Is telomere length socially patterned? Evidence from the West of Scotland Twenty-07 study

Lower socioeconomic status (SES) is strongly associated with an increased risk of morbidity and premature mortality, but it is not known if the same is true for telomere length, a marker often used to assess biological ageing. The West of Scotland Twenty-07 Study was used to investigate this and consists of three cohorts aged approximately 35 (N = 775), 55 (N = 866) and 75 years (N = 544) at the time of telomere length measurement. Four sets of measurements of SES were investigated: those collected contemporaneously with telomere length assessment, educational markers, SES in childhood and SES over the preceding twenty years. We found mixed evidence for an association between SES and telomere length. In 35-year-olds, many of the education and childhood SES measures were associated with telomere length, i.e. those in poorer circumstances had shorter telomeres, as was intergenerational social mobility, but not accumulated disadvantage. A crude estimate showed that, at the same chronological age, social renters, for example, were nine years (biologically) older than home owners. No consistent associations were apparent in those aged 55 or 75. There is evidence of an association between SES and telomere length, but only in younger adults and most strongly using education and childhood SES measures. These results may reflect that childhood is a sensitive period for telomere attrition. The cohort differences are possibly the result of survival bias suppressing the SES-telomere association; cohort effects with regard different experiences of SES; or telomere possibly being a less effective marker of biological ageing at older ages

Treatment of psychotic symptoms in bipolar disorder with aripiprazole monotherapy: A meta-analysis

Background: We present a systematic review and meta-analysis of the available clinical trials concerning the usefulness of aripiprazole in the treatment of the psychotic symptoms in bipolar disorder.Methods: A systematic MEDLINE and repository search concerning clinical trials for aripiprazole in bipolar disorder was conducted.Results: The meta-analysis of four randomised controlled trials (RCTs) on acute mania suggests that the effect size of aripiprazole versus placebo was equal to 0.14 but a more reliable and accurate estimation is 0.18 for the total Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) score. The effect was higher for the PANSS-positive subscale (0.28), PANSS-hostility subscale (0.24) and PANSS-cognitive subscale (0.20), and lower for the PANSS-negative subscale (0.12). No data on the depressive phase of bipolar illness exist, while there are some data in favour of aripiprazole concerning the maintenance phase, where at week 26 all except the total PANSS score showed a significant superiority of aripiprazole over placebo (d = 0.28 for positive, d = 0.38 for the cognitive and d = 0.71 for the hostility subscales) and at week 100 the results were similar (d = 0.42, 0.63 and 0.48, respectively).Conclusion: The data analysed for the current study support the usefulness of aripiprazole against psychotic symptoms during the acute manic and maintenance phases of bipolar illness. © 2009 Fountoulakis et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

The deuteron: structure and form factors

A brief review of the history of the discovery of the deuteron in provided. The current status of both experiment and theory for the elastic electron scattering is then presented.Comment: 80 pages, 33 figures, submited to Advances in Nuclear Physic

Biodiversity on Broadway - Enigmatic Diversity of the Societies of Ants (Formicidae) on the Streets of New York City

Each year, a larger proportion of the Earth's surface is urbanized, and a larger proportion of the people on Earth lives in those urban areas. The everyday nature, however, that humans encounter in cities remains poorly understood. Here, we consider perhaps the most urban green habitat, street medians. We sampled ants from forty-four medians along three boulevards in New York City and examined how median properties affect the abundance and species richness of native and introduced ants found on them. Ant species richness varied among streets and increased with area but was independent of the other median attributes measured. Ant assemblages were highly nested, with three numerically dominant species present at all medians and additional species present at a subset of medians. The most common ant species were the introduced Pavement ant (Tetramorium caespitum) and the native Thief ant (Solenopsis molesta) and Cornfield ant (Lasius neoniger). The common introduced species on the medians responded differently to natural and disturbed elements of medians. Tetramorium caespitum was most abundant in small medians, with the greatest edge/area ratio, particularly if those medians had few trees, whereas Nylanderia flavipes was most abundant in the largest medians, particularly if they had more trees. Many of the species encountered in Manhattan were similar to those found in other large North American cities, such that a relatively small subset of ant species probably represent most of the encounters humans have with ants in North America

Associations between diet and disease activity in ulcerative colitis patients using a novel method of data analysis

BACKGROUND: The relapsing nature and varying geographical prevalence of ulcerative colitis (UC) implicates environmental factors such as diet in its aetiology. METHODS: In order to determine which foods might be related to disease activity in UC a new method of dietary analysis was developed and applied. Eighty-one UC patients were recruited at all stages of the disease process. Following completion of a 7 d diet diary, clinical assessment including a sigmoidoscopic examination (scale 0 (normal mucosa) to 6 (very active disease)) was conducted. Food weights for each person were adjusted (divided) by the person's calorific intake for the week. Each food consumed was given a food sigmoidoscopy score (FSS) calculated by summing the products of the (adjusted) weight of food consumed and sigmoidoscopy score for each patient and occurrence of food and dividing by the total (adjusted) weight of the food consumed by all 81 patients. Thus, foods eaten in large quantities by patients with very active disease have high FSSs and vice versa. Foods consumed by <10 people or weighing <1 kg for the whole group were excluded, leaving 75 foods. RESULTS: High FSS foods were characterized by high levels of the anti-thiamin additive sulfite (Mann-Whitney, p < 0.001), i.e. bitter, white wine, burgers, soft drinks from concentrates, sausages, lager and red wine. Caffeine also has anti-thiamin properties and decaffeinated coffee was associated with a better clinical state than the caffeine containing version. Beneficial foods (average intake per week) included pork (210 g), breakfast cereals (200 g), lettuce (110 g), apples and pears (390 g), milk (1250 ml), melon (350 g), bananas (350 g), bacon (120 g), beef and beef products (500 g), tomatoes (240 g), soup (700 g), citrus fruits (300 g), fish (290 g), yogurt (410 g), cheese (110 g), potatoes (710 g) and legumes (120 g). CONCLUSIONS: The dietary analysis method described provides a new tool for establishing relationships between diet and disease and indicates a potentially therapeutic diet for UC

Intrinsic Mitochondrial Membrane Potential and Associated Tumor Phenotype Are Independent of MUC1 Over-Expression

We have established previously that minor subpopulations of cells with stable differences in their intrinsic mitochondrial membrane potential (Δψm) exist within populations of mammary and colonic carcinoma cells and that these differences in Δψm are linked to tumorigenic phenotypes consistent with increased probability of participating in tumor progression. However, the mechanism(s) involved in generating and maintaining stable differences in intrinsic Δψm and how they are linked to phenotype are unclear. Because the mucin 1 (MUC1) oncoprotein is over-expressed in many cancers, with the cytoplasmic C-terminal fragment (MUC1 C-ter) and its integration into the outer mitochondrial membrane linked to tumorigenic phenotypes similar to those of cells with elevated intrinsic Δψm, we investigated whether endogenous differences in MUC1 levels were linked to stable differences in intrinsic Δψm and/or to the tumor phenotypes associated with the intrinsic Δψm. We report that levels of MUC1 are significantly higher in subpopulations of cells with elevated intrinsic Δψm derived from both mammary and colonic carcinoma cell lines. However, using siRNA we found that down-regulation of MUC1 failed to significantly affect either the intrinsic Δψm or the tumor phenotypes associated with increased intrinsic Δψm. Moreover, whereas pharmacologically mediated disruption of the Δψm was accompanied by attenuation of tumor phenotype, it had no impact on MUC1 levels. Therefore, while MUC1 over-expression is associated with subpopulations of cells with elevated intrinsic Δψm, it is not directly linked to the generation or maintenance of stable alterations in intrinsic Δψm, or to intrinsic Δψm associated tumor phenotypes. Since the Δψm is the focus of chemotherapeutic strategies, these data have important clinical implications in regard to effectively targeting those cells within a tumor cell population that exhibit stable elevations in intrinsic Δψm and are most likely to contribute to tumor progression

The role of epigenetics in renal ageing

An ability to separate natural ageing processes from processes specific to morbidities is required to understand the heterogeneity of age-related organ dysfunction. Mechanistic insight into how epigenetic factors regulate ageing throughout the life course, linked to a decline in renal function with ageing, is already proving to be of value in the analyses of clinical and epidemiological cohorts. Noncoding RNAs provide epigenetic regulatory circuits within the kidney, which reciprocally interact with DNA methylation processes, histone modification and chromatin. These interactions have been demonstrated to reflect the biological age and function of renal allografts. Epigenetic factors control gene expression and activity in response to environmental perturbations. They also have roles in highly conserved signalling pathways that modulate ageing, including the mTOR and insulin/insulin-like growth factor signalling pathways, and regulation of sirtuin activity. Nutrition, the gut microbiota, inflammation and environmental factors, including psychosocial and lifestyle stresses, provide potential mechanistic links between the epigenetic landscape of ageing and renal dysfunction. Approaches to modify the renal epigenome via nutritional intervention, targeting the methylome or targeting chromatin seem eminently feasible, although caution is merited owing to the potential for intergenerational and transgenerational effects

E-commerce ethics and its impact on buyer repurchase intentions and loyalty: an empirical study of small and medium Egyptian businesses

The theoretical understanding of e-commerce has received much attention over the years; however, relatively little focus has been directed towards e-commerce ethics, especially the SMEs B2B e-commerce aspect. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to develop and empirically test a framework that explains the impact of SMEs B2B e-commerce ethics on buyer repurchase intentions and loyalty. Using SEM to analyse the data collected from a sample of SME e-commerce firms in Egypt, the results indicate that buyers’ perceptions of supplier ethics construct is composed of six dimensions (security, non-deception, fulfilment/reliability, service recovery, shared value, and communication) and strongly predictive of online buyer repurchase intentions and loyalty. Furthermore, our results also show that reliability/fulfilment and non-deception are the most effective relationship-building dimensions. In addition, relationship quality has a positive effect on buyer repurchase intentions and loyalty. The results offer important implications for B2B e-commerce and are likely to stimulate further research in the area of relationship marketing

The thrombotic potential of oral pathogens

In recent times the concept of infectious agents playing a role in cardiovascular disease has attracted much attention. Chronic oral disease such as periodontitis, provides a plausible route for entry of bacteria to the circulation. Upon entry to the circulation, the oral bacteria interact with platelets. It has been proposed that their ability to induce platelet aggregation and support platelet adhesion is a critical step in the pathogenesis of the infection process. Many published studies have demonstrated multiple mechanisms through which oral bacteria are able to bind to and activate platelets. This paper will review the various mechanisms oral bacteria use to interact with platelets

Mechanisms and therapeutic applications of electromagnetic therapy in Parkinson's disease

© 2015 Vadalà et al. Electromagnetic therapy is a non-invasive and safe approach for the management of several pathological conditions including neurodegenerative diseases. Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative pathology caused by abnormal degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the ventral tegmental area and substantia nigra pars compacta in the midbrain resulting in damage to the basal ganglia. Electromagnetic therapy has been extensively used in the clinical setting in the form of transcranial magnetic stimulation, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, high-frequency transcranial magnetic stimulation and pulsed electromagnetic field therapy which can also be used in the domestic setting. In this review, we discuss the mechanisms and therapeutic applications of electromagnetic therapy to alleviate motor and non-motor deficits that characterize Parkinson's disease