USING THE DAY RECONSTRUCTION METHOD TO QUANTIFY TIME SPENT SUFFERING AMONG OLDER ADULTS WITH CHRONIC PAIN

The Day Reconstruction Method (DRM) is a structured diary designed to measure time use in a manner that is more valid than traditional written summary measures, but less burdensome than real-time electronic diary methods. The lower respondent burden and administration costs might make it feasible to utilize this method in large national surveys. Past studies using the DRM have generally focused on subjective mood states during different types of activities. In this study, we extended the DRM to also measure suffering from negative symptoms, such as pain and fatigue, in 122 older adults, most of whom suffer from chronic pain. Results indicated that the method was well tolerated in this population, with over 98% of the sample providing interpretable responses. Chronic pain respondents reported spending a considerable proportion of their day suffering from pain, fatigue, and depression; a much higher proportion than reported by healthy controls (p's < .01). Time spent suffering was associated with lower income, negative mood, and lower life satisfaction and quality of life

Deep Well Pump Seal

Lifewater International, a Christian non-profit, trains locals to repair water well hand pumps in various third world countries. It would be beneficial to retrofit difficult-to-repair hand pumps with a locally-made pump cylinder such as HydroMission\u27s SlapShot . The majority of the components in the SlapShot can be easily obtained in rural third world villages. However, the thick leather gaskets required to seal the water cylinder during the pumping operation are imported. These thick leather gaskets are expensive, and when they fail, this results in pumps being out of commission for extended periods of time. Lifewater has presented this problem to a team of three undergraduate mechanical engineering students at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo with the goal of being able to locally source and manufacture an adequate seal to replace the current thick leather seal

The relationship between cognitive ability and BOLD activation across sleep–wake states

The sleep spindle, a waxing and waning oscillation in the sigma frequency range, has been shown to correlate with fluid intelligence; i.e. the ability to use logic, learn novel rules/patterns, and solve problems. Using simultaneous EEG and fMRI, we previously identified the neural correlates of this relationship, including activation of the thalamus, bilateral putamen, medial frontal gyrus, middle cingulate cortex, and precuneus. However, research to date has focussed primarily on non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, and spindles per se, thus overlooking the possibility that brain activity that occurs in other sleep–wake states might also be related to cognitive abilities. In our current study, we sought to investigate whether brain activity across sleep/wake states is also related to human intelligence in N = 29 participants. During NREM sleep, positive correlations were observed between fluid intelligence and blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) activations in the bilateral putamen and the paracentral lobule/precuneus, as well as between short-term memory (STM) abilities and activity in the medial frontal cortex and inferior frontal gyrus. During wake, activity in bilateral postcentral gyri and occipital lobe was positively correlated with short-term memory abilities. In participants who experienced REM sleep in the scanner, fluid intelligence was positively associated with midbrain activation, and verbal intelligence was associated with right postcentral gyrus activation. These findings provide evidence that the relationship between sleep and intellectual abilities exists beyond sleep spindles

Associations of Infant Nutrition with Insulin Resistance Measures in Early Adulthood: Evidence from the Barry-Caerphilly Growth (BCG) Study

Background: Previous studies suggest that over-nutrition in early infancy may programme long-term susceptibility to insulin resistance. Objective: To assess the association of breast milk and quantity of infant formula and cows ’ milk intake during infancy with insulin resistance measures in early adulthood. Design: Long-term follow-up of the Barry Caerphilly Growth cohort, into which mothers and their offspring had originally been randomly assigned, between 1972–1974, to receive milk supplementation or not. Participants were the offspring, aged 23–27 years at follow-up (n = 679). Breastfeeding and formula/cows ’ milk intake was recorded prospectively by nurses. The main outcomes were insulin sensitivity (ISI0) and insulin secretion (CIR30). Results: 573 (84%) individuals had valid glucose and insulin results and complete covariate information. There was little evidence of associations of breastfeeding versus any formula/cows ’ milk feeding or of increasing quartiles of formula/cows’ milk consumption during infancy (,3 months) with any outcome measure in young adulthood. In fully adjusted models, the differences in outcomes between breastfeeding versus formula/cows ’ milk feeding at 3 months were: fasting glucose (20.07 mmol/l; 95 % CI: 20.19, 0.05); fasting insulin (8.0%; 28.7, 27.6); ISI0 (26.1%; 211.3, 12.1) and CIR30 (3.8%; 219.0, 32.8). There was also little evidence that increasing intakes of formula/cows ’ milk at 3 months were associated with fastin

It Must be Awful for Them: Perspective and Task Context Affects Ratings for Health Conditions

When survey respondents rate the quality of life (QoL) associated with a health condition, they must not only evaluate the health condition itself, but must also interpret the meaning of the rating scale in order to assign a specific value. The way that respondents approach this task depends on subjective interpretations, resulting in inconsistent results across populations and tasks. In particular, patients and non-patients often give very different ratings to health conditions, a discrepancy that raises questions about the objectivity of either groups\u27 evaluations. In this study, we found that the perspective of the raters (i.e., their own current health relative to the health conditions they rated) influences the way they distinguish between different health states that vary in severity. Consistent with prospect theory, a mild and a severe lung disease scenario were rated quite differently by lung disease patients whose own health falls between the two scenarios, whereas healthy non-patients, whose own health was better than both scenarios, rated the two scenarios as much more similar. In addition, we found that the context of the rating task influences the way participants distinguish between mild and severe scenarios. Both patients and non-patients gave less distinct ratings to the two scenarios when each were presented in isolation than when they were presented alongside other scenarios that provided contextual information about the possible range of severity for lung disease. These results raise continuing concerns about the reliability and validity of subjective QoL ratings, as these ratings are highly sensitive to differences between respondent groups and the particulars of the rating task

Large-Scale Release of Campylobacter Draft Genomes: Resources for Food Safety and Public Health from the 100K Pathogen Genome Project.

Campylobacter is a food-associated bacterium and a leading cause of foodborne illness worldwide, being associated with poultry in the food supply. This is the initial public release of 202 Campylobacter genome sequences as part of the 100K Pathogen Genome Project. These isolates represent global genomic diversity in the Campylobacter genus

Effects of acute and chronic interval sprint exercise performed on a manually propelled treadmill on upper limb vascular mechanics in healthy young men

© 2016 The Authors. Physiological Reports published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of the American Physiological Society and The Physiological Society. Interval sprint exercise performed on a manually propelled treadmill, where the hands grip the handle bars, engages lower and upper limb skeletal muscle, but little is known regarding the effects of this exercise modality on the upper limb vasculature. We tested the hypotheses that an acute bout of sprint exercise and 6 weeks of training induces brachial artery (BA) and forearm vascular remodeling, favoring a more compliant system. Before and following a single bout of exercise as well as 6 weeks of training three types of vascular properties/methodologies were examined in healthy men: (1) stiffness of the entire upper limb vascular system (pulse wave velocity (PWV); (2) local stiffness of the BA; and (3) properties of the entire forearm vascular bed (determined by a modified lumped parameter Windkessel model). Following sprint exercise, PWV declined (P \u3c 0.01), indices of BA stiffness did not change (P ≥ 0.10), and forearm vascular bed compliance increased and inertance and viscoelasticity decreased (P ≤ 0.03). Following manually propelled treadmill training, PWV remained unchanged (P = 0.31), indices of BA stiffness increased (P ≤ 0.05) and forearm vascular bed viscoelasticity declined (P = 0.02), but resistance, compliance, and inertance remained unchanged (P ≥ 0.10) compared with pretraining values. Sprint exercise induced a more compliant forearm vascular bed, without altering indices of BA stiffness. These effects were transient, as following training the forearm vascular bed was not more compliant and indices of BA stiffness increased. On the basis of these data, we conclude that adaptations to acute and chronic sprint exercise on a manually propelled treadmill are not uniform along the arterial tree in upper limb