Racial/ethnic discrimination and racial trauma: Concurrent evaluation among Black adults who smoke in the United States.

Objective: Although Black/African American (hereinafter Black) adults who smoke are a tobacco disparities population in the United States, little systematic research has sought to explicate how differences in the distinct experience of race-related threat are associated with established and clinically important smoking processes in one overarching model. The present investigation sought to bridge this gap and test perceived racial/ethnic discrimination and racial trauma in the context of one another regarding an array of processes involved in the maintenance and relapse of smoking behavior.

Method: Participants included 517 Black individuals who smoked cigarettes daily (≥ 5; = 45.

Clinical, neurocognitive, neurobiological and functional correlates of sleep difficulties in individuals at-risk for psychosis and mania: A scoping review.

Sleep difficulties are highly prevalent among individuals with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (BD), playing key roles in the onset, clinical presentation, and course of psychotic and manic episodes. However, less is known about sleep difficulties and their sequelae among individuals at-risk for psychosis and mania. Therefore, we conducted a scoping review of sleep disturbances among individuals at-risk for psychosis or mania.

Baseline monocyte count predicts symptom improvement during intravenous ketamine therapy in treatment-resistant depression: a single-arm open-label observational study.

Background: Neuroinflammatory processes in depression are associated with treatment resistance to conventional antidepressants. Ketamine is an effective new therapeutic option for treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Its well-established immunomodulatory properties are hypothesized to mediate its antidepressant effect.

Deazaflavin metabolite produced by endosymbiotic bacteria controls fungal host reproduction.

The endosymbiosis between the pathogenic fungus Rhizopus microsporus and the toxin-producing bacterium Mycetohabitans rhizoxinica represents a unique example of host control by an endosymbiont. Fungal sporulation strictly depends on the presence of endosymbionts as well as bacterially produced secondary metabolites. However, an influence of primary metabolites on host control remained unexplored.

Transcription activator-like effectors from endosymbiotic bacteria control the reproduction of their fungal host.

Interactions between fungi and bacteria are critically important in ecology, medicine, and biotechnology. In this study, we shed light on factors that promote the persistence of a toxin-producing, phytopathogenic symbiosis that causes severe crop losses in Asia. We present an unprecedented case where bacterially produced transcription activator-like (TAL) effectors are key to maintaining a stable endosymbiosis.

Establishing novel diagnostic criteria for the glucose tolerance test for the diagnosis of gestational diabetes and gestational hyperglycemia.

Objective: To establish diagnostic criteria for the 75-g 2-h glucose tolerance test (GTT) to diagnose gestational diabetes and define the clinical entity of gestational hyperglycemia.

Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed of the results from 500 patients who had a 75-g 1-h glucose challenge test (GCT) in early pregnancy as part of a two-step approach to screening and testing for gestational diabetes. The selected cohort was considered to have normal islet β-cell function, and upper glycemic levels of normal glucose tolerance in the third trimester were statistically calculated, taking the cutoff threshold values to be the diagnostic criteria for the 75-g 2-h GTT.

Bacterial secretion systems contribute to rapid tissue decay in button mushroom soft rot disease.

The soft rot pathogen causes devastating damage to button mushrooms (), one of the most cultivated and commercially relevant mushrooms. We previously discovered that this pathogen releases the membrane-disrupting lipopeptide jagaricin. This bacterial toxin, however, could not solely explain the rapid decay of mushroom fruiting bodies, indicating that implements a more sophisticated infection strategy.

Transcription activator-like effector protects bacterial endosymbionts from entrapment within fungal hyphae.

As an endosymbiont of the ecologically and medically relevant fungus Rhizopus microsporus, the toxin-producing bacterium Mycetohabitans rhizoxinica faces myriad challenges, such as evading the host's defense mechanisms. However, the bacterial effector(s) that facilitate the remarkable ability of M. rhizoxinica to freely migrate within fungal hyphae have thus far remained unknown.

Screening for gestational diabetes mellitus and hyperglycemia in pregnancy with the glucose challenge test administered in early pregnancy.

Objective: To determine the cut-off value for the 75-g glucose challenge test administered in early pregnancy to screen for gestational diabetes mellitus and abnormal carbohydrate metabolism in pregnancy.

Methods: A prospective study involving 1500 antenatal patients attending a community hospital. Patients were screened with the 75-g 1-h glucose challenge test in early pregnancy and subsequently tested with the 75-g 2-h glucose tolerance test to diagnose gestational diabetes mellitus.

Bacterial cell wall-degrading enzymes induce basidiomycete natural product biosynthesis.

Natural products play a vital role for intermicrobial interactions. In the basidiomycete arena an important representative is variegatic acid, a lactone natural product pigment whose ecological relevance stems from both inhibiting bacterial swarming and from indirect participation in breakdown of organic matter by brown-rotting fungi. Previous work showed that the presence of bacteria stimulates variegatic acid production.

ADIPS 2020 guideline for pre-existing diabetes and pregnancy.

This is the full version of the Australasian Diabetes in Pregnancy Society (ADIPS) 2020 guideline for pre-existing diabetes and pregnancy. The guideline encompasses the management of women with pre-existing type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes in relation to pregnancy, including preconception, antepartum, intrapartum and postpartum care. The management of women with monogenic diabetes or cystic fibrosis-related diabetes in relation to pregnancy is also discussed.

The ADIPS pilot National Diabetes in Pregnancy Audit Project.

Background: Limited resources are available to compare outcomes of pregnancies complicated by diabetes across different centres.

Aims: To compare the use of paper, stand alone and networked electronic processes for a sustainable, systematic international audit of diabetes in pregnancy care.

Methods: Development of diabetes in pregnancy minimum dataset using nominal group technique, email user survey of difficulties with audit tools and collation of audit data from nine pilot sites across Australia and New Zealand.

Gestational diabetes mellitus: clinical predictors and long-term risk of developing type 2 diabetes: a retrospective cohort study using survival analysis.

Objective: We sought to determine the long-term risk of type 2 diabetes following a pregnancy complicated by gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and assess what maternal antepartum, postpartum, and neonatal factors are predictive of later development of type 2 diabetes.

Research Design And Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study using survival analysis on 5,470 GDM patients and 783 control subjects who presented for postnatal follow-up at the Mercy Hospital for Women between 1971 and 2003.

Results: Risk of developing diabetes increased with time of follow-up for both groups and was 9.

The Australasian Diabetes in Pregnancy Society consensus guidelines for the management of type 1 and type 2 diabetes in relation to pregnancy.

Strict control of blood glucose levels should be pursued before conception and maintained throughout the pregnancy (glycohaemoglobin [HbA(1c)] level as close as possible to the reference range). Before conception: high-dose (5 mg daily) folate supplementation should be commenced; oral hypoglycaemic agents should be ceased; and diabetes complications screening should take place. Management should be by a multidisciplinary team experienced in the management of diabetes in pregnancy.

Gestational diabetes in Victoria in 1996: incidence, risk factors and outcomes.

Objectives: To describe the epidemiology of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) in Victoria.

Study Design: Population study of all women having singleton births in Victoria in 1996.

Methods: Probabilistic record linkage of routinely collected data and capture-recapture techniques to provide an estimate of the incidence of GDM.

Severe folate deficiency masquerading as the syndrome of hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, and low platelets.

Background: Although folate deficiency is common in pregnancy, progression to megaloblastosis is not. Hemolytic anemia, thrombocytopenia, and coagulopathy due to folate deficiency may mimic the syndrome of hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, and low platelets (HELLP).

Cases: Two women presented in the second trimester with abdominal pain and severe thrombocytopenia.

The effect of vascular coiling on venous perfusion during experimental umbilical cord encirclement.

Objective: The aim of these studies was to compare venous perfusion in umbilical cords subjected to a standardized tight encirclement force. Comparisons were made between cords from normal pregnancies and those complicated by gestational diabetes mellitus and intrauterine growth restriction.

Study Design: The cannulated cord segment was wrapped around a plastic container, which in turn was attached with nylon string to a hanging graduated measuring cylinder in which known volumes of water could be applied for weight.

A trial of simple versus intensified dietary modification for prevention of progression to diabetes mellitus in women with impaired glucose tolerance.

Women with impaired glucose tolerance are at high risk of developing noninsulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM). The Mercy Hospital for Women has a long-term follow-up programme for women with gestational diabetes, which identifies many women with impaired glucose tolerance. Two hundred of these women were entered into a randomized controlled trial of intensive versus routine dietary advice.

Seroprevalence and assessment of risk factors for hepatitis C virus infection in pregnancy.

Screening for hepatitis B is routinely performed in most antenatal clinics. Whether the same should occur for hepatitis C needs to be assessed for each population by determining the prevalence of this infection within the community and whether any particular high-risk group can be identified. A series of 2,000 consecutive patients attending for antenatal care at the Mercy Hospital for Women, Melbourne, was tested for evidence of hepatitis C infection.

Factors associated with pain following operative laparoscopy: a prospective observational study.

An open prospective observational study was performed, aiming to measure symptom severity following operative gynaecological laparoscopy and explore any associated factors. Women having concomitant procedures were excluded. Each woman had standardized analgesia, completed a symptom diary for 7 days postoperation, and had a standardized form completed by the surgeon detailing the operation.