Dietary intake relative to cardiovascular disease risk factors in individuals with chronic spinal cord injury: a pilot study

BACKGROUND: The relationship between cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors and dietary intake is unknown among individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI). OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between consumption of selected food groups (dairy, whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and meat) and CVD risk factors in individuals with chronic SCI. METHODS: A cross-sectional substudy of individuals with SCI to assess CVD risk factors and dietary intake in comparison with age-, gender-, and race-matched able-bodied individuals enrolled in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study. Dietary history, blood pressure, waist circumference (WC), fasting blood glucose, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), lipids, glucose, and insulin data were collected from 100 SCI participants who were 38 to 55 years old with SCI >1 year and compared to 100 matched control participants from the CARDIA study. RESULTS: Statistically significant differences between SCI and CARDIA participants were identified in WC (39.2 vs 36.2 in.; P < .001) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C; 39.2 vs 47.5 mg/dL; P < .001). Blood pressure, total cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose, insulin, and hs-CRP were similar between SCI and CARDIA participants. No significant relation between CVD risk factors and selected food groups was seen in the SCI participants. CONCLUSION: SCI participants had adverse WC and HDL-C compared to controls. This study did not identify a relationship between consumption of selected food groups and CVD risk factors

Optical Brightener Screening for Sewage Contamination of Water Table Aquifers in Southeastern Minnesota, USA

Novel screening methods for detecting optical brighteners, fluorescent organic blue dyes principally used in laundry detergents for whitening fabrics, have been developed for the monitoring of water table aquifers impacted by septic systems. Four rural residential communities characterized by private water supply and sewage systems were selected in southeastern Minnesota. Developments were chosen with a variety of saturated and unsaturated zone materials and thicknesses, water table and well depths, and topographic and cultural settings. Sampling sites were enrolled if wells were completed above regional aquitards. Sanitary surveys of sampling sites were completed with attention to drinking water usage and waste/wastewater disposal practices to uncover sources of crosscontamination. Water supplies were sampled and analyzed to determine aquifer sources, sanitary quality and natural backgrounds and anthropomorphic contributions of physicochemical and microbiological parameters of interest (e.g., nitrate, chloride and coliform bacteria). Filter holders containing untreated cotton, activated carbon and polysulfone/polyethersulfone membrane filters were installed as immersion-type detectors in toilet reservoirs. Syringe filter capsules comprised of polyethersulfone membranes were utilized for direct sampling. Exposure times ranged from minutes to months, and exposed filter media were analyzed in solid phase utilizing a scanning spectrofluorophotometer. Spectral data were computer-processed to objectively match peaks with the spectra obtained from pure fluorescent dyes and laundry detergent formulations. Detections were positive if matched peaks at 440 nm appeared above background fluorescence. Water supply test data and site survey information indicative of septic system contamination were moderately correlated with positive optical brightener detections.Funding for this research project was approved by the Minnesota Legislature [ML 1993, Chap. 172, Art. 1, Sec. 14, Subd. 11 (i)J as recommended by the Legislative Commission on Minnesota Resources from the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund

Optical Brighteners: Sorption Behavior, Detection, Septic System Tracer Applications

Laboratory soil column experiments were used to evaluate the optical brighteners (fluorescent whitening agents) Tinopal3 CBS-X (ASTM designation DSBP-1) and Tinopal3 5BM-GX (ASTM designation DASC-4) and the fluorescent dye eosin Y (C.1. 45380) as adsorbing tracers in subsurface systems. In a low organic carbon content glacial outwash sand (foe = 0.0034, 97% sand by weight) the solid-water distribution coefficient (Kd) was determined to be 0.26 cm113/g for Tinopal CBS-X, 0. 78 cm113/g for Tinopal 5BM-GX, and 0.024 cm11 3/g for eosin Y. All three compounds had simple sigmoidal breakthrough curves. Optical brighteners can be detected in direct solution by fluorometry but suffer from interference associated with naturally occurring organic compounds. Unbrightened cotton can be used to qualitatively detect optical brighteners. Polyethersulfone filter media can be used to selectively remove optical brighteners from solution without changing the background fluorescence spectrum. The exposed filter medium can be analyzed as a solid sample in a scanning spectrofluorophotometer. The resulting spectrum can be used to measure the optical brightener concentration in the filtered sample. Polyethersulfone filters can be used to detect optical brighteners in samples collected in and around septic system drain fields at less than 1 ppb Tinopal 5BM-GX equivalent.Funding for this research project was approved by the Minnesota Legislature [ML 1993, Chap. 172, Art. 1, Sec. 14, Subd. 11 (i)] as recommended by the Legislative Commission on Minnesota Resources from the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund. A graduate student fellowship awarded to the first author by the National Ground Water Association facilitated the column experiment work. The septic system tracer applications portion of this work was made possible by a joint Blue Earth County, Minnesota Soil and Water Conservation District / Minnesota Pollution Control Agency I Federal Emergency Management Administration grant

Honey bee foraging distance depends on month and forage type

To investigate the distances at which honey bee foragers collect nectar and pollen, we analysed 5,484 decoded waggle dances made to natural forage sites to determine monthly foraging distance for each forage type. Firstly, we found significantly fewer overall dances made for pollen (16.8 %) than for non-pollen, presumably nectar (83.2 %; P < 2.2 × 10−23). When we analysed distance against month and forage type, there was a significant interaction between the two factors, which demonstrates that in some months, one forage type is collected at farther distances, but this would reverse in other months. Overall, these data suggest that distance, as a proxy for forage availability, is not significantly and consistently driven by need for one type of forage over the other

Ecological implications of a flower size/number trade-off in tropical forest trees

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

D-β-Hydroxybutyrate Is Protective in Mouse Models of Huntington's Disease

Abnormalities in mitochondrial function and epigenetic regulation are thought to be instrumental in Huntington's disease (HD), a fatal genetic disorder caused by an expanded polyglutamine track in the protein huntingtin. Given the lack of effective therapies for HD, we sought to assess the neuroprotective properties of the mitochondrial energizing ketone body, D-β-hydroxybutyrate (DβHB), in the 3-nitropropionic acid (3-NP) toxic and the R6/2 genetic model of HD. In mice treated with 3-NP, a complex II inhibitor, infusion of DβHB attenuates motor deficits, striatal lesions, and microgliosis in this model of toxin induced-striatal neurodegeneration. In transgenic R6/2 mice, infusion of DβHB extends life span, attenuates motor deficits, and prevents striatal histone deacetylation. In PC12 cells with inducible expression of mutant huntingtin protein, we further demonstrate that DβHB prevents histone deacetylation via a mechanism independent of its mitochondrial effects and independent of histone deacetylase inhibition. These pre-clinical findings suggest that by simultaneously targeting the mitochondrial and the epigenetic abnormalities associated with mutant huntingtin, DβHB may be a valuable therapeutic agent for HD

Identification of Potential Therapeutic Drugs for Huntington's Disease using Caenorhabditis elegans

The prolonged time course of Huntington's disease (HD) neurodegeneration increases both the time and cost of testing potential therapeutic compounds in mammalian models. An alternative is to initially assess the efficacy of compounds in invertebrate models, reducing time of testing from months to days.We screened candidate therapeutic compounds that were identified previously in cell culture/animal studies in a C. elegans HD model and found that two FDA approved drugs, lithium chloride and mithramycin, independently and in combination suppressed HD neurotoxicity. Aging is a critical contributor to late onset neurodegenerative diseases. Using a genetic strategy and a novel assay, we demonstrate that lithium chloride and mithramycin remain neuroprotective independent of activity of the forkhead transcription factor DAF-16, which mediates the effects of the insulin-like signaling pathway on aging.These results suggest that pathways involved in polyglutamine-induced degeneration are distinct from specific aging pathways. The assays presented here will be useful for rapid and inexpensive testing of other potential HD drugs and elucidating pathways of drug action. Additionally, the neuroprotection conferred by lithium chloride and mithramycin suggests that these drugs may be useful for polyglutamine disease therapy

Decreased Functional Diversity and Biological Pest Control in Conventional Compared to Organic Crop Fields

Organic farming is one of the most successful agri-environmental schemes, as humans benefit from high quality food, farmers from higher prices for their products and it often successfully protects biodiversity. However there is little knowledge if organic farming also increases ecosystem services like pest control. We assessed 30 triticale fields (15 organic vs. 15 conventional) and recorded vascular plants, pollinators, aphids and their predators. Further, five conventional fields which were treated with insecticides were compared with 10 non-treated conventional fields. Organic fields had five times higher plant species richness and about twenty times higher pollinator species richness compared to conventional fields. Abundance of pollinators was even more than one-hundred times higher on organic fields. In contrast, the abundance of cereal aphids was five times lower in organic fields, while predator abundances were three times higher and predator-prey ratios twenty times higher in organic fields, indicating a significantly higher potential for biological pest control in organic fields. Insecticide treatment in conventional fields had only a short-term effect on aphid densities while later in the season aphid abundances were even higher and predator abundances lower in treated compared to untreated conventional fields. Our data indicate that insecticide treatment kept aphid predators at low abundances throughout the season, thereby significantly reducing top-down control of aphid populations. Plant and pollinator species richness as well as predator abundances and predator-prey ratios were higher at field edges compared to field centres, highlighting the importance of field edges for ecosystem services. In conclusion organic farming increases biodiversity, including important functional groups like plants, pollinators and predators which enhance natural pest control. Preventative insecticide application in conventional fields has only short-term effects on aphid densities but long-term negative effects on biological pest control. Therefore conventional farmers should restrict insecticide applications to situations where thresholds for pest densities are reached

Measurement of the Bottom-Strange Meson Mixing Phase in the Full CDF Data Set

We report a measurement of the bottom-strange meson mixing phase \beta_s using the time evolution of B0_s -> J/\psi (->\mu+\mu-) \phi (-> K+ K-) decays in which the quark-flavor content of the bottom-strange meson is identified at production. This measurement uses the full data set of proton-antiproton collisions at sqrt(s)= 1.96 TeV collected by the Collider Detector experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron, corresponding to 9.6 fb-1 of integrated luminosity. We report confidence regions in the two-dimensional space of \beta_s and the B0_s decay-width difference \Delta\Gamma_s, and measure \beta_s in [-\pi/2, -1.51] U [-0.06, 0.30] U [1.26, \pi/2] at the 68% confidence level, in agreement with the standard model expectation. Assuming the standard model value of \beta_s, we also determine \Delta\Gamma_s = 0.068 +- 0.026 (stat) +- 0.009 (syst) ps-1 and the mean B0_s lifetime, \tau_s = 1.528 +- 0.019 (stat) +- 0.009 (syst) ps, which are consistent and competitive with determinations by other experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, Phys. Rev. Lett 109, 171802 (2012