Asthma prevalence trends by weight status among US children aged 2-19 years, 1988-2014.

BACKGROUND: Obesity is a risk factor for asthma. However, it is unclear if increased obesity prevalence contributed to rising childhood asthma prevalence. OBJECTIVE: To assess if population-level changes in weight status impacted asthma prevalence over time. METHODS: Using nationally representative 1988-2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data for 40 644 children aged 2-19 years, we analyzed asthma trends by weight status (body mass index age-specific percentiles determined using measured weight and height). Logistic regression and population attributable fraction were used to assess the association between obesity and asthma prevalence. RESULTS: Although obesity was a risk factor for asthma throughout the period, asthma prevalence increased only among children with normal weight; there was no interaction between weight status and time. The population attributable fraction for overweight/obesity rose from 8.5% in 1988-1994 to 11.9% in 2011-2014, but this increase was not significant (P = 0.44). CONCLUSIONS: Together, these data do not support a contribution of obesity trends to asthma prevalence trends.

The polycomb complex protein mes-2/E(z) promotes the transition from developmental plasticity to differentiation in C. elegans embryos.

We have used expression profiling and in vivo imaging to characterize Caenorhabditis elegans embryos as they transit from a developmentally plastic state to the onset of differentiation. Normally, this transition is accompanied by activation of developmental regulators and differentiation genes, downregulation of early-expressed genes, and large-scale reorganization of chromatin. We find that loss of plasticity and differentiation onset depends on the Polycomb complex protein mes-2/E(Z). mes-2 mutants display prolonged developmental plasticity in response to heterologous developmental regulators. Early-expressed genes remain active, differentiation genes fail to reach wild-type levels, and chromatin retains a decompacted morphology in mes-2 mutants. By contrast, loss of the developmental regulators pha-4/FoxA or end-1/GATA does not prolong plasticity. This study establishes a model by which to analyze developmental plasticity within an intact embryo. mes-2 orchestrates large-scale changes in chromatin organization and gene expression to promote the timely loss of developmental plasticity. Our findings indicate that loss of plasticity can be uncoupled from cell fate specification.

Delayed treatment of basilar thrombosis in a patient with a basilar aneurysm: a case report.

INTRODUCTION: Acute occlusion of the basilar artery is a neurological emergency that has a high risk of severe disability and mortality. Delayed thrombolysis or endovascular therapy has been performed with some success in patients who present after 3 hours of symptom onset. Here we present the first case of delayed intra-arterial thrombolysis of a basilar artery thrombosis associated with a large saccular aneurysm. CASE PRESENTATION: A 73-year-old Caucasian man with a history of smoking and alcohol abuse presented to the Emergency Department complaining of diplopia and mild slurred speech and who progressed over 12 hours to coma and quadriparesis. He was found to have a large basilar tip aneurysm putting him at high risk for hemorrhage with lytic treatment. CONCLUSION: The treatment options for basilar thrombosis are discussed. Aggressive treatment options should be considered despite long durations of clinical symptoms in basilar thrombosis, even in extremely high risk patients.

Development of a methanogenic process to degrade exhaustively the organic fraction of municipal "grey waste" under thermophilic and hyperthermophilic conditions.

Different laboratory-scale, continuously driven reactor concepts (up to 3 reactors in series, max. 70 degrees C) for anaerobic digestion of the organic fraction of municipal grey waste were investigated. Over a period of 2 1/2 years several setups of reactors being daily fed and held in steady state balance were investigated. The perferred variant was a 2-stage setup with a HRT of 4.3 d for the 1st and 14.2 d for the 2nd reactor. Removal efficiencies of VS obtained by comparing the organic loading rate (OLR, g VS/l/d) of the effluent with the OLR of the feed could reach 80%. Removal efficiencies determined indirectly by the combined biogas yield of the 1st and 2nd reactor stage revealed even up to 91.5% of the theoretical possible yield of 807 l/kg VS. The produced gas had a methane content of 60-65%. A completely distinct hydrolysis stage with a gas production of only 1.6-5.5% of the theoretical yield could be reached by hyperthermophilic conditions (60-70 degrees C) or by a HRT of 1.25 d. It also demonstrated that a stable methanogenesis was not possible at temperatures of 60-70 degrees C. Kinetic analyses of the 2nd reactor stage revealed that the degradation of VS fell from 80 to 40% with raising organic loading rate (OLR) from 3 to 11 g VS/l/d. In contrast to this the VS-removal of the first hydrolysis reactor stage increased linearily from 5 to 20% at raising OLR's from 12 to 26 g VS/l/d. The same kinetics with linear increase exhibited the specific cellulose degradation with conversion rates of 0.1-3 x 109 g cellulose/single bacterium (10(-12) g)/d. This was an indication for the cellulose degradation as a rate limiting step. Both reactor stages combined allowed an optimal VS removal efficiency at OLR of 10 g VS/l/d. Analysis of bacterial populations of 28 reactors were referred either to eubacteria utilizing different sugars or cellulose or acetate or H2-CO2 or archaea (plus antibiotics) with acetate or H2-CO2 as substrate. H2-CO2 utilizers with numbers of 10(8)-10(10)/g TS dominated obviously the acetotrophic methanogens by the factor 10-10,000. This explained the observed short HRTs being possible.