•n6 oxylipins have use in predicting risk, particularly for cardiovascular disease.•Esterified n6 oxylipins appear to be more sensitive to dietary and pharmaceutical interventions, particularly among ...HDL, LDL, and VLDL.•Numerous n6 oxylipins have activities that complement n3 oxylipins. In some cases, n6 oxylipins have activities that counter-act detrimental activities of n3 oxylipins.
Oxylipins are lipid mediators produced from polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) metabolism, and are thought to be a molecular explanation for the diverse biological effects of PUFAs. Like PUFAs, oxylipins are distinguished by their omega-6 (n6) or omega-3 (n3) chemistry. We review the use of n6 oxylipins as biomarkers of disease and their use in diagnosis and risk assessment. We show cases where oxylipins derived from linoleate (LA) or arachidonate (AA) produced by the activities of lipoxygenase, cyclooxygenase, epoxygenase, ω/ω-1 hydroxylase, and autooxidation are useful as biomarkers or risk markers. HODEs, KODEs, EpOMEs, DiHOMEs, and other metabolites of LA as well as prostanoids, HETEs, KETEs, EpETrEs, and DiHETrEs, and other metabolites of AA were useful for understanding the different signaling environments in conditions from traumatic brain injury, to major coronary events, dyslipidemia, sepsis, and more. We next evaluate interventions that alter the concentrations of n6 oxylipins in plasma. We note the utility and response of each plasma fraction, and the generally increasing utility from the non-esterified, to the esterified, to the lipoprotein fractions. Finally, we review the effects which are specifically related to n6 oxylipins and most likely to be beneficial. Both n6 and n3 oxylipins work together in an exceedingly complex matrix to produce physiological effects. This overview should provide future investigators with important perspectives for the emerging utility of n6 oxylipins as products of n6 PUFAs in human health.
Misogyny is a weighty term. Its affective power invokes spectres of rape, sexual assault, hate-fuelled insults and gas-lighting. Its presence in nearly every culture on the planet haunts our pasts ...and frames our presents. Aiming to build an understanding of misogyny for our future social justice efforts, I look to Kate Manne’s Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny, where she dusts off an old definition of misogyny as the hatred of women to describe it as the enforcement branch of a patriarchal society, a renewed engagement for feminists and activists alike. In particular, this framing provides opportunities to examine misogyny from an intersectional lens, including its intersections with race, gender and sexuality. For example, through stories such as that of Pamela George, an Indigenous woman from Regina, Saskatchewan who was murdered in 1995, I argue that it is crucial that we recognise the collusion between settler colonialism and misogyny. Or in the case of transphobic comedian Dave Chapelle, we must understand the interplay of heteronormativity and cisnormativity in propping up transmisogyny. Consequently, I argue that an intersectional logic of misogyny provides not only a shift but a tipping point for feminist and queer movements to come.
Pressure injuries are a leading hospital adverse event, yet they are mostly preventable. Understanding their financial costs will help to appreciate the burden they place on the health system and ...assist in better planning and management of health expenditures to prevent pressure injuries.
To estimate the cost of pressure injuries in Australian public hospitals in 2020 demonstrating its economic burden in a well–resourced health system.
A cost of illness study with a 12-month time horizon was conducted. Resource use for the treatment of pressure injuries and productivity loss due to pressure injuries were derived using a bottom-up approach. Parameters of the cost estimates were obtained from secondary sources and literature syntheses. A simulation with 10,000 draws was used to generate statistical properties of the cost estimates.
Based on a prevalence of 12.9%, the total cost of pressure injuries in Australian public hospitals was $9.11 billion 95% confidence intervals: 9.02, 9.21. The two largest shares of costs were accounted for by the opportunity cost of excess length of stay of $3.60 billion 3.52, 3.68 and treatment costs of $3.59 billion 3.57, 3.60. Productivity loss associated with pressure injuries amounts to $493 million 482, 504. Hospital-acquired pressure injuries account for a total of $5.50 billion 5.44, 5.56, whereas pressure injuries present on admissions costed $3.71 billion 3.70, 3.72. In terms of severity, Stage 2 pressure injuries contributed the most to total treatment costs, total excessive length of stay, and total loss of healthy life years. Australian society is willing to pay $1.43 billion 1.40, 1.45 to save 6,701 6,595; 6,807 healthy life years lost by pressure injury.
Reducing preventable pressure injuries and stopping the progression of Stage 1 pressure injuries will likely result in an immense cost-saving for Australia and will likely have similar benefits for other countries with comparable profiles.
Australian public hospital study provides comprehensive analysis of the cost of pressure injury, including estimates of direct and indirect medical costs, and indirect non-medical costs - such as productivity and quality of life.
Hope is a human strength essential for adolescents' enduring and coping with chronic illness however, the role of hope is not well understood in this population.
This integrative review describes ...what is currently known about the role of hope in adolescents with a chronic illness.
A methodological review using an integrative approach by R. Whittemore and K. Knafl (2005) was performed. Databases: MEDLINE via Pubmed; CINAHL; PyscINFO and Google scholar were searched for articles published in peer-reviewed journals from 1995 to 2015, using search terms ‘hope and chronic illness’ with age limiters for all except Google scholar (title search of “hope and adolescents”).
Of the 197 studies initially retrieved: a total of 27 quantitative studies, 8 qualitative studies and 19 theoretical works were selected for review. Seven themes emerged including that hope: (i) promotes health (ii) facilitates coping and adjustment, (iii) enhances quality of life, (iv) is essential in purpose in life and illness (v) improves self-esteem, (vi) is an important factor in resilience and (vii) affects maturation. Persons reporting higher levels of hope find multiple routes to goals, view setbacks as challenges, and better manage psychological symptoms.
Although theory and a limited body of empirical research to date suggest a link between hopeful thinking and physical health, the specific mechanisms remain unclear. As hope is linked to resilience, further research should explore whether adolescents with higher hope return to baseline faster than their lower hope counterparts.
•We examine and integrate literature on hope in adolescents with a chronic illness.•To date there has only been one integrative review focusing on the broad concept of hope and not specific to chronic illness.•Hope is a human strength essential for adolescents enduring and coping with a chronic illness.•There is an imperative to assist a chronically ill adolescent in reaching his/her fullest potential.•Opportunities should be provided to draw on each adolescent's strengths and talents.
Human-caused climate change is a global emergency, and its harms are predicted to increase exponentially in the coming years, particularly if unsustainable practices continue unmitigated. Adverse ...effects of climate change on communities affected by or at risk for cancer, such as frail older adults, are already measurable and deadly. If nurse scientists continue to ignore these realities, more people are likely to suffer and die as a result. The purpose of this critical reflection is to discuss the vital necessity of including climate change in the research agenda of the Oncology Nursing Society and all nursing science. Using an approach grounded in critical theory and design justice, the authors provide specific suggestions for the incorporation of scientific considerations and nursing measures related to climate change into oncology nursing science.
Microbial life in slow and stopped lanes Walker, Rachel M.; Sanabria, Valeria C.; Youk, Hyun
Trends in microbiology,
07/2024, Letnik:
32, Številka:
7
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Unlike in most laboratory settings, microbes in natural habitats often lack essential nutrients and withstand widely fluctuating or extreme temperatures; thus, laboratory studies fail to capture the ...widespread phenomenon of slowed or suspended lives of microbes manifested as, for example, in dormancy and quiescence.Quantitative, single-cell-level measurements and mathematical modeling are overcoming the challenges of observing and understanding slow dynamics of individual cells at long timescales.New conceptual, quantitative frameworks have re-defined and clarified microbes' suspended states, with dormancy defined as a continuous spectrum and antibiotic-induced growth-arrest defined into distinct states.Studying slowed and suspended growth in microbes revealed fundamental constraints to remaining viable without growing and limits to slowing a cell's life.
Microbes in nature often lack nutrients and face extreme or widely fluctuating temperatures, unlike microbes in growth-optimized settings in laboratories that much of the literature examines. Slowed or suspended lives are the norm for microbes. Studying them is important for understanding the consequences of climate change and for addressing fundamental questions about life: are there limits to how slowly a cell's life can progress, and how long cells can remain viable without self-replicating? Recent studies began addressing these questions with single-cell-level measurements and mathematical models. Emerging principles that govern slowed or suspended lives of cells – including lives of dormant spores and microbes at extreme temperatures – are re-defining discrete cellular states as continuums and revealing intracellular dynamics at new timescales. Nearly inactive, lifeless-appearing microbes are transforming our understanding of life.
Microbes in nature often lack nutrients and face extreme or widely fluctuating temperatures, unlike microbes in growth-optimized settings in laboratories that much of the literature examines. Slowed or suspended lives are the norm for microbes. Studying them is important for understanding the consequences of climate change and for addressing fundamental questions about life: are there limits to how slowly a cell's life can progress, and how long cells can remain viable without self-replicating? Recent studies began addressing these questions with single-cell-level measurements and mathematical models. Emerging principles that govern slowed or suspended lives of cells– including lives of dormant spores and microbes at extreme temperatures – are re-defining discrete cellular states as continuums and revealing intracellular dynamics at new timescales. Nearly inactive, lifeless-appearing microbes are transforming our understanding of life.
Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) is a leading cause of calf morbidity and mortality, and prevalence remains high despite current management practices. Differential gene expression (DGE) provides ...detailed insight into individual immune responses and can illuminate enriched pathways and biomarkers that contribute to disease susceptibility and outcomes. The aims of this study were to investigate differences in peripheral leukocyte gene expression in Holstein preweaned heifer calves 1) with and without BRD, and 2) across weeks of age. Calves were enrolled for this short-term longitudinal study on two commercial dairies in Washington State. Calves were assessed every two weeks throughout the pre-weaning period using clinical respiratory scoring (CRS) and thoracic ultrasonography (TUS), and blood samples were collected. Calves were selected that were either healthy (n = 10) or had BRD diagnosed by CRS (n = 7), TUS (n = 6), or both (n = 6) in weeks 5 or 7 of life). Three consecutive time point samples were analyzed for each BRD calf consisting of PRE, ONSET, and POST samples. Nineteen genes of interest were selected based on previous gene expression studies in cattle: ALOX15, BPI, CATHL6, CXCL8, DHX58, GZMB, HPGD, IFNG, IL17D, IL1R2, ISG15, LCN2, LIF, MX1, OAS2, PGLYRP1, S100A8, SELP, and TNF. Comparisons were made between age and disease time point matched BRD and healthy calves as well as between calf weeks of age. No DGE was observed between diseased and healthy calves; however, DGE was observed between calf weeks of age regardless of disease state. Developmental differences in leukocyte gene expression, phenotype, and functionality make pre-weaned calves immunologically distinct from mature cattle, and early life shifts in calf leukocyte populations likely contribute to the age-related gene expression differences we observed. Age overshadows disease impacts to influence gene expression in young calves, and immune development progresses upon a common trajectory regardless of disease during the preweaning period.
Aims and Objectives
To disrupt conflations between ‘health disparities research’ and critical engagement with racism, whiteness, other oppressions and our profession's ongoing roles in white ...supremacy.
Background
In Oncology Nursing Society's (ONS) 2019–2023 research agenda, health disparities are highlighted as a top priority for nursing knowledge generation and intervention. The document concludes needs for increased ‘minority and vulnerable population’ participation in cancer clinical trials, reduced financial toxicity, behavioural interventions for risk reduction, incorporation of social determinants of health and technology to promote rural access to high‐quality care.
Design
In this critical resistive, theoretical and ethical analysis on current discourses on health disparities research in oncology nursing, we ask: (a) What forces (stated and unstated) shape current oncology nursing discourses about health disparities?; (b) What assumptions about health and power are embedded in these discourses?; (c) Are we, as nurses and scientists, asking the right questions?
Methods
Line‐by‐line analysis of the ONS Research Agenda for 2019–2023 ‘Health Disparities’ section.
Results
The health disparities described in this report are not new to the literature, nor are many of the proposed solutions. As noted, disparities such as disproportionate cancer‐related morbidity and mortality across identities (gender, race and sexual orientation) have not improved and some have worsened over several decades.
Conclusions
That discourses on prioritising cancer‐related health disparities persist while disparity‐related outcomes remain largely unchanged presents challenges—both moral and pragmatic. We must ask, ‘Rather than the concept of “health disparities,” as presently understood in cancer nursing, what is the better approach to examine health equity and ethical nursing research practices?’
Relevance to Clinical Practice
This paper offers several starting places for nurses, especially with the following questions: ‘Who does this harm?’ Answer then revise: ‘Who might this harm now?’ Answer then revise: ‘Are these harms worth the activity?’ And repeat this process.
In the dominant "climate change" imaginary, this phenomenon is distant and abstracted from our experiences of weather and the environment in the privileged West. Moreover, climate change discourse is ...saturated mostly in either neoliberal progress narratives of controlling the future or sustainability narratives of saving the past. Both largely obfuscate our implication therein. This paper proposes a different climate change imaginary. We draw on feminist new materialist theories—in particular those of Stacy Alaimo, Claire Colebrook, and Karen Barad—to describe our relationship to climate change as one of "weathering." We propose the temporal frame of "thick time"—a transcorporeal stretching between present, future, and past—in order to reimagine our bodies as archives of climate and as making future climates possible. In doing so, we can rethink the temporal narratives of climate change discourse and develop a feminist ethos of responsivity toward climatic phenomena. This project reminds us that we are not masters of the climate, nor are we just spatially "in" it. As weather-bodies, we are thick with climatic intra-actions; we are makers of climate-time. Together we are weathering the world.
Chronic low-grade inflammation can be associated with obesity or subclinical mastitis (SCM), which is associated with poor infant growth in low- to middle-income country settings. It is unknown what ...physiological mechanisms are involved in low milk supply, but our research group has shown that mothers with low milk supply have higher inflammatory markers. Studies investigating oxylipin signaling have the potential to help explain mechanisms that mediate the impacts of inflammation on milk production. Animal studies have reported various elevated oxylipins during postpartum inflammation, mastitis, and mammary involution in ruminant models. Several investigations have quantified oxylipins in human milk, but very few studies have reported circulating oxylipin concentrations during lactation. In addition, there are technical considerations that must be addressed when reporting oxylipin concentrations in human milk. First, the majority of milk oxylipins are esterified in the triglyceride pool, which is not routinely measured. Second, total milk fat should be considered as a covariate when using milk oxylipins to predict outcomes. Finally, storage and handling conditions of milk samples must be carefully controlled to ensure accurate milk oxylipin quantitation, which may be affected by highly active lipases in human milk.
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