Correction to: Who meets national early childhood sleep guidelines in Aotearoa New Zealand? A cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1093/sleepadvances/zpac002.].

Who meets national early childhood sleep guidelines in Aotearoa New Zealand? A cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis

Study Objectives

To investigate the proportion of children in Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ) who do or do not meet sleep duration and sleep quality guidelines at 24 and 45 months of age and associated sociodemographic factors.

Methods

Participants were children (n = 6490) from the Growing Up in New Zealand longitudinal study of child development with sleep data available at 24 and/or 45 months of age (48.2% girls, 51.8% boys; 22.4% Māori [the Indigenous people of NZ], 12.9% Pacific, 13.4% Asian, 45.2% European/Other). Relationships between sociodemographic factors and maternally reported child sleep duration (across 24 hours) and night wakings were investigated cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Estimates of children in NZ meeting sleep guidelines were calculated using a range of analytical techniques including Bayesian linear regression, negative binomial multiple regression, and growth curve models.

Results

In NZ, 29.8% and 19.5% of children were estimated to have a high probability of not meeting sleep duration guidelines and 15.4% and 8.3% were estimated to have a high probability of not meeting night waking guidelines at 24 and 45 months respectively, after controlling for multiple sociodemographic variables. Factors associated cross-sectionally with children's sleep included ethnicity, socioeconomic deprivation, material standard of living, rurality, and heavy traffic, and longitudinal sleep trajectories differed by gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic deprivation.

Conclusions

A considerable proportion of young children in NZ have a high probability of not meeting sleep guidelines but this declines across the ages of 24 and 45 months. Sleep health inequities exist as early as 24 months of age in NZ.

673 Checklists Are A Spinal Surgeon’s Best Friend - A Post-Intervention Closed-Loop Re-Audit of Post-Operative Care in Patients Undergoing Surgery for Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS)

Introduction

The post-operative care (POC) of paediatric patients undergoing spinal surgery is essential. Initial audits (2015/17) identified shortcomings in POC practice.

Aim

To evaluate improvements in compliance with local AIS guidelines following application of a simple POC checklist. To identify reasons where standards are not met with formulation of an action plan to ensure the AIS POC pathway continues to improve and provide optimum levels of care for our patients.

Method

Data was collected retrospectively for 30 patients over 2 years. Standards assessed were taken from local AIS guidelines consisting of 25 distinct domains (Appendix 1).

Results

Our post-intervention results showed that, 100% compliance within individual AIS guideline domains improved significantly from 12/25 domains (2015), to 21/25 (2019/20). In the domains that did not meet 100% compliance, post-intervention, 2 reached 93.33% compliance and 2 reached 80% (2019/20), a significant improvement upon 2015/17 where several domains were within 20-70% compliance.

Conclusions

The results demonstrate that our intervention, a simple checklist, significantly improved the POC of our AIS patients and current practice is of an excellent standard. Standards were still not met in 2020 for a handful of measures. This was due to patients declining planned antiemetic/analgesic medication or rarely, incomplete documentation by health care professionals who were not yet fully familiar with the new checklist. Other centres offering surgical intervention for AIS may benefit from adopting/adapting this POC checklist and a similar audit may prove useful to optimise care for these paediatric patients undergoing significant surgery.

Differences in levels of stress, social support, health behaviours, and stress-reduction strategies for women pregnant before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, and based on phases of pandemic restrictions, in Ireland

BACKGROUND

The COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions can adversely impact antenatal maternal well-being and health behaviours.

AIM

To examine antenatal stress and stress-reduction strategies, social support, and health behaviours between women pregnant before and during the pandemic in Ireland.

METHODS

210 pregnant women were recruited online and in the antenatal department of a tertiary maternity hospital before the pandemic, and 235 women recruited online during the pandemic. Only women resident in Ireland were included in this study. Women completed measures of stress, social support, health-behaviours, and self-reported stress-reduction strategies. Differences in outcomes were examined between women pregnant before and during the pandemic, and between Phase 2 and Phase 3 of the Irish Government COVID-19 restrictions.

FINDINGS

Women pregnant during the pandemic reported lower perceived social support, including support from a significant other, friends and family, than women pregnant before the pandemic. There were no significant differences in stress in health behaviours but women reported higher stress and less physical activity during the pandemic. Women reported a range of comparable stress-reduction strategies before and during the pandemic. No differences were observed between phases of pandemic-related restrictions for any outcome.

DISCUSSION

Our findings highlight negative impacts of the pandemic on social support, stress, and physical activity, which can have implications for maternal and child health. Lack of differences between restriction phases suggests on-going negative effects for antenatal well-being and behaviours.

CONCLUSION

Development of supports for pregnant women during the pandemic should include social-support and stress-reduction components.

Presynaptic dopaminergic terminal imaging and non-motor symptoms assessment of Parkinson's disease: evidence for dopaminergic basis?

Parkinson's disease (PD) is now considered to be a multisystemic disorder consequent on multineuropeptide dysfunction including dopaminergic, serotonergic, cholinergic, and noradrenergic systems. This multipeptide dysfunction leads to expression of a range of non-motor symptoms now known to be integral to the concept of PD and preceding the diagnosis of motor PD. Some non-motor symptoms in PD may have a dopaminergic basis and in this review, we investigate the evidence for this based on imaging techniques using dopamine-based radioligands. To discuss non-motor symptoms we follow the classification as outlined by the validated PD non-motor symptoms scale.

Visualizing Nuclear Scission through a Multifield Extension of Topological Analysis

In nuclear science, density functional theory (DFT) is a powerful tool to model the complex interactions within the atomic nucleus, and is the primary theoretical approach used by physicists seeking a better understanding of fission. However DFT simulations result in complex multivariate datasets in which it is difficult to locate the crucial `scission' point at which one nucleus fragments into two, and to identify the precursors to scission. The Joint Contour Net (JCN) has recently been proposed as a new data structure for the topological analysis of multivariate scalar fields, analogous to the contour tree for univariate fields. This paper reports the analysis of DFT simulations using the JCN, the first application of the JCN technique to real data. It makes three contributions to visualization: (i) a set of practical methods for visualizing the JCN, (ii) new insight into the detection of nuclear scission, and (iii) an analysis of aesthetic criteria to drive further work on representing the JCN.

Cloning and expression in murine erythroleukemia cells: the soluble forms of the type I and type II tumor necrosis factor receptors fused to an immunogenic affinity tag

We have cloned, expressed, and purified the extracellular domains of types I and II human tumor necrosis factor receptors. Both proteins were expressed in and secreted by murine erythroleukemia cells under the control of the human beta-globin promoter placed down-stream from the human globin locus control region. Secretion of both proteins was directed by the respective tumor necrosis factor receptor signal sequence. Each tumor necrosis factor receptor extracellular domain was expressed as a chimeric protein, fused to a carboxy terminal flexible peptide linker and an antigenic affinity tag. Secretion of both proteins into the growth medium in a hollow fiber bioreactor was achieved. A monoclonal antibody generated against the affinity tag allowed the purification of both proteins. These were isolated as biologically active products in that they bound human tumor necrosis factor-alpha in a 125I-radioiodinated ligand binding assay. The two proteins also bound tumor necrosis factor-alpha at approximately equimolar ratios as demonstrated by BIAcore sensorgram analysis.

Susceptibility of Campylobacter pylori to the newer cephalosporin antibiotics

The susceptibility of 23 strains (pediatric and adult) of Campylobacter pylori to eight cephalosporin antibiotics was determined. All strains were sensitive to cefoxitin, cefuroxime, ceftizoxime, latamoxef, and ceftriaxone. Ceftazidime and cefoperazone showed only moderate activity against C. pylori. C. pylori was resistant to cefsulodin.

Susceptibility of Campylobacter pylori isolated from pediatric and adult patients to seven new quinolone antibiotics and nalidixic acid

The susceptibility of 26 strains of Campylobacter pylori to 7 new quinolone antibiotics and nalidixic acid was determined. All strains were resistant to nalidixic acid. Difloxacin, A-56620, A-62254, and ciprofloxacin were equally effective against the test strains with MICs ranging from 0.06 to 2.0 micrograms/ml. Fleroxacin, amifloxacin, perfloxacin, and norfloxacin showed only moderate activity against C. pylori. The new quinolone agents, which are bactericidal, may prove useful in the eradication of C. pylori from the gastric mucosa.

Susceptibility of Campylobacter pyloridis to three macrolide antibiotics (erythromycin, roxithromycin [RU 28965], and CP 62,993) and rifampin

The presence of Campylobacter pyloridis in the gastric mucosa was recently linked to peptic ulcer disease. This study compared the inhibitory activity of three macrolide compounds (erythromycin, roxithromycin [RU 28965], and CP 62,993) and rifampin against 10 clinical isolates of C. pyloridis. The macrolides were equally effective against the test strains, with MICs ranging from 0.06 to 0.5 microgram/ml; rifampin was less active, with MICs ranging from 0.25 to greater than 1 microgram/ml. Erythromycin and the two new macrolide derivatives are potentially useful agents in the treatment of infections caused by C. pyloridis.

Evidence of a noncholecystokinin stimulant of gallbladder contraction: comparison of fasting serum concentrations in healthy subjects and in patients with gallstones

Some investigators have reported that patients with gallstones empty their gallbladders more rapidly than do healthy subjects. This may contribute to the formation of lithogenic bile. To date, cholecystokinin is considered the prime mediator of gallbladder contraction. Evidence exists that cholecystokinin may not be the major hormone accounting for gallbladder emptying. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the existence of this noncholecystokinin substance in healthy persons and to compare its concentration with that in patients with cholesterol gallstones. Fasting serum levels from 15 healthy human subjects (8 women and 7 men, mean age 32 +/- 8 years) and 10 patients with cholesterol gallstones (5 women and 5 men, mean age 48 +/- 16 years) were studied. Using rabbit in vitro gallbladder bioassay and cholecystokinin-8 as standards, serum bioactivity was measured and expressed as cholecystokinin-8 equivalent bioactivity. The effectiveness of serum to contract the gallbladder was tested before and after removal of cholecystokinin from the serum. Cholecystokinin was removed from the serum samples by affinity chromatography with Sepharose 4B beads coated with cholecystokinin 5135 antibody. Gallbladder contractility from this treated serum thus reflects the action of a noncholecystokinin stimulant. The cholecystokinin-8 bioactivity equivalents in untreated samples from healthy subjects and from patients with gallstones were 2.9 +/- 0.3 and 7.6 +/- 0.7 ng/ml, respectively. The fact that bioactivity of serum persisted after removal of cholecystokinin in both groups of subjects provides evidence that a noncholecystokinin stimulant of gallbladder contraction exists. This substance is found in significantly higher concentrations in the fasting serum of patients with gallstones compared with healthy subjects. This finding may explain, at least in part, the increased gallbladder emptying rate in patients with gallstones and may account for the reduced bile salt pool size and, thus, formation of lithogenic bile.