Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) and Antioxidants as Immunomodulators in Exercise: Implications for Heme Oxygenase and Bilirubin

Exercise is commonly prescribed as a lifestyle treatment for chronic metabolic diseases as it functions as an insulin sensitizer, cardio-protectant, and essential lifestyle tool for effective weight maintenance. Exercise boosts the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and subsequent transient oxidative damage, which also upregulates counterbalancing endogenous antioxidants to protect from ROS-induced damage and inflammation. Exercise elevates heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) and biliverdin reductase A (BVRA) expression as built-in protective mechanisms, which produce the most potent antioxidant, bilirubin. Together, these mitigate inflammation and adiposity. Moderately raising plasma bilirubin protects in two ways: (1) via its antioxidant capacity to reduce ROS and inflammation, and (2) its newly defined function as a hormone that activates the nuclear receptor transcription factor PPARα. It is now understood that increasing plasma bilirubin can also drive metabolic adaptions, which improve deleterious outcomes of weight gain and obesity, such as inflammation, type II diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. The main objective of this review is to describe the function of bilirubin as an antioxidant and metabolic hormone and how the HO-1–BVRA–bilirubin–PPARα axis influences inflammation, metabolic function and interacts with exercise to improve outcomes of weight management

The effect of a high dairy diet, dairy supplementation, and resistance exercise on increasing lean body mass and decreasing fat mass in overweight women.

Previous reports suggest that high dairy calcium diets help augment total and regional fat loss in obese women. Other reports suggest that timed protein ingestion before and after resistance exercise can augment lean body mass as a result of resistance training. The objective of this study was to examine both the calcium/fat loss and the protein supplement hypothesis in overweight women with chronic low calcium diets who participated in a resistance training program with calorie restriction. Participants (age = 36.6 ± 4.7; African American 57.7%, White 30.8%, 11.5% other) with a BMI of 29.1 ± 2.2 kg/m² were randomized to low calcium (LC) (= 500 mg; n=13) or high calcium (HC) (=1200 mg; n=13) and yogurt (YOG) or control (CONT) supplements. All participants received reduced calorie (250 kcal deficit) diets. Six dietary recalls were obtained by a multi-pass approach provided by Nutrition Data System software. Body composition was measured by dual energy x-ray absorptiometry, waist circumference, and sagittal diameter. Participants completed 16 weeks of whole body resistance training three times per week. Mean weight loss in the total sample trended toward significance (1.9 kg; p = 0.06) and corresponded to significant caloric reduction from baseline (p = 0.001). The prescribed mean calcium intake was achieved for each study group (LC = 469.0 ± 148.3 and HC = 1297.0 ± 181.5 mg) with no significant changes in protein intake over time (LC = 0.92 and HC = 1.02 g/kg, p = 0.21). Fat mass index (LC = 12.3 to 11.0 and HC = 13.0 to12.2 fat kg/m²), trunk fat (LC = 1.74 to 1.54 and HC = 1.68 to 1.55 kg), waist circumference (LC = 88.4 to 85.0 and HC 84.6 to 82.3 cm), and sagittal diameter (LC = 27.1 to 25.8 and HC = 25.6 to 24.4 cm) all significantly decreased over time (p = 0.05) with no group differences (p = 0.37). Total lean change (YOG = 0.9 ± 1.3 and CONT = 1.1 ± 1.0) increased significantly over time (p = 0.001) but not by group. These data suggest that high dairy calcium diets and pre/post-yogurt supplementation offer no added benefit in reducing fat or increasing lean indices when combined with resistance training and caloric restriction

The Broadband Infrared Emission Spectrum of the Exoplanet HD 189733b

We present Spitzer Space Telescope time series photometry of the exoplanet system HD 189733 spanning two times of secondary eclipse, when the planet passes out of view behind the parent star. We estimate the relative eclipse depth in 5 distinct bands and find the planet-to-star flux ratio to be 0.256 +/- 0.014% (3.6 microns), 0.214 +/- 0.020% (4.5 microns), 0.310 +/- 0.034% (5.8 microns), 0.391 +/- 0.022% (8.0 microns), and 0.598 +/- 0.038% (24 microns). For consistency, we re-analyze a previously published time series to deduce a contrast ratio in an additional band, 0.519 +/- 0.020% (16 microns). Our data are strongly inconsistent with a Planck spectrum, and we clearly detect emission near 4 microns as predicted by published theoretical models in which this feature arises from a corresponding opacity window. Unlike recent results for the exoplanet HD 209458b, we find that the emergent spectrum from HD 189733b is best matched by models that do not include an atmospheric temperature inversion. Taken together, these two studies provide initial observational support for the idea that hot Jupiter atmospheres diverge into two classes, in which a thermal inversion layer is present for the more strongly irradiated objects.Comment: 20 pages, 3 figures, accepted to the Astrophysical Journal, minor revision

Spatial Effects and GWA Mapping of Root Colonization Assessed in the Interaction Between the Rice Diversity Panel 1 and an Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungus

The majority of the research reported here is an output of EU project “EURoot” (FP7-KBBE-2011-5 Grant Agreement No. 289300) project. RS’s contribution was funded by FACCE-JPI NET project “GreenRice” (Sustainable and environmental friendly rice cultivation systems in Europe) and was funded by the BBSRC award BB/M018415/1.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Imaging striatal dopamine release using a nongenetically encoded near infrared fluorescent catecholamine nanosensor.

Neuromodulation plays a critical role in brain function in both health and disease, and new tools that capture neuromodulation with high spatial and temporal resolution are needed. Here, we introduce a synthetic catecholamine nanosensor with fluorescent emission in the near infrared range (1000-1300 nm), near infrared catecholamine nanosensor (nIRCat). We demonstrate that nIRCats can be used to measure electrically and optogenetically evoked dopamine release in brain tissue, revealing hotspots with a median size of 2 µm. We also demonstrated that nIRCats are compatible with dopamine pharmacology and show D2 autoreceptor modulation of evoked dopamine release, which varied as a function of initial release magnitude at different hotspots. Together, our data demonstrate that nIRCats and other nanosensors of this class can serve as versatile synthetic optical tools to monitor neuromodulatory neurotransmitter release with high spatial resolution

A classification model of homelessness using integrated administrative data: Implications for targeting interventions to improve the housing status, health and well-being of a highly vulnerable population

Homelessness is poorly captured in most administrative data sets making it difficult to understand how, when, and where this population can be better served. This study sought to develop and validate a classification model of homelessness. Our sample included 5,050,639 individuals aged 11 years and older who were included in a linked dataset of administrative records from multiple state-maintained databases in Massachusetts for the period from 2011-2015. We used logistic regression to develop a classification model with 94 predictors and subsequently tested its performance. The model had high specificity (95.4%), moderate sensitivity (77.8%) for predicting known cases of homelessness, and excellent classification properties (area under the receiver operating curve 0.94; balanced accuracy 86.4%). To demonstrate the potential opportunity that exists for using such a modeling approach to target interventions to mitigate the risk of an adverse health outcome, we also estimated the association between model predicted homeless status and fatal opioid overdoses, finding that model predicted homeless status was associated with a nearly 23-fold increase in the risk of fatal opioid overdose. This study provides a novel approach for identifying homelessness using integrated administrative data. The strong performance of our model underscores the potential value of linking data from multiple service systems to improve the identification of housing instability and to assist government in developing programs that seek to improve health and other outcomes for homeless individuals

Local In Vivo measures of Muscle Lipid and Oxygen Consumption Change in Response to Combined Vitamin D Repletion and Aerobic Training in Older Adults

Intramyocellular (IMCL), extramyocellular lipid (EMCL), and vitamin D deficiency are associated with muscle metabolic dysfunction. This study compared the change in [IMCL]:[EMCL] following the combined treatment of vitamin D and aerobic training (DAT) compared with vitamin D (D), aerobic training (AT), and control (CTL). Male and female subjects aged 60–80 years with a BMI ranging from 18.5–34.9 and vitamin D status of ≤ 32 ng/mL (25(OH)D) were recruited to randomized, prospective clinical trial double-blinded for supplement with a 2 × 2 factorial design. Cholecalciferol (Vitamin D3) (10,000 IU × 5 days/week) or placebo was provided for 13 weeks and treadmill aerobic training during week 13. Gastrocnemius IMCL and EMCL were measured with magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) and MRI. Hybrid near-infrared diffuse correlation spectroscopy measured hemodynamics. Group differences in IMCL were observed when controlling for baseline IMCL (p = 0.049). DAT was the only group to reduce IMCL from baseline, while a mean increase was observed in all other groups combined (p = 0.008). IMCL reduction and the corresponding increase in rVO2 at study end (p = 0.011) were unique to DAT. Vitamin D, when combined with exercise, may potentiate the metabolic benefits of exercise by reducing IMCL and increasing tissue-level VO2 in healthy, older adults

The Very Low Albedo of WASP-12b From Spectral Eclipse Observations with Hubble\textit{Hubble}

We present an optical eclipse observation of the hot Jupiter WASP-12b using the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph on board the Hubble Space Telescope. These spectra allow us to place an upper limit of $A_g < 0.064$ (97.5% confidence level) on the planet's white light geometric albedo across 290--570 nm. Using six wavelength bins across the same wavelength range also produces stringent limits on the geometric albedo for all bins. However, our uncertainties in eclipse depth are $\sim$40% greater than the Poisson limit and may be limited by the intrinsic variability of the Sun-like host star --- the solar luminosity is known to vary at the $10^{-4}$ level on a timescale of minutes. We use our eclipse depth limits to test two previously suggested atmospheric models for this planet: Mie scattering from an aluminum-oxide haze or cloud-free Rayleigh scattering. Our stringent nondetection rules out both models and is consistent with thermal emission plus weak Rayleigh scattering from atomic hydrogen and helium. Our results are in stark contrast with those for the much cooler HD 189733b, the only other hot Jupiter with spectrally resolved reflected light observations; those data showed an increase in albedo with decreasing wavelength. The fact that the first two exoplanets with optical albedo spectra exhibit significant differences demonstrates the importance of spectrally resolved reflected light observations and highlights the great diversity among hot Jupiters.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, published in ApJL, in pres

SpaceCube v3.0 NASA Next-Generation High-Performance Processor for Science Applications

Electronics for space systems must address several considerable challenges including achieving operational resiliency within the hazardous space environment and also meeting application performance needs while simultaneously managing size, weight, and power requirements. To drive the future revolution in space processing, onboard systems need to be more flexible, affordable, and robust. In order to provide a robust solution to a variety of missions and instruments, the Science Data Processing Branch at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)has pioneered a hybrid-processing approach that combines radiation-hardened and commercial components while emphasizing a novel architecture harmonizing the best capabilities of CPUs, DSPs, and FPGAs. This hybrid approach is realized through the SpaceCube family of processor cards that have extensive flight heritage on a variety of mission classes. The latest addition to the SpaceCube family, SpaceCube v3.0, will function as the next evolutionary step for upcoming missions, allow for prototyping of designs and software, and provide a flexible, mature architecture that is also ready to adopt the radiation-hardened High-Performance Spaceflight Computing (HPSC) chiplet when it is released. The research showcased in this paper describes the design methodology, analysis, and capabilities of the SpaceCube v3.0 SpaceVPX Lite (VITA 78.1) 3U-220mm form-factor processor card