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Nowadays, chronic alcoholism and its health implications represent a global concern. Over three million deaths are linked to chronic alcohol intake every year. This article aims to spread awareness about the negative impact ethanol can have on almost every organ in the body, especially the liver. Understanding ethanol metabolism and the cellular pathways through which alcohol increases liver oxidative stress may prevent a broad spectrum of hepatic lesions such as steatosis, steatohepatitis, and, ultimately, cirrhosis. After a short review of ethanol metabolism and liver oxidative stress, each hepatic lesion will be individually discussed regarding the mechanism of apparition, treatment, and future targeted therapies.

This paper estimates family spillovers in high school major choice in Sweden, where admission to oversubscribed majors is determined based on GPA. Using a regression discontinuity design, we find large sibling and intergenerational spillovers that depend on the sex mix of a dyad. Same-sex siblings copy one another, while younger brothers recoil from an older sister’s choices. Fathers and mothers influence sons but not their daughters, except when a mother majors in the male-dominated program of engineering. Back-of-the-envelope calculations reveal that these within-family spillovers have sizable implications for the sex composition of majors. (JEL I21, J12, J13, J16)

AbstractDespite cold-water coral (CWC) reefs being considered biodiversity hotspots, very little is known about the main processes driving their morphological development. Indeed, there is a considerable knowledge gap in quantitative experimental studies that help understand the interaction between reef morphology, near-bed hydrodynamics, coral growth, and (food) particle transport processes. In the present study, we performed a 2-month long flume experiment in which living coral nubbins were placed on a reef patch to determine the effect of a unidirectional flow on the growth and physiological condition of Lophelia pertusa. Measurements revealed how the presence of coral framework increased current speed and turbulence above the frontal part of the reef patch, while conditions immediately behind it were characterised by an almost stagnant flow and reduced turbulence. Owing to the higher current speeds that likely promoted a higher food encounter rate and intake of ions involved in the calcification process, the coral nubbins located on the upstream part of the reef presented a significantly enhanced average growth and a lower expression of stress-related enzymes than the downstream ones. Yet, further experiments would be needed to fully quantify how the variations in water hydrodynamics modify particle encounter and ion intake rates by coral nubbins located in different parts of a reef, and how such discrepancies may ultimately affect coral growth. Nonetheless, the results acquired here denote that a reef influenced by a unidirectional water flow would grow into the current: a pattern of reef development that coincides with that of actual coral reefs located in similar water flow settings. Ultimately, the results of this study suggest that at the local scale coral reef morphology has a direct effect on coral growth thus, indicating that the spatial patterns of living CWC colonies in reef patches are the result of spatial self-organisation.

AbstractOpen data in science requires precise definition of experimental procedures used in data generation, but traditional practices for sharing protocols and data cannot provide the required data contextualization. Here, we explore implementation, in an academic research setting, of a novel cloud-based software system designed to address this challenge. The software supports systematic definition of experimental procedures as visual processes, acquisition and analysis of primary data, and linking of data and procedures in machine-computable form. The software was tested on a set of quantitative microbial-physiology experiments. Though time-intensive, definition of experimental procedures in the software enabled much more precise, unambiguous definitions of experiments than conventional protocols. Once defined, processes were easily reusable and composable into more complex experimental flows. Automatic coupling of process definitions to experimental data enables immediate identification of correlations between procedural details, intended and unintended experimental perturbations, and experimental outcomes. Software-based experiment descriptions could ultimately replace terse and ambiguous ‘Materials and Methods’ sections in scientific journals, thus promoting reproducibility and reusability of published studies.

Additional file 3: Tables S2. Working status (full-time compared with ‘other’) by demographic variables in a random sample of community-dwelling, working-aged people (n = 6064) in South Australia (unweighted data). Table S3. Odds ratios of complete model of associations of breathlessness with working status stratified by age in a random sample of community-dwelling, working-aged people (n = 6064) in South Australia (weighted data). Table S4. Odds ratios of complete model of associations of breathlessness with working status stratified by sex in a random sample of community-dwelling, working-aged people (n = 6064) in South Australia (weighted data).

BackgroundCirculating microRNAs (miRNAs) have been found to have different expressions in different phases of acute myocardial infarction. The profiles of plasma exosome miRNAs in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) at 3–6 months postinfarction are unknown.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to assess the profiles of plasma exosome miRNAs in patients with STEMI in comparison with healthy volunteers and to select specific exosome miRNAs related to pathophysiological changes post-STEMI.MethodsPlasma and echocardiography parameters were collected from 30 patients 3–6 months after STEMI and 30 healthy volunteers. Plasma exosome miRNAs were assessed by using high-throughput sequence (Illumina HiSeq 2500) and profile of the plasma exosome miRNAs was established in 10 patients and 6 healthy volunteers. The specific exosome miRNAs related to heart diseases were selected according to the TargetScan database. The specificity of the selected exosome miRNAs was evaluated in additional 20 post-STEMI patients and 24 healthy volunteers by using quantitative PCR (qPCR). Left ventricular remodeling (LVR) was defined using the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging criteria according to echocardiography examination. Correlations between expression of the specific miRNAs and echocardiography parameters of LVR were assessed using the Spearman correlation analysis.ResultsTwenty eight upregulated miRNAs and 49 downregulated miRNAs were found in patients 3–6 months after STEMI (p < 0.01) in comparison with the healthy volunteers. The two least expressed and heart-related exosome miRNAs were hsa-miR-181a-3p (0.64-fold, p < 0.01) and hsa-miR-874-3p (0.50-fold, p < 0.01), which were further confirmed by using qPCR and demonstrated significant specificity in another 20 patients with post-STEMI comparing to 24 healthy volunteers [area under the curve (AUC) = 0.68, p < 0.05; AUC = 0.74, p < 0.05]. The expression of hsa-miR-181a-3p was downregulated in patients with LV adverse remodeling in comparison with patients without LV adverse remodeling and healthy volunteers.ConclusionCirculating exosome miR-874-3p and miR-181a-3p were downregulated in patients with STEMI postinfarction. Exosome hsa-miR-181a-3p might play a potential role in the development of LVR in patients with post-STEMI.

Randomized clinical trials are the preferred study design to address key research questions about the benefits or harms of interventions. However, randomized trials of oxygen therapy are difficult to conduct and have limitations. The purpose of this article is to offer our view on the potential use of patient registries in the field of home oxygen in COPD as an alternative to randomized trials by referring to the Swedish experience with a national registry for respiratory failure. Patient registries use observational study methods to collect uniform data (clinical and other) to evaluate specified outcomes for a population defined by a particular disease, condition, or exposure. As opposed to administrative databases, patient registries serve one or more predetermined scientific, clinical, or policy purposes. By systematically and prospectively compiling relevant data, patient registries may describe the natural history of a disease, determine effectiveness and cost-effectiveness, assess safety or harm, and measure quality of care. Registry-based randomized trials (ie, randomized trials within a clinical registry) combine the advantages of a prospective randomized trial with the strengths of a large-scale all-comers clinical registry. Challenges and issues in the design and implementation of patient registries include the representativeness of participants, data collection, quality assurance, ownership, and governance. Notwithstanding their limitations, patient registries represent valuable tools in the conduct of research in the area of home oxygen therapy.