Race, Menopause, Health-Related Quality of Life, and Psychological Well-Being in Obese Women

Race, menopause, health-related quality of life, and psychological well-being in obese women. Obes Res. 2002;10:1270 –1275. Objective: To investigate the health-related quality of life (HR-QOL) in African-American (AA) and white (W) obese women. Research Methods and Procedures: Participants were 145 obese women (80 AA and 65 W; 87 premenopausal and 58 postmenopausal) who completed the Medical Outcomes Study short form, the Brief Symptom Inventory, the Life Distress Inventory, the Satisfaction With Life Scale, and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale before entering a weight-loss study. The mean age of the subjects was 46.3   11.1 years and the mean body mass index was 35.2   4.2 kg/m2. Results: Although AA women were slightly heavier (95.3   10.3 kg vs. 91.5   11.6 kg, p   0.05) and less educated (14.2   3.7 years vs. 15.7   3.7 years, p   0.05) than the W women in the sample, there was no difference between the two ethnic groups in any of the reported HR-QOL variables. Menopausal status had a significant effect on HR-QOL, with premenopausal women being more distressed (p   0.002), having more limitations in social activity (p   0.007), and having less vitality (p   0.001) than the postmenopausal women. This was especially true in the AA women. Discussion: These data show no difference in HR-QOL between AA and W obese women and suggest that menopausal status may have an impact on HR-QOL, especially in AA women

A solution scan of societal options to reduce transmission and spread of respiratory viruses: SARS-CoV-2 as a case study

Societal biosecurity – measures built into everyday society to minimize risks from pests and diseases – is an important aspect of managing epidemics and pandemics. We aimed to identify societal options for reducing the transmission and spread of respiratory viruses. We used SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) as a case study to meet the immediate need to manage the COVID-19 pandemic and eventually transition to more normal societal conditions, and to catalog options for managing similar pandemics in the future. We used a ‘solution scanning’ approach. We read the literature; consulted psychology, public health, medical, and solution scanning experts; crowd-sourced options using social media; and collated comments on a preprint. Here, we present a list of 519 possible measures to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission and spread. We provide a long list of options for policymakers and businesses to consider when designing biosecurity plans to combat SARS-CoV-2 and similar pathogens in the future. We also developed an online application to help with this process. We encourage testing of actions, documentation of outcomes, revisions to the current list, and the addition of further options.</p

US SOLAS Science Report

The article of record may be found at https://doi.org/10.1575/1912/27821The Surface Ocean – Lower Atmosphere Study (SOLAS) (http://www.solas-int.org/) is an international research initiative focused on understanding the key biogeochemical-physical interactions and feedbacks between the ocean and atmosphere that are critical elements of climate and global biogeochemical cycles. Following the release of the SOLAS Decadal Science Plan (2015-2025) (Brévière et al., 2016), the Ocean-Atmosphere Interaction Committee (OAIC) was formed as a subcommittee of the Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry (OCB) Scientific Steering Committee to coordinate US SOLAS efforts and activities, facilitate interactions among atmospheric and ocean scientists, and strengthen US contributions to international SOLAS. In October 2019, with support from OCB, the OAIC convened an open community workshop, Ocean-Atmosphere Interactions: Scoping directions for new research with the goal of fostering new collaborations and identifying knowledge gaps and high-priority science questions to formulate a US SOLAS Science Plan. Based on presentations and discussions at the workshop, the OAIC and workshop participants have developed this US SOLAS Science Plan. The first part of the workshop and this Science Plan were purposefully designed around the five themes of the SOLAS Decadal Science Plan (2015-2025) (Brévière et al., 2016) to provide a common set of research priorities and ensure a more cohesive US contribution to international SOLAS.This report was developed with federal support of NSF (OCE-1558412) and NASA (NNX17AB17G).This report was developed with federal support of NSF (OCE-1558412) and NASA (NNX17AB17G)

PRRT2-related phenotypes in patients with a 16p11.2 deletion

We studied the presence of benign infantile epilepsy (BIE), paroxysmal kinesigenic dyskinesia (PKD), and PKD with infantile convulsions (PKD/IC) in patients with a 16p11.2 deletion including PRRT2 or with a PRRT2 loss-of-function sequence variant. Index patients were recruited from seven Dutch university hospitals. The presence of BIE, PKD and PKD/IC was retrospectively evaluated using questionnaires and medical records. We included 33 patients with a 16p11.2 deletion: three (9%) had BIE, none had PKD or PKD/IC. Twelve patients had a PRRT2 sequence variant: BIE was present in four (p = 0.069), PKD in six (p < 0.001) and PKD/IC in two (p = 0.067). Most patients with a deletion had undergone genetic testing because of developmental problems (87%), whereas all patients with a sequence variant were tested because of a movement disorder (55%) or epilepsy (45%). BIE, PKD and PKD/IC clearly showed incomplete penetrance in patients with 16p11.2 deletions, but were found in all and 95% of patients with a PRRT2 sequence variant in our study and a large literature cohort, respectively. Deletions and sequence variants have the same underlying loss-of-function disease mechanism. Thus, differences in ascertainment have led to overestimating the frequency of BIE, PKD and PKD/IC in patients with a PRRT2 sequence variant. This has important implications for counseling if genome-wide sequencing shows such variants in patients not presenting the PRRT2-related phenotypes