Enjoyment of life predicts reduced type 2 diabetes incidence over 12 years of follow-up: findings from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing

BACKGROUND: Subjective well-being appears to be associated with reduced risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D). However, it is unknown whether this association is similar across different types of well-being. We examined the relationship between hedonic and eudaimonic well-being and incident T2D, and explored the role of sociodemographic, behavioural and clinical factors in these associations. METHODS: We used data from 4134 diabetes-free participants from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (mean age =64.97). Enjoyment of life and purpose in life were assessed using items from the CASP-19 to reflect hedonic and eudaimonic well-being, respectively. Participants reported T2D diagnosis over 12 years. We used Cox proportional hazards regression analyses and also explored the percentage of association explained by different covariates. RESULTS: Results revealed a protective role for enjoyment of life in T2D rate adjusting for sociodemographic (age, sex, wealth, ethnicity, marital status), behavioural (physical activity, smoking, alcohol consumption, body mass index) and clinical (hypertension, coronary heart disease and glycated haemoglobin) characteristics (HR =0.93, p=0.021, 95% CI (0.87, 0.99)). Sociodemographic, behavioural and clinical factors accounted for 27%, 27% and 18% of the association, respectively. The relationship between purpose in life and T2D was non-significant (adjusted HR =0.92, p=0.288, 95% CI (0.78, 1.08)). CONCLUSION: This study illustrates how the link between subjective well-being and T2D varies between well-being components. It also demonstrates that sociodemographic, behavioural and clinical factors partially explain this association. Intervention studies examining whether changes in enjoyment of life can help delay T2D onset are warranted

Happiness and Inflammatory Responses to Acute Stress in People With Type 2 Diabetes

Background: Positive psychological characteristics in people with type 2 diabetes (T2D) are associated with better health and longevity, and one plausible physiological mechanism involves lower markers of inflammation. Positive affect is related to lower basal inflammatory markers and smaller inflammatory responses to acute stress, but this association in people with T2D remains to be examined. Purpose: To examine the relationship between happiness and inflammatory markers at baseline and in response to acute stress in people with T2D. Methods One hundred forty people with T2D took part in laboratory-based stress testing. We aggregated daily happiness ratings over 7 days before stress testing. During the laboratory session, participants underwent two mental stress tasks—the mirror tracing and the Stroop task. Blood was sampled at baseline and post-stress (up to 75 min post-stress) to detect plasma interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra), and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1). Associations between happiness and inflammatory markers and responses were analyzed using multivariable linear regressions. Results: Greater daily happiness significantly predicted lower baseline and post-stress IL-6 concentrations, and lower baseline MCP-1, after adjusting for covariates. The association between happiness and reduced basal IL-6 maintained after further controlling for daily sadness. We did not find significant associations between daily happiness and inflammatory responses to acute stress. No associations were detected for IL-1Ra. Conclusions: Happier individuals with T2D have lower inflammatory markers before and after acute stress, albeit independent of stress responsivity. Findings could provide a protective physiological pathway linking daily happiness with better health in people with T2D

Subjective wellbeing as a determinant of glycated hemoglobin in older adults: longitudinal findings from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing

BACKGROUND: Previous research has shown an association between subjective wellbeing and incident diabetes. Less is known about the role of wellbeing for subclinical disease trajectories as captured via glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c). We aimed to explore the association between subjective wellbeing and future HbA1c levels, and the role of sociodemographic, behavioral and clinical factors in this association. METHODS: We used data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing for this study (N = 2161). Subjective wellbeing (CASP-19) was measured at wave 2 and HbA1c was measured 8 years later at wave 6. Participants were free from diabetes at baseline. We conducted a series of analyses to examine the extent to which the association was accounted for by a range of sociodemographic, behavioral and clinical factors in linear regression models. RESULTS: Models showed that subjective wellbeing (CASP-19 total score) was inversely associated with HbA1c 8 years later after controlling for depressive symptoms, age, sex, and baseline HbA1c (B = -0.035, 95% CI -0.060 to -0.011, p = 0.005). Inclusion of sociodemographic variables and behavioral factors in models accounted for a large proportion (17.0% and 24.5%, respectively) of the relationship between wellbeing and later HbA1c; clinical risk factors explained a smaller proportion of the relationship (3.4%). CONCLUSIONS: Poorer subjective wellbeing is associated with greater HbA1c over 8 years of follow-up and this relationship can in part be explained by sociodemographic, behavioral and clinical factors among older adults

A photometric and astrometric investigation of the brown dwarfs in Blanco 1

We present the results of a photometric and astrometric study of the low mass stellar and substellar population of the young open cluster Blanco 1. We have exploited J band data, obtained recently with the Wide Field Camera (WFCAM) on the United Kingdom InfraRed Telescope (UKIRT), and 10 year old I and z band optical imaging from CFH12k and Canada France Hawaii Telescope (CFHT), to identify 44 candidate low mass stellar and substellar members, in an area of 2 sq. degrees, on the basis of their colours and proper motions. This sample includes five sources which are newly discovered. We also confirm the lowest mass candidate member of Blanco 1 unearthed so far (29MJup). We determine the cluster mass function to have a slope of alpha=+0.93, assuming it to have a power law form. This is high, but nearly consistent with previous studies of the cluster (to within the errors), and also that of its much better studied northern hemisphere analogue, the Pleiades.Comment: 8 Pages, 5 Figures, 2 Tables and 1 Appendix. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Trends and emissions of six perfluorocarbons in the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere

Perfluorocarbons (PFCs) are potent greenhouse gases with global warming potentials up to several thousand times greater than CO2 on a 100-year time horizon. The lack of any significant sinks for PFCs means that they have long atmospheric lifetimes of the order of thousands of years. Anthropogenic production is thought to be the only source for most PFCs. Here we report an update on the global atmospheric abundances of the following PFCs, most of which have for the first time been analytically separated according to their isomers: c-octafluorobutane (c-C4F8), n-decafluorobutane (n-C4F10), n-dodecafluoropentane (n-C5F12), n-tetradecafluorohexane (n-C6F14), and n-hexadecafluoroheptane (n-C7F16). Additionally, we report the first data set on the atmospheric mixing ratios of perfluoro-2-methylpentane (i-C6F14). The existence and significance of PFC isomers have not been reported before, due to the analytical challenges of separating them. The time series spans a period from 1978 to the present. Several data sets are used to investigate temporal and spatial trends of these PFCs: time series of air samples collected at Cape Grim, Australia, from 1978 to the start of 2018; a time series of air samples collected between July 2015 and April 2017 at Tacolneston, UK; and intensive campaign-based sampling collections from Taiwan. Although the remote “background” Southern Hemispheric Cape Grim time series indicates that recent growth rates of most of these PFCs are lower than in the 1990s, we continue to see significantly increasing mixing ratios that are between 6 % and 27 % higher by the end of 2017 compared to abundances measured in 2010. Air samples from Tacolneston show a positive offset in PFC mixing ratios compared to the Southern Hemisphere baseline. The highest mixing ratios and variability are seen in air samples from Taiwan, which is therefore likely situated much closer to PFC sources, confirming predominantly Northern Hemispheric emissions for most PFCs. Even though these PFCs occur in the atmosphere at levels of parts per trillion molar or less, their total cumulative global emissions translate into 833 million metric tonnes of CO2 equivalent by the end of 2017, 23 % of which has been emitted since 2010. Almost two-thirds of the CO2 equivalent emissions within the last decade are attributable to c-C4F8, which currently also has the highest emission rates that continue to grow. Sources of all PFCs covered in this work remain poorly constrained and reported emissions in global databases do not account for the abundances found in the atmosphere

The Implications of M Dwarf Flares on the Detection and Characterization of Exoplanets at Infrared Wavelengths

We present the results of an observational campaign which obtained high time cadence, high precision, simultaneous optical and IR photometric observations of three M dwarf flare stars for 47 hours. The campaign was designed to characterize the behavior of energetic flare events, which routinely occur on M dwarfs, at IR wavelengths to milli-magnitude precision, and quantify to what extent such events might influence current and future efforts to detect and characterize extrasolar planets surrounding these stars. We detected and characterized four highly energetic optical flares having U-band total energies of ~7.8x10^30 to ~1.3x10^32 ergs, and found no corresponding response in the J, H, or Ks bandpasses at the precision of our data. For active dM3e stars, we find that a ~1.3x10^32 erg U-band flare (delta Umax ~1.5 mag) will induce <8.3 (J), <8.5 (H), and <11.7 (Ks) milli-mags of a response. A flare of this energy or greater should occur less than once per 18 hours. For active dM4.5e stars, we find that a ~5.1x10^31 erg U-band flare (delta Umax ~1.6 mag) will induce <7.8 (J), <8.8 (H), and <5.1 (Ks) milli-mags of a response. A flare of this energy or greater should occur less than once per 10 hours. No evidence of stellar variability not associated with discrete flare events was observed at the level of ~3.9 milli-mags over 1 hour time-scales and at the level of ~5.6 milli-mags over 7.5 hour time-scales. We therefore demonstrate that most M dwarf stellar activity and flares will not influence IR detection and characterization studies of M dwarf exoplanets above the level of ~5-11 milli-mags, depending on the filter and spectral type. We speculate that the most energetic megaflares on M dwarfs, which occur at rates of once per month, are likely to be easily detected in IR observations with sensitivity of tens of milli-mags.Comment: Accepted in Astronomical Journal, 17 pages, 6 figure

Exploring the landscape of immunotherapy approaches in sarcomas

Sarcomas comprise a heterogenous group of malignancies, of more than 100 different entities, arising from mesenchymal tissue, and accounting for 1% of adult malignancies. Surgery, radiotherapy and systemic therapy constitute the therapeutic armamentarium against sarcomas, with surgical excision and conventional chemotherapy, remaining the mainstay of treatment for local and advanced disease, respectively. The prognosis for patients with metastatic disease is dismal and novel therapeutic approaches are urgently required to improve survival outcomes. Immunotherapy, is a rapidly evolving field in oncology, which has been successfully applied in multiple cancers to date. Immunomodulating antibodies, adoptive cellular therapy, cancer vaccines, and cytokines have been tested in patients with different types of sarcomas through clinical trials, pilot studies, retrospective and prospective studies. The results of these studies regarding the efficacy of different types of immunotherapies in sarcomas are conflicting, and the application of immunotherapy in daily clinical practice remains limited. Additional clinical studies are ongoing in an effort to delineate the role of immunotherapy in patients with specific sarcoma subtypes

GJ 900: A new hierarchical system with low-mass components

Speckle interferometric observations made with the 6 m telescope of the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2000 revealed the triple nature of the nearby ($\pi_{Hip}=51.80\pm1.74$ mas) low-mass young ($\approx200$ Myr) star GJ 900. The configuration of the triple system allowed it to be dynamically unstable. Differential photometry performed from 2000 through 2004 yielded $I$- and $K$-band absolute magnitudes and spectral types for the components to be $I_{A}$=6.66$\pm$0.08, $I_{B}$=9.15$\pm$0.11, $I_{C}$=10.08$\pm$0.26, $K_{A}$=4.84$\pm$0.08, $K_{B}$=6.76$\pm$0.20, $K_{C}$=7.39$\pm$0.31, $Sp_{A}$$\approx$K5--K7, $Sp_{B}$$\approx$M3--M4, $Sp_{C}$$\approx$M5--M6. The ``mass--luminosity'' relation is used to estimate the individual masses of the components: $\mathcal{M}_{A}$$\approx0.64\mathcal{M}_{\odot}$, $\mathcal{M}_{B}$$\approx0.21\mathcal{M}_{\odot}$, $\mathcal{M}_{C}$$\approx0.13\mathcal{M}_{\odot}$. From the observations of the components relative motion in the period 2000--2006, we conclude that GJ 900 is a hierarchical triple star with the possible orbital periods P$_{A-BC}$$\approx$80 yrs and P$_{BC}$$\approx$20 yrs. An analysis of the 2MASS images of the region around GJ 900 leads us to suggest that the system can include other very-low-mass components.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Measured Mass Loss Rates of Solar-like Stars as a Function of Age and Activity

Collisions between the winds of solar-like stars and the local ISM result in a population of hot hydrogen gas surrounding these stars. Absorption from this hot H I can be detected in high resolution Lyman-alpha spectra of these stars from the Hubble Space Telescope. The amount of absorption can be used as a diagnostic for the stellar mass loss rate. We present new mass loss rate measurements derived in this fashion for four stars (Epsilon Eri, 61 Cyg A, 36 Oph AB, and 40 Eri A). Combining these measurements with others, we study how mass loss varies with stellar activity. We find that for the solar-like GK dwarfs, the mass loss per unit surface area is correlated with X-ray surface flux. Fitting a power law to this relation yields Mdot ~ Fx^(1.15+/-0.20). The active M dwarf Proxima Cen and the very active RS CVn system Lambda And appear to be inconsistent with this relation. Since activity is known to decrease with age, the above power law relation for solar-like stars suggests that mass loss decreases with time. We infer a power law relation of Mdot ~ t^(-2.00+/-0.52). This suggests that the solar wind may have been as much as 1000 times more massive in the distant past, which may have had important ramifications for the history of planetary atmospheres in our solar system, that of Mars in particular.Comment: 34 pages, 9 figures; AASTEX v5.0 plus EPSF extensions in mkfig.sty; accepted by Ap

CCN measurements at the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica research station during three austral summers

For three austral summer seasons (2013–2016, each from December to February) aerosol particles arriving at the Belgian Antarctic research station Princess Elisabeth (PE) in Dronning Maud Land in East Antarctica were characterized. This included number concentrations of total aerosol particles (NCN) and cloud condensation nuclei (NCCN), the particle number size distribution (PNSD), the aerosol particle hygroscopicity, and the influence of the air mass origin on NCN and NCCN. In general NCN was found to range from 40 to 6700&thinsp;cm−3, with a median of 333&thinsp;cm−3, while NCCN was found to cover a range between less than 10 and 1300&thinsp;cm−3 for supersaturations (SSs) between 0.1&thinsp;% and 0.7&thinsp;%. It is shown that the aerosol is dominated by the Aitken mode, being characterized by a significant amount of small, and therefore likely secondarily formed, aerosol particles, with 94&thinsp;% and 36&thinsp;% of the aerosol particles smaller than 90 and ≈35&thinsp;nm, respectively. Measurements of the basic meteorological parameters as well as the history of the air masses arriving at the measurement station indicate that the station is influenced by both marine air masses originating from the Southern Ocean and coastal areas around Antarctica (marine events – MEs) and continental air masses (continental events – CEs). CEs, which were defined as instances when the air masses spent at least 90&thinsp;% of the time over the Antarctic continent during the last 10 days prior to arrival at the measurements station, occurred during 61&thinsp;% of the time during which measurements were done. CEs came along with rather constant NCN and NCCN values, which we denote as Antarctic continental background concentrations. MEs, however, cause large fluctuations in NCN and NCCN, with low concentrations likely caused by scavenging due to precipitation and high concentrations likely originating from new particle formation (NPF) based on marine precursors. The application of HYSPLIT back trajectories in form of the potential source contribution function (PSCF) analysis indicate that the region of the Southern Ocean is a potential source of Aitken mode particles. On the basis of PNSDs, together with NCCN measured at an SS of 0.1&thinsp;%, median values for the critical diameter for cloud droplet activation and the aerosol particle hygroscopicity parameter κ were determined to be 110&thinsp;nm and 1, respectively. For particles larger than ≈110&thinsp;nm the Southern Ocean together with parts of the Antarctic ice shelf regions were found to be potential source regions. While the former may contribute sea spray particles directly, the contribution of the latter may be due to the emission of sea salt aerosol particles, released from snow particles from surface snow layers, e.g., during periods of high wind speed, leading to drifting or blowing snow. The region of the Antarctic inland plateau, however, was not found to feature a significant source region for aerosol particles in general or for cloud condensation nuclei measured at the PE station in the austral summer.</p