Association Between Lifetime Marijuana Use and Cognitive Function in Middle Age: The Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Study.

Marijuana use is increasingly common in the United States. It is unclear whether it has long-term effects on memory and other domains of cognitive function. To study the association between cumulative lifetime exposure to marijuana use and cognitive performance in middle age. We used data from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study, a cohort of 5115 black and white men and women aged 18 to 30 years at baseline from March 25, 1985, to June 7, 1986 (year 0), and followed up over 25 years from June 7, 1986, to August 31, 2011, to estimate cumulative years of exposure to marijuana (1 year = 365 days of marijuana use) using repeated measures and to assess associations with cognitive function at year 25. Linear regression was used to adjust for demographic factors, cardiovascular risk factors, tobacco smoking, use of alcohol and illicit drugs, physical activity, depression, and results of the mirror star tracing test (a measure of cognitive function) at year 2. Data analysis was conducted from June 7, 1986, to August 31, 2011. Three domains of cognitive function were assessed at year 25 using the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (verbal memory), the Digit Symbol Substitution Test (processing speed), and the Stroop Interference Test (executive function). Among 3385 participants with cognitive function measurements at the year 25 visit, 2852 (84.3%) reported past marijuana use, but only 392 (11.6%) continued to use marijuana into middle age. Current use of marijuana was associated with worse verbal memory and processing speed; cumulative lifetime exposure was associated with worse performance in all 3 domains of cognitive function. After excluding current users and adjusting for potential confounders, cumulative lifetime exposure to marijuana remained significantly associated with worse verbal memory. For each 5 years of past exposure, verbal memory was 0.13 standardized units lower (95% CI, -0.24 to -0.02; P = .02), corresponding to a mean of 1 of 2 participants remembering 1 word fewer from a list of 15 words for every 5 years of use. After adjustment, we found no associations with lower executive function (-0.03 [95% CI, -0.12 to 0.07]; P = .56) or processing speed (-0.04 [95% CI, -0.16 to 0.08]; P = .51). Past exposure to marijuana is associated with worse verbal memory but does not appear to affect other domains of cognitive function

Area-wide eradication of the invasive European grapevine moth Lobesia botrana in California, USA

17openBothIn the fall of 2009, the first confirmed North American detection of the European grapevine moth (EGVM) Lobesia botrana (Denis & Schiffermüller) occurred in Napa County, California, USA. Based on its status as a significant grape pest in other parts of the world, the establishment of EGVM in California presented significant production and export issues for grapes, as well as for other fresh market agricultural commodities. Over the following seven years, an intensive California state-wide survey and area-wide eradication campaign was undertaken in partnership with agricultural officials at local, state and federal levels, university scientists and the wine, table grape and raisin industries. These efforts resulted in a dramatic decline in moth captures in pheromone traps from over 100 000 moths in 2010, to one in 2014, and none in 2015. In August of 2016, eradication was declared for all previously infested areas in California. The decision to pursue the eradication effort was based on the limited host range and geographic area of the EGVM infestation, the availability of effective tools for monitoring and control, and the strong support of the affected grape production and export industries. The eradication campaign employed coordinated logistical, regulatory, and technical efforts that included: 1) state-wide-monitoring using a network of pheromone-baited traps and in field monitoring; these findings were recorded in a geographic information system that was used to regularly communicate survey results to programme officials; 2) an area-wide application of mating disruption dispensers to infested vineyards, including use in urban environments within infested zones; 3) implementation by coordinators of area-wide insecticide treatments with application timing determined by degree-day modelling for each infested region; 4) a robust regulatory programme that initiated and maintained a quarantine of infested areas that regulated movement of fruit, farming equipment and winery processing waste; 5) an extensive outreach programme to grape growers, wineries, pest control specialists and the public; 6) formation of a technical working group that provided recommendations to the operational programme. An extensive methods development effort supported the programme. This included developing enhanced detection methods for vineyards under mating disruption, testing efficacy and residual control of insecticides, testing mating disruption formulations, evaluating the impacts of winery processing methods on EGVM mortality, developing methods to determine the timing of the development of successive EGVM generations (or biofix) under California conditions to improve degree-day models, developing EGVM rearing methods, testing the quality of pheromone lures and trap monitoring; and a spatial analysis of trapping data to determine programme effectiveness and to analyse invasion pathwaysopenSimmons, G.S.; Varela, L.; Daugherty, M.; Cooper, M.; Lance, D.; Mastro, V.; Carde, R.T.; Lucchi, A.; Ioriatti, C.; Bagnoli, B.; Steinhauer, R.; Broadway, R.; Stone Smith, B.; Hoffman, K.; Clark, G.; Whitmer, D.; Johnson, R.Simmons, G.S.; Varela, L.; Daugherty, M.; Cooper, M.; Lance, D.; Mastro, V.; Carde, R.T.; Lucchi, A.; Ioriatti, C.; Bagnoli, B.; Steinhauer, R.; Broadway, R.; Stone Smith, B.; Hoffman, K.; Clark, G.; Whitmer, D.; Johnson, R

Cognitive function in a middle aged cohort is related to higher quality dietary pattern 5 and 25 years earlier: The cardia study

Preserving cognitive function is an important public health issue. We investigated whether dietary pattern associates with cognitive function in middle-age

A Dissipative-Particle-Dynamics Model for Simulating Dynamics of Charged Colloid

A mesoscopic colloid model is developed in which a spherical colloid is represented by many interacting sites on its surface. The hydrodynamic interactions with thermal fluctuations are taken accounts in full using Dissipative Particle Dynamics, and the electrostatic interactions are simulated using Particle-Particle-Particle Mesh method. This new model is applied to investigate the electrophoretic mobility of a charged colloid under an external electric field, and the influence of salt concentration and colloid charge are systematically studied. The simulation results show good agreement with predictions from the electrokinetic theory.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures, submitted to the proceedings of High Performance Computing in Science & Engineering '1

PySAGES: flexible, advanced sampling methods accelerated with GPUs

Molecular simulations are an important tool for research in physics, chemistry, and biology. The capabilities of simulations can be greatly expanded by providing access to advanced sampling methods and techniques that permit calculation of the relevant underlying free energy landscapes. In this sense, software that can be seamlessly adapted to a broad range of complex systems is essential. Building on past efforts to provide open-source community supported software for advanced sampling, we introduce PySAGES, a Python implementation of the Software Suite for Advanced General Ensemble Simulations (SSAGES) that provides full GPU support for massively parallel applications of enhanced sampling methods such as adaptive biasing forces, harmonic bias, or forward flux sampling in the context of molecular dynamics simulations. By providing an intuitive interface that facilitates the management of a system's configuration, the inclusion of new collective variables, and the implementation of sophisticated free energy-based sampling methods, the PySAGES library serves as a general platform for the development and implementation of emerging simulation techniques. The capabilities, core features, and computational performance of this new tool are demonstrated with clear and concise examples pertaining to different classes of molecular systems. We anticipate that PySAGES will provide the scientific community with a robust and easily accessible platform to accelerate simulations, improve sampling, and enable facile estimation of free energies for a wide range of materials and processes

SSAGES : Software Suite for Advanced General Ensemble Simulations

Molecular simulation has emerged as an essential tool for modern-day research, but obtaining proper results and making reliable conclusions from simulations requires adequate sampling of the system under consideration. To this end, a variety of methods exist in the literature that can enhance sampling considerably, and increasingly sophisticated, effective algorithms continue to be developed at a rapid pace. Implementation of these techniques, however, can be challenging for experts and non-experts alike. There is a clear need for software that provides rapid, reliable, and easy access to a wide range of advanced sampling methods and that facilitates implementation of new techniques as they emerge. Here we present SSAGES, a publicly available Software Suite for Advanced General Ensemble Simulations designed to interface with multiple widely used molecular dynamics simulations packages. SSAGES allows facile application of a variety of enhanced sampling techniques—including adaptive biasing force, string methods, and forward flux sampling—that extract meaningful free energy and transition path data from all-atom and coarse-grained simulations. A noteworthy feature of SSAGES is a user-friendly framework that facilitates further development and implementation of new methods and collective variables. In this work, the use of SSAGES is illustrated in the context of simple representative applications involving distinct methods and different collective variables that are available in the current release of the suite. The code may be found at: https://github.com/MICCoM/SSAGES-public

Persistence of Ebola virus in ocular fluid during convalescence

Please note: A correction to the original article has been published. “From New England Journal of Medicine, Jay B. Varkey, Jessica G. Shantha, Ian Crozier, Colleen S. Kraft, G. Marshall Lyon, Aneesh K. Mehta, Gokul Kumar, Justine R. Smith, Markus H. Kainulainen, Shannon Whitmer, Ute Ströher, Timothy M. Uyeki, Bruce S. Ribner, and Steven Yeh, Persistence of Ebola Virus in Ocular Fluid during Convalescence, 2015; 372:2423-2427. Copyright © (2015) Massachusetts Medical Society. Reprinted with permission.Among the survivors of Ebola virus disease (EVD), complications that include uveitis can develop during convalescence, although the incidence and pathogenesis of EVD-associated uveitis are unknown. We describe a patient who recovered from EVD and was subsequently found to have severe unilateral uveitis during convalescence. Viable Zaire ebolavirus (EBOV) was detected in aqueous humor 14 weeks after the onset of EVD and 9 weeks after the clearance of viremia.Supported by a grant from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (UL1TR000454, to the Atlanta Clinical and Translational Science Institute), an unrestricted grant from Research to Prevent Blindness and a grant from the National Eye Institute (P30-EY06360, to the Department of Ophthalmology, Emory University School of Medicine), and a fellowship grant from the Australian Research Council (FT130101648, to Dr. Smith). Favipiravir was provided by the Department of Defense Joint Project Manager Medical Countermeasure Systems

Comorbidity and dementia: a scoping review of the literature.

BACKGROUND: Evidence suggests that amongst people with dementia there is a high prevalence of comorbid medical conditions and related complaints. The presence of dementia may complicate clinical care for other conditions and undermine a patient's ability to manage a chronic condition. The aim of this study was to scope the extent, range and nature of research activity around dementia and comorbidity. METHODS: We undertook a scoping review including all types of research relating to the prevalence of comorbidities in people with dementia; current systems, structures and other issues relating to service organisation and delivery; patient and carer experiences; and the experiences and attitudes of service providers. We searched AMED, Cochrane Library, CINAHL, PubMed, NHS Evidence, Scopus, Google Scholar (searched 2012, Pubmed updated 2013), checked reference lists and performed citation searches on PubMed and Google Scholar (ongoing to February 2014). RESULTS: We included 54 primary studies, eight reviews and three guidelines. Much of the available literature relates to the prevalence of comorbidities in people with dementia or issues around quality of care. Less is known about service organisation and delivery or the views and experiences of people with dementia and their family carers. There is some evidence that people with dementia did not have the same access to treatment and monitoring for conditions such as visual impairment and diabetes as those with similar comorbidities but without dementia. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of comorbid conditions in people with dementia is high. Whilst current evidence suggests that people with dementia may have poorer access to services the reasons for this are not clear. There is a need for more research looking at the ways in which having dementia impacts on clinical care for other conditions and how the process of care and different services are adapting to the needs of people with dementia and comorbidity. People with dementia should be included in the debate about the management of comorbidities in older populations and there needs to be greater consideration given to including them in studies that focus on age-related healthcare issues

Cardiovascular risk factors and cognitive decline in older people with type 2 diabetes

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: The aim of this work was to assess the role of well-established cardiovascular risk factors in the late-life cognitive decline of patients with type 2 diabetes. METHODS: Data from 831 participants (aged 60-75 years) attending the 4 year follow-up of the Edinburgh Type 2 Diabetes Study (ET2DS) were used. Smoking history (pack-years), BP, HbA1c, plasma glucose and cholesterol were determined at baseline clinics (single time measurements) and/or from serial data recorded on a clinical management database from diagnosis until recruitment ('historical' data). Principal component analysis derived a factor, g, of general ability from seven cognitive tests. Linear regression models of follow-up g were adjusted for baseline g to represent 4 year cognitive change. 'Accelerated late-life cognitive decline' was defined as scoring in the lowest tertile of '4 year cognitive change' regression scores. Analyses controlled for age and sex. RESULTS: A baseline history of moderate/heavy smoking (>/= 10 pack-years) and a 1% increased historical HbA1c (equivalent to an increase by 11 mmol/mol) predicted a 64% (OR 1.64; 95% CI 1.14, 2.34; p = 0.007) and 21% (OR 1.21; 95% CI 1.00, 1.45; p = 0.046) increased risk of accelerated cognitive decline, respectively. When treated as continuous measures, higher pack-years, historical HbA1c and historical BP emerged as significant independent predictors of 4 year decline in g (standardised beta range -0.07 to -0.14; all p </= 0.05). CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: Increased smoking and poorer glycaemic control (with relatively weaker findings for BP) during the life-course were independently associated with accelerated late-life cognitive decline. Where possible, evaluation is warranted of these risk factors as targets for intervention to reduce the burden of cognitive impairment in diabetes

Amyloid Precursor Protein and Proinflammatory Changes Are Regulated in Brain and Adipose Tissue in a Murine Model of High Fat Diet-Induced Obesity

Background: Middle age obesity is recognized as a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) although a mechanistic linkage remains unclear. Based upon the fact that obese adipose tissue and AD brains are both areas of proinflammatory change, a possible common event is chronic inflammation. Since an autosomal dominant form of AD is associated with mutations in the gene coding for the ubiquitously expressed transmembrane protein, amyloid precursor protein (APP) and recent evidence demonstrates increased APP levels in adipose tissue during obesity it is feasible that APP serves some function in both disease conditions. Methodology/Principal Findings: To determine whether diet-induced obesity produced proinflammatory changes and altered APP expression in brain versus adipose tissue, 6 week old C57BL6/J mice were maintained on a control or high fat diet for 22 weeks. Protein levels and cell-specific APP expression along with markers of inflammation and immune cell activation were compared between hippocampus, abdominal subcutaneous fat and visceral pericardial fat. APP stimulation-dependent changes in macrophage and adipocyte culture phenotype were examined for comparison to the in vivo changes. Conclusions/Significance: Adipose tissue and brain from high fat diet fed animals demonstrated increased TNF-a and microglial and macrophage activation. Both brains and adipose tissue also had elevated APP levels localizing to neurons and macrophage/adipocytes, respectively. APP agonist antibody stimulation of macrophage cultures increased specific cytokin