The Impact of an Omega-3 Enriched Diet on Hyperactivity and Biochemistry in an Animal Model for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most diagnosed behavioral disorder in children. It affects around 5% of children worldwide and 11% of children in the United States, with rates increasing. Pharmaceutical treatments, such as amphetamines and methylphenidates, are not effective for everyone and are known to have unwanted side effects. While the etiology of the disorder is not yet fully understood, there are clear genetic and environmental components. Nutritional insufficiencies have recently become a popular environmental risk factor under investigation. Essential fatty acids (EFA), omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in particular, are needed for proper brain development and function. Our lab has found lower proportions of omega-3 PUFA in the phospholipids and red blood cell membranes of about 40% of the children and adults with ADHD. Other research groups have subsequently confirmed similar findings. It is not yet known why a subgroup of the ADHD population seem to display EFA insufficiency, or if supplementation can reliably prevent or alleviate symptoms of the disorder. However, multiple human and animal studies have reported a reduction in ADHD-symptoms with omega-3 PUFA supplementation. Thus, we hypothesized that an omega-3 PUFA enriched diet would reduce the ADHD symptom of hyperactivity, modulate dopamine and serotonin turnover, and increase omega-3 PUFA proportion in plasma and brain phospholipids in the Spontaneously Hypertensive Rat (SHR) animal model for ADHD. Additionally, we explored the relationship between oxidative stress, EFA status, and ADHD behavior with the prediction that SHR will display greater oxidative stress than the control strain, Wistar Kyota Rat (WKY). In order to develop a protocol that elucidates the behavioral differences between the two rat strains, we conducted a pilot study on various behavioral tests on the WKY and SHR while on standard rat chow. Results from our preliminary data led us to use the open field test as a measure of hyperactivity. In our intervention study, the omega-3 enriched diet (omega-3 diet) had no impact on measures of hyperactivity. However, our intervention successfully increased omega-3 PUFA proportions in plasma and brain phospholipid membranes. WKY had a higher proportion of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) in both plasma and brain than SHR, and SHR had a higher proportion of docosahexaenoic acid in plasma for both diets. Results of the liver total glutathione (GSH) analysis suggested that the omega-3 diet reduced oxidative stress, but that the SHR had lower oxidative stress than the WKY. SHR on the omega-3 diet had a lower concentration of dopamine in the neostriatum than SHR on the omega-6 dominant diet, and both rat strains on the omega-3 diet had lower serotonin concentration. Consistent with the lack of impact on behavior, dopamine and serotonin turnover were not modulated by diet. However, dopamine turnover in the SHR was lower than that in the WKY. In summary, our dietary intervention did not impact behavior, which was consistent with the lack of impact on neurotransmission, despite the alteration in phospholipid proportions. Future studies should focus on determining the most effective dose, EPA/DHA ratio, and time period for an omega-3 PUFA intervention

Venous Thromboembolism Within Professional American Sport Leagues.

Background: Numerous reports have described players in professional American sports leagues who have been sidelined with a deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or a pulmonary embolism (PE), but little is known about the clinical implications of these events in professional athletes. Purpose: To conduct a retrospective review of injury reports from the National Hockey League (NHL), Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Basketball Association (NBA), and the National Football League (NFL) to take a closer look at the incidence of DVT/PE, current treatment approaches, and estimated time to return to play in professional athletes. Study Design: Descriptive epidemiology study. Methods: An online search of all team injury and media reports of DVT/PE in NHL, MLB, NBA, and NFL players available for public record was conducted by use of Google, PubMed, and SPORTDiscus. Searches were conducted using the professional team name combined with blood clot, pulmonary embolism, and deep vein thrombosis. Results: A total of 55 venous thromboembolism (VTE) events were identified from 1999 through 2016 (NHL, n = 22; MLB, n = 16; NFL, n = 12; NBA, n = 5). Nineteen athletes were reported to have an upper extremity DVT, 15 had a lower extremity DVT, 15 had a PE, and 6 had DVT with PE. Six athletes sustained more than 1 VTE. The mean age at time of VTE was 29.3 years (range, 19-42 years). Mean (±SD) time lost from play was 6.7 ± 4.9 months (range, 3 days to career end). Seven athletes did not return to play. Players with upper extremity DVT had a faster return to play (mean ± SD, 4.3 ± 2.7 months) than those with lower extremity DVT (5.9 ± 3.8 months), PE (10.8 ± 6.8 months), or DVT with PE (8.2 ± 2.6 months) (F = 5.69, P = .002). No significant difference was found regarding time of return to play between sports. Conclusion: VTE in professional athletes led to an average of 6.7 months lost from play. The majority of athletes were able to return to play after a period of anticoagulation or surgery. Those with an upper extremity DVT returned to play faster than those with other types of VTE. Further study is needed to look into modifiable risk factors for these events and to establish treatment and return-to-play guidelines to ensure the safety of these athletes

Application of the proper generalized decomposition method to a viscoelastic mechanical problem with a large number of internal variables and a large spectrum of relaxation times

We here extend the use of the PGD to the case of a viscoelastic mechanical problem with a large number of internal variables and with a large spectrum of relaxation times. Such a number of internal variables leads to solving a system of non linear differential equations which correspond to the return to the equilibrium state. The feasibility and the robustness of the method are discussed in a simple case; a future application is the simulation of a polymer reaction under cyclic loading

Contemporary issues in women’s health

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135468/1/ijgo3.pd

Contemporary issues in women’s health

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135535/1/ijgo187.pd

EP-1287: Software module for the characterization of geometric distortion in MRI-SIM using a large field of view phantom

The principal component regression (PCR) is often used to forecast macroeconomic variables when there are many predictors. In this letter, we argue that it makes sense to pre-whiten the predictors before including these in a PCR. With simulation experiments, we show that without such pre-whitening, spurious principal components can appear and that these can become spuriously significant in a PCR. With an illustration to annual inflation rates for five African countries, we show that non-spurious principal components can be genuinely relevant in empirical forecasting models

Microbial Status of Animal Anatomical Cadavers Fixed Using Low Formaldehyde Concentrations

Microbial growth on the skin and organ surfaces is a common problem associated with formaldehyde fixation of animal cadavers and is especially so following watering of cadavers prior to dissection. Cadavers of three sheep, one goat and three horses were fixed with a solution of 2% formaldehyde, 30% ethanol, and 20% polyethylene glycol 400. At time intervals tissue samples of; skeletal muscle, lung and intestine were analyzed for cultivable aerobic bacteria, anaerobic bacteria and fungi. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a novel cadaver fixative solution having a 2% formaldehyde concentration. Visual examination of each fixed cadaver’s skeletal muscles and visceral organs showed that these had retained a relatively natural appearance. No yeast or mould was cultured. Anaerobic bacteria namely Clostridium sporogenes and C. tyrobutyricum were isolated from the muscles of wo sheep. The aerobic bacterium Bacillus licheniformis was cultivated from the colon and duodenum of all three horses 40 days post fixation

MapReduce network enabled algorithms for classification based on association rules

There is growing evidence that integrating classification and association rule mining can produce more efficient and accurate classifiers than traditional techniques. This thesis introduces a new MapReduce based association rule miner for extracting strong rules from large datasets. This miner is used later to develop a new large scale classifier. Also new MapReduce simulator was developed to evaluate the scalability of proposed algorithms on MapReduce clusters. The developed associative rule miner inherits the MapReduce scalability to huge datasets and to thousands of processing nodes. For finding frequent itemsets, it uses hybrid approach between miners that uses counting methods on horizontal datasets, and miners that use set intersections on datasets of vertical formats. The new miner generates same rules that usually generated using apriori-like algorithms because it uses the same confidence and support thresholds definitions. In the last few years, a number of associative classification algorithms have been proposed, i.e. CPAR, CMAR, MCAR, MMAC and others. This thesis also introduces a new MapReduce classifier that based MapReduce associative rule mining. This algorithm employs different approaches in rule discovery, rule ranking, rule pruning, rule prediction and rule evaluation methods. The new classifier works on multi-class datasets and is able to produce multi-label predications with probabilities for each predicted label. To evaluate the classifier 20 different datasets from the UCI data collection were used. Results show that the proposed approach is an accurate and effective classification technique, highly competitive and scalable if compared with other traditional and associative classification approaches. Also a MapReduce simulator was developed to measure the scalability of MapReduce based applications easily and quickly, and to captures the behaviour of algorithms on cluster environments. This also allows optimizing the configurations of MapReduce clusters to get better execution times and hardware utilization.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Individual level peer interventions for gay and bisexual men who have sex with men between 2000 and 2020: A scoping review

Background Peer-led interventions are central to the global HIV response for gay and bisexual men who have sex with men [GBMSM]. Since the year 2000, technological advancements in HIV and an increased response to the health disparities faced by GBMSM outside of HIV, have contributed to the expanding scope of their content and delivery. This review sets out to characterise the evidence base for individual level peer interventions for GBMSM, overview approaches to implementing and evaluating them and identify future priorities for their delivery and evaluation. Methods A scoping review methodology was applied and evaluations of peer programs for GBMSM published in peer reviewed journals were identified via subject heading and keyword searches across five electronic databases. Titles and abstracts were reviewed, and full texts were assessed against eligibility criteria. A coding framework was used to extract data from included studies against intervention implementation and evaluation components. Results A total of 38 studies evaluating peer led interventions against effectiveness outcomes were deemed eligible for inclusion and coded into four intervention modalities; peer counselling [n = 6], groupwork programs [n = 15], peer navigation [n = 7] and peer education [n = 10]. Most addressed HIV [n = 32] and across intervention modalities, evaluations demonstrated compelling evidence of significant effect. Intervention effects on broader indicators of psychosocial wellbeing were not extensively evaluated. Expertise regarding the implementation and evaluation of peer interventions addressing HIV among GBMSM ought to be leveraged to expand the scope of peer intervention to meet the diverse health and wellbeing needs of GBMSM