BACKGROUND Support in primary care can assist smokers to quit successfully, but there are barriers to general practitioners (GPs) providing this support routinely. Practice nurses (PNs) may be able to effectively take on this role. OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to perform a process evaluation of a PN-led smoking cessation intervention being tested in a randomized controlled trial in Au...

Brain extracellular matrix (ECM) is organized in specific patterns assumed to mirror local features of neuronal activity and synaptic plasticity. Aggrecan-based perineuronal nets (PNs) and brevican-based perisynaptic axonal coats (ACs) form major structural phenotypes of ECM contributing to the laminar characteristics of cortical areas. In Alzheimer's disease (AD), the deposition of amyloid pro...

Paraneoplastic neurological syndromes (PNS) are disorders of the nervous system that are associated with remote effects of malignancy. PNS are considered to have an autoimmune pathology. It has been suggested that immune antitumor responses are the origin of improved outcome in PNS. We describe cell-mediated immune responses in PNS and their potential contributions to antitumor reactions. Exper...

The goal of this experiment was to investigate the protective effect and the molecular mechanism of Panax Notoginseng Saponins (PNS) on cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity through mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis. The rats underwent intraperitoneal injection with a single dose of cisplatin, a subset of rats were also intraperitoneally injected with 31.35 mg/kg PNS once a day for 8 days. At day 1...

Exposure to prenatal adversity is associated with aggression later in life. Individual differences in autonomic nervous system (ANS) functioning, specifically nonreciprocal activation of the parasympathetic (PNS) and sympathetic (SNS) nervous systems, increase susceptibility to aggression, especially in the context of adversity. Previous work examining interactions between early adversity and A...

The present longitudinal study described developmental patterns of perceived psychological need satisfaction (PNS) from the end of elementary school to the end of high school and their contribution to school adjustment at the end of high school. The first goal thus consisted in estimating whether developmental trajectories of perceived PNS were homogeneous (i.e., all students reported similar d...

Gap junctions between neurons serve as electrical synapses, in addition to conducting metabolites and signaling molecules. During development, early-appearing gap are thought prefigure chemical which appear much later. We present evidence for this idea at a central, glutamatergic synapse provide some mechanistic insights. Loss or reduction the levels of junction protein Gjd2b decreased frequenc...

Vocal communication depends on the coordinated activity of sensorimotor neurons important to vocal perception and production. How vocalizations are represented by spatiotemporal activity patterns in these neuronal populations remains poorly understood. Here we combined intracellular recordings and two-photon calcium imaging in anesthetized adult zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) to examine ho...

BACKGROUND The views of primary health care providers concerning their willingness to consult with under-16-year-old adolescent patients without the presence of a parent or guardian are not well documented. Many young people believe they have to be aged over 16 years to see their general practitioner (GP) alone. Confidentiality is a major concern for young people. It is important that more is k...

Perineuronal nets (PNs) in the brains of tenascin-R-deficient (tn-r(-/-)) mice develop in temporal concordance with those of wild-type (tn-r(+/+)) mice. However, the histological appearance of PNs is abnormal in adult tn-r(-/-) mice. Here, we investigated whether similar defects are also seen in dissociated and organotypic cultures from hippocampus and forebrain of tn-r(-/-) mice and whether th...