2,042 research outputs found
Relationship between antihypertensive medications and cognitive impairment: Part I. review of human studies and clinical trials
Purpose of review: There is an established association between hypertension and increased risk of poor cognitive performance and dementia including Alzheimer’s disease; however, associations between antihypertensive medications (AHMs) and dementia risk are less consistent. An increased interest in AHM has resulted in expanding publications; however, none of the recent reviews are comprehensive. Our extensive review includes 15 observational and randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published over the last 5 years, assessing the relationship between AHM and cognitive impairment. Recent findings: All classes of AHM showed similar result patterns in human studies with the majority of study results reporting point estimates below one and only a small number of studies (N = 15) reporting statistically significant results in favor of a specific class. Summary: Only a small number of studies reported statistically significant results in favor of a specific class of AHM. Methodological limitations of the studies prevent definitive conclusions. Further work is now needed to evaluate the class of AHM and cognitive outcomes in future RCTs, with a particular focus on the drugs with the promising results in both animals and human observational studies
Fathers as Sexuality Educators: Aspirations and Realities. An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis
Men can play a significant role in teaching their children about
sexuality but fathers’ practices and perceptions in this domain
remain under explored. This study presents an Interpretative
Phenomenological Analysis of eight fathers’ perceptions and practices
in educating their ten-year-old children about physical maturation,
reproduction and relationships. A Foucauldian analysis with a focus on
governmentality and biopower revealed tensions and contradictions
between the fathers’ aspirations and their realities, which appeared
to be underpinned by the dynamic, contradictory, shifting, plural
nature of fatherhood identities. Whilst fathers wished to adhere to the
cultural imperative for father–child emotional closeness, a disparity
between their ambitions and their conduct emerged. Care appeared
to be a deeply gendered concept for the fathers and despite their
aspirations for an intimate relationship with their children, gendered
norms for motherhood and fatherhood prevailed resulting in passivity
in their role as sexuality educators. The study concludes by arguing
that challenges to structures and subcultural contexts, which may
deter fathers from fully engaging with their sons and daughters in
this aspect of communication are required
Invalid party wall awards and how to avoid them
Considers the reasons for the invalidity of party wall awards. Examines decided cases under earlier party wall legislation in the context of the Party Wall etc. Act 1996. Explains invalidity on the basis of an excess of the surveyors’ statutory authority. Defines this authority in terms of jurisdiction and power. Demonstrates the limits of the surveyors’ authority and emphasises the importance of strict compliance with statutory procedures. Concludes that surveyors should adopt an inquisitive and analytical approach to the scope of their authority to avoid the possibility of invalid awards. Echoes John Anstey’s earlier warning that surveyors should avoid a broad-brush approach to their duties which will only leave them “covered in soot”
Role of dietary pattern analysis in determining cognitive status in elderly Australian adults
Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to determine the association between dietary patterns and cognitive function and to examine how classification systems based on food groups and food items affect levels of association between diet and cognitive function. The present study focuses on the older segment of the Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study (AusDiab) sample (age 60+) that completed the food frequency questionnaire at Wave 1 (1999/2000) and the mini-mental state examination and tests of memory, verbal ability and processing speed at Wave 3 (2012). Three methods were used in order to classify these foods before applying PCA. In the first instance, the 101 individual food items asked about in the questionnaire were used (no categorisation). In the second and third instances, foods were combined and reduced to 32 and 20 food groups, respectively, based on nutrient content and culinary usage—a method employed in several other published studies for PCA. Logistic regression analysis and generalized linear modelling was used to analyse the relationship between PCA-derived dietary patterns and cognitive outcome. Broader food group classifications resulted in a greater proportion of food use variance in the sample being explained (use of 101 individual foods explained 23.22% of total food use, while use of 32 and 20 food groups explained 29.74% and 30.74% of total variance in food use in the sample, respectively). Three dietary patterns were found to be associated with decreased odds of cognitive impairment (CI). Dietary patterns derived from 101 individual food items showed that for every one unit increase in ((Fruit and Vegetable Pattern: p = 0.030, OR 1.061, confidence interval: 1.006–1.118); (Fish, Legumes and Vegetable Pattern: p = 0.040, OR 1.032, confidence interval: 1.001–1.064); (Dairy, Cereal and Eggs Pattern: p = 0.003, OR 1.020, confidence interval: 1.007–1.033)), the odds of cognitive impairment decreased. Different results were observed when the effect of dietary patterns on memory, processing speed and vocabulary were examined. Complex patterns of associations between dietary factors and cognition were evident, with the most consistent finding being the protective effects of high vegetable and plant-based food item consumption and negative effects of ‘Western’ patterns on cognition. Further long-term studies and investigation of the best methods for dietary measurement are needed to better understand diet-disease relationships in this age group
Is the Rise in Reported Dementia Mortality Real? Analysis of Multiple-Cause-of-Death Data for Australia and the United States
Official statistics in Australia and the United States show large recent increases in dementia mortality rates. In this study, we assessed whether these trends are biased by an increasing tendency of medical certifiers (predominantly physicians) to report on the death certificate that dementia was a direct cause of death. Regression models of multiple-cause-of-death data in Australia (2006-2016) and the United States (2006-2017) were constructed to adjust dementia mortality rates for changes in death certification practices. Compared with official statistics, the recent increase in adjusted age-standardized dementia death rates was less than half as large in Australia and about two-thirds as large in the United States. Further adjustment for changes in reporting of dementia anywhere on the death certificate implied even lower increases in dementia mortality. Declines in reporting of cardiovascular diseases as comorbid conditions also contributed to rises in dementia mortality rates. The increasing likelihood of dementia's being reported as directly leading to death largely explains recent increases in dementia mortality rates in both countries. However, studies have found that reported dementia on death certificates remains low compared with clinical evaluations of its prevalence. Improved guidance and training for certifiers in reporting of dementia on death certificates will help standardize mortality statistics within and between countries
A Bayesian Method to Mitigate the Effects of Unmodelled Time-Varying Systematics for 21-cm Cosmology Experiments
Radio observations of the neutral hydrogen signal from the Cosmic Dawn and
Epoch of Reionisation have helped to provide constraints on the properties of
the first stars and galaxies. Since this global 21-cm cosmological signal from
the Cosmic Dawn is effectively constant on observing timescales and since
effects resulting from systematics will vary with time, the effects of these
systematics can be mitigated without the need for a model of the systematic. We
present a method to account for unmodelled time-varying systematics in 21-cm
radio cosmology experiments using a squared-exponential Gaussian process kernel
to account for correlations between time bins in a fully Bayesian way. We find
by varying the model parameters of a simulated systematic that the Gaussian
process method improves our ability to recover the signal parameters by
widening the posterior in the presence of a systematic and reducing the bias in
the mean fit parameters. When varying the amplitude of a model sinusoidal
systematic between 0.25 and 2.00 times the 21-cm signal amplitude and the
period between 0.5 and 4.0 times the signal width, we find on average a 5%
improvement in the root mean squared error of the fitted signal. We can use the
fitted Gaussian process hyperparameters to identify the presence of a
systematic in the data, demonstrating the method's utility as a diagnostic
tool. Furthermore, we can use Gaussian process regression to calculate a mean
fit to the residuals over time, providing a basis for producing a model of the
time-varying systematic.Comment: 11 pages, 13 figure
Cross-national gender differences in the socioeconomic factors associated with smoking in Australia, the United States of America and South Korea
Objectives: We compared rates of smoking among those aged 45 years and older in Australia, the United States of America and South Korea, and examined cross-national gender differences in key socioeconomic differentials in smoking.
Methods: We conducted weighted analyses on cross-sectional data from nationally representative surveys conducted in 2006.
Results: Current smoking was more prevalent for males than females in all countries; the gender difference was largest in Korea. Being unpartnered increased the likelihood of smoking in all countries, while greater wealth reduced it. In Korea these effects interacted with gender; both indicators showed larger differentials among women than men. Lower educational attainment increased the likelihood of smoking for all groups except Korean women, among whom high school educated women were less likely to smoke than the tertiary educated.
Conclusions: Our findings support a cultural interpretation of gender differences in smoking: in countries with low gender empowerment, gender differences in smoking are greater. With increasing divorce and female tertiary education rates in nations like Korea, we highlight the need for health promotion messages targeted towards older and more educated women
Towards More Data-Aware Application Integration (extended version)
Although most business application data is stored in relational databases,
programming languages and wire formats in integration middleware systems are
not table-centric. Due to costly format conversions, data-shipments and faster
computation, the trend is to "push-down" the integration operations closer to
the storage representation.
We address the alternative case of defining declarative, table-centric
integration semantics within standard integration systems. For that, we replace
the current operator implementations for the well-known Enterprise Integration
Patterns by equivalent "in-memory" table processing, and show a practical
realization in a conventional integration system for a non-reliable,
"data-intensive" messaging example. The results of the runtime analysis show
that table-centric processing is promising already in standard, "single-record"
message routing and transformations, and can potentially excel the message
throughput for "multi-record" table messages.Comment: 18 Pages, extended version of the contribution to British
International Conference on Databases (BICOD), 2015, Edinburgh, Scotlan
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