Many image processing operations involve the modification of the spatial frequency content of images. Here we demonstrate object-plane spatial frequency filtering utilizing the angular sensitivity of ...a commercial spectral bandstop filter. This approach to all-optical image processing is shown to generate real-time pseudo-3D images of transparent biological and other samples, such as human cervical cancer cells. This work demonstrates the potential of non-local, non-interferometric approaches to image processing for uses in label-free biological cell imaging and dynamical monitoring.
Eliminating Race-Based Medicine Wright, Joseph L; Davis, Wendy S; Joseph, Madeline M ...
Pediatrics (Evanston),
07/2022, Volume:
150, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Race-based medicine has been pervasively interwoven into the fabric of health care delivery in the United States for more than 400 years. Race is a historically derived social construct that has no ...place as a biologic proxy. In addition to valid measures of social determinants of health, the effects of racism require consideration in clinical decision-making tools in ways that are evidence informed and not inappropriately conflated with the limiting phenotype of race categorization. This policy statement addresses the elimination of race-based medicine as part of a broader commitment to dismantle the structural and systemic inequities that lead to racial health disparities.
SARS-CoV-2 infection is generally mild or asymptomatic in children but a biological basis for this outcome is unclear. Here we compare antibody and cellular immunity in children (aged 3-11 years) and ...adults. Antibody responses against spike protein were high in children and seroconversion boosted responses against seasonal Beta-coronaviruses through cross-recognition of the S2 domain. Neutralization of viral variants was comparable between children and adults. Spike-specific T cell responses were more than twice as high in children and were also detected in many seronegative children, indicating pre-existing cross-reactive responses to seasonal coronaviruses. Importantly, children retained antibody and cellular responses 6 months after infection, whereas relative waning occurred in adults. Spike-specific responses were also broadly stable beyond 12 months. Therefore, children generate robust, cross-reactive and sustained immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 with focused specificity for the spike protein. These findings provide insight into the relative clinical protection that occurs in most children and might help to guide the design of pediatric vaccination regimens.
•Four subtypes of cannabis users were identified at varying degrees of risk.•Compared to co-users, simultaneous alcohol users had more alcohol-related problems.•Simultaneous use of tobacco and ...cannabis was linked to the most negative outcomes.•Familial factors (both genes and shared environment) contributed to use patterns.
Cannabis use patterns vary considerably, with many users reporting simultaneous and non-simultaneous use (co-use) of other substances. Despite this, little research has examined the extent to which subtypes of cannabis users may be identified based on their simultaneous and co-use behaviors.
The sample consisted of adult Australian twins and siblings who reported lifetime cannabis use (n = 2590). A latent class analysis was conducted to determine subtypes of cannabis users based on five indicators of substance co-use and simultaneous use. Adolescent correlates (age of substance initiation and conduct disorder) and adult correlates (substance use/disorder and depression) of class membership were assessed. Twin similarity for class membership was also examined.
Four subtypes of users were identified: 1) alcohol co-users, 2) simultaneous alcohol users, 3) simultaneous tobacco users, and 4) simultaneous alcohol, tobacco, and drug users. Compared to co-users of alcohol, simultaneous alcohol users were at increased risk for alcohol problems. Patterns of use that involved simultaneous tobacco and cannabis use (i.e., simultaneous tobacco users and simultaneous alcohol, tobacco, and drug users) were associated with the most problematic outcomes, including substance use and disorder. There was evidence for genetic influences (12–58%) on cannabis use patterns, with higher concordance for latent class membership among monozygotic compared to dizygotic twins (χ2 (1) = 7.19, p = 0.007).
The current study identified four classes of cannabis users at varying degrees of risk. Results suggest that simultaneous tobacco and cannabis use may be especially associated with deleterious outcomes.
Objective: The role of simultaneous alcohol and marijuana (SAM) use in the experience of blackouts among college students is unclear. To clarify discrepancies, the current study evaluated whether the ...association between SAM user status and blackouts was moderated by high-intensity drinking (HID). Participants and Methods: College students (N = 1,224; 63.7% female) reported on their past year experiences of blackout, marijuana use, SAM use, and HID (i.e., drinking at least twice the binge threshold). Results: SAM users had more past year blackouts than non-SAM users, but this effect was only significant among SAM users who had engaged in HID in the past year (nonbinge: F
(5,37)
= 0.50, p = 0.49; binge: F
(5,138)
= 0.23, p = 0.63; HID: F
(5,328)
= 4.52, p = 0.03). Conclusions: Effects of SAM user status on the experience of alcohol-related blackouts may be limited to individuals who engage in HID.
Background
The role of alcohol sensitivity in the experience of blacking out and passing out has not been well established. Here, we examined the relation between individual differences in alcohol ...sensitivity (i.e., numbers of drinks required to experience various effects of alcohol) and reports of blacking out and passing out in the past year.
Methods
Participants (925 healthy, underage college student drinkers) completed the Alcohol Sensitivity Questionnaire (ASQ) and reported on their past year blacking out and passing out experiences.
Results
The fit of the ASQ’s 2‐factor structure was fair (CFI = 0.90, RMSEA = 0.09) in this sample of underage drinkers. In unadjusted models, higher ASQ scores (i.e., requiring more drinks to experience effects, indicating lower alcohol sensitivity) were associated with experiencing more blackouts (IRR = 1.68 1.31–2.15) and passing out (IRR = 2.25 1.59–3.18) in the past year. After controlling for typical consumption, however, higher ASQ scores were associated with fewer past‐year blackouts (IRR = 0.76 0.60–0.98). Total ASQ scores moderated the relationship between typical alcohol consumption and blackout occurrence (interaction IRR = 0.96 0.93–0.98), but not passing out occurrence (interaction IRR = 0.95 0.89–1.01), with the quantity of alcohol consumed more strongly associated with blackout occurrence among higher‐sensitivity than lower‐sensitivity drinkers.
Conclusions
These findings are consistent with prior work suggesting that low sensitivity may act as a paradoxical risk factor for certain heavy drinking effects, contributing to higher levels of alcohol consumption and more frequent negative consequences while also conferring protection (relative to high‐sensitivity peers) at a given level of alcohol exposure.
Low sensitivity to alcohol appears to act as a paradoxical risk factor for experiencing alcohol‐induced blackouts, consistent with previous work on alcohol‐related regretted sex and hangovers. While low sensitivity to alcohol contributes to higher levels of alcohol consumption and more frequent negative consequences compared to higher sensitivity peers, at a given level of alcohol exposure, low sensitivity may confer protection from certain heavy drinking consequences.
The pathogenesis of preeclampsia (PreE), a hypertensive disorder of pregnancy, involves imbalanced T helper (T
) cell populations and resultant changes in pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokine release. ...Elevated copeptin (an inert biomarker of arginine vasopressin (AVP)), secretion precedes the development of symptoms in PreE in humans, and infusion of AVP proximal to and throughout gestation is sufficient to initiate cardiovascular and renal phenotypes of PreE in wild-type C57BL/6J mice. We hypothesize that AVP infusion in wild-type mice is sufficient to induce the immune changes observed in human PreE. AVP infusion throughout gestation in mice resulted in increased pro-inflammatory interferon γ (IFNg) (T
1) in the maternal plasma. The T
17-associated cytokine interleukin (IL)-17 was elevated in the maternal plasma, amniotic fluid, and placenta following AVP infusion. Conversely, the T
2-associated anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-4 was decreased in the maternal and fetal kidneys from AVP-infused dams, while IL-10 was decreased in the maternal kidney and all fetal tissues. Collectively, these results demonstrate the sufficiency of AVP to induce the immune changes typical of PreE. We investigated if T cells can respond directly to AVP by evaluating the expression of AVP receptors (AVPRs) on mouse and human CD4+ T cells. Mouse and human T cells expressed AVPR1a, AVPR1b, and AVPR2. The expression of AVPR1a was decreased in CD4+ T cells obtained from PreE-affected women. In total, our data are consistent with a potential initiating role for AVP in the immune dysfunction typical of PreE and identifies putative signaling mechanism(s) for future investigation.
Adolescence is an optimal developmental stage for examining the interplay of environmental factors and the genetic risk for alcohol involvement. The current study aimed to examine how socioeconomic ...status might interact with genetic risk for alcohol involvement among adolescents.
A total of 839 same-sex adolescent twin pairs (509 monozygotic and 330 dizygotic) from the 1962 National Merit Twin Study completed a questionnaire containing items assessing alcohol involvement. Twins were approximately 17 years old at the time of participation. Parents provided reports of family income and educational attainment. Models were fit examining parental education and family income as moderators of genetic and environmental influences on alcohol use.
There was evidence for moderation of genetic and environmental influences on alcohol involvement by family income. For twins with the lowest levels of family income, genetic and shared environmental influences accounted for 50% and 26% of the variance in alcohol involvement, respectively, compared with 2% and 67% of the variance among those at the highest level of income.
These findings suggest that etiological influences on alcohol involvement vary as a function of an adolescent's socioeconomic status.
Objective: Examine the nature of the relationship between adolescent polysubstance use and high school noncompletion. Method: Among a sample of 9,579 adult Australian twins (58.63% female, Mage = ...30.59), we examined the association between the number of substances used in adolescence and high school noncompletion within a discordant twin design and bivariate twin analysis. Results: In individual-level models controlling for parental education, conduct disorder symptoms, childhood major depression, sex, zygosity, and cohort, each additional substance used in adolescence was associated with a 30% increase in the odds of high school noncompletion (OR = 1.30 1.18, 1.42). Discordant twin models found that the potentially causal effect of adolescent use on high school noncompletion was nonsignificant (OR = 1.19 0.96, 1.47). Follow-up bivariate twin models suggested genetic (35.4%, 95% CI 24.5%, 48.7%) and shared environmental influences (27.8%, 95% CI 12.7%, 35.1%) each contributed to the covariation in adolescent polysubstance use and early school dropout. Conclusions: The association between polysubstance use and early school dropout was largely accounted for by genetic and shared environmental factors, with nonsignificant evidence for a potentially causal association. Future research should examine whether underlying shared risk factors reflect a general propensity for addiction, a broader externalizing liability, or a combination of the two. More evidence using finer measurement of substance use is needed to rule out a causal association between adolescent polysubstance use and high school noncompletion.
Public Health Significance Statement
Genetic and shared environmental factors largely accounted for the association between using multiple substances in adolescence and not completing high school.
Full text
Available for:
CEKLJ, FFLJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PEFLJ
PDF
