The Interaction of Type II Diabetes and Gonadal Steroids on Cognition in Middle-Aged Women

Diabetes is not commonly thought to be a women’s health issue, however, it appears to have an association with increased cognitive impairment in women during menopause as compared to women without diabetes (Espeland et al., 2011). The present study investigated the effects of type II diabetes and menopause on cognition in women between the ages of 46 and 55 years. To assess cognition, participants performed the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS; Randolph 1998), Letter Number Sequencing Test (Wechsler, 1997), Trail Making Test (Delis, 2001), Verbal Fluency Test (Delis, 2001), Wechsler Test of Adult Reading (Wechsler, 2001), and the Buschke Selective Reminding and Delayed Recall Tests (Buschke, 1974). Participants also answered questionnaires on mood, diabetes, and hormone and reproductive history. No premenopausal women or perimenopausal women with diabetes participated. Women were divided into the following groups to examine the interactions of diabetes and hormones on cognition: perimenopausal women without diabetes, postmenopausal women with diabetes, and postmenopausal women without diabetes. It was predicted that women with diabetes would score lower on all tests, with an emphasis on difficulties with executive function and memory. Postmenopausal women with diabetes showed lower scores in working memory, executive control, visual attention, task switching, and episodic memory as seen in data from the Letter Number Sequencing Test, Verbal Fluency Test, Trail Making Test, and Buschke Selective Reminding and Delayed Recall Tests, respectively. Perimenopausal women without diabetes showed lower scores than postmenopausal women with and without diabetes on verbal memory and executive control. The sample of eight women was small, though there were indications of differences between groups highlighting the need for further research

Leishmania manipulation of sand fly feeding behavior results in enhanced transmission.

In nature the prevalence of Leishmania infection in whole sand fly populations can be very low (<0.1%), even in areas of endemicity and high transmission. It has long since been assumed that the protozoan parasite Leishmania can manipulate the feeding behavior of its sand fly vector, thus enhancing transmission efficiency, but neither the way in which it does so nor the mechanisms behind such manipulation have been described. A key feature of parasite development in the sand fly gut is the secretion of a gel-like plug composed of filamentous proteophosphoglycan. Using both experimental and natural parasite-sand fly combinations we show that secretion of this gel is accompanied by differentiation of mammal-infective transmission stages. Further, Leishmania infection specifically causes an increase in vector biting persistence on mice (re-feeding after interruption) and also promotes feeding on multiple hosts. Both of these aspects of vector behavior were found to be finely tuned to the differentiation of parasite transmission stages in the sand fly gut. By experimentally accelerating the development rate of the parasites, we showed that Leishmania can optimize its transmission by inducing increased biting persistence only when infective stages are present. This crucial adaptive manipulation resulted in enhanced infection of experimental hosts. Thus, we demonstrate that behavioral manipulation of the infected vector provides a selective advantage to the parasite by significantly increasing transmission

The TLR2/6 ligand PAM2CSK4 is a Th2 polarizing adjuvant in Leishmania major and Brugia malayi murine vaccine models.

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) play an important role in the innate and adaptive immune responses to pathogens, and are the target of new vaccine adjuvants. TLR2 plays a role in parasite recognition and activation of immune responses during cutaneous leishmaniasis infection, suggesting that TLR2 could be targeted by adjuvants for use in Leishmania vaccines. We therefore explored using Pam2CSK4 (Pam2) and Pam3CSK4 (Pam3) lipopeptide adjuvants, which activate TLR2/6 and TLR2/1 heterodimers respectively, in vaccine models for parasitic infections.The use of lipopeptide adjuvants was explored using two vaccine models. For cutaneous leishmaniasis, the lipopeptide adjuvants Pam2 and Pam3 were compared to that of the Th1-driving double-stranded DNA TLR9 agonist CpG for their ability to improve the efficacy of the autoclaved Leishmania major (ALM) vaccine to protect against L. major infection. The ability of Pam2 to enhance the efficacy of a soluble Brugia malayi microfilariae extract (BmMfE) vaccine to protect against filarial infection was also assessed in a peritoneal infection model of B. malayi filariasis. Parasite antigen-specific cellular and humoral immune responses were assessed post-challenge.The use of lipopeptides in ALM-containing vaccines did not provide any protection upon infection with L. major, and Pam2 exacerbated the disease severity in vaccinated mice post-challenge. Pam2, and to a lesser extent Pam3, were able to elevate antigen-specific immune responses post-challenge in this model, but these responses displayed a skewed Th2 phenotype as characterised by elevated levels of IgG1. In the B. malayi vaccine model, the use of Pam2 as an adjuvant with BmMfE induced significant protective immunity to the same level as inclusion of an Alum adjuvant. Here, both Pam2 and Alum were found to enhance antigen-specific antibody production post-challenge, and Pam2 significantly elevated levels of antigen-specific IL-4, IL-5 and IL-13 produced by splenocytes.These data indicate that TLR2/6-targeting ligands could be considered as adjuvants for vaccines that require robust Th2 and/or antibody-dependent immunity

An Optimal Dimensionality Sampling Scheme on the Sphere for Antipodal Signals In Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging

We propose a sampling scheme on the sphere and develop a corresponding spherical harmonic transform (SHT) for the accurate reconstruction of the diffusion signal in diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI). By exploiting the antipodal symmetry, we design a sampling scheme that requires the optimal number of samples on the sphere, equal to the degrees of freedom required to represent the antipodally symmetric band-limited diffusion signal in the spectral (spherical harmonic) domain. Compared with existing sampling schemes on the sphere that allow for the accurate reconstruction of the diffusion signal, the proposed sampling scheme reduces the number of samples required by a factor of two or more. We analyse the numerical accuracy of the proposed SHT and show through experiments that the proposed sampling allows for the accurate and rotationally invariant computation of the SHT to near machine precision accuracy.Comment: Will be published in the proceedings of the International Conference Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing 2015 (ICASSP'2015

Commercial energy efficiency and the environment

The production and use of energy create serious, extensive environmental affects at every level, in every country, argue the authors. That impact may be more serious in developing than in developed countries as developing countries depend more on natural resources and lack the economic strength to withstand environmental consequences. At the same time, a reliable energy supply is vital to economic growth and development. Energy consumption and economic growth have been somewhat delinked at high income levels, but increased energy consumption (especially of electricity) is inevitable with higher GDP. Greater energy efficiency in developing countries and Eastern Europe is a high-priority way to mitigate the harm to the environment of growing energy consumption, say the authors. They outline four advantages of greater energy efficiency. It requires measures that are in the economic self-interest of those regions. Political obstacles make these measures difficult, but there are well-established techniques for addressing concerns about low-income consumers (such as direct income support or life-line rates). It will help conserve the world supply of nonrenewable (especially fossil) fuels. It will encourage appropriate fuel switching. It addresses every level of concern, up to the global effects of global warming. Any strategy to make energy use and production more efficient must rely more extensively than before on markets that are allowed to function with less government interference. The crucial components of such a straetegy (also crucial to economic development generally) are: more domestic and external competition; the gradual elimination of energy pricing distortions; the reduction of macroeconomic and sectoral distortions (for example, in foreign exchange and credit markets); the reform of energy supply enterprises - reducing state interference, providing more financial autonomy and a greater role for the private sector; consumer incentives to select more efficient lights, space heating, and so on. The authors are not convinced of the need for nonmarket approaches beyond those geared to correct externalities, provide essential information, support basic research and development, and possibly promote pilot projects. They also conclude that a government is far more likely to take action to reduce an environmental externality if it captures benefits within its own national boundaries that exceed the cost of the action. Reducing the large difference between energy prices and economic costs in developing countries and Eastern Europe is a more immediate issue than carbon taxes. The developed countries, say the authors, have an indispensable role to play in improving energy efficiency in the developing countries and Eastern Europe. They can encourage the flow of efficient technology, they can increase conventional aid, and they must accept a greater share of the burden of protecting the global commonalities.Energy and Environment,Environmental Economics&Policies,Energy Demand,Transport and Environment,Power&Energy Conversion

Comparing Teacher Education and Finance Majors’ Agreement with Financial Morality Topics

The authors describe findings of a survey that contains items related to financial morality. They analyzed responses of 382 teacher education majors and finance majors at a Midwestern institution of higher learning. The study found highest agreement with items measuring business responsibilities, and lowest agreement with items related to wealth distribution. It notes significant differences and varying effect sizes among education and finance majors’ interpretation of items concerning business responsibility, wealth distribution, and business management. Analysis of items concerning consumer attitudes and consumer behaviors found significant differences and moderate effect sizes. The authors argue for additional research that explores the concepts related to financial morality and provide suggestions for related study.

Allied Health Regional Workforce Analysis: Bay Area Region

Analyzes the racial/ethnic composition of workers in twenty-two health occupations and graduates of healthcare education programs in the Bay Area. Examines disparities by race/ethnicity in the types of occupations held, educational attainment, and wages

Allied Health Regional Workforce Analysis: Central California

Analyzes the racial/ethnic compositions of workers in twenty-two health occupations and graduates of healthcare education programs in the Central Valley. Examines disparities by race/ethnicity in occupations held, educational attainment, and wages