Reporting of Ethno-Racial Identity and Immigration Status in Published Studies on Newcomer Children.

Access to health services can differ greatly based on ethno-racial identity and immigration status. We examined the reporting of ethno-racial data and immigration status in published literature on the health of newcomer children. An integrative scoping review was performed using the methodological framework outlined by Arksey and O'Malley (2005). 4147 articles were identified and 75 studies included in the final analysis. 67% (50/75) did not describe the participants immigration status at all. Most studies (65%, 49/75) also did not report participants' ethno-racial identities. Of those that did, 65% (17/26) reported participant ethnicity alone, and 15% (4/26) reported race alone, while 19% (5/26) reported both race and ethnicity. We found that most studies on newcomer children did not report immigration status or ethno-racial identity. In doing so, studies may ignore the specific impacts of racism and xenophobia on health and access to care.

Survey and Interview Findings of an Environmental Scan of Perioperative Geriatric Models of Care in Canada.

Background: Best practice recommendations support the implementation of perioperative geriatric care models that tailor to the specific needs of older adults undergoing surgery. The objective of this study was to describe the current proactive perioperative geriatric programs and pathways in Canadian hospitals. Methods: A survey of geriatricians, surgeons, and anesthesiologists practicing in Canada combined with phone interviews of a subset of participants were used to determine characteristics of perioperative geriatric pathways or programs including eligibility, team composition, and intervention elements. Results: Analysis of 132 survey respondents and 24 interviews showed 47% (40 out of 85) of hospitals described had elements of a perioperative geriatrics program and 20% had two or more elements. Eleven themes emerged including: how perioperative geriatric care programs built geriatric competencies in other health-care providers; geriatric assessment identified risks not captured in standard perioperative risk assessment; perceived value for patients and the health-care team; delirium prevention was addressed; most programs were reactive; most programs were informal; virtual care may be used to meet demand; successful implementation required system buy-in with collaboration across subspecialties; mechanisms to drive improvement were accountability and data evaluation; few clinicians with geriatric expertise; and other priorities limited program implementation. Conclusions: There were few hospitals in Canada with perioperative geriatric care models and even fewer with elements spanning the entire perioperative pathway. Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to inform the implementation and sustainability of perioperative geriatric care in the Canadian context were identified in this national environmental scan.

#CGS2015: An Evaluation of Twitter Use at the Canadian Geriatrics Society Annual Scientific Meeting.

BACKGROUND: Twitter is a microblogging platform increasingly used in medicine to overcome geographic barriers and promote international connections. Tweets, the 280-character microblogs, are catalogued by hashtags (#). This study evaluates and describes the participation, content, and impact of Twitter at the 2015 Canadian Geriatrics Society (CGS) Annual Scientific Meeting, during which #CGS2015 was the official conference hashtag. METHODS: Twitter transcripts of #CGS2015 were obtained from Symplur to prospectively analyze tweets for content and quantitative metrics. TweetReach was used to retrospectively analyze tweets with the hashtag #CGS2014 from the 2014 meeting for growth analysis. The impact of Twitter on the conference experience was derived from questionnaires. RESULTS: There were 1,491 #CGS2015 tweets, 40% of which were original. Tweet content was categorized into conference sessions (38.8%), networking (29.2%), resource sharing (17.6%), and conference promotion (14.3%). Of the 279 participants, 60% were non-Canadian. The questionnaire data from 86 respondents demonstrated generally positive experiences with Twitter, particularly with facilitating collegial interactions, resource sharing, and insight into sessions not attended live. The most cited drawback was divided attention when using personal devices. Analysis comparing #CGS2014 to #CGS2015 demonstrated increases in total participants (50 to 279), number of tweets (434 to 1,491) and impressions (155,600 to 943,825). CONCLUSIONS: Twitter engagement at the CGS 2015 annual meeting enabled international participation in networking, resource sharing, and online discussions of sessions. Future conferences may benefit from a workshop on Twitter basics for attendees and presenters.

An Age-Friendly Living Environment as Seen by Chinese Older Adults: A "Photovoice" Study.

"Ageing in place" is a policy initiative strongly advocated by the World Health Organization to face the challenge of an ageing population. This pilot study used a "photovoice" approach, aiming to explore aspects of the housing environment considered by older people as important in facilitating ageing in place. It enabled participants to express their ideas through photographs. Each participant was asked to take photos that illustrated age-friendly features they considered crucial for supporting their lives in the community. A total of 44 older people participated in the pilot study, and 300 photos were collected. Participants were invited to describe the reasons for taking these photos by filling in a journal sheet. A semi-structured interview was then conducted with individual participants, who were asked to elaborate on the meaning of their photos. The analysis revealed three themes: (1) age-friendly housing design; (2) supportive neighborhood; and (3) connection to family and the community. These three themes are pillars of an age-friendly city, which are important to seniors to facilitate ageing in place.

The organization of melatonin in lipid membranes.

Melatonin is a hormone that has been shown to have protective effects in several diseases that are associated with cholesterol dysregulation, including cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's disease, and certain types of cancers. We studied the interaction of melatonin with model membranes made of dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC) at melatonin concentrations ranging from 0.5mol% to 30mol%. From 2-dimensional X-ray diffraction measurements, we find that melatonin induces a re-ordering of the lipid membrane that is strongly dependent on the melatonin concentration. At low melatonin concentrations, we observe the presence of melatonin-enriched patches in the membrane, which are significantly thinner than the lipid bilayer. The melatonin molecules were found to align parallel to the lipid tails in these patches. At high melatonin concentrations of 30mol%, we observe a highly ordered melatonin structure that is uniform throughout the membrane, where the melatonin molecules align parallel to the bilayers and one melatonin molecule associates with 2 lipid molecules. Understanding the organization and interactions of melatonin in membranes, and how these are dependent on the concentration, may shed light into its anti-amyloidogenic, antioxidative and photoprotective properties and help develop a structural basis for these properties.

Arginase activity in alternatively activated macrophages protects PI3Kp110δ deficient mice from dextran sodium sulfate induced intestinal inflammation.

Alternatively activated or M2 macrophages have been reported to protect mice from intestinal inflammation, but the mechanism of protection has not been elucidated. In this study, we demonstrate that mice deficient in the p110δ catalytic subunit activity of class I phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3Kp110δ) have increased clinical disease activity and histological damage during dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) induced colitis. Increased disease severity in PI3Kp110δ-deficient mice is dependent on professional phagocytes and correlates with reduced numbers of arginase I+ M2 macrophages in the colon and increased production of inflammatory nitric oxide. We further demonstrate that PI3Kp110δ-deficient macrophages are defective in their ability to induce arginase I when skewed to an M2 phenotype with IL-4. Importantly, adoptive transfer of IL-4-treated macrophages derived from WT mice, but not those from PI3Kp110δ-deficient mice, protects mice during DSS-induced colitis. Moreover, M2 macrophages mediated protection is lost when mice are cotreated with inhibitors that block arginase activity or during adoptive transfer of arginase I deficient M2 macrophages. Taken together, our data demonstrate that arginase I activity is required for M2 macrophages mediated protection during DSS-induced colitis in PI3Kp110δ-deficient mice.

Motor dysfunction and gliosis with preserved dopaminergic markers in human alpha-synuclein A30P transgenic mice.

Alpha-synuclein is a major component of Lewy bodies (LBs) in the substantia nigra and cortex in Parkinson's disease (PD) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), and in glial inclusions in multiple systems atrophy (MSA). Mutations in alpha-synuclein have been associated with autosomal dominant forms of PD. We investigated the clinical and neuropathological effects of overexpression of human alpha-synuclein, alpha-synuclein A30P, and alpha-synuclein A53T under the control of the hamster prion protein (PrP) promoter; 5-15x endogenous levels of protein expression were achieved with widespread neuronal, including nigral, transgene expression. High expression of alpha-synuclein A30P in the Tg5093 line was associated with a progressive motor disorder with rigidity, dystonia, gait impairment, and tremor. Histological analysis of this line showed aberrant expression of the protein in cell soma and progressive CNS gliosis, but no discrete Lewy body-like alpha-synuclein inclusions could be identified. Biochemical analysis demonstrated alpha-synuclein fragmentation. Despite strong expression of the transgene in the nigra, there was no specific deterioration of the nigrostriatal dopaminergic system as assessed by quantitation of nigral tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) containing neurons, striatal TH immunoreactivity, dopamine levels, or dopamine receptor number and function. Lower expressing lines had no specific behavioral or histopathological phenotype. Thus, high expression of mutant human alpha-synuclein resulted in a progressive motor and widespread CNS gliotic phenotype independent of dopaminergic dysfunction in the Tg5093 line.

Beta-secretase protein and activity are increased in the neocortex in Alzheimer disease.

CONTEXT: Amyloid plaques, a major pathological feature of Alzheimer disease (AD), are composed of an internal fragment of amyloid precursor protein (APP): the 4-kd amyloid-beta protein (Abeta). The metabolic processing of APP that results in Abeta formation requires 2 enzymatic cleavage events, a gamma-secretase cleavage dependent on presenilin, and a beta-secretase cleavage by the aspartyl protease beta-site APP-cleaving enzyme (BACE). OBJECTIVE: To test the hypothesis that BACE protein and activity are increased in regions of the brain that develop amyloid plaques in AD. METHODS: We developed an antibody capture system to measure BACE protein level and BACE-specific beta-secretase activity in frontal, temporal, and cerebellar brain homogenates from 61 brains with AD and 33 control brains. RESULTS: In the brains with AD, BACE activity and protein were significantly increased (P<.001). Enzymatic activity increased by 63% in the temporal neocortex (P =.007) and 13% in the frontal neocortex (P =.003) in brains with AD, but not in the cerebellar cortex. Activity in the temporal neocortex increased with the duration of AD (P =.008) but did not correlate with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay measures of insoluble Abeta in brains with AD. Protein level was increased by 14% in the frontal cortex of brains with AD (P =.004), with a trend toward a 15% increase in BACE protein in the temporal cortex (P =.07) and no difference in the cerebellar cortex. Immunohistochemical analysis demonstrated that BACE immunoreactivity in the brain was predominantly neuronal and was found in tangle-bearing neurons in AD. CONCLUSIONS: The BACE protein and activity levels are increased in brain regions affected by amyloid deposition and remain increased despite significant neuronal and synaptic loss in AD.