Peripheral arterial disease and osteoporosis in older adults: the Rancho Bernardo Study

We examined the association between peripheral arterial disease (PAD) and bone health in 1,332 adults. We found a weak association between PAD and osteoporosis and bone loss only in women, but the association was not independent of age. PAD was not associated with fractures in this community-based population. Increased rates of osteoporosis have been reported in patients with cardiovascular disease, suggesting a link between osteoporosis and atherosclerosis. We examined the association between PAD and bone health in 1,332 adults who attended a research visit in 1992–1996, when the ankle–brachial index (ABI), bone mineral density (BMD), and spine X-rays were obtained. A total of 837 participants attended a follow-up visit in 1997–2000. PAD defined by an ABI ≤ 0.90 was present in 15.4% of the women and 13.3% of the men. Prevalence of osteoporosis was significantly higher in women with PAD compared to women without PAD (p < 0.05). During an average 4-year follow-up, women with PAD had a significantly higher rate of bone loss than women without PAD (p = 0.05). The associations were no longer significant after age adjustment. In men, PAD was not associated with osteoporosis, but men with PAD had lower BMD at the femoral neck than men without PAD (p = 0.03). PAD was not associated with osteoporotic fractures in either sex. We found a weak and age-dependent association between PAD and osteoporosis in women but not men. PAD was not associated with fractures in this community-based population

Choral Ensembles Spring Concert

This Kennesaw State University School of Music performance features Chamber Singers, Men\u27s Ensemble, and University Chorale directed by Dr. Leslie Blackwell, Director of Choral Activities and Professor of Music and Music Education.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/musicprograms/2054/thumbnail.jp

A Component-Based Approach for Scientific Services for Education and Research (Scientific SEARCH)

Today’s challenge for retrieving digital information by users such as “students,” educators,” or “researchers” is coping, more than ever before, with the excessive data and information available. The problem is further compounded because of the way scientific knowledge is structured, in terms of expert interviews, articles, conference coverage, journal scans etc. Great progress has been made in digital library research. The NSF/NSDL through their initiatives has assembled a great set of tools and techniques that hold significant potential. Many projects are now underway applying these tools and techniques to meet the information needs of different user communities. The primary focus of Scientific SEARCH project is enhancing access to high quality learning materials and resources, modules, and other digital objects targeted towards scientific consumer and scientific producer. The project will use a multi-phased approach to achieve the objective. The paper describes the first-phase work submitted to NSF 04-542 solicitation

Modifying the Health Star Rating nutrient profiling algorithm to account for ultra‐processing

Aim: To modify the Australian and New Zealand Health Star Rating to account for ultra‐processing and compare the alignment of the modified ratings with NOVA classifications and the current Australian Dietary Guidelines classifications of core (recommended foods) and discretionary (foods to limit). Methods: Data was cross‐sectionally analysed for 25 486 products. Four approaches were compared to the original Health Star Rating: (1) five ‘negative’ points added to ultra‐processed products (modification 1; inclusion approach); (2) ultra‐processed products restricted to a maximum of 3.0 Health Stars (modification 2; capping approach); (3 and 4) same approach used for modifications 1 and 2 but only applied to products that already exceeded 10 ‘negative’ points from existing Health Star Rating attributes (modifications 3 and 4, respectively; hybrid approaches). Alignment occurred when products (i) received <3.5 Health Stars and were NOVA group 4 (for NOVA comparison) or discretionary (for Dietary Guidelines comparison), or (ii) received ≥3.5 Health Stars and were NOVA groups 1–3 or core. Results: All Health Star Rating modifications resulted in greater alignment with NOVA (ranging from 69% to 88%) compared to the original Health Star Rating (66%). None of the modifications resulted in greater alignment to the Dietary Guidelines classifications overall (69% to 76%, compared with 77% for the original Health Star Rating), but alignment varied considerably by food category. Conclusions: If ultra‐processing were incorporated into the Australian and New Zealand Health Star Rating, consideration of ultra‐processing within the broader dietary guidance framework would be essential to ensure coherent dietary messaging to Australians

A Study of Cosmic Ray Composition in the Knee Region using Multiple Muon Events in the Soudan 2 Detector

Deep underground muon events recorded by the Soudan 2 detector, located at a depth of 2100 meters of water equivalent, have been used to infer the nuclear composition of cosmic rays in the "knee" region of the cosmic ray energy spectrum. The observed muon multiplicity distribution favors a composition model with a substantial proton content in the energy region 800,000 - 13,000,000 GeV/nucleus.Comment: 38 pages including 11 figures, Latex, submitted to Physical Review

Methods for specifying the target difference in a randomised controlled trial : the Difference ELicitation in TriAls (DELTA) systematic review

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The Grizzly, November 17, 1989

Inspired Voices Speak Out Nationally • Appealing for Unborn Lives • Boorstin Speaks at U.C. • Letters: Pledging Under Siege; Grizzly Growls; Did Berman Ask You?; Doctors do it Right; Only Doug; Wipe Mud From Shoudt\u27s Face; Wrong!; GDI Promotes Disunity • Changing Dining Atmosphere • Save a Forest: Recycle! • Career Day • Running Bears Finish Strong • Grizzlies Downed by Devils • Ladies Finish Winning Season • Praise Hockey Team • Swimming Prospectives • Greek News • Stroke on A\u27Bears • Don\u27t Talk Dirty to Me • Top Ten Things Loved at U.C.https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1247/thumbnail.jp

The Functional DRD3 Ser9Gly Polymorphism (rs6280) Is Pleiotropic, Affecting Reward as Well as Movement

Abnormalities of motivation and behavior in the context of reward are a fundamental component of addiction and mood disorders. Here we test the effect of a functional missense mutation in the dopamine 3 receptor (DRD3) gene (ser9gly, rs6280) on reward-associated dopamine (DA) release in the striatum. Twenty-six healthy controls (HCs) and 10 unmedicated subjects with major depressive disorder (MDD) completed two positron emission tomography (PET) scans with [11C]raclopride using the bolus plus constant infusion method. On one occasion subjects completed a sensorimotor task (control condition) and on another occasion subjects completed a gambling task (reward condition). A linear regression analysis controlling for age, sex, diagnosis, and self-reported anhedonia indicated that during receipt of unpredictable monetary reward the glycine allele was associated with a greater reduction in D2/3 receptor binding (i.e., increased reward-related DA release) in the middle (anterior) caudate (p<0.01) and the ventral striatum (p<0.05). The possible functional effect of the ser9gly polymorphism on DA release is consistent with previous work demonstrating that the glycine allele yields D3 autoreceptors that have a higher affinity for DA and display more robust intracellular signaling. Preclinical evidence indicates that chronic stress and aversive stimulation induce activation of the DA system, raising the possibility that the glycine allele, by virtue of its facilitatory effect on striatal DA release, increases susceptibility to hyperdopaminergic responses that have previously been associated with stress, addiction, and psychosis

Genome-Wide Interaction-Based Association Analysis Identified Multiple New Susceptibility Loci for Common Diseases

Genome-wide interaction-based association (GWIBA) analysis has the potential to identify novel susceptibility loci. These interaction effects could be missed with the prevailing approaches in genome-wide association studies (GWAS). However, no convincing loci have been discovered exclusively from GWIBA methods, and the intensive computation involved is a major barrier for application. Here, we developed a fast, multi-thread/parallel program named “pair-wise interaction-based association mapping” (PIAM) for exhaustive two-locus searches. With this program, we performed a complete GWIBA analysis on seven diseases with stringent control for false positives, and we validated the results for three of these diseases. We identified one pair-wise interaction between a previously identified locus, C1orf106, and one new locus, TEC, that was specific for Crohn's disease, with a Bonferroni corrected P<0.05 (P = 0.039). This interaction was replicated with a pair of proxy linked loci (P = 0.013) on an independent dataset. Five other interactions had corrected P<0.5. We identified the allelic effect of a locus close to SLC7A13 for coronary artery disease. This was replicated with a linked locus on an independent dataset (P = 1.09×10−7). Through a local validation analysis that evaluated association signals, rather than locus-based associations, we found that several other regions showed association/interaction signals with nominal P<0.05. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that the GWIBA approach was successful for identifying novel loci, and the results provide new insights into the genetic architecture of common diseases. In addition, our PIAM program was capable of handling very large GWAS datasets that are likely to be produced in the future

Measurement of the quasi-elastic axial vector mass in neutrino-oxygen interactions

The weak nucleon axial-vector form factor for quasi-elastic interactions is determined using neutrino interaction data from the K2K Scintillating Fiber detector in the neutrino beam at KEK. More than 12,000 events are analyzed, of which half are charged-current quasi-elastic interactions nu-mu n to mu- p occurring primarily in oxygen nuclei. We use a relativistic Fermi gas model for oxygen and assume the form factor is approximately a dipole with one parameter, the axial vector mass M_A, and fit to the shape of the distribution of the square of the momentum transfer from the nucleon to the nucleus. Our best fit result for M_A = 1.20 \pm 0.12 GeV. Furthermore, this analysis includes updated vector form factors from recent electron scattering experiments and a discussion of the effects of the nucleon momentum on the shape of the fitted distributions.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures, 6 table