Nevin Manimala

Cancer Med. 2022 Feb 15. doi: 10.1002/cam4.4548. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: While the excess in lung cancer risk among lower socioeconomic status individuals has been widely described, the magnitude of this association across lung cancer subtypes, as well as histotype-related long-term incidence trends, are inconclusively reported.

AIMS: We explored the variation in the incidence of the three main lung cancer histotypes (i.e. squamous cell carcinoma, small cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma) by socioeconomic status (SES, i.e. upper and lower white collar, upper and lower blue collar, and farming/forestry/fishing) in the adult population of four Nordic countries (i.e. Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark).

MATERIALS & METHODS: We have used data from the Nordic Occupational Cancer Study (NOCCA), computing age-standardized incidence rates per 100,000 person-years truncated at ages 50-69 years, by sex, histotype, country and SES, for the period 1971-2005. We estimated relative risks and the corresponding 95% confidence intervals through Poisson regression models, including terms for SES, age, sex and country, as indicated.

RESULTS: A clear socioeconomic gradient, with a progressive increase in lung cancer risk as SES level decreases, was observed in all subtypes and in both sexes. Favourable lung cancer incidence trends were seen among men for squamous cell and small cell carcinomas, although for adenocarcinomas rates were increasing everywhere except for Finland. Among women, upward temporal trends were seen in all SES groups and for all subtypes, although rates increased to a greater extent for low, compared to high, SES, especially in Denmark and Norway. Farmers showed comparatively lower risks compared to other SES categories.

DISCUSSION: This prospective cohort study shows that substantial socioeconomic inequalities in the incidence of the most important lung cancer histotypes exist in the Nordic Countries, and that these inequalities are on the rise, especially among women.

CONCLUSION: Smoking habits are likely to largely explain the observed social gradient for lung cancer histotypes in both sexes.

PMID:35166068 | DOI:10.1002/cam4.4548

Adv Sci (Weinh). 2022 Feb 15:e2105179. doi: 10.1002/advs.202105179. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Emerging protein-protein interaction (PPI) modulators have brought out exciting ability as therapeutics in human diseases, but its clinical translation has been greatly hampered by the limited affinity. Inspired by the homodimerize structure of antibody, the homodimerization contributes hugely to generating the optimized affinity is conjectured. Herein, a statistical-mechanics-theory-guided method is established to quantize the affinity of ligands with different topologies through analyzing the change of enthalpy and the loss of translational and rotational entropies. A peptide modulator for p53-MDM2 termed CPAP is used to homodimerize connecting, and this simple homodimerization can significantly increase the affinity. To realize the cellular internalization and tumor accumulation, ^Dimer CPAP and ^Mono CPAP are nanoengineered into gold(I)-CPAP supermolecule by the aurophilic interaction-driven self-assembly. Nano-^Dimer CPAP potently suppressed tumor growth in lung cancer allograft model and a patient-derived xenograft model in more action than Nano-^Mono CPAP, while keeping a favorable drug safety profile. This work not only presents a physico-mechanical method for calculating the affinity of PPI modulators, but also provides a simple yet robust homodimerization strategy to optimize the affinity of PPI modulators.

PMID:35166067 | DOI:10.1002/advs.202105179

Neuropsychopharmacol Rep. 2022 Feb 14. doi: 10.1002/npr2.12239. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

AIM: A widespread outbreak of COVID-19 is followed by adverse effects on the mental health of the general population. Therefore, this study is an audit to investigate the activities of various organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic in Mazandaran Province, Iran.

METHODS: The aim of the study was to collect the data, the relevant officials in various organizations and units were contacted to collect the statistics of actions taken in psychology and psychiatry wards. Moreover, databases such as Google Scholar and Iranian resources were searched.

RESULTS: According to the results, different healthcare systems worked in parallel during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, Mazandaran University of Medical Science [MAZUMS] Health Vice-Chancellor performed the following activities during this crisis: establishing a virtual crisis management working group, holding a provincial educational committee to train the crisis management teams, organizing virtual psychological intervention teams in the healthcare systems, and so forth. In addition, the mental health activities by Mazandaran Welfare Organization during the COVID-19 outbreak included providing hostelry free psychological counseling, quarantine boarding and rehabilitation centers, and providing harm prevention protocols of COVID-19, especially for marginalized regions. In the third level of medical centers, including hospitals, consultation-liaison psychiatry or psychiatrists and clinical psychologists, therapeutic interventions for comorbid psychiatric disorders with COVID-19 disease, and online workshops for mental health were conducted to reduce burnout of medical staff and nurses.

CONCLUSION: This study can provide a good guideline for different service providers by using the experiences of other centers to achieve better results.

PMID:35166064 | DOI:10.1002/npr2.12239

Psych J. 2022 Feb 14. doi: 10.1002/pchj.521. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

The factors that influence consumers’ house choice are debatable. Previous studies have examined the effects of demographic and socioeconomic attributes, physical and environmental features of the house, and isolated single psychological characteristics on housing behavior. However, these factors are still not sufficient to predict consumer housing behavior, particularly when they are measured separately. We construct a holistic model that integrates psychological characteristics including values, personality traits, motivation, decision-making style, and risk-seeking together with demographic and socioeconomic factors to jointly predict housing mortgage loan behavior. This study aims to use a newly developed statistical method, “machine learning,” to examine the relationship between multiple psychological characteristics and consumer housing mortgage loan behavior. Data were collected through an online survey (N = 2,270). The results show that the holistic psychological model is effective for predicting consumer housing mortgage loan behavior in the life context. Moreover, by analyzing and comparing the relative impact of all predictors, we find that psychological characteristics made a more important contribution to predicting housing mortgage loan behavior than did traditional factors (demographic and socioeconomic factors). The results provide a new perspective for understanding the effects of how multiple psychological characteristics integrally predict consumers’ housing mortgage loan behavior in the real estate market. Theoretical and practical implications for marketing and sales are discussed.

PMID:35166045 | DOI:10.1002/pchj.521

Health Info Libr J. 2022 Feb 14. doi: 10.1111/hir.12421. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: In early the COVID-19 pandemic, routine dental treatments have been delayed due to the risk of disease transmission. This delay may lead public to search for information on the Internet for a solution.

OBJECTIVES: This study aims to evaluate the public interest in dentistry in the early months of the COVID-19 global pandemic in the selected countries.

METHODS: The daily numbers of new COVID-19 cases were recorded for China, South Korea, Italy, Germany, Russia, Ukraine and Turkey. For these countries, Internet search interest of the keyword ‘dentistry’, ‘coronavirus’, ‘COVID-19’, ‘SARS-CoV-2’ and ‘pandemic’ in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic was evaluated by using Google Trends data.

RESULTS: In most countries included the public Internet search interest in ‘dentistry+coronavirus+COVID-19+SARS-CoV-2+pandemic’ peaked prior to the peak of new COVID-19 cases. While a statistically significant positive correlation was observed between the number of new cases and Google Trends data in China, South Korea, Italy and Germany, a statistically significant negative correlation was observed in Turkey.

CONCLUSION: The peak public interest in dentistry has been prior to the peak of COVID-19 new cases in most countries. The use of Internet data can provide useful information about pandemics and many other diseases.

PMID:35166022 | DOI:10.1111/hir.12421

Int J Ment Health Nurs. 2022 Feb 14. doi: 10.1111/inm.12981. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

This study assessed the physical activities of Mental Health Nurses (MHN) in New Zealand against the 2018 World Health Organization recommended minimum levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. The research design was exploratory and descriptive as there were no previous studies about physical activity levels of MHNs in New Zealand. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ, Long Version) which included options for free-text responses. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. A total of 266 participants returned the survey, a response rate of 4%, and a limitation of the study. More than 50% of MHNs reported <150 min of moderate-to-vigorous exercise per week for each of the four physical activity domains. When individual physical activity domains were combined, only 10% spent <150 min on moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Work-related physical activities were higher for those working in the inpatient area than in community settings. Transport-related physical activities were higher for those working in community settings. Participants registered from 6 to 20 years had more time sitting than other groups. Nurses aged 55 years and above showed the highest total physical activity levels. Moreover, healthcare organizations and nurse leaders need to promote physical activity and provide wellness intervention for their staff. Nurses who are physically active may be more effective in supporting their patients to increase their physical activity.

PMID:35166003 | DOI:10.1111/inm.12981

Hum Brain Mapp. 2022 Feb 15. doi: 10.1002/hbm.25723. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Assessing and improving test-retest reliability is critical to efforts to address concerns about replicability of task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging. The current study uses two statistical approaches to examine how scanner and task-related factors influence reliability of neural response to face-emotion viewing. Forty healthy adult participants completed two face-emotion paradigms at up to three scanning sessions across two scanners of the same build over approximately 2 months. We examined reliability across the main task contrasts using Bayesian linear mixed-effects models performed voxel-wise across the brain. We also used a novel Bayesian hierarchical model across a predefined whole-brain parcellation scheme and subcortical anatomical regions. Scanner differences accounted for minimal variance in temporal signal-to-noise ratio and task contrast maps. Regions activated during task at the group level showed higher reliability relative to regions not activated significantly at the group level. Greater reliability was found for contrasts involving conditions with clearly distinct visual stimuli and associated cognitive demands (e.g., face vs. nonface discrimination) compared to conditions with more similar demands (e.g., angry vs. happy face discrimination). Voxel-wise reliability estimates tended to be higher than those based on predefined anatomical regions. This work informs attempts to improve reliability in the context of task activation patterns and specific task contrasts. Our study provides a new method to estimate reliability across a large number of regions of interest and can inform researchers’ selection of task conditions and analytic contrasts.

PMID:35165974 | DOI:10.1002/hbm.25723

Hum Brain Mapp. 2022 Feb 15. doi: 10.1002/hbm.25774. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

This study sought to identify a reference tissue-based quantification approach for improving the statistical power in detecting changes in brain glucose metabolism, amyloid, and tau deposition in Alzheimer’s disease studies. A total of 794, 906, and 903 scans were included for ¹⁸ F-FDG, ¹⁸ F-florbetapir, and ¹⁸ F-flortaucipir, respectively. Positron emission tomography (PET) and T1-weighted images of participants were collected from the Alzheimer’s disease Neuroimaging Initiative database, followed by partial volume correction. The standardized uptake value ratios (SUVRs) calculated from the cerebellum gray matter, centrum semiovale, and pons were evaluated at both region of interest (ROI) and voxelwise levels. The statistical power of reference tissues in detecting longitudinal SUVR changes was assessed via paired t-test. In cross-sectional analysis, the impact of reference tissue-based SUVR differences between cognitively normal and cognitively impaired groups was evaluated by effect sizes Cohen’s d and two sample t-test adjusted by age, sex, and education levels. The average ROI t values of pons were 86.62 and 38.40% higher than that of centrum semiovale and cerebellum gray matter in detecting glucose metabolism decreases, while the centrum semiovale reference tissue-based SUVR provided higher t values for the detection of amyloid and tau deposition increases. The three reference tissues generated comparable d images for ¹⁸ F-FDG, ¹⁸ F-florbetapir, and ¹⁸ F-flortaucipir and comparable t maps for ¹⁸ F-florbetapir and ¹⁸ F-flortaucipir, but pons-based t map showed superior performance in ¹⁸ F-FDG. In conclusion, the tracer-specific reference tissue improved the detection of ¹⁸ F-FDG, ¹⁸ F-florbetapir, and ¹⁸ F-flortaucipir PET SUVR changes, which helps the early diagnosis, monitoring of disease progression, and therapeutic response in Alzheimer’s disease.

PMID:35165964 | DOI:10.1002/hbm.25774

Adv Mater. 2022 Feb 14:e2109107. doi: 10.1002/adma.202109107. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Fluorescent proteins (FPs) have recently emerged as a serious contender for realizing ultra-low threshold room temperature exciton-polariton condensation and lasing. Our contribution investigates the thermalization of FP microcavity exciton-polaritons upon optical pumping under ambient conditions. We realize polariton cooling using a new FP molecule, called mScarlet, coupled strongly to the optical modes in a Fabry-Pérot cavity. Interestingly, at the threshold excitation energy (fluence) of ∼9 nJ/pulse (15.6 mJ/cm² ), we observe an effective temperature, T_eff ∼350 ± 35 K close to the lattice temperature indicative of strongly thermalized exciton-polaritons at equilibrium. This efficient thermalization results from the interplay of radiative pumping facilitated by the energetics of the lower polariton branch and the cavity Q-factor. Direct evidence for dramatic switching from an equilibrium state into a metastable state is observed for the organic cavity polariton device at room temperature via deviation from the Maxwell-Boltzmann statistics at k_‖ = 0 above the threshold. Thermalized polariton gases in organic systems at equilibrium hold substantial promise for designing room temperature polaritonic circuits, switches, and lattices for analog simulation. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

PMID:35165941 | DOI:10.1002/adma.202109107

Echocardiography. 2022 Feb 14. doi: 10.1111/echo.15315. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Recurrence of any atrial arrhythmia after surgical ablation is known as a negative predictor of cardiovascular events and total mortality. However, there have been no focused studies for atrial fibrillation (AF) recurrence prediction in patients with significant tricuspid regurgitation (TR), and the risk-benefit estimation of surgical ablation in tricuspid valve (TV) surgery is not fully established.

METHOD: We screened 385 patients who underwent a TV operation between 2001 and 2017. After excluding patients who did not undergo a maze operation, 158 patients were enrolled. Enrolled patients were divided by recurrence of AF. We analyzed the difference between the AF recurrence group and no AF recurrence group, and AF recurrence factors in terms of clinical risk factors and echocardiographic risk factors. The hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were presented using a Cox proportional hazard model.

RESULTS: Among 158 patients, AF recurred in 65 patients within 10 years. For AF prediction, age was most the important clinical factor and right atrium (RA) diameter was the most important echocardiographic parameters. In patients with a larger RA diameter over 49.2 mm, the prevalence of AF recurrence was higher (HR 4.322, 95% CI [2.185-8.549], log rank p value < .001). In clinical outcome, there was no significant difference between the AF recurrence group and the no recurrence group in terms of death, TR recurrence, heart failure, and stroke. However, the risk of permanent pacemaker (PPM) insertion was higher in the AF recurrence group (HR 10.240, 95% CI [1.257-83.480], log rank p value .007) compared to the no recurrence group.

CONCLUSION: Age and RA enlargement are key predictors of AF recurrence after TV operation with the CM procedure in patients with significant TR.

PMID:35165935 | DOI:10.1111/echo.15315