Exercise Reveals the Interrelation of Physical Fitness,Inflammatory Response,Psychopathology, and Autonomic Function in Patients With Schizophrenia

Maintaining and improving fitness are associated with a lower risk of premature death from cardiovascular disease. Patients with schizophrenia are known to exercise less and have poorer health behaviors than average. Physical fitness and physiological regulation during exercise tasks have not been investigated to date among patients with schizophrenia. We studied autonomic modulation in a stepwise exhaustion protocol in 23 patients with schizophrenia and in matched controls, using spirometry and lactate diagnostics. Parameters of physical capacity were determined at the aerobic, anaerobic, and vagal thresholds (VT), as well as for peak output. VT was correlated with psychopathology, as assessed by the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, with the inflammatory markers IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α and with peak output. The MANOVA for heart and breathing rates, as well as for vagal modulation and complexity behavior of heart rate, indicated a profound lack of vagal modulation at all intensity levels, even after the covariate carbon monoxide concentration was introduced as a measure of smoking behavior. Significantly decreased physical capacity was demonstrated at the aerobic, anaerobic, and VT in patients. After the exercise task, reduced vagal modulation in patients correlated negatively with positive symptoms and with levels of IL-6 and TNF-α. This study shows decreased physical capacity in patients with schizophrenia. Upcoming intervention studies need to take into account the autonomic imbalance, which might predispose patients to arrhythmias during exercise. Results of inflammatory parameters are suggestive of a reduced activity of the anti-inflammatory cholinergic pathway in patients, leading to a pro-inflammatory state.Key words: heart rate, physical exercise, respiration, schizophrenia, vagal threshold, cardiac death, inflammation, physical fitness     

Safety and efficacy of therapeutic early onset granulocyte transfusions in pediatric patients with neutropenia and severe infections

BACKGROUND: Bacterial and fungal infections in profound neutropenia after chemotherapy are associated with high mortality despite appropriate antibacterial and antifungal treatment. Granulocyte transfusions are used as a therapeutic addendum, but concern regarding pulmonary reactions often results in delayed use in clinical practice. Accordingly, many patients are already at advanced stages of their infectious disease once granulocytes are transfused. Thus, a prospective Phase II trial was conducted to test the safety and efficacy of therapeutic early-onset granulocyte transfusions in immunocompromised children with neutropenia and severe infections. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Twenty-seven children with hematologic disorder or malignancy and severe neutropenia with clinically and/or microbiologically documented severe infection unresponsive to standard treatment were included. They received granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF)-elicited, crossmatched granulocyte concentrates every other day until complete recovery from infection was documented. RESULTS: A median of two granulocyte transfusions with a median of 8 x 10(8) granulocytes per kilogram of body weight were administered. All transfusions were well tolerated, and no pulmonary symptoms were observed. A total of 92.6 percent of our patients were able to clear their initial infection, and 81.5 percent were alive and without signs or symptoms of their infection 1 month later. All six children with aspergillosis cleared their infection. CONCLUSIONS: G-CSF-elicited, crossmatched granulocyte concentrates are a safe and efficient therapeutic addendum in immunocompromised children with prolonged neutropenia and severe infections. Early transfusion of granulocyte concentrates can lead to an overall response rate of 92.6 percent without adverse events. Randomized clinical trials with an early-onset design are required to determine appropriate clinical applications.     

In Situ Nano-Indentation of a Gold Sub-Micrometric Particle Imaged by Multi-Wavelength Bragg Coherent X-ray Diffraction

The microstructure of a sub-micrometric gold crystal during nanoindentation is visualized by in situ multi-wavelength Bragg coherent X-ray diffraction imaging. The gold crystal is indented using a custom-built atomic force microscope. A band of deformation attributed to a shear band oriented along the (221) lattice plane is nucleated at the lower left corner of the crystal and propagates towards the crystal center with increasing applied mechanical load. After complete unloading, an almost strain-free and defect-free crystal is left behind, demonstrating a pseudo-elastic behavior that can only be studied by in situ imaging while it is invisible to ex situ examinations. The recovery is probably associated with reversible dislocations nucleation/annihilation at the side surface of the particle and at the particle-substrate interface, a behavior that has been predicted by atomistic simulations. The full recovery of the particle upon unloading sheds new light on extraordinary mechanical properties of metal nanoparticles obtained by solid-state dewetting.     

Salicornia dolichostachya organosolv fractionation: towards establishing a halophyte biorefinery

Halophytes are a potential source of lignocellulosic material for biorefinery, as they can be grown in areas unsuitable for the cultivation of crops aimed at food production. To enable the viable use of halophytes in biorefineries, the present study investigated how different organosolv process parameters affected the fractionation of green pressed fibers of Salicornia dolichostachya. We produced pretreated solids characterized by up to 51.3% ± 1.7% cellulose, a significant increase from 25.6% ± 1.3% in untreated fibers. A delignification yield of as high as 60.7%, and hemicellulose removal of as high as 86.1% were also achieved in the current study. The obtained cellulose could be completely converted to glucose via enzymatic hydrolysis within 24 h. The lignin fractions obtained were of high purity, with sugar contamination of only 1.22% w/w and ashes below 1% w/w in most samples. Finally, up to 29.1% ± 0.4% hemicellulose was recovered as a separate product, whose proportion of oligomers to total sugars was 69.9% ± 3.0%. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report in which Salicornia fibers are shown to be a suitable feedstock for organosolv biomass fractionation. These results expand the portfolio of biomass sources for biorefinery applications.

An organosolv method was developed for the fractionation of fibers of a halophyte plant in a biorefinery approach. Salicornia dolichostachya was used as raw material allowing the production of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin fractions.     

Precarious employment and migrant workers’ mental health: a systematic review of quantitative and qualitative studies

ObjectivesEvidence suggests that precarious employment can have detrimental effects on workers’ health, including mental health. Migrant workers are discussed to be especially vulnerable to such effects. Thus, we systematically reviewed existing research on the association between precarious employment and migrant workers’ mental health.MethodsThree electronic databases (Web of Science, PsycINFO and PubMed/Medline) were searched for original articles on quantitative and qualitative studies published from January 1970 to February 2022 in English, German, Turkish and Spanish. Multiple dimensions of precarious employment were considered as exposure, with mental health problems as outcomes. Narrative synthesis and thematic analyses were performed to summarize the findings of the included studies along with risk of bias and quality assessment.ResultsThe literature search resulted in 1557 original articles, 66 of which met the inclusion criteria – 43 were of high quality and 22 were of moderate quality. The most common exposure dimensions analyzed in the studies included temporariness, vulnerability, poor interpersonal relationships, disempowerment, lacking workers’ rights and low income. The outcome measures included stress, depression, anxiety and poor general mental health. The prevalence of these outcomes varied between 10–75% among the included quantitative studies. All qualitative studies reported one or more dimensions of precarious employment as an underlying factor of the development of mental health problems among migrants. Of 33 quantitative studies, 23 reported evidence for an association between dimensions of precarious employment and mental health.ConclusionThe results of this review support the hypothesis that precarious employment is associated with migrant workers’ mental health.     

Developmental origins of anti-Black bias in White children in the United States: Exposure to and beliefs about racial inequality

Anti-Black racism remains a pervasive crisis in the United States. Racist social systems reinforce racial inequalities and perpetuate prejudicial beliefs. These beliefs emerge in childhood, are difficult to change once entrenched in adolescence and adulthood, and lead people to support policies that further reinforce racist systems. Therefore, it is important to identify what leads children to form prejudicial beliefs and biases and what steps can be taken to preempt their development. This study examined how children’s exposure to and beliefs about racial inequalities predicted anti-Black biases in a sample of 646 White children (4 to 8 years) living across the United States. We found that for children with more exposure to racial inequality in their daily lives, those who believed that racial inequalities were caused by intrinsic differences between people were more likely to hold racial biases, whereas those who recognized the extrinsic factors underlying racial inequalities held more egalitarian attitudes. Grounded in constructivist theories in developmental science, these results are consistent with the possibility that racial biases emerge in part from the explanatory beliefs that children construct to understand the racial inequalities they see in the world around them.

In the United States today, the perpetuation of racial bias, prejudice, and discrimination maintain and reflect racist social systems that systematically advantage White people while systematically disadvantaging Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (1–3). One critical step to redressing this injustice is understanding the psychological processes that lead to the formation of racist thoughts and actions (4, 5). However, little is known about the developmental mechanisms that underlie the emergence of these thoughts and actions. Given the scale and scope of racial bias in the United States, there are undoubtedly multiple social and psychological processes involved; for example, experiences with intergroup contact explains ∼4% of variation in bias (5, 6). In the present study, we examined an additional mechanism that we hypothesize underlies the development of anti-Black bias in White children living across the United States: children’s exposure to and explanatory beliefs about racial inequalities. We expected that children who have had more exposure to racial inequalities in their daily lives (i.e., older children living in neighborhoods with larger disparities between Black and White people) would hold racial biases reflective of their beliefs about those inequalities. Specifically, we expected that children who believe that racial inequalities are caused by intrinsic differences between people would have more racial biases because they are coming to view race and status as inherently linked, whereas children who believe that inequalities are caused by extrinsic factors would have fewer racial biases because of the recognition that it would be unfair and inaccurate to judge people based on these extrinsic circumstances. To shed light on this mechanism, we assessed children’s endorsement of intrinsic and extrinsic explanations for racial inequalities, children’s exposure to racial inequality in their residential ZIP code (i.e., Black/White disparities in income and education with children’s age as a measure of the duration of exposure), and children’s racial biases using two standard assessments of bias in childhood (i.e., children’s choice to play with and attitudes about peers from different racial backgrounds (7–14)). We then examined how children’s exposure to and beliefs about racial inequalities interact to predict variation in anti-Black bias during childhood.Explicit anti-Black biases emerge early and continue to develop throughout childhood (12). By 4 to 5 years of age, children—and White children in particular—hold more negative attitudes toward Black than White peers, attribute more negative intentions to Black than White peers, and are less likely to form friendships with Black than White peers (7–14). These biases are consequential. The majority of Black children and adolescents report experiencing racial prejudice and discrimination and suffer from increased stress, decreased social belonging, and restricted educational and extracurricular opportunities because of these experiences (15–17). Early emerging biases also serve as the developmental roots for the racial bias, prejudice, and discrimination that become deeply entrenched in adolescence and adulthood and lead people to support racist social policies (18–20). Importantly, there is also substantial individual variation in the early development of racial bias; some children develop more racial biases than do others (12, 13). Early childhood is therefore an ideal time for disrupting the formation of problematic beliefs; by understanding the predictors of this individual variation (i.e., why some children develop more biases than others) at a time when children’s beliefs are emerging and particularly sensitive to new experiences, we can better inform future efforts to understand and disrupt the formation of racial biases before they become deeply entrenched.In the present study, we used an online platform for conducting remote, unmoderated psychological research with children (21) to examine the environmental and psychological factors that predict the development of anti-Black bias in a sample of 646 White children 4- to 8-years-old (300 female, 346 male) living across the United States. We focused on White children in this age range because they are particularly likely to develop anti-Black biases and hold disproportionate power and influence over social contexts by virtue of their racial privilege (3–5, 12, 13). Children participated from 464 unique ZIP codes representing 47 different states; this degree of cultural, geographic, and socioeconomic diversity allowed for an analysis of the variance in children’s environment that is not possible with traditional, in-person approaches to developmental science. Using the online platform, children completed the study independently from their home computer without interacting with a researcher, reducing concerns for self-presentation. Research sessions were recorded via the computer’s webcam for subsequent coding.     

Brief Report: 14-Carbon demonstrates that some illegal ivory is being taken from government stockpiles

The 14-carbon in animal tissues records the time that the tissues are formed; since the 1960s, using the “bomb curve” for ¹⁴C, the age of animal death can be determined accurately. Using animal tissue samples of known collection and formation dates for calibration, we determine the age of ivory samples from four ivory seizures made by law enforcement agencies between 2017 and 2019. The ¹⁴C measurements from these seizures show that most ivory in the illegal wildlife trade is from animals from recent poaching activities. However, one seizure has a large fraction of ivory that is more than 30 y old, consistent with markings on the tusks indicating they were derived from a government stockpile.     

ITULAZAX® versus Alutard SQ® in the treatment of allergic rhinitis induced by pollen from the birch homologous group: A cost‐minimization modeling analysis from the Danish societal perspective

Background and aimsAllergic rhinitis (AR) is an inflammatory disorder triggered by an allergic immune response to inhaled allergens. Birch pollen is the major allergenic tree pollen in parts of Europe. ITULAZAX® is a sublingual immunotherapy tablet for the treatment of adults with moderate‐to‐severe AR and/or conjunctivitis induced by pollen from the birch homologous group. The aim was to compare the costs of treating AR with ITULAZAX® versus subcutaneous ALUTARD SQ® Betula verrucosa (ALUTARD SQ®) from a Danish societal perspective.MethodsA cost‐minimization model was developed to capture costs of allergy immunotherapy (AIT), interactions with healthcare professionals (HCPs) in three different care settings (general practice, allergy specialist, and hospital), and indirect costs arising from absenteeism and presenteeism. The cost‐minimization analysis was conducted over a 3‐year time horizon with costs reported in 2021 Danish Kroner (DKK) and Euros (EUR) based on the European Central Bank 365‐day average exchange rate. One‐way sensitivity analyses were performed.ResultsThe base case analysis showed that the total cost of treatment over 3 years was estimated to be DKK 49,117 (EUR 6598) per patient with ALUTARD SQ®, compared with DKK 30,996 (EUR 4164) with ITULAZAX®, reflecting a cost saving of DKK 18,121 (EUR 2434) per patient with ITULAZAX® over 3 years. Over the 3‐year time horizon, costs of AIT were predicted to increase by DKK 17,928 (EUR 2408) with ITULAZAX®, while costs of interactions with HCPs were predicted to decrease by DKK 22,528 (EUR 3027) versus ALUTARD SQ®, more than offsetting the increased cost of ITULAZAX®.ConclusionsGiven the equivalent effectiveness of the two AIT products, and the cost savings with ITULAZAX® versus ALUTARD SQ® from a Danish societal perspective, ITULAZAX® should be considered as a cost‐saving alternative to ALUTARD SQ® for the treatment of birch pollen‐induced moderate‐to‐severe AR in adults.