Plos One
-
Increasing evidence associates excess refined sugar intakes with obesity, Type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Worryingly, the estimated volume of sugary drinks purchased in the UK has more than doubled between 1975 and 2007, from 510 ml to 1140 ml per person per week. We aimed to estimate the potential impact of a duty on sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs) at a local level in England, hypothesising that a duty could reduce obesity and related diseases. ⋯ This study adds to the growing body of evidence suggesting health benefits for a duty on sugary drinks. It might also usefully provide results at an area level to inform local price interventions in England.
-
Modeling the effects of anesthetic drugs on brain activity is very helpful in understanding anesthesia mechanisms. The aim of this study was to set up a combined model to relate actual drug levels to EEG dynamics and behavioral states during propofol-induced anesthesia. We proposed a new combined theoretical model based on a pharmacokinetics (PK) model and a neural mass model (NMM), which we termed PK-NMM--with the aim of simulating electroencephalogram (EEG) activity during propofol-induced general anesthesia. ⋯ The correlation coefficient of PE was 0.80 ± 0.13 (mean ± standard deviation) between rEEG and sEEG for all subjects. Additionally, SFS could track the depth of anesthesia and the SFS of rEEG and sEEG were highly correlated with a correlation coefficient of 0.77 ± 0.13. The PK-NMM model could simulate EEG activity and might be a useful tool for understanding the action of propofol on brain activity.
-
Non-medical prescription opioid use is a growing public health concern. Social media is an emerging tool to understand health attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. ⋯ In a sample of social media messages mentioning opioid medications, the most common theme amongst English users related to various forms of opioid misuse. Social media can provide insights into the types of misuse of opioids that might aid public health efforts to reduce non-medical opioid use.
-
Previous neuroimaging studies have provided evidence of structural and functional reorganization of brain in patients with chronic spinal cord injury (SCI). However, it remains unknown whether the spontaneous brain activity changes in acute SCI. In this study, we investigated intrinsic brain activity in acute SCI patients using a regional homogeneity (ReHo) analysis based on resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. ⋯ Our findings indicate that acute distant neuronal damage has an immediate impact on spontaneous brain activity. In acute SCI patients, the ReHo was prominently altered in brain regions involved in motor execution and cognitive control, default mode network, and which are associated with sensorimotor compensatory reorganization. Abnormal ReHo values in the left thalamus and right insula could serve as potential biomarkers for assessment of neuronal damage and the prediction of clinical outcomes in acute SCI.
-
Early- to mid-gestational fetal mammalian skin wounds heal rapidly and without scarring. Keratinocytes (KCs) have been found to exert important effects on the regulation of fibroblasts. There may be significant differences of gestational fetal KCs at different ages. The advantages in early- to mid-gestational fetal KCs could lead to fetal scarless wound healing. ⋯ Taken together, our results provide compelling evidence supporting the existence of 106 novel miRNAs and the dynamic expression of miRNAs that extensively targets the TGF-β pathway at different gestational ages in fetal KCs. MiRNAs showing altered expression at different gestational ages in fetal KCs may contribute to scarless wound healing in early- to mid-gestational fetal KCs, and thus may be new targets for potential scar prevention and reduction therapies.