The Importance of Mid-to-Late-Life Body Mass Index Trajectories on Late-Life Gait Speed

Background: Prior studies suggest being overweight may be protective against poor functional outcomes in older adults. Methods: Body mass index (BMI, kg/m2) was measured over 25 years across five visits (1987-2011) among Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study participants (baseline Visit 1 n = 15,720, aged 45-64 years). Gait speed was measured at Visit 5 ("late-life", aged ≥65 years, n = 6,229). BMI trajectories were examined using clinical cutpoints and continuous mixed models to estimate effects of patterns of BMI change on gait speed, adjusting for demographics and comorbidities. Results: Mid-life BMI (baseline visit; 55% women; 27% black) was associated with late-life gait speed 25 years later; gait speeds were 94.3, 89.6, and 82.1 cm/s for participants with baseline normal BMI (<25), overweight (25 ≤ BMI < 30), and obese (BMI ≥ 30) (p < .001). In longitudinal analyses, late-life gait speeds were 96.9, 88.8, and 81.3 cm/s for participants who maintained normal, overweight, and obese weight status, respectively, across 25 years (p < .01). Increasing BMI over 25 years was associated with poorer late-life gait speeds; a 1%/year BMI increase for a participant with a baseline BMI of 22.5 (final BMI 28.5) was associated with a 4.6-cm/s (95% confidence interval: -7.0, -1.8) slower late-life gait speed than a participant who maintained a baseline BMI of 22.5. Conclusion: Being overweight in older age was not protective of mobility function. Maintaining a normal BMI in mid- and late-life may help preserve late-life mobility

Carotid Intima‐Media Thickness and the Risk of Sudden Cardiac Death: The ARIC Study and the CHS

Background: Sudden cardiac death (SCD) is associated with severe coronary heart disease in the great majority of cases. Whether carotid intima-media thickness (C-IMT), a known surrogate marker of subclinical atherosclerosis, is associated with risk of SCD in a general population remains unknown. The objective of this study was to investigate the association between C-IMT and risk of SCD. Methods and Results We examined a total of 20 862 participants: 15 307 participants of the ARIC (Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities) study and 5555 participants of the CHS (Cardiovascular Health Study). C-IMT and common carotid artery intima-media thickness was measured at baseline by ultrasound. Presence of plaque was judged by trained readers. Over a median of 23.5 years of follow-up, 569 participants had SCD (1.81 cases per 1000 person-years) in the ARIC study. Mean C-IMT and common carotid artery intima-media thickness were associated with risk of SCD after adjustment for traditional risk factors and time-varying adjustors: hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% CIs for fourth versus first quartile were 1.64 (1.15-2.63) and 1.49 (1.05-2.11), respectively. In CHS, 302 participants developed SCD (4.64 cases per 1000 person-years) over 13.1 years. Maximum C-IMT was associated with risk of SCD after adjustment: HR (95% CI) for fourth versus first quartile was 1.75 (1.22-2.51). Presence of plaque was associated with 35% increased risk of SCD: HR (95% CI) of 1.37 (1.13-1.67) in the ARIC study and 1.32 (1.04-1.68) in CHS. Conclusions C-IMT was associated with risk of SCD in 2 biracial community-based cohorts. C-IMT may be used as a marker of SCD risk and potentially to initiate early therapeutic interventions to mitigate the risk

Small Brain Lesions and Incident Stroke and Mortality: A Cohort Study

Although cerebral lesions ≥3mm on imaging are associated with incident stroke, lesions < 3mm are typically ignored

All-visible-light triggered solid-state dual-color fluorescence switching of phenanthroimidazole-based bisthienylethene

All-visible-light controlled fluorescence switching is more promising for bioimaging. Constructing dual-color fluorescent bisthienylethene (BTE) systems are quite challenging. Here, all-visible-light triggered dual-color fluorescence switching was achieved in a color-specific switching manner in a solid-state by associating the photochromic BTE core with a blue emissive phenanthroimidazole (PI) unit. Unique emission behaviour caused by J-aggregation of the coplanar PI unit was crucial, which suggested a novel strategy for constructing dual-color fluorescent photoswitching. Moreover, a 'turn-off' fluorescence photoswitching was demonstrated in solution and PMMA films owing to the energy transfer from the PI moiety to a ring-closed isomer of the BTE moiety. Remarkably, an all-visible-light patterning application for information storage medium was developed with these compounds. BTE-P1 was successfully utilized in cellular imaging for efficient fluorescence switching

Highly Sensitive β-Lactoglobulin Fluorescent Aptamer Biosensors Based on Tungsten Disulfide Nanosheets and DNase I-Assisted Signal Amplification

β-lactoglobulin (β-Lg) is a protein found in milk that can cause severe allergic reactions, including rash, vomiting, and diarrhea. Thus, it is crucial to develop a sensitive β-Lg detection method to protect people who are susceptible to allergies. Here, we introduce a novel and highly sensitive fluorescent aptamer biosensor for detecting β-Lg. First, a fluorescein-based dye (FAM)-labeled β-lactoglobulin aptamer (β-Lg aptamer) is adsorbed on the surface of tungsten disulfide (WS2) nanosheets via van der Waals forces, resulting in fluorescence quenching. When β-Lg is present, the β-Lg aptamer selectively binds to β-Lg, causing a conformational change in the β-Lg aptamer and releasing it from the surface of WS2 nanosheets, which restores the fluorescence signal. Simultaneously, DNase I in the system cleaves the aptamer bound to the target, producing a short oligonucleotide fragment and releasing β-Lg. The released β-Lg then binds to another β-Lg aptamer adsorbed on WS2, initiating the next round of cleavage, resulting in significant amplification of the fluorescence signal. This method has a linear detection range of 1–100 ng mL−1, and the limit of detection is 0.344 ng mL−1. Furthermore, this approach has been successfully used for detecting β-Lg in milk samples with satisfactory results, providing new opportunities for food analysis and quality control

The impact of outdoor air pollutants on outpatient visits for respiratory diseases during 2012–2016 in Jinan, China

Abstract Background Few studies have investigated the associations between outdoor air pollution and outpatient visits for respiratory diseases (RDs) in general population. Methods We collected daily outpatient data of primary RDs from five hospitals in Jinan during January 2012 and December 2016, as well as daily measurements of air pollutants from the Jinan Environmental Monitoring Center and daily meteorological variables from the China Meteorological Data Sharing Service System. A generalized additive model (GAM) with quasi-Poisson regression was constructed to estimate the associations between daily average concentrations of outdoor air pollutants (PM2.5,PM10, SO2, NO2, CO and O3) and daily outpatient visits of RDs after adjusting for long-time trends, seasonality, the “day of the week” effect, and weather conditions. Subgroup analysis stratified by gender, age group and the type of RDs was conducted. Results A total of 1,373,658 outpatient visits for RDs were identified. Increases of 10 μg/m3 in PM2.5, PM10, NO2, CO and O3 were associated with0.168% (95% CI, 0.072–0.265%), 0.149% (95% CI, 0.082–0.215%), 0.527% (95% CI, 0.211–0.843%), 0.013% (95% CI, 0.003–0.023%), and 0.189% (95% CI, 0.032–0.347%) increases in daily outpatient visits for RDs, respectively. PM2.5 and PM10 showed instant and continuous effects, while NO2, CO and O3 showed delayed effects on outpatient visits for RDs. In stratification analysis, PM2.5 and PM10 were associated with acute RDs only. Conclusions Exposure to outdoor air pollutants including PM2.5, PM10, NO2, CO and O3 associated with increased risk of outpatient visits for RDs

Physiological and molecular responses of different rose (Rosa hybrida L.) cultivars to elevated ozone levels

Abstract The increasing ground‐level ozone (O3) pollution resulting from rapid global urbanization and industrialization has negative effects on many plants. Nonetheless, many gaps remain in our knowledge of how ornamental plants respond to O3. Rose (Rosa hybrida L.) is a commercially important ornamental plant worldwide. In this study, we exposed four rose cultivars (“Schloss Mannheim,” “Iceberg,” “Lüye,” and “Spectra”) to either unfiltered ambient air (NF), unfiltered ambient air plus 40 ppb O3 (NF40), or unfiltered ambient air plus 80 ppb O3 (NF80). Only the cultivar “Schloss Mannheim” showed significant O3‐related effects, including foliar injury, reduced chlorophyll content, reduced net photosynthetic rate, reduced stomatal conductance, and reduced stomatal apertures. In “Schloss Mannheim,” several transcription factor genes—HSF, WRKY, and MYB genes—were upregulated by O3 exposure, and their expression was correlated with that of NCED1, PP2Cs, PYR/PYL, and UGTs, which are related to ABA biosynthesis and signaling. These results suggest that HSF, WRKY, and MYB transcription factors and ABA are important components of the plant response to O3 stress, suggesting a possible strategy for cultivating O3‐tolerant rose varieties

Hybrid Beamforming Design and Resource Allocation for UAV-Aided Wireless-Powered Mobile Edge Computing Networks With NOMA

Beamforming and non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) serve as two potential solutions for achieving spectral efficient communication in the fifth generation and beyond wireless networks. In this paper, we jointly apply a hybrid beamforming and NOMA techniques to an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-carried wireless-powered mobile edge computing (MEC) system, within which the UAV is equipped with a wireless power charger and the MEC platform delivers energy and computing services to Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Our aim is to maximize the sum computation rate at all IoT devices whilst satisfying the constraint of energy harvesting and coverage. The resultant optimization problem is non-convex involving joint optimization of the UAV's 3D placement and hybrid beamforming matrices as well as computation resource allocation in both partial and binary offloading patterns, and thus is quite difficult to tackle directly. By applying the polyhedral annexation method and the deep deterministic policy gradient (DDPG) algorithm, we develop an effective algorithm to derive the closed-form solution for the optimal 3D deployment of the UAV, and find the solution for the hybrid beamformer. Two resource allocation algorithms for partial and binary offloading patterns are thereby proposed. Simulation results verify that our designed algorithms achieve a significant computation performance enhancement as compared to the benchmark schemes