Plos One
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Christchurch, New Zealand, was struck by 2 major earthquakes at 4:36 am on 4 September 2010, magnitude 7.1 and at 12:51 pm on 22 February 2011, magnitude 6.3. Both events caused widespread destruction. Christchurch Hospital was the region's only acute care hospital. It remained functional following both earthquakes. We were able to examine the effects of the 2 earthquakes on acute cardiac presentations. ⋯ The early morning September earthquake triggered a large increase in ST elevation myocardial infarction and a few stress cardiomyopathy cases. The early afternoon February earthquake caused significantly more stress cardiomyopathy. Two major earthquakes occurring at different times of day differed in their effect on acute cardiac events.
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Evidence on the prevalence and determinants of burnout among military acute and critical care nursing personnel from developing countries is minimal, precluding the development of effective preventive measures for this high-risk occupational group. In this context, we aimed to examine the association between the dimensions of burnout and selected socio-demographic and occupational factors in military acute/critical care nursing personnel from Lima, Peru. ⋯ Among Peruvian military acute and critical care nursing personnel, potential screening and preventive interventions should focus on younger/less experienced nurses/nurse assistants, who are single, have children, or work in the most acute critical care areas (e.g. the emergency room/intensive care unit).
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The marked anatomical and functional changes taking place in the medial prefrontal cortex (PFC) during adolescence set grounds for the high incidence of neuropsychiatric disorders with adolescent onset. Although circuit refinement through synapse pruning may constitute the anatomical basis for the cognitive differences reported between adolescents and adults, a physiological correlate of circuit refinement at the level of neuronal ensembles has not been demonstrated. We have recorded neuronal activity together with local field potentials in the medial PFC of juvenile and adult mice under anesthesia, which allowed studying local functional connectivity without behavioral or sensorial interference. ⋯ Interneurons were synchronized to gamma oscillations across a wider area of the PFC than pyramidal neurons, and the span of interneuron synchronization was shorter in adults than juvenile mice. Thus, transition from childhood to adulthood is characterized by reduction of the strength and span of neuronal synchronization specific to gamma oscillations in the mPFC. The more restricted and weak ongoing synchronization in adults may allow a more dynamic rearrangement of neuronal ensembles during behavior and promote parallel processing of information.
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Adolescence is a time of continued brain maturation, particularly in limbic and cortical regions, which undoubtedly plays a role in the physiological and emotional changes. Juvenile rats repeatedly exposed to prenatal stress (PS) exhibit behavioral features often observed in neuropsychiatric disorders including depression. However, to date the underlying neurological mechanisms are still unclear. ⋯ Moreover, reduced levels of NMDA receptor subunits NR1 and NR2A in the hippocampus, and NR1 in prefrontal cortex and striatum of prenatally stressed juvenile offspring were found. Treatment with MK-801 to pregnant dams could prevent all those changes in the juvenile offspring. Collectivity, these data support the argument that PS to pregnant dams could induce depression-like behavior, which may be involved with abnormal expression of NR1 and NR2A in specific brain regions, and MK-801 may have antidepressant-like effects on the juvenile offspring.
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Unaccustomed strenuous exercise that includes lengthening contraction (LC) often causes tenderness and movement related pain after some delay (delayed-onset muscle soreness, DOMS). We previously demonstrated that nerve growth factor (NGF) and glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) are up-regulated in exercised muscle through up-regulation of cyclooxygenase (COX)-2, and they sensitized nociceptors resulting in mechanical hyperalgesia. There is also a study showing that transient receptor potential (TRP) ion channels are involved in DOMS. ⋯ Expression of NGF and COX-2 mRNA was significantly increased 3 h after LC in all genotypes. However, GDNF mRNA did not increase in TRPV4-/- mice. These results suggest that TRPV1 contributes to DOMS downstream (possibly at nociceptors) of NGF and GDNF, while TRPV4 is located downstream of GDNF and possibly also in the process of GDNF up-regulation.