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Boosting BMP Signaling Reduces the Affect of Cancers Cachexia.
Increasing evidence suggests that prenatal exposure to opioids may affect brain development, but limited data exist on the effects of opioid-exposure on preschool language development. Our study aimed to characterize the nature and prevalence of language problems in children prenatally exposed to opioids, and the factors that support or hinder language acquisition. A sample of 100 children born to pregnant women in methadone maintenance treatment and 110 randomly identified non-exposed children were studied from birth to age 4.5 years. At 4.5 years, 89 opioid-exposed and 103 non-exposed children completed the preschool version of the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (CELF-P) as part of a comprehensive neurodevelopmental assessment. Children prenatally exposed to opioids had poorer receptive and expressive language outcomes at age 4.5 years compared to non-opioid exposed children. After adjustment for child sex, maternal education, other pregnancy substance use, maternal pregnancy nutrition and prenatal depression, opioid exposure remained a significant independent predictor of children's total CELF-P language score. Examination of a range of potential intervening factors showed that a composite measure of the quality of parenting and home environment at age 18 months and early childhood education participation at 4.5 years were important positive mediators.Skeletal muscle regeneration is a well-organized process that requires remodeling of the extracellular matrix (ECM). In this study, we revealed the protective role of periostin, a matricellular protein that binds to several ECM proteins during muscle regeneration. In intact muscle, periostin was localized at the neuromuscular junction, muscle spindle, and myotendinous junction, which are connection sites between muscle fibers and nerves or tendons. During muscle regeneration, periostin exhibited robustly increased expression and localization at the interstitial space. Periostin-null mice showed decreased muscle weight due to the loss of muscle fibers during repeated muscle regeneration. Cultured muscle progenitor cells from periostin-null mice showed no deficiencies in their proliferation, differentiation, and the expression of Pax7, MyoD, and myogenin, suggesting that the loss of muscle fibers in periostin-null mice was not due to the impaired function of muscle stem/progenitor cells. Periostin-null mice displayed a decreased number of CD31-positive blood vessels during muscle regeneration, suggesting that the decreased nutritional supply from blood vessels was the cause of muscle fiber loss in periostin-null mice. These results highlight the novel role of periostin in maintaining muscle mass during muscle regeneration.Outdoor play and independent, neighborhood activity, both linked with healthy childhood development, have declined dramatically among Western children in recent decades. This study examines how social, cultural and environmental factors may be hindering children's outdoor and community-based play. A comprehensive survey was completed by 826 children (aged 10-13 years) and their parents from 12 schools (four each urban, suburban and rural) from a large county in Ontario, Canada. Five multilevel regression models, controlling for any school clustering effect, examined associations between outdoor play time per week and variable sets representing five prevalent factors cited in the literature as influencing children's outdoor play (OP). Models predicted that younger children and boys were more likely to spend time playing outdoors; involvement in organized physical activities, other children nearby to play with, higher perception of benefits of outdoor play, and higher parental perceptions of neighborhood social cohesion also predicted more time in outdoor play. Time outdoors was less likely among children not allowed to play beyond home without supervision, felt they were 'too busy' with screen-based activities, and who reported higher fears related to playing outdoors. Study findings have important implications for targeting environmental, cultural and policy changes to foster child-friendly communities which effectively support healthy outdoor play.α″-Fe16N2 nanomaterials with a shape anisotropy for high coercivity performance are of interest in potential applications such as rare-earth-free permanent magnets, which are difficult to synthesize in situ anisotropic growth. learn more Here, we develop a new and facile one-pot microemulsion method with Fe(CO)5 as the iron source and tetraethylenepentamine (TEPA) as the N/C source at low synthesis temperatures to fabricate carbon-coated tetragonal α″-Fe16N2 nanocones. Magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy is suggested as the driving force for the anisotropic growth of α″-Fe16N2@C nanocones because the easy magnetization direction of tetragonal α″-Fe16N2 nanocrystals is along the c axis. The α″-Fe16N2@C nanocones agglomerate to form a fan-like microstructure, in which the thin ends of nanocones direct to its center, due to the magnetostatic energy. The lengths of α″-Fe16N2@C nanocones are ~200 nm and the diameters vary from ~10 nm on one end to ~40 nm on the other end. Carbon shells with a thickness of 2-3 nm protect α″-Fe16N2 nanocones from oxidation in air atmosphere. The α″-Fe16N2@C nanocones synthesized at 433 K show a room-temperature saturation magnetization of 82.6 emu/g and a coercive force of 320 Oe.As the Internet evolves in urban communities, its consequences on mental distress have drawn significant research attention. We examine the relationships of mental distress with neighborhood environment and Internet use among older adults, using data from a representative sample of 2036 adults aged older than 60 years in Shanghai, China. We assess mental health with a 10-item scale from the Symptom Checklist 90 and Internet use with a 4-item scale and obtain information of neighborhood environment from an online map platform. Results from multilevel models show that both neighborhood environment and Internet use are significantly related to mental distress. Moreover, a worse neighborhood environment may strengthen the correlation between Internet use and mental distress, indicating the strong moderating role of the neighborhood environment. Thus, promoting Internet use among elderly people might result in a reduction in the prevalence of mental distress in disadvantaged neighborhoods.
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