Investigations of the relationship between weather variability and infectious gastroenteritis (IG) are becoming increasingly important in light of international interest in the potential health ...effects of climate change. However, few studies have examined the impact on children, despite the fact that children are considered particularly vulnerable to climate change. We acquired data about cases of IG in children aged < 15 years and about weather variability in Fukuoka, Japan from 2000 to 2008 and used time-series analyses to assess how weather variability affected IG cases, adjusting for confounding factors. The temperature—IG relationship had an inverted V shape, with fewer cases at temperatures lower and higher than ∼13 °C. Every 1 °C increase in temperature below the threshold (13 °C) was associated with a 23·2% 95% confidence interval (CI) 16·6–30·2 increase, while every 1 °C increase in temperature above the threshold (13 °C) was associated with an 11·8% (95% CI 6·6–17·3) decrease in incidence. The increase in cases per 1% drop in relative humidity was 3·9% (95% CI 2·8–5·0). The percentage increase of IG cases was greatest in the 0–4 years age group and tended to decrease with increasing age. We found a progressive reduction in weather-related IG cases in children aged > 4 years. Our results suggest that public health interventions aimed at controlling weather-related IG may be most effective when focused on young children.
Serum levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) are low in major depressive disorder (MDD), and were recently shown to decrease in chronic depression, but whether this is a trait or state ...marker of MDD remains unclear. We investigated whether serum BDNF levels decrease before or after the developments of MDD and other mood disorders through a case-control study nested in a cohort of 1276 women aged 75-84 years in 2008. Psychiatrists using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV identified incident cases of mood disorders at follow-up surveys in 2010 and 2012: 28 of MDDs, 39 of minor depressive disorders (minDDs) and 8 of minor depressive episodes with a history of major depressive episodes (minDEs with MDE history). A total of 106 representative non-depressed controls were also identified in the 2012 follow-up. We assayed BDNF levels in preserved sera of cases and controls at baseline and at follow-up. Serum BDNF levels at baseline in cases of MDD, minDD or minDE with MDE history were no lower than those in controls. The decrease in the serum BDNF level from baseline to follow-up was greater in cases of MDD or minDE with MDE history than in controls or cases of minDD. These results show that serum BDNF levels are not a trait marker of MDD in old women but appeared to be a state marker. The different changes in BDNF levels among diagnostic groups suggest that MDD has a pathophysiologic relation to minDE with MDE history, rather than to minDD.
Objective
To assess the effectiveness of an HPV vaccination programme in reducing the risk of cervical abnormalities identified at subsequent screening.
Design
Retrospective cohort study using ...administrative health data.
Setting
General population of Ferrara Province, Italy.
Population
Female residents born in 1986–1993 and participating in the organized cervical screening programme in 2011–2018, who were eligible for HPV vaccination in catch‐up cohorts.
Methods
Logistic regression to evaluate the potential association between abnormal cervical cytology and one, two, three or at least one dose of HPV vaccine.
Main outcome measures
Cervical abnormalities, as predicted by low‐grade or high‐grade cytology, by number of vaccine doses, stratified by age.
Results
The sample consisted of 7785 women (mean age 27.5 years, SD 2.3). Overall, 391 (5.0%) were vaccinated with ≥1 dose and 893 (11.5%) had abnormal cytology. Women receiving at least one vaccine dose were significantly less likely to have an abnormal cytology (adjusted odds ratio 0.52; 95% confidence interval 0.34–0.79). Similar results were observed for women receiving a single dose, for both bivalent and quadrivalent vaccines, and applying buffer periods (excluding cytological outcomes within 1 month, 6 months and 1 year of the first dose).
Conclusions
In the context of an organised cervical screening programme in Italy, catch‐up HPV vaccination almost halved the risk of cytological abnormalities.
Tweetable
Among Ferrara women, vaccination against human papillomavirus halved the risk of screening cervical abnormalities.
Tweetable
Among Ferrara women, vaccination against human papillomavirus halved the risk of screening cervical abnormalities.
We have investigated activation annealing of the doped poly silicon film of LTPS TFT by using CW semiconductor blue light diode laser. It has been found that by full melting and re‐crystallization, ...the sheet resistance can be reduced significantly to 1/3 of which can be realized by using conventional RTA treatment. We will report the experiment results in the paper.
We have investigated de‐hydrogenation of amorphous film using CW blue light semiconductor laser annealing (BLDA). Dehydrogenation of hydrogen content as high as 20% can be implemented by using BLDA. ...This technology can be applied for large substrate beyond G8. We will report related experiment results in this paper.
Summary
In a mouse arthritis model, we investigated whether interleukin‐6 receptor (IL‐6R) blockade would enhance the anti‐arthritic effect of glucocorticoids (GCs). DBA/1J mice were immunized with ...type II collagen (CII), and were treated with prednisolone (PSL) and/or anti‐mouse IL‐6R antibody (MR16‐1). Also, the effects of IL‐6 on gene expression and the nuclear translocation of glucocorticoid receptors (GRs) were examined in cultured cells treated with dexamethasone (DEX). PSL reduced the arthritis score dose‐dependently in the collagen‐induced arthritis (CIA) mouse model. The arthritis score in the PSL (3 mg/kg) + MR16‐1 group was lower than in the PSL (3 mg/kg) group, and at the same level as in the PSL (6 mg/kg) group. Lumbar vertebra bone mineral density (BMD) was decreased significantly in CIA mice and was higher in the PSL (3 mg/kg) + MR16‐1 group than in the PSL (6 mg/kg) group. In the in‐vitro synovial cells, IL‐6 pretreatment attenuated the inhibitory effect of DEX on cyclooxygenase (COX)‐2 expression and inhibited the nuclear translocation of GR induced by DEX. In contrast, in MC3T3‐E1 osteoblastic cells, IL‐6 pretreatment exacerbated the decrease in expression of osteocalcin and the increase in expression of receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa‐B ligand (RANKL) by DEX. We demonstrated that IL‐6 signalling blockade by an anti‐IL‐6R antibody can augment the anti‐arthritic effect of GCs and inhibit the bone loss they cause.
Attempts to explain the clear seasonality of rotavirus infections have been made by relating disease incidence to climate factors; however, few studies have disentangled the effects of weather from ...other factors that might cause seasonality. We investigated the relationships between hospital visits for rotavirus diarrhoea and temperature, humidity and river level, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, using time-series analysis adjusting for other confounding seasonal factors. There was strong evidence for an increase in rotavirus diarrhoea at high temperatures, by 40·2% for each 1°C increase above a threshold (29°C). Relative humidity had a linear inverse relationship with the number of cases of rotavirus diarrhoea. River level, above a threshold (4·8 m), was associated with an increase in cases of rotavirus diarrhoea, by 5·5% per 10-cm river-level rise. Our findings provide evidence that factors associated with high temperature, low humidity and high river-level increase the incidence of rotavirus diarrhoea in Dhaka.
An image-guided surgical system for otologic surgery was developed and clinically evaluated. With reliable hybrid registration, real-time patient movement compensation and virtual intraoperative ...computed tomography imaging have been originally proposed. In contrast to the commercially available systems that mainly use 2-D images for pointing probes, in this system, the surgical drill position is navigated and displayed in the 3-D space with real-time surface rendering. In a temporal bone model study, the navigation accuracy was 1.12 plusmn 0.09 mm with regard to the target registration error. Initial clinical evaluation of the proposed method was performed in five cochlea implantation surgeries. Accurate insertion of the electrodes into the cochlea was achieved, and the facial nerve was protected from injury in all surgeries. The proposed method could be applied to various surgeries for accurate targeting and protection of critical organs.
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