The impact of brain iron accumulation on cognition : A systematic review

Funding: Principal Grant Holder: GW Funder: The Roland Sutton Academic Trust https://www.abdn.ac.uk/ims/research/abic/roland-sutton-academic-trust-1427.php Sponsers only provided financial support.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Cognition and brain iron deposition in whole grey matter regions and hippocampal subfields

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We are grateful to the Aberdeen Children of the 1950's (ACONF) subset of Generation Scotland GS:SFHS who took part in the STRADL study, supported and funded by the Wellcome Trust Strategic Award ‘Stratifying Resilience and Depression Longitudinally’ (STRADL) [104036/Z/14/Z]. Generation Scotland received core support from the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health Directorates [CZD/16/6] and the Scottish Funding Council [HR03006] and is currently supported by the Wellcome Trust [216767/Z/19/Z]. HS is supported by the Roland Sutton Academic Trust [0076/R/19]. We also thank the STRADL project team. Research Funding Chief Scientist Office. Grant Number: CZD/16/6 Roland Sutton Academic Trust. Grant Number: 0076/R/19 Scottish Funding Council. Grant Number: HR03006 Wellcome Trust. Grant Number: 104036/Z/14/ZPeer reviewedPublisher PD

Graphene plasmonics : ultra-tunable graphene light source

Free-electron-based light sources have long attracted interest due to their continuous tunability that has been demonstrated to extend across the electromagnetic spectrum from millimetre waves and microwaves through the infrared and visible to ultraviolet and X-ray regions. However this intrinsic tunability, particularly at short wavelengths, usually involves sources that are large and costly. The prospect of a compact, continuously tunable light source with the capability to generate short-wavelength ultraviolet and even X-ray light is an exciting one for many scientific, medical and engineering applications

Associations between sex, systemic iron and inflammatory status and subcortical brain iron

Acknowledgments We are grateful to the participants of the STRADL study which was supported and funded by the Wellcome Trust Strategic Award ‘Stratifying Resilience and Depression Longitudinally’ (STRADL) [104036/Z/14/Z]. This study was carried out as a part of Generation Scotland which received core support from the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health Directorates [CZD/16/6] and the Scottish Funding Council [HR03006] and is currently supported by the Wellcome Trust [216767/Z/19/Z]. HS is supported by the Roland Sutton Academic Trust [0076/R/19]. We would also like to thank the STRADL project team.Peer reviewe

Design of sub-Angstrom compact free-electron laser source

In this paper, we propose for first time practical parameters to construct a compact sub-Angstrom Free Electron Laser (FEL) based on Compton backscattering. Our recipe is based on using picocoulomb electron bunch, enabling very low emittance and ultracold electron beam. We assume the FEL is operating in a quantum regime of Self Amplified Spontaneous Emission (SASE). The fundamental quantum feature is a significantly narrower spectrum of the emitted radiation relative to classical SASE. The quantum regime of the SASE FEL is reached when the momentum spread of the electron beam is smaller than the photon recoil momentum. Following the formulae describing SASE FEL operation, realistic designs for quantum FEL experiments are proposed. We discuss the practical constraints that influence the experimental parameters. Numerical simulations of power spectra and intensities are presented and attractive radiation characteristics such as high flux, narrow linewidth, and short pulse structure are demonstrated

Validation and comparison of two automated methods to quantify brain white matter hyperintensities of presumed vascular origin

Funding Data collection was funded by grants from the Alzheimer’s Research Trust (now Alzheimer’s Research UK, grant reference: ART/SPG2003B), Alzheimer’s Research UK (grant reference: ARUK-SB2012B-2), the University of Aberdeen Development Trust (grant reference RGB3109) and NHS Grampian and the Chief Scientist’s Office (grant reference: CAF/08/08). JMJW is funded by the University of Aberdeen Development Trust and TauRx Therapeutics Ltd. CP is funded by Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. CJM, ADM, and GDW are funded by the Scottish Funding Council.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Differential effects of nutritional folic acid deficiency and moderate hyperhomocysteinemia on aortic plaque formation and genome-wide DNA methylation in vascular tissue from ApoE-/- mice

Low folate intake is associated with vascular disease. Causality has been attributed to hyperhomocysteinemia. However, human intervention trials have failed to show the benefit of homocysteine-lowering therapies. Alternatively, low folate may promote vascular disease by deregulating DNA methylation. We investigated whether folate could alter DNA methylation and atherosclerosis in ApoE null mice. Mice were fed one of six diets (n = 20 per group) for 16 weeks. Basal diets were either control (C; 4% lard) or high fat (HF; 21% lard and cholesterol, 0.15%) with different B-vitamin compositions: (1) folic acid and B-vitamin replete, (2) folic acid deficient (−F), (3) folic acid, B6 and B12 deficient (−F−B). −F diets decreased plasma (up to 85%; P < 0.05), whole blood (up to 70%; P < 0.05), and liver folate (up to 65%; P < 0.05) and hepatic SAM/SAH (up to 80%; P < 0.05). −F−B diets reduced plasma (up to 76%; P < 0.05), whole blood (up to 72%; P < 0.05), and liver B12 (up to 39%; P < 0.05) and hepatic SAM/SAH (up to 90%; P < 0.05). −F increased homocysteine 2-fold, while −F−B increased homocysteine 3.6- and 6.8-fold in the C and HF groups (P < 0.05). Plaque formation was increased 2-fold (P < 0.0001) in mice fed a HF diet. Feeding a HF–F diet increased lesion formation by 17% (P < 0.05). There was no change in 5-methyldeoxycytidine in liver or vascular tissue (aorta, periadventitial tissue and heart). These data suggest that atherogenesis is not associated with genome-wide epigenetic changes in this animal model

Relationship between IQ at different ages and functional brain connectivity in healthy elders

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Competency-based simulation assessment of resuscitation skills in emergency medicine postgraduate trainees – a Canadian multi-centred study

Background: The use of high-fidelity simulation is emerging as a desirable method for competency-based assessment in postgraduate medical education. We aimed to demonstrate the feasibility and validity of a multi-centre simulation-based Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) of resuscitation competence with Canadian Emergency Medicine (EM) trainees.Method: EM postgraduate trainees (n=98) from five Canadian academic centres participated in a high fidelity, 3-station simulation-based OSCE.  Expert panels of three emergency physicians evaluated trainee performances at each centre using the Queen’s Simulation Assessment Tool (QSAT).  Intraclass correlation coefficients were used to measure the inter-rater reliability, and analysis of variance was used to measure the discriminatory validity of each scenario.  A fully crossed generalizability study was also conducted for each examination centre.   Results: Inter-rater reliability in four of the five centres was strong with a median absolute intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) across centres and scenarios of 0.89 [0.65-0.97]. Discriminatory validity was also strong (p &lt; 0.001 for scenarios 1 and 3; p &lt; 0.05 for scenario 2). Generalizability studies found significant variations at two of the study centres.Conclusions: This study demonstrates the successful pilot administration of a multi-centre, 3-station simulation-based OSCE for the assessment of resuscitation competence in post-graduate Emergency Medicine trainees

Nutritional B vitamin deficiency alters the expression of key proteins associated with vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation and migration in the aorta of atherosclerotic apolipoprotein E null mice.

Low B vitamin status is linked with human vascular disease. We employed a proteomic and biochemical approach to determine whether nutritional folate deficiency and/or hyperhomocysteinemia altered metabolic processes linked with atherosclerosis in ApoE null mice. Animals were fed either a control fat (C; 4 % w/w lard) or a high-fat [HF; 21 % w/w lard and cholesterol (0/15 % w/w)] diet with different B vitamin compositions for 16 weeks. Aorta tissue was prepared and global protein expression, B vitamin, homocysteine and lipoprotein status measured. Changes in the expression of aorta proteins were detected in response to multiple B vitamin deficiency combined with a high-fat diet (P < 0.05) and were strongly linked with lipoprotein concentrations measured directly in the aorta adventitia (P < 0.001). Pathway analysis revealed treatment effects in the aorta-related primarily to cytoskeletal organisation, smooth muscle cell adhesion and invasiveness (e.g., fibrinogen, moesin, transgelin, vimentin). Combined B vitamin deficiency induced striking quantitative changes in the expression of aorta proteins in atherosclerotic ApoE null mice. Deregulated expression of these proteins is associated with human atherosclerosis. Cellular pathways altered by B vitamin status included cytoskeletal organisation, cell differentiation and migration, oxidative stress and chronic inflammation. These findings provide new insight into the molecular mechanisms through which B vitamin deficiency may accelerate atherosclerosis