Plasma PLP Concentration and Depressive Symptomatology, over time, in older Latino Adults

Background: Low vitamin B-6 status has been linked to depressive symptomatology. However, most studies have been cross-sectional and may not have controlled for relevant confounders. Few studies have examined this association in Latino populations at high risk for major depression. Design: We used two-level hierarchical linear regression models (HLM) for continuous outcomes. Level-1 data included three measures of participant’s depressive symptomatology collected at baseline, 2y follow-up and 5y follow-up. Participants constituted level-2 data. Vitamin B-6 was associated with depressive symptomatology across these time points. Objective: We examined the longitudinal association of vitamin B-6 status with depressive symptomatology across 3 time points over ~ 5-7 y in a cohort of older Puerto Rican adults, a population previously identified to be at high risk for depressive symptomatology and clinical depression. Results: Plasma pyridoxyl-5’-phosphate (PLP) concentration, a time-varying predictor, was significantly associated with depressive symptomatology. Study participants with PLP deficiency, vs. optimal PLP, had higher baseline depressive symptoms (22±14, vs. 20±13); this differential remained constant over time and persisted after controlling for age, sex, education, BMI, smoking and alcohol use, other relevant nutritional factors, perceived stress, stressful life events and allostatic load; and use of antidepressant medication. However, PLP concentration was not associated with the rate of change in depressive symptomatology over time. Conclusions: Suboptimal plasma PLP is associated with higher depressive symptomatology in older Puerto Rican adults and this appears to persist over time. Our data suggest that identification and treatment of vitamin B-6 deficiency may be a useful preventive and intervention approach in this population

Prospective Relations between Red Blood Cell ω-6 and ω-3 Fatty Acid Composition and Cognitive Function among Older Puerto Rican Adults

Objectives: To examine the association between red blood cell (RBC) ω-6 and ω-3 fatty acid (FA) composition and cognitive function over 2-y follow-up among older U.S. mainland Puerto Ricans. Methods: Data are from the Boston Puerto Rican Health Study (74% female; 57±8 y). RBC membrane FA status was ascertained at baseline. Individual FA were expressed as a percentage of total FA identified. Cognitive function was measured at baseline and at 2-y using the Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE), where a higher score ranging from 0-30 indicates better function. Cognitive impairment was defined as MMSE scores ≤21, ≤23, and ≤24 for those with less than a 9th grade education, a 9th to 12th grade education, and some college education or higher, respectively. Relations between FA and MMSE scores were examined in 946 participants and incidence of cognitive impairment among those considered to be cognitively normal at baseline (n=639). Results: In multivariate models additionally adjusted for baseline MMSE, total ω-6 FA (quartiles) were associated with lower MMSE score at 2-y (P-trend=0.003). Total ω-3 FA were positively (P-trend=0.04) and the ω-6:ω-3 ratio inversely (P-trend=0.007) related to 2-y MMSE, but these relationships attenuated with adjustment for baseline score. The incidence of cognitive impairment at follow-up was 22%. In multivariate models, a 1% increase in total ω-6 FA related to a 9% greater incidence of cognitive impairment [RR=1.09 (95% CI: 1.00, 1.18), P=0.04]. Total ω-3 FA were inversely related to incident cognitive impairment [RR=0.92 (0.81 to 1.05), P=0.21], whereas the ω-6:ω-3 ratio was positively associated [RR=1.12 (95% CI: 0.98, 1.26), P=0.08]. Conclusions: An objective biomarker of ω-6 FA consumption was associated with poorer cognitive function and incidence of cognitive impairment over 2-y follow-up, suggesting that greater intakes of food sources of ω-6 FA may play a role in cognitive decline among older U.S. mainland Puerto Ricans

Association of physical activity on memory interference: Boston Puerto Rican Health Study

Background: The objective of this study was to evaluate the association between habitual physical activity engagement on memory interference. The present analysis used cross-sectional data from the Boston Puerto Rican Health Study (n=1,241; mean age= 57.2; 72.1% female). Methods: Physical activity was evaluated via self-report. Memory interference was evaluated using a word-list paradigm. The memory task included learning a list of 16 words (List A; 5 trials), followed by a distractor list (List B), and then an immediate recall of List A. Proactive interference occurs when preceding stimuli (e.g., Trial 1 and Trial 5 of List A) interferes with performance on a subsequent stimuli (List B). Retroactive interference occurs when subsequent stimuli (List B) interferes with the recall of previously encoded stimuli (Trial 5). Results: For proactive interference, there was no association between physical activity and the difference between performance on List B and Trial 1 of List A (β=0.00001; P= 0.96). Similarly, for retroactive interference, there was no association between physical activity and the difference between the short delay recall and Trial 5 of List A (β=0.0002; P= 0.50). Conclusion: The present study did not observe an association between habitual physical activity on attenuating memory interference

Subsurface Oil-Shale Samples of the Lower Permian Wolfcampian and Lower Leonardian Mudrocks and Upper Leonardian Spraberry Formation, Midland Basin, West Texas: Core Sampling for Measured Vitrinite-Reflectance (Ro) Determination

This report summarizes activities carried out by the Bureau of Economic Geology (BEG) during fiscal year (FY) 2014 for the National Coal Resources Data System State Cooperative Program (NCRDS project). In a continuation of the sampling strategy for measured vitrinite-reflectance (Ro) determination initiated 5 years ago (Hentz and others, 2009) and conducted during the following four years (Hentz and others, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014), this report provides a collection of oil-shale samples from the prolific Lower Permian Wolfcampian and lower Leonardian mudrocks and upper Leonardian Spraberry Formation of the Midland Basin in West Texas (Fig. 1).Bureau of Economic Geolog

Breaking the Redshift Deadlock - I: Constraining the star formation history of galaxies with sub-millimetre photometric redshifts

Future extragalactic sub-millimetre and millimetre surveys have the potential to provide a sensitive census of the level of obscured star formation in galaxies at all redshifts. While in general there is good agreement between the source counts from existing SCUBA (850um) and MAMBO (1.25mm) surveys of different depths and areas, it remains difficult to determine the redshift distribution and bolometric luminosities of the sub-millimetre and millimetre galaxy population. This is principally due to the ambiguity in identifying an individual sub-millimetre source with its optical, IR or radio counterpart which, in turn, prevents a confident measurement of the spectroscopic redshift. Additionally, the lack of data measuring the rest-frame FIR spectral peak of the sub-millimetre galaxies gives rise to poor constraints on their rest-frame FIR luminosities and star formation rates. In this paper we describe Monte-Carlo simulations of ground-based, balloon-borne and satellite sub-millimetre surveys that demonstrate how the rest-frame FIR-sub-millimetre spectral energy distributions (250-850um) can be used to derive photometric redshifts with an r.m.s accuracy of +/- 0.4 over the range 0 < z < 6. This opportunity to break the redshift deadlock will provide an estimate of the global star formation history for luminous optically-obscured galaxies [L(FIR) > 3 x 10^12 Lsun] with an accuracy of 20 per cent.Comment: 14 pages, 22 figures, submitted to MNRAS, replaced with accepted versio

Let me Google that for you:a time series analysis of seasonality in internet search trends for terms related to foot and ankle pain

BACKGROUND: The analysis of internet search traffic may present the opportunity to gain insights into general trends and patterns in information seeking behaviour related to medical conditions at a population level. For prevalent and widespread problems such as foot and ankle pain, this information has the potential to improve our understanding of seasonality and trends within these conditions and their treatments, and may act as a useful proxy for their true incidence/prevalence characteristics. This study aimed to explore seasonal effects, general trends and relative popularity of internet search terms related to foot and ankle pain over the past decade. METHODS: We used the Google Trends tool to obtain relative search engine traffic for terms relating to foot and ankle pain and common treatments from Google search and affiliated pages for major northern and southern hemisphere English speaking nations. Analysis of overall trends and seasonality including summer/winter differences was carried out on these terms. RESULTS: Searches relating to general foot pain were on average 3.4 times more common than those relating to ankle pain, and twice as common as searches relating to heel pain. Distinct seasonal effects were seen in the northern hemisphere, with large increases in search volumes in the summer months compared to winter for foot (p = 0.004, 95 % CI [22.2–32.1]), ankle (p = 0.0078, 95 % CI [20.9–35.5]), and heel pain (p = 0.004, 95 % CI [29.1–45.6]). These seasonal effects were reflected by data from Australia, with the exception of ankle pain. Annual seasonal effects for treatment options were limited to terms related to foot surgery and ankle orthoses (p = 0.031, 95 % CI [3.5–20.9]; p = 0.004, 95 % CI [7.6–25.2] respectively), again increasing in the summer months. CONCLUSIONS: A number of general trends and annual seasonal effects were found in time series internet search data for terms relating to foot and ankle pain. This data may provide insights into these conditions at population levels. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13047-015-0074-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

BLAST Observations of the South Ecliptic Pole field: Number Counts and Source Catalogs

We present results from a survey carried out by the Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (BLAST) on a 9 deg^2 field near the South Ecliptic Pole at 250, 350 and 500 {\mu}m. The median 1{\sigma} depths of the maps are 36.0, 26.4 and 18.4 mJy, respectively. We apply a statistical method to estimate submillimeter galaxy number counts and find that they are in agreement with other measurements made with the same instrument and with the more recent results from Herschel/SPIRE. Thanks to the large field observed, the new measurements give additional constraints on the bright end of the counts. We identify 132, 89 and 61 sources with S/N>4 at 250, 350, 500 {\mu}m, respectively and provide a multi-wavelength combined catalog of 232 sources with a significance >4{\sigma} in at least one BLAST band. The new BLAST maps and catalogs are available publicly at http://blastexperiment.info.Comment: 25 pages, 6 figures, 4 tables, Accepted by ApJS. Maps and catalogs available at http://blastexperiment.info

Distinguishing s±s^{\pm} and s++s^{++} electron pairing symmetries by neutron spin resonance in superconducting NaFe0.935_{0.935}Co0.045_{0.045}As

A determination of the superconducting (SC) electron pairing symmetry forms the basis for establishing a microscopic mechansim for superconductivity. For iron pnictide superconductors, the $s^\pm$-pairing symmetry theory predicts the presence of a sharp neutron spin resonance at an energy below the sum of hole and electron SC gap energies ($E\leq 2\Delta$) below $T_c$. On the other hand, the $s^{++}$-pairing symmetry expects a broad spin excitation enhancement at an energy above $2\Delta$ below $T_c$. Although the resonance has been observed in iron pnictide superconductors at an energy below $2\Delta$ consistent with the $s^\pm$-pairing symmetry, the mode has also be interpreted as arising from the $s^{++}$-pairing symmetry with $E\ge 2\Delta$ due to its broad energy width and the large uncertainty in determining the SC gaps. Here we use inelastic neutron scattering to reveal a sharp resonance at E=7 meV in SC NaFe$_{0.935}$Co$_{0.045}$As ($T_c = 18$ K). On warming towards $T_c$, the mode energy hardly softens while its energy width increases rapidly. By comparing with calculated spin-excitations spectra within the $s^{\pm}$ and $s^{++}$-pairing symmetries, we conclude that the ground-state resonance in NaFe$_{0.935}$Co$_{0.045}$As is only consistent with the $s^{\pm}$-pairing, and is inconsistent with the $s^{++}$-pairing symmetry.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures. submitted to PR

Association of physical activity on memory interference: Boston Puerto Rican Health Study

Background: The objective of this study was to evaluate the association between habitual physical activity engagement on memory interference. The present analysis used cross-sectional data from the Boston Puerto Rican Health Study (n=1,241; mean age= 57.2; 72.1% female). Methods: Physical activity was evaluated via self-report. Memory interference was evaluated using a word-list paradigm. The memory task included learning a list of 16 words (List A; 5 trials), followed by a distractor list (List B), and then an immediate recall of List A. Proactive interference occurs when preceding stimuli (e.g., Trial 1 and Trial 5 of List A) interferes with performance on a subsequent stimuli (List B). Retroactive interference occurs when subsequent stimuli (List B) interferes with the recall of previously encoded stimuli (Trial 5). Results: For proactive interference, there was no association between physical activity and the difference between performance on List B and Trial 1 of List A (β=0.00001; P=0.96). Similarly, for retroactive interference, there was no association between physical activity and the difference between the short delay recall and Trial 5 of List A (β=0.0002; P=0.50). Conclusion: The present study did not observe an association between habitual physical activity on attenuating memory interference

Complete Genome Sequence and Comparative Metabolic Profiling of the Prototypical Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli Strain 042

Background \ud Escherichia coli can experience a multifaceted life, in some cases acting as a commensal while in other cases causing intestinal and/or extraintestinal disease. Several studies suggest enteroaggregative E. coli are the predominant cause of E. coli-mediated diarrhea in the developed world and are second only to Campylobacter sp. as a cause of bacterial-mediated diarrhea. Furthermore, enteroaggregative E. coli are a predominant cause of persistent diarrhea in the developing world where infection has been associated with malnourishment and growth retardation. \ud \ud Methods \ud In this study we determined the complete genomic sequence of E. coli 042, the prototypical member of the enteroaggregative E. coli, which has been shown to cause disease in volunteer studies. We performed genomic and phylogenetic comparisons with other E. coli strains revealing previously uncharacterised virulence factors including a variety of secreted proteins and a capsular polysaccharide biosynthetic locus. In addition, by using Biolog™ Phenotype Microarrays we have provided a full metabolic profiling of E. coli 042 and the non-pathogenic lab strain E. coli K-12. We have highlighted the genetic basis for many of the metabolic differences between E. coli 042 and E. coli K-12. \ud \ud Conclusion \ud This study provides a genetic context for the vast amount of experimental and epidemiological data published thus far and provides a template for future diagnostic and intervention strategies