Physical health and the onset and persistence of depression in older adults: an eight-wave prospective community based study.

Background. Poor physical health has long been recognized to be one of the most important risk factors for depression in older adults. Since many aspects of physical health can be targeted for improvement in primary care, it is important to know whether physical health problems predict the onset and/or the persistence of depression. Methods. The study is based on a sample which at the outset consisted of 327 depressed and 325 non-depressed older adults (55-85) drawn from a larger random community-based sample in the Netherlands. Depression was measured using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale (CES-D) at eight successive waves. Results. From all incident episodes, the majority (57%) was short-lived. These short episodes could generally not be predicted by physical health problems. The remaining incident episodes (43%) were not short-lived and could be predicted by poor physical health. Chronicity (34%) was also predicted by physical health problems. Conclusions. The study design with its frequent measurements recognized more incident cases than previous studies; these cases however did have a better prognosis than is often assumed. The prognosis of prevalent cases was rather poor. Physical health problems were demonstrated to be a predictor of both the onset and the persistence of depression. This may well have implications for prevention and intervention

Suppression of Zeeman gradients by nuclear polarization in double quantum dots

We use electric dipole spin resonance to measure dynamic nuclear polarization in InAs nanowire quantum dots. The resonance shifts in frequency when the system transitions between metastable high and low current states, indicating the presence of nuclear polarization. We propose that the low and the high current states correspond to different total Zeeman energy gradients between the two quantum dots. In the low current state, dynamic nuclear polarization efficiently compensates the Zeeman gradient due to the $g$-factor mismatch, resulting in a suppressed total Zeeman gradient. We present a theoretical model of electron-nuclear feedback that demonstrates a fixed point in nuclear polarization for nearly equal Zeeman splittings in the two dots and predicts a narrowed hyperfine gradient distribution

Disentangling the effects of spin-orbit and hyperfine interactions on spin blockade

We have achieved the few-electron regime in InAs nanowire double quantum dots. Spin blockade is observed for the first two half-filled orbitals, where the transport cycle is interrupted by forbidden transitions between triplet and singlet states. Partial lifting of spin blockade is explained by spin-orbit and hyperfine mechanisms that enable triplet to singlet transitions. The measurements over a wide range of interdot coupling and tunneling rates to the leads are well reproduced by a simple transport model. This allows us to separate and quantify the contributions of the spin-orbit and hyperfine interactions.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

The transrectus sheath preperitoneal mesh repair for inguinal hernia: technique, rationale, and results of the first 50 cases

Item does not contain fulltextINTRODUCTION: Laparoscopic and endoscopic hernia repair popularized the preperitoneal mesh position due to promising results concerning less chronic pain. However, considerable proportions of severe adverse events, learning curves, or added costs have to be taken into account. Therefore, open preperitoneal mesh techniques may have more advantages. The open approach to the preperitoneal space (PPS) according to transrectus sheath preperitoneal (TREPP) mesh repair is through the sheath of the rectus abdominus muscle. This technique provides an excellent view of the PPS and facilitates elective or acute hernia reduction and mesh positioning under direct vision. In concordance with the promising transinguinal preperitoneal inguinal hernia repair experiences in the literature, we investigated the feasibility of TREPP. METHODS: A rationale description of the surgical technique, available level of evidence for thoughts behind technical considerations. Furthermore, a descriptive report of the clinical outcomes of our pilot case series including 50 patients undergoing the TREPP mesh repair. RESULTS: A consecutive group of our first 50 patients were operated with the TREPP technique. No technical problems were experienced during the development of this technique. No conversions to Lichtenstein repair were necessary. No recurrences and no chronic pain after a mean follow-up of 2 years were notable findings. CONCLUSION: This description of the technique shows that the TREPP mesh repair might be a promising method because of the complete preperitoneal view, the short learning curve, and the stay-away-from-the-nerves principle. The rationale of the TREPP repair is discussed in detail.1 juni 201

MiniBacillus PG10 as a Convenient and Effective Production Host for Lantibiotics

Efficient bacterial cell factories are important for the screening and characterization of potent antimicrobial peptides such as lantibiotics. Although lantibiotic production systems have been established in Lactococcus lactis and Escherichia coli, the industrial workhorse Bacillus subtilis has been left relatively unexplored as a lantibiotic production host. Therefore, we tested different B. subtilis strains for their ability to produce lantibiotic peptides by using the subtilin modification and transport enzymes derived from the natural subtilin producer B. subtilis ATCC 6633. Our study shows that although B. subtilis ATCC 6633 and 168 are able to produce various processed lantibiotic peptides, an evident advantage of using either the 8-fold protease-deficient strain WB800 or the genome-minimized B. subtilis 168 strain PG10 is the lack of extracellular serine protease activity. Consequently, leader processing of lantibiotic precursor peptides is circumvented and thus potential toxicity toward the production host is prevented. Furthermore, PG10 provides a clean secondary metabolic background and therefore appears to be the most promising B. subtilis lantibiotic production host. We demonstrate the production of various lantibiotic precursor peptides by PG10 and show different options for their in vitro activation. Our study thus provides a convenient B. subtilis-based lantibiotic production system, which facilitates the search for novel antimicrobial peptides

Suppression of Zeeman Gradients by Nuclear Polarization in Double Quantum Dots

We use electric dipole spin resonance to measure dynamic nuclear polarization in InAs nanowire quantum dots. The resonance shifts in frequency when the system transitions between metastable high and low current states, indicating the presence of nuclear polarization. We propose that the low and the high current states correspond to different total Zeeman energy gradients between the two quantum dots. In the low current state, dynamic nuclear polarization efficiently compensates the Zeeman gradient due to the g-factor mismatch, resulting in a suppressed total Zeeman gradient. We present a theoretical model of electron-nuclear feedback that demonstrates a fixed point in nuclear polarization for nearly equal Zeeman splittings in the two dots and predicts a narrowed hyperfine gradient distribution

Risk‐taking increases under boredom

We examined if boredom is associated with risk‐taking. Although this association has frequently been postulated, it has rarely been tested, and the evidence has thus far been rather indirect and speculative. We conducted three studies to test this association more systematically. In Study 1, people high in boredom proneness reported greater risk‐taking across financial, ethical, recreational, and health or safety domains. In Study 2, over a series of risky decisions, risk‐taking increased in tandem with state boredom. Consistently, in Study 3, people who felt more bored were more likely to choose risky gambles. Furthermore, while dispositional self‐control predicted lower risk‐taking, state boredom nullified this association, suggesting that elevated risk‐taking might be attributed the erosion of self‐control under boredom. Our findings establish via direct empirical tests that boredom is associated with making riskier decisions

LHCb Alignment Strategy

In this note, we review the alignment strategy for the LHCb detector. We discuss the internal alignment stategy for each subdetector and the alignment of each of the subdetectors relative to one another

Sex Differences in Neoplastic Progression in Barrett's Esophagus:A Multicenter Prospective Cohort Study

Recommendations in Barrett’s esophagus (BE) guidelines are mainly based on male patients. We aimed to evaluate sex differences in BE patients in (1) probability of and (2) time to neoplastic progression, and (3) differences in the stage distribution of neoplasia. We conducted a multicenter prospective cohort study including 868 BE patients. Cox regression modeling and accelerated failure time modeling were used to estimate the sex differences. Neoplastic progression was defined as highgrade dysplasia (HGD) and/or esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC). Among the 639 (74%) males and 229 females that were included (median follow-up 7.1 years), 61 (7.0%) developed HGD/EAC. Neoplastic progression risk was estimated to be twice as high among males (HR 2.26, 95% CI 1.11–4.62) than females. The risk of HGD was found to be higher in males (HR 3.76, 95% CI 1.33–10.6). Time to HGD/EAC (AR 0.52, 95% CI 0.29–0.95) and HGD (AR 0.40, 95% CI 0.19–0.86) was shorter in males. Females had proportionally more EAC than HGD and tended to have higher stages of neoplasia at diagnosis. In conclusion, both the risk of and time to neoplastic progression were higher in males. However, females were proportionally more often diagnosed with (advanced) EAC. We should strive for improved neoplastic risk stratification per individual BE patient, incorporating sex disparities into new prediction models

Motility response to colonic distention is increased in postinfectious irritable bowel syndrome (PI-IBS)

Acute intestinal infection leads to persistent intestinal smooth muscle hypercontractility and pain hypersensitivity after resolution of the infection in animal models. We investigated whether post-infectious irritable bowel syndrome (PI-IBS) is associated with abnormalities in phasic contractions of the colon, smooth muscle tone and pain sensitivity compared to non-PI-IBS (NI-IBS) or healthy controls (HC)