880 research outputs found
Psychological well-being among older adults during the COVID-19 outbreak: A comparative study of the young-old and the old-old adults
The COVID-19 outbreak could be considered as an uncontrollable stressful life event. Lockdown measures have provoked a disruption of daily life with a great impact over older adults' health and well-being. Nevertheless, eudaimonic well-being plays a protective role in confronting adverse circumstances, such as the COVID-19 situation. This study aims to assess the association between age and psychological well-being (personal growth and purpose in life). Young-old (60-70 years) and old-old (71-80 years) community-dwelling Spaniards (N = 878) completed a survey and reported on their sociodemographic characteristics and their levels of health, COVID-19 stress-related, appraisal, and personal resources. Old-old did not evidence poorer psychological well-being than young-old. Age has only a negative impact on personal growth. The results also suggest that the nature of the COVID-19 impact (except for the loss of a loved one) may not be as relevant for the older adults' well-being as their appraisals and personal resources for managing COVID-related problems. In addition, these results suggest that some sociodemographic and health-related variables have an impact on older adults' well-being. Thus, perceived-health, family functioning, resilience, gratitude, and acceptance had significant associations with both personal growth and purpose in life. Efforts to address older adults' psychological well-being focusing on older adults' personal resources should be considered
High Voltage Mg-Doped Na 0.67 Ni 0.3â x Mg x Mn 0.7 O 2 ( x = 0.05, 0.1) Na-Ion Cathodes with Enhanced Stability and Rate Capability
Magnesium substituted P2-structure Na0.67Ni0.3Mn0.7O2 materials have been prepared by a facile solid-state method and investigated as cathodes in sodium-ion batteries. The Mg-doped materials described here were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), 23Na solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (SS-NMR), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The electrochemical performance of the samples was tested in half cells vs Na metal at room temperature. The Mg-doped materials operate at a high average voltage of ca. 3.3 V vs Na/Na+ delivering specific capacities of âŒ120 mAh gâ1, which remain stable up to 50 cycles. Mg doping suppresses the well-known P2âO2 phase transition observed in the undoped composition by stabilizing the reversible OP4 phase during charging (during Na removal). GITT measurements showed that the Na-ion mobility is improved by 2 orders of magnitude with respect to the parent P2âNa0.67Ni0.3Mn0.7O2 material. The fast Na-ion mobility may be the cause of the enhanced rate performance
Common variants of the liver fatty acid binding protein gene influence the risk of type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance in Spanish population
Summary: The main objective was to evaluate the association between SNPs and haplotypes of the FABP1-4 genes and type 2 diabetes, as well as its interaction with fat intake, in one general Spanish population. The association was replicated in a second population in which HOMA index was also evaluated.
Methods: 1217 unrelated individuals were selected from a population-based study [Hortega study: 605 women; mean age 54 y; 7.8% with type 2 diabetes]. The replication population included 805 subjects from Segovia, a neighboring region of Spain (446 females; mean age 52 y; 10.3% with type 2 diabetes). DM2 mellitus was defined in a similar way in both studies. Fifteen SNPs previously associated with metabolic traits or with potential influence in the gene expression within the FABP1-
4 genes were genotyped with SNPlex and tested. Age, sex and BMI were used as covariates in the logistic regression model.
Results:One polymorphism (rs2197076) and two haplotypes of the FABP-1 showed a strong association with the risk of DM2
in the original population. This association was further confirmed in the second population as well as in the pooled sample.
None of the other analyzed variants in FABP2, FABP3 and FABP4 genes were associated. There was not a formal interaction
between rs2197076 and fat intake. A significant association between the rs2197076 and the haplotypes of the FABP1 and
HOMA-IR was also present in the replication population.
Conclusions: The study supports the role of common variants of the FABP-1 gene in the development of type 2 diabetes in Caucasians
The nutrigenetic influence of the interaction between dietary vitamin E and TXN and COMT gene polymorphisms on waist circumference: a case control study
Background: Abdominal obesity (AO) is a common modifiable risk factor for certain non-communicable diseases
associated with enhanced oxidative stress (OS). The objective of this work was to investigate whether the interaction
between antioxidant vitamin intake and OS-related polymorphisms modulates gene-associated anthropometry in a
Spanish population.
Methods: A total of 246 subjects with AO, and 492 age and gender matched non-AO subjects were included in the
study. Anthropometric, biochemical, and OS parameters, and antioxidant dietary intake data were assessed using validated
procedures. DNA from white blood cells was isolated and the genotype of seven polymorphisms from genes
involved in OS (pro-oxidant and antioxidant) were analyzed using the SNPlex system. The effects of the c.-793T > C
polymorphism on promoter activity and thus thioredoxin (TXN) activity were examined using reporter assays.
Results: The AO group had higher 8-Oxo-2âČ-deoxyguanosine levels and took in less vitamin A and vitamin E compared
to the non-AO group. Logistic regression analysis revealed that the rs2301241 polymorphism in TXN and
rs740603 in catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) were associated with waist circumference (WC) and AO. Moreover,
these polymorphisms were more strongly associated with variations in WC in subjects with low vitamin E intakes. A
promoter assay revealed that the T to C conversion at c.-793 (rs2301241) induced a more than two fold increase in
reporter gene expression.
Conclusions: WC is associated both with dietary vitamin E intake and genetic variants of TXN and COMT suggesting
that existence of a complex nutrigenetic pathway that involves regulation of AO
A Profile Likelihood Analysis of the Constrained MSSM with Genetic Algorithms
The Constrained Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (CMSSM) is one of the
simplest and most widely-studied supersymmetric extensions to the standard
model of particle physics. Nevertheless, current data do not sufficiently
constrain the model parameters in a way completely independent of priors,
statistical measures and scanning techniques. We present a new technique for
scanning supersymmetric parameter spaces, optimised for frequentist profile
likelihood analyses and based on Genetic Algorithms. We apply this technique to
the CMSSM, taking into account existing collider and cosmological data in our
global fit. We compare our method to the MultiNest algorithm, an efficient
Bayesian technique, paying particular attention to the best-fit points and
implications for particle masses at the LHC and dark matter searches. Our
global best-fit point lies in the focus point region. We find many
high-likelihood points in both the stau co-annihilation and focus point
regions, including a previously neglected section of the co-annihilation region
at large m_0. We show that there are many high-likelihood points in the CMSSM
parameter space commonly missed by existing scanning techniques, especially at
high masses. This has a significant influence on the derived confidence regions
for parameters and observables, and can dramatically change the entire
statistical inference of such scans.Comment: 47 pages, 8 figures; Fig. 8, Table 7 and more discussions added to
Sec. 3.4.2 in response to referee's comments; accepted for publication in
JHE
Highlights from the Pierre Auger Observatory
The Pierre Auger Observatory is the world's largest cosmic ray observatory.
Our current exposure reaches nearly 40,000 km str and provides us with an
unprecedented quality data set. The performance and stability of the detectors
and their enhancements are described. Data analyses have led to a number of
major breakthroughs. Among these we discuss the energy spectrum and the
searches for large-scale anisotropies. We present analyses of our X
data and show how it can be interpreted in terms of mass composition. We also
describe some new analyses that extract mass sensitive parameters from the 100%
duty cycle SD data. A coherent interpretation of all these recent results opens
new directions. The consequences regarding the cosmic ray composition and the
properties of UHECR sources are briefly discussed.Comment: 9 pages, 12 figures, talk given at the 33rd International Cosmic Ray
Conference, Rio de Janeiro 201
Calibration of the Logarithmic-Periodic Dipole Antenna (LPDA) Radio Stations at the Pierre Auger Observatory using an Octocopter
An in-situ calibration of a logarithmic periodic dipole antenna with a
frequency coverage of 30 MHz to 80 MHz is performed. Such antennas are part of
a radio station system used for detection of cosmic ray induced air showers at
the Engineering Radio Array of the Pierre Auger Observatory, the so-called
Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA). The directional and frequency
characteristics of the broadband antenna are investigated using a remotely
piloted aircraft (RPA) carrying a small transmitting antenna. The antenna
sensitivity is described by the vector effective length relating the measured
voltage with the electric-field components perpendicular to the incoming signal
direction. The horizontal and meridional components are determined with an
overall uncertainty of 7.4^{+0.9}_{-0.3} % and 10.3^{+2.8}_{-1.7} %
respectively. The measurement is used to correct a simulated response of the
frequency and directional response of the antenna. In addition, the influence
of the ground conductivity and permittivity on the antenna response is
simulated. Both have a negligible influence given the ground conditions
measured at the detector site. The overall uncertainties of the vector
effective length components result in an uncertainty of 8.8^{+2.1}_{-1.3} % in
the square root of the energy fluence for incoming signal directions with
zenith angles smaller than 60{\deg}.Comment: Published version. Updated online abstract only. Manuscript is
unchanged with respect to v2. 39 pages, 15 figures, 2 table
Multi-resolution anisotropy studies of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays detected at the Pierre Auger Observatory
We report a multi-resolution search for anisotropies in the arrival
directions of cosmic rays detected at the Pierre Auger Observatory with local
zenith angles up to and energies in excess of 4 EeV ( eV). This search is conducted by measuring the angular power spectrum
and performing a needlet wavelet analysis in two independent energy ranges.
Both analyses are complementary since the angular power spectrum achieves a
better performance in identifying large-scale patterns while the needlet
wavelet analysis, considering the parameters used in this work, presents a
higher efficiency in detecting smaller-scale anisotropies, potentially
providing directional information on any observed anisotropies. No deviation
from isotropy is observed on any angular scale in the energy range between 4
and 8 EeV. Above 8 EeV, an indication for a dipole moment is captured; while no
other deviation from isotropy is observed for moments beyond the dipole one.
The corresponding -values obtained after accounting for searches blindly
performed at several angular scales, are in the case of
the angular power spectrum, and in the case of the needlet
analysis. While these results are consistent with previous reports making use
of the same data set, they provide extensions of the previous works through the
thorough scans of the angular scales.Comment: Published version. Added journal reference and DOI. Added Report
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