286 research outputs found
Comparing the physical and psychological effects of food security and food insecurity
Although much research exists on how food insecurity impacts one\u27s quality of life, there are no studies to date that have compared the quality of life between food insecure and food secure individuals. This mixed-methods study explores these comparisons. The online survey assessed quality of life in the areas of performance at school/work, psychological and physical health, and quality of relationships. The survey included closed and open-ended questions and was analyzed using quantitative and qualitative methods. This study reveals that food insecure individuals had a poorer quality of life in most of the areas that were assessed. The results are intended to give a deeper and more personal perspective of what it means to be food insufficient and how food insecurity may impact one\u27s quality of life
Saturn Forms by Core Accretion in 3.4 Myr
We present two new in situ core accretion simulations of Saturn with planet
formation timescales of 3.37 Myr (model S0) and 3.48 Myr (model S1), consistent
with observed protostellar disk lifetimes. In model S0, we assume rapid grain
settling reduces opacity due to grains from full interstellar values (Podolak
2003). In model S1, we do not invoke grain settling, instead assigning full
interstellar opacities to grains in the envelope. Surprisingly, the two models
produce nearly identical formation timescales and core/atmosphere mass ratios.
We therefore observe a new manifestation of core accretion theory: at large
heliocentric distances, the solid core growth rate (limited by Keplerian
orbital velocity) controls the planet formation timescale. We argue that this
paradigm should apply to Uranus and Neptune as well.Comment: 4 pages, including 1 figure, submitted to ApJ Letter
A Relay Network of Extracellular Heme-Binding Proteins Drives C. albicans Iron Acquisition from Hemoglobin
Colorectal cancer among inflammatory bowel disease patients: risk factors and prevalence compared to the general population
BackgroundColorectal cancer (CRC) is a feared complication of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). We aimed to investigate the prevalence and risk factors of CRC among a large cohort of IBD patients.MethodsData on IBD patients free of CRC at baseline was extracted using the MDClone platform of the Clalit health maintenance organization in Israel. We investigated the frequency rate of CRC among IBD patients compared to a control group without IBD. Possible risk factors, including comorbidities and IBD-related medications, were investigated in a multivariate analysis.ResultsDuring a follow-up of 139,448âyears among Crohnâs disease (CD) patients and 139,533âyears among ulcerative colitis (UC) patients, a frequency rate of CRC was 1.5% (191) among 12,888 CD patients and 2.1% (261) among 12,381 UC patients compared to 1.2% among 57,334 controls. In a multivariate analysis of UC patients, age at diagnosis (OR 1.030, pâ<â0.001), primary sclerosing cholangitis (OR 2.487, pâ=â0.005), diabetes mellitus (OR 2.01, pâ<â0.001), and glucocorticoids treatment (OR 1.465, pâ=â0.008) were found to be predictors of CRC. For CD patients, age at diagnosis (OR 1.035, pâ<â0.001), primary sclerosing cholangitis (OR 2.25, pâ=â0.029), and glucocorticoids treatment (OR 2.07, pâ<â0.001) were found to be predictors for CRC, but not diabetes mellitus.ConclusionDespite the continuously decreasing rates of CRC among IBD patients, these are still higher in IBD patients compared to the general population. IBD patients, particularly those with risk factors, require special consideration in follow-up for CRC
What is Microbial Dormancy?
Life can be stressful. One way to deal with stress is to simply wait it out. Microbes do this by entering a state of reduced activity and increased resistance commonly called âdormancyâ. But what is dormancy? Different scientific disciplines emphasize distinct traits and phenotypic ranges in defining dormancy for their microbial species and system-specific questions of interest. Here, we propose a unified definition of microbial dormancy, using a broad framework to place earlier discipline-specific definitions in a new context. We then discuss how this new definition and framework may improve our ability to investigate dormancy using multi-omics tools. Finally, we leverage our framework to discuss the diversity of genomic mechanisms for dormancy in an extreme environment that challenges easy definitions â the permafrost
Discovering the Growth Histories of Exoplanets: The Saturn Analog HD 149026b
The transiting "hot Saturn" HD 149026b, which has the highest mean density of
any confirmed planet in the Neptune-Jupiter mass range, has challenged theories
of planet formation since its discovery in 2005. Previous investigations could
not explain the origin of the planet's 45-110 Earth-mass solid core without
invoking catastrophes such as gas giant collisions or heavy planetesimal
bombardment launched by neighboring planets. Here we show that HD 149026b's
large core can be successfully explained by the standard core accretion theory
of planet formation. The keys to our reconstruction of HD 149026b are (1)
applying a model of the solar nebula to describe the protoplanet nursery; (2)
placing the planet initially on a long-period orbit at Saturn's heliocentric
distance of 9.5 AU; and (3) adjusting the solid mass in the HD 149026 disk to
twice that of the solar nebula in accordance with the star's heavy element
enrichment. We show that the planet's migration into its current orbit at 0.042
AU is consistent with our formation model. Our study of HD 149026b demonstrates
that it is possible to discover the growth history of any planet with a
well-defined core mass that orbits a solar-type star.Comment: 20 pages, including 3 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ
letters. Discussion updated to include new NICMOS transit photometry (Carter
et al. 2009
Cortical thickness is not associated with current depression in a clinical treatment study
BackgroundReduced cortical thickness is a candidate biological marker of depression, although findings are inconsistent. This could reflect analytic heterogeneity, such as use of regionâwise cortical thickness based on the Freesurfer DesikanâKilliany (DK) atlas or surfaceâbased morphometry (SBM). The Freesurfer Destrieux (DS) atlas (more, smaller regions) has not been utilized in depression studies. This could also reflect differential gender and age effects.MethodsCortical thickness was collected from 170 currently depressed adults and 52 neverâdepressed adults. Visually inspected and approved Freesurferâgenerated surfaces were used to extract cortical thickness estimates according to the DK atlas (68 regions) and DS atlas (148 regions) for regionâwise analysis (216 total regions) and for SBM.ResultsOverall, except for small effects in a few regions, the two regionâwise approaches generally failed to discriminate depressed adults from nondepressed adults or current episode severity. Differential effects by age and gender were also rare and small in magnitude. Using SBM, depressed adults showed a significantly thicker cluster in the left supramarginal gyrus than nondepressed adults (Pâ=â0.047) but there were no associations with current episode severity.ConclusionsThree analytic approaches (i.e., DK atlas, DS atlas, and SBM) converge on the notion that cortical thickness is a relatively weak discriminator of current depression status. Differential age and gender effects do not appear to represent key moderators. Robust associations with demographic factors will likely hinder translation of cortical thickness into a clinically useful biomarker. Hum Brain Mapp, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Hum Brain Mapp 38:4370â4385, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138250/1/hbm23664_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138250/2/hbm23664.pd
Testâretest reliability of freesurfer measurements within and between sites: Effects of visual approval process
In the last decade, many studies have used automated processes to analyze magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data such as cortical thickness, which is one indicator of neuronal health. Due to the convenience of image processing software (e.g., FreeSurfer), standard practice is to rely on automated results without performing visual inspection of intermediate processing. In this work, structural MRIs of 40 healthy controls who were scanned twice were used to determine the testâretest reliability of FreeSurferâderived cortical measures in four groups of subjectsâthose 25 that passed visual inspection (approved), those 15 that failed visual inspection (disapproved), a combined group, and a subset of 10 subjects (Travel) whose test and retest scans occurred at different sites. Testâretest correlation (TRC), intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), and percent difference (PD) were used to measure the reliability in the Destrieux and DesikanâKilliany (DK) atlases. In the approved subjects, reliability of cortical thickness/surface area/volume (DK atlas only) were: TRC (0.82/0.88/0.88), ICC (0.81/0.87/0.88), PD (0.86/1.19/1.39), which represent a significant improvement over these measures when disapproved subjects are included. Travel subjectsâ results show that cortical thickness reliability is more sensitive to site differences than the cortical surface area and volume. To determine the effect of visual inspection on sample size required for studies of MRIâderived cortical thickness, the number of subjects required to show group differences was calculated. Significant differences observed across imaging sites, between visually approved/disapproved subjects, and across regions with different sizes suggest that these measures should be used with caution. Hum Brain Mapp 36:3472â3485, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/113142/1/hbm22856.pd
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