and neurotransmitter release. We determined whether feeding an (n-3) fatty acid-deficient diet, known to reduce brain phospholipid DHA, alters SNARE protein and SNARE complex expression or protein nitrosylation in the hippocampus of rats.

Combined phenyl silane and immunoaffinity column cleanup with liquid chromatography for determination of ochratoxin A in roasted coffee: collaborative study.

A collaborative study was conducted to evaluate a liquid chromatography (LC) method for ochratoxin A using sequential phenyl silane and immunoaffinity column cleanup. The method was tested at 3 different levels of ochratoxin A in roasted coffee, which spanned the range of possible future European regulatory limits. The test portion was extracted with methanol and sodium bicarbonate by shaking for 30 min.

Liquid chromatographic method with immunoaffinity column cleanup for determination of ochratoxin A in barley: collaborative study.

A collaborative study was conducted to evaluate a liquid chromatographic (LC) method with immunoaffinity column cleanup for determination of ochratoxin A. The method was tested at 3 concentration levels of ochratoxin A in barley, which represent possible future European regulatory limits. The test portion was extracted with acetonitrile-water by blending at high speed.

Bovine ceroid-lipofuscinosis: pathology of blindness.

Five Devon cattle with suspected ceroid-lipofuscinosis and aged between 19 and 39 months of age were humanely slaughtered and subjected to post-mortem examination. There was severe atrophy of the cerebrum, particularly of the occipital cortex. Microscopy also showed severe atrophy of the retina with complete loss of photoreceptor cells, even in the youngest animal examined.

Perinatal development of lymphoid tissue and its associated epithelium in the ovine pharyngeal tonsil: a morphological study.

The perinatal development of lymphoid tissue and its associated epithelium in the pharyngeal tonsil of sheep was investigated by light and electron microscopy. The lymphoid cells first appeared in the subepithelium in a scattered form at about 92 days gestation. These cells proliferated rapidly during the last trimester of gestation, and had formed many dense aggregates at the time of parturition.