Differences in the Experience of Caregiving Between Spouse and Adult Child Caregivers in Dementia With Lewy Bodies.

Background and objectivesDementia caregiving has been associated with increased burden, depression, grief, a decreased sense of well-being and quality of life, and a weakening of social support. Little is known about the experience of caregiving in Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB). The present study examines differences in the caregiving experience of spouse versus adult child caregivers of individuals with DLB.Research design and methodsIn this cross-sectional analytic study of spouses (n = 255) and adult children (n = 160) caregivers of individuals with DLB, participants completed an online survey of burden, grief, depression, well-being, quality of life, and social support.ResultsAdult child caregivers were more likely to care for women (p < .001) and see the care recipient less often (p < .001) than spouses. Adult child caregivers reported lower quality of life (p < .001) and more caregiver burden (p < .009), but also greater social support (p < .001) than spouses. Between group analyses of caregiver type by disease severity demonstrated that spousal caregivers experience greater grief with advancing disease (p = .005), while adult child caregivers increase social support with advancing disease (p < .001).Discussion and implicationsSpouses and adult children experience DLB caregiving differently. This was explained by the younger age of the adult child caregiver, frequency of contact with the care recipient, and differences in the care recipient's characteristics, frequency of neuropsychiatric symptoms, and disease severity. DLB caregiver support for this population should target psychoeducation for complicated neuropsychiatric symptoms in the care recipient. Screening all DLB caregivers for burden, grief, and depression is suggested to identify those that may benefit most from intervention. Spouses specifically may benefit from interventions that target increasing social support, while adult child caregivers may benefit from interventions aimed at mitigating burden and improving quality of life

Lifting the Veil on Obscured Accretion: Active Galactic Nuclei Number Counts and Survey Strategies for Imaging Hard X-Ray Missions

Finding and characterizing the population of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) that produces the X-ray background (XRB) is necessary to connect the history of accretion to observations of galaxy evolution at longer wavelengths. The year 2012 will see the deployment of the first hard X-ray imaging telescope which, through deep extragalactic surveys, will be able to measure the AGN population at the energies where the XRB peaks (~20-30 keV). Here, we present predictions of AGN number counts in three hard X-ray bandpasses: 6-10 keV, 10-30 keV, and 30-60 keV. Separate predictions are presented for the number counts of Compton thick AGNs, the most heavily obscured active galaxies. The number counts are calculated for five different models of the XRB that differ in the assumed hard X-ray luminosity function, the evolution of the Compton thick AGNs, and the underlying AGN spectral model. The majority of the hard X-ray number counts will be Compton thin AGNs, but there is a greater than tenfold increase in the Compton thick number counts from the 6-10 keV to the 10-30 keV band. The Compton thick population shows enough variation that a hard X-ray number counts measurement will constrain the models. The computed number counts are used to consider various survey strategies for the NuSTAR mission, assuming a total exposure time of 6.2 Ms. We find that multiple surveys will allow a measurement of Compton thick evolution. The predictions presented here should be useful for all future imaging hard X-ray missions

On the lack of correlation between Mg II 2796, 2803 Angstrom and Lyman alpha emission in lensed star-forming galaxies

We examine the Mg II 2796, 2803 Angstrom, Lyman alpha, and nebular line emission in five bright star-forming galaxies at 1.66<z<1.91 that have been gravitationally lensed by foreground galaxy clusters. All five galaxies show prominent Mg II emission and absorption in a P Cygni profile. We find no correlation between the equivalent widths of Mg II and Lyman alpha emission. The Mg II emission has a broader range of velocities than do the nebular emission line profiles; the Mg II emission is redshifted with respect to systemic by 100 to 200 km/s. When present, Lyman alpha is even more redshifted. The reddest components of Mg II and Lyman alpha emission have tails to 500-600 km/s, implying a strong outflow. The lack of correlation in the Mg II and Lyman alpha equivalent widths, the differing velocity profiles, and the high ratios of Mg II to nebular line fluxes together suggest that the bulk of Mg II emission does not ultimately arise as nebular line emission, but may instead be reprocessed stellar continuum emission.Comment: The Astrophysical Journal, in press. 6 pages, 2 figure

Comparison of the Caregiving Experience of Grief, Burden, and Quality of Life in Dementia with Lewy Bodies, Alzheimer’s Disease, and Parkinson’s Disease Dementia

Background: Caregivers of persons living with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), and Parkinson’s disease dementia (PDD) are faced with numerous challenges. However, little is known about the caregiving experience across different dementias. Objective: The aims of this cross-sectional study were to examine the differences in the caregiver experience between DLB, PDD, and AD. Methods: Respondents were caregivers (N = 515; 384 DLB, 69 AD, 62 PDD) who completed a 230-question survey including sociodemographics, disease severity, neuropsychiatric symptoms, and measures of grief, burden, depression, quality of life, social support, well-being, care confidence, and mastery/self-efficacy. Results: There were no differences in caregiver age, sex, race, or education, or in the distribution of disease severity between diagnostic groups. Constructs were highly intercorrelated with positive attributes (caregiver QoL, care recipient QoL, social support, well-being, mastery and care confidence) being inversely correlated with negative attributes (burden, grief, and depression). Across dementia etiologies, no differences were reported for quality of life, social support, depression, well-being, psychological well-being, mastery, care confidence, burden or grief. Instead, we found that the caregiver’s experience was dependent on caregiver characteristics, person living with dementia characteristics and their most disturbing symptom, with behavior, personality changes, and sleep having the greatest effect on constructs. Conclusion: Caregiver ratings of psychosocial constructs may be more dependent on care recipient-caregiver dyad characteristics and the current symptoms than the underlying cause of those symptoms. Interventions to improve the caregiving experience should be developed to address specific psychosocial constructs rather than focusing on disease etiology or stage

The Cepheid Period-Luminosity Relation at Mid-Infrared Wavelengths: I. First-Epoch LMC Data

We present the first mid-infrared Period-Luminosity (PL) relations for Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) Cepheids. Single-epoch observations of 70 Cepheids were extracted from Spitzer IRAC observations at 3.6, 4.5, 5.8 and 8.0 microns, serendipitously obtained during the SAGE (Surveying the Agents of a Galaxy's Evolution) imaging survey of the LMC. All four mid-infrared PL relations have nearly identical slopes over the period range 6 - 88 days, with a small scatter of only +/-0.16 mag independent of period for all four of these wavelengths. We emphasize that differential reddening is not contributing significantly to the observed scatter, given the nearly two orders of magnitude reduced sensitivity of the mid-IR to extinction compared to the optical. Future observations, filling in the light curves for these Cepheids, should noticeably reduce the residual scatter. These attributes alone suggest that mid-infrared PL relations will provide a practical means of significantly improving the accuracy of Cepheid distances to nearby galaxies.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

The host galaxy of the z=2.4 radio-loud AGN MRC 0406-244 as seen by HST

We present multicolour Hubble Space Telescope images of the powerful z=2.4 radio galaxy MRC 0406-244 and model its complex morphology with several components including a host galaxy, a point source, and extended nebular and continuum emission. We suggest that the main progenitor of this radio galaxy was a normal, albeit massive (M ~10^{11} solar masses), star-forming galaxy. The optical stellar disc of the host galaxy is smooth and well described by a S\'ersic profile, which argues against a recent major merger, however there is also a point-source component which may be the remnant of a minor merger. The half-light radius of the optical disc is constrained to lie in the range 3.5 to 8.2kpc, which is of similar size to coeval star forming galaxies. Biconical shells of nebular emission and UV-bright continuum extend out from the host galaxy along the radio jet axis, which is also the minor axis of the host galaxy. The origin of the continuum emission is uncertain, but it is most likely to be young stars or dust-scattered light from the AGN, and it is possible that stars are forming from this material at a rate of 200^{+1420}_{-110} solar masses per year.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA

The Magellan Evolution of Galaxies Spectroscopic and Ultraviolet Reference Atlas (MEGaSaURA) I: The Sample and the Spectra

We introduce Project MEGaSaURA: The Magellan Evolution of Galaxies Spectroscopic and Ultraviolet Reference Atlas. MEGaSaURA comprises medium-resolution, rest-frame ultraviolet spectroscopy of N=15 bright gravitationally lensed galaxies at redshifts of 1.68$<$z$<$3.6, obtained with the MagE spectrograph on the Magellan telescopes. The spectra cover the observed-frame wavelength range $3200 < \lambda_o < 8280$ \AA ; the average spectral resolving power is R=3300. The median spectrum has a signal-to-noise ratio of $SNR=21$ per resolution element at 5000 \AA . As such, the MEGaSaURA spectra have superior signal-to-noise-ratio and wavelength coverage compared to what COS/HST provides for starburst galaxies in the local universe. This paper describes the sample, the observations, and the data reduction. We compare the measured redshifts for the stars, the ionized gas as traced by nebular lines, and the neutral gas as traced by absorption lines; we find the expected bulk outflow of the neutral gas, and no systemic offset between the redshifts measured from nebular lines and the redshifts measured from the stellar continuum. We provide the MEGaSaURA spectra to the astronomical community through a data release.Comment: Resubmitted to AAS Journals. Data release will accompany journal publication. v2 addresses minor comments from refere

Lens Model and Time Delay Predictions for the Sextuply Lensed Quasar SDSS J2222+2745

SDSS J2222+2745 is a galaxy cluster at z=0.49, strongly lensing a quasar at z=2.805 into six widely separated images. In recent HST imaging of the field, we identify additional multiply lensed galaxies, and confirm the sixth quasar image that was identified by Dahle et al. (2013). We used the Gemini North telescope to measure a spectroscopic redshift of z=4.56 of one of the secondary lensed galaxies. These data are used to refine the lens model of SDSS J2222+2745, compute the time delay and magnifications of the lensed quasar images, and reconstruct the source image of the quasar host and a second lensed galaxy at z=2.3. This second galaxy also appears in absorption in our Gemini spectra of the lensed quasar, at a projected distance of 34 kpc. Our model is in agreement with the recent time delay measurements of Dahle et al. (2015), who found tAB=47.7+/-6.0 days and tAC=-722+/-24 days. We use the observed time delays to further constrain the model, and find that the model-predicted time delays of the three faint images of the quasar are tAD=502+/-68 days, tAE=611+/-75 days, and tAF=415+/-72 days. We have initiated a follow-up campaign to measure these time delays with Gemini North. Finally, we present initial results from an X-ray monitoring program with Swift, indicating the presence of hard X-ray emission from the lensed quasar, as well as extended X-ray emission from the cluster itself, which is consistent with the lensing mass measurement and the cluster velocity dispersion.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures; submitted to Ap

Species Determination and Quantitation in Mixtures Using MRM Mass Spectrometry of Peptides Applied to Meat Authentication

We describe a simple protocol for identifying and quantifying the two components in binary mixtures of species possessing one or more similar proteins. Central to the method is the identification of 'corresponding proteins' in the species of interest, in other words proteins that are nominally the same but possess species-specific sequence differences. When subject to proteolysis, corresponding proteins will give rise to some peptides which are likewise similar but with species-specific variants. These are 'corresponding peptides'. Species-specific peptides can be used as markers for species determination, while pairs of corresponding peptides permit relative quantitation of two species in a mixture. The peptides are detected using multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mass spectrometry, a highly specific technique that enables peptide-based species determination even in complex systems. In addition, the ratio of MRM peak areas deriving from corresponding peptides supports relative quantitation. Since corresponding proteins and peptides will, in the main, behave similarly in both processing and in experimental extraction and sample preparation, the relative quantitation should remain comparatively robust. In addition, this approach does not need the standards and calibrations required by absolute quantitation methods. The protocol is described in the context of red meats, which have convenient corresponding proteins in the form of their respective myoglobins. This application is relevant to food fraud detection: the method can detect 1% weight for weight of horse meat in beef. The corresponding protein, corresponding peptide (CPCP) relative quantitation using MRM peak area ratios gives good estimates of the weight for weight composition of a horse plus beef mixture