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Fluids and Barriers of the CNS Apr 2022Intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in both neonatal and adult populations. IVH not only causes immediate damage to... (Review)
Review
Intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in both neonatal and adult populations. IVH not only causes immediate damage to surrounding structures by way of mass effect and elevated intracranial pressure; the subsequent inflammation causes additional brain injury and edema. Of those neonates who experience severe IVH, 25-30% will go on to develop post-hemorrhagic hydrocephalus (PHH). PHH places neonates and adults at risk for white matter injury, seizures, and death. Unfortunately, the molecular determinants of PHH are not well understood. Within the past decade an emphasis has been placed on neuroinflammation in IVH and PHH. More information has come to light regarding inflammation-induced fibrosis and cerebrospinal fluid hypersecretion in response to IVH. The aim of this review is to discuss the role of neuroinflammation involving clot-derived neuroinflammatory factors including hemoglobin/iron, peroxiredoxin-2 and thrombin, as well as macrophages/microglia, cytokines and complement in the development of PHH. Understanding the mechanisms of neuroinflammation after IVH may highlight potential novel therapeutic targets for PHH.
Topics: Adult; Cerebral Hemorrhage; Humans; Hydrocephalus; Infant, Newborn; Infant, Premature; Microglia; Neuroinflammatory Diseases
PubMed: 35365172
DOI: 10.1186/s12987-022-00324-0 -
Journal of the International Society of... 2018Competitive bodybuilders employ a combination of resistance training, cardiovascular exercise, calorie reduction, supplementation regimes and peaking strategies in order...
BACKGROUND
Competitive bodybuilders employ a combination of resistance training, cardiovascular exercise, calorie reduction, supplementation regimes and peaking strategies in order to lose fat mass and maintain fat free mass. Although recommendations exist for contest preparation, applied research is limited and data on the contest preparation regimes of bodybuilders are restricted to case studies or small cohorts. Moreover, the influence of different nutritional strategies on competitive outcome is unknown.
METHODS
Fifty-one competitors (35 male and 16 female) volunteered to take part in this project. The British Natural Bodybuilding Federation (BNBF) runs an annual national competition for high level bodybuilders; competitors must qualify by winning at a qualifying events or may be invited at the judge's discretion. Competitors are subject to stringent drug testing and have to undergo a polygraph test. Study of this cohort provides an opportunity to examine the dietary practices of high level natural bodybuilders. We report the results of a cross-sectional study of bodybuilders competing at the BNBF finals. Volunteers completed a 34-item questionnaire assessing diet at three time points. At each time point participants recorded food intake over a 24-h period in grams and/or portions. Competitors were categorised according to contest placing. A "placed" competitor finished in the top 5, and a "Non-placed" (DNP) competitor finished outside the top 5. Nutrient analysis was performed using Nutritics software. Repeated measures ANOVA and effect sizes (Cohen's ) were used to test if nutrient intake changed over time and if placing was associated with intake.
RESULTS
Mean preparation time for a competitor was 22 ± 9 weeks. Nutrient intake of bodybuilders reflected a high-protein, high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet. Total carbohydrate, protein and fat intakes decreased over time in both male and female cohorts ( < 0.05). Placed male competitors had a greater carbohydrate intake at the start of contest preparation (5.1 vs 3.7 g/kg BW) than DNP competitors ( = 1.02, 95% CI [0.22, 1.80]).
CONCLUSIONS
Greater carbohydrate intake in the placed competitors could theoretically have contributed towards greater maintenance of muscle mass during competition preparation compared to DNP competitors. These findings require corroboration, but will likely be of interest to bodybuilders and coaches.
Topics: Adult; Cross-Sectional Studies; Diet; Diet Surveys; Diet, Fat-Restricted; Diet, High-Protein; Dietary Carbohydrates; Dietary Supplements; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Sports Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; Weight Lifting; Young Adult
PubMed: 29371857
DOI: 10.1186/s12970-018-0209-z -
International Journal of Environmental... Jan 2017Urban places and health equity are two of the most challenging concepts for 21st century environmental health. More people live in cities than at any other time in human... (Review)
Review
Urban places and health equity are two of the most challenging concepts for 21st century environmental health. More people live in cities than at any other time in human history and health inequities are increasing. Health inequities are avoidable differences in the social, environmental and political conditions that shape morbidity and mortality, and disproportionately burden the poor, racial, ethnic and religious minorities and migrants. By linking urban place and health inequities, research and action brings into sharp relief the challenges of achieving urban environmental justice. This article briefly reviews the complex definitions of urban places and how they can shape health equity in cities. I suggest that a more relational or integrated approach to defining urban places and acting on health equity can complement other approaches and improve the ability of public health to meet 21st century challenges. I close with suggestions for research and practice that might focus environmental public health on healthy urban place making. The practices include community driven map making, Health in All Policies (HiAP), promoting urban ecosystem services for health, and participatory and integrated approaches to urban slum upgrading. I conclude that if the global community is serious about the sustainable development goals (SDGs), greater attention must be paid to understanding and acting to improve urban places, living conditions and the social and economic conditions that can promote health equity.
Topics: Ethnicity; Health Equity; Health Policy; Health Services Accessibility; Humans; Minority Groups; Public Health; United States; Urban Health; Urban Population
PubMed: 28134756
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph14020117 -
Health (London, England : 1997) Mar 2023The substantial literature on interactions between places/spaces and well-being/health often differentiate between physical and social aspects of geographical location....
The substantial literature on interactions between places/spaces and well-being/health often differentiate between physical and social aspects of geographical location. This paper sidesteps this dualism, instead considering places as sociomaterial assemblages of human and non-human materialities. It uses this posthuman and 'new materialist' perspective to explore how place-assemblages affect human capacities, in terms of both health and social dis/advantage. Based on secondary analysis of interview data on human/place interactions, it analyses the physical, sociocultural, psychological and emotional effects of place-assemblages, assessing how these produce opportunities for, and constraints upon human bodies. It than assesses how these emergent capacities affect both social dis/advantage and well-being. This analysis of how place-assemblages contribute positively or negatively to health and dis/advantage offers possibilities for further research and for social and public health policy.
Topics: Humans; Emotions; Health Status; Built Environment
PubMed: 33977774
DOI: 10.1177/13634593211014925 -
PeerJ 2022Pathogenic fungal infection success depends on the ability to escape the immune response. Most strategies for fungal infection control are focused on the inhibition of... (Review)
Review
Pathogenic fungal infection success depends on the ability to escape the immune response. Most strategies for fungal infection control are focused on the inhibition of virulence factors and increasing the effectiveness of antifungal drugs. Nevertheless, little attention has been focused on their physiological resistance to the host immune system. Hints may be found in pathogenic fungi that also inhabit the soil. In nature, the saprophyte lifestyle of fungi is also associated with predators that can induce oxidative stress upon cell damage. The natural sources of nutrients for fungi are linked to cellulose degradation, which in turn generates reactive oxygen species (ROS). Overall, the antioxidant arsenal needed to thrive both in free-living and pathogenic lifestyles in fungi is fundamental for success. In this review, we present recent findings regarding catalases and oxidative stress in fungi and how these can be in close relationship with pathogenesis. Additionally, special focus is placed on catalases of as a pathogenic model with a dual lifestyle. It is assumed that catalase expression is activated upon exposure to HO, but there are reports where this is not always the case. Additionally, it may be relevant to consider the role of catalases in survival in the saprophytic lifestyle and why their study can assess their involvement in the survival and therefore, in the virulence phenotype of different species of and when each of the three catalases are required. Also, studying antioxidant mechanisms in other isolates of pathogenic and free-living fungi may be linked to the virulence phenotype and be potential therapeutic and diagnostic targets. Thus, the rationale for this review to place focus on fungal catalases and their role in pathogenesis in addition to counteracting the effect of immune system reactive oxygen species. Fungi that thrive in soil and have mammal hosts could shed light on the importance of these enzymes in the two types of lifestyles. We look forward to encouraging more research in a myriad of areas on catalase biology with a focus on basic and applied objectives and placing these enzymes as virulence determinants.
Topics: Animals; Sporothrix; Sporotrichosis; Catalase; Reactive Oxygen Species; Antioxidants; Hydrogen Peroxide; Fungal Proteins; Mammals
PubMed: 36523453
DOI: 10.7717/peerj.14478 -
Frontiers in Immunology 2022Over the past few decades, tremendous advances in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer have taken place. However for head and neck cancers, including oral... (Review)
Review
Over the past few decades, tremendous advances in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer have taken place. However for head and neck cancers, including oral cancer, the overall survival rate is below 50% and they remain the seventh most common malignancy worldwide. These cancers are, commonly, aggressive, genetically complex, and difficult to treat and the delay, which often occurs between early recognition of symptoms and diagnosis, and the start of treatment of these cancers, is associated with poor prognosis. Cancer development and progression occurs in concert with alterations in the surrounding stroma, with the immune system being an essential element in this process. Despite neutrophils having major roles in the pathology of many diseases, they were thought to have little impact on cancer development and progression. Recent studies are now challenging this notion and placing neutrophils as central interactive players with other immune and tumor cells in affecting cancer pathology. This review focuses on how neutrophils and their sub-phenotypes, N1, N2, and myeloid-derived suppressor cells, both directly and indirectly affect the anti-tumor and pro-tumor immune responses. Emphasis is placed on what is currently known about the interaction of neutrophils with myeloid innate immune cells (such as dendritic cells and macrophages), innate lymphoid cells, natural killer cells, and fibroblasts to affect the tumor microenvironment and progression of oral cancer. A better understanding of this dialog will allow for improved therapeutics that concurrently target several components of the tumor microenvironment, increasing the possibility of constructive and positive outcomes for oral cancer patients. For this review, PubMed, Web of Science, and Google Scholar were searched for manuscripts using keywords and combinations thereof of "oral cancer, OSCC, neutrophils, TANs, MDSC, immune cells, head and neck cancer, and tumor microenvironment" with a focus on publications from 2018 to 2021.
Topics: Humans; Immunity, Innate; Killer Cells, Natural; Mouth Neoplasms; Neutrophils; Tumor Microenvironment
PubMed: 35784290
DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.894021 -
Journal of Aging Studies Sep 2020Aging in place policies have been adopted internationally as a response to population aging. The approach historically referred to the goal of helping people to remain...
Aging in place policies have been adopted internationally as a response to population aging. The approach historically referred to the goal of helping people to remain in their own homes so that they can retain connections with friends and family in their community. However, the places in which people grow old are often hostile and challenging, presenting potential barriers to the policy ideal of aging in place. This may be especially the case in cities characterized by rapid population turnover and redevelopment of buildings through urban regeneration. Yet, to date, there has been limited research focusing on the places of aging, and how these affect the experience of aging in place over time. This paper addresses this gap by presenting four in-depth case-studies from a qualitative longitudinal study of older people living in neighborhoods characterized by high levels of deprivation and rapid population change. The analysis illustrates how aging in place is affected by changing life-course circumstances and the dynamics of these neighborhoods over time. The conclusion suggests that further attention must be given to the changing dynamics of the places where people grow older. It also makes policy suggestions for how aging in place could be supported, taking account of the needs of people as they grow older as well as changes in the communities in which they live. The paper extends theoretical understanding of the interrelationship between aging in place and the places of aging, revealing how these processes change over time.
Topics: Aged; Aging; Cities; Humans; Independent Living; Longitudinal Studies; Residence Characteristics
PubMed: 32972616
DOI: 10.1016/j.jaging.2020.100870 -
Social Science & Medicine (1982) Dec 2021Over the last decade, policies in both the UK and many other countries have promoted the opportunity for patients at the end of life to be able to choose where to die....
Over the last decade, policies in both the UK and many other countries have promoted the opportunity for patients at the end of life to be able to choose where to die. Central to this is the expectation that in most instances people would prefer to die at home, where they are more likely to feel most comfortable and less medicalised. In so doing, recording the preferred place of death and reducing the number of hospital deaths have become common measures of the overall quality of end of life care. We argue that as a consequence, what constitutes a desired or appropriate place is routinely defined in a very simple and static 'geographical' way, that is linked to conceptualising death as an unambiguous and discrete event that happens at a precise moment in time in a specific location. In contrast, we draw on 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork with two inner-London palliative care teams to describe the continual work staff do to make places suitable and appropriate for the processes of dying, rather than for a singular event. In this way, instead of 'place of death' merely defined in geographic terms, the palliative care staff attend to the much more dynamic relation between a patient and their location as they approach the end of their life. Central to this is an emphasis on dying as an open-ended process, and correspondingly place as a social space that reflects, and interacts with, living persons. We propose the term 'placing work' to capture these ongoing efforts as a patient's surroundings are continually altered and adjusted over time, and as a way to acknowledge this as a significant feature of the care given.
Topics: Death; Home Care Services; Hospice Care; Humans; Palliative Care; Terminal Care
PubMed: 33994221
DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.113974 -
Journal of Business Ethics : JBE 2023Local places, such as communities, cities, and towns, host many cross-cross sector partnerships, many geared primarily toward alleviating local social and environmental...
Local places, such as communities, cities, and towns, host many cross-cross sector partnerships, many geared primarily toward alleviating local social and environmental issues. Yet, existing literatures focus predominantly on largescale systemic impact and global challenges such as climate change, paying scant attention to the role of local, geographically bounded dynamics in shaping these partnerships. In this article, I conceptualize places as geographic locations imbued with specific meaning systems and material resources to unpack how local embeddedness shape the structure of cross-sector partnerships. Specifically, I investigate how place-based conflict, arising from tensions between the moral and material aspects of a partnership, can shape formalized aspects of organizational structure. These include the scope of operations, partners' roles, and shared resources. I unpack these relationships using a case study of Occupy Medical, a local partnership between the civic society and the local government in Eugene, Oregon, tackling the problem of providing healthcare to the homeless and other marginalized and disenfranchised communities. The analysis covers the nine-year period of 2011-2020 and spans three major restructurings of the organization, the latest prompted by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. I theorize two forms of structural arrangements for cross-sector partnerships, confined and leveraged, and further elaborate on the role of cross-sector partnerships in crises response on the local level.
PubMed: 37168486
DOI: 10.1007/s10551-023-05360-w -
The Annals of Regional Science 2022This paper examines the geographic factors that are associated with the spread of COVID-19 during the first wave in Sweden. We focus particularly on the role of...
This paper examines the geographic factors that are associated with the spread of COVID-19 during the first wave in Sweden. We focus particularly on the role of place-based factors versus factors associated with the spread or diffusion of COVID-19 across places. Sweden is a useful case study to examine the interplay of these factors because it did not impose mandatory lockdowns and because there were essentially no regional differences in the pandemic policies or strategies during the first wave of COVID-19. We examine the role of place-based factors like density, age structures and different socioeconomic factors on the geographic variation of COVID-19 cases and on deaths, across both municipalities and neighborhoods. Our findings show that factors associated with diffusion matter more than place-based factors in the geographic incidence of COVID-19 in Sweden. The most significant factor of all is proximity to places with higher levels of infections. COVID-19 is also higher in places that were hit earliest in the outbreak. Of place-based factors, the geographic variation in COVID-19 is most significantly related to the presence of high-risk nursing homes, and only modestly associated with factors like density, population size, income and other socioeconomic characteristics of places.
PubMed: 34316091
DOI: 10.1007/s00168-021-01071-0