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Neuron Nov 2021Many studies have shown that the excitation and inhibition received by cortical neurons remain roughly balanced across many conditions. A key question for understanding... (Review)
Review
Many studies have shown that the excitation and inhibition received by cortical neurons remain roughly balanced across many conditions. A key question for understanding the dynamical regime of cortex is the nature of this balancing. Theorists have shown that network dynamics can yield systematic cancellation of most of a neuron's excitatory input by inhibition. We review a wide range of evidence pointing to this cancellation occurring in a regime in which the balance is loose, meaning that the net input remaining after cancellation of excitation and inhibition is comparable in size with the factors that cancel, rather than tight, meaning that the net input is very small relative to the canceling factors. This choice of regime has important implications for cortical functional responses, as we describe: loose balance, but not tight balance, can yield many nonlinear population behaviors seen in sensory cortical neurons, allow the presence of correlated variability, and yield decrease of that variability with increasing external stimulus drive as observed across multiple cortical areas.
Topics: Cerebral Cortex; Models, Neurological; Neurons
PubMed: 34464597
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2021.07.031 -
Journal of Psychiatric and Mental... Jun 2022WHAT IS KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT?: Frontline forensic mental health staff often face challenges when providing recovery-orientated care, as they must balance between caring...
WHAT IS KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT?: Frontline forensic mental health staff often face challenges when providing recovery-orientated care, as they must balance between caring for the forensic psychiatric patient and at the same time ensuring safety and security for all other patients and staff at the ward. Research shows that balancing between care and custody in everyday clinical practice is possible, but more practical nursing studies showing ways of balancing power relations are needed to guide clinical practice. Online video games are increasingly recognized as promising new tools to promote social relations, establish competencies and re-articulate power relations in therapeutic environments. WHAT THE PAPER ADDS TO EXISTING KNOWLEDGE?: This paper provides insights into how using online video gaming interventions may influence the establishment of social power relations of staff and forensic psychiatric patients. It adds to existing research by providing a conceptual way to study and understand how mental health nurses may balance between care and custody, delivering care to accommodate patients' needs without compromising safety and security at the ward. This study answers a call in current research by providing qualified knowledge regarding the use of online video gaming to build and sustain therapeutic relations in mental health care. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE?: Our paper suggests that balancing between care and custody is possible by using online video gaming interventions in forensic psychiatry. It moreover provides practice-close knowledge that may inspire and guide clinical mental health nurses to further develop online video gaming interventions in mental health care for the benefit of their patients. ABSTRACT: Introduction In recovery-oriented care, forensic psychiatric nurses must engage in care relationships with forensic psychiatric patients (FPs) whilst focussing on ward security. Online video games (OVGs) may provide a platform for negotiating power and social relations. Studies showing how OVG interventions may influence power balances in forensic psychiatric care are needed to guide clinical practice. Aim Our aim was to study how power relations were articulated between FPs and staff in an OVG intervention in a Danish forensic psychiatric ward. Method Data consist of three months of observational data and interviews with three staff members and six patients. We used sociologist Pierre Bourdieu's framework of field, power and capital to analyze data. Results The OVG intervention consisted of two power fields, "in-game" and "over-game." In-game concerned the practice of gaming. Over-game described the organization of the gaming intervention. Specific logics, skills and symbolic capitals drove power in each field. Discussion Power in-game was open to FPs and staff, leading to symmetric power relations. Power over-game was open to staff only, resulting in asymmetrical power relations. Implications for practice Online video game interventions may facilitate power balancing in forensic psychiatry. These insights may guide the development of new OVG interventions for patients and nurses in mental health care.
Topics: Forensic Psychiatry; Humans; Psychiatric Department, Hospital; Psychiatric Nursing; Qualitative Research; Video Games
PubMed: 34897910
DOI: 10.1111/jpm.12813 -
Aging and Disease Oct 2021From year to year, we know more about neurodegeneration and Parkinson's disease (PD). A positive influence of various types of physical activity is more often described... (Review)
Review
From year to year, we know more about neurodegeneration and Parkinson's disease (PD). A positive influence of various types of physical activity is more often described in the context of neuroprotection and prevention as well as the form of rehabilitation in Parkinson's patients. Moreover, when we look at supplementation, clinical nutrition and dietetics, we will see that balancing consumed products and supplementing the vitamins or minerals is necessary. Considering the biochemical pathways in skeletal muscle, we may see that many researchers desire to identify molecular mediators that have an impact through exercise and balanced diet on human health or development of the neurodegenerative disease. Therefore, it is mandatory to study the potential mechanism(s) related to diet and factors resulted from physical activity as molecular mediators, which play a therapeutic role in PD. This review summarizes the available literature on mechanisms and specific pathways involved in diet-exercise relationship and discusses how therapy, including appropriate exercises and diet that influence molecular mediators, may significantly slow down the progress of neurodegenerative processes. We suggest that a proper diet combined with physical activity will be a good solution for psycho-muscle BALANCE not only in PD but also in other neurodegenerative diseases.
PubMed: 34631210
DOI: 10.14336/AD.2021.0123 -
Genes & Nutrition 2018Humans are not autonomous entities. We are all living in a complex environment, interacting not only with our peers, but as true holobionts; we are also very much in... (Review)
Review
Humans are not autonomous entities. We are all living in a complex environment, interacting not only with our peers, but as true holobionts; we are also very much in interaction with our coexisting microbial ecosystems living on and especially within us, in the intestine. Intestinal microorganisms, often collectively referred to as intestinal microbiota, contribute significantly to our daily energy uptake by breaking down complex carbohydrates into simple sugars, which are fermented to short-chain fatty acids and subsequently absorbed by human cells. They also have an impact on our immune system, by suppressing or enhancing the growth of malevolent and beneficial microbes. Our lifestyle can have a large influence on this ecosystem. What and how much we consume can tip the ecological balance in the intestine. A "western diet" containing mainly processed food will have a different effect on our health than a balanced diet fortified with pre- and probiotics. In recent years, new technologies have emerged, which made a more detailed understanding of microbial communities and ecosystems feasible. This includes progress in the sequencing of PCR-amplified phylogenetic marker genes as well as the collective microbial metagenome and metatranscriptome, allowing us to determine with an increasing level of detail, which microbial species are in the microbiota, understand what these microorganisms do and how they respond to changes in lifestyle and diet. These new technologies also include the use of synthetic and in vitro systems, which allow us to study the impact of substrates and addition of specific microbes to microbial communities at a high level of detail, and enable us to gather quantitative data for modelling purposes. Here, we will review the current state of microbiome research, summarizing the computational methodologies in this area and highlighting possible outcomes for personalized nutrition and medicine.
PubMed: 29556373
DOI: 10.1186/s12263-018-0594-6 -
The Journal of Rheumatology Mar 2021Observational studies allow researchers to understand the natural history of rheumatic conditions, risk factors for disease development, and factors affecting important... (Review)
Review
Observational studies allow researchers to understand the natural history of rheumatic conditions, risk factors for disease development, and factors affecting important disease-related outcomes, and to estimate treatment effect from real-world data. However, this design carries a risk of confounding bias. A propensity score (PS) is a balancing score that aims to minimize the difference between study groups and consequently potential confounding effects. The score can be applied in 1 of 4 methods in observational research: matching, stratification, adjustment, and inverse probability weighting. Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a rare disease characterized by a relatively small sample size and/or low event rates. In this article, we review the PS methods. We demonstrate application of the PS methods to achieve study group balance in a rare disease using an example of risk of infection in SLE patients with hypogammaglobulinemia.
Topics: Bias; Humans; Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic; Observational Studies as Topic; Propensity Score; Rare Diseases; Risk Factors
PubMed: 32611674
DOI: 10.3899/jrheum.200254 -
Annals of Translational Medicine Jan 2017Propensity score analysis (PSA) is a powerful technique that it balances pretreatment covariates, making the causal effect inference from observational data as reliable...
Propensity score analysis (PSA) is a powerful technique that it balances pretreatment covariates, making the causal effect inference from observational data as reliable as possible. The use of PSA in medical literature has increased exponentially in recent years, and the trend continue to rise. The article introduces rationales behind PSA, followed by illustrating how to perform PSA in R with package. There are a variety of methods available for PS matching such as nearest neighbors, full matching, exact matching and genetic matching. The task can be easily done by simply assigning a string value to the method argument in the matchit() function. The generic summary() and plot() functions can be applied to an object of class to check covariate balance after matching. Furthermore, there is a useful package that contains several graphical functions to check covariate balance between treatment groups across strata. If covariate balance is not achieved, one can modify model specifications or use other techniques such as random forest and recursive partitioning to better represent the underlying structure between pretreatment covariates and treatment assignment. The process can be repeated until the desirable covariate balance is achieved.
PubMed: 28164092
DOI: 10.21037/atm.2016.08.57 -
Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Dec 2022L. (lupine) is a legume whose grain/seed has gained increasing interest. Its recognized nutritional properties, namely a high content of protein, dietary fiber and its... (Review)
Review
L. (lupine) is a legume whose grain/seed has gained increasing interest. Its recognized nutritional properties, namely a high content of protein, dietary fiber and its low fat content, make lupine a suitable alternative not only for animal protein, but also as a substitute for more processed and less balanced flours from a nutritional point of view, used in the preparation of bread, cakes and cookies, among others. In addition, its nutritional and bioactive compounds have potential benefits for human health in the prevention and treatment of some diseases. However, the existence of some anti-nutritional compounds and contaminants reveal some concern, requiring effective methods for their detection and eventual removal. This review intends to address the potential of lupine () in food and human health and to balance the pros and cons. Nutritional and anti-nutritional components of seeds and possible contaminants of lupine seeds are examined. The potential health benefits of lupine (seeds), including energy metabolism, cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, glucose and insulin metabolism, bower function and anticonvulsant action, are discussed based on scientific evidence (both clinical trials and studies performed with animal models).
Topics: Animals; Humans; Lupinus; Seeds; Flour; Bread; Dietary Fiber; Allergens; Vegetables
PubMed: 36500649
DOI: 10.3390/molecules27238557 -
Experimental Gerontology Sep 2023The purpose of this study was to prospectively investigate the relationship between new falls and the balancing ability of older adults aged ≥80 years who are...
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to prospectively investigate the relationship between new falls and the balancing ability of older adults aged ≥80 years who are independent and evaluate the validity of the assessment tools as a predictor of falls.
METHODS
We enrolled a total of 160 participants (104 males and 56 females) aged 80 years or older. During the 12 months of observation, we investigated underlying diseases and drug use and performed a comprehensive geriatric assessment (including self-care ability, muscle strength, action ability, cognition, emotional state, and other aspects), as well as computerized dynamic posturography to assess balance and gait functions. We further analyzed the relationship between new falls and multiple internal risk factors.
RESULTS
A total of 159 participants were included for statistical analysis, and there were 108 new falls among the 59 participants. Fall history and visual preference (PREF) scores on the sensory integration test showed a positive correlation with new falls. The composite equilibrium score (SOTcom), left total hip bone mineral density, left directional control, and end point deviation were all found to be negatively correlated with new falls (P < 0.05). The cut-off point of the timed "up and go" test (TUG) in predicting new falls in this cohort was >12.03 s, with a sensitivity of 78.0 %, a specificity of 51.5 %, and an AUC of 0.667 (P < 0.001, 95 % CI: 0.567-0.721). The cut-off point of SOTcom in predicting new falls was ≤52, with a sensitivity of 40.7 %, a specificity of 84.0 %, and an AUC of 0.606 (P = 0.028, 95 % CI: 0.525-0.682).
CONCLUSIONS
The decline of balance sensory input function (mainly vestibular and visual sense), skeletal muscle motor function, and related postural control ability constituted the main risk factors for new falls in older adults who were independent. The combined use of TUG and SOT was useful in further improving the accuracy of predicting new falls in this population and providing a direction for effective intervention and rehabilitation measures.
Topics: Male; Aged; Female; Humans; Prospective Studies; Geriatric Assessment; Physical Therapy Modalities; Risk Factors; Gait; Postural Balance
PubMed: 37473970
DOI: 10.1016/j.exger.2023.112259 -
BMB Reports Dec 2015Energy homeostasis in our body system is maintained by balancing the intake and expenditure of energy. Excessive accumulation of fat by disrupting the balance system... (Review)
Review
Energy homeostasis in our body system is maintained by balancing the intake and expenditure of energy. Excessive accumulation of fat by disrupting the balance system causes overweight and obesity, which are increasingly becoming global health concerns. Understanding the pathogenesis of obesity focused on studying the genes related to familial types of obesity. Recently, a rare human genetic disorder, ciliopathy, links the role for genes regulating structure and function of a cellular organelle, the primary cilium, to metabolic disorder, obesity and type II diabetes. Primary cilia are microtubule based hair-like membranous structures, lacking motility and functions such as sensing the environmental cues, and transducing extracellular signals within the cells. Interestingly, the subclass of ciliopathies, such as Bardet-Biedle and Alström syndrome, manifest obesity and type II diabetes in human and mouse model systems. Moreover, studies on genetic mouse model system indicate that more ciliary genes affect energy homeostasis through multiple regulatory steps such as central and peripheral actions of leptin and insulin. In this review, we discuss the latest findings in primary cilia and metabolic disorders, and propose the possible interaction between primary cilia and the leptin and insulin signal pathways which might enhance our understanding of the unambiguous link of a cell's antenna to obesity and type II diabetes.
Topics: Animals; Cilia; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2; Disease Models, Animal; Energy Metabolism; Homeostasis; Humans; Insulin; Leptin; Metabolic Diseases; Mice; Microtubules; Obesity; Signal Transduction
PubMed: 26538252
DOI: 10.5483/bmbrep.2015.48.12.229 -
The Journals of Gerontology. Series A,... Oct 2023Machine learning (ML) models can be used to predict future frailty in the community setting. However, outcome variables for epidemiologic data sets such as frailty...
BACKGROUND
Machine learning (ML) models can be used to predict future frailty in the community setting. However, outcome variables for epidemiologic data sets such as frailty usually have an imbalance between categories, that is, there are far fewer individuals classified as frail than as nonfrail, adversely affecting the performance of ML models when predicting the syndrome.
METHODS
A retrospective cohort study with participants (50 years or older) from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing who were nonfrail at baseline (2008-2009) and reassessed for the frailty phenotype at 4-year follow-up (2012-2013). Social, clinical, and psychosocial baseline predictors were selected to predict frailty at follow-up in ML models (Logistic Regression, Random Forest [RF], Support Vector Machine, Neural Network, K-nearest neighbor, and Naive Bayes classifier).
RESULTS
Of all the 4 378 nonfrail participants at baseline, 347 became frail at follow-up. The proposed combined oversampling and undersampling method to adjust imbalanced data improved the performance of the models, and RF had the best performance, with areas under the receiver-operating characteristic curve and the precision-recall curve of 0.92 and 0.97, respectively, specificity of 0.83, sensitivity of 0.88, and balanced accuracy of 85.5% for balanced data. Age, chair-rise test, household wealth, balance problems, and self-rated health were the most important frailty predictors in most of the models trained with balanced data.
CONCLUSIONS
ML proved useful in identifying individuals who became frail over time, and this result was made possible by balancing the data set. This study highlighted factors that may be useful in the early detection of frailty.
Topics: Aged; Humans; Middle Aged; Frailty; Cohort Studies; Longitudinal Studies; Frail Elderly; Independent Living; Bayes Theorem; Retrospective Studies; Machine Learning
PubMed: 37209408
DOI: 10.1093/gerona/glad127