Industry differences in psychological distress and distress-related productivity loss: A cross-sectional study of Australian workers.

Objective: This research uses Australian survey data to identify industries with high rates of psychological distress, and to estimate productivity impacts in the form of work loss and cutback days.

Methods: Analyzing cross-sectional data from the 2017/2018 National Health Survey, industry prevalence of psychological distress (Kessler Screening Scale) was compared using ordered logistic regression. Productivity outcomes were distress-related work loss days and work cutback days in the previous 4 weeks.

The impact of the COVID-19, social distancing, and movement restrictions on crime in NSW, Australia.

Unlabelled: The spread of COVID-19 has prompted Governments around the world to impose draconian restrictions on business activity, public transport, and public freedom of movement. The effect of these restrictions appears to vary from country to country and, in some cases, from one area to another within a country. This paper examines the impact of the COVID-19 restrictions imposed in New South Wales (NSW) by the State Government.

Student readiness to apply pharmacotherapy concepts to institutional early practice experience - a pilot study.

Introduction: In order to gain exposure to hospital practice earlier in the education of doctor of pharmacy students, a recent curricular change by the faculty of pharmacy prioritized institutional sites for year two early practice experiences (EPE2s). The goal of this study was to assess whether year two student pharmacists were adequately equipped by the faculty to apply clinical concepts when providing direct patient care in an institutional setting.

Methods: At the study institution, four students rated the relevancy of clinical concepts covered in five pharmacotherapy courses to their EPE2 practice using a relevance score tool.

Dendritic cell-derived hepcidin sequesters iron from the microbiota to promote mucosal healing.

Bleeding and altered iron distribution occur in multiple gastrointestinal diseases, but the importance and regulation of these changes remain unclear. We found that hepcidin, the master regulator of systemic iron homeostasis, is required for tissue repair in the mouse intestine after experimental damage. This effect was independent of hepatocyte-derived hepcidin or systemic iron levels.

The microbiota-immune axis as a central mediator of gut-brain communication.

Intestinal inflammatory disorders are associated with neurophysiological and behavioral symptoms. Conversely, many disorders of the central nervous system (CNS) are accompanied by intestinal complications. These observations suggest that intestinal and nervous system physiologies are functionally linked.

Intestinal serotonin and fluoxetine exposure modulate bacterial colonization in the gut.

The gut microbiota regulates levels of serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT)) in the intestinal epithelium and lumen. However, whether 5-HT plays a functional role in bacteria from the gut microbiota remains unknown. We demonstrate that elevating levels of intestinal lumenal 5-HT by oral supplementation or genetic deficiency in the host 5-HT transporter (SERT) increases the relative abundance of spore-forming members of the gut microbiota, which were previously reported to promote host 5-HT biosynthesis.

The Microbiome and Host Behavior.

The microbiota is increasingly recognized for its ability to influence the development and function of the nervous system and several complex host behaviors. In this review, we discuss emerging roles for the gut microbiota in modulating host social and communicative behavior, stressor-induced behavior, and performance in learning and memory tasks. We summarize effects of the microbiota on host neurophysiology, including brain microstructure, gene expression, and neurochemical metabolism across regions of the amygdala, hippocampus, frontal cortex, and hypothalamus.

Interactions between the microbiota, immune and nervous systems in health and disease.

The diverse collection of microorganisms that inhabit the gastrointestinal tract, collectively called the gut microbiota, profoundly influences many aspects of host physiology, including nutrient metabolism, resistance to infection and immune system development. Studies investigating the gut-brain axis demonstrate a critical role for the gut microbiota in orchestrating brain development and behavior, and the immune system is emerging as an important regulator of these interactions. Intestinal microbes modulate the maturation and function of tissue-resident immune cells in the CNS.

Associative spike timing-dependent potentiation of the basal dendritic excitatory synapses in the hippocampus in vivo.

Spike timing-dependent plasticity in the hippocampus has rarely been studied in vivo. Using extracellular potential and current source density analysis in urethane-anesthetized adult rats, we studied synaptic plasticity at the basal dendritic excitatory synapse in CA1 after excitation-spike (ES) pairing; E was a weak basal dendritic excitation evoked by stratum oriens stimulation, and S was a population spike evoked by stratum radiatum apical dendritic excitation. We hypothesize that positive ES pairing-generating synaptic excitation before a spike-results in long-term potentiation (LTP) while negative ES pairing results in long-term depression (LTD).

Lymphoid-Tissue-Resident Commensal Bacteria Promote Members of the IL-10 Cytokine Family to Establish Mutualism.

Physical separation between the mammalian immune system and commensal bacteria is necessary to limit chronic inflammation. However, selective species of commensal bacteria can reside within intestinal lymphoid tissues of healthy mammals. Here, we demonstrate that lymphoid-tissue-resident commensal bacteria (LRC) colonized murine dendritic cells and modulated their cytokine production.

Targeting mitochondrial RNA polymerase in acute myeloid leukemia.

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells have high oxidative phosphorylation and mitochondrial mass and low respiratory chain spare reserve capacity. We reasoned that targeting the mitochondrial RNA polymerase (POLRMT), which indirectly controls oxidative phosphorylation, represents a therapeutic strategy for AML. POLRMT-knockdown OCI-AML2 cells exhibited decreased mitochondrial gene expression, decreased levels of assembled complex I, decreased levels of mitochondrially-encoded Cox-II and decreased oxidative phosphorylation.

Immune tolerance. Group 3 innate lymphoid cells mediate intestinal selection of commensal bacteria-specific CD4⁺ T cells.

Inflammatory CD4(+) T cell responses to self or commensal bacteria underlie the pathogenesis of autoimmunity and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), respectively. Although selection of self-specific T cells in the thymus limits responses to mammalian tissue antigens, the mechanisms that control selection of commensal bacteria-specific T cells remain poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that group 3 innate lymphoid cell (ILC3)-intrinsic expression of major histocompatibility complex class II (MHCII) is regulated similarly to thymic epithelial cells and that MHCII(+) ILC3s directly induce cell death of activated commensal bacteria-specific T cells.

The interaction of protein-tyrosine phosphatase α (PTPα) and RACK1 protein enables insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1)-stimulated Abl-dependent and -independent tyrosine phosphorylation of PTPα.

Protein tyrosine phosphatase α (PTPα) promotes integrin-stimulated cell migration in part through the role of Src-phosphorylated PTPα-Tyr(P)-789 in recruiting and localizing p130Cas to focal adhesions. The growth factor IGF-1 also stimulates PTPα-Tyr-789 phosphorylation to positively regulate cell movement. This is in contrast to integrin-induced PTPα phosphorylation, that induced by IGF-1 can occur in cells lacking Src family kinases (SFKs), indicating that an unknown kinase distinct from SFKs can target PTPα.

Alveolar macrophages and neutrophils are the primary reservoirs for Legionella pneumophila and mediate cytosolic surveillance of type IV secretion.

Legionella pneumophila, an intracellular pathogen responsible for the severe pneumonia Legionnaires' disease, uses its dot/icm-encoded type IV secretion system (T4SS) to translocate effector proteins that promote its survival and replication into the host cell cytosol. However, by introducing bacterial products into the host cytosol, L. pneumophila also activates cytosolic immunosurveillance pathways, thereby triggering robust proinflammatory responses that mediate the control of infection.

Anatomical localization of commensal bacteria in immune cell homeostasis and disease.

The mammalian gastrointestinal (GI) tract is colonized by trillions of beneficial commensal bacteria that are essential for promoting normal intestinal physiology. While the majority of commensal bacteria are found in the intestinal lumen, many species have also adapted to colonize different anatomical locations in the intestine, including the surface of intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) and the interior of gut-associated lymphoid tissues. These distinct tissue localization patterns permit unique interactions with the mammalian immune system and collectively influence intestinal immune cell homeostasis.

Methyltransferase G9A regulates T cell differentiation during murine intestinal inflammation.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) pathogenesis is associated with dysregulated CD4⁺ Th cell responses, with intestinal homeostasis depending on the balance between IL-17-producing Th17 and Foxp3⁺ Tregs. Differentiation of naive T cells into Th17 and Treg subsets is associated with specific gene expression profiles; however, the contribution of epigenetic mechanisms to controlling Th17 and Treg differentiation remains unclear. Using a murine T cell transfer model of colitis, we found that T cell-intrinsic expression of the histone lysine methyltransferase G9A was required for development of pathogenic T cells and intestinal inflammation.

Caspase-11 activation in response to bacterial secretion systems that access the host cytosol.

Inflammasome activation is important for antimicrobial defense because it induces cell death and regulates the secretion of IL-1 family cytokines, which play a critical role in inflammatory responses. The inflammasome activates caspase-1 to process and secrete IL-1β. However, the mechanisms governing IL-1α release are less clear.

Pyogenic liver abscess: an audit of 10 years' experience.

Aim: To describe our own experience with pyogenic liver abscesses over the past 10 years and investigate the risk factors associated with failure of initial percutaneous therapy.

Methods: A retrospective study of records of 63 PLA patients presenting between 1998 and 2008 to Australian tertiary referral centre, were reviewed. Amoebic and hydatid abscesses were excluded.

Differential long-term depression in CA3 but not in dentate gyrus following low-frequency stimulation of the medial perforant path.

Synaptic plasticity may depend not only on the afferent fibers but also on the recipient structure. The medial perforant path (MPP) from the entorhinalcortex projects to both the dentate gyrus (DG) and CA3, resulting in excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs) in both areas. In this study, we showed that long-term depression (LTD) following low-frequency stimulation of MPP was found only in CA3a, a CA3 subfield, but not in DG.

Parents' global rating of mental health correlates with SF-36 scores and health services satisfaction.

Background: Patient satisfaction surveys are often used to measure quality of care. However, patient satisfaction may not be a reliable indicator of service quality because satisfaction can be influenced by clients' characteristics such as their health status.

Methods: Parents of children attending a pediatric neurology clinic completed the Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) and global ratings of their physical and mental health.

Adolescent quality of life and satisfaction with care.

Purpose: 1) To describe adolescents' responses to a client satisfaction and family-centered care survey; 2) to examine the relationship between satisfaction with health care and health-related quality of life (HRQL) among these adolescents; and 3) to determine if adolescents and their parents differ in their satisfaction with services.

Methods: We recruited 104 adolescents who attended the Alberta Children's Hospital pediatric neurology clinic. Each family completed the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ), the Family Centered Care Survey (FCCS), the Measure of Processes of Care (MPOC) survey, the Give Youth a Voice (GYV) survey, and the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL).