Happy Marriage, Happy Life? Marital Quality and Subjective Well‐being in Later Life

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/108609/1/jomf12133.pd

Do family relationships buffer the impact of disability on older adults' daily mood? An exploration of gender and marital status differences

OBJECTIVE: We evaluate whether non-spousal family support and strain moderate the effect of disability on two daily emotions (happiness and frustration) among older adults, and whether these patterns differ by gender among married persons, and by marital status among women. BACKGROUND: Stress buffering perspectives predict that harmful effects of stress on well-being are buffered by family support, whereas stress proliferation models suggest these effects are intensified by family strain. The extent to which family relationships moderate associations between stress and well-being may vary on the basis of gender and marital status, as non-spousal family ties are considered especially salient for women and those without a romantic partner. METHOD: Daily diary data are from the 2013 Disability and Use of Time supplement to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (n=1,474), a national sample of adults ages 60+. Multivariate regression models are estimated for married/partnered men and women, and formerly married women. RESULTS: Neither family support nor strain moderated the effect of severe impairment on married men's daily emotions. Family support buffered the effect of severe impairment on frustration among divorced and widowed women, but not their married counterparts. Counterintuitively, family arguments mitigated against frustration and increased happiness among married women with severe impairment. CONCLUSION: Consistent with stress buffering perspectives, family support was most protective for the vulnerable population of formerly married older women with severe impairment. IMPLICATIONS: This study underscores the importance of family support for the large and growing population of formerly married women managing health-related challenges in later life.P01 AG029409 - NIA NIH HHS; R01 AG040213 - NIA NIH HHS; R01 HD069609 - NICHD NIH HHSAccepted manuscrip

Intervention leads to improvements in the nutrient profile of snacks served in afterschool programs: a group randomized controlled trial

Widely adopted nutrition policies for afterschool programs (ASPs) focus on serving a fruit/vegetable daily and eliminating sugar-sweetened foods/beverages. The impact of these policies on the nutrient profile of snacks served is unclear. Evaluate changes in macro/micronutrient content of snacks served in ASPs. A 1-year group randomized controlled trial was conducted in 20 ASPs serving over 1700 elementary-age children. Intervention ASPs received a multistep adaptive framework intervention. Direct observation of snack served was collected and nutrient information determined using the USDA Nutrient Database, standardized to nutrients/100 kcal. By post-assessment, intervention ASPs reduced total kcal/snack served by 66 kcal (95CI -114 to -19 kcal) compared to control ASPs. Total fiber (+1.7 g/100 kcal), protein (+1.4 g/100 kcal), polyunsaturated fat (+1.2 g/100 kcal), phosphorous (+49.0 mg/100 kcal), potassium (+201.8 mg/100 kcal), and vitamin K (+21.5 μg/100 kcal) increased in intervention ASPs, while added sugars decreased (-5.0 g/100 kcal). Nutrition policies can lead to modest daily caloric reductions and improve select macro/micronutrients in snacks served. Long-term, these nutritional changes may contribute to healthy dietary habits

Translating research into practice: Protocol for a community-engaged, stepped wedge randomized trial to reduce disparities in breast cancer treatment through a regional patient navigation collaborative

BACKGROUND: Racial and socioeconomic disparities in breast cancer mortality persist. In Boston, MA, Black, Non-Hispanic women and Medicaid-insured individuals are 2-3 times more likely to have delays in treatment compared to White or privately insured women. While evidence-based care coordination strategies for reducing delays exist, they are not systematically implemented across healthcare settings. METHODS: Translating Research Into Practice (TRIP) utilizes community engaged research methods to address breast cancer care delivery disparities. Four Massachusetts Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) hubs collaborated with the Boston Breast Cancer Equity Coalition (The Coalition) to implement an evidence-based care coordination intervention for Boston residents at risk for delays in breast cancer care. The Coalition used a community-driven process to define the problem of care delivery disparities, identify the target population, and develop a rigorous pragmatic approach. We chose a cluster-randomized, stepped-wedge hybrid type I effectiveness-implementation study design. The intervention implements three evidence-based strategies: patient navigation services, a shared patient registry for use across academic medical centers, and a web-based social determinants of health platform to identify and address barriers to care. Primary clinical outcomes include time to first treatment and receipt of guideline-concordant treatment, which are captured through electronic health records abstraction. We will use mixed methods to collect the secondary implementation outcomes of acceptability, adoption/penetration, fidelity, sustainability and cost. CONCLUSION: TRIP utilizes an innovative community-driven research strategy, focused on interdisciplinary collaborations, to design and implement a translational science study that aims to more efficiently integrate proven health services interventions into clinical practice

Differential Requirement for SLP-76 Domains in T Cell Development and Function

AbstractThe hematopoietic cell-specific adaptor protein, SLP-76, is critical for T cell development and mature T cell receptor (TCR) signaling; however, the structural requirements of SLP-76 for mediating thymopoiesis and mature T cell function remain largely unknown. In this study, transgenic mice were generated to examine the requirements for specific domains of SLP-76 in thymocytes and peripheral T cells in vivo. Examination of mice expressing various mutants of SLP-76 on the null background demonstrates a differential requirement for specific domains of SLP-76 in thymocytes and T cells and provides new insight into the molecular mechanisms underlying SLP-76 function

Changes in ponderal index and body mass index across childhood and their associations with fat mass and cardiovascular risk factors at age 15

Background: Little is known about whether associations between childhood adiposity and later adverse cardiovascular health outcomes are driven by tracking of overweight from childhood to adulthood and/or by vascular and metabolic changes from childhood overweight that persist into adulthood. Our objective is to characterise associations between trajectories of adiposity across childhood and a wide range of cardiovascular risk factors measured in adolescence, and explore the extent to which these are mediated by fat mass at age 15. Methods and Findings: Using data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, we estimated individual trajectories of ponderal index (PI) from 0-2 years and BMI from 2-10 years using random-effects linear spline models (N = 4601). We explored associations between PI/BMI trajectories and DXA-determined total-body fat-mass and cardiovascular risk factors at 15 years (systolic and diastolic blood pressure, fasting LDL-and HDL-cholesterol, triglycerides, C-reactive protein, glucose, insulin) with and without adjustment for confounders. Changes in PI/BMI during all periods of infancy and childhood were associated with greater DXA-determined fat-mass at age 15. BMI changes in childhood, but not PI changes from 0-2 years, were associated with most cardiovascular risk factors in adolescence; associations tended to be strongest for BMI changes in later childhood (ages 8.5-10), and were largely mediated by fat mass at age 15. Conclusion: Changes in PI/BMI from 0-10 years were associated with greater fat-mass at age 15. Greater increases in BMI from age 8.5-10 years are most strongly associated with cardiovascular risk factors at age 15, with much of these associations mediated by fat-mass at this age. We found little evidence supporting previous reports that rapid PI changes in infancy are associated with future cardiovascular risk. This study suggests that associations between early overweight and subsequent adverse cardiovascular health are largely due to overweight children tending to remain overweight

Testing Models of Intrinsic Brightness Variations in Type Ia Supernovae, and their Impact on Measuring Cosmological Parameters

For spectroscopically confirmed Type Ia supernovae we evaluate models of intrinsic brightness variations with detailed data/Monte Carlo comparisons of the dispersion in the following quantities: Hubble-diagram scatter, color difference (B-V-c) between the true B-V color and the fitted color (c) from the SALT-II light curve model, and photometric redshift residual. The data sample includes 251 ugriz light curves from the 3-season Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II, and 191 griz light curves from the Supernova Legacy Survey 3-year data release. We find that the simplest model of a wavelength-independent (coherent) scatter is not adequate, and that to describe the data the intrinsic scatter model must have wavelength-dependent variations. We use Monte Carlo simulations to examine the standard approach of adding a coherent scatter term in quadrature to the distance-modulus uncertainty in order to bring the reduced chi2 to unity when fitting a Hubble diagram. If the light curve fits include model uncertainties with the correct wavelength dependence of the scatter, we find that the bias on the dark energy equation of state parameter $w$ is negligible. However, incorrect model uncertainties can lead to a significant bias on the distance moduli, with up to ~0.05 mag redshift-dependent variation. For the recent SNLS3 cosmology results we estimate that this effect introduces an additional systematic uncertainty on $w$ of ~0.02, well below the total uncertainty. However, this uncertainty depends on the samples used, and thus this small $w$-uncertainty is not guaranteed in future cosmology results.Comment: accepted by Ap

Q methodology and a Delphi poll: a useful approach to researching a narrative approach to therapy

Q methodology and a Delphi poll combined qualitative and quantitative methods to explore definitions of White and Epston's (1990) narrative approach to therapy among a group of UK practitioners. A Delphi poll was used to generate statements about narrative therapy. The piloting of statements by the Delphi panel identified agreement about theoretical ideas underpinning narrative therapy and certain key practices. A wider group of practitioners ranked the statements in a Q sort and made qualitative comments about their sorting. Quantitative methods (principal components analysis) were used to extract eight accounts of narrative therapy, five of which are qualitatively analysed in this paper. Agreement and differences were identified across a range of issues, including the social construction of narratives, privileging a political stance or narrative techniques and the relationship with other therapies, specifically systemic psychotherapy. Q methodology, combined with the Delphi poll, was a unique and innovative feature of this study

Alternative Splicing Promotes Tumour Aggressiveness and Drug Resistance in African American Prostate Cancer.

linical challenges exist in reducing prostate cancer (PCa) disparities. The RNA splicing landscape of PCa across racial populations has not been fully explored as a potential molecular mechanism contributing to race-related tumour aggressiveness. Here, we identify novel genome-wide, race-specific RNA splicing events as critical drivers of PCa aggressiveness and therapeutic resistance in African American (AA) men. AA-enriched splice variants of PIK3CD, FGFR3, TSC2 and RASGRP2 contribute to greater oncogenic potential compared with corresponding European American (EA)-expressing variants. Ectopic overexpression of the newly cloned AA-enriched variant, PIK3CD-S, in EA PCa cell lines enhances AKT/mTOR signalling and increases proliferative and invasive capacity in vitro and confers resistance to selective PI3Kδ inhibitor, CAL-101 (idelalisib), in mouse xenograft models. High PIK3CD-S expression in PCa specimens associates with poor survival. These results highlight the potential of RNA splice variants to serve as novel biomarkers and molecular targets for developmental therapeutics in aggressive PCa