Race/Sex Group Modification of the Association between Allostatic Load and Depression: Findings from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2005-2010

Objective: We assessed whether the relationship between depression and chronic stress as measured in allostatic load (AL) differs by race and sex among US black and white adults. Methods: Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2005-2010, we examined race/sex modification of the relationship between AL and depression in black and white women and men aged 18-64 years (n=6431). AL scores, ranging from 0-9, were calculated using 9 cardiovascular, metabolic, and immunologic biomarkers; scores ≥ 4 were considered “high-risk”. Depression was assessed using the PHQ-9; scores ≥ 10 indicate clinical depression. Logistic regression models estimated odds of elevated depressive symptoms as a function of AL for each race/sex group; age and socioeconomic status were included as covariates in each model. All analyses were weighted to represent U.S. adults. Results: The association between AL and depression was strongest among white women (OR=2.1, 95% CI: 1.5, 3.0), followed by black men (OR=1.7 95% CI: 1.0, 2.9), and not statistically significant among black women (OR=1.1 95% CI: .60, 2.0) or white men (OR=1.4 95% CI: .82, 2.5). Conclusions: Our findings that the association between AL and depression was strongest and statistically significant only among white women and black men despite black women having the highest mean AL and depression scores suggests a measure of psychological resistance to chronic stress among those coping with intersecting pressures of systemic race and gender-based discrimination. These results also suggest that social inequality may shape the manner in which chronic stress is expressed. Further research should explore other potential racialized and gendered manifestations of chronic stress in order to better understand social factors influencing health inequity

La guerre contre les drogues illicites : Est-ce qu’elle est perdue ?

Il sistema legale messicano versa in uno stato disastroso a causa dei cartelli della droga sostenuti e sovvenzionati dagli Stati Uniti d’America. Infatti, gli USA rappresentano il principale mercato della marijuana, della cocaina e delle droghe sintetiche (queste ultime in misura minore) provenienti dal Messico. L’articolo mette in evidenza che le regioni frontaliere del Messico sono prese in ostaggio, da una parte, dai principali produttori modiali di cocaina e, dall’altra, dai principali consumatori (che si trovano nell’America del Nord ed in Europa). Pertanto, secondo l’autrice ed il suo collaboratore, il Messico non può risolvere da solo i suoi problemi derivanti dal narco-traffico

A Probabilistic Approach for Item Based Collaborative Filtering

In this era, it is essential to know the customer’s necessity before they know it themselves. The Recommendation system is a sub-class of machine learning which deals with the user data to offer relevant content or product to the user based on their taste. This paper aims to develop an integrated recommendation system using statistical theory and methods. Therefore, the conventional Item Based Collaborative filtering integrated the probabilistic approach and the pseudo-probabilistic approach is proposed to update the k-NN approach. Here we synthesize the data using the Monte-Carlo approach with the binomial and the multinomial distribution. Then we examine the performance of the proposed methodologies on the synthetic data using the RMSE calculation

First Results from Viper: Detection of Small-Scale Anisotropy at 40 GHZ

Results of a search for small-scale anisotropy in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) are presented. Observations were made at the South Pole using the Viper telescope, with a .26 degree (FWHM) beam and a passband centered at 40 GHz. Anisotropy band-power measurements in bands centered at l = 108, 173, 237, 263, 422 and 589 are reported. Statistically significant anisotropy is detected in all bands.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, uses emulateapj.sty, submitted to ApJ Letter

The bane of juvenile fish catches

Juvenile fishes are defined as immature fishes that have not yet had the opportunity to replenish the fish population by spawning. The length at which 50% of the fishes of any particular species mature varies among species and is called its Length at First Maturity (Lm). When juveniles are caught in large numbers there is an economic loss as fishermen get very low prices for the small sized young fish as compared to the larger adults

किशोर मछली पकड़ का अभिशाप (The bane of juvenile fish catches)

Juvenile fishes are defined as immature fishes that have not yet had the opportunity to replenish the fish population by spawning. The length at which 50% of the fishes of any particular species mature varies among species and is called its Length at First Maturity (Lm). When juveniles are caught in large numbers there is an economic loss as fishermen get very low prices for the small sized young fish as compared to the larger adults

Ring seine fishery of Kerala: An overview

Among the various fishing gears employed for pelagic schooling fishes along the Kerala coast, seines are the most efficient. Contribution of ring seine to total marine fish landings of Kerala has steadily increased since its introduction during the early eighties. It was 21.4 % in the nineties rising to 36.7 % during the period 2000-2004 and contributing more than 50 % since then. In recent years, about 90 % of the oil sardine and about 60 % of the mackerel landed in Kerala were caught in ring seines. Ring seines were introduced during the early eighties by traditional fishers of Alappuzha District which became highly successful

Allostatic Load Biomarker Associations with Depressive Symptoms Vary among US Black and White Women and Men

The prevalence and severity of depression differ in women and men and across racial groups. Psychosocial factors such as chronic stress have been proposed as contributors, but causes of this variation are not fully understood. Allostatic load, a measure of the physiological burden of chronic stress, is known to be associated with depression. Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2005(-)2010, we examined the associations of nine allostatic load biomarkers with depression among US black and white adults aged 18(-)64 years (n = 6431). Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Patient Health Questionaire-9; logistic models estimated adjusted odds of depression based on allostatic load biomarkers. High-risk levels of c-reactive protein were significantly associated with increased odds of depression among white women (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 1.7, 95% CI: 1.1(-)2.5) and men (aOR = 1.8, 95% CI: 1.1(-)2.8) but not black women (aOR = 0.8, 95% CI: 0.6(-)1.1) or men (aOR = 0.9, 95% CI: 0.5(-)1.5). Among black men, hypertension (aOR = 1.7, 95% CI: 1.1(-)2.7) and adverse serum albumin levels (aOR = 1.7, 95% CI: 1.0(-)2.9) predicted depression, while high total cholesterol was associated with depression among black women (aOR = 1.6, 95% CI: 1.0(-)2.7). The associations between allostatic load biomarkers and depression varies with gendered race, suggesting that, despite consistent symptomatology, underlying disease mechanisms may differ between these groups

Intersectional effects of racial and gender discrimination on cardiovascular health vary among black and white women and men in the CARDIA study

Testing hypotheses from the emerging Identity Pathology (IP) framework, we assessed race-gender differences in the effects of reporting experiences of racial and gender discrimination simultaneously compared with racial or gender discrimination alone, or no discrimination, on future cardiovascular health (CVH). Data were from a sample of 3758 black or white adults in CARDIA, a community-based cohort recruited in Birmingham, AL; Chicago, IL; Minneapolis, MN, and Oakland, CA in 1985-6 (year 0). Racial and gender discrimination were assessed using the Experiences of Discrimination scale. CVH was evaluated using a 12-point composite outcome modified from the Life\u27s Simple 7, with higher scores indicating better health. Multivariable linear regressions were used to evaluate the associations between different perceptions of discrimination and CVH scores two decades later by race and gender simultaneously. Reporting racial and gender discrimination in \u3e /=2 settings were 48% of black women, 42% of black men, 10% of white women, and 5% of white men. Year 30 CVH scores (mean, SD) were 7.9(1.4), 8.1(1.6), 8.8(1.6), and 8.7(1.3), respectively. Compared with those of their race-gender groups reporting no discrimination, white women reporting only gender-based discrimination saw an adjusted score difference of +0.3 (95% CI: 0.0,0.6), whereas white men reporting only racial discrimination had on average a 0.4 (95% CI: 0.1,0.8) higher score, and scores among white men reporting both racial and gender discrimination were on average 0.6 (95% CI: 1.1,-0.1) lower than those of their group reporting no discrimination. Consistent with predictions of the IP model, the associations of reported racial and gender discrimination with future CVH were different for different racially-defined gender groups. More research is needed to understand why reported racial and gender discrimination might better predict deterioration in CVH for whites than blacks, and what additional factors associated with gender and race contribute variability to CVH among these groups

Fate of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles Coated onto Macronutrient Fertilizers in an Alkaline Calcareous Soil

Citation: Milani, N., Hettiarachchi, G. M., Kirby, J. K., Beak, D. G., Stacey, S. P., & McLaughlin, M. J. (2015). Fate of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles Coated onto Macronutrient Fertilizers in an Alkaline Calcareous Soil. Plos One, 10(5), 16. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0126275Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles may provide a more soluble and plant available source of Zn in Zn fertilizers due to their greater reactivity compared to equivalent micron-or millimetresized (bulk) particles. However, the effect of soil on solubility, spatial distribution and speciation of ZnO nanoparticles has not yet been investigated. In this study, we examined the diffusion and solid phase speciation of Zn in an alkaline calcareous soil following application of nanoparticulate and bulk ZnO coated fertilizer products (monoammonium phosphate (MAP) and urea) using laboratory-based x-ray techniques and synchrotron-based mu-x-ray fluorescence (mu-XRF) mapping and absorption fine structure spectroscopy (mu-XAFS). Mapping of the soil-fertilizer reaction zones revealed that most of the applied Zn for all treatments remained on the coated fertilizer granule or close to the point of application after five weeks of incubation in soil. Zinc precipitated mainly as scholzite (CaZn2(PO4)(2)center dot 2H(2)O) and zinc ammonium phosphate (Zn(NH4)PO4) species at the surface of MAP granules. These reactions reduced dissolution and diffusion of Zn from the MAP granules. Although Zn remained as zincite (ZnO) at the surface of urea granules, limited diffusion of Zn from ZnO-coated urea granules was also observed for both bulk and nanoparticulate ZnO treatments. This might be due to either the high pH of urea granules, which reduced solubility of Zn, or aggregation (due to high ionic strength) of released ZnO nanoparticles around the granule/point of application. The relative proportion of Zn(OH)(2) and ZnCO3 species increased for all Zn treatments with increasing distance from coated MAP and urea granules in the calcareous soil. When coated on macronutrient fertilizers, Zn from ZnO nanoparticles (without surface modifiers) was not more mobile or diffusible compared to bulk forms of ZnO. The results also suggest that risk associated with the presence of ZnO NPs in calcareous soils would be the same as bulk sources of ZnO