A National Cost Analysis of Community Interventions to Prevent Underage Drinking and Prescription Drug Misuse

Prevention Science - This prospective cost analysis addresses a gap in the prevention literature by providing estimates of the typical real-world costs to implement community interventions focused...     

ASO Visual Abstract: Association of Obesity with Worse Operative and Oncologic Outcomes Among Patients Undergoing Gastric Cancer Resection

Annals of Surgical Oncology -     

Basic neuroscience

Poster Session 1

Basic neuroscience     

Automatic Methods for Carotid Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound Imaging Quantification of Adventitial Vasa Vasorum

Adventitial vasa vasorum are physiologic microvessels that nourish artery walls. In the presence of cardiovascular risk factors, these microvessels proliferate abnormally. Studies have reported that they are the first stage of atheromatous disease. Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) of the carotid allows direct, quantitative and non-invasive visualization of the adventitial vasa vasorum. Hence, the development of computer-assisted methods that speed image analysis and eliminate user subjectivity is important. We developed methods for automatic analyses and quantification of vasa vasorum neovascularization in CEUS and tested these methods in a cohort of 186 individuals, 63 of whom were healthy volunteers. We implemented alternative automatic strategies for using the images to stratify patients according to their risk group and compare the strategies with respect to diagnostic performance. An automatic single-parameter strategy performs less effectively than the corresponding Arcidiacono method based on manual interpretation of the images (68 < area under the receiver operating characteristic curve [AUROC] for the manual Arcidiacono method < 82; 60 < AUROC for the automatic single-parameter strategy < 63). However, by use of additional image parameters, an automatic multiparameter strategy has significantly improved performance with respect to the manual Arcidiacono method (78 < AUROC < 90). The automatic multiparameter strategy is a valuable alternative to the manual Arcidiacono method, improving both diagnostic speed and diagnostic accuracy.     

Ready for action: a role for the human midbrain in responding to infant vocalizations

Infant vocalizations are among the most biologically salient sounds in the environment and can draw the listener to the infant rapidly in both times of distress and joy. A region of the midbrain, the periaqueductal gray (PAG), has long been implicated in the control of urgent, survival-related behaviours. To test for PAG involvement in the processing of infant vocalizations, we recorded local field potentials from macroelectrodes implanted in this region in four adults who had undergone deep brain stimulation. We found a significant difference occurring as early as 49 ms after hearing a sound in activity recorded from the PAG in response to infant vocalizations compared with constructed control sounds and adult and animal affective vocalizations. This difference was not present in recordings from thalamic electrodes implanted in three of the patients. Time frequency analyses revealed distinct patterns of activity in the PAG for infant vocalisations, constructed control sounds and adult and animal vocalisations. These results suggest that human infant vocalizations can be discriminated from other emotional or acoustically similar sounds early in the auditory pathway. We propose that this specific, rapid activity in response to infant vocalizations may reflect the initiation of a state of heightened alertness necessary to instigate protective caregiving.     

Assessing the ecotoxicological effects of long-term contaminated mine soils on plants and earthworms: relevance of soil (total and available) and body concentrations

The interactions and relevance of the soil (total and available) concentrations, accumulation, and acute toxicity of several essential and non-essential trace elements were investigated to determine their importance in environmental soil assessment. Three plant species (T. aestivum, R. sativum, and V. sativa) and E. fetida were simultaneously exposed for 21 days to long-term contaminated soils collected from the surroundings of an abandoned pyrite mine. The soils presented different levels of As and metals, mainly Zn and Cu, and were tested at different soil concentrations [12.5, 25, 50, and 100 % of contaminated soil/soil (w/w)] to increase the range of total and available soil concentrations necessary for the study. The total concentrations in the soils (of both As and metals) were better predictors of earthworm uptake than were the available concentrations. In plants, the accumulation of metals was related to the available concentrations of Zn and Cu, which could indicate that plants and earthworms accumulate elements from different pools of soil contaminants. Moreover, Zn and Cu, which are essential elements, showed controlled uptake at low concentrations. The external metal concentrations predicted earthworm mortality, whereas in plants, the effects on growth were correlated to the As and metal contents in the plants. In general, the bioaccumulation factors were lower at higher exposure levels, which implies the existence of auto-regulation in the uptake of both essential and non-essential elements by plants and earthworms.     

The effects of low-level diode laser irradiation on differentiation,antigenic profile,and phagocytic capacity of osteoblast-like cells (MG-63)

Previous in vivo and in vitro studies have reported that low-level diode laser therapy induces a biostimulatory effect, such as cell proliferation. The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether the laser irradiation of osteoblast-like cells (MG-63) can modify alkaline phosphatase activity (ALP), antigenic profile, and phagocytic capacity. The MG-63 cell line was exposed to diode laser (ezLase) of 940 nm at 1–1.5 W/cm² and 3–4 J. ALP was evaluated by a spectrophotometric technique and antigenic expression analysis (CD 54, CD80, CD86, HLA-DR), and phagocytic activity was analyzed by flow cytometry. At 24 h, the treated groups showed an increased ALP, and the highest increase versus controls (P?=?0.002) was at the dose of 1 W/cm² and 3 J; this modulation of the antigenic profile translated into a reduced expression of CD54, CD86, and HLA-DR and a slightly decreased phagocytic capacity with respect to the nonirradiated control group at the different intensities and fluencies assayed. These results demonstrate that laser therapy can exert a biostimulatory effect on osteoblastic cells at different levels, which may be clinically useful in the regeneration of bone tissue.