First is the use of straightforward multiplereaction monitoring mass spectrometry, which is commonly used for small molecules, to measure unlabeled and labeled forms of a single tryptic peptide for ...each target protein, together with a very simple correction for label interference. A second key feature is the use of specific affinity enrichment of low-abundance proteins by means of antibodies on magnetic beads, followed by tryptic digestion, to obtain measurable amounts of a unique target peptide for each protein. Since the affinity enrichment removes only the target protein from a serum sample, leaving the others behind, the authors show that one protein after another can be enriched by its corresponding antibody from the same set of sample aliquots. While the relatively sophisticated nanoflow chromatography the authors used to achieve maximum analytical sensitivity is not common in clinical laboratories, typical high-flow or microflow clinical liquid chromatography systems would be sufficient to apply the method to high- and medium-abundance serum proteins.
Enriching eggs with omega-3 fatty acids (n-3 FA), such as docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), is a well-accepted practice that benefits the egg industry and consumers. However, issues around cost, ...sustainability, and product acceptance have necessitated the search for alternatives to feeding hens fish oil for DHA enrichment. The effects of feeding 2 algal oils on egg production and DHA enrichment in eggs and selected tissues were investigated. The algal oils were: 1) OmegaPro (OPAO) standardized algal oil for DHA content and 2) Crude algal oil (CAO). A total of 400, 46-wk-old Lohmann LSL lite hens were housed in enriched cages (10 birds/cage) and allocated 5 diets (n = 8) for a 12-wk trial. The iso-caloric and -nitrogenous diets were a standard corn and soybean meal diet, standard plus 0.25 or 0.76% OPAO and standard plus 0.23 or 0.69% CAO; algal oils diets supplied similar DHA at each level. Egg production indices (hen day egg production, feed intake, FCR, egg weight, egg mass, and eggshell quality) were monitored for 10 wk. Diet samples were analyzed for fatty acids (FA) on wk 1, 6, and 12 and eggs on wk 4, 5, 6, 9, and 12. At the end of the trial, one hen/cage was weighed and dissected for liver, breast and thigh for FA and long bones for ash content analyses. Concentration of omega-6 to omega-3 FA ratio was 12.9, 6.64, 3.48, 6.96, and 3.59 for standard, 0.23 and 0.76% OPAO, 0.25 and 0.69% CAO, respectively. Algal oils increased (P ≤ 0.046) eggshell thickness linearly. The concentration of DHA in the eggs from the birds fed the standard, 0.23 and 0.76% OPAO, 0.25 and 0.69% CAO was 84, 195, 286, 183, and 297 mg/100g egg, respectively, and algal oils enriched eggs with DHA linearly and quadratically (P ≤ 0.01). In conclusion, algal oils increased the concentration of DHA in eggs and had no adverse effects on egg production and eggshell quality.
Parents or children's primary caregivers are a key influence on child weight as both decision makers and role models for eating patterns, physical activity, and other social behaviors. It is unknown ...whether caregivers' time preferences are associated with overweight or obesity in children. The primary objective was to estimate the association between parents' or caregivers' time preferences and children having overweight or obesity in Mexico.
A cross-sectional study was conducted using a representative survey of the Mexican population. A multinomial logistic model was used to examine the association between parents' or caregivers' time preferences (patience and time consistency) and child overweight or obesity, adjusting for potential confounders.
The study included 9,102 children (mean age 10, 43% female) and 5,842 caregivers (mean age 37; 95% female). Intertemporal preference was strongly associated with increased odds of overweight or obesity in children. A medium patient caregiver had higher odds of having overweight (adjusted OR: 1.73; 95% CI: 1.19, 2.52). Similarly, having a caregiver with a present (OR: 2.52; 95% CI: 1.72, 3.70) or future bias (OR: 1.48; 95% CI: 1.11, 1.98) was associated with higher odds of obesity.
Caregivers' time preferences were associated with having overweight and obesity in children and should be considered when developing policies to reduce children's obesity status.
Subjective reports of insomnia and hypersomnia are common in bipolar disorder (BD). It is unclear to what extent these relate to underlying circadian rhythm disturbance (CRD). In this study we aimed ...to objectively assess sleep and circadian rhythm in a cohort of patients with BD compared to matched controls.
Forty-six patients with BD and 42 controls had comprehensive sleep/circadian rhythm assessment with respiratory sleep studies, prolonged accelerometry over 3 weeks, sleep questionnaires and diaries, melatonin levels, alongside mood, psychosocial functioning and quality of life (QoL) questionnaires.
Twenty-three (50%) patients with BD had abnormal sleep, of whom 12 (52%) had CRD and 29% had obstructive sleep apnoea. Patients with abnormal sleep had lower 24-h melatonin secretion compared to controls and patients with normal sleep. Abnormal sleep/CRD in BD was associated with impaired functioning and worse QoL.
BD is associated with high rates of abnormal sleep and CRD. The association between these disorders, mood and functioning, and the direction of causality, warrants further investigation.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration Global‐scale Observations of the Limb and Disk ultraviolet spectrograph has been imaging the equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA), regions of the ...ionosphere with enhanced electron density north and south of the magnetic equator, since October 2018. The initial 3 months of observations was during solar minimum conditions, and they included observations in December solstice of unanticipated variability and depleted regions. Depletions are seen on most nights, in contrast to expectations from previous space‐based observations. The variety of scales and morphologies also pose challenges to understanding of the EIA. Abrupt changes in the EIA location, which could be related to in situ measurements of large‐scale depletion regions, are observed on some nights. Such synoptic‐scale disruptions have not been previously identified.
Plain Language Summary
In this study, ultraviolet images of emissions from the Earth's nighttime ionosphere were examined to determine the location of the equatorial ionization anomaly, regions of enhanced ionization that result in bands of nighttime airglow emission that typically appear parallel to the magnetic equator near +15° and −15° magnetic latitude. We found that gaps in the anomaly are observed much more frequently in these observations than in previous space‐based observations. These gaps, sometimes referred to as ionospheric bubbles or depletions, are important because they are associated with ionospheric changes that can cause disruptions in communications and satellite navigation that depend on satellites, such as GPS. The location of the anomaly was also observed to vary significantly, by as much as 15°, from the typical latitudes. The observed level of variability seen during the unusually quiet geomagnetic conditions during which the observations occurred suggests that accurate predictions of the location and variability of the equatorial ionization anomaly requires significant advances in understanding the causes of this variability.
Key Points
During geomagnetically quiet solar minimum conditions, significant temporal and spatial variability is observed in the equatorial ionosphere
At solar minimum, depleted ionospheric regions are observed on most nights, at varying longitudes, and with evident meridional symmetry
Synoptic‐scale disruptions of the ionization crests are seen on several nights, possibly associated with large‐scale plasma instabilities
Lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA
), an enzyme associated with inflammation, is used as a biomarker for cardiovascular disease risk. Both the concentration and activity of Lp-PLA
have ...been shown to be clinically relevant. However, there is a discordance between the serum concentration of Lp-PLA
measured by the standard ELISA-based immunoassays and the activity of this enzyme, leading to substantial discordance in risk categorization depending on assay format.
We developed 2 LC-MS/MS-based assays to quantify serum Lp-PLA
activity (multiple reaction monitoring detection of product) and concentration stable isotope standards and capture by antipeptide antibody (SISCAPA) immunoaffinity, and we investigated their correlation to commercially offered colorimetric activity and immunometric concentrations assays. Associations between Lp-PLA
and lipoproteins and the effect of selected detergents in liberating Lp-PLA
were evaluated by use of immunoprecipitation and Western blot analyses.
Serum Lp-PLA
concentrations measured by quantitative SISCAPA-mass spectrometry were substantially higher than concentrations typically measured by immunoassay and showed an improved agreement with Lp-PLA
activity. With detergents, liberation of Lp-PLA
from lipoprotein complexes dramatically increased the amount of protein detected by immunoassay and improved the agreement with activity measurements.
Quantitative analysis of Lp-PLA
concentration and activity by LC-MS/MS assays provided key insight into resolving the well-documented discordance between Lp-PLA
concentration (determined by immunoassay) and activity. Quantitative detection of Lp-PLA
by immunoassay appears to be strongly inhibited by interaction of Lp-PLA
with lipoprotein. Together, the results illustrate the advantages of quantitative LC-MS/MS for measurement of Lp-PLA
concentration (by SISCAPA) and activity (by direct product detection).
Following deglaciation, the long-term pattern of change in diatom communities and the inferred history of the aquatic environment are affected by a hierarchy of environmental controls. These include ...direct climate impacts on a lake’s thermal and hydrologic budgets, as well as the indirect affects of climate on catchment processes, such as weathering, soil development, microbial activity, fire, and vegetation composition and productivity, which affect the transfer of solutes and particulates from the terrestrial ecosystem into the lake. Some of these catchment influences on lacustrine systems operate as time-dependent patterns of primary succession that are set in motion by glacier retreat. This paper provides a conceptual model of some dominant pathways of catchment influence on long-term lake development in glaciated regions and uses a series of paleolimnological examples from arctic, boreal, and temperate regions to evaluate the relative role of direct climate influences and of catchment processes in affecting the trajectory of aquatic ecosystems during the Holocene in different environmental contexts.
Summary Background The Placement of Aortic Transcatheter Valves (PARTNER) trial showed that mortality at 1 year, 2 years, and 3 years is much the same with transcatheter aortic valve replacement ...(TAVR) or surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) for high-risk patients with aortic stenosis. We report here the 5-year outcomes. Methods We did this randomised controlled trial at 25 hospitals, in Canada (two), Germany (one), and the USA (23). We used a computer-generated randomisation sequence to randomly assign high-risk patients with severe aortic stenosis to either SAVR or TAVR with a balloon-expandable bovine pericardial tissue valve by either a transfemoral or transapical approach. Patients and their treating physicians were not masked to treatment allocation. The primary outcome of the trial was all-cause mortality in the intention-to-treat population at 1 year, we present here predefined outcomes at 5 years. The study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov , number NCT00530894. Findings We screened 3105 patients, of whom 699 were enrolled (348 assigned to TAVR, 351 assigned to SAVR). Overall mean Society of Thoracic Surgeons Predicted Risk of Mortality score was 11·7%. At 5 years, risk of death was 67·8% in the TAVR group compared with 62·4% in the SAVR group (hazard ratio 1·04, 95% CI 0·86–1·24; p=0·76). We recorded no structural valve deterioration requiring surgical valve replacement in either group. Moderate or severe aortic regurgitation occurred in 40 (14%) of 280 patients in the TAVR group and two (1%) of 228 in the SAVR group (p<0·0001), and was associated with increased 5-year risk of mortality in the TAVR group (72·4% for moderate or severe aortic regurgitation vs 56·6% for those with mild aortic regurgitation or less; p=0·003). Interpretation Our findings show that TAVR as an alternative to surgery for patients with high surgical risk results in similar clinical outcomes. Funding Edwards Lifesciences.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic resulted in 5,817,385 reported cases and 362,705 deaths worldwide through May, 30, 2020,
including 1,761,503 aggregated reported cases and 103,700 ...deaths in the United States.
Previous analyses during February-early April 2020 indicated that age ≥65 years and underlying health conditions were associated with a higher risk for severe outcomes, which were less common among children aged <18 years (1-3). This report describes demographic characteristics, underlying health conditions, symptoms, and outcomes among 1,320,488 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases individually reported to CDC during January 22-May 30, 2020. Cumulative incidence, 403.6 cases per 100,000 persons,
was similar among males (401.1) and females (406.0) and highest among persons aged ≥80 years (902.0). Among 599,636 (45%) cases with known information, 33% of persons were Hispanic or Latino of any race (Hispanic), 22% were non-Hispanic black (black), and 1.3% were non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Native (AI/AN). Among 287,320 (22%) cases with sufficient data on underlying health conditions, the most common were cardiovascular disease (32%), diabetes (30%), and chronic lung disease (18%). Overall, 184,673 (14%) patients were hospitalized, 29,837 (2%) were admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU), and 71,116 (5%) died. Hospitalizations were six times higher among patients with a reported underlying condition (45.4%) than those without reported underlying conditions (7.6%). Deaths were 12 times higher among patients with reported underlying conditions (19.5%) compared with those without reported underlying conditions (1.6%). The COVID-19 pandemic continues to be severe, particularly in certain population groups. These preliminary findings underscore the need to build on current efforts to collect and analyze case data, especially among those with underlying health conditions. These data are used to monitor trends in COVID-19 illness, identify and respond to localized incidence increase, and inform policies and practices designed to reduce transmission in the United States.
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