Factorial Invariance of the Abbreviated Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale among Senior Women in the Nurses’ Health Study Cohort

The purpose of this study was to examine the factorial invariance of the Abbreviated Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale (NEWS-A) across subgroups based on demographic, health-related, behavioral, and environmental characteristics among Nurses’ Health Study participants (N = 2,919; age M = 73.0, SD = 6.9 years) living in California, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. A series of multi-group confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to evaluate increasingly restrictive hypotheses of factorial invariance. Factorial invariance was supported across age, walking limitations, and neighborhood walking. Only partial scalar invariance was supported across state residence and neighborhood population density. This evidence provides support for using the NEWS-A with older women of different ages, who have different degrees of walking limitations, and who engage in different amounts of neighborhood walking. Partial scalar invariance suggests that researchers should be cautious when using the NEWS-A to compare older adults living in different states and neighborhoods with different levels of population density

Depressive Symptoms and Marital Satisfaction in the Context of Chronic Disease: A Longitudinal Dyadic Analysis

These analyses examined the longitudinal relationships between depressive symptoms and marital satisfaction over a 2-year period as experienced by 315 patients with end-stage renal disease and their spouses. Using multilevel modeling, the authors examined both individual and cross-partner effects of depressive symptoms and marital satisfaction on patients and spouses, testing bidirectional causality. Results indicate that mean and time-varying depressive symptoms of both patients and spouses were associated with their own marital satisfaction. Although mean marital satisfaction was associated with own depressive symptoms for both patients and spouses, time-varying marital satisfaction did not affect depressive symptoms for either patients or spouses. Significant cross-partner effects reveal that both mean enduring and time-varying depressive symptoms of the spouse affected marital satisfaction of the patient. Findings highlight the complex nature of the relationship between depressive symptoms and marital satisfaction in late-life couples

Effects of Caregiver Burden and Satisfaction on Affect of Older End-Stage Renal Disease Patients and Their Spouses

We examined the extent to which a 2-factor model of affect explains how the burdens and satisfactions experienced by caregivers influence their own well-being and that of the spouses for whom they provide care. Using data from 315 older patients with end-stage renal disease and their spouses, we extended tests of Lawton et al.\u27s (1991) 2-factor model both longitudinally and dyadically. Multilevel modeling analyses partially support the 2-factor model. Consistent with the model, mean caregiver burden has a stronger effect on both caregiver and patient negative affect than does mean caregiver satisfaction. Contrary to the model, mean caregiver satisfaction has an effect on caregiver positive affect that is similar to that of mean caregiver burden, and it has no effect on patient positive affect. Time-varying effects of caregiver burden are consistent with the 2-factor model for caregiver but not patient negative affect. Time-varying effects of caregiver satisfaction are not consistent with the 2-factor model for either patients or caregivers. Results highlight the powerful role of caregiver burden for both caregivers and patients and suggest important new directions for conducting health-related research with late-life marital dyads

Characterization of a new mutation (R292G) and a deletion at the human uroporphyrinogen decarboxylase locus in two patients with hepatoerythropoietic porphyria

A deficiency in the activity of uroporphyrinogen decarboxylase (UROD), the fifth enzyme of the haem biosynthetic pathway, is found in familial porphyria cutanea tarda (F-PCT) and hepatoerythropoietic porphyria (HEP). A new mutation (R292G) and a deletion have been found in a pedigree with two HEP patients (two sisters). The R292G mutation was not detected in 13 unrelated affected patients with F-PCT, so it appears to be uncommon. The possibility that the arginine 292 may participate at the active site of the enzyme is discussed. A summary of the 7 mutations/deletions found in the UROD gene with their frequency is presented

Extragalactic Source Counts at 24 Microns in the Spitzer First Look Survey

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://iopscience.iop.org/0067-0049/154/1/66/.We present the Spitzer Multiband Imaging Photometer 24 μm source counts in the Extragalactic First Look Survey (FLS) main, verification, and European Large Area ISO Survey N1 fields. Spitzer's increased sensitivity and efficiency in large areal coverage over previous infrared telescopes, coupled with the enhanced sensitivity of the 24 μm band to sources at intermediate redshift, dramatically improve the quality and statistics of number counts in the mid-infrared. The FLS observations cover areas of 4.4, 0.26, and 0.015 deg2, respectively, and reach 3 σ depths of 0.11, 0.08, and 0.03 mJy. The extragalactic counts derived for each survey agree remarkably well. The counts can be fitted by a super-Euclidean power law of index α = -2.9 from 0.2 to 0.9 mJy, with a flattening of the counts at fluxes fainter than 0.2 mJy. Comparison with infrared galaxy evolution models reveals a peak's displacement in the 24 μm counts. This is probably due to the detection of a new population of galaxies with redshift between 1 and 2, previously unseen in the 15 μm deep counts

Extragalactic Source Counts at 24 Microns in the Spitzer First Look Survey

We present the Spitzer MIPS 24 micron source counts in the Extragalactic First Look Survey main, verification and ELAIS-N1 fields. Spitzer's increased sensitivity and efficiency in large areal coverage over previous infrared telescopes, coupled with the enhanced sensitivity of the 24 micron band to sources at intermediate redshift, dramatically improve the quality and statistics of number counts in the mid-infrared. The First Look Survey observations cover areas of, respectively, 4.4, 0.26 and 0.015 sq.deg. and reach 3-sigma depths of 0.11, 0.08 and 0.03 mJy. The extragalactic counts derived for each survey agree remarkably well. The counts can be fitted by a super-Euclidean power law of index alpha=-2.9 from 0.2 to 0.9 mJy, with a flattening of the counts at fluxes fainter than 0.2 mJy. Comparison with infrared galaxy evolution models reveals a peak's displacement in the 24 micron counts. This is probably due to the detection of a new population of galaxies with redshift between 1 and 2, previously unseen in the 15 micron deep counts.Comment: Accepted for publication in special Spitzer ApJS issue, 4 page

Characterization of Extragalactic 24 Micron Sources in the Spitzer First Look Survey

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://iopscience.iop.org/0067-0049/154/1/60/

Li Wenliang, a face to the frontline healthcare worker? The first doctor to notify the emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) outbreak

Dr Li Wenliang, who lost his life to the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, became the face of the threat of SARS-CoV-2 to frontline workers, the clinicians taking care of patients. Li, 34, was an ophthalmologist at Wuhan Central Hospital. On 30th December, 2019, when the Wuhan municipal health service sent out an alert, he reportedly warned a closed group of ex-medical school classmates on the WeChat social media site of “Seven cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) like illness with links with the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market” at his hospital. He was among eight people reprimanded by security officers for “spreading rumours”. In a tragic turn of events, he subsequently contracted SARS-CoV-2 and, after a period in intensive care, died on the morning of Friday 7th February, 2020 (South China Morning Post, 2020). This case is a stark reminder of the risks of emerging disease outbreaks for healthcare workers (HCWs). Dr Li Wenliang’s name is added to the long list of HCW that were at the forefront of outbreaks of SARS, Ebola, MERS and now SARS-CoV-2. It is important to recognise that it was the clinicians in Wuhan who sounded the alarm about the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 which was rapidly identified after these clinicians sent samples to a reference laboratory for next generation sequencing (NGS) (Zhou et al., 2020)

The First Measurements of Galaxy Clustering from IRAC Data of the Spitzer First Look Survey

We present the first results of the angular auto-correlation function of the galaxies detected by the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) instrument in the First Look Survey (FLS) of the Spitzer Space Telescope. We detect significant signals of galaxy clustering within the survey area. The angular auto-correlation function of the galaxies detected in each of the four IRAC instrument channels is consistent with a power-law form $w(\theta)=A\theta^{1-\gamma}$ out to \theta = 0.2\arcdeg, with the slope ranging from $\gamma = 1.5$ to 1.8. We estimate the correlation amplitudes $A$ to be $2.95 \times 10^{-3}$, $2.03 \times 10^{-3}$, $4.53 \times 10^{-3}$, and $2.34 \times 10^{-3}$ at \theta=1\arcdeg for galaxies detected in the IRAC 3.6$\mu$m, 4.5$\mu$m, 5.8$\mu$m, and 8.0$\mu$m instrument channels, respectively. We compare our measurements at 3.6$\mu$m with the previous K-band measurements, and discuss the implications of these results.Comment: Accepted for publication in the ApJ Supplements Spitzer Special Issue; 12 pages including 3 figures and 1 tabl