360 research outputs found
Cohort Differences in Cognitive Aging in the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam
OBJECTIVES: This study aims to examine cohort differences in cognitive performance and rates of change in episodic memory, processing speed, inductive reasoning, and general cognitive performance and to investigate whether these cohort effects may be accounted for by education attainment. METHOD: The first cohort (N = 705) was born between 1920 and 1930, whereas the second cohort (N = 646) was born between 1931 and 1941. Both birth cohorts were aged 65 to 75 years at baseline and were followed up 3 and 6 years later. Data were analyzed using linear mixed models. RESULTS: The later born cohort had better general cognitive performance, inductive reasoning, and processing speed at baseline, but cohort differences in inductive reasoning and general cognitive performance disappeared after adjusting for education. The later born cohort showed steeper decline in processing speed. Memory decline was steeper in the earlier born cohort but only from Time 1 to Time 3 when the same memory test was administered. Education did not account for cohort differences in cognitive decline. DISCUSSION: The later born cohort showed better initial performance in certain cognitive abilities, but no better preservation of cognitive abilities overtime compared with the earlier born cohort. These findings carry implications for healthy cognitive aging
The efficacy of psychotherapy, pharmacotherapy and their combination on functioning and quality of life in depression:a meta-analysis
BACKGROUND: There is growing recognition of the importance of both functioning and quality of life (QoL) outcomes in the treatment of depressive disorders, but the meta-analytic evidence is scarce. The objective of this meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) was to determine the absolute and relative effects of psychotherapy, pharmacotherapy and their combination on functioning and QoL in patients with depression. METHOD: One hundred and fifty-three outcome trials involving 29 879 participants with depressive disorders were identified through database searches in Pubmed, PsycINFO and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. RESULTS: Compared to control conditions, psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy yielded small to moderate effect sizes for functioning and QoL, ranging from g = 0.31 to g = 0.43. When compared directly, initial analysis yielded no evidence that one of them was superior. After adjusting for publication bias, psychotherapy was more efficacious than pharmacotherapy (g = 0.21) for QoL. The combination of psychotherapy and medication performed significantly better for both outcomes compared to each treatment alone yielding small effect sizes (g = 0.32 to g = 0.39). Both interventions improved depression symptom severity more than functioning and QoL. CONCLUSION: Despite the small number of comparative trials for some of the analyses, this study reveals that combined treatment is superior, but psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy alone are also efficacious for improving functioning and QoL. The overall relatively modest effects suggest that future tailoring of therapies could be warranted to better meet the needs of individuals with functioning and QoL problems
Physical activity and healthy ageing: A systematic review and meta-analysis of longitudinal cohort studies.
BACKGROUND: Older people constitute a significant proportion of the total population and their number is projected to increase by more than half by 2030. This increasing probability of late survival comes with considerable individual, economic and social impact. Physical activity (PA) can influence the ageing process but the specific relationship with healthy ageing (HA) is unclear. METHODS: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of longitudinal studies examining the associations of PA with HA. Studies were identified from a systematic search across major electronic databases from inception as January 2017. Random-effect meta-analysis was performed to calculate a pooled effect size (ES) and 95% CIs. Studies were assessed for methodological quality. RESULTS: Overall, 23 studies were identified including 174,114 participants (30% men) with age ranges from 20 to 87 years old. There was considerable heterogeneity in the definition and measurement of HA and PA. Most of the identified studies reported a significant positive association of PA with HA, six reported a non-significant. Meta-analysis revealed that PA is positively associated with HA (ES: 1.39, 95% CI=1.23-1.57, n=17) even if adjusted for publication bias (ES: 1.27, 95% CI=1.11-1.45, n=20). CONCLUSIONS: There is consistent evidence from longitudinal observational studies that PA is positively associated with HA, regardless of definition and measurement. Future research should focus on the implementation of a single metric of HA, on the use of objective measures for PA assessment and on a full-range of confounding adjustment. In addition, our research indicated the limited research on ageing in low-and-middle income countries
Measuring functional ability in healthy ageing: a nationwide cross-sectional survey in the Philippine older population
OBJECTIVES: To analyse the empirical support of the functional ability concept in the healthy ageing framework developed by the WHO in a sample of the Philippine older population. According to this framework, environmental factors may enhance or hinder functional ability, which is the person's ability to do what they value, broadly represented by subjective well-being. Moreover, this network of relationships may be moderated by personal characteristics such as gender. DESIGN: Cross-sectional observational study. SETTING: Philippines, general population. PARTICIPANTS: Respondents of the 2016 National Disability Prevalence Survey/Model Functioning Survey aged 50+ (N=2825). PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Latent (unobserved) measures of functional ability, environmental factors (physical environmental factors and social network and support) and subjective well-being (positive affect, negative affect and evaluative well-being) were obtained from different items from the survey questionnaire using a SEM framework. RESULTS: We found that the relationship between environmental factors and the three components of subjective well-being considered in this study was partially explained by differences in functional ability. The portion of those effects accounted for by functional ability was comparatively larger for the physical than for the social environmental factors. We found no evidences of gender differences in this network of relationships. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest the relevance of functional ability at explaining the relationship between environmental factors and subjective well-being in older adults. Future studies may replicate these findings longitudinally and including other relevant measures as the person's objective level of intrinsic capacity
Climate change and healthy ageing: An assessment of the impact of climate hazards on older people
Copyright \ua9 2024 by the Journal of Global Health. All rights reserved. Background: Climate change not only directly impacts older people\u27s longevity but also healthy ageing, which is the process of maintaining physical and mental capacities while optimising functional abilities. The urgency to address both population ageing and climate change necessitates a rethink and assessment of the impact of climate change on older people. This includes identifying what can be done to anticipate, mitigate and adapt to climate change and engage older persons. Methods: A review of climate change and healthy ageing forms the basis of evidence in this report. We developed a comprehensive search to assess current literature, combining terms related to ageing and climate change across four major data sets and assessing articles published up to the end of 2021. Results: We summarised the current and future impact of climate change on older people and developed a framework identifying climate change impacts on older persons, recognising social and environmental determinants of healthy ageing. Major hazards and some key exposure pathways include extreme temperatures, wildfire, drought, flooding, storm and sea level rise, air quality, climate-sensitive infectious diseases, food and water insecurities, health and social care system displacement, migration, and relocation. Strategies to address climate change require interventions to improve systems and infrastructure to reduce vulnerability and increase resilience. As a heterogeneous group, older people\u27s perceptions of climate change should be integrated into climate activism. Increasing climate change literacy among older people and enabling them to promote intergenerational dialogue will drive the development and implementation of equitable solutions. Pathways may operate via direct or indirect exposures, requiring longitudinal studies that enable assessment of exposures and outcomes at multiple time points, and analyses of cumulative impacts of hazards across the life course. Conclusions: The lack of systematic reviews and primary research on the impact of most climate hazards, except for heat, on older people is apparent. Future research should include outcomes beyond mortality and morbidity and assess how older people interact with their environment by focusing on their capacities and optimising abilities for being and doing what they value
Cryogenic characterization of the Planck sorption cooler system flight model
This paper is part of the Prelaunch status LFI papers published on JINST:
http://www.iop.org/EJ/journal/-page=extra.proc5/1748-0221
Two continuous closed-cycle hydrogen Joule-Thomson (J-T) sorption coolers
have been fabricated and assembled by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for
the European Space Agency (ESA) Planck mission. Each refrigerator has been
designed to provide a total of ~ 1W of cooling power at two instrument
interfaces: they directly cool the Planck Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) around
20K while providing a pre-cooling stage for a 4 K J-T mechanical refrigerator
for the High Frequency Instrument (HFI). After sub-system level validation at
JPL, the cryocoolers have been delivered to ESA in 2005. In this paper we
present the results of the cryogenic qualification and test campaigns of the
Nominal Unit on the flight model spacecraft performed at the CSL (Centre
Spatial de Liege) facilities in 2008. Test results in terms of input power,
cooling power, temperature, and temperature fluctuations over the flight
allowable ranges for these interfaces are reported and analyzed with respect to
mission requirements.Comment: This is an author-created, un-copyedited version of an article
accepted for publication in Journal of Instrumentation. IOP Publishing Ltd is
not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript
or any version derived from it. The definitive publisher authenticated
version is available online at 10.1088/1748-0221/4/12/T1201
Analysis of thermally-induced effects in Planck Low Frequency Instrument
The Planck mission will provide full-sky maps of the Cosmic Microwave
Background with unprecedented angular resolution (~ 10') and sensitivity (DT /
T = 10^-6). This requires cryogenically cooled, high sensitivity detectors as
well as an extremely accurate control of systematic errors, which must be kept
at micro-K level. In this work we focus on systematic effects arising from
thermal instabilities in the Low Frequency Instrument operating in the 30-100
GHz range. Our results show that it is of crucial importance to assure "in
hardware" a high degree of stability. In addition, we provide an estimate of
the level at which it is possible to reduce the contamination level in the
observed maps by proper analysis of the Time Ordered Data.Comment: 5 pages, 7 figures. The following article has been submitted for
publication in the AIP Proceedings of the Workshop on "Experimental Cosmology
at millimeter wavelengths", Cervinia, Italy, 9-13 July 200
Effect of COVID-19 pandemic on utilisation of community-based mental health care in North-East of Italy: A psychiatric case register study
Aims: WHO declared that mental health care should be considered one essential health service to be maintained during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This study aims to describe the effect of lockdown and restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy on mental health services' utilisation, by considering psychiatric diagnoses and type of mental health contacts. Methods: The study was conducted in the Verona catchment area, located in the Veneto region (northeastern Italy). For each patient, mental health contacts were grouped into: (1) outpatient care, (2) social and supportive interventions, (3) rehabilitation interventions, (4) multi-professional assessments, (5) day care. A 'difference in differences' approach was used: difference in the number of contacts between 2019 and 2020 on the weeks of lockdown and intermediate restrictions was compared with the same difference in weeks of no or reduced restrictions, and such difference was interpreted as the effect of restrictions. Both a global regression on all contacts and separate regressions for each type of service were performed and Incidence Rate Ratios (IRRs) were calculated. Results: In 2020, a significant reduction in the number of patients who had mental health contacts was found, both overall and for most of the patients' characteristics considered (except for people aged 18-24 years for foreign-born population and for those with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Moreover, in 2020 mental health contacts had a reduction of 57 096 (-33.9%) with respect to 2019; such difference remained significant across the various type of contacts considered, with rehabilitation interventions and day care showing the greatest reduction. Negative Binomial regressions displayed a statistically significant effect of lockdown, but not of intermediate restrictions, in terms of reduction in the number of contacts. The lockdown period was responsible of a 32.7% reduction (IRR 0.673; p-value <0.001) in the overall number of contacts. All type of mental health contacts showed a reduction ascribable to the lockdown, except social and supportive interventions. Conclusions: Despite the access to community mental health care during the pandemic was overall reduced, the mental health system in the Verona catchment area was able to maintain support for more vulnerable and severely ill patients, by providing continuity of care and day-by-day support through social and supportive interventions
Bioinspired Precision Engineering of ThreeâDimensional Epithelial Stem Cell Microniches
Maintenance of the epithelium relies on stem cells residing within specialized microenvironments, known as epithelial crypts. Twoâphoton polymerization (2PP) is a valuable tool for fabricating 3D micro/nanostructures for stem cell niche engineering applications. Herein, biomimetic gelatin methacrylateâbased constructs, replicating the precise geometry of the limbal epithelial crypt structures (limbal stem cell âmicronichesâ) as an exemplar epithelial niche, are fabricated using 2PP. Human limbal epithelial stem cells (hLESCs) are seeded within the microniches in xenoâfree conditions to investigate their ability to repopulate the crypts and the expression of various differentiation markers. Cell proliferation and a zonation in cell phenotype along the zâaxis are observed without the use of exogenous signaling molecules. Significant differences in cell phenotype between cells located at the base of the microniche and those situated towards the rim are observed, demonstrating that stem cell fate is strongly influenced by its location within a niche and the geometrical details of where it resides. This study provides insight into the influence of the nicheâs spatial geometry on hLESCs and demonstrates a flexible approach for the fabrication of biomimetic cryptâlike structures in epithelial tissues. This has significant implications for regenerative medicine applications and can ultimately lead to implantable synthetic ânicheâbasedâ treatments
Reconstruction and removal of thermal effects in Planck/LFI scientific data streams using telemetry information
The ESA CMB Planck mission will require an accurate control and removal of instrumental systematics below a level of few ”K. Although instruments and spacecraft are designed to he instrinsically very stable, the extremely tight requirements concerning signal stability call for the development of software strategies to remove the residual spurious effects during data analysis. A particularly important class of systematic effects is represented by low-frequency periodic fluctuations that can be removed using properly designed 'Blind' filters applied to the scientific data streams. However, telemetry information monitoring the instrument status may improve the effectiveness of removal procedures. A good example is given by thermal instabilities of the 20 K stage of the PLANCK cooling chain. A successful, yet simple approach to remove such fluctuations has been developed; the method combines thermal housekeeping data with scientific data to reconstruct the transfer functions connecting the 20 K stage temperature fluctuations with the perturbations detected by each radiometer. The work has been carried out using temperature measurements of the prototype of the Planck 20K Sorption Cooler combined with a thermal model of the LFI instrument and a software specifically developed to simulate long term-variations which are not available from the Cooler experimental data. This code (named GLISSANDO) is also discussed at the end of this paper
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