Access to Care and Cardiovascular Disease Prevention: A Cross-Sectional Study in 2 Latino Communities.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading killer of Americans. CVD is understudied among Latinos, who have high levels of CVD risk factors. This study aimed to determine whether access to health care (ie, insurance status and having a usual source of care) is associated with 4 CVD prevention factors (ie, health care utilization, CVD screening, information received from health care providers, and lifestyle factors) among Latino adults and to evaluate whether the associations depended on CVD clinical risk/disease.Data were collected as part of a community-engaged food environment intervention study in East Los Angeles and Boyle Heights, CA. Logistic regressions were fitted with insurance status and usual source of care as predictors of the 4 CVD prevention factors while controlling for demographics. Analyses were repeated with interactions between self-reported CVD clinical risk/disease and access to care measures.Access to health care significantly increased the odds of CVD prevention. Having a usual source of care was associated with all factors of prevention, whereas being insured was only associated with some factors of prevention. CVD clinical risk/disease did not moderate any associations.Although efforts to reduce CVD risk among Latinos through the Affordable Care Act could be impactful, they might have limited impact in curbing CVD among Latinos, via the law's expansion of insurance coverage. CVD prevention efforts must expand beyond the provision of insurance to effectively lower CVD rates

Categorizing spatial entities with frontal orientation: the role of function, motion and saliency in the processing of the French Internal Localization Nouns 'avant/devant'

International audienceThis chapter presents the results from a pointing task that examined French adult’s processing of Internal Localization Nouns (ILNs), with particular attention to 'avant' ('front') and 'devant' ('front surface'). Performance in this task shows that the parameters governing the frontal orientation(s) implied by these markers (“static function", "dynamic function", "aerodynamicity" and "saliency") can be ordered according to their importance during processing. It is then shown that each ILN favors a particular property: whereas 'avant' is tightly linked to motion, the processing of 'devant' is more sensitive to static function. Additional results based on a judgment task also throw some light on subjects’ behavior and strategies. In conclusion, we discuss the properties singled out and their potential role in the categorization of spatial entities

Review of contemporary sound installation practices in Québec

Continuing a trend of publications investigating sound art within a specific geographical context, this paper proposes an original view of the sound installation practice in Que´bec. This study is part of a research project aiming at building new theoretical and practical tools for the documentation of such artworks. In this paper we present the outcomes of the first phase and its connection with the bigger picture of the project, which is the questioning of the relevance of spatial audio recordings with six degrees of freedom (6DoF) for mediating the capture of knowledge relating to the sensory experience of a work. During the first phase, we developed a conceptual descriptive framework based on a mixed-methods approach, top-down and bottom-up, consisting in a systematic review of literature paralleled with a categorization of contemporary sound art production in Que´bec based on publicly available documentation. This process led to a formal and quantitative depiction of the Que´bec scene, which aims to guide both the selection of case studies for the next phases but also to be part of the conceptual tools for investigating the sensory experience of these works. This quantitative depiction of the scene will thus foster a qualitative investigation of the sensory experience of sound art installations and the knowledge that may be lost in standard written documentation practice with an original methodological framework

Life in mine tailings: microbial population structure across the bulk soil, rhizosphere, and roots of boreal species colonizing mine tailings in northwestern Québec

Abstract Purpose Mining activities have negative effects on soil characteristics and can result in low pH, high heavy metal content, and limited levels of essential nutrients. A tailings storage area located in northwestern Québec showed natural colonization by plants from the adjacent natural environment. The objective of the study was to determine the main edaphic parameters that structured microbial populations associated with the indigenous woody plants that had naturally colonized the site. Methods Microbial populations were studied in the bulk soil, the rhizosphere, and inside plant roots using Illumina sequencing, ordination analysis (i.e., redundancy analysis (RDA) and principal coordinates analysis (PCoA)), ternary plotting, and statistical analysis (MANOVA). Results The main variables that drove the microbial community patterns were plant species and the tailings pH. Indeed, the main bacterial classes were Gammaproteobacteria and Deltaproteobacteria in both the rhizosphere and root endosphere. Analysis revealed that some dominant operational taxonomic units (e.g., Pseudomonas sp., Acinetobacter sp., and Delftia sp.) were present in increased proportions in roots for each plant species under study. This study also revealed that many of the most abundant fungal genera (e.g., Claussenomyces, Eupenicillium, and Trichoderma) were more abundant in the rhizosphere than in the root endosphere. Conclusions This comprehensive study of the microbial community dynamics in the bulk soil, rhizosphere, and root endosphere of boreal trees and shrubs could be beneficial in facilitating the rehabilitation of disturbed ecosystems

Relationship between soft drink consumption and obesity in 9-11 years old children in a multi-national study

The purpose of this study was to determine the association between regular (sugar containing) and diet (artificially sweetened) soft drink consumption and obesity in children from 12 countries ranging in levels of economic and human development. The sample included 6162 children aged 9-11 years. Information on soft drink consumption was obtained using a food frequency questionnaire. Percentage body fat (%BF) was estimated by bio-electrical impedance analysis, body mass index (BMI) z-scores were computed using World Health Organization reference data, and obesity was defined as a BMI &gt; +2 standard deviations (SD). Multi-level models were used to investigate trends in BMI z-scores, %BF and obesity across categories of soft drink consumption. Age, sex, study site, parental education and physical activity were included as covariates. There was a significant linear trend in BMI z-scores across categories of consumption of regular soft drinks in boys (p = 0.049), but not in girls; there were no significant trends in %BF or obesity observed in either boys or girls. There was no significant linear trend across categories of diet soft drink consumption in boys, but there was a graded, positive association in girls for BMI z-score (p = 0.0002) and %BF (p = 0.0001). Further research is required to explore these associations using longitudinal research designs.</p

Physiological protection of probiotic microcapsules by coatings

Nowadays, food and nutrition have a greater impact in people's concerns, with the awareness that nutrition have a direct impact in health and wellbeing. Probiotics have an important role in this topic and consumers are starting to really understand their potential in health, leading to an increasing interest of the companies to their commercial use in foods. However, there are several limitations to the use of probiotics in foods and beverages, being one of them their efficiency (directly associated to their survival rate) upon ingestion. This work is focused in microencapsulation techniques that have been used to increase probiotics efficiency. More specifically, this work reviews the most recent and relevant research about the production and coating techniques of probiotic-loaded microcapsules, providing an insight in the effect of these coatings in probiotics survival during the gastrointestinal phase. This review shows that coatings with the better performances in probiotics protection, against the harsh conditions of digestion, are chitosan, alginate, poly-L-lysine and whey protein. Chitosan presented an interesting performance in probiotics protection being able to maintain the initial concentration of viable probiotics during a digestive test. The analyses of different works also showed that the utilization of several coatings does not guarantee a better protection in comparison with monocoated microcapsules.The author Philippe E. Ramos is recipient of fellowships from the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, POPH-QREN and FSE (FCT, Portugal) through the grant SFRH/BD/80800/2012. This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit and COMPETE 2020 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006684). RECI Project (Until December of 2017): This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the Project RECI/BBBEBI/0179/2012 (FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-027462).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Post-traumatic stress among COVID-19 survivors: A descriptive study of hospitalized first-wave survivors

Introduction: The coronavirus Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Type 1 induces a severe respiratory disease, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). After Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Type 1 and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome infection, increased post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) rates were described. Methods: This single-centred, prospective study aimed to evaluate the rates of PTSD in patients who were hospitalized for COVID-19. Inclusion criteria were COVID-19 patients hospitalized in the intensive care unit (ICU) or in a standard unit with at least 2 L/min oxygen. Six months post-hospitalization, subjects were assessed for PTSD using a validated screening tool, the Post-Traumatic Stress Checklist-5 (PCL-5). Results: A total of 40 patients were included. No demographic differences between the ICU and non-ICU groups were found. The mean PCL-5 score for the population was 8.85±10. The mean PCL-5 score was 6.7±8 in the ICU group and 10.5±11 in the non-ICU group (P=0.27). We screened one patient with a positive PCL-5 score and one with a possible PCL-5 cluster score. Nine patients had a PCL-5 score of up to 15. Seven patients reported no symptoms.Seven patients accepted a psychological follow-up: one for PTSD, three for possible PTSD and three for other psychological problems. Discussion: The PCL-5 tool can be used by lung physicians during consultations to identify patients for whom follow-up mental health assessment and treatment for PTSD are warranted. Conclusion: Lung physicians should be aware of the risk of PTSD in patients hospitalized for COVID-19 and ensure appropriate screening and follow-up care

A Cross-National Analysis of the Psychometric Properties of the Geriatric Anxiety Inventory

10.1093/geronb/gbz002J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sc

Usefulness of NT-pro BNP monitoring to identify echocardiographic responders following cardiac resynchronization therapy

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) improves left ventricular (LV) volumes, mitral regurgitation (MR) severity and symptoms of patients with heart failure (HF). However, ≥ 30% of patients have no significant clinical or echocardiographic improvement following CRT. Reverse remodeling after CRT correlates with improved clinical outcomes. We hypothesized that in NT-pro BNP monitoring is accurate to identify responders following CRT.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>42 consecutive patients (mean age 66 ± 12 years, male 68%) with HF undergoing CRT were prospectively enrolled. Responders at follow-up were defined by echocardiography (decrease in LV end systolic volume ≥ 15%). Echocardiography and NT-pro BNP measurement were performed at baseline and repeated 3 to 6 month after CRT.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There was no significant difference between responders (n = 29, 69%) and non-responders (n = 13, 31%) regarding baseline NT-pro BNP level. Responders had significantly higher decrease in NT-pro BNP levels during follow-up than non-responders (absolute: -1428 ± 1333 pg.ml^-1vs. -61 ± 959 pg.ml^-1, p = 0.002; relative: -45 ± 28% vs. 2 ± 28%, p < 0.0001). A decrease of ≥ 15% in NT-pro BNP 3–6 months after CRT identifies echocardiographic responders with a sensitivity of 90% and a specificity of 77%.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>NT-pro BNP monitoring can accurately identify echocardiographic responders after CRT.</p