Community dynamics of nematodes after Larsen ice‐shelf collapse in the eastern Antarctic Peninsula

Free‐living marine nematode communities of the Larsen B embayment at the eastern Antarctic Peninsula were investigated to provide insights on their response and colonization rate after large‐scale ice‐shelf collapse. This study compares published data on the post‐collapse situation from 2007 with new material from 2011, focusing on two locations in the embayment that showed highly divergent communities in 2007 and that are characterized by a difference in timing of ice‐shelf breakup. Data from 2007 exposed a more diverse community at outer station B.South, dominated by the genus Microlaimus. On the contrary, station B.West in the inner part of Larsen B was poor in both numbers of individuals and genera, with dominance of a single Halomonhystera species. Re‐assessment of the situation in 2011 showed that communities at both stations diverged even more, due to a drastic increase in Halomonhystera at B.West compared to relatively little change at B.South. On a broader geographical scale, it seems that B.South gradually starts resembling other Antarctic shelf communities, although the absence of the genus Sabatieria and the high abundance of Microlaimus still set it apart nine years after the main Larsen B collapse. In contrast, thriving of Halomonhystera at B.West further separates its community from other Antarctic shelf areas.     

Direct Measurements of Smartphone Screen-Time: Relationships with Demographics and Sleep

BackgroundSmartphones are increasingly integrated into everyday life, but frequency of use has not yet been objectively measured and compared to demographics, health information, and in particular, sleep quality.AimsThe aim of this study was to characterize smartphone use by measuring screen-time directly, determine factors that are associated with increased screen-time, and to test the hypothesis that increased screen-time is associated with poor sleep.MethodsWe performed a cross-sectional analysis in a subset of 653 participants enrolled in the Health eHeart Study, an internet-based longitudinal cohort study open to any interested adult (≥ 18 years). Smartphone screen-time (the number of minutes in each hour the screen was on) was measured continuously via smartphone application. For each participant, total and average screen-time were computed over 30-day windows. Average screen-time specifically during self-reported bedtime hours and sleeping period was also computed. Demographics, medical information, and sleep habits (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index–PSQI) were obtained by survey. Linear regression was used to obtain effect estimates.ResultsTotal screen-time over 30 days was a median 38.4 hours (IQR 21.4 to 61.3) and average screen-time over 30 days was a median 3.7 minutes per hour (IQR 2.2 to 5.5). Younger age, self-reported race/ethnicity of Black and "Other" were associated with longer average screen-time after adjustment for potential confounders. Longer average screen-time was associated with shorter sleep duration and worse sleep-efficiency. Longer average screen-times during bedtime and the sleeping period were associated with poor sleep quality, decreased sleep efficiency, and longer sleep onset latency.ConclusionsThese findings on actual smartphone screen-time build upon prior work based on self-report and confirm that adults spend a substantial amount of time using their smartphones. Screen-time differs across age and race, but is similar across socio-economic strata suggesting that cultural factors may drive smartphone use. Screen-time is associated with poor sleep. These findings cannot support conclusions on causation. Effect-cause remains a possibility: poor sleep may lead to increased screen-time. However, exposure to smartphone screens, particularly around bedtime, may negatively impact sleep.     

Soluble Adhesion Molecules in Patients Coinfected with HIV and HCV: A Predictor of Outcome

Background

Higher serum levels of adhesion molecules (sICAM-1 and sVCAM-1) are associated with advanced liver fibrosis in patients coinfected with human immunodeficiency virus and hepatitis C virus. We assessed the relationship between serum levels of adhesion molecules and liver-related events (LRE) or death, in coinfected patients.

Methods

We studied clinical characteristics and outcomes of 182 coinfected patients with a baseline liver biopsy (58 with advanced fibrosis) and simultaneous plasma samples who were followed for median of 9 years. We used receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves to calculate optimized cutoff values (OCV) of sICAM-1 and sVCAM-1, defined as the values with the highest combination of sensitivity and specificity for LRE. We used multivariate regression analysis to test the association between OCVs of sICAM-1 and sVCAM-1 and outcomes. The variables for adjustment were age, HIV transmission category, liver fibrosis, baseline CD4+ T-cell counts, antiretroviral therapy, and sustained virologic response (SVR).

Results

During the study period 51 patients had SVR, 19 had LRE, and 16 died. The OCVs for LRE were 5.68 Log pg/mL for sICAM-1 and 6.25 Log pg/mL for sVCAM-1, respectively. The adjusted subhazard ratio (aSHR) (95% confidence interval [CI]) of death or LRE, whichever occurred first, for sICAM-1 and sVCAM-1 > OCV were 3.98 ([1.14; 13.89], P = 0.030) and 2.81 ([1.10; 7.19], respectively (P = 0.030).

Conclusions

Serum levels of sICAM-1 and sVCAM-1 can serve as markers of outcome in HIV/HCV-coinfected patients. Therapies targeting necroinflammatory damage and fibrogenesis may have a role in the management chronic hepatitis C.     

Our Faces in the Dog's Brain: Functional Imaging Reveals Temporal Cortex Activation during Perception of Human Faces

Dogs have a rich social relationship with humans. One fundamental aspect of it is how dogs pay close attention to human faces in order to guide their behavior, for example, by recognizing their owner and his/her emotional state using visual cues. It is well known that humans have specific brain regions for the processing of other human faces, yet it is unclear how dogs’ brains process human faces. For this reason, our study focuses on describing the brain correlates of perception of human faces in dogs using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We trained seven domestic dogs to remain awake, still and unrestrained inside an MRI scanner. We used a visual stimulation paradigm with block design to compare activity elicited by human faces against everyday objects. Brain activity related to the perception of faces changed significantly in several brain regions, but mainly in the bilateral temporal cortex. The opposite contrast (i.e., everyday objects against human faces) showed no significant brain activity change. The temporal cortex is part of the ventral visual pathway, and our results are consistent with reports in other species like primates and sheep, that suggest a high degree of evolutionary conservation of this pathway for face processing. This study introduces the temporal cortex as candidate to process human faces, a pillar of social cognition in dogs.     

Large-Scale Assessment of a Fully Automatic Co-Adaptive Motor Imagery-Based Brain Computer Interface

In the last years Brain Computer Interface (BCI) technology has benefited from the development of sophisticated machine leaning methods that let the user operate the BCI after a few trials of calibration. One remarkable example is the recent development of co-adaptive techniques that proved to extend the use of BCIs also to people not able to achieve successful control with the standard BCI procedure. Especially for BCIs based on the modulation of the Sensorimotor Rhythm (SMR) these improvements are essential, since a not negligible percentage of users is unable to operate SMR-BCIs efficiently. In this study we evaluated for the first time a fully automatic co-adaptive BCI system on a large scale. A pool of 168 participants naive to BCIs operated the co-adaptive SMR-BCI in one single session. Different psychological interventions were performed prior the BCI session in order to investigate how motor coordination training and relaxation could influence BCI performance. A neurophysiological indicator based on the Power Spectral Density (PSD) was extracted by the recording of few minutes of resting state brain activity and tested as predictor of BCI performances. Results show that high accuracies in operating the BCI could be reached by the majority of the participants before the end of the session. BCI performances could be significantly predicted by the neurophysiological indicator, consolidating the validity of the model previously developed. Anyway, we still found about 22% of users with performance significantly lower than the threshold of efficient BCI control at the end of the session. Being the inter-subject variability still the major problem of BCI technology, we pointed out crucial issues for those who did not achieve sufficient control. Finally, we propose valid developments to move a step forward to the applicability of the promising co-adaptive methods.     

Can We Identify the Active Ingredients of Behaviour Change Interventions for Coronary Heart Disease Patients? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

BackgroundThe main behaviour change intervention available for coronary heart disease (CHD) patients is cardiac rehabilitation. There is little recognition of what the active ingredients of behavioural interventions for CHD might be. Using a behaviour change technique (BCT) framework to code existing interventions may help to identify this. The objectives of this systematic review are to determine the effectiveness of CHD behaviour change interventions and how this may be explained by BCT content and structure.ConclusionsBehaviour change interventions for CHD patients appear to have a positive impact on a number of outcomes. Using an existing BCT taxonomy to code the interventions helped us to understand which were the most commonly used techniques, providing information and goal setting, but not the active components of these complex interventions.     

Impact of Obstructive Sleep Apnea on the Levels of Placental Growth Factor (PlGF) and Their Value for Predicting Short-Term Adverse Outcomes in Patients with Acute Coronary Syndrome

Background

Placental growth factor (PlGF) induces angiogenesis and promotes tissue repair, and plasma PlGF levels change markedly during acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Currently, the impact of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in patients with AMI is a subject of debate. Our objective was to evaluate the relationships between PlGF levels and both the severity of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and short-term outcomes after ACS in patients with and without OSA.

Methods

A total of 538 consecutive patients (312 OSA patients and 226 controls) admitted for ACS were included in this study. All patients underwent polygraphy in the first 72 hours after hospital admission. The severity of disease and short-term prognoses were evaluated during the hospitalization period. Plasma PlGF levels were measured using an electrochemiluminescence immunoassay.

Results

Patients with OSA were significantly older and more frequently hypertensive and had higher BMIs than those without OSA. After adjusting for age, smoking status, BMI and hypertension, PlGF levels were significantly elevated in patients with OSA compared with patients without OSA (19.9 pg/mL, interquartile range: 16.6–24.5 pg/mL; 18.5 pg/mL, interquartile range: 14.7–22.7 pg/mL; p<0.001), and a higher apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) was associated with higher PlGF concentrations (p<0.003). Patients with higher levels of PlGF had also an increased odds ratio for the presence of 3 or more diseased vessels and for a Killip score>1, even after adjustment.

Conclusions

The results of this study show that in patients with ACS, elevated plasma levels of PlGF are associated with the presence of OSA and with adverse outcomes during short-term follow-up.

Trial Registration

ClinicalTrials.gov {"type":"clinical-trial","attrs":{"text":"NCT01335087","term_id":"NCT01335087"}}NCT01335087     

An Examination of the Association between FOXA1 Staining Level and Biochemical Recurrence following Salvage Radiation Therapy for Recurrent Prostate Cancer

Background

Standardly collected clinical and pathological patient information has demonstrated only moderate ability to predict risk of biochemical recurrence (BCR) of prostate cancer in men undergoing salvage radiation therapy (SRT) for a rising PSA after radical prostatectomy (RP). Although elevated FOXA1 staining has been associated with poor patient outcomes following RP, it has not been studied in the specific setting of SRT after RP. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between FOXA1 staining level and BCR after SRT for recurrent prostate cancer.

Methods

A total of 141 men who underwent SRT at our institution were included. FOXA1 staining levels in primary tumor samples were detected using immunohistochemistry. FOXA1 staining percentage and intensity were measured and multiplied together to obtain a FOXA1 H-score (range 0–12) which was our primary staining measure. P-values ≤ 0.0056 were considered as statistically significant after applying a Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons.

Results

There was not a significant association between FOXA1 H-score and risk of BCR when considering H-score as an ordinal variable or as a categorical variable (all P≥0.090). Similarly, no significant associations with BCR were observed for FOXA1 staining percentage or staining intensity (all P≥0.14).

Conclusions

FOXA1 staining level does not appear to have a major impact on risk of BCR after SRT.     

Oxidative Stress Predicts All-Cause Mortality in HIV-Infected Patients

ObjectiveWe aimed to assess whether oxidative stress is a predictor of mortality in HIV-infected patients.MethodsWe conducted a nested case-control study in CoRIS, a contemporary, multicentre cohort of HIV-infected patients, antiretroviral-naïve at entry, launched in 2004. Cases were patients who died with available stored plasma samples collected. Two age and sex-matched controls for each case were selected. We measured F2-isoprostanes (F₂-IsoPs) and malondialdehyde (MDA) plasma levels in the first blood sample obtained after cohort engagement.Results54 cases and 93 controls were included. Median F₂-IsoPs and MDA levels were significantly higher in cases than in controls. When adjustment was performed for age, HIV-transmission category, CD4 cell count and HIV viral load at cohort entry, and subclinical inflammation measured with highly-sensitive C-reactive protein (hsCRP), the association of F₂-IsoPs with mortality remained significant (adjusted OR per 1 log₁₀ increase, 2.34 [1.23–4.47], P = 0.009). The association of MDA with mortality was attenuated after adjustment: adjusted OR (95% CI) per 1 log₁₀ increase, 2.05 [0.91–4.59], P = 0.080. Median hsCRP was also higher in cases, and it also proved to be an independent predictor of mortality in the adjusted analysis: OR (95% CI) per 1 log₁₀ increase, 1.39 (1.01–1.91), P = 0.043; and OR (95% CI) per 1 log₁₀ increase, 1.46 (1.07–1.99), P = 0.014, respectively, when adjustment included F₂-IsoPs and MDA.ConclusionOxidative stress is a predictor of all-cause mortality in HIV-infected patients. For plasma F₂-IsoPs, this association is independent of HIV-related factors and subclinical inflammation.