Cognitive Complaints Are Associated with Smaller Right Medial Temporal Gray-Matter Volume in Younger Postmenopausal Women

Objective: Menopause is associated with increasing cognitive complaints and older women are at increased risk of developing Alzheimer disease compared to men. However, there is difficulty in early markers of risk using objective performance measures. We investigated the impact of subjective cognitive complaints on the cortical structure in a sample of younger postmenopausal women. Methods: Data for this cross-sectional study were drawn from the baseline visit of a longer double-blind study examining estrogen-cholinergic interactions in normal postmenopausal women. Structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging was acquired on 44 women, aged 50-60 years and gray-matter volume was defined by voxel-based morphometry. Subjective measures of cognitive complaints and postmenopausal symptoms were obtained as well as tests of verbal episodic and working memory performance. Results: Increased levels of cognitive complaints were associated with lower gray-matter volume in the right medial temporal lobe (r = −0.445, P < 0.002, R2 = 0.2). Increased depressive symptoms and somatic complaints were also related to increased cognitive complaints and smaller medial temporal volumes but did not mediate the effect of cognitive complaints. In contrast, there was no association between performance on the memory tasks and subjective cognitive ratings, or medial temporal lobe volume. Conclusions: The findings of the present study indicate that the level of reported cognitive complaints in postmenopausal women may be associated with reduced gray-matter volume which may be associated with cortical changes that may increase risk of future cognitive decline

EFSA Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition, and Allergies (NDA); Scientific Opinion on Dietary Reference Values for fats, including saturated fatty acids, polyunsaturated fatty acids, monounsaturated fatty acids, trans fatty acids, and cholesterol

This Opinion of the EFSA Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition, and Allergies (NDA) deals with the setting of Dietary Reference Values (DRVs) for fats. A lower bound of the reference intake range for total fat of 20 energy % (E%) and an upper bound of 35 E% are proposed. Fat intake in infants can gradually be reduced from 40 E% in the 6-12 month period to 35-40 E% in the 2nd and 3rd year of life. For specific fatty acids the following is proposed: saturated fatty acid (SFA) and trans fatty acid intake should be as low as possible; not to set any DRV for cis-monounsaturated fatty acids; not to formulate a DRV for the intake of total cis-polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA); not to set specific values for the n-3/n-6 ratio; to set an Adequate Intake (AI) of 4 E% for linolenic acid; not to set any DRV for arachidonic acid; not to set an UL for total or any of the n-6 PUFA; to set an AI for alpha-linilenic acid (ALA) of 0.5 E%; not to set an UL for ALA; to set an AI of 250 mg for eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) plus docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) for adults; to set an AI of 100 mg DHA for infants (>6 months) and young children <24 months; to increase by 100-200 mg preformed DHA in addition to the AI for adults as an adequate supply of n-3 long chain PUFA during pregnancy and lactation; not to set any DRV for conjugated linoleic acid. For cholesterol it was decided not to propose a reference value beside the limitation on the intake of SF

One-Year Impact of a Multidomain Brain Health Intervention on Cognition and Behavior Change for Midlife and Older Adults a Pilot Clinical Trial

Objectives. The study evaluated the efficacy of a multidomain brain-health intervention on health behavior change one-year following the intervention. The study explored whether the intervention provided cognitive benefits, increased self-efficacy for behavior change, and whether participants intended to continue with these changes.Methods. One-hundred thirty midlife and older adults were assigned to one of three conditions: brain fitness (B-Fit) intervention utilizing education and goal setting, education-only, or waitlist control. Questionnaires and cognitive measures were administered.Results. Both B-Fit and education-only participants increased and then maintained their health behavior changes at follow-up testing. There were no clinically meaningful benefits for cognition nor an impact on self-efficacy. B-Fit participants reported greater intention to increase health behaviors over time.Discussion. The B-Fit intervention was successful in helping participants change their behaviors and maintain these changes over time; however, it was not more effective than the education-only condition. However, B-Fit participants self-reported a greater likelihood to increase these behavior changes over time

Predictors of cardiac rehabilitation completion

According to the CDC, the number one cause of death in the United States is heart disease. Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) programs have been shown to reduce both mortality and morbidity rates from cardiovascular disease. However, poor adherence rates are common in CR programs. Previous studies have identified a number of factors that predict adherence to CR programs including psychological distress, gender, age, and illness beliefs. A growing body of literature has linked the use of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) with greater health behavior change. Psychological flexibility itself is associated with making and maintaining health behavior changes. To date, no one has identified whether psychological flexibility predicts adherence to CR. Individuals seeking CR programs at Pullman Regional Hospital and St. Luke's Hospital were sampled. During the intake, participants were asked to complete the Patient Health Questionnaire - 9 (PHQ-9) to assess for depression and the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire II (AAQ-II) to assess for psychological flexibility as predictor variables. Information on age, gender, resting heart rate, and resting blood pressure were collected. Completion status was measured as completing the number of sessions allotted by the insurance company. We hypothesized that higher psychological flexibility, lower depression, and being male would predict greater completion rates. A binary logistic regression was utilized to assess the significance of the predictor variables. As predicted, being female reduced the odds of completing the CR program. Resting heart rate and resting diastolic blood pressure also predicted completion status. Neither depression nor psychological flexibility were significant predictors. The results and future directions are discussed

Effects of Room Acoustics on Comprehension of Foreign-Accented Speech by Native and Non-native English-speaking Listeners

In a previous study by the authors, reverberation time (RT) and background noise level (BNL) were both found to have negative effects on native and non-native English-speaking listeners in comprehending English speech produced by native American-English-speaking talkers. Comprehension scores were adjusted for listeners’ baseline English proficiency levels. In the present study, instead of native English-speaking talkers, two native Mandarin Chinese talkers (one male, one female) with similar English spoken proficiency were recruited to produce the same speech materials used in the previous study. A similar methodology was adopted to conduct speech comprehension tests on three groups of listeners: 1) native American-English, 2) native Mandarin Chinese and 3) other non-native English. The listeners’ performance on foreign-accented speech comprehension is investigated under 15 acoustic conditions, created from five levels of RT (0.4 to 1.2 seconds) and three levels of BNL (RC-30, 40 and 50). Does a talker having a foreign accent change the results amongst the different listener groups in comprehending English speech under adverse acoustic conditions? Comparisons are made with the previous study, which showed that the negative impacts of RT and BNL varied between native and non-native listener groups

Altered Brain Connectivity in Early Postmenopausal Women with Subjective Cognitive Impairment

Cognitive changes after menopause are a common complaint, especially as the loss of estradiol at menopause has been hypothesized to contribute to the higher rates of dementia in women. To explore the neural processes related to subjective cognitive complaints, this study examined resting state functional connectivity in 31 postmenopausal women (aged 50-60) in relationship to cognitive complaints following menopause. A cognitive complaint index was calculated using responses to a 120-item questionnaire. Seed regions were identified for resting state brain networks important for higher-order cognitive processes and for areas that have shown differences in volume and functional activity associated with cognitive complaints in prior studies. Results indicated a positive correlation between the executive control network and cognitive complaint score, weaker negative functional connectivity within the frontal cortex, and stronger positive connectivity within the right middle temporal gyrus in postmenopausal women who report more cognitive complaints. While longitudinal studies are needed to confirm this hypothesis, these data are consistent with previous findings suggesting that high levels of cognitive complaints may reflect changes in brain connectivity and may be a potential marker for the risk of late-life cognitive dysfunction in postmenopausal women with otherwise normal cognitive performance

Optimal Distributed-Coordinated Approach for Energy Management in Multisource Electric Power Generation Systems: Distributed Control and Industrial Applications

ISBN: 978-3-319-26685-5 (Print) 978-3-319-26687-9 (Online)John Sandoval-Moreno acknowledges the Colombian Administrative Department of Science, Technology and Innovation (COLCIENCIAS) for the “Francisco José de Caldas” scholarship that financed his doctoral studies in France.International audienceIn the context of distributed power generation systems, the energy management and coordination of generators are imperative tasks to be done. Such systems, typically considered as large-scale systems, can include different dynamical and functional characteristics in both, generators and loads. In this sense, the use of distributed-coordinated control strategies, including operational constraints, becomes an interesting alternative for these applications. This chapter proposes a novel price-driven coordination technique. The approach considers that a centralized optimal control problem can be splitted into several unconstrained controlled subsystems, all coordinated by an agent which is intended for accomplishing the global performance, while assuring the system constraints. The approach is applied to a microgrid that combines different generation technologies and load profiles