Associations between the neighbourhood food environment and cardiovascular disease: a systematic review.

AIMS: To systematically review the current evidence on the association between the neighbourhood food environment and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in adults. METHODS AND RESULTS: We searched the literature databases CINAHL, MEDLINE, and EMBASE for studies published between 1 January 2000 and 1 May 2022. Studies focusing on the indoor home, workplace, or school food environment were excluded. Two independent reviewers screened all records. Included studies were assessed for risk of bias using the shortened QUIPS tool, and relevant data were extracted. We summarized the findings using a narrative synthesis approach. We included 15 studies after screening 5915 original records. Most studies were published in the last 4 years and were predominantly conducted in North American or European countries. These studies focused on fast-food restaurant density in the residential neighbourhood. A higher fast-food restaurant density was most consistently associated with a higher prevalence and incidence of CVD and CVD mortality, but effect sizes were small. Evidence of an association between fast-food restaurant density and myocardial infarction, or stroke was inconsistent. The other aspects of the food environment were density of food service restaurants, unhealthy food outlets, and food access score. However, there was scant evidence for these aspects. CONCLUSION: We found evidence for associations between the neighbourhood food environment and CVD, suggesting that a higher fast-food restaurant density is associated with CVD and CVD mortality. Effect sizes were small but important, given the fact that a large population is exposed. Research is needed to assess the effects of other aspects of the food environment. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO CRD42022317407.

We conducted a systematic review to examine the relationship between the neighbourhood food environment and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in adults. We searched for studies published between 1 January 2000 and 1 May 2022 in 3 major medical databases and included 15 studies. These studies were mostly conducted in North American or European countries, and most of them focused on exposure to fast-food restaurants. Overall, these studies suggest that there is a relationship between a higher density of fast-food restaurants and CVD. Three studies also examined other aspects of the food environment, such as density of food service restaurants, unhealthy food outlets, and food access score, but the evidence for these aspects was scarce. We concluded that there is evidence to suggest that the neighbourhood food environment is associated with CVD, particularly a higher fast-food restaurant density. However, more research is needed to understand other aspects of the food environment.

The built environment and cardiovascular disease: an umbrella review and meta-meta-analysis.

AIMS: To provide a comprehensive overview of the current evidence on objectively measured neighbourhood built environment exposures in relation to cardiovascular disease (CVD) events in adults. METHODS AND RESULTS: We searched seven databases for systematic reviews on associations between objectively measured long-term built environmental exposures, covering at least one domain (i.e. outdoor air pollution, food environment, physical activity environment like greenspace and walkability, urbanization, light pollution, residential noise, and ambient temperature), and CVD events in adults. Two authors extracted summary data and assessed the risk of bias independently. Robustness of evidence was rated based on statistical heterogeneity, small-study effect, and excess significance bias. Meta-meta-analyses were conducted to combine the meta-analysis results from reviews with comparable exposure and outcome within each domain. From the 3304 initial hits, 51 systematic reviews were included, covering 5 domains and including 179 pooled estimates. There was strong evidence of the associations between increased air pollutants (especially PM2.5 exposure) and increased residential noise with greater risk of CVD. Highly suggestive evidence was found for an association between increased ambient temperature and greater risk of CVD. Systematic reviews on physical activity environment, food environment, light pollution, and urbanization in relation to CVD were scarce or lacking. CONCLUSION: Air pollutants, increased noise levels, temperature, and greenspace were associated with CVD outcomes. Standardizing design and exposure assessments may foster the synthesis of evidence. Other crucial research gaps concern the lack of prospective study designs and lack of evidence from low-to-middle-income countries (LMICs). REGISTRATION: PROSPERO: CRD42021246580.

This study is a review of published systematic reviews on the relation between the neighbourhood built environment and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in adults. There was strong evidence of a relation between increased air pollutants and a greater risk of CVD. There was also strong evidence of a relation between increased residential noise and a greater risk of CVD. There was highly suggestive evidence of a relation between increased ambient temperature and a greater risk of CVD. Systematic reviews that examined other aspects of the built environment, such as the physical activity environment, food environment, light pollution, and urbanization, were scarce or lacking.

A comprehensive platform for analyzing longitudinal multi-omics data.

Longitudinal bulk and single-cell omics data is increasingly generated for biological and clinical research but is challenging to analyze due to its many intrinsic types of variations. We present PALMO ( https://github.com/aifimmunology/PALMO ), a platform that contains five analytical modules to examine longitudinal bulk and single-cell multi-omics data from multiple perspectives, including decomposition of sources of variations within the data, collection of stable or variable features across timepoints and participants, identification of up- or down-regulated markers across timepoints of individual participants, and investigation on samples of same participants for possible outlier events. We have tested PALMO performance on a complex longitudinal multi-omics dataset of five data modalities on the same samples and six external datasets of diverse background. Both PALMO and our longitudinal multi-omics dataset can be valuable resources to the scientific community.

Multimodal analysis for human ex vivo studies shows extensive molecular changes from delays in blood processing.

Multi-omic profiling of human peripheral blood is increasingly utilized to identify biomarkers and pathophysiologic mechanisms of disease. The importance of these platforms in clinical and translational studies led us to investigate the impact of delayed blood processing on the numbers and state of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and on the plasma proteome. Similar to previous studies, we show minimal effects of delayed processing on the numbers and general phenotype of PBMC up to 18 hours. In contrast, profound changes in the single-cell transcriptome and composition of the plasma proteome become evident as early as 6 hours after blood draw. These reflect patterns of cellular activation across diverse cell types that lead to progressive distancing of the gene expression state and plasma proteome from native in vivo biology. Differences accumulating during an overnight rest (18 hours) could confound relevant biologic variance related to many underlying disease states.

Longitudinal immune dynamics of mild COVID-19 define signatures of recovery and persistence.

SARS-CoV-2 has infected over 200 million and caused more than 4 million deaths to date. Most individuals (>80%) have mild symptoms and recover in the outpatient setting, but detailed studies of immune responses have focused primarily on moderate to severe COVID-19. We deeply profiled the longitudinal immune response in individuals with mild COVID-19 beginning with early time points post-infection (1-15 days) and proceeding through convalescence to >100 days after symptom onset. We correlated data from single cell analyses of peripheral blood cells, serum proteomics, virus-specific cellular and humoral immune responses, and clinical metadata. Acute infection was characterized by vigorous coordinated innate and adaptive immune activation that differed in character by age (young vs. old). We then characterized signals associated with recovery and convalescence to define and validate a new signature of inflammatory cytokines, gene expression, and chromatin accessibility that persists in individuals with post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC).

Mediterranean isolation preconditioning the Earth System for late Miocene climate cooling.

A global Neogene cooling trend culminated ~7 million years ago with the onset of Greenland glaciation. Increased ocean-atmosphere interaction and low- to high-latitude circulation are thought to be key factors in reorganizing late Miocene global temperature and precipitation patterns, but the drivers of this reorganization have yet to be identified. Here, we present new information about the evolution of the Atlantic-Mediterranean gateway that generated Mediterranean overflow. We use sedimentary and palaeogeographic evidence to constrain the timing and dimensions of this gateway and document the initiation of a saline plume of water within the North Atlantic. Today, this saline jet entrains and transports Eastern North Atlantic water and its dissolved inorganic carbon into the interior of the ocean, contributing to the drawdown of CO2 and the sensitivity of the ocean to atmospheric changes. We show that during the Miocene this transport emerged simultaneously with gateway restriction and propose that the resulting interaction of ocean-surface and ocean-interior carbon inventories would have greatly enhanced ocean-atmosphere exchange, preconditioning the Earth System for late Miocene cooling.

Diagnostic efficiency of the Sysmex XN WPC channel for the reduction of blood smears.

BACKGROUND: Several small studies showed that the WPC (white precursor cell) channel in the Sysmex haematology analyser for leukocyte differentiation analysis leads to a significant reduction of microscopic blood smears. We determined the added value of the WPC channel for blood smear reduction in a large teaching hospital and whether this reduction was cost-effective and save. METHODS: Retrospectively, for 7850 leukocyte differentiation orders the percentage of samples resulting in a WPC analysis and the outcomes of the WPC analysis were analysed and compared with the blood smear results. RESULTS: WPC analysis resulted in a 12% reduction of blood smears, which is much lower than observed in other studies. This means 3-4bloodsmears/day less of a total of 28smears/day at the expense of missing 14 patient samples with pathology (blasts or abnormal lymphocytes) in a 9weeks period. The estimated total costs of WPC analysis per year was more than the reduction in costs due to less blood smear reviews. CONCLUSIONS: In a large teaching hospital, the small reduction in blood smears by the WPC channel does not outweigh the costs and the slight reduction in sensitivity for pathology.

Resolution of a complex mediastinal pseudocyst in a patient with alcohol-related chronic pancreatitis following abstinence from alcohol.

We describe a 55-year-old patient with alcoholic chronic pancreatitis, a large mediastinal pseudocyst and a hemorrhagic pleural effusion. A single thoracocentesis and withdrawal of alcohol without other conservative or invasive measures resulted in a complete resolution of the pleural effusion and the mediastinal pseudocyst, which to our knowledge has not been described before.

Evidence of genetic enrichment for exceptional survival using a family approach: the Leiden Longevity Study.

We conducted a sib pair study in very old subjects for the purpose of mapping longevity loci. In the present analysis, we explore whether our recruitment strategy has resulted in a population enriched for a heritable component for exceptional longevity. Our study includes families with at least two long-living siblings (men aged 89 years or above; women aged 91 years or above). Data were collected on date of birth and, if applicable, date of death of parents, brothers and sisters, offspring, and spouses of the long-living participants. Standardised mortality ratios (SMRs) compared with the general Dutch population, were calculated. The SMR for all siblings of the long-living participants was 0.66 (95% CI 0.60-0.73). A similar survival benefit was also observed in the parents (SMR=0.76, 95% CI 0.66-0.87) and in the offspring of the long-living subjects (SMR=0.65, 95% CI 0.51-0.80). The SMR of the spouses of the long-living subjects was 0.95 (95% CI 0.82-1.12). The familial clustering of extended survival is unlikely to be caused by ascertainment bias, because in all analyses the long-living participants were excluded. Moreover, it is also unlikely to be caused by environmental factors, because the spouses of the long-living participants had a mortality risk comparable with the general Dutch population, whereas they share the same environment. We conclude that our sample is genetically enriched for extreme survival.

Building syntactic structures in speaking: a bilingual exploration.

In a series of three experiments we investigated syntactic priming using a sentence recall task. Participants read and memorized a target sentence for later recall. After reading a prime sentence and engaging in a distraction task, they were asked to produce the target sentence aloud. Earlier investigations have shown that this task is sensitive to a syntactic priming effect. That is, the syntactic form of the prime sentence sometimes influences the syntactic form of the recalled target. In this paper we report on a variation on this task, using Spanish-English bilingual participants. In the first two experiments we replicated the prepositional phrase priming effect using English target sentences and Spanish prime sentences. In the final experiment we investigated two additional syntactic forms, using Spanish target sentences and English prime sentences. Implications for models of syntax generation and bilingual speech production are discussed.

Energy Levels, Wave Functions, Dipole and Quadrupole Transitions of Trivalent Gadolinium Ions in Sapphire.

A computation is made of energy levels, wave functions and transition matrix elements of the Gd3+ ion in Al2O3. The crystal field parameters are taken from Geschwind and Remeika's paramagnetic resonance experiments. The transition probabilities are given for dipole radiation in three polarization directions. For ultrasonic work we give the real and imaginary parts of the five matrix elements of the quadrupole transition. From these one can easily deduce the transition probabilities in any given direction. The magnetic field directions are described by the angles θ and ϕ, the polar and azimuthal angles with respect to the crystalline c axis. The values of θ go from 0 to π/2 in six steps and two values of π are chosen, 0 and 2 π/3 for which the variation is largest. The magnetic field strengths are from 0 to 0.6 tesla (6000 gauss); beyond this value the spin can be considered as "free." Some consideration is given to the analytical behavior of the energy versus field diagram for the direction θ = ϕ = 0.

Energy Levels, Wave Functions, Dipole and Quadrupole Transitions of Fe+++ Ions in Sapphire.

A computation is made of energy levels, wave functions and transition probabilities of the Fe3+ ion in Al2O3. The crystal field parameters used were those determined by Symmons and Bogle at 4 K. The magnetic field direction is described by the angles θ and φ indicating the directions with respect to and around the c axis of the crystal. The values of θ go from 0 to π/2 with π/12 intervals, the angles φ are 0 and 2π/3 corresponding to the two nonequivalent sites of the crystal. The transition probabilities are given for dipole radiation in three polarization directions and for ultrasonic work the six components of the quadrupole transitions were computed.

Techniques for the Growth of Large Single Crystals of Potassium of High Purity.

The preparation of large, high purity, single crystals of potassium is described. First, high initial purity is obtained by careful zone refining. Then, a modification of the Bridgman technique is applied which leads to crystals with resistivity ratios up to 6800 at 4.2 °K. The modification consisted of a heat shield as described in the test. We concluded from the magnetoacoustic experiments that were subsequently done with these samples, that the samples had mean free paths of the order of 10-2 cm. Typical crystals were ⅞ in diam and about 8 in long, with growth direction along [110]. A description is given of an easy method of orientation as well as the use of a spark erosion technique to cut and polish the surfaces.