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These findings improve the mechanistic understanding of floral microbiome assembly, and may be generalizable to many other plants that are visited by diverse insect pollinators in natural and managed ecosystems.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has called for research into tobacco harm reduction across ethnicities, genders and socio-economic status. Although there is increasing research focused on the latter two, relatively few studies have considered ethnic variations. Therefore this study aimed to assess (i) the association between ethnicity and use of e-cigarettes and nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) for temporary abstinence and cutting down, and (ii) trends in prevalence of these over time.

Repeated cross-sectional household survey.

England.

Between April 2013 and September 2019, data were collected on 24 114 smokers, 16+ of age, taking part in the Smoking Toolkit Study (STS).

Ethnicity coding included White, mixed/multiple ethnic group, Asian, Black and Arab/other ethnic group. Smokers reported whether they were currently using e-cigarettes and/or NRT for cutting down or during periods of temporary abstinence.

Odds of e-cigarette use for cutting down and temporary abstinwith other ethnic groups for cutting down and temporary abstinence. E-cigarette use by smokers for cutting down and temporary abstinence has increased over time among White smokers, whereas prevalence in other ethnic groups has remained stable.

In England, e-cigarette use by smokers for cutting down and temporary abstinence is less common among Asian and Arab/other ethnicity smokers compared with White smokers. Smokers of mixed/multiple ethnicity are the most likely to be using NRT compared with other ethnic groups for cutting down and temporary abstinence. E-cigarette use by smokers for cutting down and temporary abstinence has increased over time among White smokers, whereas prevalence in other ethnic groups has remained stable.Brain morphology varies across the ageing trajectory and the prediction of a person’s age using brain features can aid the detection of abnormalities in the ageing process. Existing studies on such “brain age prediction” vary widely in terms of their methods and type of data, so at present the most accurate and generalisable methodological approach is unclear. Therefore, we used the UK Biobank data set (N = 10,824, age range 47-73) to compare the performance of the machine learning models support vector regression, relevance vector regression and Gaussian process regression on whole-brain region-based or voxel-based structural magnetic resonance imaging data with or without dimensionality reduction through principal component analysis. Performance was assessed in the validation set through cross-validation as well as an independent test set. The models achieved mean absolute errors between 3.7 and 4.7 years, with those trained on voxel-level data with principal component analysis performing best. Overall, we observed little difference in performance between models trained on the same data type, indicating that the type of input data had greater impact on performance than model choice. All code is provided online in the hope that this will aid future research.

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has necessitated significant changes in working practices across healthcare services. The current study aimed to assess the wellbeing of health professionals and quantify the adaptations to working practices in a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) during the pandemic.

The study was conducted in a UK CAMH team six weeks into lockdown measures. All clinicians were invited to complete a survey eliciting their experiences of working practices during the pandemic, degree of worry about the virus and mental wellbeing.

Clinicians had significantly lower levels of mental wellbeing during the pandemic than population normative data, to the extent that some clinicians were classified as at heightened risk of depression. A significant shift to remote working, reduction in face-to-face appointments, and decrease in clinicians’ perceived ability to undertake clinical tasks was observed. learn more Themes emerging from clinicians’ experiences of working during the pandemic include being supported within the team, providing a service, working adaptations, and working as a team. A further theme highlights the needs of clinicians to complete their clinical role effectively.

CAMHS clinicians require additional support, training, and guidance during a pandemic to promote mental wellbeing and effectiveness in completing clinical tasks.

CAMHS clinicians require additional support, training, and guidance during a pandemic to promote mental wellbeing and effectiveness in completing clinical tasks.

Acute lung injury (ALI) not only affects pulmonary function but also leads to intestinal dysfunction, which in turn contributes to ALI. Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) transplantation can be a potential strategy in the treatment of ALI. However, the mechanisms of synergistic regulatory effects by MSCs on the lung and intestine in ALI need more in-depth study.

We evaluated the therapeutic effects of MSCs on the murine model of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced ALI through survival rate, histopathology and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. Metagenomic sequencing was performed to assess the gut microbiota. The levels of pulmonary and intestinal inflammation and immune response were assessed by analysing cytokine expression and flow cytometry.

Mesenchymal stem cells significantly improved the survival rate of mice with ALI, alleviated histopathological lung damage, improved intestinal barrier integrity, and reduced the levels of inflammatory cytokines in the lung and gut. Furthermore, MSCs inhibited the inflammatory response by decreasing the infiltration of CD8

T cells in both small-intestinal lymphocytes and Peyer’s patches. The gut bacterial community diversity was significantly altered by MSC transplantation. Furthermore, depletion of intestinal bacterial communities with antibiotics resulted in more severe lung and gut damages and mortality, while MSCs significantly alleviated lung injury due to their immunosuppressive effect.

The present research indicates that MSCs attenuate lung and gut injury partly via regulation of the immune response in the lungs and intestines and gut microbiota, providing new insights into the mechanisms underlying the therapeutic effects of MSC treatment for LPS-induced ALI.

The present research indicates that MSCs attenuate lung and gut injury partly via regulation of the immune response in the lungs and intestines and gut microbiota, providing new insights into the mechanisms underlying the therapeutic effects of MSC treatment for LPS-induced ALI.