University College Cork

About: University College Cork is a education organization based out in Cork, Ireland. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Context (language use). The organization has 12056 authors who have published 28452 publications receiving 958414 citations. The organization is also known as: Coláiste na hOllscoile Corcaigh & National University of Ireland, Cork.

Subclinical thyroid dysfunction and fracture risk: A meta-analysis

Abstract: Importance Associations between subclinical thyroid dysfunction and fractures are unclear and clinical trials are lacking. Objective To assess the association of subclinical thyroid dysfunction with hip, nonspine, spine, or any fractures. Data Sources and Study Selection The databases of MEDLINE and EMBASE (inception to March 26, 2015) were searched without language restrictions for prospective cohort studies with thyroid function data and subsequent fractures. Data Extraction Individual participant data were obtained from 13 prospective cohorts in the United States, Europe, Australia, and Japan. Levels of thyroid function were defined as euthyroidism (thyroid-stimulating hormone [TSH], 0.45-4.49 mIU/L), subclinical hyperthyroidism (TSH Main Outcome and Measures The primary outcome was hip fracture. Any fractures, nonspine fractures, and clinical spine fractures were secondary outcomes. Results Among 70 298 participants, 4092 (5.8%) had subclinical hypothyroidism and 2219 (3.2%) had subclinical hyperthyroidism. During 762 401 person-years of follow-up, hip fracture occurred in 2975 participants (4.6%; 12 studies), any fracture in 2528 participants (9.0%; 8 studies), nonspine fracture in 2018 participants (8.4%; 8 studies), and spine fracture in 296 participants (1.3%; 6 studies). In age- and sex-adjusted analyses, the hazard ratio (HR) for subclinical hyperthyroidism vs euthyroidism was 1.36 for hip fracture (95% CI, 1.13-1.64; 146 events in 2082 participants vs 2534 in 56 471); for any fracture, HR was 1.28 (95% CI, 1.06-1.53; 121 events in 888 participants vs 2203 in 25 901); for nonspine fracture, HR was 1.16 (95% CI, 0.95-1.41; 107 events in 946 participants vs 1745 in 21 722); and for spine fracture, HR was 1.51 (95% CI, 0.93-2.45; 17 events in 732 participants vs 255 in 20 328). Lower TSH was associated with higher fracture rates: for TSH of less than 0.10 mIU/L, HR was 1.61 for hip fracture (95% CI, 1.21-2.15; 47 events in 510 participants); for any fracture, HR was 1.98 (95% CI, 1.41-2.78; 44 events in 212 participants); for nonspine fracture, HR was 1.61 (95% CI, 0.96-2.71; 32 events in 185 participants); and for spine fracture, HR was 3.57 (95% CI, 1.88-6.78; 8 events in 162 participants). Risks were similar after adjustment for other fracture risk factors. Endogenous subclinical hyperthyroidism (excluding thyroid medication users) was associated with HRs of 1.52 (95% CI, 1.19-1.93) for hip fracture, 1.42 (95% CI, 1.16-1.74) for any fracture, and 1.74 (95% CI, 1.01-2.99) for spine fracture. No association was found between subclinical hypothyroidism and fracture risk. Conclusions and Relevance Subclinical hyperthyroidism was associated with an increased risk of hip and other fractures, particularly among those with TSH levels of less than 0.10 mIU/L and those with endogenous subclinical hyperthyroidism. Further study is needed to determine whether treating subclinical hyperthyroidism can prevent fractures.

Interventional tools to improve medication adherence: review of literature

Abstract: Medication adherence and persistence is recognized as a worldwide public health problem, particularly important in the management of chronic diseases Nonadherence to medical plans affects every level of the population, but particularly older adults due to the high number of coexisting diseases they are affected by and the consequent polypharmacy Chronic disease management requires a continuous psychological adaptation and behavioral reorganization In literature, many interventions to improve medication adherence have been described for different clinical conditions, however, most interventions seem to fail in their aims Moreover, most interventions associated with adherence improvements are not associated with improvements in other outcomes Indeed, in the last decades, the degree of nonadherence remained unchanged In this work, we review the most frequent interventions employed to increase the degree of medication adherence, the measured outcomes, and the improvements achieved, as well as the main limitations of the available studies on adherence, with a particular focus on older persons

Skin microbiome before development of atopic dermatitis: Early colonization with commensal staphylococci at 2 months is associated with a lower risk of atopic dermatitis at 1 year.

Abstract: Background Disease flares of established atopic dermatitis (AD) are generally associated with a low-diversity skin microbiota and Staphylococcus aureus dominance. The temporal transition of the skin microbiome between early infancy and the dysbiosis of established AD is unknown. Methods We randomly selected 50 children from the Cork Babies After SCOPE: Evaluating the Longitudinal Impact Using Neurological and Nutritional Endpoints (BASELINE) longitudinal birth cohort for microbiome sampling at 3 points in the first 6 months of life at 4 skin sites relevant to AD: the antecubital and popliteal fossae, nasal tip, and cheek. We identified 10 infants with AD and compared them with 10 randomly selected control infants with no AD. We performed bacterial 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing and analysis directly from clinical samples. Results Bacterial community structures and diversity shifted over time, suggesting that age strongly affects the skin microbiome in infants. Unlike established AD, these patients with infantile AD did not have noticeably dysbiotic communities before or with disease and were not colonized by S aureus . In comparing patients and control subjects, infants who had affected skin at month 12 had statistically significant differences in bacterial communities on the antecubital fossa at month 2 compared with infants who were unaffected at month 12. In particular, commensal staphylococci were significantly less abundant in infants affected at month 12, suggesting that this genus might protect against the later development of AD. Conclusions This study suggests that 12-month-old infants with AD were not colonized with S aureus before having AD. Additional studies are needed to confirm whether colonization with commensal staphylococci modulates skin immunity and attenuates development of AD.

Construction of classes of circuit-independent chaotic oscillators using passive-only nonlinear devices

Abstract: Two generic classes of chaotic oscillators comprising four different configurations are constructed. The proposed structures are based on the simplest possible abstract models of generic second-order RC sinusoidal oscillators that satisfy the basic condition for oscillation and the frequency of oscillation formulas. By linking these sinusoidal oscillator engines to simple passive first-order or second-order nonlinear composites, chaos is generated and the evolution of the two-dimensional sinusoidal oscillator dynamics into a higher dimensional state space is clearly recognized. We further discuss three architectures into which autonomous chaotic oscillators can be decomposed. Based on one of these architectures we classify a large number of the available chaotic oscillators and propose a novel reconstruction of the classical Chua's circuit. The well-known Lorenz system of equations is also studied and a simplified model with equivalent dynamics, but containing no multipliers, is introduced.