Old and Poor in America

Education, ethnicity, gender, living arrangements and age group all contribute to an older individual's risk of being poor or near poor

Preparing for an Aging Nation: The Need for Academic Geriatricians

According to the author of this issue brief, a strong commitment by the government to a regular stream of financial support for geriatrics would encourage medical centers to establish or expand programs, enhance their ability to attract funds from private sources, and ultimately produce a sufficient number of academic geriatricians. Given the impending retirement of the baby boom generation, this process should begin as soon as possible. This issue brief highlights the critical need for academic geriatricians and presents a realistic proposal to help address the problem

Effects of alcohol on attention in alcoholics

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston UniversityThis study is an investigation of the effects of alcohol ingestion on attention in alcoholics. Alcoholism is herein defined as alcohol ingestion, over which the individual exercises no control, in association with deterioration in marital or family relations, social status, or vocational activity for five or more years. Attention is defined as heightened accuracy in recognizing stimuli congruent with expectancies, where equally available incongruent material is less well recognized. Higher recognition of congruent than of incongruent signals is "narrow" focus of attention. Uniform accuracy in recognizing congruent and incongruent signals is "broad," or unfocused attention. Existing data indicates that relative narrowness of attention depends on the distinctiveness of stimulus qualities, and on personal capacities to develop and maintain attention-setting expectancies. Recent findings indicate alcoholics as a group may fail to narrow attention when directive qualities are lacking in the stimulus environment, and may therefore depend more on external stimulation than inner initiative for focusing attention [TRUNCATED

The engineering in beaver dams

Before their near extinction, beavers populated the smaller rivers in Eurasia and North America. Beavers are called ‘ecosystem engineers’, since their dam building activities dramatically change the character of river (flow characteristics, groundwater and morphology), river habitats and ecosystems. The largest dam currently in existence has a length of 850 m, raising the question of the engineering required for such large structures. A research programme was initiated at Southampton University to assess the engineering importance, and characteristics of beaver dams. It was found that the dams are built in rivers of up to 45 m width. They modify the flow duration curves, increasing ground water retention, reducing the gradient and sediment transport, trapping sediment and improving ecosystems. Model tests were conducted to investigate the strength and permeability of beaver dams. It was found that beavers employ interesting construction techniques, creating semi-permeable dams able to withstand flow volumes of up to 1.34 m3/s per meter width for a 1.4 m high dam. Beaver dam technology may allow to create novel, nature based solutions for ecosystem redevelopment and river renaturalisation

Abnormal connectivity between the default mode and the visual system underlies the manifestation of visual hallucinations in Parkinson’s disease:A task-based fMRI study

Background: The neural substrates of visual hallucinations remain an enigma, due primarily to the difficulties associated with directly interrogating the brain during hallucinatory episodes. Aims: To delineate the functional patterns of brain network activity and connectivity underlying visual hallucinations in Parkinson’s disease. Methods: In this study, we combined functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with a behavioral task capable of eliciting visual misperceptions, a confirmed surrogate for visual hallucinations, in 35 patients with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease. We then applied an independent component analysis to extract time series information for large-scale neuronal networks that have been previously implicated in the pathophysiology of visual hallucinations. These data were subjected to a task-based functional connectivity analysis, thus providing the first objective description of the neural activity and connectivity during visual hallucinations in patients with Parkinson’s disease. Results: Correct performance of the task was associated with increased activity in primary visual regions; however, during visual misperceptions, this same visual network became actively coupled with the default mode network (DMN). Further, the frequency of misperception errors on the task was positively correlated with the strength of connectivity between these two systems, as well as with decreased activity in the dorsal attention network (DAN), and with impaired connectivity between the DAN and the DMNs, and ventral attention networks. Finally, each of the network abnormalities identified in our analysis were significantly correlated with two independent clinical measures of hallucination severity. Conclusions: Together, these results provide evidence that visual hallucinations are due to increased engagement of the DMN with the primary visual system, and emphasize the role of dysfunctional engagement of attentional networks in the pathophysiology of hallucinations

IDO1 is an Integral Mediator of Inflammatory Neovascularization.

The immune tolerogenic effects of IDO1 (indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1) have been well documented and genetic studies in mice have clearly established the significance of IDO1 in tumor promotion. Dichotomously, the primary inducer of IDO1, the inflammatory cytokine IFNγ (interferon-γ), is a key mediator of immune-based tumor suppression. One means by which IFNγ can exert an anti-cancer effect is by decreasing tumor neovascularization. We speculated that IDO1 might contribute to cancer promotion by countering this anti-neovascular effect of IFNγ, possibly through IDO1-potentiated elevation of the pro-tumorigenic inflammatory cytokine IL6 (interleukin-6). In this study, we investigated how genetic loss of IDO1 affects neovascularization in mouse models of oxygen-induced retinopathy and lung metastasis. Neovascularization in both models was significantly reduced in mice lacking IDO1, was similarly reduced with loss of IL6, and was restored in both cases by concomitant loss of IFNγ. Likewise, the lack of IDO1 or IL6 resulted in reduced metastatic tumor burden and increased survival, which the concomitant loss of IFNγ abrogated. This insight into IDO1\u27s involvement in pro-tumorigenic inflammatory neovascularization may have important ramifications for IDO1 inhibitor development, not only in cancer where clinical trials are currently ongoing, but in other disease indications associated with neovascularization as well

Shared Responsibilities for Nuclear Disarmament: A Global Debate

Presents Sagan's 2009 paper calling for rethinking the balance of responsibilities and the relationship between articles in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty with seven response papers by international scholars about how to pursue nuclear disarmament