Mortality and immortality : the Nobel Prize as an experiment into the effect of status upon longevity

It has been known for centuries that the rich and famous have longer lives than the poor and ordinary. Causality, however, remains trenchantly debated. The ideal experiment would be one in which extra status could somehow be dropped upon a sub-sample of individuals while those in a control group of comparable individuals received none. This paper attempts to formulate a test in that spirit. It collects 19th-century birth data on science Nobel Prize winners. Correcting for potential biases, we estimate that winning the Prize, compared to merely being nominated, is associated with between 1 and 2 years of extra longevity

Are associations of leisure-time physical activity with mortality attenuated by high levels of chronic ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in older adults? A prospective cohort study

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Although leisure-time physical activity (PA) has established health benefits in older adults, it is equivocal if exercising in environments with high levels of PM2.5 concentrations is equally beneficial for them. To explore the independent and joint associations of ambient PM2.5 and PA with all-cause mortality among adults aged 60 or older and to assess the modifying effect of age (60-74 years vs. 75+ years) on the joint associations. METHODS: A prospective cohort study based on the MJ Cohort repeat examinations (2005-2016) and the Taiwan Air Quality Monitoring Network and death registry linkages (2005-2022). We included MJ Cohort participants aged 60 or more at baseline who attended the health check-ups at least twice (n = 21,760). Metabolic equivalent hours per week (MET-h/week) of leisure-time PA were computed. Multivariable adjusted associations were examined using time-varying Cox proportional hazard models. RESULTS: There were 3539 all-cause deaths over a mean follow-up of 12.81 (SD = 3.67) years. Ambient PM2.5 and physical inactivity are both independently associated with all-cause mortality. The joint associations of PA and PM2.5 concentrations with all-cause mortality differed in the young-old (60-74 years) and the older-old (75+ years) (P for interaction = 0.01); Higher levels of long-term PM2.5 exposures (≥25 μg/m3) had little influence on the associations between PA and mortality in the young-old (HR = 0.68 (0.56-0.83) and HR = 0.72 (0.59-0.88) for participants with 7.5-<15 and 15+ MET-h/week respectively) but eliminated associations between exposure and outcome in the older-old (HR = 0.91 (0.69-01.21) and HR = 1.02 (0.76-1.38) for participants with 7.5-<15 and 15+ MET-h/week). CONCLUSION: Long-term exposures to higher PM2.5 concentrations may eliminate the beneficial associations of PA with all-cause mortality among adults aged 75 and over

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy—a new hope for Alzheimer’s patients: a case report and literature review

The currently available pharmacological anti-dementia treatments provide only temporary and limited benefits. Not surprisingly, patients and professionals increasingly explore non-pharmacological interventions that may alleviate dementia symptoms. Among these interventions is hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT). A brief review is presented on HBOT use in medicine, with its mode of action in dementia, specifically Alzheimer’s disease, as well as a case report of self-initiated HBOT in a 62-year-old man with a clinical diagnosis of probable Alzheimer’s disease. He had over 400 HBOT sessions [2–3 times weekly, with a duration of 30–50 min, in a multi-place hyperbaric chamber at 2 atmospheres absolute (ATA)] over 7 years and use of donepezil (10 mg daily) for the last 3 years when formally diagnosed by the National Health Service (NHS) Memory Service. The patient’s longitudinal neurocognitive and neuroradiological evidence over 7 years of follow-up remained stable (with no major cognitive decline and no behavioral changes) when compared to his initial presentation when diagnosed by the private health provider. His driving remains unimpaired, and he continues to be independent. This highlights the potential HBOT benefits including those on visuospatial ability and activities of daily living in people with Alzheimer’s disease. This case report argues for more extensive research into the clinical effects of HBOT in Alzheimer’s disease. Discussion of HBOT use is along with the latest advances in anti-amyloid immunotherapy for Alzheimer’s disease, as well as HBOT augmentation of current and novel dementia drug delivery via nanotechnology

Multimodal imaging and spatial analysis of Ebola retinal lesions in 14 survivors of Ebola virus disease

Importance: Differentiation between Ebola retinal lesions and other retinal pathologies in West Africa is important, and the pathogenesis of Ebola retinal disease remains poorly understood. Objective: To describe the appearance of Ebola virus disease (EVD) retinal lesions using multimodal imaging to enable inferences on potential pathogenesis. Design, Setting, and Participants: This prospective case series study was carried out at 34 Military Hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Ophthalmological images were analyzed from 14 consecutively identified survivors of EVD of Sierra Leonean origin who had identified Ebola retinal lesions. Main Outcomes and Measures: Multimodal imaging findings including ultra-widefield scanning laser ophthalmoscopy, fundus autofluorescence, swept-source optical coherence tomography (OCT), Humphrey visual field analysis, and spatial analysis. Results: The 14 study participants had a mean (SD) age of 37.1 (8.8) years; 6 (43%) were women. A total of 141 Ebola retinal lesions were observed in 22 of 27 eyes (81%) of these 14 survivors on ultra-widefield imaging. Of these, 41 lesions (29.1%) were accessible to OCT imaging. Retinal lesions were predominantly nonpigmented with a pale-gray appearance. Peripapillary lesions exhibited variable curvatures in keeping with the retinal nerve fiber layer projections. All lesions respected the horizontal raphe and spared the fovea. The OCT imaging demonstrated a V-shaped hyperreflectivity of the outer nuclear layer overlying discontinuities of the ellipsoid zone and interdigitation zone in the smaller lesions. Larger lesions caused a collapse of the retinal layers and loss of retinal thickness. Lesion shapes were variable, but sharp angulations were characteristic. Perilesional areas of dark without pressure (thinned ellipsoid zone hyporeflectivity) accompanied 125 of the 141 lesions (88.7%) to varying extents. Conclusions and Relevance: We demonstrate OCT evidence of localized pathological changes at the level of the photoreceptors in small lesions among survivors of EVD with retinal lesions. The relevance of associated areas of dark without pressure remains undetermined

Die rechtliche Regelung des Instituts der kostenlosen Rechtshilfe in der Republik Kroatien mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der gesetzlichen Regelungen in den postjugoslawischen Staaten

“Pravo i pravdu nećemo nikome prodati, uskratiti ili odgoditi.” 40. paragraf Velike povelje sloboda Pravo na pristup pravosuđu (access to justice) jedno je od temeljnih ljudskih prava. Ostvarivanje toga prava uvelike ovisi o dostupnosti pravne pomoći svim građanima bez obzira na njihov socioekonomski status. Stoga je postojanje učinkovitog sustava besplatne pravne pomoći u svakoj zemlji jedan od temeljnih jamaca ostvarivanja ljudskih prava u svakodnevnom životu. U radu se razmatra razvoj i uređenje instituta besplatne pravne pomoći u Republici Hrvatskoj te u ostalim postjugoslavenskim državama s ciljem regionalnog prikaza njegova uređenja.«To no one will we sell, to no one will we refuse or delay, right or justice» 40th paragraph of the Magna Charta The paper considers the development and regulation of the institute of legal aid in the Republic of Croatia and in the other post-Yugoslav states with the aim of providing a regional outline of their regulation. In recent years legislators in the post-Yugoslav states have been increasingly involved in the regulation of legal aid and, in order to develop modern legal systems, they adopted laws aimed at ensuring and protecting the right to legal aid. The normative activities for regulating legal aid began with the constitutional guarantee for such aid, and were made effective by the provisions of the criminal codes and the civil procedure acts. Later, under the influence of the acquis communautaire of the modern European states they were to be included in the provisions of separate laws of the post-Yugoslav states. This shows that there was an evolution in the development of the right to legal aid, not only as the right to such aid in the form of good will and charity of the state, but also as one of the fundamental human rights guaranteed by constitutional and legal norms.“Niemandem werden wir Recht oder Gerechtigkeit verkaufen, verweigern oder verzögern.“ Magna Carta, § 40 In dieser Arbeit werden die Entwicklung und Regelung des Instituts der kostenlosen Rechtshilfe in der Republik Kroatien und in den anderen postjugoslawischen Staaten erörtert, wodurch seine Regelung in der Region dargestellt werden soll. In den letzten Jahren ist die Regelung des Anspruchs auf kostenlose Rechtshilfe zu einer wichtigen Aufgabe für die Gesetzgeber in den postjugoslawischen Staaten geworden, die zwecks Aufbau moderner Rechtsordnungen Gesetze verabschiedeten, deren Gegenstand die Wahrnehmung und der Schutz des Rechts auf kostenlose Rechtshilfe ist. Die normative Aktivität zur Einrichtung der kostenlosen Rechtshilfe begann mit der Verfassungsgarantie des Rechtsanspruches auf kostenlose Rechtshilfe, die in den Bestimmungen der Straf- und der Zivilprozessordnung ihren konkreten Niederschlag fanden, um sich unter dem Einfluss der Trends in der Gesetzgebung der modernen europäischen Staaten zu Bestimmungen in Sondergesetzen der postjugoslawischen Staaten zu verwandeln. Dies belegt eine Evolution in der Entwicklung des Rechtsanspruchs auf kostenlose Rechtshilfe als nicht allein des Anspruchs auf Hilfe in Form einer wohltäterischen Geste von staatlichem guten Willen, sondern als eines Grundrechts, das durch Verfassungs- und Gesetzesnormen garantiert wird

The Dementias Platform UK (DPUK) Data Portal

Abstract: The Dementias Platform UK Data Portal is a data repository facilitating access to data for 3 370 929 individuals in 42 cohorts. The Data Portal is an end-to-end data management solution providing a secure, fully auditable, remote access environment for the analysis of cohort data. All projects utilising the data are by default collaborations with the cohort research teams generating the data. The Data Portal uses UK Secure eResearch Platform infrastructure to provide three core utilities: data discovery, access, and analysis. These are delivered using a 7 layered architecture comprising: data ingestion, data curation, platform interoperability, data discovery, access brokerage, data analysis and knowledge preservation. Automated, streamlined, and standardised procedures reduce the administrative burden for all stakeholders, particularly for requests involving multiple independent datasets, where a single request may be forwarded to multiple data controllers. Researchers are provided with their own secure ‘lab’ using VMware which is accessed using two factor authentication. Over the last 2 years, 160 project proposals involving 579 individual cohort data access requests were received. These were received from 268 applicants spanning 72 institutions (56 academic, 13 commercial, 3 government) in 16 countries with 84 requests involving multiple cohorts. Projects are varied including multi-modal, machine learning, and Mendelian randomisation analyses. Data access is usually free at point of use although a small number of cohorts require a data access fee