12/01/2024


INTRODUCTION AND AIMS Alcohol-related harms to others (AHTO) are consequences of alcohol use borne by persons other than the drinker. This study assessed whether the odds of experiencing AHTO are associated with alcohol availability and taxation policies. DESIGN AND METHODS This study pooled data from four waves of the National Alcohol Survey (n = 20656 adults). We measured past-year AHTO exposure using three binary variables physical (pushed/hit/assaulted or property damage by someone who had been drinking), family or financial (family/marital problems or financial harms by someone who had been drinking) and driving AHTO (riding in a vehicle with a drink-driver or being in a drink-driving crash). Policies included bar and off-premise alcohol outlet density (separately), alcohol retail hours, beer and spirits taxes (separately) and monopoly on retail/wholesale alcohol purchases. RESULTS Monopolies were associated with 41.2% lower odds of physical harms [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 0.59, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.45, 0.77, q  less then  0.001 correcting for multiple analyses], and a 10% increase in bar density was associated with a 1.2% increase in odds of driving-related harms ( e ln(1.1) * β =1.01, 95% CI 1.00, 1.02, q = 0.03). Among men, beer taxes were associated with lower odds of physical harms ( eln(1.1) * β =0.93, 95% CI 0.88, 0.98 q = 0.03) and monopolies were associated with lower odds of physical (aOR = 0.45, 95% CI 0.35, 0.59, q  less then  0.001) and driving harms (aOR = 0.66, 95% CI 1.00, 1.02, q = 0.03). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS Monopolies, taxes and outlet density are associated with odds of some AHTO. Future longitudinal research should test whether physical availability and taxation policies may be protective for bystanders as well as drinkers. © 2020 Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs.INTRODUCTION AND AIMS This article examines the feasibility of leveraging Twitter to detect posts authored by people who use opioids (PWUO) or content related to opioid use disorder (OUD), and manually develop a multidimensional taxonomy of relevant tweets. DESIGN AND METHODS Twitter messages were collected between June and October 2017 (n = 23 827) and evaluated using an inductive coding approach. Content was then manually classified into two axes (n = 17 420) (i) user experience regarding accessing, using, or recovery from illicit opioids; and (ii) content categories (e.g. policies, medical information, jokes/sarcasm). RESULTS The most prevalent categories consisted of jokes or sarcastic comments pertaining to OUD, PWUOs or hypothetically using illicit opioids (63%), informational content about treatments for OUD, overdose prevention or accessing self-help groups (20%), and commentary about government opioid policy or news related to opioids (17%). Posts by PWUOs centered on identifying illicit sources for procuring opioids (i.e. online, drug dealers; 49%), symptoms and/or strategies to quell opioid withdrawal symptoms (21%), and combining illicit opioid use with other substances, such as cocaine or benzodiazepines (17%). State and public health experts infrequently posted content pertaining to OUD (1%). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS Twitter offers a feasible approach to identify PWUO. Further research is needed to evaluate the efficacy of Twitter to disseminate evidence-based content and facilitate linkage to treatment and harm reduction services. © 2020 Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs.INTRODUCTION Radiation exposure during catheter ablation procedures is a significant hazard for both patients and operators. Atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation procedures have been historically associated with higher fluoroscopy usage than other electrophysiology procedures. Recent efforts have been made to reduce dependence on fluoroscopy during pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) ablation procedures using alternative techniques. METHODS We performed a meta-analysis of studies comparing zero or low fluoroscopy (LF) vs conventional fluoroscopy (CF) approaches for AF ablation. Outcomes of interest included acute and 12-month procedural efficacy, safety, procedure duration, fluoroscopy time, and dose area product. https://www.selleckchem.com/products/proxalutamide-gt0918.html Aggregated data were analyzed with random-effects models, using a Bayesian hierarchical approach. RESULTS A total of 2228 participants (LF, n = 1190 vs CF, n = 1038) from 15 studies were included in the meta-analysis. Risk of AF recurrence in 12 months (odds ratio [OR], 95% confidence interval [95% CI] = 1.343 [0.771-2.340]; P = .297), redo-ablation procedures (OR [95% CI] = 0.521 [0.198-1.323]; P = .186), and procedural complications (OR [95% CI] = 0.99 [0.485-2.204]; P = .979) were similar between LF- and CF-ablation groups. In comparison to CF ablation, LF ablation led to shorter procedure duration (weighted mean differences [WMDs] [95% CI] = -14.6 minutes [-22.5 to -6.8]; P  less then  .001), fluoroscopy time (WMD [95% CI] = -8.8 minutes [-11.9 to -5.9]; P  less then  .001), and dose area product (WMD [95% CI] = -1946 mGy/cm2 [-2685 to 1207]; P  less then  .001). CONCLUSION LF approaches have similar clinical efficacy and safety as CF approaches for PVI. LF approaches are associated with shorter procedure time, fluoroscopy usage, and dose area product during PVI. © 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Marinesco bodies (MBs) are spherical nuclear inclusions found in pigmented neurons of the substantia nigra. Although MBs are abundant in senescent brains, how they are related to aging processes remains unclear. Here, we performed a morphometric analysis of midbrain pigmented neurons to identify the possible influence of MBs on nuclear size. The transected area of the nucleus (nuclear area) was larger in the presence of MBs and was correlated with the area of MB (MB area) in all tested brains. The MB-associated nuclear enlargement was significant even after MB areas were subtracted from nuclear areas. Moreover, higher MB immunoreactivity of p62 was detected in the nucleoplasm of the enlarged MB-associated nuclei. This study on human brains is the first quantitative approach demonstrating MB-associated nuclear enlargement and progressive accumulation of small nucleoplasmic materials. Although cellular hypertrophy is usually considered to be an indication of the upregulation of cellular function, this might not always be the case.