Liver fat as risk factor of hepatic and cardiometabolic diseases

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a disorder characterized by excessive accumulation of fat in the liver that can progress to liver inflammation (non-alcoholic steatohepatitis [NASH]), liver fibrosis, and cirrhosis. Although most efforts for drug development are focusing on the treatment of the latest stages of NAFLD, where significant fibrosis and NASH are present, findings from studies suggest that the amount of liver fat may be an important independent risk factor and/or predictor of development and progression of NAFLD and metabolic diseases. In this review, we first describe the current tools available for quantification of liver fat in humans and then present the clinical and pathophysiological evidence that link liver fat with NAFLD progression as well as with cardiometabolic diseases. Finally, we discuss current pharmacological and non-pharmacological approaches to reduce liver fat and present open questions that have to be addressed in future studies

Persistent LHPA Activation in German Individuals Raised in an Overprotective Parental Behavior

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.Parental upbringing may affect their offspring’s mental state across the entire lifespan. Overprotective parental child-rearing style may increase the disease burden in the offspring. Furthermore, this child-rearing style may also play a pathogenetic role by transmitting trauma- and stressor-related disorders (TSRD) across generations. Studies with animals have demonstrated that the mother’s immediate and expansive protection of the newborn decreases the limbic-hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (LHPA) axis activity in the offspring. However, few studies have investigated how stress impact humans raised in an overprotective manner. In a cross-sectional study with 40 healthy students recalling their overprotective upbringing, we show an increase in the dehydroepiandrostendione (DHEA) concentration and a reduction in the cortisol/DHEA-ratio in hair. Additionally, this child rearing style was associated with heightened indications of mental burden, depressiveness, and sense of coherence. Our results provide insight into the roots and consequences of psychological trauma across several generations. Further investigations focusing particularly on multigenerational transmission in extremely burdened families will augment our results

Call Me Caitlyn: Making and making over the 'authentic' transgender body in Anglo-American popular culture

A conception of transgender identity as an ‘authentic’ gendered core ‘trapped’ within a mismatched corporeality, and made tangible through corporeal transformations, has attained unprecedented legibility in contemporary Anglo-American media. Whilst pop-cultural articulations of this discourse have received some scholarly attention, the question of why this 'wrong body' paradigm has solidified as the normative explanation for gender transition within the popular media remains underexplored. This paper argues that this discourse has attained cultural pre-eminence through its convergence with a broader media and commercial zeitgeist, in which corporeal alteration and maintenance are perceived as means of accessing one’s ‘authentic’ self. I analyse the media representations of two transgender celebrities: Caitlyn Jenner and Nadia Almada, alongside the reality TV show TRANSform Me, exploring how these women’s gender transitions have been discursively aligned with a cultural imperative for all women, cisgender or trans, to display their authentic femininity through bodily work. This demonstrates how established tropes of authenticity-via-bodily transformation, have enabled transgender to become culturally legible through the wrong body trope. Problematically, I argue, this process has worked to demarcate ideals of ‘acceptable’ transgender subjectivity: self-sufficient, normatively feminine, and eager to embrace the possibilities for happiness and social integration provided by the commercial domain

One-Year Risk of Stroke after Transient Ischemic Attack or Minor Stroke

BACKGROUND Previous studies conducted between 1997 and 2003 estimated that the risk of stroke or an acute coronary syndrome was 12 to 20% during the first 3 months after a transient ischemic attack (TIA) or minor stroke. The TIAregistry.org project was designed to describe the contemporary profile, etiologic factors, and outcomes in patients with a TIA or minor ischemic stroke who receive care in health systems that now offer urgent evaluation by stroke specialists. METHODS We recruited patients who had had a TIA or minor stroke within the previous 7 days. Sites were selected if they had systems dedicated to urgent evaluation of patients with TIA. We estimated the 1-year risk of stroke and of the composite outcome of stroke, an acute coronary syndrome, or death from cardiovascular causes. We also examined the association of the ABCD2 score for the risk of stroke (range, 0 [lowest risk] to 7 [highest risk]), findings on brain imaging, and cause of TIA or minor stroke with the risk of recurrent stroke over a period of 1 year. RESULTS From 2009 through 2011, we enrolled 4789 patients at 61 sites in 21 countries. A total of 78.4% of the patients were evaluated by stroke specialists within 24 hours after symptom onset. A total of 33.4% of the patients had an acute brain infarction, 23.2% had at least one extracranial or intracranial stenosis of 50% or more, and 10.4% had atrial fibrillation. The Kaplan–Meier estimate of the 1-year event rate of the composite cardiovascular outcome was 6.2% (95% confidence interval, 5.5 to 7.0). Kaplan–Meier estimates of the stroke rate at days 2, 7, 30, 90, and 365 were 1.5%, 2.1%, 2.8%, 3.7%, and 5.1%, respectively. In multivariable analyses, multiple infarctions on brain imaging, large-artery atherosclerosis, and an ABCD2 score of 6 or 7 were each associated with more than a doubling of the risk of stroke. CONCLUSIONS We observed a lower risk of cardiovascular events after TIA than previously reported. The ABCD2 score, findings on brain imaging, and status with respect to large-artery atherosclerosis helped stratify the risk of recurrent stroke within 1 year after a TIA or minor stroke. (Funded by Sanofi and Bristol-Myers Squibb.)Supported by an unrestricted grant from Sanofi and Bristol-Myers Squibb

Measuring and Predicting Individual Differences in Executive Functions at 14 Months: A Longitudinal Study.

This study of 195 (108 boys) children seen twice during infancy (Time 1: 4.12 months; Time 2: 14.42 months) aimed to investigate the associations between and infant predictors of executive function (EF) at 14 months. Infants showed high levels of compliance with the EF tasks at 14 months. There was little evidence of cohesion among EF tasks but simple response inhibition was related to performance on two other EF tasks. Infant attention (but not parent-rated temperament) at 4 months predicted performance on two of the four EF tasks at 14 months. Results suggest that EF skills build on simpler component skills such as attention and response inhibition.ESR

Philanthropy or solidarity? Ethical dilemmas about humanitarianism in crisis afflicted Greece

That philanthropy perpetuates the conditions that cause inequality is an old argument shared by thinkers such as Karl Marx, Oscar Wilde and Slavoj Zizek. I recorded the same argument in conversations regarding a growing humanitarian concern in austerity-ridden Greece. At the local level a number of solidarity initiatives provide the most impoverished families with humanitarian help. Some citizens participate in such initiatives wholeheartedly, while some other citizens criticize solidarity movements drawing primarily from Marxist-inspired arguments, such as, for example, that humanitarianism rationalises state inaction. The local narratives presented in this article bring forward two parallel possibilities engendered by the humanitarian face of social solidarity: first, its empowering potential (where solidarity initiatives enhance local social awareness), and second, the de-politicisation of the crisis and the experience of suffering (a liability that stems from the effectiveness of humanitarianism in ameliorating only temporarily the superficial consequences of the crisis). These two overlapping possibilities can help us problematise the contextual specificity and strategic employment of humanitarian solidarity in times of austerity

Observed sea breeze life cycle in and around NYC: Impacts on UHI and ozone patterns

This observational study investigates New York City (NYC) impacts on summer sea breeze fronts (SBFs) during a 2018 LISTOS Campaign day with a regional heat wave and O3 episode. A morning urban heat island peaked at 8.3 °C and then induced convergences into the City, trapping its NO2 emissions. SBFs came ashore at 0700 EST from the Atlantic along southern Long Island (LI), and from the LI Sound along northern LI and southern Connecticut; 2-h later another formed over New Jersey. The Ocean front was retarded over NYC at noon, while all fronts merged by 1400 EST and continued inland for four more hours. High O3 first appeared at 0900 EST downwind of NYC. By 1100 EST, a new surface peak formed north of the City in the Hudson River Valley (HRV). The maxima merged, peaking at 143 ppb at 1300 EST behind the SBF and near the maximum temperatures of 39 °C. Trajectories ending at the northern LI site with a PBL O3 peak first passed NYC, arrived before the episode, and then recirculated back in its SB flow. Trajectories ending in the HRV showed pollutant transport over NYC twice, before advection northward into the narrow Valley by the ocean SBF

Seeing two faces together: preference formation in humans and rhesus macaques

Humans, great apes and old world monkeys show selective attention to faces depending on conspecificity, familiarity, and social status supporting the view that primates share similar face processing mechanisms. Although many studies have been done on face scanning strategy in monkeys and humans, the mechanisms influencing viewing preference have received little attention. To determine how face categories influence viewing preference in humans and rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta), we performed two eye-tracking experiments using a visual preference task whereby pairs of faces from different species were presented simultaneously. The results indicated that viewing time was significantly influenced by the pairing of the face categories. Humans showed a strong bias towards an own-race face in an Asian–Caucasian condition. Rhesus macaques directed more attention towards non-human primate faces when they were paired with human faces, regardless of the species. When rhesus faces were paired with faces from Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus) or chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), the novel species’ faces attracted more attention. These results indicate that monkeys’ viewing preferences, as assessed by a visual preference task, are modulated by several factors, species and dominance being the most influential

Aspirin and extended-release dipyridamole versus clopidogrel for recurrent stroke

Background Recurrent stroke is a frequent, disabling event after ischemic stroke. This study compared the efficacy and safety of two antiplatelet regimens — aspirin plus extendedrelease dipyridamole (ASA–ERDP) versus clopidogrel. Methods In this double-blind, 2-by-2 factorial trial, we randomly assigned patients to receive 25 mg of aspirin plus 200 mg of extended-release dipyridamole twice daily or to receive 75 mg of clopidogrel daily. The primary outcome was first recurrence of stroke. The secondary outcome was a composite of stroke, myocardial infarction, or death from vascular causes. Sequential statistical testing of noninferiority (margin of 1.075), followed by superiority testing, was planned. Results A total of 20,332 patients were followed for a mean of 2.5 years. Recurrent stroke occurred in 916 patients (9.0%) receiving ASA–ERDP and in 898 patients (8.8%) receiving clopidogrel (hazard ratio, 1.01; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.92 to 1.11). The secondary outcome occurred in 1333 patients (13.1%) in each group (hazard ratio for ASA–ERDP, 0.99; 95% CI, 0.92 to 1.07). There were more major hemorrhagic events among ASA–ERDP recipients (419 [4.1%]) than among clopidogrel recipients (365 [3.6%]) (hazard ratio, 1.15; 95% CI, 1.00 to 1.32), including intracranial hemorrhage (hazard ratio, 1.42; 95% CI, 1.11 to 1.83). The net risk of recurrent stroke or major hemorrhagic event was similar in the two groups (1194 ASA–ERDP recipients [11.7%], vs. 1156 clopidogrel recipients [11.4%]; hazard ratio, 1.03; 95% CI, 0.95 to 1.11). Conclusions The trial did not meet the predefined criteria for noninferiority but showed similar rates of recurrent stroke with ASA–ERDP and with clopidogrel. There is no evidence that either of the two treatments was superior to the other in the prevention of recurrent stroke. (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00153062.