Plos One
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Word finding is a common difficulty for people with aphasia. Targeting words that are relevant to the individual could maximise the usefulness and impact of word finding therapy. ⋯ Personally relevant vocabulary is unique to each individual and is likely to contain specific or specialist words for which material needs to be individually prepared. However there is some commonality in the words chosen by people with aphasia. This could inform pre-prepared materials for use in word finding therapy from which personally relevant words could be selected for practice.
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Intra-abdominal hypertension (IAH) may co-occur with the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), with significant impact on morbidity and mortality. Lung-protective controlled mechanical ventilation with low tidal volume and positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) has been recommended in ARDS. However, mechanical ventilation with spontaneous breathing activity may be beneficial to lung function and reduce lung damage in mild ARDS. ⋯ Regardless of whether IAH was present, PSV resulted in lower mean airway pressure (with no differences in peak airway or peak and mean transpulmonary pressures) and less mRNA expression of biomarkers associated with lung inflammation (IL-6) and fibrogenesis (type III procollagen) than PCV. In the presence of IAH, PSV improved oxygenation; decreased alveolar collapse, interstitial edema, and diffuse alveolar damage; and increased expression of surfactant protein B as compared to PCV. In this experimental model of mild extrapulmonary ALI associated with IAH, PSV compared to PCV improved lung function and morphology and reduced type 2 epithelial cell damage.
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Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) is a platform to measure blood glucose (BG) levels continuously in real time with high enough resolution to document their underlying fluctuations. Multiscale entropy (MSE) analysis has been proposed as a measure of time-series complexity, and when applied to clinical CGM data, MSE analysis revealed that diabetic patients have lower MSE complexity in their BG time series than healthy subjects. To determine if the clinical observations on complexity of glucose dynamics can be back-translated to relevant preclinical species used routinely in diabetes drug discovery, we performed CGM in both mouse (ob/ob) and rat (Zucker Diabetic Fatty, ZDF) models of diabetes. ⋯ We show that low complexity of glucose dynamics is not simply a reflection of high glucose values, but rather reflective of the underlying disease state (i.e. diabetes). Finally, we demonstrate for the first time that the complexity of glucose fluctuations in ZDF rats, as probed by MSE analysis, is decreased prior to the onset of overt diabetes, although complexity undergoes further decline during the transition to frank diabetes. Our study suggests that MSE could serve as a novel biomarker for the progression to diabetes and that complexity studies in preclinical models could offer a new paradigm for early differentiation, and thereby, selection of appropriate clinical candidate molecules to be tested in human clinical trials.
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The development of functional peripheral ganglia requires a balance of specification of both neuronal and glial components. In the developing dorsal root ganglia (DRGs), these components form from partially-restricted bipotent neuroglial precursors derived from the neural crest. Work in mouse and chick has identified several factors, including Delta/Notch signaling, required for specification of a balance of these components. ⋯ We conclude that an imbalance of neuronal and glial fate specification results from the Sox10(baz1) protein's unique ability to drive sensory neuron specification whilst failing to drive glial development. The sox10baz1 phenotype reveals for the first time that a Notch-dependent lateral inhibition mechanism is not sufficient to fully explain the balance of neurons and glia in the developing DRGs, and that a second Sox10-dependent mechanism is necessary. Sox10 is thus a key transcription factor in achieving the balance of sensory neuronal and glial fates.
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Several severe stressful situations, e.g., natural disaster, infectious disease out break, and mass casualty, are known to cause anxiety, depression and cognitive impairment, and preventive intervention for these stress complications is worth exploring. We have previously reported that the serotonin-norepinephrine-dopamine reuptake inhibitor, venlafaxine, as well as voluntary wheel running are effective in the treatment of anxiety- and depression-like behaviors in stressed rats. But whether they are able to prevent deleterious consequences of restraint stress in rats, such as anxiety/depression-like behaviors and memory impairment that occur afterward, was not known. ⋯ MWM test suggested that agomelatine, venlafaxine, and running could prevent stress-induced memory impairment, but only pharmacological treatments led to better novel object recognition behavior and positive outcome in FST. Moreover, western blot analysis demonstrated that venlafaxine and running exercise upregulated brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) expression in the hippocampus. In conclusion, agomelatine, venlafaxine as well as voluntary wheel running had beneficial effects, i.e., preventing the restraint stress-induced anxiety/depression-like behaviors and memory impairment.