Apolipoprotein E alters the association of neuroinflammation with Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a chronic neurodegenerative disease with a multitude of contributing genetic factors. The apolipoprotein E (APOE) allele e4 imparts a dramatic increase in the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, but the exact mechanism of this relationship is unknown. The e4 allele is associated with increased Ab plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, and a heightened inflammation state, all pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease. To test the hypothesis that microglia and related cytokines were differentially associated with Alzheimer’s disease pathology based on the presence of e4, we compared individuals with and without the APOE e4 allele within a community based aging cohort (n = 186). Cellular density of Iba1, a marker of microglia, was positively associated with tau pathology as measured by AT8 immunostaining (B = 0.459, p = 0.028) in e4 positive participants but not in e4 negative participants. Analysis of cytokines implicated in AD, i.e. IL-10, IL-13, IL-4, IL-1a, revealed a significant negative association with AT8 in e4 negative participants. The association of the anti-inflammatory cytokines IL-10, IL-13, and IL-4 on tau pathology appeared to be mediated by ApoE protein levels, suggesting that these cytokines and the ApoE protein may interact to prevent increased tau pathology within e4 negative individuals. The pro-inflammatory cytokine, IL-1, was negatively associated with AT8 (B = -0.241, p = 0.009) independent of Ab1-42 in e4 negative participants but not in e4 positive participants, suggesting a potential novel protective association. Overall, in e4 negative participants, elevated levels of IL-10, IL-13, IL-4, IL-1a are associated with less tau pathology. These associations are largely absent in the presence of e4 where tau pathology is significantly associated with microglial cell density. Taken together, these results suggest that APOE e4 mediates an altered inflammatory response and increased tau pathology independent of Ab pathology.2019-07-03T00:00:00

Unified approach to photo and electro-production of mesons with arbitrary spins

A new approach to identify the independent amplitudes along with their partial wave multipole expansions, for photo and electro-production is suggested,which is generally applicable to mesons with arbitrary spin-parity. These amplitudes facilitate direct identification of different resonance contributions.Comment: 11 page

The Responsiveness of Married Women's Labor Force Participation to Income and Wages: Recent Changes and Possible Explanations

One contributor to the twentieth century rise in married women's labor force participation was declining responsiveness to husbands' wages and other family income. Now that the rapid rise in married women's participation has slowed and even begun to reverse, this paper asks whether married women's cross-wage elasticities have continued to fall. Using the outgoing rotation group of the monthly Current Population Survey (CPS) and estimating coefficients separately for each year from 1994 through 2006, we find that the decline in responsiveness to husbands' wages has come to an endat least for the time beingand even find evidence of rising responsiveness to husbands' wages. This increase in the cross-wage elasticity of participation occurs largely between 1997 and 2002 and is concentrated among younger women and women with children. We also explore a number of possible explanations for this development. We conclude that declining divorce rates, rising child care costs, and the increasing prevalence of high work hours for high payall of which were more pronounced at the high end of the income distributionalong with rising income inequality may have played a role. Also possible is that some of the decline is an artifact of changes in the tax system and the way income is measured. In addition, we observe some backsliding in attitudes supportive of gender equality in the market and at home, and perhaps a change in lifecycle timing among Generation X women

Migration, Ethnicity and Economic Integration

This chapter deals with the economic and ethnic diversity caused by international labor migration, and their economic integration possibilities. It brings together three strands of literature dealing with the neoclassical economic assimilation, ethnic identities and attitudes towards immigrants and the natives, and provides an analysis in understanding their interactions. The issue of how immigrants fare in the host country especially in terms of their labor force participation and remuneration has been the core of research in the labor migration literature. If immigrants fare as well as the natives, then they are economically assimilated. While some immigrant groups do, most do not, especially in Europe. Of equal importance is how immigrants identify with the culture of their home and receiving countries, and if natives and immigrants have the right attitudes about each other. Ethnic identities and attitudes seem to be less affected by the economic environment but have implications for economic performance