The effects of indoor and outdoor temperature on metabolic rate and adipose tissue - the Mississippi perspective on the obesity epidemic.

Global warming, primarily caused by emissions of too much carbon dioxide, and climate change is a reality. This will lead to more extreme weather events with heatwaves and flooding. Some studies propose an association between thermal exposures and the prevalence of obesity with an increasing trend towards time spent in the thermal comfort zone. Longterm exposure to the thermal comfort zone can lead to a reduction of brown adipose tissue activity with an impact on energy expenditure and thermogenesis. Reduced seasonal cold exposure in combination with reduced diet-induced thermogenesis by a highly palatable high-fat and high-sugar diet and reduced physical activity contribute to the prevalence of obesity and the metabolic syndrome.

Age and body weight effects on glucose and insulin tolerance in colony cats maintained since weaning on high dietary carbohydrate.

High dietary carbohydrate is suggested to promote development of diabetes mellitus in cats. Glucose tolerance, insulin sensitivity, and insulin secretion were assessed in young [0.8-2.3 (median = 1.1) years, n = 13] and mature [4.0-7.0 (median 5.8) years, n = 12] sexually intact females of a large (n ≅ 700) feline colony in which only dry-type diets (35% metabolizable energy as carbohydrate) were fed from weaning. Insulin sensitivity was assessed from the 'late-phase' (60-120 min) plasma insulin response of intravenous glucose tolerance tests (IVGTTs) and from fractional change in glycaemia from baseline 15 min after an insulin bolus (0.1 U/kg, i.v.). Insulin secretion was assessed from the 'early-phase' (0-15 min) plasma insulin response of IVGTTs. Compared to the young cats, the mature cats had greater body weights [2.3-3.8 (median = 2.9) vs. 3.0-6.3 (median = 4.0) kg, p < 0.01], greater late-phase insulin responses (p < 0.05), lower insulin-induced glycaemic changes (p = 0.06), lower early-phase insulin responses (p < 0.05), and non-significantly different rates of glucose disposal. The late-phase insulin response was correlated with body weight and age (p < 0.05). When group assignments were balanced for body weight, the age-group differences and correlations became non-significant. The findings indicate that body weight gain is more likely than dry-type diets to induce the pre-diabetic conditions of insulin resistance and secretion dysfunction.

Are alpha-gliadins glycosylated?

Alpha-gliadins isolated by carboxymethylcellulose chromatography contain noncovalently bound glucose probably due to contaminating proteoglycans and to material shed from the column. Traces of carbohydrate remain strongly bound to alpha-gliadins even after harsh denaturation, but our results indicate alpha-gliadins are not glycoproteins. Suggestions that gliadins are glycoproteins are probably due to contamination with this glucose and the presence of these proteoglycans.

A further analysis of race differences in the National Longitudinal Mortality Study.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to investigate associations between race and specific causes of mortality among adults 25 years and older in the National Longitudinal Mortality Study. METHODS: Mortality hazard ratios between races during 9 years of follow-up were estimated with Cox proportional hazards models, with control for multiple indicators of socioeconomic status (SES) and SES-relevant variables. RESULTS: Black persons younger than 65 years were at higher risk than others for all-cause and cardiovascular mortality; the strongest effects were observed among persons aged 25 through 44 years. CONCLUSIONS: Race, independent of SES, is related to mortality in American society, but these effects vary by age and disease categories.

The Latino mortality paradox: a test of the "salmon bias" and healthy migrant hypotheses.

OBJECTIVES: Relative to non-Latino Whites, Latinos have a worse socioeconomic profile but a lower mortality rate, a finding that presents an epidemiologic paradox. This study tested the salmon bias hypothesis that Latinos engage in return migration to their country of origin and are thereby rendered "statistically immortal" and the alternative hypothesis that selection of healthier migrants to the United States accounts for the paradox. METHODS: National Longitudinal Mortality Study data were used to examine mortality rates of the following groups for whom the salmon hypothesis is not feasible: Cubans, who face barriers against return migration; Puerto Ricans, whose deaths in Puerto Rico are recorded in US national statistics; and US-born individuals, who are not subject to either salmon or healthy migrant effects. RESULTS: The sample included 301,718 non-Latino Whites and 17,375 Latino Whites 25 years or older. Cubans and Puerto Ricans had lower mortality than non-Latino Whites. Moreover, US-born Latinos had lower mortality than US-born non-Latino Whites. CONCLUSIONS: Neither the salmon nor the healthy migrant hypothesis explains the pattern of findings. Other factors must be operating to produce the lower mortality.

Economic context and the health effects of unemployment.

Most studies of the health consequences of unemployment ignore the economic context within which job loss occurs. Using data from a subset (N = 1,252) of a national probability sample, this paper compares the effects of current and previous unemployment on depression and subjective physical health status across levels of educational attainment and local job availability. Results show that current unemployment effects among the previously unemployed are strongest in low unemployment areas, particularly among individuals with a college-level education. These findings are interpreted in terms of the two categories of unemployment-related stress most frequently identified in the literature: financial strain, which is thought to be more salient for people in lower socioeconomic statuses, and damage to sense of self, which may primarily characterize higher status victims of job loss.

Evaluation of the beta energy spectrum from a distributed uranium mill tailings source.

The beta energy spectra from uranium mill tailings, 90Sr with different absorber thicknesses, and a uranium metal slab were measured and compared to select an appropriate beta source for calibrating a personal dosimeter to measure shallow dose equivalent when exposed to uranium mill tailings. The measured beta energy spectrum from the 90Sr source, with a 111 mg cm-2 cover thickness, was selected as a possible calibration source for a personnel dosimeter. The dose equivalent rate to the skin at 1 cm from a distributed tailings source of infinite thickness, with a 226Ra activity of 56 Bq g-1 (1.5 x 10(3) pCi g-1), was measured to be 0.024 mSv h-1 (2.4 mrem h-1).

Uranium in vitro bioassay action level used to screen workers for chronic inhalation intakes of uranium mill tailings.

A uranium in vitro bioassay (urinalysis) action level was derived for use at the Department of Energy's Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Project sites to identify chronic inhalation intakes of uranium mill tailings causing 0.5 mSv (50 mrem) annual effective dose equivalent. All radionuclides in the 238U decay chain that contribute 1% or more to the annual effective dose equivalent from an inhalation intake of uranium mill tailings were included in the derivation of the urinalysis action level. Using a chronic inhalation intake model, the uranium urinalysis action level for a 24-h urine sample, collected on a quarterly schedule, was calculated to be 1.5 micrograms.

Factors facilitating adjustment to unemployment: implications for intervention.

Conducted a community survey in the Fall of 1984 in a sample of high unemployment blue-collar census tracts in southeastern Michigan. Results of earlier analyses using these data showed that involuntarily unemployed workers had significantly elevated levels of depression, anxiety, somatization, and self-reported physical illness relative to a stably employed comparison group (Kessler, House, & Turner, 1987). Results presented in this paper document that this relationship is modified by social support (as measured by social integration and the availability of a confidant), self-concept, and various coping processes. Further analyses allowed us to determine the way in which these modifiers operate. The modifying effects of social support and coping operate primarily by buffering the impact of unemployment-related financial strain on the health outcomes. Self-concept operates primarily by attenuating vulnerability to other stressful life events. The implications of these results for the design and implementation of preventive interventions are discussed.

Falling into the Medicaid gap: the hidden long-term care dilemma.

This study describes the income, health, and functional capacity of older Florida residents who fall into the Medicaid gap--those whose incomes are too high to obtain eligibility for Medicaid yet too low to cover the cost of nursing home care as private pay patients--and examines the strategies adopted by their primary caregivers. Our findings suggest that few strategies succeed in alleviating this all but unresolvable problem, that those caught in the gap receive inadequate medical care, and that their primary caregivers face tremendous financial and emotional burdens with little hope for relief.

Intervening processes in the relationship between unemployment and health.

A considerable amount of research documents the negative effects of job loss on both physical and mental health. Yet we know comparatively little about the mechanisms through which these effects occur. Unemployment, like other events, is not the same experience for everyone exposed to it. An understanding of this variation might be facilitated by breaking down the analysis of unemployment into a consideration of the various stresses that it creates or exacerbates. This is our purpose in the present paper. We demonstrate that, for one area of the United States, the effect of job loss on several health outcomes involves two mechanisms: (1) unemployment results in increased financial strain which, in turn, results in negative health effects, and (2) unemployment leaves the individual more vulnerable to the impact of unrelated life events. Controlling for financial strain, unemployed people in our sample who have not experienced an additional life event in the previous year are in no worse health than the stably employed. This provides useful insights into the nature of the unemployment experience in this particular setting. It also provides a basis for future detailed explorations of the various ways people cope with this event.

Calcium oxalate crystals in the aragonite-producing green alga penicillus and related genera.

Calcium oxalate crystals occur in the marine green algae Penicillus, Rhipocephalus, and Udotea, known as producers of sedimentary aragonite needles. In contrast to the externally deposited aragonite crystals which are generally < 15 micrometers long, the oxalate crystals are larger (up to 150 micrometers) and are located in the vacuolar system of the plant. No calcium oxalate was found in the related but noncalcifying genera Avrainvillea and Cladocephalus.