MS

thesisThis study sought to determine the level of parental knowledge regarding Streptococcal pharyngitis (strep throat). The sample was composed of 100 parents of children who visited the Willow Creek and the University of Utah Pediatric practices. At each site, parents were asked to provide demographic data and respond to a questionnaire which focused on the treatment, susceptibility and diagnostic aspects of strep throat. Parents scored highest on questions concerning treatment (87%). Seventy-five percent of the questions on susceptibility were answered correctly. Parents scored lowest on questions about diagnosis (68%). The leading source of knowledge about strep throat for parents was prior experience with the disease (63%). A low correlation was noted between income level and education versus correct answers. No correlation existed with other demographic variables and knowledge base. The study also evaluated whether a difference existed between what parent know and what health care providers believe parents need to know regarding Streptococcal pharyngitis. A difference was found to exist on certain questions within the categories of treatment, susceptibility and diagnosis

Cannabinoid Receptor Involvement in Stress-Induced Cocaine Reinstatement: Potential Interaction with Noradrenergic Pathways

This study examined the role of endocannabinoid signaling in stress-induced reinstatement of cocaine seeking and explored the interaction between noradrenergic and endocannabinergic systems in the process. A well-validated preclinical model for human relapse, the rodent conditioned place preference assay, was used. Cocaine-induced place preference was established in C57BL/6 mice using injections of 15 mg/kg cocaine. Following extinction of preference for the cocaine-paired environment, reinstatement of place preference was determined following 6 min of swim stress or cocaine injection (15 mg/kg, i.p.). The role of endocannabinoid signaling was studied using the cannabinoid antagonist AM-251 (3 mg/kg, i.p.). Another cohort of mice was tested for reinstatement following administration of the cannabinoid agonist CP 55,940 (10, 20, or 40 μg/kg, i.p.). The alpha-2 adrenergic antagonist BRL-44408 (5 mg/kg, i.p.) with or without CP 55,940 (20 μg/kg) was administered to a third group of mice. We found that: (1) AM-251 blocked forced swim-induced, but not cocaine-induced, reinstatement of cocaine-seeking behavior; (2) the cannabinoid agonist CP 55,940 did not reinstate cocaine-seeking behavior when administered alone but did synergize with a non-reinstating dose of the alpha-2 adrenergic antagonist BRL-44408 to cause reinstatement. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that stress exposure triggers the endogenous activation of CB1 receptors and that activation of the endocannabinoid system is required for the stress-induced relapse of the mice to cocaine seeking. Further, the data suggest that the endocannabinoid system interacts with noradrenergic mechanisms to influence stress-induced reinstatement of cocaine-seeking behavior

Age-Independent Increases in Male Salivary Testosterone During Horticultural Activity Among Tsimane Forager-Farmers

Testosterone plays an important role in mediating male reproductive trade-offs in many vertebrate species, augmenting muscle and influencing behavior necessary for male-male competition and mating-effort. Among humans, testosterone may also play a key role in facilitating male provisioning of offspring as muscular and neuromuscular performance are deeply influenced by acute changes in testosterone. This study examines acute changes in salivary testosterone among 63 Tsimane men ranging in age from 16–80 (mean 38.2) years during one-hour bouts of treechopping while clearing horticultural plots. The Tsimane forager-horticulturalists living in the Bolivian Amazon experience high energy expenditure associated with food production, have high levels of parasites and pathogens, and display significantly lower baseline salivary testosterone than age-matched US males. Mixed-effects models controlling for BMI and time of specimen collection reveal increased salivary testosterone (p\u3c0.001) equivalent to a 48.6% rise, after one hour of tree chopping. Age had no effect on baseline (p=0.656) or change in testosterone (p=0.530); self-reported illness did not modify testosterone change (p=0.488). A comparison of these results to the relative change in testosterone during a competitive soccer tournament in the same population reveals larger relative changes in testosterone following resource production (tree chopping), compared to competition (soccer). These findings highlight the importance of moving beyond a unidimensional focus on changes in testosterone and male-male aggression to investigate the importance of testosterone-behavior interactions across additional male fitness-related activities. Acutely increased testosterone during muscularly intensive horticultural food production may facilitate male productivity and provisioning

Understanding variation in human fertility: what can we learn from evolutionary demography?

Decades of research on human fertility has presented a clear picture of how fertility varies, including its dramatic decline over the last two centuries in most parts of the world. Why fertility varies, both between and within populations, is not nearly so well understood. Fertility is a complex phenomenon, partly physiologically and partly behaviourally determined, thus an interdisciplinary approach is required to understand it. Evolutionary demographers have focused on human fertility since the 1980s. The first wave of evolutionary demographic research made major theoretical and empirical advances, investigating variation in fertility primarily in terms of fitness maximization. Research focused particularly on variation within high-fertility populations and small-scale subsistence societies and also yielded a number of hypotheses for why fitness maximization seems to break down as fertility declines during the demographic transition. A second wave of evolutionary demography research on fertility is now underway, paying much more attention to the cultural and psychological mechanisms underpinning fertility. It is also engaging with the complex, multi-causal nature of fertility variation, and with understanding fertility in complex modern and transitioning societies. Here, we summarize the history of evolutionary demographic work on human fertility, describe the current state of the field, and suggest future directions

Atherosclerosis in Indigenous Tsimane: A Contemporary Perspective

The Horus and other research teams have found that atherosclerosis is not uncommon in ancient people through the study of their mummified remains (Murphy et al., 2003; Allam et al., 2009, 2011; Thompson et al., 2013, 2014). However, some have postulated that traditional hunter-gatherers are in some ways healthier than modern people and that they had very little atherosclerotic disease (O’Keefe et al., 2010). The aim of this study was to evaluate the burden of atherosclerosis in a population alive today but living a traditional lifestyle similar to that experienced by past populations. This led to the Tsimane Health and Life History Project Team (THLHP) (Gurven et al., 2017) and the Horus Study Team combining efforts to evaluate the prevalence and extent of coronary atherosclerosis in the Tsimane of Bolivia (Kaplan et al., 2017)

Energetic Costs of Testosterone in Two Subsistence Populations

Objective Testosterone plays a role in mediating energetic trade-offs between growth, maintenance, and reproduction. Investments in a high testosterone phenotype trade-off against other functions, particularly survival-enhancing immune function and cellular repair; thus only individuals in good condition can maintain both a high testosterone phenotype and somatic maintenance. While these effects are observed in experimental manipulations, they are difficult to demonstrate in free-living animals, particularly in humans. We hypothesize that individuals with higher testosterone will have higher energetic expenditures than those with lower testosterone. Methods Total energetic expenditure (TEE) was quantified using doubly labeled water in n = 40 Tsimane forager-horticulturalists (50% male, 18–87 years) and n = 11 Hadza hunter-gatherers (100% male, 18–65 years), two populations living subsistence lifestyles, high levels of physical activity, and high infectious burden. Urinary testosterone, TEE, body composition, and physical activity were measured to assess potential physical and behavioral costs associated with a high testosterone phenotype. Results Endogenous male testosterone was significantly associated with energetic expenditure, controlling for fat free mass; a one standard deviation increase in testosterone is associated with the expenditure of an additional 96–240 calories per day. Discussion These results suggest that a high testosterone phenotype, while beneficial for male reproduction, is also energetically expensive and likely only possible to maintain in healthy males in robust condition

Seismic isolation of Advanced LIGO: Review of strategy, instrumentation and performance

The new generation of gravitational waves detectors require unprecedented levels of isolation from seismic noise. This article reviews the seismic isolation strategy and instrumentation developed for the Advanced LIGO observatories. It summarizes over a decade of research on active inertial isolation and shows the performance recently achieved at the Advanced LIGO observatories. The paper emphasizes the scientific and technical challenges of this endeavor and how they have been addressed. An overview of the isolation strategy is given. It combines multiple layers of passive and active inertial isolation to provide suitable rejection of seismic noise at all frequencies. A detailed presentation of the three active platforms that have been developed is given. They are the hydraulic pre-isolator, the single-stage internal isolator and the two-stage internal isolator. The architecture, instrumentation, control scheme and isolation results are presented for each of the three systems. Results show that the seismic isolation sub-system meets Advanced LIGO's stringent requirements and robustly supports the operation of the two detectors.Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave ObservatoryNational Science Foundation (U.S.

Helminth Infection is Associated with Dampened Cytokine Responses to Viral and Bacterial Stimulations in Tsimane Forager-Horticulturalists

Background Soil-transmitted helminths (STHs) and humans share long co-evolutionary histories over which STHs have evolved strategies to permit their persistence by downregulating host immunity. Understanding the interactions between STHs and other pathogens can inform our understanding of human evolution and contemporary disease patterns. Methodology We worked with Tsimane forager-horticulturalists in the Bolivian Amazon, where STHs are prevalent. We tested whether STHs and eosinophil levels—likely indicative of infection in this population—are associated with dampened immune responses to in vitro stimulation with H1N1 and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) antigens. Whole blood samples (n = 179) were treated with H1N1 vaccine and LPS and assayed for 13 cytokines (INF-γ, IL-1β, IL-2, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-7, IL-8, IL-10, IL-12p70, IL-13, GM-CSF and TNF-ɑ). We evaluated how STHs and eosinophil levels affected cytokine responses and T helper (Th) 1 and Th2-cytokine suite responses to stimulation. Results Infection with Ascaris lumbricoides was significantly (P ≤ 0.05) associated with lower response of some cytokines to H1N1 and LPS in women. Eosinophils were significantly negatively associated with some cytokine responses to H1N1 and LPS, with the strongest effects in women, and associated with a reduced Th1- and Th2-cytokine response to H1N1 and LPS in women and men. Conclusions and implications Consistent with the ‘old friends’ and hygiene hypotheses, we find that STHs were associated with dampened cytokine responses to certain viral and bacterial antigens. This suggests that STH infections may play an essential role in immune response regulation and that the lack of STH immune priming in industrialized populations may increase the risk of over-reactive immunity. Lay Summary: Indicators of helminth infection were associated with dampened cytokine immune responses to in vitro stimulation with viral and bacterial antigens in Tsimane forager-horticulturalists in the Bolivian Amazon, consistent with the ‘old friends’ and hygiene hypotheses

Survival Improvements in Adolescents and Young Adults after Myeloablative Allogeneic Transplantation for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

AbstractAdolescents and young adults (AYAs, ages 15 to 40 years) with cancer have not experienced survival improvements to the same extent as younger and older patients. We compared changes in survival after myeloablative allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) among children (n = 981), AYAs (n = 1218), and older adults (n = 469) who underwent transplantation over 3 time periods: 1990 to 1995, 1996 to 2001, and 2002 to 2007. Five-year survival varied inversely with age group. Survival improved over time in AYAs and paralleled that seen in children; however, overall survival did not change over time for older adults. Survival improvements were primarily related to lower rates of early treatment-related mortality in the most recent era. For all cohorts, relapse rates did not change over time. A subset of 222 AYAs between the ages of 15 and 25 at 46 pediatric or 49 adult centers were also analyzed to describe differences by center type. In this subgroup, there were differences in transplantation practices among pediatric and adult centers, although HCT outcomes did not differ by center type. Survival for AYAs undergoing myeloablative allogeneic HCT for ALL improved at a similar rate as survival for children