Changes in microvascular density differentiate metabolic health outcomes in monkeys with prior radiation exposure and subsequent skeletal muscle ECM remodeling.

Radiation exposure accelerates the onset of age-related diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and neoplasia and, thus, lends insight into in vivo mechanisms common to these disorders. Fibrosis and extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling, which occur with aging and overnutrition and following irradiation, are risk factors for development of type 2 diabetes mellitus. We previously demonstrated an increased incidence of skeletal muscle insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes mellitus in monkeys that had been exposed to whole body irradiation 5-9 yr prior. We hypothesized that irradiation-induced fibrosis alters muscle architecture, predisposing irradiated animals to insulin resistance and overt diabetes. Rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta, n = 7-8/group) grouped as nonirradiated age-matched controls (Non-Rad-CTL), irradiated nondiabetic monkeys (Rad-CTL), and irradiated monkeys that subsequently developed diabetes (Rad-DM) were compared. Prior radiation exposure resulted in persistent skeletal muscle ECM changes, including a relative overabundance of collagen IV and a trend toward increased transforming growth factor-ß1. Preservation of microvascular markers differentiated the irradiated diabetic and nondiabetic groups. Microvascular density and plasma nitrate and heat shock protein 90 levels were lower in Rad-DM than Rad-CTL. These results are consistent with a protective effect of abundant microvasculature in maintaining glycemic control within radiation-induced fibrotic muscle.

Food-based anthocyanin intake and cognitive outcomes in human intervention trials: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Preclinical evidence suggests that the anthocyanins, which comprise a subclass of dietary flavonoids providing the purple and red pigmentation in plant-based foods, may have a beneficial impact on cognitive outcomes. METHODS: A systematic review was conducted to identify the published literature on food-based anthocyanin consumption and cognitive outcomes in human intervention trials. The literature search followed PRISMA guidelines and included six databases, as well as additional hand searching. RESULTS: Seven studies were included in this review, comprising acute trials (n = 4) and longer-term (n = 3) interventions that assessed multiple cognitive outcomes in children, adults and older adults with cognitive impairment. Six of seven studies reported improvements in either a single, or multiple, cognitive outcomes, including verbal learning and memory, after anthocyanin-rich food consumption. As a result of methodological limitations and the large clinical and methodological diversity of the studies, the pooling of data for quantitative analysis was not feasible. CONCLUSIONS: The impact of food-based anthocyanin consumption on both acute and long-term cognition appears promising. However, adequately powered studies that include sensitive cognitive tasks are needed to confirm these findings and allow the translation of research into dietary messages.

Interstitial Silica and pH in Marine Sediments: Some Effects of Sampling Procedures.

The temperature at which the interstitial water was squeezed from a marine sediment had a profound effect on the measured interstitial silica concentrations which showed an average increase of 51 percent after the sediment was exposed to a temperature 20 degrees C higher than the in situ temperature. Similar effects were not found for interstitial phosphate or alkalinity, but the pH was slightly higher in the water squeezed at the higher temperature. These tempreature-induced changes were completed in a few hours. The use of filter paper can significantly lower the pH of expressed pore waters. Until some important questions about temperature effects are answered, all future data on the pH and silica concentration of pore waters of marine sediments should be obtained from samples extracted at in situ temperatures.

Radiuin-226 and radon-222 in the coastal waters of west Florida: high concentrations and atmospheric degassing.

On the central portion of the west Florida continental shelf, radionuclide activities show unusually wide variations: radium-226 activities up to 350 disintegrations per minute per 100 liters, radon-222 activities up to 1300 disintegrations per minute per 100 liters, and deficiencies of radon-222 as low as -10 disintegrations per minute per 100 liters. Florida's phosphate-rich strata seerm to be the principal source of the radionuclides, with the transfer occurring directly from sediments or indirectly in streams, ground-water flow, and geothermal springs. Winter storm fronts may enhance radon degassing in the shelf waters.

Interstitial nitrate profiles and oxidation of sedimentary organic matter in the eastern equatorial atlantic.

Pore-water nitrate concentrations in six pelagic eastern equatorial Atlantic cores increase from bottom water values (22 micromolar) to 40 micromolar at a depth of about 5 centimeters, then decrease to undetectable levels at depths as shallow as 40 centimeters. These nitrate concentrations and concentration gradients reflect zones of oxygen reduction, nitrate reduction, and sulfate reduction in the sediments. The estimated benthic flux of nitrate to the ocean from our data is much less than the total globalflux of nitrate to deep waters, even though these equatorial sediments underlie a productive upwelling zone. The estimated denitrification rate in our study area suggests that pelagic sediments may be important sites of marine denitrification.

A Conceptual Model for Home Based Primary Care of Older Refugees.

The needs of refugees in the United States can often optimally be met through home based primary care (HBPC). Until recently, however, there has been little research into the methods of best practice and challenges of providing home based care to refugee groups. The model for the HBPC of refugees proposed here is the result of a comprehensive review of the literature combined with professional practice. Emphasis is placed on the elements of care identified as most affecting health and quality of life outcomes for refugees receiving HBPC. The key inputs for positive health and quality of life outcomes identified are: (1) Linguistic communication; (2) Cultural safety; and (3) Interprofessional team.

The powerless or the empowered? Stakeholders' experiences of diagnosis and treatment for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in Ireland.

IntroductionIn Ireland, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most commonly diagnosed condition in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). However, little is known about the experiences of stakeholders affected by ADHD in their pathways through care, especially in Ireland. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this stakeholder voice study was to explore stress and coping among parents and Children and Young People (C/YP) affected by ADHD in an Irish context, in order to contribute to knowledge about what works and what needs to change in practice from a service user perspective. METHODS: In total, 15 C/YP (7-18 years) with ADHD and their parents participated in semi-structured interviews, which were triangulated using other sources (e.g. visual methods), to contribute to a highly contextualised understanding of lived experiences. Transcribed interviews were analysed using a deductive approach to Thematic Analysis informed by a theoretical framework of stress and coping theory and Bronfenbrenner's bio-ecological model. RESULTS: Some degree of difficulty in their pathway through care was identified by participants in all case studies. Findings identified barriers to diagnosis, including delays in diagnosis, such as scepticism, stigma, and label avoidance from gatekeepers; poor multiagency working; and misdiagnosis. Once received, diagnosis may serve as an access to empowerment, providing knowledge, understanding, and support. However, C/YP and their parents also reported distressing experiences and a sense of powerlessness within CAMHS and with treatment; such as tensions around medical management, stigma, and a lack of child- and family-centred practice. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the professionals and the systematic supports available, stakeholders did not feel that they were fully understood, listened to, or participants in accessing diagnosis and care planning.

Challenges and Strategies in Providing Home Based Primary Care for Refugees in the US.

The recent crisis in the Middle East has prompted the exodus of millions of refugees from the region who are at present seeking shelter across Europe and in the United States. Among the most immediate needs of refugees upon arrival in a host country is health care, and it is one of the most sustained interactions they experience. Home visits are a common form of primary care for refugees. The authors review the literature to identify themes related to challenges and strategies for providing home based primary care to refugees. The literature review was performed by searching cross-disciplinary databases utilizing Onesearch, but focusing primarily on results produced through CINAHL, EBSCOHOST, and Pub Med databases. To maximize the number of studies included, there was no time frame placed upon publication dates of articles within the search. A total of 55 articles were included in this paper.

Anthocyanin-rich plum juice reduces ambulatory blood pressure but not acute cognitive function in younger and older adults: a pilot crossover dose-timing study.

Consumption of anthocyanins from fruit sources may exert protection against hypertension and improve cognition. However, the effect of dose timing in studies is rarely considered. We hypothesized that timed-dose consumption of juice from an anthocyanin-rich Japanese plum variety (Queen Garnet plum, QGP) will have acute and dose-timing effects on cardiovascular responses, cognition, and urinary anthocyanin excretion profiles. Our study objective was to investigate the impact of plum juice on these health parameters. Twelve older (65+ years) and 12 younger (18-45 years) adults participated in an acute crossover study. Participants received, randomly, either 1 × 300 mL or 3 × 100 mL plum juice over 3 hours on 2 different occasions with a 2-week washout period. A battery of cognitive tasks was administered at 0 and 6 hours on each study day. Blood pressure (BP) and urinary anthocyanin/metabolite excretion profiles were measured over 24 hours. Area under the curve for BP was calculated (0-6 hours). A significant reduction in BP and cardiovascular responses was observed in both age groups which was more obvious in the older age group on the single dose for systolic BP, diastolic BP, mean arterial pressure, and heart rate (P values = .035, .028, .017, and .006, respectively). No significant difference was observed between dose-timing regimens for either age group. There was no observed effect on cognition. Native QGP anthocyanins, as well as methylated/glucuronidated metabolites, were detected in urine with no significant differences between age groups or dose timing. High-anthocyanin plum juice significantly reduced BP, but dose timing did not appear to be a significant factor in the potential acute BP-lowering effect of QGP juice.

More surprises in the global greenhouse: Human health impacts from recent toxic marine aerosol formations, due to centennial alterations of world-wide coastal food webs.

Reductions of zooplankton biomasses and grazing pressures were observed during overfishing-induced trophic cascades and concurrent oil spills at global scales. Recent phytoplankton increments followed, once Fe-, P-, and N-nutrient limitations of commensal diazotrophs and dinoflagellates were also eliminated by respective human desertification, deforestation, and eutrophication during climate changes. Si-limitation of diatoms instead ensued during these last anthropogenic perturbations of agricultural effluents and sewage loadings. Consequently, ~15% of total world-wide annual asthma trigger responses, i.e. amounting to ~45 million adjacent humans during 2004, resulted from brevetoxin and palytoxin poisons in aerosol forms of western boundary current origins. They were denoted by greater global harmful algal bloom [HAB] abundances and breathing attacks among sea-side children during prior decadal surveys of asthma prevalence, compiled here in ten paired shelf ecosystems of western and eutrophied boundary currents. Since 1965, such inferred onshore fluxes of aerosolized DOC poisons of HABs may have served as additional wind-borne organic carriers of toxic marine MeHg, phthalate, and DDT/DDE vectors, traced by radio-iodine isotopes to potentially elicit carcinomas. During these exchanges, as much as 40% of mercury poisonings may instead have been effected by inhalation of collateral HAB-carried marine neurotoxic aerosols of MeHg, not just from eating marine fish. Health impacts in some areas were additional asthma and pneumonia episodes, as well as endocrine disruptions among the same adjacent humans, with known large local rates of thyroid cancers, physician-diagnosed pulmonary problems, and ubiquitous high indices of mercury in hair, pesticides in breast milk, and phthalates in urine.

Red tides in the Gulf of Mexico: Where, when, and why?

[1] Independent data from the Gulf of Mexico are used to develop and test the hypothesis that the same sequence of physical and ecological events each year allows the toxic dinoflagellate Karenia brevis to become dominant. A phosphorus-rich nutrient supply initiates phytoplankton succession, once deposition events of Saharan iron-rich dust allow Trichodesmium blooms to utilize ubiquitous dissolved nitrogen gas within otherwise nitrogen-poor sea water. They and the co-occurring K. brevis are positioned within the bottom Ekman layers, as a consequence of their similar diel vertical migration patterns on the middle shelf. Upon onshore upwelling of these near-bottom seed populations to CDOM-rich surface waters of coastal regions, light-inhibition of the small red tide of ~1 ug chl l(-1) of ichthytoxic K. brevis is alleviated. Thence, dead fish serve as a supplementary nutrient source, yielding large, self-shaded red tides of ~10 ug chl l(-1). The source of phosphorus is mainly of fossil origin off west Florida, where past nutrient additions from the eutrophied Lake Okeechobee had minimal impact. In contrast, the P-sources are of mainly anthropogenic origin off Texas, since both the nutrient loadings of Mississippi River and the spatial extent of the downstream red tides have increased over the last 100 years. During the past century and particularly within the last decade, previously cryptic Karenia spp. have caused toxic red tides in similar coastal habitats of other western boundary currents off Japan, China, New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa, downstream of the Gobi, Simpson, Great Western, and Kalahari Deserts, in a global response to both desertification and eutrophication.

Inactivation and modification of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase differentially labeled with bromopyruvate.

Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylkinase (GTP:oxaloacetate carboxy-lyase (transphosphorylating), EC 4.1.1.32) is inactivated by bromopyruvate with specific substrate protection against the inactivation. Despite the fact that the enzyme also is known to possess oxalacetate decarboxylase activity, the modification does not appear to be directed toward a pyruvate or enolpyruvate binding site, as evident from the kinetics of the inactivation and from protection studies. Thus, the reactivity of bromopyruvate is different than toward several other enzymes where pyruvate is a substrate or product. Acetopyruvate and oxalate inhibit carboxykinase activity, but neither of these compounds, nor pyruvate, protects against the inactivation. Using differentially labeled enzyme, it was shown that modification of one sulfhydryl is sufficient to cause loss of both catalytic activities. Protection by inosine nucleotides was found to be similar in each instance. It would appear that a common sulfhydryl is critical to both carboxykinase and oxalacetate decarboxylase activities, and that each utilizes the same nucleotide binding site, despite the known different roles of the nucleotide in each reaction.

Utilization of distillers grains from the fermentation of sorghum or corn in diets for finishing beef and lactating dairy cattle.

Beef finishing and dairy lactation experiments were conducted to evaluate the nutritional value of distillers grains (DG) from sorghum or corn fermentation, in both wet (35.4% DM) and dry (92.2% DM) form (dairy trial only). In the finishing experiment, 60 yearling steers were used in a completely randomized design with three diets that were fed for 127 d: 1) control diet with 86% (DM basis) dry-rolled corn and no DG; 2) 30% of ration DM as wet corn DG in place of dry-rolled corn; and 3) 30% of ration DM as wet sorghum DG in place of dry-rolled corn. All diets contained a minimum of 6.8% degradable intake protein and 13.0% CP. Steers fed DG had 10% greater ADG (< 0.01) and 8% greater efficiency of gain (P < 0.01) than steers fed the control diet. Wet corn and sorghum DG resulted in similar ADG and efficiency of gain. Hot carcass weights, fat thickness, and yield grades were greater for steers fed DG than for controls (P < 0.07). Improvements in ADG and feed efficiency observed when DG replaced dry-rolled corn indicated that the NEg content of wet DG is approximately 29% greater than that of dry-rolled corn. In the dairy lactation experiment, 16 lactating Holstein cows (eight multiparous, including four fistulated) were used in a replicated 4 x 4 Latin square design with 4-wk periods. Corn and sorghum DG were fed at 15% of the ration DM in either wet or dry form. Diets were fed as total mixed rations that contained 50% of a 1:1 mixture of alfalfa and corn silages, 24.3% ground corn, and 9.1% soybean meal (DM basis). There was no effect of source or form of DG on DMI, ruminal pH and VFA, or in situ digestion kinetics of NDF from DG. Efficiency of milk production was unaffected by diet. Corn and sorghum DG resulted in relatively similar performance when fed to beef or dairy cattle in this study.

Interaction between bunk management and monensin concentration on finishing performance, feeding behavior, and ruminal metabolism during an acidosis challenge with feedlot cattle.

Two commercial feedlot experiments and a metabolism study were conducted to evaluate the effects of monensin concentrations and bunk management strategies on performance, feed intake, and ruminal metabolism. In the feedlot experiments, 1,793 and 1,615 steers were used in Exp. 1 and 2, respectively, in 18 pens for each experiment (six pens/treatment). Three treatments were evaluated: 1) ad libitum bunk management with 28.6 mg/kg monensin and clean bunk management strategies with either 2) 28.6 or 3) 36.3 mg/kg monensin. In both experiments, 54 to 59% of the clean bunk pens were clean at targeted clean time, or 2200, compared with 24 to 28% of the ad libitum pens. However, only 13% of the pens were clean by 2000 in Exp. 1 (summer), whereas 44% of the pens in Exp. 2 (winter) were clean by 2000. In Exp. 1, bunk management and monensin concentration did not affect carcass-adjusted performance. In Exp. 2, steers fed ad libitum had greater DMI (P < 0.01) and carcass-adjusted ADG (P < 0.01) but feed efficiency (P > 0.13) similar to that of clean bunk-fed steers. Monensin concentration had no effect on carcass-adjusted performance (P > 0.20) in either experiment. A metabolism experiment was conducted with eight fistulated steers in a replicated 4 x 4 Latin square acidosis challenge experiment. An acidosis challenge was imposed by feeding 125% of the previous day's DMI, 4 h later than normal. Treatments consisted of monensin concentrations (mg/kg) of 0, 36.7, 48.9, or 36.7 until challenged and switched to 48.9 on the challenge day and 4 d following. Each replicate of the Latin square was managed with separate bunk management strategies (clean bunk or ad libitum). Feeding any concentration of monensin increased number of meals and decreased DMI rate (%/h) (P < 0.12) for the 4 d following the acidosis challenge. Meal size, pH change, and pH variance were lower (P < 0.10) for steers fed monensin with clean bunk management. However, no monensin effect was observed for steers fed ad libitum. Bunk management strategy has the potential to decrease DMI and ADG when steers managed on a clean bunk program are restricted relative to traditional, ad libitum bunk programs. Monensin helps control intake patterns for individuals, but increasing concentration above currently approved levels in this study seemed to have little effect.

Influence of glyphosate-tolerant (event nk603) and corn rootworm protected (event MON863) corn silage and grain on feed consumption and milk production in Holstein cattle.

Two studies were conducted to evaluate the effect of a glyphosate-tolerant (event nk603) and a corn rootworm protected (event MON863) corn hybrid on feed intake and milk production compared with the nontransgenic hybrid and two reference hybrids. In Experiment 1, 16 multiparous Holstein cows were assigned to one of four treatments in replicated 4 x 4 Latin squares with 28-d periods. Diets contained 40% (dry matter [DM] basis) of either 1) glyphosate-tolerant corn silage (GT), 2) nontransgenic control corn silage, or 3) two nontransgenic reference hybrids which are commercially available. Each diet also contained 23% corn grain from the same hybrid that supplied the silage. At ensiling, rapid drying conditions prevailed and the GT hybrid was the last to be harvested which resulted in greater DM content at similar physiological maturity. The 4% fat-corrected milk (FCM) yield and DMI were reduced for cows fed the GT corn diet due to the higher DM content of the GT silage (37.1 vs. 33.2 kg/d and 4.05 vs. 3.61% of BW, respectively). There was no effect of the GT diet on milk composition or efficiency of 4% FCM production that averaged 1.43 kg/kg of DM intake for all diets. In Experiment 2, 16 multiparous Holstein cows were assigned to one of four treatments in replicated 4 x 4 Latin squares with 21-d periods. Diets contained 26.7% (DM basis) corn grain from either 1) corn rootworm protected (event MON863) corn hybrid, 2) nontransgenic control corn hybrid, or 3) the same two nongenetically enhanced reference hybrids used in Experiment 1. The 4% FCM yield (34.8 kg/d) and DM intake (4.06% of BW) were unaffected by diet. Efficiency of FCM production (average 1.32 kg/kg of DMI) was not affected by diet. In summary, these two studies indicated that insertion of a gene for glyphosate tolerance or corn rootworm protection into a corn hybrid did not affect its nutritional value (as measured by efficiency of milk production) for lactating dairy cows compared with conventional corn hybrids.