Sexual Satisfaction and the Importance of Sexual Health to Quality of Life Throughout the Life Course of U.S. Adults

Discussions about sexual health are uncommon in clinical encounters, despite the sexual dysfunction associated with many common health conditions. Understanding of the importance of sexual health and sexual satisfaction among US adults is limited

Multicenter Evaluation of Candida QuickFISH BC for Identification of Candida Species Directly from Blood Culture Bottles

Candida species are common causes of bloodstream infections (BSI), with high mortality. Four species cause >90% of Candida BSI: C. albicans, C. glabrata, C. parapsilosis, and C. tropicalis. Differentiation of Candida spp. is important because of differences in virulence and antimicrobial susceptibility. Candida QuickFISH BC, a multicolor, qualitative nucleic acid hybridization assay for the identification of C. albicans (green fluorescence), C. glabrata (red fluorescence), and C. parapsilosis (yellow fluorescence), was tested on Bactec and BacT/Alert blood culture bottles which signaled positive on automated blood culture devices and were positive for yeast by Gram stain at seven study sites. The results were compared to conventional identification. A total of 419 yeast-positive blood culture bottles were studied, consisting of 258 clinical samples (89 C. glabrata, 79 C. albicans, 23 C. parapsilosis, 18 C. tropicalis, and 49 other species) and 161 contrived samples inoculated with clinical isolates (40 C. glabrata, 46 C. albicans, 36 C. parapsilosis, 19 C. tropicalis, and 20 other species). A total of 415 samples contained a single fungal species, with C. glabrata (n = 129; 30.8%) being the most common isolate, followed by C. albicans (n = 125; 29.8%), C. parapsilosis (n = 59; 14.1%), C. tropicalis (n = 37; 8.8%), and C. krusei (n = 17; 4.1%). The overall agreement (with range for the three major Candida species) between the two methods was 99.3% (98.3 to 100%), with a sensitivity of 99.7% (98.3 to 100%) and a specificity of 98.0% (99.4 to 100%). This study showed that Candida QuickFISH BC is a rapid and accurate method for identifying C. albicans, C. glabrata, and C. parapsilosis, the three most common Candida species causing BSI, directly from blood culture bottles

A sense of embodiment is reflected in people's signature size

BACKGROUND: The size of a person's signature may reveal implicit information about how the self is perceived although this has not been closely examined. METHODS/RESULTS: We conducted three experiments to test whether increases in signature size can be induced. Specifically, the aim of these experiments was to test whether changes in signature size reflect a person's current implicit sense of embodiment. Experiment 1 showed that an implicit affect task (positive subliminal evaluative conditioning) led to increases in signature size relative to an affectively neutral task, showing that implicit affective cues alter signature size. Experiments 2 and 3 demonstrated increases in signature size following experiential self-focus on sensory and affective stimuli relative to both conceptual self-focus and external (non-self-focus) in both healthy participants and patients with anorexia nervosa, a disorder associated with self-evaluation and a sense of disembodiment. In all three experiments, increases in signature size were unrelated to changes in self-reported mood and larger than manipulation unrelated variations. CONCLUSIONS: Together, these findings suggest that a person's sense of embodiment is reflected in their signature size

Lipidomics Reveals Early Metabolic Changes in Subjects with Schizophrenia: Effects of Atypical Antipsychotics

There is a critical need for mapping early metabolic changes in schizophrenia to capture failures in regulation of biochemical pathways and networks. This information could provide valuable insights about disease mechanisms, trajectory of disease progression, and diagnostic biomarkers. We used a lipidomics platform to measure individual lipid species in 20 drug-naïve patients with a first episode of schizophrenia (FE group), 20 patients with chronic schizophrenia that had not adhered to prescribed medications (RE group), and 29 race-matched control subjects without schizophrenia. Lipid metabolic profiles were evaluated and compared between study groups and within groups before and after treatment with atypical antipsychotics, risperidone and aripiprazole. Finally, we mapped lipid profiles to n3 and n6 fatty acid synthesis pathways to elucidate which enzymes might be affected by disease and treatment. Compared to controls, the FE group showed significant down-regulation of several n3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), including 20:5n3, 22:5n3, and 22:6n3 within the phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine lipid classes. Differences between FE and controls were only observed in the n3 class PUFAs; no differences where noted in n6 class PUFAs. The RE group was not significantly different from controls, although some compositional differences within PUFAs were noted. Drug treatment was able to correct the aberrant PUFA levels noted in FE patients, but changes in re patients were not corrective. Treatment caused increases in both n3 and n6 class lipids. These results supported the hypothesis that phospholipid n3 fatty acid deficits are present early in the course of schizophrenia and tend not to persist throughout its course. These changes in lipid metabolism could indicate a metabolic vulnerability in patients with schizophrenia that occurs early in development of the disease. © 2013 McEvoy et al

Adult videogame consumption as individualised, episodic progress

Drawing from phenomenological interviews with 24 adult videogamers, we explore videogame consumption as a source of individualised, episodic progress. We first consider the relationship between play, progress, technology and the market. We then document adults' accounts of progress through the acquisition of new consoles and software, in the accumulation of in-game resources, and in creative achievements within videogames. Alongside an understanding of technological improvements as representing both technological and personal progress, we see how individuals may also turn to videogames in search of quick and easy episodes of achievement; here, progress is not some grand plan, but a series of small events helpfully structured by the latest game releases. Thus, in a society which aspires to a life where things ‘get better’ and time is usefully spent, adults who fail to actualise progress elsewhere may use videogames and related hardware to perform the idea of achievement as individualised episodes of play. In integrating the accepted cultural idea of progress, perceptions of adult play as ‘frivolous’ can be overcome and such practices may be normalised as a legitimate adult activity. However, play emerges from its frivolousness as legitimate only in compensating for working practices that remain alienated through technology-driven productivity, and through the latest technological commodities. The enjoyable nature of games as a leisure pursuit can become overshadowed by an obligation to achieve at the same time as distancing players from areas of their lives where progress is not experienced

Lipidomic analysis of variation in response to simvastatin in the Cholesterol and Pharmacogenetics Study

Statins are commonly used for reducing cardiovascular disease risk but therapeutic benefit and reductions in levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) vary among individuals. Other effects, including reductions in C-reactive protein (CRP), also contribute to treatment response. Metabolomics provides powerful tools to map pathways implicated in variation in response to statin treatment. This could lead to mechanistic hypotheses that provide insight into the underlying basis for individual variation in drug response. Using a targeted lipidomics platform, we defined lipid changes in blood samples from the upper and lower tails of the LDL-C response distribution in the Cholesterol and Pharmacogenetics study. Metabolic changes in responders are more comprehensive than those seen in non-responders. Baseline cholesterol ester and phospholipid metabolites correlated with LDL-C response to treatment. CRP response to therapy correlated with baseline plasmalogens, lipids involved in inflammation. There was no overlap of lipids whose changes correlated with LDL-C or CRP responses to simvastatin suggesting that distinct metabolic pathways govern statin effects on these two biomarkers. Metabolic signatures could provide insights about variability in response and mechanisms of action of statins

Materializing digital collecting: an extended view of digital materiality

If digital objects are abundant and ubiquitous, why should consumers pay for, much less collect them? The qualities of digital code present numerous challenges for collecting, yet digital collecting can and does occur. We explore the role of companies in constructing digital consumption objects that encourage and support collecting behaviours, identifying material configuration techniques that materialise these objects as elusive and authentic. Such techniques, we argue, may facilitate those pleasures of collecting otherwise absent in the digital realm. We extend theories of collecting by highlighting the role of objects and the companies that construct them in materialising digital collecting. More broadly, we extend theories of digital materiality by highlighting processes of digital material configuration that occur in the pre-objectification phase of materialisation, acknowledging the role of marketing and design in shaping the qualities exhibited by digital consumption objects and consequently related consumption behaviours and experiences

Fuelling the nuclear ring of NGC 1097

Galactic bars can drive cold gas inflows towards the centres of galaxies. The gas transport happens primarily through the so-called bar ``dust lanes'', which connect the galactic disc at kpc scales to the nuclear rings at hundreds of pc scales much like two gigantic galactic rivers. Once in the ring, the gas can fuel star formation activity, galactic outflows, and central supermassive black holes. Measuring the mass inflow rates is therefore important to understanding the mass/energy budget and evolution of galactic nuclei. In this work, we use CO datacubes from the PHANGS-ALMA survey and a simple geometrical method to measure the bar-driven mass inflow rate onto the nuclear ring of the barred galaxy NGC~1097. The method assumes that the gas velocity in the bar lanes is parallel to the lanes in the frame co-rotating with the bar, and allows one to derive the inflow rates from sufficiently sensitive and resolved position-position-velocity diagrams if the bar pattern speed and galaxy orientations are known. We find an inflow rate of $\dot{M}=(3.0 \pm 2.1)\, \rm M_\odot\, yr^{-1}$ averaged over a time span of 40 Myr, which varies by a factor of a few over timescales of $\sim$10 Myr. Most of the inflow appears to be consumed by star formation in the ring which is currently occurring at a rate of ${\rm SFR}\simeq~1.8$-$2 \rm M_\odot\, yr^{-1}$, suggesting that the inflow is causally controlling the star formation rate in the ring as a function of time.Comment: Accepted in MNRA

An increase in dietary n-3 fatty acids decreases a marker of bone resorption in humans

Human, animal, and in vitro research indicates a beneficial effect of appropriate amounts of omega-3 (n-3) polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) on bone health. This is the first controlled feeding study in humans to evaluate the effect of dietary plant-derived n-3 PUFA on bone turnover, assessed by serum concentrations of N-telopeptides (NTx) and bone-specific alkaline phosphatase (BSAP). Subjects (n = 23) consumed each diet for 6 weeks in a randomized, 3-period crossover design: 1) Average American Diet (AAD; [34% total fat, 13% saturated fatty acids (SFA), 13% monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA), 9% PUFA (7.7% LA, 0.8% ALA)]), 2) Linoleic Acid Diet (LA; [37% total fat, 9% SFA, 12% MUFA, 16% PUFA (12.6% LA, 3.6% ALA)]), and 3) α-Linolenic Acid Diet (ALA; [38% total fat, 8% SFA, 12% MUFA, 17% PUFA (10.5% LA, 6.5% ALA)]). Walnuts and flaxseed oil were the predominant sources of ALA. NTx levels were significantly lower following the ALA diet (13.20 ± 1.21 nM BCE), relative to the AAD (15.59 ± 1.21 nM BCE) (p < 0.05). Mean NTx level following the LA diet was 13.80 ± 1.21 nM BCE. There was no change in levels of BSAP across the three diets. Concentrations of NTx were positively correlated with the pro-inflammatory cytokine TNFα for all three diets. The results indicate that plant sources of dietary n-3 PUFA may have a protective effect on bone metabolism via a decrease in bone resorption in the presence of consistent levels of bone formation