IntroductionIn the total increase in the rate of smoking in the population of Mongolia, the smoking rate among women of the age of 15-24 years old increased up to 4.2% which is higher by 1.9 points against the level of the year 2005. The average age of starting smoking among women decreased by 3 years compared to 2005 evidencing the increase in the prevalence of smoking among the female population. However, there is no study on prevalence of smoking focusing on school age girls. Researches on the prevalence of smoking and KAP of the population shall play an important part in reduction of tobacco consumption, assisting smoking cessation and determining the effective forms of anti-tobacco communications.Materials and MethodsThe study of the tobacco consumption and risk factors among the school age girls of the 6-11th grades is a cross-sectional study covering the school age girls of 6-11th grades of Suhbaatar, Chingeltei, Bayangol and Songinokhairkhan districts of Ulaanbaatar and Uvurkhangai, Khovd, Dornod and Umnugobi aimags. The participants of the study were selected by random sampling. The study used qualitative and quantitative methods. The study involved 1208 school age girls of 6-11th grades. The data of the survey was analyzed with SPSS software.ResultsEvery third or 33.7% of the schoolchildren of 6-11th grades smoke. The rate of smoking is as twice higher in the metropolitan settings as in provincial aimags. The answer that there are smokers in the family given by 64% of the respondents implies that two in three target age school girls are exposed to second-hand smoking. Every fifth of the girls find themselves in tobacco affected areas daily. Of the target age/gender group, 36.5% reported that they buy cigarettes in kiosks, shops and stores and one in each two schools have any form of tobacco selling points within 100 meters which implies a potential impact of the surrounding environment. Around 90% of the participants of the quantitative survey were able to correctly list the health hazards of smoking, however, the qualitative survey results demonstrate that they have confusions on the health hazards of smoking and have insufficient understanding of the long term effects of smoking.Conclusions:1. Girl in the metropolitan settings smoke more than in provincial settings.2. Smoking at schools and public places are common in both metropolitan and provincial areas.3. The smoking behaviors of the girls are influenced by their and peers. insufficient knowledge 4. It was identified by the research that all smoking girls in the capital and in provinces are wishing to quit smoking.5. Though the girls receive information on tobacco from mass media, friends and Health Education subject, the information received through these channels are insufficient to impact their knowledge and change their behavior.6. The number of school children exposed to the impact of tobacco tends to increase by their age.

Archives ; Breast Neoplasms ; Breast ; Clone Cells ; Drug Therapy ; Ectopic Gene Expression ; Gene Expression ; Humans ; Microarray Analysis ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Neoplastic Stem Cells ; Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis ; Prognosis ; Survival Rate

Traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) research has recently focused on the use of rat and mouse models for in vivo SCI experiments. Such small rodent SCI models are invaluable for the field, and much has been discovered about the biologic and physiologic aspects of SCI from these models. It has been difficult, however, to reproduce the efficacy of treatments found to produce neurologic benefits in rodent SCI models when these treatments are tested in human clinical trials. A large animal model may have advantages for translational research where anatomical, physiological, or genetic similarities to humans may be more relevant for pre-clinically evaluating novel therapies. Here, we review the work carried out at the University of British Columbia (UBC) on a large animal model of SCI that utilizes Yucatan miniature pigs. The UBC porcine model of SCI may be a useful intermediary in the pre-clinical testing of novel pharmacological treatments, cell-based therapies, and the “bedside back to bench” translation of human clinical observations, which require preclinical testing in an applicable animal model.
Animals ; British Columbia ; Humans ; Mice ; Models, Animal ; Rats ; Rodentia ; Spinal Cord Injuries ; Spinal Cord ; Swine ; Translational Medical Research

Resistance to cancer therapy continues to be a major limitation for the successful treatment of cancer. There are many published studies on therapy resistance in breast and prostate cancers; however, there are currently no data on molecular markers associated with resistance. The conflicting data were reported regarding the AKT/m-TOR signaling pathway components as markers predicting resistance. The AKT/m-TOR signaling pathway is involved in the development of many human cancers; its activation is related to cell proliferation, angiogenesis, apoptosis, as well as to therapy resistance. Molecular alterations in the AKT/m-TOR signaling pathway provide a platform to identify universal markers associated with the development of resistance to cancer therapy.
Animals ; Biomarkers, Tumor ; metabolism ; Drug Resistance, Neoplasm ; Humans ; Molecular Targeted Therapy ; methods ; Neoplasms ; drug therapy ; metabolism ; pathology ; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt ; metabolism ; Signal Transduction ; drug effects ; TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases ; metabolism

BACKGROUND: In-hospital mortality in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is high. Simple prognostic indices are needed to identify patients at high-risk of COVID-19 health outcomes. We aimed to determine the usefulness of the CONtrolling NUTritional status (CONUT) index as a potential prognostic indicator of mortality in COVID-19 patients upon hospital admission. METHODS: Our study design is of a retrospective observational study in a large cohort of COVID-19 patients. In addition to descriptive statistics, a Kaplan-Meier mortality analysis and a Cox regression were performed, as well as receiver operating curve (ROC). RESULTS: From February 5, 2020 to January 21, 2021, there was a total of 2969 admissions for COVID-19 at our hospital, corresponding to 2844 patients. Overall, baseline (within 4 days of admission) CONUT index could be scored for 1627 (57.2%) patients. Patients' age was 67.3 ± 16.5 years and 44.9% were women. The CONUT severity distribution was: 194 (11.9%) normal (0-1); 769 (47.2%) light (2-4); 585 (35.9%) moderate (5-8); and 79 (4.9%) severe (9-12). Mortality of 30 days after admission was 3.1% in patients with normal risk CONUT, 9.0% light, 22.7% moderate, and 40.5% in those with severe CONUT (P < 0.05). An increased risk of death associated with a greater baseline CONUT stage was sustained in a multivariable Cox regression model (P < 0.05). An increasing baseline CONUT stage was associated with a longer duration of admission, a greater requirement for the use of non-invasive and invasive mechanical ventilation, and other clinical outcomes (all P < 0.05). The ROC of CONUT for mortality had an area under the curve (AUC) and 95% confidence interval of 0.711 (0.676-0746). CONCLUSION The CONUT index upon admission is potentially a reliable and independent prognostic indicator of mortality and length of hospitalization in COVID-19 patients.
Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; COVID-19 ; Female ; Hospitalization ; Hospitals ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Nutrition Assessment ; Nutritional Status ; Outcome Assessment, Health Care ; Prognosis ; Retrospective Studies ; SARS-CoV-2

Background: and Purpose Recent studies suggested an increased incidence of cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. We evaluated the volume of CVT hospitalization and in-hospital mortality during the 1st year of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the preceding year. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional retrospective study of 171 stroke centers from 49 countries. We recorded COVID-19 admission volumes, CVT hospitalization, and CVT in-hospital mortality from January 1, 2019, to May 31, 2021. CVT diagnoses were identified by International Classification of Disease-10 (ICD-10) codes or stroke databases. We additionally sought to compare the same metrics in the first 5 months of 2021 compared to the corresponding months in 2019 and 2020 (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04934020). Results: There were 2,313 CVT admissions across the 1-year pre-pandemic (2019) and pandemic year (2020); no differences in CVT volume or CVT mortality were observed. During the first 5 months of 2021, there was an increase in CVT volumes compared to 2019 (27.5%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 24.2 to 32.0; P<0.0001) and 2020 (41.4%; 95% CI, 37.0 to 46.0; P<0.0001). A COVID-19 diagnosis was present in 7.6% (132/1,738) of CVT hospitalizations. CVT was present in 0.04% (103/292,080) of COVID-19 hospitalizations. During the first pandemic year, CVT mortality was higher in patients who were COVID positive compared to COVID negative patients (8/53 [15.0%] vs. 41/910 [4.5%], P=0.004). There was an increase in CVT mortality during the first 5 months of pandemic years 2020 and 2021 compared to the first 5 months of the pre-pandemic year 2019 (2019 vs. 2020: 2.26% vs. 4.74%, P=0.05; 2019 vs. 2021: 2.26% vs. 4.99%, P=0.03). In the first 5 months of 2021, there were 26 cases of vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT), resulting in six deaths. Conclusions During the 1st year of the COVID-19 pandemic, CVT hospitalization volume and CVT in-hospital mortality did not change compared to the prior year. COVID-19 diagnosis was associated with higher CVT in-hospital mortality. During the first 5 months of 2021, there was an increase in CVT hospitalization volume and increase in CVT-related mortality, partially attributable to VITT.