Sex and menstrual cycle phase at encoding influence emotional memory for gist and detail.

Sex influences on emotional memory have received increasing interest over the past decade. However, only a subset of this previous work explored the influence of sex on memory for central information (gist) and peripheral detail in emotional versus neutral contexts. Here we examined the influence of sex and menstrual cycle phase at encoding on memory for either an emotional or neutral story, specifically with respect to the retention of gist and peripheral detail. Healthy naturally cycling women and men viewed a brief, narrated, three-phase story containing neutral or emotionally arousing elements. One week later, participants received a surprise free recall test for story elements. The results indicate that naturally cycling women in the luteal (high hormone) phase of the menstrual cycle at encoding show enhanced memory for peripheral details, but not gist, when in the emotional compared with neutral stories (p<.05). In contrast, naturally cycling women in the follicular (low hormone) phase of the menstrual cycle at encoding did not show enhanced memory for gist or peripheral details in the emotional compared with neutral stories. Men show enhanced memory for gist, but not peripheral details, in the emotional versus neutral stories (p<.05). In addition, these sex influences on memory cannot be attributed to differences in attention or arousal; luteal women, follicular women, and men performed similarly on measures of attention (fixation time percentage) and arousal (pupil diameter changes) during the most arousing phase of the emotional story. These findings suggest that sex and menstrual cycle phase at encoding influence long term memory for different types of emotional information.

Association between first oral examination characteristics and dental treatment needs in privately insured children: A claims data analysis.

BACKGROUND: Early childhood caries (ECC) remains the most common, preventable infectious disease among children in the United States. Screening is recommended after the eruption of the first tooth, but it is unclear how the age at first dental examination is associated with eventual restorative treatment needs. The authors of this study sought to determine how provider type and age at first dental examination are associated longitudinally with caries experience among children in the United States. METHODS: Deidentified claims data were included for 706,636 privately insured children aged 0 through 6 years as part of the nationwide IBM Watson Health Market Scan (2012-2017). The authors used Kaplan-Meier survival analysis to describe the association between the age of first visit and restorative treatment needs. RESULTS: A total of 21% of this population required restorative treatment, and the average age at first dental examination was 3.6 years. A multivariable Cox proportional hazards model showed increased hazard for restorative treatment with age at first dental visit at 3 years (hazard ratio, 2.05; 95% CI, 1.97 to 2.13) and 4 years (hazard ratio, 3.99; 95% CI, 3.84 to 4.16). CONCLUSION: The high proportion of children requiring restorative treatment and late age at first dental screening show needed investments in educating general dentists, medical students, and pediatricians about oral health guidelines for pediatric patients. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: Communicating the importance of children establishing a dental home by age 1 year to parents and health care professionals may help reduce disease burden in children younger than 6 years.

The use of triclosan-coated sutures to prevent surgical site infections: a systematic review and meta-analysis of the literature.

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: Surgical site infections (SSIs) represent a common and serious complication of all surgical interventions. Microorganisms are able to colonise sutures that are implanted in the skin, which is a causative factor of SSIs. Triclosan-coated sutures are antibacterial sutures aimed at reducing SSIs. Our objective is to update the existing literature by systematically reviewing available evidence to assess the effectiveness of triclosan-coated sutures in the prevention of SSIs. METHODS: A systematic review of EMBASE, MEDLINE, AMED (Allied and complementary medicine database) and CENTRAL was performed to identify full text randomised controlled trials (RCTs) on 31 May 2019. INTERVENTION: Triclosan-coated sutures versus non-triclosan-coated sutures. PRIMARY OUTCOME: Our primary outcome was the development of SSIs at 30 days postoperatively. A meta-analysis was performed using a fixed-effects model. RESULTS: Twenty-five RCTs were included involving 11 957 participants. Triclosan-coated sutures were used in 6008 participants and non triclosan-coated sutures were used in 5949. Triclosan-coated sutures significantly reduced the risk of SSIs at 30 days (relative risk 0.73, 95% CI 0.65 to 0.82). Further sensitivity analysis demonstrated that triclosan-coated sutures significantly reduced the risk of SSIs in both clean and contaminated surgery. CONCLUSION: Triclosan-coated sutures have been shown to significantly reduced the risk of SSIs when compared with standard sutures. This is in agreement with previous work in this area. This study represented the largest review to date in this area. This moderate quality evidence recommends the use of triclosan-coated sutures in order to reduce the risk of SSIs particularly in clean and contaminated surgical procedures. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42014014856.

Recent Patents on Light-Based Anti-Infective Approaches.

BACKGROUND: Antibiotic resistance is one of the most serious health threats to modern medicine. The lack of potent antibiotics puts us at a disadvantage in the fight against infectious diseases, especially those caused by antibiotic-resistant microbial strains. To this end, an urgent need to search for alternative antimicrobial approaches has arisen. In the last decade, light-based anti-infective therapy has made significant strides in this fight to combat antibiotic resistance among various microbial strains. This method includes utilizing antimicrobial blue light, antimicrobial photodynamic therapy, and germicidal ultraviolet irradiation, among others. Light-based therapy is advantageous over traditional antibiotics in that it eradicates microbial cells rapidly and the likelihood of light-resistance development by microbes is low. METHODS: This review highlights the patents on light-based therapy that were filed approximately within the last decade and are dedicated to eradicating pathogenic microorganisms. The primary database that was used for the search was Google Patents. The searches were performed using the keywords including blue light, antimicrobial photodynamic therapy, ultraviolet irradiation, antibiotic resistance, disinfection, bacterium, fungus, and virus. RESULTS: Forty-five patents were obtained in our search: 9 patents for the antimicrobial blue light approach, 21 for antimicrobial photodynamic therapy, 11 for UV irradiation, and lastly 4 for other light-based anti-infective approaches. The treatments and devices discussed in this review are interestingly enough able to be used in various different functions and settings, such as dental applications, certain eye diseases, skin and hard surface cleansing, decontamination of internal organs (e.g., the stomach), decontamination of apparel and equipment, eradication of pathogenic microorganisms from buildings and rooms, etc. Most of the devices and inventions introduce methods of destroying pathogenic bacteria and fungi without harming human cells and tissues. CONCLUSIONS: Light-based antimicrobial approaches hold great promise for the future in regards to treating antibiotic-resistant infections and related diseases.

Postlearning stress differentially affects memory for emotional gist and detail in naturally cycling women and women on hormonal contraceptives.

Sex differences in emotional memory have received increasing interest over the past decade. However, to date, no work has explored how a postlearning stressor might modulate the influence of sex hormone status on memory for gist and peripheral detail in an emotional versus neutral context. Here, we tested 3 predictions. First, compared with naturally cycling (NC) women in the luteal phase, women on hormonal contraception (HC) would have significantly blunted hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal reactivity to physical stress. Second, postlearning stress would enhance detail and gist memory from an emotional story in NC women, and finally, postlearning stress would not affect emotional memory for details or gist in HC women. Healthy NC and HC women viewed a brief, narrated story containing neutral or emotionally arousing elements. Immediately after, cold pressor stress (CPS) or a control procedure was administered. One week later, participants received a surprise free recall test for story elements. NC women exhibited significantly greater cortisol increases to CPS compared with HC women. NC women who viewed the emotional story and were administered CPS recalled the most peripheral details overall and more gist from the emotional compared with the neutral story. In HC women, however, the postlearning cortisol release did not affect memory for gist or peripheral details from the emotional or neutral story in any way. Additionally, NC and HC women performed similarly on measures of attention and arousal. These findings suggest that in women, postlearning stress differentially affects memory for emotional information depending on their hormonal contraceptive status.