Impact on dietary intake of a self-directed, gender-tailored diabetes prevention program in men

AIM To investigate changes in dietary intake following a 6-mo randomised controlled trial of the self-directed, gendertailored type 2 diabetes mellitus(T2DM) Prevention Using LifeS tyle Education(PULSE) program in men. METHODS Men aged 18-65 years, with a body mass index(BMI)25-40 kg/m^2, and at high risk for developing T2DM were recruited from the Hunter Region of New South Wales,Australia. Eligible participants were randomised into one of two groups:(1) waitlist control; or(2) PULSE intervention. Dietary intake was assessed at baseline and immediately post-program using the Australian Eating Survey food frequency questionnaire and diet quality measured using the Australian Recommended Food Score(ARFS). RESULTS One hundred and one participants(n = 48, control; n= 53, intervention, mean age 52.3 ± 9.7 years, BMI of 32.6 ± 3.3 kg/m^2) commenced the study. Following the active phase, differences between groups were observed for proportion of total energy consumed from healthful(core) foods(+7.6%EI, P < 0.001), energydense, nutrient-poor foods(-7.6%EI, P < 0.001),sodium(-369 mg, P = 0.047), and diet quality(ARFS)(+4.3, P = 0.004), including sub-scales for fruit(+1.1, P= 0.03), meat(+0.9, P = 0.004) and non-meat protein(+0.5, P = 0.03). CONCLUSION The PULSE prevention program's nutrition messages led to significant improvements in dietary intake in men at risk of T2DM.

Virtual patient education for hypertension: The truth about behavioral change

Anti-hypertensive education is an important public health intervention to decrease the mortality and burden of the disease.Using digital technologies for education as a part of preventive measures for hypertension is a cost-effective approach and helps low-income communities and vulnerable populations overcome barriers to healthcare access.The coronavirus disease 19 pandemic further highlighted the need of new health interventions to address health inequalities.Virtual education is helpful to improve awareness,knowledge,and attitude toward hypertension.However,given the complexity of behavioral change,educational approaches do not always provide a change in behavior.Some of the obstacles in online hypertensive education could be time limitations,not being tailored to individual needs and not including the different elements of behavioral models to enhance behavior change.Studies regarding virtual education should be encouraged and involve lifestyle modifications emphasizing the importance of Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension diet,salt restriction,and exercise and should be used adjunct to in-person visits for the management of hypertension.Additionally,to stratify patients according to hypertension type(essential or secondary)would be useful to create specific educational materials.Virtual hypertension education is promising to increase awareness regarding risk factors and most importantly motivate patients to be more compliant with management helping to decrease hypertension related complications and hospitalizations.

考虑维生素D辅助治疗新型冠状病毒肺炎的建议

新型冠状病毒肺炎于2019年12月在湖北省武汉市爆发,并迅速传播到中国多地及其他国家,因此治疗和预防新型冠状病毒肺炎迫在眉睫。新型冠状病毒表面存在包膜,属于包膜病毒的一种。维生素D可抑制多种包膜病毒(如疱疹、带状疱疹、EB病毒、丙型肝炎病毒、埃博拉病毒等)。维生素D是人体健康所必需的多功能脂溶性化合物,其作为人体内产生的固有免疫增强剂,在调节对抗感染的免疫反应中起着重要作用。以往有证据表明维生素D可保护呼吸道上皮细胞的完整性,减轻脂多糖诱导的急性肺损伤;体内高维生素D水平可提高抗炎因子白介素-10的浓度。如果维生素D缺乏,患上多种传染病的风险会增加,同时维生素D缺乏的感染患者愈后较差。该文鉴于维生素D在治疗一些传染病、呼吸道疾病及抑制多种病毒上的有效作用,探讨推测维生素D会在新型冠状病毒肺炎的辅助治疗与预防中可能减轻新型冠状病毒肺炎患者的病情、逆转疑似病例、预防健康人群患病。

Inflammatory breast cancer clusters: A hypothesis

Cancer clusters have long been a focus of interest because of the possibility of identifying etiologic agents. Only on rare occasions, however, have such cluster investigations been successful. One major difficulty in cluster investigations, particularly in the area of breast cancer, is the long latent period. There have been a number of publications providing a discouraging picture regarding cancer cluster investigations. The possibility of learning from a cluster investigation, however, is greatly increased if the cancer involved is relatively rare and if it has a short latent period. Inflammatory breast cancer(IBC) fits these criteria and is worth pursuing because of the strong evidence that environmental factors play a major role. In this report we describe our experience with several clusters and the lessonslearned which are now being utilized to improve investigation of future IBC clusters. The first IBC cluster that we evaluated was in 2000, when we were asked to investigate an apparent cluster of IBC in Castro Valley, California where three women in an office setting of 24 people were diagnosed with IBC in a ten month period from May 1999 to March 2000. Our investigation of this striking cluster did not yield a specific trigger for this cluster but it did indicate that the women involved all had at least two IBC risk factors that may well have made them susceptible to getting IBC. We are now investigating another apparent cluster in Texas and are aware of several others requiring careful consideration. We see a need for a consistent protocol for the evaluation of IBC clusters focusing on the laboratory investigation of environmental triggers, primarily infectious agents and chemical carcinogens.

Large-scale analysis of the position-dependent binding and regulation of human RNA binding proteins

Background:RNA binding proteins(RBPs)play essential roles in the regulation of RNA metabolism.Recent studies have disclosed that RBPs achieve their functions via binding to their targets in a position-dependent pattern on RNAs.However,few studies have systematially addressed the associations between the RBP's functions and their positional binding preferences.Methods:Here,we present large-scale analyses on the functional targets of human RBPs by integrating the enhanced cross-linking and immunoprecipitation followed by sequencing(eCLIP-seq)datasets and the shRNA knockdown followed by RNA-seq datasets that are deposited in the integrated ENCyclopedia of DNA Elements in the human genome(ENCODE)data portal.Results:We found that(1)binding to the translation termination site and the 3'untranslated region is important to most human RBP's in the RNA decay regulation;(2)RBPs’binding and regulation follow a cell-ty pe specific pattern.Conclusions:These analysis results show the strong relationship between the binding position and the functions of RBPs,which provides novel insights into the RBPs'regulation mechanisms.

Exposure to air pollutants in Vietnam:Assessing potential risk for tourists

Tourism can form an important component of a nation＇s GDP, and Vietnam is among the most visited countries in Southeast Asia. Most studies on personal exposure focus on the general population, or occupational cohorts with exposure to specific pollutants. However, short-term exposure to air pollutants while visiting regions with high levels of air pollution can lead to acute health effects. A personal exposure study was conducted across three cities in Vietnam to estimate exposure to particulate matter （PM2.5） and black carbon for tourists. Measurements were conducted during the wet season in 2014 in Ho Chi Minh City, Da Lat and Nha Trang using portable instrumentation. Average 24-hr PM2.5 and BC exposures were estimated as 18.9 ± 9.24 and 3.41 ± 1.33 μg/m3 and among the three cities, Ho Chi Minh was found to have the highest PM2.5 concentrations. Environmental tobacco smoke, commuting and street food stands were found to contribute to highest levels of exposure to PM2.s and BC across all cities.