Vascular Dysfunction and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Examining the Role of Oxidative Stress and Sympathetic Activity

Purpose: The physiological manifestations of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have been associated with an increase in risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) independent of negative lifestyle factors. The goal of the study was to better elucidate the mechanisms behind the increased CVD risk by examining peripheral vascular function, a precursor to CVD. Moreover, this study sought to determine the role of oxidative stress and sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity in PTSD-induced vascular dysfunction. Methods: Sixteen individuals with PTSD (10 women, 6 men; age 24 ± 4 years), and twenty-four healthy controls (CTRL; 15 women, 9 men, 24 ± 4 years), participated in the study. The PTSD group participated in two visits, consuming either a placebo or antioxidant cocktail (AO - vitamins C and E and alpha lipoic acid) prior to their visits, in a randomized order. Arm vascular function was assessed via the reactive hyperemia- induced flow mediated dilation of the brachial artery (BAFMD) technique and evaluated with Doppler ultrasonography. Brachial artery and arm microvascular function were determined by percent change of diameter from baseline normalized for BA shear rate (BAD/Shear), and blood flow area under the curve (BF AUC), respectively. Heart rate variability (HRV) was used to assess autonomic nervous system activity. Results: BF AUC was significantly lower (p = 0.02) and SNS activity was significantly higher (p = 0.02) in the PTSD group when compared to the CTRL group. BAD/Shear was not different between groups. Following the acute AO supplementation, BF AUC was augmented to which it was no longer significantly different (p = 0.16) when compared to the CTRL group. SNS activity within the PTSD group was significantly reduced (p=.007) following the AO supplementation when compared to the PL condition, and the difference between PTSD and CTRL was no longer significant (p=.41). Conclusion: Young individuals with PTSD demonstrated lower arm microvascular, but not brachial artery, function as well as higher sympathetic activity when compared to healthy controls matched for age, sex, and physical activity level. Furthermore, this microvascular dysfunction and SNS activity was attenuated by an acute AO supplementation to the level of the healthy controls. Taken together, this study revealed that the modulation of oxidative stress, via an acute AO supplementation, improved vascular dysfunction in individuals with PTSD, potentially by reducing the substantial SNS activity associated with this disorder.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/gradposters/1084/thumbnail.jp

Effects of Dietary Sodium Intake on Blood Flow Regulation During Exercise in Salt Resistant Individuals

PURPOSE: Dietary sodium intake guidelines is ≤2,300 mg/day, yet is exceeded by 90% of Americans. This study examined the impact of a high sodium diet on blood flow regulation during exercise. METHODS: Six males (25 ± 2 years) consumed dietary sodium intake guidelines for two weeks, with one week salt-capsule supplemented (HS: 6,900 mg/day of sodium) and the other week placebo-capsule supplemented (LS: 2,300 mg/day of sodium). At the end of each week, peripheral hemodynamic measurements [blood flow (BF), shear rate (SR), and flow mediated dilation (FMD)/SR)] of the brachial and superficial femoral artery were taken during handgrip (HG) and plantar flexion (PF) exercise, respectively. Each exercise workload was 3 minutes and progressed by 8 kilograms until exhaustion. RESULTS: There were no differences between LS and HS in blood pressure (82 ± 4 v 80 ± 5 mmHg; p = 0.3) or heart rate (56 ± 6 v 59 ± 10 bpm; p = 0.4). HG and PF exercise increased BF, SR, and FMD/SR across workload (p \u3c 0.03 for all), but no difference between diets (p \u3e 0.05 for all). CONCLUSION: Despite previous reports that HS impairs resting vascular function, this study revealed that peripheral vascular function and blood flow regulation during exercise is not impacted by a HS diet.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/gradposters/1082/thumbnail.jp

Project Brainstorm: Using Neuroscience to Connect College Students with Local Schools

Neuroscience can be used as a tool to inspire an interest in science in school children as well as to provide teaching experience to college students

School Smoking Policy Characteristics and Individual Perceptions of the School Tobacco Context: Are They Linked to Students’ Smoking Status?

The purpose of this study was to explore individual- and school-level policy characteristics on student smoking behavior using an ecological perspective. Participants were 24,213 (51% female) Grade 10–11 students from 81 schools in five Canadian provinces. Data were collected using student self-report surveys, written policies collected from schools, interviews with school administrators, and school property observations to assess multiple dimensions of the school tobacco policy. The multi-level modeling results revealed that the school a student attended was associated with his/her smoking behavior. Individual-level variables that were associated with student smoking included lower school connectedness, a greater number of family and friends who smoked, higher perceptions of student smoking prevalence, lower perceptions of student smoking frequency, and stronger perceptions of the school tobacco context. School-level variables associated with student smoking included weaker policy intention indicating prohibition and assistance to overcome tobacco addiction, weaker policy implementation involving strategies for enforcement, and a higher number of students smoking on school property. These findings suggest that the school environment is important to tobacco control strategies, and that various policy dimensions have unique relationships to student smoking. School tobacco policies should be part of a comprehensive approach to adolescent tobacco use

The Fourteenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Spectroscopic Data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey and from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment

The fourth generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV) has been in operation since July 2014. This paper describes the second data release from this phase, and the fourteenth from SDSS overall (making this, Data Release Fourteen or DR14). This release makes public data taken by SDSS-IV in its first two years of operation (July 2014-2016). Like all previous SDSS releases, DR14 is cumulative, including the most recent reductions and calibrations of all data taken by SDSS since the first phase began operations in 2000. New in DR14 is the first public release of data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS); the first data from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory (APO) Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE-2), including stellar parameter estimates from an innovative data driven machine learning algorithm known as "The Cannon"; and almost twice as many data cubes from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO (MaNGA) survey as were in the previous release (N = 2812 in total). This paper describes the location and format of the publicly available data from SDSS-IV surveys. We provide references to the important technical papers describing how these data have been taken (both targeting and observation details) and processed for scientific use. The SDSS website (www.sdss.org) has been updated for this release, and provides links to data downloads, as well as tutorials and examples of data use. SDSS-IV is planning to continue to collect astronomical data until 2020, and will be followed by SDSS-V.Comment: SDSS-IV collaboration alphabetical author data release paper. DR14 happened on 31st July 2017. 19 pages, 5 figures. Accepted by ApJS on 28th Nov 2017 (this is the "post-print" and "post-proofs" version; minor corrections only from v1, and most of errors found in proofs corrected

Brecciation at the grain scale within the lithologies of the Winchcombe Mighei‐like carbonaceous chondrite

The Mighei‐like carbonaceous (CM) chondrites have been altered to various extents by water–rock reactions on their parent asteroid(s). This aqueous processing has destroyed much of the primary mineralogy of these meteorites, and the degree of alteration is highly heterogeneous at both the macroscale and nanoscale. Many CM meteorites are also heavily brecciated juxtaposing clasts with different alteration histories. Here we present results from the fine‐grained team consortium study of the Winchcombe meteorite, a recent CM chondrite fall that is a breccia and contains eight discrete lithologies that span a range of petrologic subtypes (CM2.0–2.6) that are suspended in a cataclastic matrix. Coordinated multitechnique, multiscale analyses of this breccia reveal substantial heterogeneity in the extent of alteration, even in highly aqueously processed lithologies. Some lithologies exhibit the full range and can comprise nearly unaltered coarse‐grained primary components that are found directly alongside other coarse‐grained components that have experienced complete pseudomorphic replacement by secondary minerals. The preservation of the complete alteration sequence and pseudomorph textures showing tochilinite–cronstedtite intergrowths are replacing carbonates suggest that CMs may be initially more carbonate rich than previously thought. This heterogeneity in aqueous alteration extent is likely due to a combination of microscale variability in permeability and water/rock ratio generating local microenvironments as has been established previously. Nevertheless, some of the disequilibrium mineral assemblages observed, such as hydrous minerals juxtaposed with surviving phases that are typically more fluid susceptible, can only be reconciled by multiple generations of alteration, disruption, and reaccretion of the CM parent body at the grain scale

Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV: Mapping the Milky Way, Nearby Galaxies, and the Distant Universe

We describe the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV (SDSS-IV), a project encompassing three major spectroscopic programs. The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment 2 (APOGEE-2) is observing hundreds of thousands of Milky Way stars at high resolution and high signal-to-noise ratios in the near-infrared. The Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey is obtaining spatially resolved spectroscopy for thousands of nearby galaxies (median $z\sim 0.03$). The extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) is mapping the galaxy, quasar, and neutral gas distributions between $z\sim 0.6$ and 3.5 to constrain cosmology using baryon acoustic oscillations, redshift space distortions, and the shape of the power spectrum. Within eBOSS, we are conducting two major subprograms: the SPectroscopic IDentification of eROSITA Sources (SPIDERS), investigating X-ray AGNs and galaxies in X-ray clusters, and the Time Domain Spectroscopic Survey (TDSS), obtaining spectra of variable sources. All programs use the 2.5 m Sloan Foundation Telescope at the Apache Point Observatory; observations there began in Summer 2014. APOGEE-2 also operates a second near-infrared spectrograph at the 2.5 m du Pont Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory, with observations beginning in early 2017. Observations at both facilities are scheduled to continue through 2020. In keeping with previous SDSS policy, SDSS-IV provides regularly scheduled public data releases; the first one, Data Release 13, was made available in 2016 July

The Fifteenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Surveys: First Release of MaNGA-derived Quantities, Data Visualization Tools, and Stellar Library

Twenty years have passed since first light for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Here, we release data taken by the fourth phase of SDSS (SDSS-IV) across its first three years of operation (2014 July–2017 July). This is the third data release for SDSS-IV, and the 15th from SDSS (Data Release Fifteen; DR15). New data come from MaNGA—we release 4824 data cubes, as well as the first stellar spectra in the MaNGA Stellar Library (MaStar), the first set of survey-supported analysis products (e.g., stellar and gas kinematics, emission-line and other maps) from the MaNGA Data Analysis Pipeline, and a new data visualization and access tool we call "Marvin." The next data release, DR16, will include new data from both APOGEE-2 and eBOSS; those surveys release no new data here, but we document updates and corrections to their data processing pipelines. The release is cumulative; it also includes the most recent reductions and calibrations of all data taken by SDSS since first light. In this paper, we describe the location and format of the data and tools and cite technical references describing how it was obtained and processed. The SDSS website (www.sdss.org) has also been updated, providing links to data downloads, tutorials, and examples of data use. Although SDSS-IV will continue to collect astronomical data until 2020, and will be followed by SDSS-V (2020–2025), we end this paper by describing plans to ensure the sustainability of the SDSS data archive for many years beyond the collection of data

The Fifteenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Surveys: First Release of MaNGA-derived Quantities, Data Visualization Tools, and Stellar Library

Twenty years have passed since first light for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Here, we release data taken by the fourth phase of SDSS (SDSS-IV) across its first three years of operation (2014 July–2017 July). This is the third data release for SDSS-IV, and the 15th from SDSS (Data Release Fifteen; DR15). New data come from MaNGA—we release 4824 data cubes, as well as the first stellar spectra in the MaNGA Stellar Library (MaStar), the first set of survey-supported analysis products (e.g., stellar and gas kinematics, emission-line and other maps) from the MaNGA Data Analysis Pipeline, and a new data visualization and access tool we call "Marvin." The next data release, DR16, will include new data from both APOGEE-2 and eBOSS; those surveys release no new data here, but we document updates and corrections to their data processing pipelines. The release is cumulative; it also includes the most recent reductions and calibrations of all data taken by SDSS since first light. In this paper, we describe the location and format of the data and tools and cite technical references describing how it was obtained and processed. The SDSS website (www.sdss.org) has also been updated, providing links to data downloads, tutorials, and examples of data use. Although SDSS-IV will continue to collect astronomical data until 2020, and will be followed by SDSS-V (2020–2025), we end this paper by describing plans to ensure the sustainability of the SDSS data archive for many years beyond the collection of data

The Fourteenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Spectroscopic Data from the Extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey and from the Second Phase of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment

The fourth generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV) has been in operation since 2014 July. This paper describes the second data release from this phase, and the 14th from SDSS overall (making this Data Release Fourteen or DR14). This release makes the data taken by SDSS-IV in its first two years of operation (2014–2016 July) public. Like all previous SDSS releases, DR14 is cumulative, including the most recent reductions and calibrations of all data taken by SDSS since the first phase began operations in 2000. New in DR14 is the first public release of data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey; the first data from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory (APO) Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE-2), including stellar parameter estimates from an innovative data-driven machine-learning algorithm known as "The Cannon"; and almost twice as many data cubes from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO (MaNGA) survey as were in the previous release (N = 2812 in total). This paper describes the location and format of the publicly available data from the SDSS-IV surveys. We provide references to the important technical papers describing how these data have been taken (both targeting and observation details) and processed for scientific use. The SDSS web site (www.sdss.org) has been updated for this release and provides links to data downloads, as well as tutorials and examples of data use. SDSS-IV is planning to continue to collect astronomical data until 2020 and will be followed by SDSS-V