Hyperlipidemias in elderly patients: results from the Berlin Aging Study II (BASEII), a cross-sectional study

Background: Hyperlipidemias are common and the last decades have seen substantially growing evidence of their causative role in the development of atherosclerosis and subsequent cardiovascular diseases. Since hyperlipidemias usually do not cause direct clinical symptoms, they often remain undiagnosed until a serious cardiovascular event occurs. Especially for LDL-hypercholesteremia, there are well-established treatment options available to prevent the occurrence of atherosclerosis. However, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the proper treatment of elderly patients. The goal of this study was to assess the prevalence of hyperlipidemia in a group of young and a group of elderly community-dwelling participants and to determine to what extent treatment of hyperlipidemia should be initiated or required. Methods: Crossectional data from a total of 2151 subjects (1657 in the elderly group, mean age 69, and 494 in the young group (control group), mean age 29) of the Berlin Aging Study II (BASE-II) were available. Medical history was assessed and recorded by trained physicians and prevalence of lipid disorders was determined with laboratory tests, including a lipid-profile. Results: A large proportion of subjects (39%) were unaware of an existing lipid disorder. The prevalence of hyperlipidemia was more frequent in the elderly group (76%) compared to the young group (41%). Hypercholesterolemia was the most common diagnosed disorder (64%), followed by hyperlipoproteinemia(a) (18%), hypertriglyceridemia (7%) and combined hyperlipoproteinaemia (5%). Only a minority of this cohort was treated with lipid-lowering medication (17%) and of those treatment targets according to ESC guidelines were reached only in 16.5 %. Conclusions: Hyperlipidemias appear underdiagnosed and undertreated. As the prevalence of these disorders increases with age and with regard to their role as a major modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease it seems to be advisable to aim for more consistent and sustainable screening and treatment of these common disorders. Trial registration: BASE-II registered with the clinical trial registry Deutsches Register Klinischer Studien (DRKS00009277)

The role of green and Sustainability Offices in fostering sustainability efforts at higher education institutions

Green and Sustainability Offices are special settings which assist initiatives within higher education institutions to coordinate their efforts and work in the field of sustainable development. The set-up of such offices is known to be an effective tool in supporting the implementation of sustainability initiatives on campuses, and in fostering awareness among students and staff on matters related to sustainable development. But despite their usefulness and proven effectiveness, the use of Green Offices and Sustainability Offices is not as wide as it could -or should-be. Also, there is a limited amount of empirical international work performed to date, which have investigated the various barriers related to their works. This paper, which focus on the role played by green offices in a higher education context, addresses a research gap. On the basis of the need to address this research gap, this paper presents the results of an international study on Green and Sustainability Offices, performed with a sample of 70 higher education institutions from round the world. The study consisted of an on-line survey which identified the extent to which Green Offices or similar governance structures are being deployed, some specific aspects of their operations and the barriers or difficulties related to their activities. The study concludes by suggesting some topics higher education institutions may take into consideration, in order to maximise their potential benefits

The impact of heavy-quark loops on LHC dark matter searches

If only tree-level processes are included in the analysis, LHC monojet searches give weak constraints on the dark matter-proton scattering cross section arising from the exchange of a new heavy scalar or pseudoscalar mediator with Yukawa-like couplings to quarks. In this letter we calculate the constraints on these interactions from the CMS 5.0/fb and ATLAS 4.7/fb searches for jets with missing energy including the effects of heavy-quark loops. We find that the inclusion of such contributions leads to a dramatic increase in the predicted cross section and therefore a significant improvement of the bounds from LHC searches.Comment: 12 pages, 1 table, 3 figures, v2: extended discussion and improved relic density calculation - matches published versio

New loci for body fat percentage reveal link between adiposity and cardiometabolic disease risk

To increase our understanding of the genetic basis of adiposity and its links to cardiometabolic disease risk, we conducted a genome-wide association meta-analysis of body fat percentage (BF%) in up to 100,716 individuals. Twelve loci reached genome-wide significance (P<5 × 10−8), of which eight were previously associated with increased overall adiposity (BMI, BF%) and four (in or near COBLL1/GRB14, IGF2BP1, PLA2G6, CRTC1) were novel associations with BF%. Seven loci showed a larger effect on BF% than on BMI, suggestive of a primary association with adiposity, while five loci showed larger effects on BMI than on BF%, suggesting association with both fat and lean mass. In particular, the loci more strongly associated with BF% showed distinct cross-phenotype association signatures with a range of cardiometabolic traits revealing new insights in the link between adiposity and disease risk

New loci for body fat percentage reveal link between adiposity and cardiometabolic disease risk

To increase our understanding of the genetic basis of adiposity and its links to cardiometabolic disease risk, we conducted a genome-wide association meta-analysis of body fat percentage (BF%) in up to 100,716 individuals. Twelve loci reached genome-wide significance (P <5 x 10(-8)), of which eight were previously associated with increased overall adiposity (BMI, BF%) and four (in or near COBLL1/GRB14, IGF2BP1, PLA2G6, CRTC1) were novel associations with BF%. Seven loci showed a larger effect on BF% than on BMI, suggestive of a primary association with adiposity, while five loci showed larger effects on BMI than on BF%, suggesting association with both fat and lean mass. In particular, the loci more strongly associated with BF% showed distinct cross-phenotype association signatures with a range of cardiometabolic traits revealing new insights in the link between adiposity and disease risk.Peer reviewe

Benchmark scenarios for low tanβ in the MSSM

The run-1 data taken at the LHC in 2011 and 2012 have led to strong constraints on the allowed parameter space of the MSSM. These are imposed by the discovery of an approximately SM-like Higgs boson with a mass of 125.09±0.24~GeV and by the non-observation of SUSY particles or of additional (neutral or charged) Higgs bosons. For low values of the parameter tanβ, the direct bounds on the masses of the additional Higgs bosons are still relatively weak, but very heavy SUSY particles are required to reproduce the observed mass of the SM-like Higgs boson. In this document we discuss and compare two approaches for predicting the properties of the Higgs bosons in the region with low tanβ and heavy SUSY. We also make recommendations for the sets of parameters to be used by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations in the analysis of such scenarios