The influence of socioeconomic deprivation on multimorbidity at different ages: a cross-sectional study

<b>Background</b> Multimorbidity occurs at a younger age in individuals in areas of high socioeconomic deprivation but little is known about the 'typology' of multimorbidity in different age groups and its association with socioeconomic status.<p></p> <b>Aim</b> To characterise multimorbidity type and most common conditions in a large nationally representative primary care dataset in terms of age and deprivation.<p></p> <b>Design and setting</b> Cross-sectional analysis of 1 272 685 adults in Scotland.<p></p> <b>Method</b> Multimorbidity type of participants (physical-only, mental-only, mixed physical, and mental) and most common conditions were analysed according to age and deprivation.<p></p> <b>Results</b> Multimorbidity increased with age, ranging from 8.1% in those aged 25–34 to 76.1% for those aged ≥75 years. Physical-only (56% of all multimorbidity) was the most common type of multimorbidity in those aged ≥55 years, and did not vary substantially with deprivation. Mental-only was uncommon (4% of all multimorbidity), whereas mixed physical and mental (40% of all multimorbidity) was the most common type of multimorbidity in those aged <55 years and was two- to threefold more common in the most deprived compared with the least deprived in most age groups. Ten conditions (seven physical and three mental) accounted for the top five most common conditions in people with multimorbidity in all age groups. Depression and pain featured in the top five conditions across all age groups. Deprivation was associated with a higher prevalence of depression, drugs misuse, anxiety, dyspepsia, pain, coronary heart disease, and diabetes in multimorbid patients at different ages.<p></p> <b>Conclusion</b> Mixed physical and mental multimorbidity is common across the life-span and is exacerbated by deprivation from early adulthood onwards

Convergence of simple adaptive Galerkin schemes based on h − h/2 error estimators

We discuss several adaptive mesh-refinement strategies based on (h − h/2)-error estimation. This class of adaptivemethods is particularly popular in practise since it is problem independent and requires virtually no implementational overhead. We prove that, under the saturation assumption, these adaptive algorithms are convergent. Our framework applies not only to finite element methods, but also yields a first convergence proof for adaptive boundary element schemes. For a finite element model problem, we extend the proposed adaptive scheme and prove convergence even if the saturation assumption fails to hold in general

Rapid and reversible impairment of episodic memory by a high-fat diet in mice.

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. This work was supported by an EASTBIO BBSRC PhD studentship to F.H.M., L.M.W., C.G., A.C.M., G.W.H. and F.M.C. are supported by Scottish Government’s Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services Division (RESAS).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Towards an Efficient Finite Element Method for the Integral Fractional Laplacian on Polygonal Domains

We explore the connection between fractional order partial differential equations in two or more spatial dimensions with boundary integral operators to develop techniques that enable one to efficiently tackle the integral fractional Laplacian. In particular, we develop techniques for the treatment of the dense stiffness matrix including the computation of the entries, the efficient assembly and storage of a sparse approximation and the efficient solution of the resulting equations. The main idea consists of generalising proven techniques for the treatment of boundary integral equations to general fractional orders. Importantly, the approximation does not make any strong assumptions on the shape of the underlying domain and does not rely on any special structure of the matrix that could be exploited by fast transforms. We demonstrate the flexibility and performance of this approach in a couple of two-dimensional numerical examples

Sex differences in discriminating between cues predicting threat and safety

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is more prevalent in women than men. PTSD is characterized by overgeneralization of fear to innocuous stimuli and involves impaired inhibition of learned fear by cues that predict safety. While evidence indicates that learned fear inhibition through extinction differs in males and females, less is known about sex differences in fear discrimination and safety learning. Here we examined auditory fear discrimination in male and female rats. In Experiment 1A, rats underwent 1-3 days of discrimination training consisting of one tone predicting threat (CS+; presented with footshock) and another tone predicting safety (CS-; presented alone). Females, but not males, discriminated between the CS+ and CS- after one day of training. After 2-3 days of training, however, males discriminated whereas females generalized between the CS+ and CS-. In Experiment 1B, females showed enhanced anxiety-like behaviour and locomotor activity in the open field, although these results were unlikely to explain the sex differences in fear discrimination. In Experiment 2, we found no differences in shock sensitivity between males and females. In Experiment 3, males and females again discriminated and generalized, respectively, after three days of training. Moreover, fear generalization in females resulted from impaired safety learning, as shown by a retardation test. Whereas subsequent fear conditioning to the previous CS- retarded learning in males, females showed no such retardation. These results suggest that, while females show fear discrimination with limited training, they show fear generalization with extended training due to impaired safety learning

Inhibition of neurite outgrowth in differentiating mouse N2a neuroblastoma cells by phenyl saligenin phosphate: Effects on MAP kinase (ERK 1/2) activation, neurofilament heavy chain phosphorylation and neuropathy target esterase activity

Sub-lethal concentrations of the organophosphate phenyl saligenin phosphate (PSP) inhibited the outgrowth of axon-like processes in differentiating mouse N2a neuroblastoma cells (IC50 2.5 μM). A transient rise in the phosphorylation state of neurofilament heavy chain (NFH) was detected on Western blots of cell extracts treated with 2.5 μM PSP for 4 h compared to untreated controls, as determined by a relative increase in reactivity with monoclonal antibody Ta51 (anti-phosphorylated NFH) compared to N52 (anti-total NFH). However, cross-reactivity of PSP-treated cell extracts was lower than that of untreated controls after 24 h exposure, as indicated by decreased reactivity with both antibodies. Indirect immunofluorescence analysis with these antibodies revealed the appearance of neurofilament aggregates in the cell bodies of treated cells and reduced axonal staining compared to controls. By contrast, there was no significant change in reactivity with anti-a tubulin antibody B512 at either time point. The activation state of the MAP kinase ERK 1/2 increased significantly after PSP treatment compared to controls, particularly at 4 h, as indicated by increased reactivity with monoclonal antibody E-4 (anti-phosphorylated MAP kinase) but not with polyclonal antibody K-23 (anti-total MAP kinase). The observed early changes were concomitant with almost complete inhibition of the activity of neuropathy target esterase (NTE), one of the proposed early molecular targets in organophosphate-induced delayed neuropathy (OPIDN)

Stellar Companions to Stars with Planets

A combination of high-resolution and wide-field imaging reveals two binary stars and one triple star system among the sample of the first 11 stars with planets detected by radial velocity variations. High resolution speckle or adaptive optics (AO) data probe subarcsecond scales down to the diffraction limit of the Keck 10-m or Lick 3-m, and direct images or AO images are sensitive to a wider field, extending to 10" or 38", depending upon the camera. One of the binary systems -- HD 114762 -- was not previously known to be a spatially resolved multiple system; additional data taken with the combination of Keck adaptive optics and NIRSPEC are used to characterize the new companion. The second binary system -- Tau Boo -- was a known multiple with two conflicting orbital solutions; the current data will help constrain the discrepant estimates of periastron time and separation. Another target -- 16 Cyg B -- was a known common proper motion binary, but the current data resolve a new third component, close to the wide companion 16 Cyg A. Both the HD 114762 and 16 Cyg B systems harbor planets in eccentric orbits, while the Tau Boo binary contains an extremely close planet in a tidally-circularized orbit. Although the sample is currently small, the proportion of binary systems is comparable to that measured in the field over a similar separation range. Incorporating the null result from another companion search project lowers the overall fraction of planets in binary systems, but the detections in our survey reveal that planets can form in binaries separated by less than 50 AU.Comment: 5 Tables, 16 Figures. ApJ, accepte

A Conformally Invariant Holographic Two-Point Function on the Berger Sphere

We apply our previous work on Green's functions for the four-dimensional quaternionic Taub-NUT manifold to obtain a scalar two-point function on the homogeneously squashed three-sphere (otherwise known as the Berger sphere), which lies at its conformal infinity. Using basic notions from conformal geometry and the theory of boundary value problems, in particular the Dirichlet-to-Robin operator, we establish that our two-point correlation function is conformally invariant and corresponds to a boundary operator of conformal dimension one. It is plausible that the methods we use could have more general applications in an AdS/CFT context.Comment: 1+49 pages, no figures. v2: Several typos correcte

Small donors in world politics: The role of trust funds in the foreign aid policies of Central and Eastern European donors

The Central and Eastern European (CEE) EU member states have emerged as new donors of international development assistance since the turn of the millennium. The literature has tended to focus on the bilateral components of these policies, and neglected CEE multilateral aid. This paper contributes to filling this gap by examining how and why CEE donors contribute to trust funds operated by multilateral donors. The aim of the paper is twofold: First, it provides a descriptive account of how CEE countries use trust funds in the allocation of their foreign aid. Second, it explains this allocation using data from qualitative interviews with CEE officials. CEE countries make much less use of trust funds than might be expected. This is due not only to the loss of visibility and control over their resources, but also to how CEE companies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) rarely achieve funding successes at multilateral organisations

Wavenumber-explicit continuity and coercivity estimates in acoustic scattering by planar screens

We study the classical first-kind boundary integral equation reformulations of time-harmonic acoustic scattering by planar sound-soft (Dirichlet) and sound-hard (Neumann) screens. We prove continuity and coercivity of the relevant boundary integral operators (the acoustic single-layer and hypersingular operators respectively) in appropriate fractional Sobolev spaces, with wavenumber-explicit bounds on the continuity and coercivity constants. Our analysis is based on spectral representations for the boundary integral operators, and builds on results of Ha-Duong (Jpn J Ind Appl Math 7:489--513 (1990) and Integr Equat Oper Th 15:427--453 (1992)).Comment: v2 has minor corrections compared to v1. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1401.280