Dashing away hypertension: Evaluating the efficacy of the dietary approaches to stop hypertension diet in controlling high blood pressure

The dietary approaches to stop hypertension (DASH) diet has been developed and popularized as a non-pharmaceutical intervention for high blood pressure reduction since 1995. However, to date, a comprehensive description of the biochemical rationale behind the diet’s principal guidelines has yet to be compiled. With rising interest for healthy and reliable life-style modifications to combat cardiovascular disease, this review aims to compile the most recent and relevant studies on this topic and make an informed assessment as to the efficacy of and underlying mechanisms operant in the DASH diet. Specifically, the merits of lowering dietary intake of sodium and saturated fat, as well as increasing the intake of fruits, vegetables, fiber, and dairy, have been shown to attenuate hypertension individually. Upon review of this evidence, we conclude that the combination of dietary patterns proposed in the DASH diet is effective in attenuating high blood pressure. We also suggest that efforts to more widely implement adoption of the DASH diet would be beneficial to public health

Corrigendum: Attenuation of Na/K-ATPase Mediated Oxidant Amplification With PNaKtide Ameliorates Experimental Uremic Cardiomyopathy

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/srep34592

I only have eyes for you: Ovulation redirects attention (but not memory) to attractive men

A number of studies have found a disjunction between women’s attention to, and memory for, handsome men. Although women pay initial attention to handsome men, they do not remember those men later. The present study examines how ovulation might differentially affect these attentional and memory processes. We found that women near ovulation increased their visual attention to attractive men. However, this increased visual attention did not translate into better memory. Discussion focuses on possible explanations, in the context of an emerging body of findings on disjunctions between attention to, and memory for, other people.National Institute of Mental Health (U.S.) (R01MH064734

pNaKtide inhibits Na/K-ATPase reactive oxygen species amplification and attenuates adipogenesis

Obesity has become a worldwide epidemic and is a major risk factor for metabolic syndrome. Oxidative stress is known to play a role in the generation and maintenance of an obesity phenotype in both isolated adipocytes and intact animals. Because we had identified that the Na/K-ATPase can amplify oxidant signaling, we speculated that a peptide designed to inhibit this pathway, pNaKtide, might ameliorate an obesity phenotype. To test this hypothesis, we first performed studies in isolated murine preadipocytes (3T3L1 cells) and found that pNaKtide attenuated oxidant stress and lipid accumulation in a dose-dependent manner. Complementary experiments in C57Bl6 mice fed a high-fat diet corroborated our in vitro observations. Administration of pNaKtide in these mice reduced body weight gain, restored systemic redox and inflammatory milieu, and, crucially, improved insulin sensitivity. Thus, we propose that inhibition of Na/K-ATPase amplification of oxidative stress may ultimately be a novel way to combat obesity, insulin resistance, and metabolic syndrome

Protein Carbonylation of an Amino Acid Residue of the Na/K‐ATPase α1 Subunit Determines Na/K‐ATPase Signaling and Sodium Transport in Renal Proximal Tubular Cells

Background We have demonstrated that cardiotonic steroids, such as ouabain, signaling through the Na/K‐ATPase, regulate sodium reabsorption in the renal proximal tubule. By direct carbonylation modification of the Pro222 residue in the actuator (A) domain of pig Na/K‐ATPase α1 subunit, reactive oxygen species are required for ouabain‐stimulated Na/K‐ATPase/c‐Src signaling and subsequent regulation of active transepithelial 22Na+ transport. In the present study we sought to determine the functional role of Pro222 carbonylation in Na/K‐ATPase signaling and sodium handling. Methods and Results Stable pig α1 knockdown LLC‐PK1‐originated PY‐17 cells were rescued by expressing wild‐type rat α1 and rat α1 with a single mutation of Pro224 (corresponding to pig Pro222) to Ala. This mutation does not affect ouabain‐induced inhibition of Na/K‐ATPase activity, but abolishes the effects of ouabain on Na/K‐ATPase/c‐Src signaling, protein carbonylation, Na/K‐ATPase endocytosis, and active transepithelial 22Na+ transport. Conclusions Direct carbonylation modification of Pro224 in the rat α1 subunit determines ouabain‐mediated Na/K‐ATPase signal transduction and subsequent regulation of renal proximal tubule sodium transport

Use of groundwater lifetime expectancy for the performance assessment of a deep geologic waste repository: 1. Theory, illustrations, and implications

Long-term solutions for the disposal of toxic wastes usually involve isolation of the wastes in a deep subsurface geologic environment. In the case of spent nuclear fuel, if radionuclide leakage occurs from the engineered barrier, the geological medium represents the ultimate barrier that is relied upon to ensure safety. Consequently, an evaluation of radionuclide travel times from a repository to the biosphere is critically important in a performance assessment analysis. In this study, we develop a travel time framework based on the concept of groundwater lifetime expectancy as a safety indicator. Lifetime expectancy characterizes the time that radionuclides will spend in the subsurface after their release from the repository and prior to discharging into the biosphere. The probability density function of lifetime expectancy is computed throughout the host rock by solving the backward-in-time solute transport adjoint equation subject to a properly posed set of boundary conditions. It can then be used to define optimal repository locations. The risk associated with selected sites can be evaluated by simulating an appropriate contaminant release history. The utility of the method is illustrated by means of analytical and numerical examples, which focus on the effect of fracture networks on the uncertainty of evaluated lifetime expectancy.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures; Water Resources Research, Vol. 44, 200

Cooling Properties of Cloudy Bag Strange Stars

As the chiral symmetry is widely recognized as an important driver of the strong interaction dynamics, current strange stars models based on MIT bag models do not obey such symmetry. We investigate properties of bare strange stars using the Cloudy Bag Model, in which a pion cloud coupled to the quark-confining bag is introduced such that chiral symmetry is conserved. We find that in this model the decay of pions is a very efficient cooling way. In fact it can carry out most the thermal energy in a few milliseconds and directly convert them into 100MeV photons via pion decay. This may be a very efficient $\gamma$-ray burst mechanism. Furthermore, the cooling behavior may provide a possible way to distinguish a compact object between a neutron star, MIT strange star and Cloudy Bag strange star in observations.Comment: 23 pages, 14 figures, accepted by Astroparticle Physics, abstract appeared here has been shortene

Thermal Evolution of Compact Stars

A collection of modern, field-theoretical equations of state is applied to the investigation of cooling properties of compact stars. These comprise neutron stars as well as hypothetical strange matter stars, made up of absolutely stable 3-flavor strange quark matter. Various uncertainties in the behavior of matter at supernuclear densities, e.g., hyperonic degrees of freedom, behavior of coupling strengths in matter, pion and meson condensation, superfluidity, transition to quark matter, absolute stability of strange quark matter, and last but not least the many-body technique itself are tested against the body of observed cooling data.Comment: 41 pages, revised versio