Sample records for age results revealed

  1. Systematic analysis of the gerontome reveals links between aging and age-related diseases

    PubMed Central

    Fernandes, Maria; Wan, Cen; Tacutu, Robi; Barardo, Diogo; Rajput, Ashish; Wang, Jingwei; Thoppil, Harikrishnan; Thornton, Daniel; Yang, Chenhao; Freitas, Alex

    2016-01-01

    Abstract In model organisms, over 2,000 genes have been shown to modulate aging, the collection of which we call the ‘gerontome’. Although some individual aging-related genes have been the subject of intense scrutiny, their analysis as a whole has been limited. In particular, the genetic interaction of aging and age-related pathologies remain a subject of debate. In this work, we perform a systematic analysis of the gerontome across species, including human aging-related genes. First, by classifying aging-related genes as pro- or anti-longevity, we define distinct pathways and genes that modulate aging in different ways. Our subsequent comparison of aging-related genes with age-related disease genes reveals species-specific effects with strong overlaps between aging and age-related diseases in mice, yet surprisingly few overlaps in lower model organisms. We discover that genetic links between aging and age-related diseases are due to a small fraction of aging-related genes which also tend to have a high network connectivity. Other insights from our systematic analysis include assessing how using datasets with genes more or less studied than average may result in biases, showing that age-related disease genes have faster molecular evolution rates and predicting new aging-related drugs based on drug-gene interaction data. Overall, this is the largest systems-level analysis of the genetics of aging to date and the first to discriminate anti- and pro-longevity genes, revealing new insights on aging-related genes as a whole and their interactions with age-related diseases. PMID:28175300

  2. Modified aging of elite athletes revealed by analysis of epigenetic age markers

    PubMed Central

    Spólnicka, Magdalena; Pośpiech, Ewelina; Adamczyk, Jakub Grzegorz; Freire-Aradas, Ana; Pepłońska, Beata; Zbieć-Piekarska, Renata; Makowska, Żanetta; Pięta, Anna; Lareu, Maria Victoria; Phillips, Christopher; Płoski, Rafał; Żekanowski, Cezary

    2018-01-01

    Recent progress in epigenomics has led to the development of prediction systems that enable accurate age estimation from DNA methylation data. Our objective was to track responses to intense physical exercise of individual age-correlated DNA methylation markers and to infer their potential impact on the aging processes. The study showed accelerated DNA hypermethylation for two CpG sites in TRIM59 and KLF14. Both markers predicted the investigated elite athletes to be several years older than controls and this effect was more substantial in subjects involved in power sports. Accordingly, the complete 5-CpG model revealed age acceleration of elite athletes (P=1.503x10-7) and the result was more significant amongst power athletes (P=1.051x10-9). The modified methylation of TRIM59 and KLF14 in top athletes may be accounted for by the biological roles played by these genes. Their known anti-tumour and anti-inflammatory activities suggests that intense physical training has a complex influence on aging and potentially launches signalling networks that contribute to the observed lower risk of elite athletes to develop cardiovascular disease and cancer. PMID:29466246

  3. Modified aging of elite athletes revealed by analysis of epigenetic age markers.

    PubMed

    Spólnicka, Magdalena; Pośpiech, Ewelina; Adamczyk, Jakub Grzegorz; Freire-Aradas, Ana; Pepłońska, Beata; Zbieć-Piekarska, Renata; Makowska, Żanetta; Pięta, Anna; Lareu, Maria Victoria; Phillips, Christopher; Płoski, Rafał; Żekanowski, Cezary; Branicki, Wojciech

    2018-02-15

    Recent progress in epigenomics has led to the development of prediction systems that enable accurate age estimation from DNA methylation data. Our objective was to track responses to intense physical exercise of individual age-correlated DNA methylation markers and to infer their potential impact on the aging processes. The study showed accelerated DNA hypermethylation for two CpG sites in TRIM59 and KLF14 . Both markers predicted the investigated elite athletes to be several years older than controls and this effect was more substantial in subjects involved in power sports. Accordingly, the complete 5-CpG model revealed age acceleration of elite athletes ( P =1.503x10 -7 ) and the result was more significant amongst power athletes (P=1.051x10 -9 ). The modified methylation of TRIM59 and KLF14 in top athletes may be accounted for by the biological roles played by these genes. Their known anti-tumour and anti-inflammatory activities suggests that intense physical training has a complex influence on aging and potentially launches signalling networks that contribute to the observed lower risk of elite athletes to develop cardiovascular disease and cancer.

  4. Disease-aging network reveals significant roles of aging genes in connecting genetic diseases.

    PubMed

    Wang, Jiguang; Zhang, Shihua; Wang, Yong; Chen, Luonan; Zhang, Xiang-Sun

    2009-09-01

    One of the challenging problems in biology and medicine is exploring the underlying mechanisms of genetic diseases. Recent studies suggest that the relationship between genetic diseases and the aging process is important in understanding the molecular mechanisms of complex diseases. Although some intricate associations have been investigated for a long time, the studies are still in their early stages. In this paper, we construct a human disease-aging network to study the relationship among aging genes and genetic disease genes. Specifically, we integrate human protein-protein interactions (PPIs), disease-gene associations, aging-gene associations, and physiological system-based genetic disease classification information in a single graph-theoretic framework and find that (1) human disease genes are much closer to aging genes than expected by chance; and (2) diseases can be categorized into two types according to their relationships with aging. Type I diseases have their genes significantly close to aging genes, while type II diseases do not. Furthermore, we examine the topological characters of the disease-aging network from a systems perspective. Theoretical results reveal that the genes of type I diseases are in a central position of a PPI network while type II are not; (3) more importantly, we define an asymmetric closeness based on the PPI network to describe relationships between diseases, and find that aging genes make a significant contribution to associations among diseases, especially among type I diseases. In conclusion, the network-based study provides not only evidence for the intricate relationship between the aging process and genetic diseases, but also biological implications for prying into the nature of human diseases.

  5. Diffusion Tensor Tractography Reveals Disrupted Structural Connectivity during Brain Aging

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lin, Lan; Tian, Miao; Wang, Qi; Wu, Shuicai

    2017-10-01

    Brain aging is one of the most crucial biological processes that entail many physical, biological, chemical, and psychological changes, and also a major risk factor for most common neurodegenerative diseases. To improve the quality of life for the elderly, it is important to understand how the brain is changed during the normal aging process. We compared diffusion tensor imaging (DTI)-based brain networks in a cohort of 75 healthy old subjects by using graph theory metrics to describe the anatomical networks and connectivity patterns, and network-based statistic (NBS) analysis was used to identify pairs of regions with altered structural connectivity. The NBS analysis revealed a significant network comprising nine distinct fiber bundles linking 10 different brain regions showed altered white matter structures in young-old group compare with middle-aged group (p < .05, family-wise error-corrected). Our results might guide future studies and help to gain a better understanding of brain aging.

  6. Novel gene function revealed by mouse mutagenesis screens for models of age-related disease.

    PubMed

    Potter, Paul K; Bowl, Michael R; Jeyarajan, Prashanthini; Wisby, Laura; Blease, Andrew; Goldsworthy, Michelle E; Simon, Michelle M; Greenaway, Simon; Michel, Vincent; Barnard, Alun; Aguilar, Carlos; Agnew, Thomas; Banks, Gareth; Blake, Andrew; Chessum, Lauren; Dorning, Joanne; Falcone, Sara; Goosey, Laurence; Harris, Shelley; Haynes, Andy; Heise, Ines; Hillier, Rosie; Hough, Tertius; Hoslin, Angela; Hutchison, Marie; King, Ruairidh; Kumar, Saumya; Lad, Heena V; Law, Gemma; MacLaren, Robert E; Morse, Susan; Nicol, Thomas; Parker, Andrew; Pickford, Karen; Sethi, Siddharth; Starbuck, Becky; Stelma, Femke; Cheeseman, Michael; Cross, Sally H; Foster, Russell G; Jackson, Ian J; Peirson, Stuart N; Thakker, Rajesh V; Vincent, Tonia; Scudamore, Cheryl; Wells, Sara; El-Amraoui, Aziz; Petit, Christine; Acevedo-Arozena, Abraham; Nolan, Patrick M; Cox, Roger; Mallon, Anne-Marie; Brown, Steve D M

    2016-08-18

    Determining the genetic bases of age-related disease remains a major challenge requiring a spectrum of approaches from human and clinical genetics to the utilization of model organism studies. Here we report a large-scale genetic screen in mice employing a phenotype-driven discovery platform to identify mutations resulting in age-related disease, both late-onset and progressive. We have utilized N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea mutagenesis to generate pedigrees of mutagenized mice that were subject to recurrent screens for mutant phenotypes as the mice aged. In total, we identify 105 distinct mutant lines from 157 pedigrees analysed, out of which 27 are late-onset phenotypes across a range of physiological systems. Using whole-genome sequencing we uncover the underlying genes for 44 of these mutant phenotypes, including 12 late-onset phenotypes. These genes reveal a number of novel pathways involved with age-related disease. We illustrate our findings by the recovery and characterization of a novel mouse model of age-related hearing loss.

  7. Novel gene function revealed by mouse mutagenesis screens for models of age-related disease

    PubMed Central

    Potter, Paul K.; Bowl, Michael R.; Jeyarajan, Prashanthini; Wisby, Laura; Blease, Andrew; Goldsworthy, Michelle E.; Simon, Michelle M.; Greenaway, Simon; Michel, Vincent; Barnard, Alun; Aguilar, Carlos; Agnew, Thomas; Banks, Gareth; Blake, Andrew; Chessum, Lauren; Dorning, Joanne; Falcone, Sara; Goosey, Laurence; Harris, Shelley; Haynes, Andy; Heise, Ines; Hillier, Rosie; Hough, Tertius; Hoslin, Angela; Hutchison, Marie; King, Ruairidh; Kumar, Saumya; Lad, Heena V.; Law, Gemma; MacLaren, Robert E.; Morse, Susan; Nicol, Thomas; Parker, Andrew; Pickford, Karen; Sethi, Siddharth; Starbuck, Becky; Stelma, Femke; Cheeseman, Michael; Cross, Sally H.; Foster, Russell G.; Jackson, Ian J.; Peirson, Stuart N.; Thakker, Rajesh V.; Vincent, Tonia; Scudamore, Cheryl; Wells, Sara; El-Amraoui, Aziz; Petit, Christine; Acevedo-Arozena, Abraham; Nolan, Patrick M.; Cox, Roger; Mallon, Anne-Marie; Brown, Steve D. M.

    2016-01-01

    Determining the genetic bases of age-related disease remains a major challenge requiring a spectrum of approaches from human and clinical genetics to the utilization of model organism studies. Here we report a large-scale genetic screen in mice employing a phenotype-driven discovery platform to identify mutations resulting in age-related disease, both late-onset and progressive. We have utilized N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea mutagenesis to generate pedigrees of mutagenized mice that were subject to recurrent screens for mutant phenotypes as the mice aged. In total, we identify 105 distinct mutant lines from 157 pedigrees analysed, out of which 27 are late-onset phenotypes across a range of physiological systems. Using whole-genome sequencing we uncover the underlying genes for 44 of these mutant phenotypes, including 12 late-onset phenotypes. These genes reveal a number of novel pathways involved with age-related disease. We illustrate our findings by the recovery and characterization of a novel mouse model of age-related hearing loss. PMID:27534441

  8. Active Aging Promotion: Results from the Vital Aging Program

    PubMed Central

    Caprara, Mariagiovanna; Molina, María Ángeles; Schettini, Rocío; Santacreu, Marta; Orosa, Teresa; Mendoza-Núñez, Víctor Manuel; Rojas, Macarena; Fernández-Ballesteros, Rocío

    2013-01-01

    Active aging is one of the terms in the semantic network of aging well, together with others such as successful, productive, competent aging. All allude to the new paradigm in gerontology, whereby aging is considered from a positive perspective. Most authors in the field agree active aging is a multidimensional concept, embracing health, physical and cognitive fitness, positive affect and control, social relationships and engagement. This paper describes Vital Aging, an individual active aging promotion program implemented through three modalities: Life, Multimedia, and e-Learning. The program was developed on the basis of extensive evidence about individual determinants of active aging. The different versions of Vital Aging are described, and four evaluation studies (both formative and summative) are reported. Formative evaluation reflected participants' satisfaction and expected changes; summative evaluations yielded some quite encouraging results using quasi-experimental designs: those who took part in the programs increased their physical exercise, significantly improved their diet, reported better memory, had better emotional balance, and enjoyed more cultural, intellectual, affective, and social activities than they did before the course, thus increasing their social relationships. These results are discussed in the context of the common literature within the field and, also, taking into account the limitations of the evaluations accomplished. PMID:23476644

  9. Age, Ageing and Skills: Results from the Survey of Adult Skills. OECD Education Working Papers, No. 132

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Paccagnella, Marco

    2016-01-01

    This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the link between age and proficiency in information-processing skills, based on information drawn from the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC). The data reveal significant age-related differences in proficiencies, strongly suggesting that proficiency tends to "naturally" decline with age. Age…

  10. Otoliths reveal a diverse age structure for humper lake trout in Lake Superior

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Burnham-Curtis, Mary K.; Bronte, Charles R.

    1996-01-01

    Humpers are one of at least three morphological variants of wild lake trout Salvelinus namaycush that maintain self-sustaining populations in Lake Superior. In an early study, bumpers from Isle Royale were shown to have a sharply truncated age distribution that was attributed to high mortality after age 11, but we suspected that these fish were underaged. In August of 1989 and 1992 we collected spawning humper lake trout from the same area and estimated their ages using both scales and sagittal otoliths. Humpers in our sample ranged from 5 to 13 years, based on scale annuli, but counts of sagitta annuli revealed ages of 8 to 28 years. Individual discrepancies between ages from scales and sagittae varied from –2 to 20 years, but differences between scale and otolith ages did not increase with individual age. We applied the von Bertalanffy growth model to the humper length-at-age data to indirectly assess the accuracy of aging estimates. The model significantly overestimated mean asymptotic length when scale ages were used, but the mean asymptotic length estimate was more similar to observed lengths when sagitta ages were used. Our results corroborate evidence that bumpers in Lake Superior grow more slowly and mature at a smaller size than lean lake trout; however, the age composition of bumpers is more diverse than previously thought. This particular population experiences little or no exploitation; the presence of older fish provides one standard by which the success of lake trout rehabilitation programs can be evaluated and emphasizes the need for accurate aging techniques.

  11. Widespread age-related differences in the human brain microstructure revealed by quantitative magnetic resonance imaging.

    PubMed

    Callaghan, Martina F; Freund, Patrick; Draganski, Bogdan; Anderson, Elaine; Cappelletti, Marinella; Chowdhury, Rumana; Diedrichsen, Joern; Fitzgerald, Thomas H B; Smittenaar, Peter; Helms, Gunther; Lutti, Antoine; Weiskopf, Nikolaus

    2014-08-01

    A pressing need exists to disentangle age-related changes from pathologic neurodegeneration. This study aims to characterize the spatial pattern and age-related differences of biologically relevant measures in vivo over the course of normal aging. Quantitative multiparameter maps that provide neuroimaging biomarkers for myelination and iron levels, parameters sensitive to aging, were acquired from 138 healthy volunteers (age range: 19-75 years). Whole-brain voxel-wise analysis revealed a global pattern of age-related degeneration. Significant demyelination occurred principally in the white matter. The observed age-related differences in myelination were anatomically specific. In line with invasive histologic reports, higher age-related differences were seen in the genu of the corpus callosum than the splenium. Iron levels were significantly increased in the basal ganglia, red nucleus, and extensive cortical regions but decreased along the superior occipitofrontal fascicle and optic radiation. This whole-brain pattern of age-associated microstructural differences in the asymptomatic population provides insight into the neurobiology of aging. The results help build a quantitative baseline from which to examine and draw a dividing line between healthy aging and pathologic neurodegeneration. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  12. Widespread age-related differences in the human brain microstructure revealed by quantitative magnetic resonance imaging☆

    PubMed Central

    Callaghan, Martina F.; Freund, Patrick; Draganski, Bogdan; Anderson, Elaine; Cappelletti, Marinella; Chowdhury, Rumana; Diedrichsen, Joern; FitzGerald, Thomas H.B.; Smittenaar, Peter; Helms, Gunther; Lutti, Antoine; Weiskopf, Nikolaus

    2014-01-01

    A pressing need exists to disentangle age-related changes from pathologic neurodegeneration. This study aims to characterize the spatial pattern and age-related differences of biologically relevant measures in vivo over the course of normal aging. Quantitative multiparameter maps that provide neuroimaging biomarkers for myelination and iron levels, parameters sensitive to aging, were acquired from 138 healthy volunteers (age range: 19–75 years). Whole-brain voxel-wise analysis revealed a global pattern of age-related degeneration. Significant demyelination occurred principally in the white matter. The observed age-related differences in myelination were anatomically specific. In line with invasive histologic reports, higher age-related differences were seen in the genu of the corpus callosum than the splenium. Iron levels were significantly increased in the basal ganglia, red nucleus, and extensive cortical regions but decreased along the superior occipitofrontal fascicle and optic radiation. This whole-brain pattern of age-associated microstructural differences in the asymptomatic population provides insight into the neurobiology of aging. The results help build a quantitative baseline from which to examine and draw a dividing line between healthy aging and pathologic neurodegeneration. PMID:24656835

  13. Transcriptional profiling reveals progeroid Ercc1-/Δ mice as a model system for glomerular aging

    PubMed Central

    2013-01-01

    Background Aging-related kidney diseases are a major health concern. Currently, models to study renal aging are lacking. Due to a reduced life-span progeroid models hold the promise to facilitate aging studies and allow examination of tissue-specific changes. Defects in genome maintenance in the Ercc1-/Δ progeroid mouse model result in premature aging and typical age-related pathologies. Here, we compared the glomerular transcriptome of young and aged Ercc1-deficient mice to young and aged WT mice in order to establish a novel model for research of aging-related kidney disease. Results In a principal component analysis, age and genotype emerged as first and second principal components. Hierarchical clustering of all 521 genes differentially regulated between young and old WT and young and old Ercc1-/Δ mice showed cluster formation between young WT and Ercc1-/Δ as well as old WT and Ercc1-/Δ samples. An unexpectedly high number of 77 genes were differentially regulated in both WT and Ercc1-/Δ mice (p < 0.0001). GO term enrichment analysis revealed these genes to be involved in immune and inflammatory response, cell death, and chemotaxis. In a network analysis, these genes were part of insulin signaling, chemokine and cytokine signaling and extracellular matrix pathways. Conclusion Beyond insulin signaling, we find chemokine and cytokine signaling as well as modifiers of extracellular matrix composition to be subject to major changes in the aging glomerulus. At the level of the transcriptome, the pattern of gene activities is similar in the progeroid Ercc1-/Δ mouse model constituting a valuable tool for future studies of aging-associated glomerular pathologies. PMID:23947592

  14. Premature Brain Aging in Baboons Resulting from Moderate Fetal Undernutrition.

    PubMed

    Franke, Katja; Clarke, Geoffrey D; Dahnke, Robert; Gaser, Christian; Kuo, Anderson H; Li, Cun; Schwab, Matthias; Nathanielsz, Peter W

    2017-01-01

    Contrary to the known benefits from a moderate dietary reduction during adulthood on life span and health, maternal nutrient reduction during pregnancy is supposed to affect the developing brain, probably resulting in impaired brain structure and function throughout life. Decreased fetal nutrition delivery is widespread in both developing and developed countries, caused by poverty and natural disasters, but also due to maternal dieting, teenage pregnancy, pregnancy in women over 35 years of age, placental insufficiency, or multiples. Compromised development of fetal cerebral structures was already shown in our baboon model of moderate maternal nutrient reduction. The present study was designed to follow-up and evaluate the effects of moderate maternal nutrient reduction on individual brain aging in the baboon during young adulthood (4-7 years; human equivalent 14-24 years), applying a novel, non-invasive neuroimaging aging biomarker. The study reveals premature brain aging of +2.7 years ( p < 0.01) in the female baboon exposed to fetal undernutrition. The effects of moderate maternal nutrient reduction on individual brain aging occurred in the absence of fetal growth restriction or marked maternal weight reduction at birth, which stresses the significance of early nutritional conditions in life-long developmental programming. This non-invasive MRI biomarker allows further longitudinal in vivo tracking of individual brain aging trajectories to assess the life-long effects of developmental and environmental influences in programming paradigms, aiding preventive and curative treatments on cerebral atrophy in experimental animal models and humans.

  15. Premature Brain Aging in Baboons Resulting from Moderate Fetal Undernutrition

    PubMed Central

    Franke, Katja; Clarke, Geoffrey D.; Dahnke, Robert; Gaser, Christian; Kuo, Anderson H.; Li, Cun; Schwab, Matthias; Nathanielsz, Peter W.

    2017-01-01

    Contrary to the known benefits from a moderate dietary reduction during adulthood on life span and health, maternal nutrient reduction during pregnancy is supposed to affect the developing brain, probably resulting in impaired brain structure and function throughout life. Decreased fetal nutrition delivery is widespread in both developing and developed countries, caused by poverty and natural disasters, but also due to maternal dieting, teenage pregnancy, pregnancy in women over 35 years of age, placental insufficiency, or multiples. Compromised development of fetal cerebral structures was already shown in our baboon model of moderate maternal nutrient reduction. The present study was designed to follow-up and evaluate the effects of moderate maternal nutrient reduction on individual brain aging in the baboon during young adulthood (4–7 years; human equivalent 14–24 years), applying a novel, non-invasive neuroimaging aging biomarker. The study reveals premature brain aging of +2.7 years (p < 0.01) in the female baboon exposed to fetal undernutrition. The effects of moderate maternal nutrient reduction on individual brain aging occurred in the absence of fetal growth restriction or marked maternal weight reduction at birth, which stresses the significance of early nutritional conditions in life-long developmental programming. This non-invasive MRI biomarker allows further longitudinal in vivo tracking of individual brain aging trajectories to assess the life-long effects of developmental and environmental influences in programming paradigms, aiding preventive and curative treatments on cerebral atrophy in experimental animal models and humans. PMID:28443017

  16. Age at treatment and long-term performance results in medulloblastoma

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Chin, H.W.; Maruyama, Y.

    1984-05-01

    Medulloblastoma is highly radioresponsive, and recent treatment results have improved greatly since the introduction of megavoltage machine in 1960s. There is increasing evidence for the potential cure of medulloblastoma if properly treated in its early stages. The curable group represents approximately 75% of diagnosed patients. Long-term treatment effects were examined in this study. The study reveals age-dependent late effects in learning ability; the patients less than 4-years-old at treatment had major learning problems; patients of 5 to 7 years old performed at satisfactory-to-low passing levels in school work; patients older than 8 years old had no major intellectual impairment. Shortmore » stature was common when growth potential was present at the time of therapy, but endocrine tests were generally negative. These observations indicate special educational requirement needs, especially for children treated at a young age.« less

  17. Alterations in Normal Aging Revealed by Cortical Brain Network Constructed Using IBASPM.

    PubMed

    Li, Wan; Yang, Chunlan; Shi, Feng; Wang, Qun; Wu, Shuicai; Lu, Wangsheng; Li, Shaowu; Nie, Yingnan; Zhang, Xin

    2018-04-16

    Normal aging has been linked with the decline of cognitive functions, such as memory and executive skills. One of the prominent approaches to investigate the age-related alterations in the brain is by examining the cortical brain connectome. IBASPM is a toolkit to realize individual atlas-based volume measurement. Hence, this study seeks to determine what further alterations can be revealed by cortical brain networks formed by IBASPM-extracted regional gray matter volumes. We found the reduced strength of connections between the superior temporal pole and middle temporal pole in the right hemisphere, global hubs as the left fusiform gyrus and right Rolandic operculum in the young and aging groups, respectively, and significantly reduced inter-module connection of one module in the aging group. These new findings are consistent with the phenomenon of normal aging mentioned in previous studies and suggest that brain network built with the IBASPM could provide supplementary information to some extent. The individualization of morphometric features extraction deserved to be given more attention in future cortical brain network research.

  18. Transcriptional profiling reveals progeroid Ercc1(-/Δ) mice as a model system for glomerular aging.

    PubMed

    Schermer, Bernhard; Bartels, Valerie; Frommolt, Peter; Habermann, Bianca; Braun, Fabian; Schultze, Joachim L; Roodbergen, Marianne; Hoeijmakers, Jan Hj; Schumacher, Björn; Nürnberg, Peter; Dollé, Martijn Et; Benzing, Thomas; Müller, Roman-Ulrich; Kurschat, Christine E

    2013-08-16

    Aging-related kidney diseases are a major health concern. Currently, models to study renal aging are lacking. Due to a reduced life-span progeroid models hold the promise to facilitate aging studies and allow examination of tissue-specific changes. Defects in genome maintenance in the Ercc1(-/Δ) progeroid mouse model result in premature aging and typical age-related pathologies. Here, we compared the glomerular transcriptome of young and aged Ercc1-deficient mice to young and aged WT mice in order to establish a novel model for research of aging-related kidney disease. In a principal component analysis, age and genotype emerged as first and second principal components. Hierarchical clustering of all 521 genes differentially regulated between young and old WT and young and old Ercc1(-/Δ) mice showed cluster formation between young WT and Ercc1(-/Δ) as well as old WT and Ercc1(-/Δ) samples. An unexpectedly high number of 77 genes were differentially regulated in both WT and Ercc1(-/Δ) mice (p < 0.0001). GO term enrichment analysis revealed these genes to be involved in immune and inflammatory response, cell death, and chemotaxis. In a network analysis, these genes were part of insulin signaling, chemokine and cytokine signaling and extracellular matrix pathways. Beyond insulin signaling, we find chemokine and cytokine signaling as well as modifiers of extracellular matrix composition to be subject to major changes in the aging glomerulus. At the level of the transcriptome, the pattern of gene activities is similar in the progeroid Ercc1(-/Δ) mouse model constituting a valuable tool for future studies of aging-associated glomerular pathologies.

  19. Serial optical coherence scanning reveals an association between cardiac function and the heart architecture in the aging rodent heart

    PubMed Central

    Castonguay, Alexandre; Lefebvre, Joël; Pouliot, Philippe; Avti, Pramod; Moeini, Mohammad; Lesage, Frédéric

    2017-01-01

    Normal aging is accompanied by structural changes in the heart architecture. To explore this remodeling, we used a serial optical coherence tomography scanner to image entire mouse hearts at micron scale resolution. Ex vivo hearts of 7 young (4 months) and 5 old (24 months) C57BL/6 mice were acquired with the imaging platform. OCT of the myocardium revealed myofiber orientation changing linearly from the endocardium to the epicardium. In old mice, this rate of change was lower when compared to young mice while the average volume of old mice hearts was significantly larger (p<0.05). Myocardial wall thickening was also accompanied by extracellular spacing in the endocardium, resulting in a lower OCT attenuation coefficient in old mice endocardium (p<0.05). Prior to serial sectioning, cardiac function of the same hearts was imaged in vivo using MRI and revealed a reduced ejection fraction with aging. The use of a serial optical coherence tomography scanner allows new insight into fine age-related changes of the heart associated with changes in heart function. PMID:29188099

  20. The Physical Mechanism of Frictional Aging Revealed by Nanoindentation Creep

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Thom, C.; Carpick, R. W.; Goldsby, D. L.

    2017-12-01

    A classical observation from rock friction experiments is that friction increases linearly with the logarithm of the time of stationary contact, a phenomenon sometimes referred to as aging. Aging is most often attributed to an increase in the real area of contact due to asperity creep. However, recent atomic force microscopy (AFM) experiments and molecular dynamics simulations suggest that time-dependent siloxane (Si—O—Si) bonding gives rise to aging in silica-silica contacts in the absence of plastic deformation. Determining whether an increase in contact `quantity' (due to creep), contact `quality' (due to chemical bonding), or another unknown mechanism causes aging is a challenging experimental task, despite its importance for developing a physical basis for rate and state friction laws. An intriguing observation is that aging is absent in friction experiments on quartz rocks and gouge at humidities <5% and returns upon exposure of the test specimens to humid air. This behavior has been attributed to the effects of water on asperity creep (via hydrolytic weakening) or on the adhesive strength of contacts. To discern between these possibilities, we have conducted nanoindentation experiments on single crystals of quartz to measure their indentation hardness and creep behavior at humidities of 2% to 50%, and in vacuum. Samples were loaded at 1000 mN/s to a peak load of 15, 40, or 400 mN, which was then held constant for 10 s. After the peak load is reached, the tip sinks into the material with time due to creep of the indentation contact. Our experiments reveal that there is no effect of varying humidity on either indentation hardness or indentation creep behavior over the full range of humidities investigated. If asperity creep were the dominant mechanism of frictional aging for quartz in the experiments cited above, then significant increases in hardness and decreases in the growth rate of indentation contacts at low humidities is expected, in stark contrast

  1. Open-system coral ages reveal persistent suborbital sea-level cycles.

    PubMed

    Thompson, William G; Goldstein, Steven L

    2005-04-15

    Sea level is a sensitive index of global climate that has been linked to Earth's orbital variations, with a minimum periodicity of about 21,000 years. Although there is ample evidence for climate oscillations that are too frequent to be explained by orbital forcing, suborbital-frequency sea-level change has been difficult to resolve, primarily because of problems with uranium/thorium coral dating. Here we use a new approach that corrects coral ages for the frequently observed open-system behavior of uranium-series nuclides, substantially improving the resolution of sea-level reconstruction. This curve reveals persistent sea-level oscillations that are too frequent to be explained exclusively by orbital forcing.

  2. INTER- AND INTRA-CLUSTER AGE GRADIENTS IN MASSIVE STAR FORMING REGIONS AND INDIVIDUAL NEARBY STELLAR CLUSTERS REVEALED BY MYStIX

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Getman, Konstantin V.; Feigelson, Eric; Kuhn, Michael A.; Broos, Patrick S; Townsley, Leisa K.; Naylor, Tim; Povich, Matthew S.; Luhman, Kevin; Garmire, Gordon

    2014-08-01

    The MYStIX (Massive Young Star-Forming Complex Study in Infrared and X-ray) project seeks to characterize 20 OB-dominated young star forming regions (SFRs) at distances <4 kpc using photometric catalogs from the Chandra X-ray Observatory, Spitzer Space Telescope, UKIRT and 2MASS surveys. As part of the MYStIX project, we developed a new stellar chronometer that employs near-infrared and X-ray photometry data, AgeJX. Computing AgeJX averaged over MYStIX (sub)clusters reveals previously unknown age gradients across most of the MYStIX regions as well as within some individual rich clusters. Within the SFRs, the inferred AgeJX ages are youngest in obscured locations in molecular clouds, intermediate in revealed stellar clusters, and oldest in distributed stellar populations. Noticeable intra-cluster gradients are seen in the NGC 2024 (Flame Nebula) star cluster and the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC): stars in cluster cores appear younger and thus were formed later than stars in cluster halos. The latter result has two important implications for the formation of young stellar clusters. Clusters likely form slowly: they do not arise from a single nearly-instantaneous burst of star formation. The simple models where clusters form inside-out are likely incorrect, and more complex models are needed. We provide several star formation scenarios that alone or in combination may lead to the observed core-halo age gradients.

  3. RNA synthesis in the pancreatic acinar cells of aging mice as revealed by electron microscopic radioautography.

    PubMed

    Nagata, Tetsuji

    2012-01-01

    For the purpose of studying the aging changes of macromolecular synthesis in the pancreatic acinar cells of experimental animals, we studied 10 groups of aging mice during development and aging from fetal day 19 to postnatal month 24. They were injected with 3H-uridine, a precursor for RNA synthesis, sacrificed and the pancreatic tissues were taken out, fixed and processed for light and electron microscopic radioautography. On many radioautograms the localization of silver grains demonstrating RNA synthesis in pancreatic acinar cells in respective aging groups were analyzed qualitatively. The number of mitochondria per cell, the number of labeled mitochondria with silver grains and the number of silver grains in each cell in respective aging groups were analyzed quantitatively in relation to the aging of animals. The results revealed that the RNA synthetic activity as expressed by the incorporations of RNA precursor, i.e., the number of silver grains in cell nuclei, cell organelles, changed due to the aging of animals. The number of mitochondria, the number of labeled mitochondria and the mitochondrial labeling index labeled with silver grains were counted in each pancreatic acinar cell. It was demonstrated that the number of mitochondria, the number of labeled mitochondria and the labeling indices showing RNA synthesis at various ages increased from embryonic day 19 to postnatal newborn day 1, 3, 9, 14, adult month 1, 2 and 6, reaching the maxima, then decreased to senile stage at postnatal year 1 to 2, indicating the aging changes. Based upon our findings, available literature on macromolecular synthesis in mitochondria of various cells are reviewed.

  4. The ARSQ 2.0 reveals age and personality effects on mind-wandering experiences

    PubMed Central

    Diaz, B. Alexander; Van Der Sluis, Sophie; Benjamins, Jeroen S.; Stoffers, Diederick; Hardstone, Richard; Mansvelder, Huibert D.; Van Someren, Eus J. W.; Linkenkaer-Hansen, Klaus

    2014-01-01

    The human brain frequently generates thoughts and feelings detached from environmental demands. Investigating the rich repertoire of these mind-wandering experiences is challenging, as it depends on introspection and mapping its content requires an unknown number of dimensions. We recently developed a retrospective self-report questionnaire—the Amsterdam Resting-State Questionnaire (ARSQ)—which quantifies mind wandering along seven dimensions: “Discontinuity of Mind,” “Theory of Mind,” “Self,” “Planning,” “Sleepiness,” “Comfort,” and “Somatic Awareness.” Here, we show using confirmatory factor analysis that the ARSQ can be simplified by standardizing the number of items per factor and extending it to a 10-dimensional model, adding “Health Concern,” “Visual Thought,” and “Verbal Thought.” We will refer to this extended ARSQ as the “ARSQ 2.0.” Testing for effects of age and gender revealed no main effect for gender, yet a moderate and significant negative effect for age on the dimensions of “Self,” “Planning,” and “Visual Thought.” Interestingly, we observed stable and significant test-retest correlations across measurement intervals of 3–32 months except for “Sleepiness” and “Health Concern.” To investigate whether this stability could be related to personality traits, we correlated ARSQ scores to proxy measures of Cloninger's Temperament and Character Inventory, revealing multiple significant associations for the trait “Self-Directedness.” Other traits correlated to specific ARSQ dimensions, e.g., a negative association between “Harm Avoidance” and “Comfort.” Together, our results suggest that the ARSQ 2.0 is a promising instrument for quantitative studies on mind wandering and its relation to other psychological or physiological phenomena. PMID:24772097

  5. Stratification based on reproductive state reveals contrasting patterns of age-related variation in demographic parameters in the kittiwake

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Cam, E.; Monnat, J.-Y.

    2000-01-01

    Heterogeneity in individual quality can be a major obstacle when interpreting age-specific variation in life-history traits. Heterogeneity is likely to lead to within-generation selection, and patterns observed at the population level may result from the combination of hidden patterns specific to subpopulations. Population-level patterns are not relevant to hypotheses concerning the evolution of age-specific reproductive strategies if they differ from patterns at the individual level. We addressed the influence of age and a variable used as a surrogate of quality (yearly reproductive state) on survival and breeding probability in the kittiwake. We found evidence of an effect of age and quality on both demographic parameters. Patterns observed in breeders are consistent with the selection hypothesis, which predicts age-related increases in survival and traits positively correlated with survival. Our results also reveal unexpected age effects specific to subgroups: the influence of age on survival and future breeding probability is not the same in nonbreeders and breeders. These patterns are observed in higher-quality breeding habitats, where the influence of extrinsic factors on breeding state is the weakest. Moreover, there is slight evidence of an influence of sex on breeding probability (not on survival), but the same overall pattern is observed in both sexes. Our results support the hypothesis that age-related variation in demographic parameters observed at the population level is partly shaped by heterogeneity among individuals. They also suggest processes specific to subpopulations. Recent theoreticaI developments lay emphasis on integration of sources of heterogeneity in optimization models to account for apparently 'sub-optimal' empirical patterns. Incorporation of sources of heterogeneity is also the key to investigation of age-related reproductive strategies in heterogeneous populations. Thwarting 'heterogeneity's ruses' has become a major challenge: for

  6. Proteomic Analysis Reveals Age-related Changes in Tendon Matrix Composition, with Age- and Injury-specific Matrix Fragmentation*

    PubMed Central

    Peffers, Mandy J.; Thorpe, Chavaunne T.; Collins, John A.; Eong, Robin; Wei, Timothy K. J.; Screen, Hazel R. C.; Clegg, Peter D.

    2014-01-01

    Energy storing tendons, such as the human Achilles and equine superficial digital flexor tendon (SDFT), are highly prone to injury, the incidence of which increases with aging. The cellular and molecular mechanisms that result in increased injury in aged tendons are not well established but are thought to result in altered matrix turnover. However, little attempt has been made to fully characterize the tendon proteome nor determine how the abundance of specific tendon proteins changes with aging and/or injury. The aim of this study was, therefore, to assess the protein profile of normal SDFTs from young and old horses using label-free relative quantification to identify differentially abundant proteins and peptide fragments between age groups. The protein profile of injured SDFTs from young and old horses was also assessed. The results demonstrate distinct proteomic profiles in young and old tendon, with alterations in the levels of proteins involved in matrix organization and regulation of cell tension. Furthermore, we identified several new peptide fragments (neopeptides) present in aged tendons, suggesting that there are age-specific cleavage patterns within the SDFT. Proteomic profile also differed between young and old injured tendon, with a greater number of neopeptides identified in young injured tendon. This study has increased the knowledge of molecular events associated with tendon aging and injury, suggesting that maintenance and repair of tendon tissue may be reduced in aged individuals and may help to explain why the risk of injury increases with aging. PMID:25077967

  7. Proteomic analysis reveals age-related changes in tendon matrix composition, with age- and injury-specific matrix fragmentation.

    PubMed

    Peffers, Mandy J; Thorpe, Chavaunne T; Collins, John A; Eong, Robin; Wei, Timothy K J; Screen, Hazel R C; Clegg, Peter D

    2014-09-12

    Energy storing tendons, such as the human Achilles and equine superficial digital flexor tendon (SDFT), are highly prone to injury, the incidence of which increases with aging. The cellular and molecular mechanisms that result in increased injury in aged tendons are not well established but are thought to result in altered matrix turnover. However, little attempt has been made to fully characterize the tendon proteome nor determine how the abundance of specific tendon proteins changes with aging and/or injury. The aim of this study was, therefore, to assess the protein profile of normal SDFTs from young and old horses using label-free relative quantification to identify differentially abundant proteins and peptide fragments between age groups. The protein profile of injured SDFTs from young and old horses was also assessed. The results demonstrate distinct proteomic profiles in young and old tendon, with alterations in the levels of proteins involved in matrix organization and regulation of cell tension. Furthermore, we identified several new peptide fragments (neopeptides) present in aged tendons, suggesting that there are age-specific cleavage patterns within the SDFT. Proteomic profile also differed between young and old injured tendon, with a greater number of neopeptides identified in young injured tendon. This study has increased the knowledge of molecular events associated with tendon aging and injury, suggesting that maintenance and repair of tendon tissue may be reduced in aged individuals and may help to explain why the risk of injury increases with aging. © 2014 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

  8. Greater Perceived Age Discrimination in England than the United States: Results from HRS and ELSA

    PubMed Central

    Zaninotto, Paola; Steptoe, Andrew

    2015-01-01

    Objectives. We examined cross-national differences in perceptions of age discrimination in England and the United States. Under the premise that the United States has had age discrimination legislation in place for considerably longer than England, we hypothesized that perceptions of age discrimination would be lower in the United States. Methods. We analyzed data from two nationally representative studies of aging, the U.S. Health and Retirement Study (n = 4,818) and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (n = 7,478). Respondents aged 52 years and older who attributed any experiences of discrimination to their age were treated as cases of perceived age discrimination. We used multivariable logistic regression to estimate the odds ratios of experiencing perceived age discrimination in relation to selected sociodemographic factors. Results. Perceptions of age discrimination were significantly higher in England than the United States, with 34.8% of men and women in England reporting age discrimination compared with 29.1% in the United States. Associations between perceived age discrimination and older age and lower levels of household wealth were observed in both countries, but we found differences between England and the United States in the relationship between perceived age discrimination and education. Discussion. Our study revealed that levels of perceived age discrimination are lower in the United States than England and are less socially patterned. This suggests that differing social and political circumstances in the two countries may have an important role to play. PMID:26224759

  9. Geometric morphometric analysis reveals age-related differences in the distal femur of Europeans.

    PubMed

    Cavaignac, Etienne; Savall, Frederic; Chantalat, Elodie; Faruch, Marie; Reina, Nicolas; Chiron, Philippe; Telmon, Norbert

    2017-12-01

    Few studies have looked into age-related variations in femur shape. We hypothesized that three-dimensional (3D) geometric morphometric analysis of the distal femur would reveal age-related differences. The purpose of this study was to show that differences in distal femur shape related to age could be identified, visualized, and quantified using three-dimensional (3D) geometric morphometric analysis. Geometric morphometric analysis was carried out on CT scans of the distal femur of 256 subjects living in the south of France. Ten landmarks were defined on 3D reconstructions of the distal femur. Both traditional metric and geometric morphometric analyses were carried out on these bone reconstructions. These analyses were used to identify trends in bone shape in various age-based subgroups (<40, 40-60, >60). Only the average bone shape of the < 40-year subgroup was statistically different from that of the other two groups. When the population was divided into two subgroups using 40 years of age as a threshold, the subject's age was correctly assigned 80% of the time. Age-related differences are present in this bone segment. This reliable, accurate method could be used for virtual autopsy and to perform diachronic and interethnic comparisons. Moreover, this study provides updated morphometric data for a modern population in the south of France. Manufacturers of knee replacement implants will have to adapt their prosthesis models as the population evolves over time.

  10. [Cognitive capacity in advanced age: initial results of the Berlin Aging Study].

    PubMed

    Lindenberger, U; Baltes, P B

    1995-01-01

    This study reports data on intellectual functioning in old and very old age from the Berlin Aging Study (N = 516; age range = 70-103 years; mean age = 85 years). A psychometric battery of 14 tests was used to assess five cognitive abilities: reasoning, memory, and perceptual speed from the broad fluid-mechanical as well as knowledge and fluency from the broad crystallized-pragmatic domains. Cognitive abilities had a negative linear relationship with age, with more pronounced age-based reductions in fluid-mechanical than crystallized-pragmatic abilities. At the same time, ability intercorrelations formed a highly positive manifold, and did not follow the fluid-crystallized distinction. Interindividual variability was of about equal magnitude across the entire age range studied. There was, however, no evidence for substantial sex differences. As to origins of individual differences, indicators of sensory and sensorimotor functioning were more powerful predictors of intellectual functioning than cultural-biographical variables, and the two sets of predictors were, consistent with theoretical expectations, differentially related to measures of fluid-mechanical (perceptual speed) and crystallized pragmatic (knowledge) functioning. Results, in general indicative of sizeable and general losses with age, are consistent with the view that aging-induced biological influences are a prominent source of individual differences in intellectual functioning in old and very old age. Longitudinal follow-ups are underway to examine the role of cohort effects, selective mortality, and interindividual differences in change trajectories.

  11. Morphometric evaluation of the knee in Chinese population reveals sexual dimorphism and age-related differences.

    PubMed

    Li, Ke; Cavaignac, Etienne; Xu, Wei; Cheng, Qiang; Telmon, Nobert; Huang, Wei

    2018-02-20

    Morphologic data of the knee is very important in the design of total knee prostheses. Generally, the designs of the total knee prostheses are based on the knee anatomy of Caucasian population. Moreover, in forensic medicine, a person's age and sex might be estimated by the shape of their knees. The aim of this study is to utilize three-dimensional morphometric analysis of the knee in Chinese population to reveal sexual dimorphism and age-related differences. Sexually dimorphic differences and age-related differences of the distal femur were studied by using geometric morphometric analysis of ten osteometric landmarks on three-dimensional reconstructions of 259 knees in Chinese population. General Procrustes analysis, PCA, and other discriminant analysis such as Mahalanobis and Goodall's F test were conducted for the knee to identify sexually dimorphism and age-related differences of the knee. The shape of distal femur between the male and female is significantly different. A difference between males and females in distal femur shape was identified by PCA; PC1 and PC2 accounted for 61.63% of the variance measured. The correct sex was assigned in 84.9% of cases by CVA, and the cross-validation revealed a 81.1% rate of correct sex estimation. The osteometric analysis also showed significant differences between the three age-related subgroups (< 40, 40-60, > 60 years, p < 0.005). This study showed both sex-related difference and age-related difference in the distal femur in Chinese population by 3D geometric morphometric analysis. Our bone measurements and geometric morphometric analysis suggest that population characteristics should be taken into account and may provide references for design of total knee prostheses in a Chinese population. Moreover, this reliable, accurate method could be used to perform diachronic and interethnic comparisons.

  12. Genetic effects on information processing speed are moderated by age--converging results from three samples.

    PubMed

    Ising, M; Mather, K A; Zimmermann, P; Brückl, T; Höhne, N; Heck, A; Schenk, L A; Rujescu, D; Armstrong, N J; Sachdev, P S; Reppermund, S

    2014-06-01

    Information processing is a cognitive trait forming the basis of complex abilities like executive function. The Trail Making Test (TMT) is a well-established test of information processing with moderate to high heritability. Age of the individual also plays an important role. A number of genetic association studies with the TMT have been performed, which, however, did not consider age as a moderating factor. We report the results of genome-wide association studies (GWASs) on age-independent and age-dependent TMT performance in two population-representative community samples (Munich Antidepressant Response Signature, MARS: N1 = 540; Ludwig Maximilians University, LMU: N2 = 350). Age-dependent genome-wide findings were then evaluated in a third sample of healthy elderly subjects (Sydney Memory and Ageing Study, Sydney MAS: N3 = 448). While a meta-analysis on the GWAS findings did not reveal age-independent TMT associations withstanding correction for multiple testing, we found a genome-wide significant age-moderated effect between variants in the DSG1 gene region and TMT-A performance predominantly reflecting visual processing speed (rs2199301, P(meta-analysis) = 1.3 × 10(-7)). The direction of the interaction suggests for the minor allele a beneficial effect in younger adults turning into a detrimental effect in older adults. The detrimental effect of the missense single nucleotide polymorphism rs1426310 within the same DSG1 gene region could be replicated in Sydney MAS participants aged 70-79, but not in those aged 80 years and older, presumably a result of survivor bias. Our findings demonstrate opposing effects of DSG1 variants on information processing speed depending on age, which might be related to the complex processes that DSG1 is involved with, including cell adhesion and apoptosis. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and International Behavioural and Neural Genetics Society.

  13. Zircon Messengers Reveal the Age and History of Great Basin Crust, Kern Mountains, Nevada

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gottlieb, E. S.; Miller, E. L.; Wooden, J. L.

    2011-12-01

    Results of SHRIMP-RG analyses of complexly zoned zircons from muscovite-bearing granitic rocks exposed in the Kerns Mountains of East-Central Nevada constrain the timing, duration, and loci of zircon growth within the interior of the U.S. Cordillera during Late Cretaceous through Eocene time. The Kern Mountains are an exhumed block of greenschist to amphibolite facies metamorphosed miogeoclinal rocks that were pervasively intruded by the Late Cretaceous Tungstonia granite pluton and the Eocene Skinner Canyon and Uvada plutons (Best et al., 1974). Euhedral zircons separated from a coarse-grained (2-3 cm) muscovite-bearing phase of the Tungstonia pluton exhibit complex cathodeluminescence (CL) zonation. Sub-angular to sub-rounded cores with highly variable CL are overgrown by oscillatory-zoned zircon which in turn is rimmed by dark CL zircon (U>5000 ppm). A weighted mean Pb/U age of 70.2±0.9 Ma (n=20, MSWD=2.5) obtained from the oscillatory-zoned zircon coincides with the end of Cretaceous peak metamorphism at shallow crustal levels. Pb/U ages from core zones (n=18) predominantly are 0.9-1.4 Ga (n=11; 7 of which <15% discordant) or 2.4-2.7 Ga (n=5; 1 of which <15% discordant), consistent with ages of detrital zircons within the Late Proterozoic McCoy Creek Group exposed in adjacent ranges. A previously undated muscovite-bearing dike in Skinner Canyon yielded a texturally complex population of subhedral zircon grains. CL imaging of these grains reveals fragmental, ghost-like cores surrounded by irregularly shaped overgrowth zones with diffuse boundaries which are rimmed by oscillatory-zoned zircon. Both oscillatory zoned and gradational rim areas (n=32) yielded Late Cretaceous to Eocene ages. Twelve spots define the age of intrusion at 41.7±0.3 Ma (MSWD=1.8), consistent with the local onset of Eocene magmatism. An older period of zircon growth from ~75-45 Ma, coincident with the proposed duration of the Laramide shallow slab, is defined by zircon with flat to

  14. School-age adopted Chinese girls' behavioral adjustment, academic performance, and social skills: longitudinal results.

    PubMed

    Tan, Tony Xing

    2009-04-01

    Longitudinal data on 177 school-age adopted Chinese girls (Time 1: mean age = 8.92 years, SD = 1.76; Time 2: mean age = 11.18 years, SD = 1.79) were analyzed to determine their long-term outcomes in behavioral adjustment, academic performance (measured with the Child Behavior Checklist/6-18), and social skills (measured with the Social Skills Rating System) and how these outcomes were related to preadoption adversity. More than 90% of the girls were adopted at 24 months or younger (M = 19.25, SD = 21.67). Results revealed that over a 2-year period, there was a moderate to strong stability in the children's behavioral adjustment and academic performance. However, there was a significant increase in the number of children with deviant internalizing problems. At both times, higher degrees of preadoption adversity were related to more internalizing problems and poorer academic performance. Children who were adopted at older ages had poorer academic performance. Children who were older had a lower level of assertion and a higher level of responsibility. Children's attention problems at Time 1 mediated the effect of preadoption adversity on academic performance at Time 2. (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved.

  15. Everett Weinreb, Photographer, April 1989 FOUNDATION DETAIL REVEALED AS RESULT ...

    Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

    Everett Weinreb, Photographer, April 1989 FOUNDATION DETAIL REVEALED AS RESULT OF HOUSE DEMOLITION - Irvine Ranch Agricultural Headquarters, Boyd Tenant House, Southeast of Intersection of San Diego & Santa Ana Freeways, Irvine, Orange County, CA

  16. Aging: compensation or maturation?

    PubMed

    Aine, Cheryl J; Woodruff, Chad C; Knoefel, Janice E; Adair, John C; Hudson, David; Qualls, Clifford; Bockholt, Jeremy; Best, Elaine; Kovacevic, Sanja; Cobb, Wayne; Padilla, Denise; Hart, Blaine; Stephen, Julia M

    2006-10-01

    Neuroimaging studies of healthy aging often reveal differences in neural activation patterns between young and elderly groups for episodic memory tasks, even though there are no differences in behavioral performance. One explanation typically offered is that the elderly compensate for their memory deficiencies through the recruitment of additional prefrontal regions. The present study of healthy aging compared magnetoencephalographic (MEG) time-courses localized to specific cortical regions in two groups of subjects (20-29 years and >or=65 years) during a visual delayed-match-to-sample (DMS) task. MR morphometrics and neuropsychological test results were also examined with the hope of providing insight into the nature of the age-related differences. The behavioral results indicated no differences in performance between young and elderly groups. Although there was a main effect of age on the latency of the initial peak in primary/secondary visual cortex, these longer latencies were not correlated with the performance of elderly on the DMS task. The lateral occipital gyrus (LOG) revealed qualitatively different patterns of activity for the two age groups corroborated by neuropsychological test results. Morphometric results for the young versus elderly groups revealed less white (WM) and gray matter (GM) volumes in the frontal lobes of the elderly. When a group of middle-aged subjects (33-43 years) was included in the morphometric analyses, the middle-aged subjects revealed statistically greater WM volumes in frontal and parietal cortex suggesting immature WM tracts in the young. Perhaps our elderly utilized a different strategy compared to the young due to the different brain maturation levels of these groups.

  17. Predictive aging results in radiation environments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gillen, Kenneth T.; Clough, Roger L.

    1993-06-01

    We have previously derived a time-temperature-dose rate superposition methodology, which, when applicable, can be used to predict polymer degradation versus dose rate, temperature and exposure time. This methodology results in predictive capabilities at the low dose rates and long time periods appropriate, for instance, to ambient nuclear power plant environments. The methodology was successfully applied to several polymeric cable materials and then verified for two of the materials by comparisons of the model predictions with 12 year, low-dose-rate aging data on these materials from a nuclear environment. In this paper, we provide a more detailed discussion of the methodology and apply it to data obtained on a number of additional nuclear power plant cable insulation (a hypalon, a silicone rubber and two ethylene-tetrafluoroethylenes) and jacket (a hypalon) materials. We then show that the predicted, low-dose-rate results for our materials are in excellent agreement with long-term (7-9 year) low-dose-rate results recently obtained for the same material types actually aged under bnuclear power plant conditions. Based on a combination of the modelling and long-term results, we find indications of reasonably similar degradation responses among several different commercial formulations for each of the following "generic" materials: hypalon, ethylene-tetrafluoroethylene, silicone rubber and PVC. If such "generic" behavior can be further substantiated through modelling and long-term results on additional formulations, predictions of cable life for other commercial materials of the same generic types would be greatly facilitated.

  18. A Rasch analysis of the Brief Pain Inventory Interference subscale reveals three dimensions and an age bias.

    PubMed

    Walton, David M; Beattie, Tyler; Putos, Joseph; MacDermid, Joy C

    2016-06-01

    The Brief Pain Inventory is composed of two quantifiable scales: pain severity and pain interference. The reported factor structure of the interference subscale is not consistent in the extant literature, with no clear choice between a single- or two-factor structure. Here, we report on the results of Rasch-based analysis of the interference subscale using a large population-based ambulatory patient database (the Quebec Pain Registry). Observational cohort. A total of 1,000 responses were randomly drawn from a total database of 5,654 for this analysis. Both the original 7-item and an expanded 10-item version (Tyler 2002) of the interference subscale were evaluated. Rasch analysis revealed significant misfit of both versions of the scale, with the original 7-item version outperforming the expanded 10-item version. Analysis of dimensionality revealed that both versions showed improved model fit when considered two subscales (affective and physical interference) with the item on sleep interference removed or considered separately. Additionally, significant uniform differential item functioning was identified for 6 of the 7 original items when the sample was stratified by age above or below 55 years. The interference subscale achieved adequate model fit when considered as two separate subscales with age as a mediator of response, while interpreting the sleep interference item separately. A transformation matrix revealed that in all cases, ordinal-level change at the extreme ends of the scale appears to be more meaningful than does a similar change at the midpoints. The Interference subscale of the BPI should be interpreted as two separate subscales (Affective Interference, Physical Interference) with the sleep item removed or interpreted separately for optimal fit to the Rasch model. Implications for research and clinical use are discussed. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  19. Aging results in reduced epidermal growth factor receptor signaling, diminished olfactory neurogenesis, and deficits in fine olfactory discrimination.

    PubMed

    Enwere, Emeka; Shingo, Tetsuro; Gregg, Christopher; Fujikawa, Hirokazu; Ohta, Shigeki; Weiss, Samuel

    2004-09-22

    Previous studies demonstrating olfactory interneuron involvement in olfactory discrimination and decreased proliferation in the forebrain subventricular zone with age led us to ask whether olfactory neurogenesis and, consequently, olfactory discrimination were impaired in aged mice. Pulse labeling showed that aged mice (24 months of age) had fewer new interneurons in the olfactory bulb than did young adult (2 months of age) mice. However, the aged mice had more olfactory interneurons in total than their younger counterparts. Aged mice exhibited no differences from young adult mice in their ability to discriminate between two discrete odors but were significantly poorer at performing discriminations between similar odors (fine olfactory discrimination). Leukemia inhibitory factor receptor heterozygote mice, which have less neurogenesis and fewer olfactory interneurons than their wild-type counterparts, performed more poorly at fine olfactory discrimination than the wild types, suggesting that olfactory neurogenesis, rather than the total number of interneurons, was responsible for fine olfactory discrimination. Immunohistochemistry and Western blot analyses revealed a selective reduction in expression levels of epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor (EGFR) signaling elements in the aged forebrain subventricular zone. Waved-1 mutant mice, which express reduced quantities of transforming growth factor-alpha, the predominant EGFR ligand in adulthood, phenocopy aged mice in olfactory neurogenesis and performance on fine olfactory discrimination tasks. These results suggest that the impairment in fine olfactory discrimination with age may result from a reduction in EGF-dependent olfactory neurogenesis.

  20. Paranodal reorganization results in the depletion of transverse bands in the aged central nervous system

    PubMed Central

    Shepherd, Mark N.; Pomicter, Anthony D.; Velazco, Cristine S.; Henderson, Scott C.; Dupree, Jeffrey L.

    2012-01-01

    Paranodal axo-glial junctional complexes anchor the myelin sheath to the axon and breakdown of these complexes presumably facilitates demyelination. Myelin deterioration is also prominent in the aging central nervous system (CNS); however, the stability of the paranodal complexes in the aged CNS has not been examined. Here, we show that transverse bands, prominent components of paranodal junctions, are significantly reduced in the aged CNS; however, the number of paired clusters of both myelin and axonal paranodal proteins is not altered. Ultrastructural analyses also reveal that thicker myelin sheaths display a “piling” of paranodal loops, the cytoplasm-containing sacs that demarcate the paranode. Loops involved in piling are observed throughout the paranode and are not limited to loops positioned in either the nodal- or juxtanodal-most regions. Here, we propose that as myelination continues, previously anchored loops lose their transverse bands and recede away from the axolemma. Newly juxtaposed loops then lose their transverse bands, move laterally to fill in the gap left by the receded loops and finally reform their transverse bands. This paranodal reorganization results in conservation of paranodal length, which may be important in maintaining ion channel spacing and axonal function. Furthermore, we propose that transverse band reformation is less efficient in the aged CNS, resulting in the significant reduction of these junctional components. Although demyelination was not observed, we propose that loss of transverse bands facilitates myelin degeneration and may predispose the aged CNS to a poorer prognosis following a secondary insult. PMID:20888080

  1. [Behaviour problems of children with Down syndrome in preschool-age - Results from the Heidelberg Down syndrome study].

    PubMed

    Sarimski, Klaus

    2018-05-01

    We report on the frequency and the correlations of behaviour problems among children with Down syndrome in preschool-age. As part of a longitudinal study 48 mothers of children with Down syndrome completed the German version of the “Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire” (SDQ-D) and the Parenting Stress Inventory (PSI). The mothers were asked to fill out the questionnaires when the children had a mean age of five years. The results were compared to norms from children with typical development. Thirty per cent of the children with Down syndrome were rated as abnormal. Specifically, mean scores indicating problems with children of the same age and hyperactivity were elevated. A regression analysis predicting the total problem score of the SDQ-D revealed maternal educational level, optimistic attitude, and subjective parental stress at the age of one year and the degree of behavioural abnormalities at the age of three years as significant influential factors. Early intervention for Down syndrome children should include supporting parenting competence and coping skills in order to prevent behaviour problems.

  2. Self-controlled knowledge of results: age-related differences in motor learning, strategies, and error detection.

    PubMed

    Carter, Michael J; Patterson, Jae T

    2012-12-01

    Research has demonstrated that a self-controlled KR schedule is advantageous for motor learning; however, the usefulness of a self-controlled KR context in older adults remains unknown. To address this gap in knowledge, we examined whether (1) the learning benefits of a self-controlled KR schedule are modulated by the age of the learner; (2) practicing in a self-controlled KR context concurrently strengthens the learner's error detection mechanism, and (3) the KR strategy during acquisition changes as a function of practice trials completed and age. As a function of age, participants were quasirandomly assigned to either the self-control or yoked group resulting in four experimental groups (Self-Young, Yoked-Young, Self-Old, and Yoked-Old). The results revealed the Self-Young group: (1) demonstrated superior retention performance than all other groups (p<.05); (2) was more accurate in estimating motor performance than all other groups during retention (p<.05), and (3) self-reported a switch in their strategy for requesting KR during acquisition based on the number of practice trials completed. Collectively, our findings suggest that older adults do not demonstrate the same learning benefits of a self-controlled KR context as younger adults which may be attributed to differences in KR strategies. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  3. [Gender, age, occupation, economic sector and mental health in the workplace: the results of the study SALVEO].

    PubMed

    Marchand, Alain; Blanc, Marie-Eve; Durand, Pierre

    2015-04-29

    This article examined the contribution of gender, age, occupation and economic sector on psychological distress, depression and burnout. The data came from the SALVEO study carried out in 2009- 2012 among 2,162 workers employed in 63 Canadian workplaces. Multilevel logistic regression models were estimated on the total sample and separately for men and women. The prevalences of psychological distress, depression and burnout were 23.8%, 5.8% and 3.9% respectively. Mental health problems varied between workplaces, but variations between workplaces were stronger for burnout. Differences between men and women were significant only for psychological distress, depression, and emotional exhaustion. Unskilled workers were found more at risk for depression and burnout. Associations among age, occupation and economic sector were not the same between genders. Results from the SALVEO study highlight important mental health problems in workers that vary between workplaces, and that differences in symptomatology are associated with gender, age, occupation and economic sector. Gender reveals differentiated profiles of relationships. These results point towards the development of targeted approaches to the prevention of and intervention on mental health problems in workplaces.

  4. Exploring the age of intracranial aneurysms using carbon birth dating: preliminary results.

    PubMed

    Etminan, Nima; Dreier, Rita; Buchholz, Bruce A; Bruckner, Peter; Steiger, Hans-Jakob; Hänggi, Daniel; Macdonald, R Loch

    2013-03-01

    There is a controversy about the time span over which cerebral aneurysms develop. In particular, it is unknown whether collagen in ruptured aneurysms undergoes more rapid turnover than in unruptured aneurysms.(14)C birth dating of collagen could be used to address this question. Aneurysmal domes from patients undergoing surgical treatment for ruptured or unruptured aneurysms were excised. Aneurysmal collagen was isolated and purified after pepsin digestion. Collagen from mouse tendons served as controls. F(14)C levels in collagen were analyzed by accelerator mass spectrometry and correlated with patient age and aneurysm size. Analysis of 10 aneurysms from 9 patients (6 ruptured, 3 unruptured) revealed an average aneurysm collagen age of <5 years, generally irrespective of patient age and aneurysm size or rupture status. Interestingly, F(14)C levels correlated with patient age as well as aneurysm size in ruptured aneurysm collagen samples. Our preliminary data suggest that collagen extracted from intracranial aneurysms generally has a high turnover, associated with aneurysm size and patient age. The correlation of patient age and aneurysm F(14)C levels could explain models of aneurysm development. Although preliminary, our findings may have implications for the biological and structural stability of ruptured and unruptured intracranial aneurysms.

  5. In vivo imaging reveals mitophagy independence in the maintenance of axonal mitochondria during normal aging.

    PubMed

    Cao, Xu; Wang, Haiqiong; Wang, Zhao; Wang, Qingyao; Zhang, Shuang; Deng, Yuanping; Fang, Yanshan

    2017-10-01

    Mitophagy is thought to be a critical mitochondrial quality control mechanism in neurons and has been extensively studied in neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease. However, little is known about how mitochondria are maintained in the lengthy neuronal axons in the context of physiological aging. Here, we utilized the unique Drosophila wing nerve model and in vivo imaging to rigorously profile changes in axonal mitochondria during aging. We revealed that mitochondria became fragmented and accumulated in aged axons. However, lack of Pink1 or Parkin did not lead to the accumulation of axonal mitochondria or axonal degeneration. Further, unlike in in vitro cultured neurons, we found that mitophagy rarely occurred in intact axons in vivo, even in aged animals. Furthermore, blocking overall mitophagy by knockdown of the core autophagy genes Atg12 or Atg17 had little effect on the turnover of axonal mitochondria or axonal integrity, suggesting that mitophagy is not required for axonal maintenance; this is regardless of whether the mitophagy is PINK1-Parkin dependent or independent. In contrast, downregulation of mitochondrial fission-fusion genes caused age-dependent axonal degeneration. Moreover, Opa1 expression in the fly head was significantly decreased with age, which may underlie the accumulation of fragmented mitochondria in aged axons. Finally, we showed that adult-onset, neuronal downregulation of the fission-fusion, but not mitophagy genes, dramatically accelerated features of aging. We propose that axonal mitochondria are maintained independently of mitophagy and that mitophagy-independent mechanisms such as fission-fusion may be central to the maintenance of axonal mitochondria and neural integrity during normal aging. © 2017 The Authors. Aging Cell published by the Anatomical Society and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  6. RNA sequencing reveals pronounced changes in the noncoding transcriptome of aging synaptosomes.

    PubMed

    Chen, Bei Jun; Ueberham, Uwe; Mills, James D; Kirazov, Ludmil; Kirazov, Evgeni; Knobloch, Mara; Bochmann, Jana; Jendrek, Renate; Takenaka, Konii; Bliim, Nicola; Arendt, Thomas; Janitz, Michael

    2017-08-01

    Normal aging is associated with impairments in cognitive functions. These alterations are caused by diminutive changes in the biology of synapses, and ineffective neurotransmission, rather than loss of neurons. Hitherto, only a few studies, exploring molecular mechanisms of healthy brain aging in higher vertebrates, utilized synaptosomal fractions to survey local changes in aging-related transcriptome dynamics. Here we present, for the first time, a comparative analysis of the synaptosomes transcriptome in the aging mouse brain using RNA sequencing. Our results show changes in the expression of genes contributing to biological pathways related to neurite guidance, synaptosomal physiology, and RNA splicing. More intriguingly, we also discovered alterations in the expression of thousands of novel, unannotated lincRNAs during aging. Further, detailed characterization of the cleavage and polyadenylation factor I subunit 1 (Clp1) mRNA and protein expression indicates its increased expression in neuronal processes of hippocampal stratum radiatum in aging mice. Together, our study uncovers a new layer of transcriptional regulation which is targeted by aging within the local environment of interconnecting neuronal cells. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  7. RETINAL VASCULAR PATHOLOGY RISK DEVELOPMENT IN THE IRRADIATED AT DIFFERENT AGES AS A RESULT OF CHERNOBYL NPP ACCIDENT.

    PubMed

    Fedirko, P A; Babenko, T F; Dorichevska, R Yu; Garkava, N A

    2015-12-01

    To assess the relationship between the age at which a person undergoes radiation exposure and risk of developing eye lesions (case study of the retinal angiopathy prevalence). The object of the study was the state of the retinal vessels in 2,531 persons (1,948 evacuated from the city of Pripyat under the age of 20 and 583 exposed to radiation in utero as a result of the Chernobyl NPP disaster. The results of standardized ophthalmic examination conducted from 1993 to 2000 within the framework of Clinical and epidemiological registry are used for the analysis. The evacuees were subdivided into different age groups of the exposed to radiation. The cohort of control group formed corresponding age groups of the unirradiated control. Statistical analysis of the survey results was carried out using the free trial version of «Open Epi 2.2.1» software package. The results obtained revealed a significant prevalence of retinal vessels pathology in all groups. The difference in angiopathy prevalence in exposed in utero persons was significant compared to age-control. The prevalence of retinal vascular pathology was also significantly higher in all groups of evacuees. Angiopathy prevalence was higher in the group exposed in utero and at the age of 8-12 years, and in the group of people who were exposed at the age of 4-7 years, the risk of angiopathy was lower. It is proved that the occurrence of distant radiation effects mainly depends on the age at which a person has undergone irradiation. It should be noted that all the other conditions were approximately the same. If working conditions of the persons who were exposed in utero or were aged 8 to 20 years when the Chernobyl disaster happened are connected with occupational radiation exposure it is necessary to take additional preventive measures. P. А. Fedirko, T. F. Babenko, R. Yu. Dorichevska, N. А. Garkava.

  8. Comprehensive Analysis of Large Sets of Age-Related Physiological Indicators Reveals Rapid Aging around the Age of 55 Years.

    PubMed

    Lixie, Erin; Edgeworth, Jameson; Shamir, Lior

    2015-01-01

    While many studies show a correlation between chronological age and physiological indicators, the nature of this correlation is not fully understood. To perform a comprehensive analysis of the correlation between chronological age and age-related physiological indicators. Physiological aging scores were deduced using principal component analysis from a large dataset of 1,227 variables measured in a cohort of 4,796 human subjects, and the correlation between the physiological aging scores and chronological age was assessed. Physiological age does not progress linearly or exponentially with chronological age: a more rapid physiological change is observed around the age of 55 years, followed by a mild decline until around the age of 70 years. These findings provide evidence that the progression of physiological age is not linear with that of chronological age, and that periods of mild change in physiological age are separated by periods of more rapid aging. © 2015 S. Karger AG, Basel.

  9. Intellectual functioning in old and very old age: cross-sectional results from the Berlin Aging Study.

    PubMed

    Lindenberger, U; Baltes, P B

    1997-09-01

    This study documents age trends, interrelations, and correlates of intellectual abilities in old and very old age (70-103 years) from the Berlin Aging Study (N = 516). Fourteen tests were used to assess 5 abilities: reasoning, memory, and perceptual speed from the mechanic (broad fluid) domain and knowledge and fluency from the pragmatic (broad crystallized) domain. Intellectual abilities had negative linear age relations, with more pronounced age reductions in mechanic than in pragmatic abilities. Interrelations among intellectual abilities were highly positive and did not follow the mechanic-pragmatic distinction. Sociobiographical indicators were less closely linked to intellectual functioning than sensory-sensorimotor variables, which predicted 59% of the total reliable variance in general intelligence. Results suggest that aging-induced biological factors are a prominent source of individual differences in intelligence in old and very old age.

  10. Age-related structural abnormalities in the human retina-choroid complex revealed by two-photon excited autofluorescence imaging.

    PubMed

    Han, Meng; Giese, Guenter; Schmitz-Valckenberg, Steffen; Bindewald-Wittich, Almut; Holz, Frank G; Yu, Jiayi; Bille, Josef F; Niemz, Markolf H

    2007-01-01

    The intensive metabolism of photoreceptors is delicately maintained by the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) and the choroid. Dysfunction of either the RPE or choroid may lead to severe damage to the retina. Two-photon excited autofluorescence (TPEF) from endogenous fluorophores in the human retina provides a novel opportunity to reveal age-related structural abnormalities in the retina-choroid complex prior to apparent pathological manifestations of age-related retinal diseases. In the photoreceptor layer, the regularity of the macular photoreceptor mosaic is preserved during aging. In the RPE, enlarged lipofuscin granules demonstrate significantly blue-shifted autofluorescence, which coincides with the depletion of melanin pigments. Prominent fibrillar structures in elderly Bruch's membrane and choriocapillaries represent choroidal structure and permeability alterations. Requiring neither slicing nor labeling, TPEF imaging is an elegant and highly efficient tool to delineate the thick, fragile, and opaque retina-choroid complex, and may provide clues to the trigger events of age-related macular degeneration.

  11. [Aging of cognitive functions. Results of a longitudinal study].

    PubMed

    Poitrenaud, J; Barrère, H; Darcet, P; Driss, F

    1983-12-29

    This study had the two following purposes: to assess the age-related changes in the fluid and crystallized components of intelligence in subjects over age sixty five; to examine whether these age-related changes were linked to any biological, psychological and social factors. The sample was composed of 50 male subjects who were examined three times: in 1968, 1973 and 1977. At the beginning of the study, their age ranged from 60 to 79 years and they were all in good health. In the whole, their socio-economic level was high. At each wave of the study, these subjects were given the same battery of three mental tests: a vocabulary test, selected to assess crystallized intelligence; a perceptual test and a speeded digit coding test, both selected to assess fluid intelligence. Results show that the two components of intelligence have different aging trajectories over age sixty. On the vocabulary test, performances hold until an advanced age (about 75-80), then significantly decline. On the perceptual and digit coding tests, performances sharply and significantly decline with age, this decline looking approximately linear. Whatever the test used, individual differences in age-related changes in performance are found to be great. On vocabulary test, this variability is linked to two factors, independently of age: among subjects who have suffered from a cardio-arterial disease between wave 1 and wave 3, as well as in those who have not maintained an occupational activity, decline in performance is greater than in other subjects. On the two other tests, no factor was found to be significantly linked with change in performance between wave 1 and wave 3.

  12. Micromorphology of past urban soils: method and results (France, Iron Age - Middle Age)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cammas, Cécilia

    2014-05-01

    Urban soils in French protohistoric and Roman towns and present-day towns of roman origin are several meters thick accumulations, with great spatial and vertical variability due to long duration of occupation. In order to improve our knowledge of both sedimentary and pedological characteristics as well as formation processes of urban soils, micromorphological analysis was carried out on buried towns. The studied sites include Iron Age towns (floodplain sites: Lattes or Lattara, Le Cailar; oppidum: Pech-Maho in the south of France), a roman buried town (Famars or Fanum Martis, North of France), and various towns occupied from the Roman period until now (urban and periurban sites in Paris, Strasbourg, Mâcon… North and East of France). Original method and sampling strategy were elaborated in order to try to encompass both spatial and vertical variability as well as the "mitage" of the present-day cities. In Lattes, representative elementary urban areas such as streets, courtyard, and houses were sampled for micromorphology during extensive excavation. These analyses revealed specific microscopic features related to complex anthropogenic processes (craft and domestic activities discarding, trampling, backfill, building), moisture and heat, and biological activity, which defined each kind of area. Comparison between well preserved buried town and current cities of roman origin, where the sequence of past urban soils is preserved in few place ("mitage") help to identify past activities, building rhythms as well as specific building materials. For example, in Paris, compacted sandy backfills alternate with watertight hardfloors during the Roman period (soils similar to Technosols). At the opposite, various kinds of loose bioturbated laminated dark earth resulting from activities such as craft refuses, backfills, compost or trampled layers were discriminated for Early Medieval Period (soils similar to Cumulic Anthroposol). Moreover, biological activity is usually

  13. Lack of P4H-TM in mice results in age-related retinal and renal alterations.

    PubMed

    Leinonen, Henri; Rossi, Maarit; Salo, Antti M; Tiainen, Päivi; Hyvärinen, Jaana; Pitkänen, Marja; Sormunen, Raija; Miinalainen, Ilkka; Zhang, Chi; Soininen, Raija; Kivirikko, Kari I; Koskelainen, Ari; Tanila, Heikki; Myllyharju, Johanna; Koivunen, Peppi

    2016-09-01

    Age-related macular degeneration (AMD), affecting the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), is the leading cause of blindness in middle-aged and older people in developed countries. Genetic and environmental risk factors have been identified, but no effective cure exists. Using a mouse model we show that a transmembrane prolyl 4-hydroxylase (P4H-TM), which participates in the oxygen-dependent regulation of the hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF), is a potential novel candidate gene for AMD. We show that P4h-tm had its highest expression levels in the mouse RPE and brain, heart, lung, skeletal muscle and kidney. P4h-tm -/- mice were fertile and had a normal life span. Lack of P4h-tm stabilized HIF-1α in cortical neurons under normoxia, while in hypoxia it increased the expression of certain HIF target genes in tissues with high endogenous P4h-tm expression levels more than in wild-type mice. Renal erythropoietin levels increased in P4h-tm -/- mice with aging, but the resulting ∼2-fold increase in erythropoietin serum levels did not lead to erythrocytosis. Instead, accumulation of lipid-containing lamellar bodies in renal tubuli was detected in P4h-tm -/- mice with aging, resulting in inflammation and fibrosis, and later glomerular sclerosis and albuminuria. Lack of P4h-tm was associated with retinal thinning, rosette-like infoldings and drusen-like structure accumulation in RPE with aging, as is characteristic of AMD. Photoreceptor recycling was compromised, and electroretinograms revealed functional impairment of the cone pathway in adult P4h-tm -/- mice and cone and rod deficiency in middle-aged mice. P4H-TM is therefore imperative for normal vision, and potentially a novel candidate for age-induced diseases, such as AMD. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  14. Advanced glycated end-products (AGE) during haemodialysis treatment: discrepant results with different methodologies reflecting the heterogeneity of AGE compounds.

    PubMed

    Henle, T; Deppisch, R; Beck, W; Hergesell, O; Hänsch, G M; Ritz, E

    1999-08-01

    There has been much recent interest in accumulation of advanced glycation end-products (AGE) in uraemic patients. Analysis of AGE has been difficult, because commonly used methodologies, i.e. immunodetection assays or fluorescence measurements, reflect group reactivity and are not specific for chemically defined substances. Some investigators measured individual AGE compounds, e.g. pentosidine, carboxymethyllysine, pyrraline or imidazolone, but a systematic assessment of known compounds using specific HPLC methods in diabetic and non-diabetic end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients during treatment has not been performed. For the present study, the concentrations of early and late products of the Maillard reaction in plasma and ultrafiltrate were monitored during high-flux dialysis sessions in diabetic and non-diabetic patients. AGE were analysed by fluorescence spectroscopy and size exclusion chromatography with fluorescence detection. Specific HPLC methods were used to quantify the Amadori product fructoselysine and the AGE compounds pentosidine and pyrraline in acid or enzymatic hydrolysates. Using size exclusion chromatography, we confirmed a similar fluorescent peak distribution for diabetic and non-diabetic ESRD patients. Main fractions were found at approximately 70, approximately 14 and <2 kDa, confirming results obtained by other authors. In diabetic patients, the fluorescence intensity of the low molecular weight fraction was higher. Uraemic patients differed from controls mainly by the fluorescence of the low molecular weight fraction. The peak spectrum in ultrafiltrates was similar to that in plasma regarding low molecular weight fractions and the 14 kDa peak, but no protein-bound fluorescence was found at 70 kDa. HPLC analysis revealed a significant reduction of plasma pentosidine during high-flux dialysis in non-diabetic (from 9.1+/-5.1 to 8.5+/-4.7 pmol/mg protein; P<0.05) and diabetic patients (from 10.0+/-9.1 to 6.8+/-4.0 pmol/mg protein; P<0

  15. Compound-Specific Radiocarbon Dating Reveals the Age Distribution of Plant-Wax Biomarkers Exported to the Bengal Fan

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Galy, V.; French, K. L.; Hein, C. J.; Haghipour, N.; Wacker, L.; Kudrass, H.; Eglinton, T. I.

    2017-12-01

    The stable isotope composition of leaf-wax compounds preserved in lacustrine and marine sediments has been widely used to reconstruct terrestrial paleo-environments. However, the timescales of plant-wax storage in continental reservoirs before riverine export are not well known, representing a key uncertainty in paleo-environment studies. We couple numerical models with bulk and leaf-wax fatty acid organic 13C and 14C signatures hosted in a high-deposition-rate sediment core from the Bengal shelf canyon in order to estimate storage timescales within the Ganges-Brahmaputra catchment area. The fatty acid 14C record reveals a muted nuclear weapons bomb spike, requiring that the Ganges-Brahmaputra river system exports a mixture of young and old (pre-aged) leaf-wax compounds. According to numerical simulations, 79-83% of the leaf-wax fatty acids in this core are sourced from continental reservoirs that store organic carbon on an average of 1000-1200 calendar years, while the remainder has an average age of 15 years. These results demonstrate that a majority of the leaf-wax compounds produced in the Ganges-Brahmaputra river basin was stored in soils, floodplains, and wetlands prior to its export to the Bengal Fan. We will discuss the implications of these findings for plant-wax based paleoenvironmental records.

  16. Liver Transplantation Results by Donor Age.

    PubMed

    Rabelo, A V; Bastante, M D; Raya, A M; Méndez, C S M; Ramirez, A R G; Suarez, Y F

    2016-11-01

    The objective of this study was to compare liver transplantation outcomes as a function of donor age. We performed 212 liver transplantations between 2008 and 2014. We described a prospective cohort study and grouped the patients by liver donor age. We compared quantitative and categorical variables using statistical analysis. No statistically significant differences were found among any graft age groups in gender (always more males), time on waiting list, age, height, Child Pugh Turcotte (CHILD) score, Model for End-stage Liver Disease (MELD) score, need for intraoperative blood products, or intensive care unit stay. The most frequent etiology of liver failure was alcohol. A brain-dead donor was the most frequent type in all groups. The whole graft was used except in 4 cases. No statistically significant differences were found among groups in the surgical technique, postreperfusion syndrome, arterial complications, biliary complications, venous complications, acute rejection, and retransplantation. The 3-year patient survival rate was 64% in the <60-year graft age group, 48% in the 60- to 69-year group, 64% in the 70- to 79-year group, and 40% in the ≥80-year group (P = .264). The 3-year graft survival rate was 62% in the <60-year graft age group, 47% in the 60- to 69-year group, 65% in the 70- to 79-year group, and 40% in the ≥80-year group (P = .295). Given the need to increase the pool of liver donors, older donors should be considered as a source for liver transplantation, although careful selection is required. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  17. Human subcortical brain asymmetries in 15,847 people worldwide reveal effects of age and sex.

    PubMed

    Guadalupe, Tulio; Mathias, Samuel R; vanErp, Theo G M; Whelan, Christopher D; Zwiers, Marcel P; Abe, Yoshinari; Abramovic, Lucija; Agartz, Ingrid; Andreassen, Ole A; Arias-Vásquez, Alejandro; Aribisala, Benjamin S; Armstrong, Nicola J; Arolt, Volker; Artiges, Eric; Ayesa-Arriola, Rosa; Baboyan, Vatche G; Banaschewski, Tobias; Barker, Gareth; Bastin, Mark E; Baune, Bernhard T; Blangero, John; Bokde, Arun L W; Boedhoe, Premika S W; Bose, Anushree; Brem, Silvia; Brodaty, Henry; Bromberg, Uli; Brooks, Samantha; Büchel, Christian; Buitelaar, Jan; Calhoun, Vince D; Cannon, Dara M; Cattrell, Anna; Cheng, Yuqi; Conrod, Patricia J; Conzelmann, Annette; Corvin, Aiden; Crespo-Facorro, Benedicto; Crivello, Fabrice; Dannlowski, Udo; de Zubicaray, Greig I; de Zwarte, Sonja M C; Deary, Ian J; Desrivières, Sylvane; Doan, Nhat Trung; Donohoe, Gary; Dørum, Erlend S; Ehrlich, Stefan; Espeseth, Thomas; Fernández, Guillén; Flor, Herta; Fouche, Jean-Paul; Frouin, Vincent; Fukunaga, Masaki; Gallinat, Jürgen; Garavan, Hugh; Gill, Michael; Suarez, Andrea Gonzalez; Gowland, Penny; Grabe, Hans J; Grotegerd, Dominik; Gruber, Oliver; Hagenaars, Saskia; Hashimoto, Ryota; Hauser, Tobias U; Heinz, Andreas; Hibar, Derrek P; Hoekstra, Pieter J; Hoogman, Martine; Howells, Fleur M; Hu, Hao; Hulshoff Pol, Hilleke E; Huyser, Chaim; Ittermann, Bernd; Jahanshad, Neda; Jönsson, Erik G; Jurk, Sarah; Kahn, Rene S; Kelly, Sinead; Kraemer, Bernd; Kugel, Harald; Kwon, Jun Soo; Lemaitre, Herve; Lesch, Klaus-Peter; Lochner, Christine; Luciano, Michelle; Marquand, Andre F; Martin, Nicholas G; Martínez-Zalacaín, Ignacio; Martinot, Jean-Luc; Mataix-Cols, David; Mather, Karen; McDonald, Colm; McMahon, Katie L; Medland, Sarah E; Menchón, José M; Morris, Derek W; Mothersill, Omar; Maniega, Susana Munoz; Mwangi, Benson; Nakamae, Takashi; Nakao, Tomohiro; Narayanaswaamy, Janardhanan C; Nees, Frauke; Nordvik, Jan E; Onnink, A Marten H; Opel, Nils; Ophoff, Roel; Paillère Martinot, Marie-Laure; Papadopoulos Orfanos, Dimitri; Pauli, Paul; Paus, Tomáš; Poustka, Luise; Reddy, Janardhan Yc; Renteria, Miguel E; Roiz-Santiáñez, Roberto; Roos, Annerine; Royle, Natalie A; Sachdev, Perminder; Sánchez-Juan, Pascual; Schmaal, Lianne; Schumann, Gunter; Shumskaya, Elena; Smolka, Michael N; Soares, Jair C; Soriano-Mas, Carles; Stein, Dan J; Strike, Lachlan T; Toro, Roberto; Turner, Jessica A; Tzourio-Mazoyer, Nathalie; Uhlmann, Anne; Hernández, Maria Valdés; van den Heuvel, Odile A; van der Meer, Dennis; van Haren, Neeltje E M; Veltman, Dick J; Venkatasubramanian, Ganesan; Vetter, Nora C; Vuletic, Daniella; Walitza, Susanne; Walter, Henrik; Walton, Esther; Wang, Zhen; Wardlaw, Joanna; Wen, Wei; Westlye, Lars T; Whelan, Robert; Wittfeld, Katharina; Wolfers, Thomas; Wright, Margaret J; Xu, Jian; Xu, Xiufeng; Yun, Je-Yeon; Zhao, JingJing; Franke, Barbara; Thompson, Paul M; Glahn, David C; Mazoyer, Bernard; Fisher, Simon E; Francks, Clyde

    2017-10-01

    The two hemispheres of the human brain differ functionally and structurally. Despite over a century of research, the extent to which brain asymmetry is influenced by sex, handedness, age, and genetic factors is still controversial. Here we present the largest ever analysis of subcortical brain asymmetries, in a harmonized multi-site study using meta-analysis methods. Volumetric asymmetry of seven subcortical structures was assessed in 15,847 MRI scans from 52 datasets worldwide. There were sex differences in the asymmetry of the globus pallidus and putamen. Heritability estimates, derived from 1170 subjects belonging to 71 extended pedigrees, revealed that additive genetic factors influenced the asymmetry of these two structures and that of the hippocampus and thalamus. Handedness had no detectable effect on subcortical asymmetries, even in this unprecedented sample size, but the asymmetry of the putamen varied with age. Genetic drivers of asymmetry in the hippocampus, thalamus and basal ganglia may affect variability in human cognition, including susceptibility to psychiatric disorders.

  18. Greater Perceived Age Discrimination in England than the United States: Results from HRS and ELSA.

    PubMed

    Rippon, Isla; Zaninotto, Paola; Steptoe, Andrew

    2015-11-01

    We examined cross-national differences in perceptions of age discrimination in England and the United States. Under the premise that the United States has had age discrimination legislation in place for considerably longer than England, we hypothesized that perceptions of age discrimination would be lower in the United States. We analyzed data from two nationally representative studies of aging, the U.S. Health and Retirement Study (n = 4,818) and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (n = 7,478). Respondents aged 52 years and older who attributed any experiences of discrimination to their age were treated as cases of perceived age discrimination. We used multivariable logistic regression to estimate the odds ratios of experiencing perceived age discrimination in relation to selected sociodemographic factors. Perceptions of age discrimination were significantly higher in England than the United States, with 34.8% of men and women in England reporting age discrimination compared with 29.1% in the United States. Associations between perceived age discrimination and older age and lower levels of household wealth were observed in both countries, but we found differences between England and the United States in the relationship between perceived age discrimination and education. Our study revealed that levels of perceived age discrimination are lower in the United States than England and are less socially patterned. This suggests that differing social and political circumstances in the two countries may have an important role to play. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America.

  19. Regeneration results using two-aged management

    Treesearch

    Arlyn W. Perkey; Gary W. Miller; Thomas M. Schuler

    1999-01-01

    Two-aged management is receiving increasing consideration by central Appalachian hardwood managers as a tool to accomplish multiple landowner goals. On non-industrial private forests where aesthetics are often important, two-aged management has the attribute of retaining some relatively large trees on the area at all times. For many landowners this is critical....

  20. Siple Dome ice reveals two modes of millennial CO2 change during the last ice age

    PubMed Central

    Ahn, Jinho; Brook, Edward J.

    2014-01-01

    Reconstruction of atmospheric CO2 during times of past abrupt climate change may help us better understand climate-carbon cycle feedbacks. Previous ice core studies reveal simultaneous increases in atmospheric CO2 and Antarctic temperature during times when Greenland and the northern hemisphere experienced very long, cold stadial conditions during the last ice age. Whether this relationship extends to all of the numerous stadial events in the Greenland ice core record has not been clear. Here we present a high-resolution record of atmospheric CO2 from the Siple Dome ice core, Antarctica for part of the last ice age. We find that CO2 does not significantly change during the short Greenlandic stadial events, implying that the climate system perturbation that produced the short stadials was not strong enough to substantially alter the carbon cycle. PMID:24781344

  1. Deriving a cardiac ageing signature to reveal MMP-9-dependent inflammatory signalling in senescence.

    PubMed

    Ma, Yonggang; Chiao, Ying Ann; Clark, Ryan; Flynn, Elizabeth R; Yabluchanskiy, Andriy; Ghasemi, Omid; Zouein, Fouad; Lindsey, Merry L; Jin, Yu-Fang

    2015-06-01

    Cardiac ageing involves the progressive development of cardiac fibrosis and diastolic dysfunction coordinated by MMP-9. Here, we report a cardiac ageing signature that encompasses macrophage pro-inflammatory signalling in the left ventricle (LV) and distinguishes biological from chronological ageing. Young (6-9 months), middle-aged (12-15 months), old (18-24 months), and senescent (26-34 months) mice of both C57BL/6J wild type (WT) and MMP-9 null were evaluated. Using an identified inflammatory pattern, we were able to define individual mice based on their biological, rather than chronological, age. Bcl6, Ccl24, and Il4 were the strongest inflammatory markers of the cardiac ageing signature. The decline in early-to-late LV filling ratio was most strongly predicted by Bcl6, Il1r1, Ccl24, Crp, and Cxcl13 patterns, whereas LV wall thickness was most predicted by Abcf1, Tollip, Scye1, and Mif patterns. With age, there was a linear increase in cardiac M1 macrophages and a decrease in cardiac M2 macrophages in WT mice; of which, both were prevented by MMP-9 deletion. In vitro, MMP-9 directly activated young macrophage polarization to an M1/M2 mid-transition state. Our results define the cardiac ageing inflammatory signature and assign MMP-9 roles in mediating the inflammaging profile by indirectly and directly modifying macrophage polarization. Our results explain early mechanisms that stimulate ageing-induced cardiac fibrosis and diastolic dysfunction. Published on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved. © The Author 2015. For permissions please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  2. RNA-Seq analysis reveals new evidence for inflammation-related changes in aged kidney

    PubMed Central

    Park, Daeui; Kim, Byoung-Chul; Kim, Chul-Hong; Choi, Yeon Ja; Jeong, Hyoung Oh; Kim, Mi Eun; Lee, Jun Sik; Park, Min Hi; Chung, Ki Wung; Kim, Dae Hyun; Lee, Jaewon; Im, Dong-Soon; Yoon, Seokjoo; Lee, Sunghoon; Yu, Byung Pal; Bhak, Jong; Chung, Hae Young

    2016-01-01

    Age-related dysregulated inflammation plays an essential role as a major risk factor underlying the pathophysiological aging process. To better understand how inflammatory processes are related to aging at the molecular level, we sequenced the transcriptome of young and aged rat kidney using RNA-Seq to detect known genes, novel genes, and alternative splicing events that are differentially expressed. By comparing young (6 months of age) and old (25 months of age) rats, we detected 722 up-regulated genes and 111 down-regulated genes. In the aged rats, we found 32 novel genes and 107 alternatively spliced genes. Notably, 6.6% of the up-regulated genes were related to inflammation (P < 2.2 × 10−16, Fisher exact t-test); 15.6% were novel genes with functional protein domains (P = 1.4 × 10−5); and 6.5% were genes showing alternative splicing events (P = 3.3 × 10−4). Based on the results of pathway analysis, we detected the involvement of inflammation-related pathways such as cytokines (P = 4.4 × 10−16), which were found up-regulated in the aged rats. Furthermore, an up-regulated inflammatory gene analysis identified the involvement of transcription factors, such as STAT4, EGR1, and FOSL1, which regulate cancer as well as inflammation in aging processes. Thus, RNA changes in these pathways support their involvement in the pro-inflammatory status during aging. We propose that whole RNA-Seq is a useful tool to identify novel genes and alternative splicing events by documenting broadly implicated inflammation-related genes involved in aging processes. PMID:27153548

  3. Leaf aging of Amazonian canopy trees as revealed by spectral and physiochemical measurements.

    PubMed

    Chavana-Bryant, Cecilia; Malhi, Yadvinder; Wu, Jin; Asner, Gregory P; Anastasiou, Athanasios; Enquist, Brian J; Cosio Caravasi, Eric G; Doughty, Christopher E; Saleska, Scott R; Martin, Roberta E; Gerard, France F

    2017-05-01

    Leaf aging is a fundamental driver of changes in leaf traits, thereby regulating ecosystem processes and remotely sensed canopy dynamics. We explore leaf reflectance as a tool to monitor leaf age and develop a spectra-based partial least squares regression (PLSR) model to predict age using data from a phenological study of 1099 leaves from 12 lowland Amazonian canopy trees in southern Peru. Results demonstrated monotonic decreases in leaf water (LWC) and phosphorus (P mass ) contents and an increase in leaf mass per unit area (LMA) with age across trees; leaf nitrogen (N mass ) and carbon (C mass ) contents showed monotonic but tree-specific age responses. We observed large age-related variation in leaf spectra across trees. A spectra-based model was more accurate in predicting leaf age (R 2  = 0.86; percent root mean square error (%RMSE) = 33) compared with trait-based models using single (R 2  = 0.07-0.73; %RMSE = 7-38) and multiple (R 2  = 0.76; %RMSE = 28) predictors. Spectra- and trait-based models established a physiochemical basis for the spectral age model. Vegetation indices (VIs) including the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), enhanced vegetation index 2 (EVI2), normalized difference water index (NDWI) and photosynthetic reflectance index (PRI) were all age-dependent. This study highlights the importance of leaf age as a mediator of leaf traits, provides evidence of age-related leaf reflectance changes that have important impacts on VIs used to monitor canopy dynamics and productivity and proposes a new approach to predicting and monitoring leaf age with important implications for remote sensing. © 2016 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2016 New Phytologist Trust.

  4. Parkinson's disease as a result of aging

    PubMed Central

    Rodriguez, Manuel; Rodriguez-Sabate, Clara; Morales, Ingrid; Sanchez, Alberto; Sabate, Magdalena

    2015-01-01

    It is generally considered that Parkinson's disease is induced by specific agents that degenerate a clearly defined population of dopaminergic neurons. Data commented in this review suggest that this assumption is not as clear as is often thought and that aging may be critical for Parkinson's disease. Neurons degenerating in Parkinson's disease also degenerate in normal aging, and the different agents involved in the etiology of this illness are also involved in aging. Senescence is a wider phenomenon affecting cells all over the body, whereas Parkinson's disease seems to be restricted to certain brain centers and cell populations. However, reviewed data suggest that Parkinson's disease may be a local expression of aging on cell populations which, by their characteristics (high number of synaptic terminals and mitochondria, unmyelinated axons, etc.), are highly vulnerable to the agents promoting aging. The development of new knowledge about Parkinson's disease could be accelerated if the research on aging and Parkinson's disease were planned together, and the perspective provided by gerontology gains relevance in this field. PMID:25677794

  5. Accelerated aging test results for aerospace wire insulation constructions

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Dunbar, William G.

    1995-01-01

    Several wire insulation constructions were evaluated with and without continuous glow discharges at low pressure and high temperature to determine the aging characteristics of acceptable wire insulation constructions. It was known at the beginning of the test program that insulation aging takes several years when operated at normal ambient temperature and pressure of 20 C and 760 torr. Likewise, it was known that the accelerated aging process decreases insulation life by approximately 50% for each 10 C temperature rise. Therefore, the first phases of the program, not reported in these test results, were to select wire insulation constructions that could operate at high temperature and low pressure for over 10,000 hours with negligible shrinkage and little materials' deterioration.The final phase of the program was to determine accelerated aging characteristics. When an insulation construction is subjected to partial discharges the insulation is locally heated by the bombardment of the discharges, the insulation is also subjected to ozone and other deteriorating gas particles that may significantly increase the aging process. Several insulation systems using either a single material or combinations of teflon, kapton, and glass insulation constructions were tested. All constructions were rated to be partial discharge and/or corona-free at 240 volts, 400 Hz and 260 C (500 F) for 50, 000 hours at altitudes equivalent to the Paschen law. Minimum partial discharge aging tests were preceded by screening tests lasting 20 hours at 260 C. The aging process was accelerated by subjecting the test articles to temperatures up to 370 C (700 F) with and without partial discharges. After one month operation with continuous glow discharges surrounding the test articles, most insulation systems were either destroyed or became brittle, cracked, and unsafe for use. Time with space radiation as with partial discharges is accumulative.

  6. Accelerated aging test results for aerospace wire insulation constructions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dunbar, William G.

    1995-11-01

    Several wire insulation constructions were evaluated with and without continuous glow discharges at low pressure and high temperature to determine the aging characteristics of acceptable wire insulation constructions. It was known at the beginning of the test program that insulation aging takes several years when operated at normal ambient temperature and pressure of 20 C and 760 torr. Likewise, it was known that the accelerated aging process decreases insulation life by approximately 50% for each 10 C temperature rise. Therefore, the first phases of the program, not reported in these test results, were to select wire insulation constructions that could operate at high temperature and low pressure for over 10,000 hours with negligible shrinkage and little materials' deterioration.The final phase of the program was to determine accelerated aging characteristics. When an insulation construction is subjected to partial discharges the insulation is locally heated by the bombardment of the discharges, the insulation is also subjected to ozone and other deteriorating gas particles that may significantly increase the aging process. Several insulation systems using either a single material or combinations of teflon, kapton, and glass insulation constructions were tested. All constructions were rated to be partial discharge and/or corona-free at 240 volts, 400 Hz and 260 C (500 F) for 50, 000 hours at altitudes equivalent to the Paschen law. Minimum partial discharge aging tests were preceded by screening tests lasting 20 hours at 260 C. The aging process was accelerated by subjecting the test articles to temperatures up to 370 C (700 F) with and without partial discharges. After one month operation with continuous glow discharges surrounding the test articles, most insulation systems were either destroyed or became brittle, cracked, and unsafe for use. Time with space radiation as with partial discharges is accumulative.

  7. Elastic moduli of δ-Pu 239 reveal aging in real time

    DOE PAGES

    Maiorov, Boris; Betts, Jonathan B.; Söderlind, Per; ...

    2017-03-28

    We study the time evolution (aging) of the elastic moduli of an eight-year-old polycrystalline δ- Pu 2.0 at % Ga alloy (δ-Pu:Ga ) from 295K to nearly 500K in real time using Resonant Ultrasound Spectroscopy (RUS). After 8 years of aging at 295K, the bulk and shear moduli increase at a normalized rate of 0.2%/year and 0.6%/year respectively. As the temperature is raised, two time dependences are observed, an exponential one of about a week, followed by a linear one (constant rate). The linear rate is thermally activated with an activation energy of 0.33+0.06 eV. Above 420K a qualitative changemore » in the time evolution is observed; the bulk modulus decreases with time while the shear modulus continues to stiffen. No change is observed as the α-β transition temperature is crossed as would be expected if a decomposition of δ-Pu:Ga to α-Pu and Pu 3Ga occurred over the temperature range studied. Our results indicate that the main mechanism of aging is creation of defects that are partially annealed starting at T = 420 K.« less

  8. Elastic moduli of δ-Pu 239 reveal aging in real time

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Maiorov, Boris; Betts, Jonathan B.; Söderlind, Per

    We study the time evolution (aging) of the elastic moduli of an eight-year-old polycrystalline δ- Pu 2.0 at % Ga alloy (δ-Pu:Ga ) from 295K to nearly 500K in real time using Resonant Ultrasound Spectroscopy (RUS). After 8 years of aging at 295K, the bulk and shear moduli increase at a normalized rate of 0.2%/year and 0.6%/year respectively. As the temperature is raised, two time dependences are observed, an exponential one of about a week, followed by a linear one (constant rate). The linear rate is thermally activated with an activation energy of 0.33+0.06 eV. Above 420K a qualitative changemore » in the time evolution is observed; the bulk modulus decreases with time while the shear modulus continues to stiffen. No change is observed as the α-β transition temperature is crossed as would be expected if a decomposition of δ-Pu:Ga to α-Pu and Pu 3Ga occurred over the temperature range studied. Our results indicate that the main mechanism of aging is creation of defects that are partially annealed starting at T = 420 K.« less

  9. Systematic analysis of asymmetric partitioning of yeast proteome between mother and daughter cells reveals "aging factors" and mechanism of lifespan asymmetry.

    PubMed

    Yang, Jing; McCormick, Mark A; Zheng, Jiashun; Xie, Zhengwei; Tsuchiya, Mitsuhiro; Tsuchiyama, Scott; El-Samad, Hana; Ouyang, Qi; Kaeberlein, Matt; Kennedy, Brian K; Li, Hao

    2015-09-22

    Budding yeast divides asymmetrically, giving rise to a mother cell that progressively ages and a daughter cell with full lifespan. It is generally assumed that mother cells retain damaged, lifespan limiting materials ("aging factors") through asymmetric division. However, the identity of these aging factors and the mechanisms through which they limit lifespan remain poorly understood. Using a flow cytometry-based, high-throughput approach, we quantified the asymmetric partitioning of the yeast proteome between mother and daughter cells during cell division, discovering 74 mother-enriched and 60 daughter-enriched proteins. While daughter-enriched proteins are biased toward those needed for bud construction and genome maintenance, mother-enriched proteins are biased towards those localized in the plasma membrane and vacuole. Deletion of 23 of the 74 mother-enriched proteins leads to lifespan extension, a fraction that is about six times that of the genes picked randomly from the genome. Among these lifespan-extending genes, three are involved in endosomal sorting/endosome to vacuole transport, and three are nitrogen source transporters. Tracking the dynamic expression of specific mother-enriched proteins revealed that their concentration steadily increases in the mother cells as they age, but is kept relatively low in the daughter cells via asymmetric distribution. Our results suggest that some mother-enriched proteins may increase to a concentration that becomes deleterious and lifespan-limiting in aged cells, possibly by upsetting homeostasis or leading to aberrant signaling. Our study provides a comprehensive resource for analyzing asymmetric cell division and aging in yeast, which should also be valuable for understanding similar phenomena in other organisms.

  10. Analysis of plasma microRNA expression profiles revealed different cancer susceptibility in healthy young adult smokers and middle-aged smokers

    PubMed Central

    Shi, Bing; Gao, Hongmin; Zhang, Tianyang; Cui, Qinghua

    2016-01-01

    Cigarette smoking is a world-wide habit and an important risk factor for cancer. It was known that cigarette smoking can change the expression of circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) in healthy middle-aged adults. However, it remains unclear whether cigarette smoking can change the levels of circulating miRNAs in young healthy smokers and whether there are differences in cancer susceptibility for the two cases. In this study, the miRNA expression profiles of 28 smokers and 12 non-smokers were determined by Agilent human MicroRNA array. We further performed bioinformatics analysis for the differentially expressed miRNAs. The result showed that 35 miRNAs were differentially expressed. Among them, 24 miRNAs were up-regulated and 11 miRNAs were down-regulated in smokers. Functional enrichment analysis showed that the deregulated miRNAs are related to immune system and hormones regulation. Strikingly, the up-regulated miRNAs are mostly associated with hematologic cancers, such as lymphoma, leukemia. As a comparison, the up-regulated plasma miRNAs in middle-aged smokers are mostly associated with solid cancers, such as hepatocellular carcinoma and lung cancer, suggesting that smoking could have different influences on young adults and middle-aged adults. In a conclusion, we identified the circulating miRNAs deregulated by cigarette smoking and revealed that the age-dependent deregulated miRNAs tend to be mainly involved in different types of human cancers. PMID:26943588

  11. Analysis of plasma microRNA expression profiles revealed different cancer susceptibility in healthy young adult smokers and middle-aged smokers.

    PubMed

    Shi, Bing; Gao, Hongmin; Zhang, Tianyang; Cui, Qinghua

    2016-04-19

    Cigarette smoking is a world-wide habit and an important risk factor for cancer. It was known that cigarette smoking can change the expression of circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) in healthy middle-aged adults. However, it remains unclear whether cigarette smoking can change the levels of circulating miRNAs in young healthy smokers and whether there are differences in cancer susceptibility for the two cases. In this study, the miRNA expression profiles of 28 smokers and 12 non-smokers were determined by Agilent human MicroRNA array. We further performed bioinformatics analysis for the differentially expressed miRNAs. The result showed that 35 miRNAs were differentially expressed. Among them, 24 miRNAs were up-regulated and 11 miRNAs were down-regulated in smokers. Functional enrichment analysis showed that the deregulated miRNAs are related to immune system and hormones regulation. Strikingly, the up-regulated miRNAs are mostly associated with hematologic cancers, such as lymphoma, leukemia. As a comparison, the up-regulated plasma miRNAs in middle-aged smokers are mostly associated with solid cancers, such as hepatocellular carcinoma and lung cancer, suggesting that smoking could have different influences on young adults and middle-aged adults. In a conclusion, we identified the circulating miRNAs deregulated by cigarette smoking and revealed that the age-dependent deregulated miRNAs tend to be mainly involved in different types of human cancers.

  12. [Results from biomedical aging research. Trends and current examples from immunology].

    PubMed

    Pfister, G; Herndler-Brandstetter, D; Grubeck-Loebenstein, B

    2006-06-01

    The public health of our society is challenged by a continuous increase in life expectancy. Hence, biomedical aging research is enjoying a steadily increasing popularity but also enlightens our understanding of age-related diseases by a number of striking results from basic research. One of the most striking changes that occurs during normal human aging is an overall diminution of immune functions, a phenomenon often termed immunosenescence. Starting from some highly exciting examples from basic immunological research, this article sheds light on which impact normal human aging has on several immune defence mechanisms. In addition, clinical consequences in view of Alzheimer's disease, immunogenicity of vaccines and autoimmune diseases are discussed.

  13. Dual-color STED microscopy reveals a sandwich structure of Bassoon and Piccolo in active zones of adult and aged mice.

    PubMed

    Nishimune, Hiroshi; Badawi, Yomna; Mori, Shuuichi; Shigemoto, Kazuhiro

    2016-06-20

    Presynaptic active zones play a pivotal role as synaptic vesicle release sites for synaptic transmission, but the molecular architecture of active zones in mammalian neuromuscular junctions (NMJs) at sub-diffraction limited resolution remains unknown. Bassoon and Piccolo are active zone specific cytosolic proteins essential for active zone assembly in NMJs, ribbon synapses, and brain synapses. These proteins are thought to colocalize and share some functions at active zones. Here, we report an unexpected finding of non-overlapping localization of these two proteins in mouse NMJs revealed using dual-color stimulated emission depletion (STED) super resolution microscopy. Piccolo puncta sandwiched Bassoon puncta and aligned in a Piccolo-Bassoon-Piccolo structure in adult NMJs. P/Q-type voltage-gated calcium channel (VGCC) puncta colocalized with Bassoon puncta. The P/Q-type VGCC and Bassoon protein levels decreased significantly in NMJs from aged mouse. In contrast, the Piccolo levels in NMJs from aged mice were comparable to levels in adult mice. This study revealed the molecular architecture of active zones in mouse NMJs at sub-diffraction limited resolution, and described the selective degeneration mechanism of active zone proteins in NMJs from aged mice. Interestingly, the localization pattern of active zone proteins described herein is similar to active zone structures described using electron microscope tomography.

  14. Matrix factorization reveals aging-specific co-expression gene modules in the fat and muscle tissues in nonhuman primates

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Yongcui; Zhao, Weiling; Zhou, Xiaobo

    2016-10-01

    Accurate identification of coherent transcriptional modules (subnetworks) in adipose and muscle tissues is important for revealing the related mechanisms and co-regulated pathways involved in the development of aging-related diseases. Here, we proposed a systematically computational approach, called ICEGM, to Identify the Co-Expression Gene Modules through a novel mathematical framework of Higher-Order Generalized Singular Value Decomposition (HO-GSVD). ICEGM was applied on the adipose, and heart and skeletal muscle tissues in old and young female African green vervet monkeys. The genes associated with the development of inflammation, cardiovascular and skeletal disorder diseases, and cancer were revealed by the ICEGM. Meanwhile, genes in the ICEGM modules were also enriched in the adipocytes, smooth muscle cells, cardiac myocytes, and immune cells. Comprehensive disease annotation and canonical pathway analysis indicated that immune cells, adipocytes, cardiomyocytes, and smooth muscle cells played a synergistic role in cardiac and physical functions in the aged monkeys by regulation of the biological processes associated with metabolism, inflammation, and atherosclerosis. In conclusion, the ICEGM provides an efficiently systematic framework for decoding the co-expression gene modules in multiple tissues. Analysis of genes in the ICEGM module yielded important insights on the cooperative role of multiple tissues in the development of diseases.

  15. In vivo NAD assay reveals the intracellular NAD contents and redox state in healthy human brain and their age dependences

    PubMed Central

    Zhu, Xiao-Hong; Lu, Ming; Lee, Byeong-Yeul; Ugurbil, Kamil; Chen, Wei

    2015-01-01

    NAD is an essential metabolite that exists in NAD+ or NADH form in all living cells. Despite its critical roles in regulating mitochondrial energy production through the NAD+/NADH redox state and modulating cellular signaling processes through the activity of the NAD+-dependent enzymes, the method for quantifying intracellular NAD contents and redox state is limited to a few in vitro or ex vivo assays, which are not suitable for studying a living brain or organ. Here, we present a magnetic resonance (MR) -based in vivo NAD assay that uses the high-field MR scanner and is capable of noninvasively assessing NAD+ and NADH contents and the NAD+/NADH redox state in intact human brain. The results of this study provide the first insight, to our knowledge, into the cellular NAD concentrations and redox state in the brains of healthy volunteers. Furthermore, an age-dependent increase of intracellular NADH and age-dependent reductions in NAD+, total NAD contents, and NAD+/NADH redox potential of the healthy human brain were revealed in this study. The overall findings not only provide direct evidence of declined mitochondrial functions and altered NAD homeostasis that accompany the normal aging process but also, elucidate the merits and potentials of this new NAD assay for noninvasively studying the intracellular NAD metabolism and redox state in normal and diseased human brain or other organs in situ. PMID:25730862

  16. Aging in deep gray matter and white matter revealed by diffusional kurtosis imaging.

    PubMed

    Gong, Nan-Jie; Wong, Chun-Sing; Chan, Chun-Chung; Leung, Lam-Ming; Chu, Yiu-Ching

    2014-10-01

    Diffusion tensor imaging has already been extensively used to probe microstructural alterations in white matter tracts, and scarcely, in deep gray matter. However, results in literature regarding age-related degenerative mechanisms in white matter tracts and parametric changes in the putamen are inconsistent. Diffusional kurtosis imaging is a mathematical extension of diffusion tensor imaging, which could more comprehensively mirror microstructure, particularly in isotropic tissues such as gray matter. In this study, we used the diffusional kurtosis imaging method and a white-matter model that provided metrics of explicit neurobiological interpretations in healthy participants (58 in total, aged from 25 to 84 years). Tract-based whole-brain analyses and regions-of-interest (anterior and posterior limbs of the internal capsule, cerebral peduncle, fornix, genu and splenium of corpus callosum, globus pallidus, substantia nigra, red nucleus, putamen, caudate nucleus, and thalamus) analyses were performed to examine parametric differences across regions and correlations with age. In white matter tracts, evidence was found supportive for anterior-posterior gradient and not completely supportive for retrogenesis theory. Age-related degenerations appeared to be broadly driven by axonal loss. Demyelination may also be a major driving mechanism, although confined to the anterior brain. In terms of deep gray matter, higher mean kurtosis and fractional anisotropy in the globus pallidus, substantia nigra, and red nucleus reflected higher microstructural complexity and directionality compared with the putamen, caudate nucleus, and thalamus. In particular, the unique age-related positive correlations for fractional anisotropy, mean kurtosis, and radial kurtosis in the putamen opposite to those in other regions call for further investigation of exact underlying mechanisms. In summary, the results suggested that diffusional kurtosis can provide measurements in a new dimension that

  17. Systematic analysis of asymmetric partitioning of yeast proteome between mother and daughter cells revealsaging factors” and mechanism of lifespan asymmetry

    PubMed Central

    Yang, Jing; McCormick, Mark A.; Zheng, Jiashun; Xie, Zhengwei; Tsuchiya, Mitsuhiro; Tsuchiyama, Scott; El-Samad, Hana; Ouyang, Qi; Kaeberlein, Matt; Kennedy, Brian K.; Li, Hao

    2015-01-01

    Budding yeast divides asymmetrically, giving rise to a mother cell that progressively ages and a daughter cell with full lifespan. It is generally assumed that mother cells retain damaged, lifespan limiting materials (“aging factors”) through asymmetric division. However, the identity of these aging factors and the mechanisms through which they limit lifespan remain poorly understood. Using a flow cytometry-based, high-throughput approach, we quantified the asymmetric partitioning of the yeast proteome between mother and daughter cells during cell division, discovering 74 mother-enriched and 60 daughter-enriched proteins. While daughter-enriched proteins are biased toward those needed for bud construction and genome maintenance, mother-enriched proteins are biased towards those localized in the plasma membrane and vacuole. Deletion of 23 of the 74 mother-enriched proteins leads to lifespan extension, a fraction that is about six times that of the genes picked randomly from the genome. Among these lifespan-extending genes, three are involved in endosomal sorting/endosome to vacuole transport, and three are nitrogen source transporters. Tracking the dynamic expression of specific mother-enriched proteins revealed that their concentration steadily increases in the mother cells as they age, but is kept relatively low in the daughter cells via asymmetric distribution. Our results suggest that some mother-enriched proteins may increase to a concentration that becomes deleterious and lifespan-limiting in aged cells, possibly by upsetting homeostasis or leading to aberrant signaling. Our study provides a comprehensive resource for analyzing asymmetric cell division and aging in yeast, which should also be valuable for understanding similar phenomena in other organisms. PMID:26351681

  18. Tip-of-the-tongue states reveal age differences in the syllable frequency effect.

    PubMed

    Farrell, Meagan T; Abrams, Lise

    2011-01-01

    Syllable frequency has been shown to facilitate production in some languages but has yielded inconsistent results in English and has never been examined in older adults. Tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) states represent a unique type of production failure where the phonology of a word is unable to be retrieved, suggesting that the frequency of phonological forms, like syllables, may influence the occurrence of TOT states. In the current study, we investigated the role of first-syllable frequency on TOT incidence and resolution in young (18-26 years of age), young-old (60-74 years of age), and old-old (75-89 years of age) adults. Data from 3 published studies were compiled, where TOTs were elicited by presenting definition-like questions and asking participants to respond with "Know," "Don't Know," or "TOT." Young-old and old-old adults, but not young adults, experienced more TOTs for words beginning with low-frequency first syllables relative to high-frequency first syllables. Furthermore, age differences in TOT incidence occurred only for words with low-frequency first syllables. In contrast, when a prime word with the same first syllable as the target was presented during TOT states, all age groups resolved more TOTs for words beginning with low-frequency syllables. These findings support speech production models that allow for bidirectional activation between conceptual, lexical, and phonological forms of words. Furthermore, the age-specific effects of syllable frequency provide insight into the progression of age-linked changes to phonological processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

  19. The future of ageing.

    PubMed

    Hayflick, L

    2000-11-09

    Advances in our knowledge of age-associated diseases have far outpaced advances in our understanding of the fundamental ageing processes that underlie the vulnerability to these pathologies. If we are to increase human life expectancy beyond the fifteen-year limit that would result if today's leading causes of death were resolved, more attention must be paid to basic research on ageing. Determination of longevity must be distinguished from ageing to take us from the common question of why we age to a more revealing question that is rarely posed: why do we live as long as we do? But if the ability to intervene in ageing ever becomes a reality, it will be rife with unintended and undesirable consequences.

  20. Who in Europe Works beyond the State Pension Age and under which Conditions? Results from SHARE.

    PubMed

    Wahrendorf, Morten; Akinwale, Bola; Landy, Rebecca; Matthews, Katey; Blane, David

    2017-01-01

    There is much research about those who exit the labour market prematurely, however, comparatively little is known about people working longer and about their employment and working conditions. In this paper, we describe the employment and working conditions of men and women working between 65 and 80 years, and compare them with previous conditions of those retired in the same age group. Analyses are based on wave 4 data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) with information collected between 2009 and 2011 from 17,625 older men and women across 16 European countries. Besides socio-demographic and health-related factors (physical and mental health), the focus lies on employment conditions (e.g. employment status, occupational position and working hours) and on stressful working conditions, measured in terms of low control at work and effort-reward imbalance. In case of retired people, information on working conditions refer to the last job before retirement. Following descriptive analyses, we then conduct multivariable analyses and investigate how working conditions and poor health are related to labour market participation (i.e. random intercept models accounting for country affiliation and adjusted for potential confounders). Results illustrate that people working between the ages of 65 and 80 are more likely to be self-employed (either with or without employees) and work in advantaged occupational positions. Furthermore, findings reveal that psychosocial working conditions are generally better than the conditions retired respondents had in their last job. Finally, in contrast to those who work, health tends to be worse among retired people. In conclusion, findings deliver empirical evidence that paid employment beyond age 65 is more common among self-employed workers throughout Europe, in advantaged occupations and under-favourable psychosocial circumstances, and that this group of workers are in considerably good mental and physical

  1. Estimation of Correlation between Chronological Age, Skeletal Age and Dental Age in Children- A Cross-sectional Study

    PubMed Central

    Macha, Madhulika; Lamba, Bharti; Muthineni, Sridhar; Margana, Pratap Gowd Jai Shankar; Chitoori, Prasad

    2017-01-01

    Introduction In the modern era, identification and determination of age is imperative for diversity of reasons that include disputed birth records, premature delivery, legal issues and for validation of birth certificate for school admissions, adoption, marriage, job and immigration. Several growth assessment parameters like bone age, dental age and the combination of both have been applied for different population with variable outcomes. It has been well documented that the chronological age does not necessarily correlate with the maturational status of a child. Hence, efforts were made to determine a child’s developmental age by using dental age (calcification of teeth) and skeletal age (skeletal maturation). Aim The present study was aimed to correlate the chronological age, dental age and skeletal age in children from Southeastern region of Andhra Pradesh, India. Materials and Methods Out of the total 900 screened children, only 100 subjects between age groups of 6-14 years with a mean age of 11.3±2.63 for males and 10.77±2.24 for females were selected for the study. Dental age was calculated by Demirjian method and skeletal age by modified Middle Phalanx of left hand third finger (MP3) method. Pearson’s and Spearman’s correlation tests were done to estimate the correlation between chronological, dental and skeletal ages among study population. Results There was a significant positive correlation between chronological age, dental age and all stages of MP3 among males. Similar results were observed in females, except for a non-significant moderate correlation between chronological age and dental age in the H stage of the MP3 region. Conclusion The results of the present study revealed correlation with statistical significance (p<0.05) between chronological, dental and skeletal ages among all the subjects (48 males and 52 females) and females attained maturity earlier than males in the present study population. PMID:29207822

  2. Probability of an Abnormal Screening PSA Result Based on Age, Race, and PSA Threshold

    PubMed Central

    Espaldon, Roxanne; Kirby, Katharine A.; Fung, Kathy Z.; Hoffman, Richard M.; Powell, Adam A.; Freedland, Stephen J.; Walter, Louise C.

    2014-01-01

    Objective To determine the distribution of screening PSA values in older men and how different PSA thresholds affect the proportion of white, black, and Latino men who would have an abnormal screening result across advancing age groups. Methods We used linked national VA and Medicare data to determine the value of the first screening PSA test (ng/mL) of 327,284 men age 65+ who underwent PSA screening in the VA healthcare system in 2003. We calculated the proportion of men with an abnormal PSA result based on age, race, and common PSA thresholds. Results Among men age 65+, 8.4% had a PSA >4.0ng/mL. The percentage of men with a PSA >4.0ng/mL increased with age and was highest in black men (13.8%) versus white (8.0%) or Latino men (10.0%) (P<0.001). Combining age and race, the probability of having a PSA >4.0ng/mL ranged from 5.1% of Latino men age 65–69 to 27.4% of black men age 85+. Raising the PSA threshold from >4.0ng/mL to >10.0ng/mL, reclassified the greatest percentage of black men age 85+ (18.3% absolute change) and the lowest percentage of Latino men age 65–69 (4.8% absolute change) as being under the biopsy threshold (P<0.001). Conclusions Age, race, and PSA threshold together affect the pre-test probability of an abnormal screening PSA result. Based on screening PSA distributions, stopping screening among men whose PSA < 3ng/ml means over 80% of white and Latino men age 70+ would stop further screening, and increasing the biopsy threshold to >10ng/ml has the greatest effect on reducing the number of older black men who will face biopsy decisions after screening. PMID:24439009

  3. Mouse Tmem135 mutation reveals a mechanism involving mitochondrial dynamics that leads to age-dependent retinal pathologies

    PubMed Central

    Lee, Wei-Hua; Higuchi, Hitoshi; Ikeda, Sakae; Macke, Erica L; Takimoto, Tetsuya; Pattnaik, Bikash R; Liu, Che; Chu, Li-Fang; Siepka, Sandra M; Krentz, Kathleen J; Rubinstein, C Dustin; Kalejta, Robert F; Thomson, James A; Mullins, Robert F; Takahashi, Joseph S; Pinto, Lawrence H; Ikeda, Akihiro

    2016-01-01

    While the aging process is central to the pathogenesis of age-dependent diseases, it is poorly understood at the molecular level. We identified a mouse mutant with accelerated aging in the retina as well as pathologies observed in age-dependent retinal diseases, suggesting that the responsible gene regulates retinal aging, and its impairment results in age-dependent disease. We determined that a mutation in the transmembrane 135 (Tmem135) is responsible for these phenotypes. We observed localization of TMEM135 on mitochondria, and imbalance of mitochondrial fission and fusion in mutant Tmem135 as well as Tmem135 overexpressing cells, indicating that TMEM135 is involved in the regulation of mitochondrial dynamics. Additionally, mutant retina showed higher sensitivity to oxidative stress. These results suggest that the regulation of mitochondrial dynamics through TMEM135 is critical for protection from environmental stress and controlling the progression of retinal aging. Our study identified TMEM135 as a critical link between aging and age-dependent diseases. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.19264.001 PMID:27863209

  4. Dynamical age differences among coeval star clusters as revealed by blue stragglers.

    PubMed

    Ferraro, F R; Lanzoni, B; Dalessandro, E; Beccari, G; Pasquato, M; Miocchi, P; Rood, R T; Sigurdsson, S; Sills, A; Vesperini, E; Mapelli, M; Contreras, R; Sanna, N; Mucciarelli, A

    2012-12-20

    Globular star clusters that formed at the same cosmic time may have evolved rather differently from the dynamical point of view (because that evolution depends on the internal environment) through a variety of processes that tend progressively to segregate stars more massive than the average towards the cluster centre. Therefore clusters with the same chronological age may have reached quite different stages of their dynamical history (that is, they may have different 'dynamical ages'). Blue straggler stars have masses greater than those at the turn-off point on the main sequence and therefore must be the result of either a collision or a mass-transfer event. Because they are among the most massive and luminous objects in old clusters, they can be used as test particles with which to probe dynamical evolution. Here we report that globular clusters can be grouped into a few distinct families on the basis of the radial distribution of blue stragglers. This grouping corresponds well to an effective ranking of the dynamical stage reached by stellar systems, thereby permitting a direct measure of the cluster dynamical age purely from observed properties.

  5. Transcriptome Network Analysis Reveals Aging-Related Mitochondrial and Proteasomal Dysfunction and Immune Activation in Human Thyroid

    PubMed Central

    Cho, Byuri Angela; Yoo, Seong-Keun; Song, Young Shin; Kim, Su-jin; Lee, Kyu Eun; Shong, Minho

    2018-01-01

    Background: Elucidating aging-related transcriptomic changes in human organs is necessary to understand the aging physiology and mechanisms, but little is known regarding the thyroid gland. We investigated aging-related transcriptomic alterations in the human thyroid gland and characterized the related molecular functions. Methods: Publicly available RNA sequencing data of 322 thyroid tissue samples from the Genotype-Tissue Expression project were analyzed. In addition, our own 64 RNA sequencing data of normal thyroid tissue samples were used as a validation set. To comprehensively evaluate the associations between aging and transcriptomic changes, we performed a weighted gene coexpression network analysis and pathway enrichment analysis. The thyroid differentiation score was then used for further analysis, defining the correlations between thyroid differentiation and aging. Results: The most significant aging-related transcriptomic change in thyroid was the downregulation of genes related to the mitochondrial and proteasomal functions (p = 3 × 10−6). Moreover, genes that are associated with immune processes were significantly upregulated with age (p = 3 × 10−4), and all of them overlapped with the upregulated genes in the thyroid glands affected by lymphocytic thyroiditis. Furthermore, these aging-related changes were not significantly different according to sex, but in terms of the thyroid differentiation, females were more susceptible to aging-related changes (p for trend = 0.03). Conclusions: Aging-related transcriptomic changes in the thyroid gland were associated with mitochondrial and proteasomal dysfunction, loss of differentiation, and activation of autoimmune processes. Our results provide clues to better understanding the age-related decline in thyroid function and higher susceptibility to autoimmune thyroid disease. PMID:29652618

  6. Results of interlaboratory comparison of fission-track age standards: Fission-track workshop-1984

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Miller, D.S.; Duddy, I.R.; Green, P.F.; Hurford, A.J.; Naeser, C.W.

    1985-01-01

    Five samples were made available as standards for the 1984 Fission Track Workshop held in the summer of 1984 (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York). Two zircons, two apatites and a sphene were distributed prior to the meeting to 40 different laboratories. To date, 24 different analysts have reported results. The isotopic ages of the standards ranged from 16.8 to 98.7 Myr. Only the statement that the age of each sample was less than 200 Myr was provided with the set of standards distributed. Consequently, each laboratory was required to use their laboratory's accepted treatment (irradiation level, etching conditions, counting conditions, etc.) for these samples. The results show that some workers have serious problems in achieving accurate age determinations. This emphasizes the need to calibrate experimental techniques and counting procedures against age standards before unknown ages are determined. Any fission-track age determination published or submitted for publication can only be considered reliable if it is supported by evidence of consistent determinations on age standards. Only this can provide the scientific community with the background to build up confidence concerning the validity of the fission-track method. ?? 1985.

  7. Canadian government's framing of ageing at work and older workers: Echoing positive ageing models.

    PubMed

    Lagacé, Martine; Nahon-Serfaty, Isaac; Laplante, Joelle

    2015-01-01

    Public representations of ageing can influence how individuals perceive their own experience of ageing. Results of studies on the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development)'s governmental messages on older workers suggest that they are mainly constructed around economic productivity and personal responsibility. The goal of this study is to examine how the Canadian government frames issues around ageing, work and older workers. Canada is facing a rapidly ageing workforce, hence the importance of examining how the government discusses ageing at work. A thematic content analysis was conducted on a total of 154 government web pages. Results revealed that predominant themes revolve around economic challenges resulting from an ageing workforce. Older workers are depicted as a key component for the (economic) management of an ageing workforce. More specifically, older workers who intend to continue working are highly valued in the government's messages which present them as productive citizens and role models for "ageing well". Canada's response to the challenges of an ageing workforce echoes the underlying standards of positive ageing models, which may generate, perhaps inadvertently, a new form of ageism by creating intra-and intergenerational divides in the workplace.

  8. Fake age hiatus in a loess section revealed by OSL dating of calcrete nodules

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, Junjie; Li, Sheng-Hua; Sun, Jimin; Hao, Qingzhen

    2018-04-01

    Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating on potassium feldspar has been performed with high resolution in the Luochuan section in the Chinese Loess Plateau. An age hiatus of ∼ 15 ka is found at the top of L2 layer within the loess/paleosol sequences. The age of the potassium feldspar from the calcrete nodules along the S1/L2 boundary is significantly older than those of the paleosol and loess samples lying above and below the boundary. The age overestimation of the potassium feldspar from calcrete nodules is caused by the underestimation of the dose rate, because accretion of carbonates could dilute the radioactivity. The age hiatus at the top of L2 also resulted from the underestimation of the dose rates of four loess samples beneath this hiatus. These four loess samples have high CaO concentrations. Ages of these samples are overestimated in the similar way as the nodules, but with smaller degrees. All results suggest that the accretion of carbonates happened after the loess deposition. The carbonate accretion process of the calcrete nodules has been simulated with accumulation models. The accretion can be as young as 46 ka, assuming the calcrete nodules formed rapidly at a certain time point. For slow and gradual accretion models, the carbonate started to accumulate slowly since the dust deposition and the accumulation became faster afterwards. The transition of the accretion rate may relate to the climate change or a change in the carbonate leaching and re-precipitation system.

  9. Analysis of spirometry results in hospitalized patients aged over 65 years.

    PubMed

    Wróblewska, Izabela; Oleśniewicz, Piotr; Kurpas, Donata; Sołtysik, Mariusz; Błaszczuk, Jerzy

    2015-01-01

    The growing population of the elderly, as well as the occurrence of coexisting diseases and polypharmacy, is the reason why diseases of patients aged $65 years belong to the major issues of the contemporary medicine. Among the most frequent diseases of the elderly, there are respiratory system diseases. They are difficult to diagnose because of the patient group specificity, which is the reason for increased mortality among seniors, caused by underdiagnosis. The study objective was to assess the factors influencing spirometry results in hospitalized patients aged ≥65 years with respiratory system disorders. In the research, 217 (100%) patients aged ≥65 years who underwent spirometry at the Regional Medical Center of the Jelenia Góra Valley Hospital in Poland were analyzed. In the statistical analysis, the STATISTICA 9.1 program, the t-test, the Shapiro-Wilk test, the ANOVA test, and the Scheffé's test were applied. The majority of the patients (59.4%) were treated in the hospital. The most frequent diagnosis was malignant neoplasm (18%). The study showed a statistically significant dependence between the forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1), and FEV1/FVC parameters and the time of hospitalization, as well as between the FVC and FEV1 parameters and the age of patients. The FVC parameter values turned out to be dependent on the main diagnosis. Highest results were noted in patients with the diagnosis of sleep apnea or benign neoplasm. A low FVC index can reflect restrictive ventilation defects, which was supported by the performed analyses. Highest FEV1/FVC values were observed in nonsmokers, which confirms the influence of nicotine addiction on the incidence of respiratory system diseases. The respondents' sex and the established diagnosis statistically significantly influenced the FVC index result, and the diet influenced the FEV1/FVC parameter result.

  10. Life table assay of field-caught Mediterranean fruit flies, Ceratitis capitata, reveals age bias

    PubMed Central

    Kouloussis, Nikos A.; Papadopoulos, Nikos T.; Müller, Hans-Georg; Wang, Jane-Ling; Mao, Meng; Katsoyannos, Byron I.; Duyck, Pierre-François; Carey, James R.

    2012-01-01

    Though traps are used widely to sample phytophagous insects for research or management purposes, and recently in aging research, possible bias stemming from differential response of individuals of various ages to traps has never been examined. In this paper, we tested the response of Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann) (Diptera: Tephritidae) males and females of four ages (spanning from 1 to 40 days) to McPhail-type traps baited with a synthetic food attractant in field cages and found that the probability of trapping was significantly influenced by age. The type of food on which flies were maintained before testing (sugar or protein) also had a strong effect and interacted with age. In another experiment, we collected wild C. capitata adults of unknown age using 1–3 methods and then reared them in the laboratory until death. The survival schedules of these flies were subsequently used in a life table assay to infer their age at the time of capture. Results showed that on a single sampling date, males captured in traps baited with a food attractant were younger compared with males aspirated from fruiting host trees, or males captured in traps baited with a sex attractant. Likewise, females captured in food-baited traps were younger compared with aspirated females. In addition to providing the first evidence of age-dependent sampling bias for a phytophagous insect species, this paper also provides a novel approach to estimate the differences in the age composition of samples collected with different techniques. These findings are of utmost importance for several categories of insects, medically important groups notwithstanding. PMID:22844133

  11. Transcriptomics of aged Drosophila motor neurons reveals a matrix metalloproteinase that impairs motor function.

    PubMed

    Azpurua, Jorge; Mahoney, Rebekah E; Eaton, Benjamin A

    2018-04-01

    The neuromuscular junction (NMJ) is responsible for transforming nervous system signals into motor behavior and locomotion. In the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, an age-dependent decline in motor function occurs, analogous to the decline experienced in mice, humans, and other mammals. The molecular and cellular underpinnings of this decline are still poorly understood. By specifically profiling the transcriptome of Drosophila motor neurons across age using custom microarrays, we found that the expression of the matrix metalloproteinase 1 (dMMP1) gene reproducibly increased in motor neurons in an age-dependent manner. Modulation of physiological aging also altered the rate of dMMP1 expression, validating dMMP1 expression as a bona fide aging biomarker for motor neurons. Temporally controlled overexpression of dMMP1 specifically in motor neurons was sufficient to induce deficits in climbing behavior and cause a decrease in neurotransmitter release at neuromuscular synapses. These deficits were reversible if the dMMP1 expression was shut off again immediately after the onset of motor dysfunction. Additionally, repression of dMMP1 enzymatic activity via overexpression of a tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases delayed the onset of age-dependent motor dysfunction. MMPs are required for proper tissue architecture during development. Our results support the idea that matrix metalloproteinase 1 is acting as a downstream effector of antagonistic pleiotropy in motor neurons and is necessary for proper development, but deleterious when reactivated at an advanced age. © 2018 The Authors. Aging Cell published by the Anatomical Society and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  12. Analysis of spirometry results in hospitalized patients aged over 65 years

    PubMed Central

    Wróblewska, Izabela; Oleśniewicz, Piotr; Kurpas, Donata; Sołtysik, Mariusz; Błaszczuk, Jerzy

    2015-01-01

    Introduction and objective The growing population of the elderly, as well as the occurrence of coexisting diseases and polypharmacy, is the reason why diseases of patients aged $65 years belong to the major issues of the contemporary medicine. Among the most frequent diseases of the elderly, there are respiratory system diseases. They are difficult to diagnose because of the patient group specificity, which is the reason for increased mortality among seniors, caused by underdiagnosis. The study objective was to assess the factors influencing spirometry results in hospitalized patients aged ≥65 years with respiratory system disorders. Material and methods In the research, 217 (100%) patients aged ≥65 years who underwent spirometry at the Regional Medical Center of the Jelenia Góra Valley Hospital in Poland were analyzed. In the statistical analysis, the STATISTICA 9.1 program, the t-test, the Shapiro–Wilk test, the ANOVA test, and the Scheffé’s test were applied. Results The majority of the patients (59.4%) were treated in the hospital. The most frequent diagnosis was malignant neoplasm (18%). The study showed a statistically significant dependence between the forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1), and FEV1/FVC parameters and the time of hospitalization, as well as between the FVC and FEV1 parameters and the age of patients. The FVC parameter values turned out to be dependent on the main diagnosis. Highest results were noted in patients with the diagnosis of sleep apnea or benign neoplasm. A low FVC index can reflect restrictive ventilation defects, which was supported by the performed analyses. Highest FEV1/FVC values were observed in nonsmokers, which confirms the influence of nicotine addiction on the incidence of respiratory system diseases. Conclusion The respondents’ sex and the established diagnosis statistically significantly influenced the FVC index result, and the diet influenced the FEV1/FVC parameter result

  13. Tree Age Distributions Reveal Large-Scale Disturbance-Recovery Cycles in Three Tropical Forests

    PubMed Central

    Vlam, Mart; van der Sleen, Peter; Groenendijk, Peter; Zuidema, Pieter A.

    2017-01-01

    Over the past few decades there has been a growing realization that a large share of apparently ‘virgin’ or ‘old-growth’ tropical forests carries a legacy of past natural or anthropogenic disturbances that have a substantial effect on present-day forest composition, structure and dynamics. Yet, direct evidence of such disturbances is scarce and comparisons of disturbance dynamics across regions even more so. Here we present a tree-ring based reconstruction of disturbance histories from three tropical forest sites in Bolivia, Cameroon, and Thailand. We studied temporal patterns in tree regeneration of shade-intolerant tree species, because establishment of these trees is indicative for canopy disturbance. In three large areas (140–300 ha), stem disks and increment cores were collected for a total of 1154 trees (>5 cm diameter) from 12 tree species to estimate the age of every tree. Using these age estimates we produced population age distributions, which were analyzed for evidence of past disturbance. Our approach allowed us to reconstruct patterns of tree establishment over a period of around 250 years. In Bolivia, we found continuous regeneration rates of three species and a peaked age distribution of a long-lived pioneer species. In both Cameroon and Thailand we found irregular age distributions, indicating strongly reduced regeneration rates over a period of 10–60 years. Past fires, windthrow events or anthropogenic disturbances all provide plausible explanations for the reported variation in tree age across the three sites. Our results support the recent idea that the long-term dynamics of tropical forests are impacted by large-scale disturbance-recovery cycles, similar to those driving temperate forest dynamics. PMID:28105034

  14. Tree Age Distributions Reveal Large-Scale Disturbance-Recovery Cycles in Three Tropical Forests.

    PubMed

    Vlam, Mart; van der Sleen, Peter; Groenendijk, Peter; Zuidema, Pieter A

    2016-01-01

    Over the past few decades there has been a growing realization that a large share of apparently 'virgin' or 'old-growth' tropical forests carries a legacy of past natural or anthropogenic disturbances that have a substantial effect on present-day forest composition, structure and dynamics. Yet, direct evidence of such disturbances is scarce and comparisons of disturbance dynamics across regions even more so. Here we present a tree-ring based reconstruction of disturbance histories from three tropical forest sites in Bolivia, Cameroon, and Thailand. We studied temporal patterns in tree regeneration of shade-intolerant tree species, because establishment of these trees is indicative for canopy disturbance. In three large areas (140-300 ha), stem disks and increment cores were collected for a total of 1154 trees (>5 cm diameter) from 12 tree species to estimate the age of every tree. Using these age estimates we produced population age distributions, which were analyzed for evidence of past disturbance. Our approach allowed us to reconstruct patterns of tree establishment over a period of around 250 years. In Bolivia, we found continuous regeneration rates of three species and a peaked age distribution of a long-lived pioneer species. In both Cameroon and Thailand we found irregular age distributions, indicating strongly reduced regeneration rates over a period of 10-60 years. Past fires, windthrow events or anthropogenic disturbances all provide plausible explanations for the reported variation in tree age across the three sites. Our results support the recent idea that the long-term dynamics of tropical forests are impacted by large-scale disturbance-recovery cycles, similar to those driving temperate forest dynamics.

  15. Functional activity and white matter microstructure reveal the independent effects of age of acquisition and proficiency on second-language learning.

    PubMed

    Nichols, Emily S; Joanisse, Marc F

    2016-12-01

    Two key factors govern how bilingual speakers neurally maintain two languages: the speakers' second language age of acquisition (AoA) and their subsequent proficiency. However, the relative roles of these two factors have been difficult to disentangle given that the two can be closely correlated, and most prior studies have examined the two factors in isolation. Here, we combine functional magnetic resonance imaging with diffusion tensor imaging to identify specific brain areas that are independently modulated by AoA and proficiency in second language speakers. First-language Mandarin Chinese speakers who are second language speakers of English were scanned as they performed a picture-word matching task in either language. In the same session we also acquired diffusion-weighted scans to assess white matter microstructure, along with behavioural measures of language proficiency prior to entering the scanner. Results reveal gray- and white-matter networks involving both the left and right hemisphere that independently vary as a function of a second-language speaker's AoA and proficiency, focused on the superior temporal gyrus, middle and inferior frontal gyrus, parahippocampal gyrus, and the basal ganglia. These results indicate that proficiency and AoA explain separate functional and structural networks in the bilingual brain, which we interpret as suggesting distinct types of plasticity for age-dependent effects (i.e., AoA) versus experience and/or predisposition (i.e., proficiency). Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  16. Predictive aging results for cable materials in nuclear power plants

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Gillen, K.T.; Clough, R.L.

    1990-11-01

    In this report, we provide a detailed discussion of methodology of predicting cable degradation versus dose rate, temperature, and exposure time and its application to data obtained on a number of additional nuclear power plant cable insulation (a hypalon, a silicon rubber and two ethylenetetrafluoroethylenes) and jacket (a hypalon) materials. We then show that the predicted, low-dose-rate results for our materials are in excellent agreement with long-term (7 to 9 years), low dose-rate results recently obtained for the same material types actually aged under nuclear power plant conditions. Based on a combination of the modelling and long-term results, we findmore » indications of reasonably similar degradation responses among several different commercial formulations for each of the following generic'' materials: hypalon, ethylenetetrafluoroethylene, silicone rubber and PVC. If such generic'' behavior can be further substantiated through modelling and long-term results on additional formulations, predictions of cable life for other commercial materials of the same generic types would be greatly facilitated. Finally, to aid utilities in their cable life extension decisions, we utilize our modelling results to generate lifetime prediction curves for the materials modelled to data. These curves plot expected material lifetime versus dose rate and temperature down to the levels of interest to nuclear power plant aging. 18 refs., 30 figs., 3 tabs.« less

  17. Epigenetic hereditary transcription profiles III, evidence for an epigenetic network resulting in gender, tissue and age-specific variation in overall transcription

    PubMed Central

    Simons, Johannes WIM

    2009-01-01

    Background We have previously shown that deviations from the average transcription profile of a group of functionally related genes are not only heritable, but also demonstrate specific patterns associated with age, gender and differentiation, thereby implicating genome-wide nuclear programming as the cause. To determine whether these results could be reproduced, a different micro-array database (obtained from two types of muscle tissue, derived from 81 human donors aged between 16 to 89 years) was studied. Results This new database also revealed the existence of age, gender and tissue-specific features in a small group of functionally related genes. In order to further analyze this phenomenon, a method was developed for quantifying the contribution of different factors to the variability in gene expression, and for generating a database limited to residual values reflecting constitutional differences between individuals. These constitutional differences, presumably epigenetic in origin, contribute to about 50% of the observed residual variance which is connected with a network of interrelated changes in gene expression with some genes displaying a decrease or increase in residual variation with age. Conclusion Epigenetic variation in gene expression without a clear concomitant relation to gene function appears to be a widespread phenomenon. This variation is connected with interactions between genes, is gender and tissue specific and is related to cellular aging. This finding, together with the method developed for analysis, might contribute to the elucidation of the role of nuclear programming in differentiation, aging and carcinogenesis Reviewers This article was reviewed by Thiago M. Venancio (nominated by Aravind Iyer), Hua Li (nominated by Arcady Mushegian) and Arcady Mushegian and J.P.de Magelhaes (nominated by G. Church). PMID:19796384

  18. Advanced aging phenotype is revealed by epigenetic modifications in rat liver after in utero malnutrition.

    PubMed

    Heo, Hye J; Tozour, Jessica N; Delahaye, Fabien; Zhao, Yongmei; Cui, Lingguang; Barzilai, Nir; Einstein, Francine Hughes

    2016-10-01

    Adverse environmental exposures of mothers during fetal period predispose offspring to a range of age-related diseases earlier in life. Here, we set to determine whether a deregulated epigenetic pattern is similar in young animals whose mothers' nutrition was modulated during fetal growth to that acquired during normal aging in animals. Using a rodent model of maternal undernutrition (UN) or overnutrition (ON), we examined cytosine methylation profiles of liver from young female offspring and compared them to age-matched young controls and aged (20-month-old) animals. HELP-tagging, a genomewide restriction enzyme and sequencing assay demonstrates that fetal exposure to two different maternal diets is associated with nonrandom dysregulation of methylation levels with profiles similar to those seen in normal aging animals and occur in regions mapped to genes relevant to metabolic diseases and aging. Functional consequences were assessed by gene expression at 9 weeks old with more significant changes at 6 months of age. Early developmental exposures to unfavorable maternal diets result in altered methylation profiles and transcriptional dysregulation in Prkcb, Pc, Ncor2, and Smad3 that is also seen with normal aging. These Notch pathway and lipogenesis genes may be useful for prediction of later susceptibility to chronic disease. © 2016 The Authors. Aging Cell published by the Anatomical Society and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  19. [Perspectives of psychological aging research].

    PubMed

    Wahl, H-W; Diegelmann, M

    2015-12-01

    Psychological aging research (PAF) focuses on age-related changes and behavioral stability (e.g. structure of social relations), performance and competences (e.g. cognitive functioning) as well as experiences (e.g. well-being) in advanced age. Knowledge is based in particular on currently available longitudinal studies, which historically for the first time allow very long observational periods (nearly across the complete life span). Additionally, innovative statistical analytical methods co-developed in the PAF nowadays allow a better understanding of the dynamics of change than ever before. This results in a new picture of psychological aging that confirms the multifaceted strengths of human aging but also reveals new risks of the current "prolonged aging".

  20. Kinetic measures of restabilisation during volitional stepping reveal age-related alterations in the control of mediolateral dynamic stability.

    PubMed

    Singer, Jonathan C; McIlroy, William E; Prentice, Stephen D

    2014-11-07

    Research examining age-related changes in dynamic stability during stepping has recognised the importance of the restabilisation phase, subsequent to foot-contact. While regulation of the net ground reaction force (GRFnet) line of action is believed to influence dynamic stability during steady-state locomotion, such control during restabilisation remains unknown. This work explored the origins of age-related decline in mediolateral dynamic stability by examining the line of action of GRFnet relative to the centre of mass (COM) during restabilisation following voluntary stepping. Healthy younger and older adults (n=20 per group) performed three single-step tasks (varying speed and step placement), altering the challenge to stability control. Age-related differences in magnitude and intertrial variability of the angle of divergence of GRFnet line of action relative to the COM were quantified, along with the peak mediolateral and vertical GRFnet components. The angle of divergence was further examined at discrete points during restabilisation, to uncover events of potential importance to stability control. Older adults exhibited a reduced angle of divergence throughout restabilisation. Temporal and spatial constraints on stepping increased the magnitude and intertrial variability of the angle of divergence, although not differentially among the older adults. Analysis of the time-varying angle of divergence revealed age-related reductions in magnitude, with increases in timing and intertrial timing variability during the later phase of restabilisation. This work further supports the idea that age-related challenges in lateral stability control emerge during restabilisation. Age-related alterations during the later phase of restabilisation may signify challenges with reactive control. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  1. Single-Cell Analysis of Human Pancreas Reveals Transcriptional Signatures of Aging and Somatic Mutation Patterns.

    PubMed

    Enge, Martin; Arda, H Efsun; Mignardi, Marco; Beausang, John; Bottino, Rita; Kim, Seung K; Quake, Stephen R

    2017-10-05

    As organisms age, cells accumulate genetic and epigenetic errors that eventually lead to impaired organ function or catastrophic transformation such as cancer. Because aging reflects a stochastic process of increasing disorder, cells in an organ will be individually affected in different ways, thus rendering bulk analyses of postmitotic adult cells difficult to interpret. Here, we directly measure the effects of aging in human tissue by performing single-cell transcriptome analysis of 2,544 human pancreas cells from eight donors spanning six decades of life. We find that islet endocrine cells from older donors display increased levels of transcriptional noise and potential fate drift. By determining the mutational history of individual cells, we uncover a novel mutational signature in healthy aging endocrine cells. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of using single-cell RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) data from primary cells to derive insights into genetic and transcriptional processes that operate on aging human tissue. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  2. Estimation of Correlation between Chronological Age, Skeletal Age and Dental Age in Children- A Cross-sectional Study.

    PubMed

    Macha, Madhulika; Lamba, Bharti; Avula, Jogendra Sai Sankar; Muthineni, Sridhar; Margana, Pratap Gowd Jai Shankar; Chitoori, Prasad

    2017-09-01

    In the modern era, identification and determination of age is imperative for diversity of reasons that include disputed birth records, premature delivery, legal issues and for validation of birth certificate for school admissions, adoption, marriage, job and immigration. Several growth assessment parameters like bone age, dental age and the combination of both have been applied for different population with variable outcomes. It has been well documented that the chronological age does not necessarily correlate with the maturational status of a child. Hence, efforts were made to determine a child's developmental age by using dental age (calcification of teeth) and skeletal age (skeletal maturation). The present study was aimed to correlate the chronological age, dental age and skeletal age in children from Southeastern region of Andhra Pradesh, India. Out of the total 900 screened children, only 100 subjects between age groups of 6-14 years with a mean age of 11.3±2.63 for males and 10.77±2.24 for females were selected for the study. Dental age was calculated by Demirjian method and skeletal age by modified Middle Phalanx of left hand third finger (MP3) method. Pearson's and Spearman's correlation tests were done to estimate the correlation between chronological, dental and skeletal ages among study population. There was a significant positive correlation between chronological age, dental age and all stages of MP3 among males. Similar results were observed in females, except for a non-significant moderate correlation between chronological age and dental age in the H stage of the MP3 region. The results of the present study revealed correlation with statistical significance (p<0.05) between chronological, dental and skeletal ages among all the subjects (48 males and 52 females) and females attained maturity earlier than males in the present study population.

  3. Aging in Sensory and Motor Neurons Results in Learning Failure in Aplysia californica.

    PubMed

    Kempsell, Andrew T; Fieber, Lynne A

    2015-01-01

    The physiological and molecular mechanisms of age-related memory loss are complicated by the complexity of vertebrate nervous systems. This study takes advantage of a simple neural model to investigate nervous system aging, focusing on changes in learning and memory in the form of behavioral sensitization in vivo and synaptic facilitation in vitro. The effect of aging on the tail withdrawal reflex (TWR) was studied in Aplysia californica at maturity and late in the annual lifecycle. We found that short-term sensitization in TWR was absent in aged Aplysia. This implied that the neuronal machinery governing nonassociative learning was compromised during aging. Synaptic plasticity in the form of short-term facilitation between tail sensory and motor neurons decreased during aging whether the sensitizing stimulus was tail shock or the heterosynaptic modulator serotonin (5-HT). Together, these results suggest that the cellular mechanisms governing behavioral sensitization are compromised during aging, thereby nearly eliminating sensitization in aged Aplysia.

  4. Sex, Age, and Emotional Valence: Revealing Possible Biases in the 'Reading the Mind in the Eyes' Task.

    PubMed

    Kynast, Jana; Schroeter, Matthias L

    2018-01-01

    The 'Reading the Mind in the Eyes' test (RMET) assesses a specific socio-cognitive ability, i.e., the ability to identify mental states from gaze. The development of this ability in a lifespan perspective is of special interest. Whereas former investigations were limited mainly to childhood and adolescence, the focus has been shifted towards aging, and psychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases recently. Although the RMET is frequently applied in developmental psychology and clinical settings, stimulus characteristics have never been investigated with respect to potential effects on test performance. Here, we analyzed the RMET stimulus set with a special focus on interrelations between sex, age and emotional valence. Forty-three persons rated age and emotional valence of the RMET picture set. Differences in emotional valence and age ratings between male and female items were analyzed. The linear relation between age and emotional valence was tested over all items, and separately for male and female items. Male items were rated older and more negative than female stimuli. Regarding male RMET items, age predicted emotional valence: older age was associated with negative emotions. Contrary, age and valence were not linearly related in female pictures. All ratings were independent of rater characteristics. Our results demonstrate a strong confound between sex, age, and emotional valence in the RMET. Male items presented a greater variability in age ratings compared to female items. Age and emotional valence were negatively associated among male items, but no significant association was found among female stimuli. As personal attributes impact social information processing, our results may add a new perspective on the interpretation of previous findings on interindividual differences in RMET accuracy, particularly in the field of developmental psychology, and age-associated neuropsychiatric diseases. A revision of the RMET might be afforded to overcome confounds

  5. Macro- and micro-level predictors of age categorization: results from the European Social Survey.

    PubMed

    Ayalon, Liat; Doron, Israel; Bodner, Ehud; Inbar, Noit

    2014-03-01

    This study evaluated macro- and micro-level variables associated with individuals' perception of the ending of youth, the beginning of old age, and the length of the middle age period. The European Social Survey is a biennial multi-country, cross-sectional survey. Our analysis is based on the fourth wave, which included a rotating module on ageism. The source sample consisted of 28 countries and a total of 54,988 respondents. Whereas macro-level variability accounted for 14 % of the variance associated with the perception of the ending of youth, only 5.7 % of the variance associated with the perception of the beginning of old age was accounted for by macro-level variability. Almost 10 % of the variance associated with the perception of the middle age period was associated with macro-level variability. Different patterns of macro- and micro-level correlates emerged for the ending of youth, beginning of old age, and the period of middle age. Overall, results demonstrate that individual differences in the perception of the ending of youth, the beginning of old age, and the length of the middle age period are more pronounced than contextual differences. Results also suggest that individuals' mental maps regarding the timing of these events are not necessarily concordant.

  6. Does Age Impact Text-Message Dependence?

    PubMed

    Ferraro, F Richard

    2018-01-01

    Little research has examined how age impacts texting dependence, despite the increased usage of texting and other social media applications in older adults. In the present study, three age groups (18-29 years of age, n = 135; 30-49 years of age, n = 58; 50-69 years of age, n = 19) were given the Self-Perceptions of Text Messaging Dependency Scale (SPTMDS). This self-report measure examines Emotion Reaction, Excessive Use, Disruption of Relationships with text Messages and Psychological/Behavioral Symptoms Concerning Heavy Usage). Results revealed that (a) texting dependence decreased across the three age groups and (b) that this decrease occurred for all four sub-scales of the SPTMDS (all p's < .01). These results have implications for how one aspect of social media (namely texting) is used and ultimately accepted by older adults.

  7. Event-related Potentials Reveal Age Differences in the Encoding and Recognition of Scenes

    PubMed Central

    Gutchess, Angela H.; Ieuji, Yoko; Federmeier, Kara D.

    2009-01-01

    The present study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate how the encoding and recognition of complex scenes change with normal aging. Although functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have identified more drastic age impairments at encoding than at recognition, ERP studies accumulate more evidence for age differences at retrieval. However, stimulus type and paradigm differences across the two literatures have made direct comparisons difficult. Here, we collected young and elderly adults’ encoding- and recognition-phase ERPs using the same materials and paradigm as a previous fMRI study. Twenty young and 20 elderly adults incidentally encoded and then recognized photographs of outdoor scenes. During encoding, young adults showed a frontocentral subsequent memory effect, with high-confidence hits exhibiting greater positivity than misses. Elderly adults showed a similar subsequent memory effect, which, however, did not differ as a function of confidence. During recognition, young adults elicited a widespread old/new effect, and high-confidence hits were distinct from both low-confidence hits and false alarms. Elderly adults elicited a smaller and later old/new effect, which was unaffected by confidence, and hits and false alarms were indistinguishable in the waveforms. Consistent with prior ERP work, these results point to important age-related changes in recognition-phase brain activity, even when behavioral measures of memory and confidence pattern similarly across groups. We speculate that memory processes with different time signatures contribute to the apparent differences across encoding and retrieval stages, and across methods. PMID:17583986

  8. DNA damage and ageing: new-age ideas for an age-old problem

    PubMed Central

    Garinis, George A.; van der Horst, Gijsbertus T. J.; Vijg, Jan; Hoeijmakers, Jan H. J.

    2015-01-01

    Loss of genome maintenance may causally contribute to ageing, as exemplified by the premature appearance of multiple symptoms of ageing in a growing family of human syndromes and in mice with genetic defects in genome maintenance pathways. Recent evidence revealed a similarity between such prematurely ageing mutants and long-lived mice harbouring mutations in growth signalling pathways. At first sight this seems paradoxical as they represent both extremes of ageing yet show a similar ‘survival’ response that is capable of delaying age-related pathology and extending lifespan. Understanding the mechanistic basis of this response and its connection with genome maintenance would open exciting possibilities for counteracting cancer or age-related diseases, and for promoting longevity. PMID:18978832

  9. [Active ageing and quality of life--Results of a WHO demonstration project].

    PubMed

    von dem Knesebeck, O; David, K; Bill, P; Hikl, R

    2006-04-01

    Based on the Active Ageing Programme of the World Health Organization (WHO), a demonstration project was conducted in a city in North-Rhine Westphalia between October 2002 and December 2004. The aim of the study was to promote an active ageing process, to maintain autonomy and independence among older people, and thereby to promote health and quality of life. The target group included people aged 55 to 80 years. The aim was to include older persons in a critical period of life due to loss of partner within the last five years and people undergoing a status change due to retirement within the last two years. 344 participants were visited at home to assess their health and psychosocial situation and to identify opportunities for activities. Participants were supported in their efforts to realise the agreed-upon activities. In this article results of the external evaluation are presented. It is analysed whether quality of life according to the WHOQOL Bref improves among participants in the course of the project. Results of non-parametric tests show small differences in quality of life between the three waves of interviews (at the beginning of the project, after one year, at the end of the project). This holds true when only those participants are analysed who retired within the last two years. However, quality of life significantly improves among older persons who lost their partner within the last five years. In terms of implementation of the WHO Active Ageing Programme results suggest application of a risk group strategy.

  10. Rejuvenation of the Aging Arm: Multimodal Combination Therapy for Optimal Results.

    PubMed

    Wu, Douglas C; Green, Jeremy B

    2016-05-01

    The aging arm is characterized by increased dyspigmentation, a proliferation of ectactic blood vessels, excessive adiposity, excessive skin laxity, and actinic keratosis. A variety of laser, energy, and surgical techniques can be used to improve these features. The objective of this article is to describe the treatment modalities that have proven efficacious in rejuvenating the aging arm and combination therapies that have the potential to optimize patient outcomes while maintaining safety and tolerability. A Medline search was performed on nonsurgical aesthetic combination treatments because it relates to arm rejuvenation, and results are summarized. Practical applications for these combination treatments are also discussed. Although there is significant evidence supporting the effective use of nonsurgical treatments for arm rejuvenation, little in the literature was found on the safety and efficacy of combining such procedures and devices. However, in the authors' clinical experience, combining arm rejuvenation techniques can be done safely and often result in optimal outcomes. Arm rejuvenation can be safely and effectively achieved with combination nonsurgical aesthetic treatments.

  11. Molecular Clues to Physiological and Premature Ageing Revealed | Center for Cancer Research

    Cancer.gov

    There are many theories about the molecular basis of ageing. One of the most popular ones postulates that organisms age by accumulating damage to their tissues, cells, and molecules. On the cellular level, ageing is associated with progressive changes in chromatin (a combination of DNA and proteins that makes up chromosomes). These changes include loss of chromatin structure,

  12. Aerobic exercise prevents age-dependent cognitive decline and reduces anxiety-related behaviors in middle-aged and old rats.

    PubMed

    Pietrelli, A; Lopez-Costa, J; Goñi, R; Brusco, A; Basso, N

    2012-01-27

    Recent research involving human and animals has shown that aerobic exercise of moderate intensity produces the greatest benefit on brain health and behavior. In this study we investigated the effects on cognitive function and anxiety-related behavior in rats at different ages of aerobic exercise, performed regularly throughout life. We designed an aerobic training program with the treadmill running following the basic principles of human training, and assuming that rats have the same physiological adaptations. The intensity was gradually adjusted to the fitness level and age, and maintained at 60-70% of maximum oxygen consumption (max.VO(2)). In middle age (8 months) and old age (18 months), we studied the cognitive response with the radial maze (RM), and anxiety-related behaviors with the open field (OF) and the elevated plus maze (EPM). Aerobically trained (AT) rats had a higher cognitive performance measured in the RM, showing that exercise had a cumulative and amplifier effect on memory and learning. The analysis of age and exercise revealed that the effects of aerobic exercise were modulated by age. Middle-aged AT rats were the most successful animals; however, the old AT rats met the criteria more often than the middle-aged sedentary controls (SC), indicating that exercise could reverse the negative effects of sedentary life, partially restore the cognitive function, and protect against the deleterious effects of aging. The results in the OF and EPM showed a significant decrease in key indicators of anxiety, revealing that age affected most of the analyzed variables, and that exercise had a prominent anxiolytic effect, particularly strong in old age. In conclusion, our results indicated that regular and chronic aerobic exercise has time and dose-dependent, neuroprotective and restorative effects on physiological brain aging, and reduces anxiety-related behaviors. Copyright © 2011 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. ROTATION PERIODS AND AGES OF SOLAR ANALOGS AND SOLAR TWINS REVEALED BY THE KEPLER MISSION

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Do Nascimento Jr, J.-D.; Meibom, S.; García, R. A.

    2014-08-01

    A new sample of solar analogs and twin candidates has been constructed and studied, paying particular attention to their light curves from NASA's Kepler mission. This Letter aims to assess their evolutionary status, derive their rotation and ages, and identify those which are solar analogs or solar twin candidates. We separate out the subgiants that compose a large fraction of the asteroseismic sample, and which show an increase in the average rotation period as the stars ascend the subgiant branch. The rotation periods of the dwarfs, ranging from 6 to 30 days and averaging 19 days, allow us to assess their individualmore » evolutionary states on the main sequence and to derive their ages using gyrochronology. These ages are found to be in agreement with a correlation coefficient of r = 0.79 with independent asteroseismic ages, where available. As a result of this investigation, we are able to identify 34 stars as solar analogs and 22 of them as solar twin candidates.« less

  14. Mitochondrial proteomic profiling reveals increased carbonic anhydrase II in aging and neurodegeneration.

    PubMed

    Pollard, Amelia; Shephard, Freya; Freed, James; Liddell, Susan; Chakrabarti, Lisa

    2016-10-10

    Carbonic anhydrase inhibitors are used to treat glaucoma and cancers. Carbonic anhydrases perform a crucial role in the conversion of carbon dioxide and water into bicarbonate and protons. However, there is little information about carbonic anhydrase isoforms during the process of ageing. Mitochondrial dysfunction is implicit in ageing brain and muscle. We have interrogated isolated mitochondrial fractions from young adult and middle aged mouse brain and skeletal muscle. We find an increase of tissue specific carbonic anhydrases in mitochondria from middle-aged brain and skeletal muscle. Mitochondrial carbonic anhydrase II was measured in the Purkinje cell degeneration ( pcd 5J ) mouse model. In pcd 5J we find mitochondrial carbonic anhydrase II is also elevated in brain from young adults undergoing a process of neurodegeneration. We show C.elegans exposed to carbonic anhydrase II have a dose related shorter lifespan suggesting that high CAII levels are in themselves life limiting. We show for the first time that the mitochondrial content of brain and skeletal tissue are exposed to significantly higher levels of active carbonic anhydrases as early as in middle-age. Carbonic anhydrases associated with mitochondria could be targeted to specifically modulate age related impairments and disease.

  15. Atypical coastal environmental change during Copper Age - Bronze Age transition (Rio de Moinhos, NW Portugal) - preliminary results

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Granja, Helena; Danielsen, Randi

    2015-04-01

    for its infilling. Furthermore dating of wooden remains of what was interpreted as a fish trap, found on the sediment surface gave the age 2055-1770 cal BP (Roman Period). The old age of the top level may hence be the result of truncation of the sediment sequence at least in parts of the platform. Landwards, the Roman period is represented by fine and dark sediments similar to those of Rio de Moinhos beach, found in deeper cores. Acknowledgments This research is included in the project PTDC/EPH-ARQ/5204/2012 supported by FCT (Foundation for Science and Technology, Portugal). It is financed also by COMPETE and PEsT-C/MAR/LA0015/2013.

  16. Sex, Age, and Emotional Valence: Revealing Possible Biases in the ‘Reading the Mind in the Eyes’ Task

    PubMed Central

    Kynast, Jana; Schroeter, Matthias L.

    2018-01-01

    The ‘Reading the Mind in the Eyes’ test (RMET) assesses a specific socio-cognitive ability, i.e., the ability to identify mental states from gaze. The development of this ability in a lifespan perspective is of special interest. Whereas former investigations were limited mainly to childhood and adolescence, the focus has been shifted towards aging, and psychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases recently. Although the RMET is frequently applied in developmental psychology and clinical settings, stimulus characteristics have never been investigated with respect to potential effects on test performance. Here, we analyzed the RMET stimulus set with a special focus on interrelations between sex, age and emotional valence. Forty-three persons rated age and emotional valence of the RMET picture set. Differences in emotional valence and age ratings between male and female items were analyzed. The linear relation between age and emotional valence was tested over all items, and separately for male and female items. Male items were rated older and more negative than female stimuli. Regarding male RMET items, age predicted emotional valence: older age was associated with negative emotions. Contrary, age and valence were not linearly related in female pictures. All ratings were independent of rater characteristics. Our results demonstrate a strong confound between sex, age, and emotional valence in the RMET. Male items presented a greater variability in age ratings compared to female items. Age and emotional valence were negatively associated among male items, but no significant association was found among female stimuli. As personal attributes impact social information processing, our results may add a new perspective on the interpretation of previous findings on interindividual differences in RMET accuracy, particularly in the field of developmental psychology, and age-associated neuropsychiatric diseases. A revision of the RMET might be afforded to overcome confounds

  17. Developing Age Models to Utilize High Arctic Coastal Sediments for Paleoclimate Research: Results from the Colville Delta and Simpson Lagoon, Alaska

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Miller, A. J.; Allison, M. A.; Bianchi, T. S.; Marcantonio, F.

    2012-12-01

    Sediment cores collected from Simpson Lagoon on the inner Beaufort Sea shelf adjacent to the Colville River delta, AK are being utilized to develop new, high-resolution (sub-decadal scale) archives of the 0-3,000 year Arctic paleoclimate record necessary to assess natural and anthropogenic climate variability. An imperative first step for developing a new paleoclimate archive is to establish methodologies for constraining the age-depth relationship. Naturally occurring and bomb-produced radioisotopes have been utilized in sediments to constrain downcore variability of accumulation rates on 100-103 y timescales, but this methodology is complicated by low activities of many of these tracers at high latitudes. The present study utilizes the combination of a (1) multi-tracer approach and a (2) tailored measurement strategy to overcome this limitation. 210Pb and 137Cs analyses were conducted on the fine (<32μm) sediment fraction to maximize measurable activity and to minimize radioisotope activity variability resulting from changes in grain size: 137Cs geochronologies proved more reliable in this setting and revealed mm/y sediment accumulation in the lagoon. To corroborate the 137Cs results, 239,240Pu activities were analyzed for selected sites using ICP-MS which has ultra-low detection limits, and yielded accumulation rates that matched the Cs geochronology. Age model development for the remainder of the core lengths (>~100 y in age) were completed using radiocarbon dating of benthic foraminifera tests, which proved the only datable in situ carbon available in this sediment archive. These dates have been used to constrain the ages of acoustic reflectors in CHIRP subbottom seismic records collected from the lagoon. Using this age control, spatial patterns of lagoonal sediment accumulation over the last ~3 ky were derived from the CHIRP data. Two depocenters are identified and validate combining age-dated coring with high-resolution seismic profiling to identify areas

  18. Nuclear protein accumulation in cellular senescence and organismal aging revealed with a novel single-cell resolution fluorescence microscopy assay.

    PubMed

    De Cecco, Marco; Jeyapalan, Jessie; Zhao, Xiaoai; Tamamori-Adachi, Mimi; Sedivy, John M

    2011-10-01

    Replicative cellular senescence was discovered some 50 years ago. The phenotypes of senescent cells have been investigated extensively in cell culture, and found to affect essentially all aspects of cellular physiology. The relevance of cellular senescence in the context of age-associated pathologies as well as normal aging is a topic of active and ongoing interest. Considerable effort has been devoted to biomarker discovery to enable the microscopic detection of single senescent cells in tissues. One characteristic of senescent cells documented very early in cell culture studies was an increase in cell size and total protein content, but whether this occurs in vivo is not known. A limiting factor for studies of protein content and localization has been the lack of suitable fluorescence microscopy tools. We have developed an easy and flexible method, based on the merocyanine dye known as NanoOrange, to visualize and quantitatively measure total protein levels by high resolution fluorescence microscopy. NanoOrange staining can be combined with antibody-based immunofluorescence, thus providing both specific target and total protein information in the same specimen. These methods are optimally combined with automated image analysis platforms for high throughput analysis. We document here increasing protein content and density in nuclei of senescent human and mouse fibroblasts in vitro, and in liver nuclei of aged mice in vivo. Additionally, in aged liver nuclei NanoOrange revealed protein-dense foci that colocalize with centromeric heterochromatin.

  19. Nuclear protein accumulation in cellular senescence and organismal aging revealed with a novel single-cell resolution fluorescence microscopy assay

    PubMed Central

    De Cecco, Marco; Jeyapalan, Jessie; Zhao, Xiaoai; Tamamori-Adachi, Mimi; Sedivy, John M.

    2011-01-01

    Replicative cellular senescence was discovered some 50 years ago. The phenotypes of senescent cells have been investigated extensively in cell culture, and found to affect essentially all aspects of cellular physiology. The relevance of cellular senescence in the context of age-associated pathologies as well as normal aging is a topic of active and ongoing interest. Considerable effort has been devoted to biomarker discovery to enable the microscopic detection of single senescent cells in tissues. One characteristic of senescent cells documented very early in cell culture studies was an increase in cell size and total protein content, but whether this occurs in vivo is not known. A limiting factor for studies of protein content and localization has been the lack of suitable fluorescence microscopy tools. We have developed an easy and flexible method, based on the merocyanine dye known as NanoOrange, to visualize and quantitatively measure total protein levels by high resolution fluorescence microscopy. NanoOrange staining can be combined with antibody-based immunofluorescence, thus providing both specific target and total protein information in the same specimen. These methods are optimally combined with automated image analysis platforms for high throughput analysis. We document here increasing protein content and density in nuclei of senescent human and mouse fibroblasts in vitro, and in liver nuclei of aged mice in vivo. Additionally, in aged liver nuclei NanoOrange revealed protein-dense foci that colocalize with centromeric heterochromatin. PMID:22006542

  20. Molecular Clues to Physiological and Premature Ageing Revealed | Center for Cancer Research

    Cancer.gov

    There are many theories about the molecular basis of ageing. One of the most popular ones postulates that organisms age by accumulating damage to their tissues, cells, and molecules. On the cellular level, ageing is associated with progressive changes in chromatin (a combination of DNA and proteins that makes up chromosomes). These changes include loss of chromatin structure, loss and/or modification of essential proteins, and accumulation of DNA damage.

  1. Experiences of Chinese immigrants and Anglo-Australians ageing in Australia: a cross-cultural perspective on successful ageing.

    PubMed

    Tan, Joanne; Ward, Lynn; Ziaian, Tahereh

    2010-07-01

    This study explored the life experiences and views on successful ageing of older Australians. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 participants consisting of 10 Chinese-Australians and 11 Anglo-Australians, aged 55 to 78 years. Data were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Results revealed that both groups associated successful ageing with health and personal responsibility. Anglo-Australians regarded growing old gracefully and acceptance as important aspects of successful ageing, whereas Chinese-Australians valued financial security and an active lifestyle. The research highlights that a cross-cultural perspective is imperative for service delivery and policy development to promote the health and well-being of older Australians.

  2. What makes age diverse teams effective? Results from a six-year research program.

    PubMed

    Wegge, J; Jungmann, F; Liebermann, S; Shemla, M; Ries, B C; Diestel, S; Schmidt, K-H

    2012-01-01

    Based on a new model of productivity in age diverse tams, findings from a six-year research program are reported in which data from more than 745 natural teams with 8,848 employees in three different fields (car production, administrative work, financial services) were collected. Moreover, central assumptions of this model were tested with a representative survey of the German workforce (N = 2,000). Results support both significant advantages and disadvantages for age-mixed teams. Based on the findings, the following preconditions for the effectiveness of age diverse teams are identified: high task complexity, low salience and high appreciation of age diversity, a positive team climate, low age-discrimination, ergonomic design of work places, and the use of age differentiated leadership. Based on these insights, we developed a new training for supervisors, which addresses the aforementioned aspects and seeks to improve team performance and health of team members. It was found that the training reduces age stereotypes, team conflicts and enhances innovation. Thus, we can conclude that effective interventions for a successful integration of elderly employees in work groups are available and that combinations of measures that address ergonomic design issues, team composition and leadership are to be strongly recommended for practice.

  3. Aging-Induced Transformations of Maraging-400 Alloys

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Alves, T. J. B.; Nunes, G. C. S.; Tupan, L. F. S.; Sarvezuk, P. W. C.; Ivashita, F. F.; de Oliveira, C. A. S.; Paesano, A.

    2018-06-01

    Solubilized maraging-400 alloys were aged at 480 °C, 580 °C, and 650 °C, for 3, 6, and 12 hours and characterized by X-ray diffraction (Rietveld refinement), Mössbauer spectroscopy, and microhardness tests. The results revealed that the aging treatments induced an atomic rearrangement in the martensite phase, involving a change in the composition and lattice parameters, reversion of austenite, and, in some samples, the formation of the μ phase. The amounts of reverted and precipitated phases were dependent on the aging time and temperature. The tetragonal distortion from cubic symmetry, usually presented by martensite in solution-annealed maraging steels, was not eliminated after aging. The results obtained for these maraging-400 alloys are compared with those obtained for maraging-350 steel samples.

  4. Metabolic Dysfunction Consistent with Premature Aging Results from Deletion of Pim Kinases

    PubMed Central

    Din, Shabana; Konstandin, Mathias H; Johnson, Bevan; Emathinger, Jacqueline; Völkers, Mirko; Toko, Haruhiro; Collins, Brett; Ormachea, Lucy; Samse, Kaitlen; Kubli, Dieter A; De La Torre, Andrea; Kraft, Andrew S; Gustafsson, Asa B; Kelly, Daniel P; Sussman, Mark A

    2014-01-01

    Rationale The senescent cardiac phenotype is accompanied by changes in mitochondrial function and biogenesis causing impairment in energy provision. The relationship between myocardial senescence and Pim kinases deserves attention since Pim-1 kinase is cardioprotective, in part, by preservation of mitochondrial integrity. Study of the pathological effects resulting from genetic deletion of all Pim kinase family members could provide important insight regarding cardiac mitochondrial biology and the aging phenotype. Objective Demonstrate myocardial senescence is promoted by loss of Pim leading to premature aging and aberrant mitochondrial function. Methods and Results Cardiac myocyte senescence was evident at three months of age in Pim Triple KnockOut (PTKO) mice, where all three isoforms of Pim kinase family members are genetically deleted. Cellular hypertrophic remodeling and fetal gene program activation was followed by heart failure at six months in PTKO mice. Metabolic dysfunction is an underlying cause of cardiac senescence and instigates a decline in cardiac function. Altered mitochondrial morphology is evident consequential to Pim deletion together with decreased ATP levels and increased phosphorylated AMPK, exposing an energy deficiency in PTKO mice. Expression of the genes encoding master regulators of mitochondrial biogenesis, PPARγ coactivator-1 (PGC-1) α and β were diminished in PTKO hearts, as were downstream targets included in mitochondrial energy transduction, including fatty acid oxidation. Reversal of the dysregulated metabolic phenotype was observed by overexpressing c-Myc, a downstream target of Pim kinases. Conclusion Pim kinases prevent premature cardiac aging and maintain a healthy pool of functional mitochondria leading to efficient cellular energetics. PMID:24916111

  5. Integromics network meta-analysis on cardiac aging offers robust multi-layer modular signatures and reveals micronome synergism.

    PubMed

    Dimitrakopoulou, Konstantina; Vrahatis, Aristidis G; Bezerianos, Anastasios

    2015-03-04

    The avalanche of integromics and panomics approaches shifted the deciphering of aging mechanisms from single molecular entities to communities of them. In this orientation, we explore the cardiac aging mechanisms - risk factor for multiple cardiovascular diseases - by capturing the micronome synergism and detecting longevity signatures in the form of communities (modules). For this, we developed a meta-analysis scheme that integrates transcriptome expression data from multiple cardiac-specific independent studies in mouse and human along with proteome and micronome interaction data in the form of multiple independent weighted networks. Modularization of each weighted network produced modules, which in turn were further analyzed so as to define consensus modules across datasets that change substantially during lifespan. Also, we established a metric that determines - from the modular perspective - the synergism of microRNA-microRNA interactions as defined by significantly functionally associated targets. The meta-analysis provided 40 consensus integromics modules across mouse datasets and revealed microRNA relations with substantial collective action during aging. Three modules were reproducible, based on homology, when mapped against human-derived modules. The respective homologs mainly represent NADH dehydrogenases, ATP synthases, cytochrome oxidases, Ras GTPases and ribosomal proteins. Among various observations, we corroborate to the involvement of miR-34a (included in consensus modules) as proposed recently; yet we report that has no synergistic effect. Moving forward, we determined its age-related neighborhood in which HCN3, a known heart pacemaker channel, was included. Also, miR-125a-5p/-351, miR-200c/-429, miR-106b/-17, miR-363/-92b, miR-181b/-181d, miR-19a/-19b, let-7d/-7f, miR-18a/-18b, miR-128/-27b and miR-106a/-291a-3p pairs exhibited significant synergy and their association to aging and/or cardiovascular diseases is supported in many cases by a

  6. Spontaneous mutation of Dock7 results in lower trabecular bone mass and impaired periosteal expansion in aged female Misty mice.

    PubMed

    Le, Phuong T; Bishop, Kathleen A; Maridas, David E; Motyl, Katherine J; Brooks, Daniel J; Nagano, Kenichi; Baron, Roland; Bouxsein, Mary L; Rosen, Clifford J

    2017-12-01

    Misty mice (m/m) have a loss of function mutation in Dock7 gene, a guanine nucleotide exchange factor, resulting in low bone mineral density, uncoupled bone remodeling and reduced bone formation. Dock7 has been identified as a modulator of osteoblast number and in vitro osteogenic differentiation in calvarial osteoblast culture. In addition, m/m exhibit reduced preformed brown adipose tissue innervation and temperature as well as compensatory increase in beige adipocyte markers. While the low bone mineral density phenotype is in part due to higher sympathetic nervous system (SNS) drive in young mice, it is unclear what effect aging would have in mice homozygous for the mutation in the Dock7 gene. We hypothesized that age-related trabecular bone loss and periosteal envelope expansion would be altered in m/m. To test this hypothesis, we comprehensively characterized the skeletal phenotype of m/m at 16, 32, 52, and 78wks of age. When compared to age-matched wild-type control mice (+/+), m/m had lower areal bone mineral density (aBMD) and areal bone mineral content (aBMC). Similarly, both femoral and vertebral BV/TV, Tb.N, and Conn.D were decreased in m/m while there was also an increase in Tb.Sp. As low bone mineral density and decreased trabecular bone were already present at 16wks of age in m/m and persisted throughout life, changes in age-related trabecular bone loss were not observed highlighting the role of Dock7 in controlling trabecular bone acquisition or bone loss prior to 16wks of age. Cortical thickness was also lower in the m/m across all ages. Periosteal and endosteal circumferences were higher in m/m compared to +/+ at 16wks. However, endosteal and periosteal expansion were attenuated in m/m, resulting in m/m having lower periosteal and endosteal circumferences by 78wks of age compared to +/+, highlighting the critical role of Dock7 in appositional bone expansion. Histomorphometry revealed that osteoblasts were nearly undetectable in m/m and marrow

  7. Age-Related Changes in Locomotor Performance Reveal a Similar Pattern for Caenorhabditis elegans, Mus domesticus, Canis familiaris, Equus caballus, and Homo sapiens

    PubMed Central

    Berthelot, Geoffroy; Foulonneau, Vincent; Marc, Andy; Antero-Jacquemin, Juliana; Noirez, Philippe; Bronikowski, Anne M.; Morgan, Theodore J.; Garland, Theodore; Carter, Patrick A.; Hersen, Pascal; Di Meglio, Jean-Marc; Toussaint, Jean-François

    2017-01-01

    Abstract Locomotion is one of the major physiological functions for most animals. Previous studies have described aging mechanisms linked to locomotor performance among different species. However, the precise dynamics of these age-related changes, and their interactions with development and senescence, are largely unknown. Here, we use the same conceptual framework to describe locomotor performances in Caenorhabditis elegans, Mus domesticus, Canis familiaris, Equus caballus, and Homo sapiens. We show that locomotion is a consistent biomarker of age-related changes, with an asymmetrical pattern throughout life, regardless of the type of effort or its duration. However, there is variation (i) among species for the same mode of locomotion, (ii) within species for different modes of locomotion, and (iii) among individuals of the same species for the same mode of locomotion. Age-related patterns are modulated by genetic (such as selective breeding) as well as environmental conditions (such as temperature). However, in all cases, the intersection of the rising developmental phase and the declining senescent phase reveals neither a sharp transition nor a plateau, but a smooth transition, emphasizing a crucial moment: the age at peak performance. This transition may define a specific target for future investigations on the dynamics of such biological interactions. PMID:27522057

  8. Ancient DNA reveals the Arctic origin of Viking Age cod from Haithabu, Germany

    PubMed Central

    Star, Bastiaan; Boessenkool, Sanne; Gondek, Agata T.; Nikulina, Elena A.; Hufthammer, Anne Karin; Pampoulie, Christophe; Knutsen, Halvor; André, Carl; Nistelberger, Heidi M.; Dierking, Jan; Petereit, Christoph; Heinrich, Dirk; Jakobsen, Kjetill S.; Stenseth, Nils Chr.; Jentoft, Sissel

    2017-01-01

    Knowledge of the range and chronology of historic trade and long-distance transport of natural resources is essential for determining the impacts of past human activities on marine environments. However, the specific biological sources of imported fauna are often difficult to identify, in particular if species have a wide spatial distribution and lack clear osteological or isotopic differentiation between populations. Here, we report that ancient fish-bone remains, despite being porous, brittle, and light, provide an excellent source of endogenous DNA (15–46%) of sufficient quality for whole-genome reconstruction. By comparing ancient sequence data to that of modern specimens, we determine the biological origin of 15 Viking Age (800–1066 CE) and subsequent medieval (1066–1280 CE) Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) specimens from excavation sites in Germany, Norway, and the United Kingdom. Archaeological context indicates that one of these sites was a fishing settlement for the procurement of local catches, whereas the other localities were centers of trade. Fish from the trade sites show a mixed ancestry and are statistically differentiated from local fish populations. Moreover, Viking Age samples from Haithabu, Germany, are traced back to the North East Arctic Atlantic cod population that has supported the Lofoten fisheries of Norway for centuries. Our results resolve a long-standing controversial hypothesis and indicate that the marine resources of the North Atlantic Ocean were used to sustain an international demand for protein as far back as the Viking Age. PMID:28784790

  9. Ancient DNA reveals the Arctic origin of Viking Age cod from Haithabu, Germany.

    PubMed

    Star, Bastiaan; Boessenkool, Sanne; Gondek, Agata T; Nikulina, Elena A; Hufthammer, Anne Karin; Pampoulie, Christophe; Knutsen, Halvor; André, Carl; Nistelberger, Heidi M; Dierking, Jan; Petereit, Christoph; Heinrich, Dirk; Jakobsen, Kjetill S; Stenseth, Nils Chr; Jentoft, Sissel; Barrett, James H

    2017-08-22

    Knowledge of the range and chronology of historic trade and long-distance transport of natural resources is essential for determining the impacts of past human activities on marine environments. However, the specific biological sources of imported fauna are often difficult to identify, in particular if species have a wide spatial distribution and lack clear osteological or isotopic differentiation between populations. Here, we report that ancient fish-bone remains, despite being porous, brittle, and light, provide an excellent source of endogenous DNA (15-46%) of sufficient quality for whole-genome reconstruction. By comparing ancient sequence data to that of modern specimens, we determine the biological origin of 15 Viking Age (800-1066 CE) and subsequent medieval (1066-1280 CE) Atlantic cod ( Gadus morhua ) specimens from excavation sites in Germany, Norway, and the United Kingdom. Archaeological context indicates that one of these sites was a fishing settlement for the procurement of local catches, whereas the other localities were centers of trade. Fish from the trade sites show a mixed ancestry and are statistically differentiated from local fish populations. Moreover, Viking Age samples from Haithabu, Germany, are traced back to the North East Arctic Atlantic cod population that has supported the Lofoten fisheries of Norway for centuries. Our results resolve a long-standing controversial hypothesis and indicate that the marine resources of the North Atlantic Ocean were used to sustain an international demand for protein as far back as the Viking Age.

  10. Age dependency for coagulation parameters in paediatric populations. Results of a multicentre study aimed at defining the age-specific reference ranges.

    PubMed

    Toulon, Pierre; Berruyer, Micheline; Brionne-François, Marie; Grand, François; Lasne, Dominique; Telion, Caroline; Arcizet, Julien; Giacomello, Roberta; De Pooter, Neila

    2016-07-04

    Understanding of developmental haemostasis is critical to ensure optimal prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of haemorrhagic and thrombotic diseases in children. As coagulation test results are known to be dependent on the reagents/analysers used, it is recommended for each laboratory to define the age-dependent reference ranges by using its own technical condition. That study was carried out in seven centers to establish age-specific reference ranges using the same reagents and analyser. Plasma samples were obtained from 1437 paediatric patients from the following age groups: 15 days-4 weeks (n=36), 1-5 months (n=320), 6-12 months (n=176), 1-5 years (n=507), 6-10 years (n=132) and 11-17 years (n=262). Indication of coagulation testing was pre-operative screening for non-acute diseases in most cases. PT values were similar in the different age groups to those in adults, whereas longer aPTTs were demonstrated in the younger children. Plasma levels of all clotting factors, except for FV, were significantly decreased (p<0.0001) in the youngest children, adult values being usually reached before the end of the first year. The same applied to antithrombin, protein C/S, and plasminogen. In contrast, FVIII and VWF levels were elevated in the youngest children and returned to adult values within six months. The same applied to D-dimer levels, which were found elevated, particularly until six months of life, until puberty. These data suggest that most coagulation test results are highly dependent on age, mainly during the first year of life, and that age-specific reference ranges must be used to ensure proper evaluation of coagulation in children.

  11. Lack of serotonin1B receptor expression leads to age-related motor dysfunction, early onset of brain molecular aging and reduced longevity.

    PubMed

    Sibille, E; Su, J; Leman, S; Le Guisquet, A M; Ibarguen-Vargas, Y; Joeyen-Waldorf, J; Glorioso, C; Tseng, G C; Pezzone, M; Hen, R; Belzung, C

    2007-11-01

    Normal aging of the brain differs from pathological conditions and is associated with increased risk for psychiatric and neurological disorders. In addition to its role in the etiology and treatment of mood disorders, altered serotonin (5-HT) signaling is considered a contributing factor to aging; however, no causative role has been identified in aging. We hypothesized that a deregulation of the 5-HT system would reveal its contribution to age-related processes and investigated behavioral and molecular changes throughout adult life in mice lacking the regulatory presynaptic 5-HT(1B) receptor (5-HT(1B)R), a candidate gene for 5-HT-mediated age-related functions. We show that the lack of 5-HT(1B)R (Htr1b(KO) mice) induced an early age-related motor decline and resulted in decreased longevity. Analysis of life-long transcriptome changes revealed an early and global shift of the gene expression signature of aging in the brain of Htr1b(KO) mice. Moreover, molecular changes reached an apparent maximum effect at 18-months in Htr1b(KO) mice, corresponding to the onset of early death in that group. A comparative analysis with our previous characterization of aging in the human brain revealed a phylogenetic conservation of age-effect from mice to humans, and confirmed the early onset of molecular aging in Htr1b(KO) mice. Potential mechanisms appear independent of known central mechanisms (Bdnf, inflammation), but may include interactions with previously identified age-related systems (IGF-1, sirtuins). In summary, our findings suggest that the onset of age-related events can be influenced by altered 5-HT function, thus identifying 5-HT as a modulator of brain aging, and suggesting age-related consequences to chronic manipulation of 5-HT.

  12. In Situ UV-Laser Ablation 40Ar/39Ar Muscovite Thermochronology Reveals Excess Argon and 405-399 Ma Age for the Nordfjord-Sogn Detachment Zone, Hornelen region, Norway

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Johnston, S. M.; Hacker, B. R.; Eide, E. A.; Hendriks, B.

    2006-12-01

    The Nordfjord-Sogn Detachment Zone (NSDZ) is a 2-6 km thick, normal-sense shear zone that juxtaposes the eclogite-bearing Western Gneiss Complex in its footwall with Devonian sediments in its hangingwall, and is widely cited as the primary structure responsible for the exhumation of the Norwegian ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) rocks. Critical to our understanding of this crustal-scale detachment, detailed thermochronology places essential constraints on the rates of exhumation and documents spatial variability in the timing of exhumation- related cooling. Regional thermochronology has shown that 40Ar/39Ar muscovite ages increase gradually from 405-390 Ma across the Western Gneiss Complex and into the lower part of the NSDZ, but at higher structural levels within the NSDZ, these ~400 Ma ages are mixed with an older population at 420-418 Ma. Although neither excess argon nor incomplete resetting of argon in these older samples has been ruled out, these results have been interpreted to suggest that extension and exhumation within the NSDZ may have initiated as early as 420 Ma. Here, we investigate these older 40Ar/39Ar muscovite ages by comparing resistance furnace (RF) ages from bulk muscovite separates with in situ UV-laser ablation ages from a suite of 6 samples that transect the NSDZ. RF spectra from 5 of the 6 analyzed samples yield plateau ages that range from 405-399 Ma; in situ ages of these same 5 samples reveal no age zonation within large grains and no differences in ages among texturally different grains. In contrast, the structurally highest sample yields a RF plateau age of 425±6 Ma, and in situ ages of 474-417 Ma in grain cores and c. 400 Ma in grain rims and small grains. On an inverse isochron diagram, these in situ ages define two distinct populations, with grain cores distributed along a line between an excess argon component of 40Ar/36Ar = 660±60 and an age of 404±7 Ma. Analyses from rims and small grains plot in triangle defined by these two apices

  13. Transcriptome Analysis of Human Injured Meniscus Reveals a Distinct Phenotype of Meniscus Degeneration with Aging

    PubMed Central

    Rai, Muhammad Farooq; Patra, Debabrata; Sandell, Linda J.; Brophy, Robert H.

    2013-01-01

    Objective Meniscus tears are associated with a heightened risk for osteoarthritis. We aimed to advance our understanding of the metabolic state of human injured meniscus at the time of arthroscopic partial meniscectomy through transcriptome-wide analysis of gene expression in relation to patient age and degree of cartilage chondrosis. Methods The degree of chondrosis of knee cartilage was recorded at the time of meniscectomy in symptomatic patients without radiographic osteoarthritis. RNA preparations from resected menisci (N=12) were subjected to transcriptome-wide microarray and QuantiGene Plex analyses. The relative changes in gene expression variation with age and chondrosis were analyzed and integrated biological processes were investigated computationally. Results We identified a set of genes in torn meniscus that were differentially expressed with age and chondrosis. There were 866 genes differentially regulated (≥1.5-fold; P<0.05) with age and 49 with chondrosis. In older patients, genes associated with cartilage and skeletal development and extracellular matrix synthesis were repressed while those involved in immune response, inflammation, cell cycle, and cellular proliferation were stimulated. With chondrosis, genes representing cell catabolism (cAMP catabolic process) and tissue and endothelial cell development were repressed and those involved in T cell differentiation and apoptosis were elevated. Conclusion Differences in age-related gene expression suggest that in older adults, meniscal cells might de-differentiate and initiate a proliferative phenotype. Conversely, meniscal cells in younger patients appear to respond to injury, but maintain the differentiated phenotype. Definitive molecular signatures identified in damaged meniscus could be segregated largely with age and, to a lesser extent, with chondrosis. PMID:23658108

  14. Ambient Assisted Living and ageing: preliminary results of RITA project.

    PubMed

    Aquilano, Michela; Cavallo, Filippo; Bonaccorsi, Manuele; Esposito, Raffaele; Rovini, Erika; Filippi, Massimo; Esposito, Dario; Dario, Paolo; Carrozza, Maria Chiara

    2012-01-01

    The ageing of population is a social phenomenon that most of worldwide countries are facing. They are, and will be even more in the future, indeed trying to find solutions for improving quality of life of their elderly citizens. The project RITA wants to demonstrate that an update of the current socio-medical services with an Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) approach could improve the service efficiency and the quality of life of both elderly and caregiver. This paper presents the preliminary results obtained in RITA.

  15. Cosmogenic Radionuclides in Antarctic Meteorites: Preliminary Results on Terrestrial Ages and Temporal Phenomena

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Michlovich, E.; Vogt, S.; Wolf, S. F.; Elmore, D.; Lipschutz, M. E.

    1993-07-01

    the production rates for these radionuclides in this group of meteorites to be 18.2 +/- 2.3 and 58 +/- 13 dpm/kg respectively, consistent with production rates cited for falls [8]. Cosmic ray exposure ages using the ^10Be/^21Ne method outlined by Graf et al. [9] substantially agree with ages calculated from noble gases alone. Similar agreements are obtained between cosmic ray exposure ages based solely on noble gases and those calculated using ^26Al/^21Ne [9]. We calculated terrestrial ages using the secular equilibrium distribution for ^36Cl of 22.8 +/- 3.1 dpm/kg [10]. Our results are similar to those seen by Nishiizumi et al. [10], with a few ages ranging up to several hundred thousand years. It is worth noting that the Yamato meteorites measured in the present study, all of which happen to have been collected in the 1979 recovery effort ("Y79"), have a much older terrestrial age distribution (median age of 140 ka) than the Yamato distribution shown in [10]. We find it interesting that our Yamato age distribution is, however, consistent with the distribution of Y79 ages (median age, 110 ka) listed in [10], and that non-Y79 Yamato meteorites (median age in [10], 22 ka) seem to be responsible for a disproportionate number of the youngest Yamato meteorites. This possible collection area phenomenon is under investigation. Preliminary statistical analysis of the results using the preliminary terrestrial ages calculated here, trace-element data [3,4,11], and the methods elucidated in [2] is consistent with the notion that the meteorite flux sampled by the Earth has changed as a function of time. The latest results will be presented in Vail. References: [1] Koeberl C. and Cassidy W. A. (1991) GCA, 55, 3-18. [2] Lipschutz M. E. and Samuels S. M. (1991) GCA, 55, 19-34. [3] Wolf S. F. and Lipschutz M. E. (1992) LPS XXIII, 1545-1546. [4] Dodd R. T. et al. (1993) JGR, submitted. [5] Wetherill G. W. (1986) Nature, 319, 357-358. [6] Schultz L., personal communication. [7

  16. Relationship between age and promotion orientation depends on perceived older worker stereotypes.

    PubMed

    Bowen, Catherine E; Staudinger, Ursula M

    2013-01-01

    Research has consistently revealed a negative relationship between chronological age and promotion orientation, that is, the motivational orientation toward approaching possible gains. In addition, experimental research has demonstrated that activating positive self-relevant stereotypes (e.g., for men, the stereotype that men are good at math) can stimulate increases in promotion orientation. Integrating and applying this research to the work context, we hypothesized that the relationship between age and promotion orientation would depend on employees' perceptions of the stereotype of older workers in their work context, such that there would be no negative relationship between age and promotion orientation when individuals perceive a more positive older worker stereotype. We analyzed the relationships between age, perceived older worker stereotype (POWS), and promotion orientation using a sample of working adults (N = 337) aged 19-64 years. Results revealed a significant age by POWS interaction such that there was a negative relationship between age and promotion orientation when POWS was less positive. However, there was no relationship between age and promotion orientation when POWS was more positive. Results suggest that the negative relationship between age and promotion orientation depends on contextual factors such as POWS.

  17. Global analyses revealed age-related alterations in innate immune responses after stimulation of pathogen recognition receptors

    PubMed Central

    Metcalf, Talibah U; Cubas, Rafael A; Ghneim, Khader; Cartwright, Michael J; Grevenynghe, Julien Van; Richner, Justin M; Olagnier, David P; Wilkinson, Peter A; Cameron, Mark J; Park, Byung S; Hiscott, John B; Diamond, Michael S; Wertheimer, Anne M; Nikolich-Zugich, Janko; Haddad, Elias K

    2015-01-01

    Aging leads to dysregulation of multiple components of the immune system that results in increased susceptibility to infections and poor response to vaccines in the aging population. The dysfunctions of adaptive B and T cells are well documented, but the effect of aging on innate immunity remains incompletely understood. Using a heterogeneous population of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), we first undertook transcriptional profiling and found that PBMCs isolated from old individuals (≥ 65 years) exhibited a delayed and altered response to stimulation with TLR4, TLR7/8, and RIG-I agonists compared to cells obtained from adults (≤ 40 years). This delayed response to innate immune agonists resulted in the reduced production of pro-inflammatory and antiviral cytokines and chemokines including TNFα, IL-6, IL-1β, IFNα, IFNγ, CCL2, and CCL7. While the major monocyte and dendritic cell subsets did not change numerically with aging, activation of specific cell types was altered. PBMCs from old subjects also had a lower frequency of CD40+ monocytes, impaired up-regulation of PD-L1 on monocytes and T cells, and increased expression of PD-L2 and B7-H4 on B cells. The defective immune response to innate agonists adversely affected adaptive immunity as TLR-stimulated PBMCs (minus CD3 T cells) from old subjects elicited significantly lower levels of adult T-cell proliferation than those from adult subjects in an allogeneic mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR). Collectively, these age-associated changes in cytokine, chemokine and interferon production, as well as co-stimulatory protein expression could contribute to the blunted memory B- and T-cell immune responses to vaccines and infections. PMID:25728020

  18. Age-related changes of task-specific brain activity in normal aging.

    PubMed

    Ho, Ming-Chung; Chou, Chia-Yi; Huang, Chin-Fei; Lin, Yu-Te; Shih, Ching-Sen; Han, Shiang-Yi; Shen, Ming-Hsun; Chen, Tsung-Ching; Liang, Chi-lin; Lu, Ming-Chi; Liu, Chia-Ju

    2012-01-17

    An important question in healthcare for older patients is whether age-related changes in cortical reorganization can be measured with advancing age. This study investigated the factors behind such age-related changes, using time-frequency analysis of event-related potentials (ERPs). We hypothesized that brain rhythms was affected by age-related changes, which could be reflected in the ERP indices. An oddball task was conducted in two experimental groups, namely young participants (N=15; mean age 23.7±2.8 years) and older participants (N=15; mean age 70.1±7.9 years). Two types of stimuli were used: the target (1 kHz frequency) and standard (2 kHz frequency). We scrutinized three ERP indices: event-related spectral power (ERPSP), inter-trial phase-locking (ITPL), and event-related cross-phase coherence (ERPCOH). Both groups performed equally well for correct response rate. However, the results revealed a statistically significant age difference for inter-trial comparison. Compared with the young, the older participants showed the following age-related changes: (a) power activity decreased; however, an increase was found only in the late (P3, 280-450 ms) theta (4-7 Hz) component over the bilateral frontal and temporo-frontal areas; (b) low phase-locking in the early (N1, 80-140 ms) theta band over the parietal/frontal (right) regions appeared; (c) the functional connections decreased in the alpha (7-13 Hz) and beta (13-30 Hz) bands, but no difference emerged in the theta band between the two groups. These results indicate that age-related changes in task-specific brain activity for a normal aging population can be depicted using the three ERP indices. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. Neural correlates of cognitive aging during the perception of facial age: the role of relatively distant and local texture information

    PubMed Central

    Komes, Jessica; Schweinberger, Stefan R.; Wiese, Holger

    2015-01-01

    Previous event-related potential (ERP) research revealed that older relative to younger adults show reduced inversion effects in the N170 (with more negative amplitudes for inverted than upright faces), suggestive of impairments in face perception. However, as these studies used young to middle-aged faces only, this finding may reflect preferential processing of own- relative to other-age faces rather than age-related decline. We conducted an ERP study in which young and older participants categorized young and old upright or inverted faces by age. Stimuli were presented either unfiltered or low-pass filtered at 30, 20, or 10 cycles per image (CPI). Response times revealed larger inversion effects, with slower responses for inverted faces, for young faces in young participants. Older participants did not show a corresponding effect. ERPs yielded a trend toward reduced N170 inversion effects in older relative to younger adults independent of face age. Moreover, larger inversion effects for young relative to old faces were detected, and filtering resulted in smaller N170 amplitudes. The reduced N170 inversion effect in older adults may reflect age-related changes in neural correlates of face perception. A smaller N170 inversion effect for old faces may indicate that facial changes with age hamper early face perception stages. PMID:26441790

  20. [The use of biological age on mental work capacity model in accelerated aging assessment of professional lorry-drivers].

    PubMed

    Bashkireva, A S

    2012-01-01

    The studies of biological age, aging rate, mental work capacity in professional drivers were conducted. The examination revealed peculiarities of system organization of functions determining the mental work capacity levels. Dynamics of the aging process of professional driver's organism in relation with calendar age and driving experience were shown using the biological age model. The results point at the premature decrease of the mental work capacity in professional drivers. It was proved, that premature age-related changes of physiologic and psychophysiologic indices in drivers are just "risk indicators", while long driving experience is a real risk factor, accelerating the aging process. The "risk group" with manifestations of accelerating aging was observed in 40-49-year old drivers with 15-19 years of professional experience. The expediency of using the following methods for the age rate estimation according to biologic age indices and necessity of prophylactic measures for premature and accelerated aging prevention among working population was demonstrated.

  1. Subjective Age Correlates: A Research Note.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Barak, Benny; Stern, Barbara

    1986-01-01

    Five types of measures have been used to assess subjective age: identity age, comparative age, feel/age, cognitive age, and stereotype age. Bivariate and multivariate studies revealed four categories of correlates of self-perceived age: biological and physiological, demographic, psychographic and social psychological, and behavioral. (Author/ABB)

  2. Dietary intake and age at natural menopause: results from the UK Women's Cohort Study.

    PubMed

    Dunneram, Yashvee; Greenwood, Darren Charles; Burley, Victoria J; Cade, Janet E

    2018-04-30

    Age at natural menopause is a matter of concern for women of reproductive age as both an early or late menopause may have implications for health outcomes. Study participants were women aged 40-65 years who had experienced a natural menopause from the UK Women's Cohort Study between baseline and first follow-up. Natural menopause was defined as the permanent cessation of menstrual periods for at least 12 consecutive months. A food frequency questionnaire was used to estimate diet at baseline. Reproductive history of participants was also recorded. Regression modelling, adjusting for confounders, was used to assess associations between diet and age at natural menopause. During the 4-year follow-up period, 914 women experienced a natural menopause. A high intake of oily fish and fresh legumes were associated with delayed onset of natural menopause by 3.3 years per portion/day (99% CI 0.8 to 5.8) and 0.9 years per portion/day (99% CI 0.0 to 1.8), respectively. Refined pasta and rice was associated with earlier menopause (per portion/day: -1.5 years, 99% CI -2.8 to -0.2). A higher intake of vitamin B6 (per mg/day: 0.6 years, 99% CI 0.1 to 1.2) and zinc (per mg/day: 0.3 years, 99% CI -0.0 to 0.6) was also associated with later age at menopause. Stratification by age at baseline led to attenuated results. Our results suggest that some food groups (oily fish, fresh legumes, refined pasta and rice) and specific nutrients are individually predictive of age at natural menopause. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

  3. Age-Related Changes in Locomotor Performance Reveal a Similar Pattern for Caenorhabditis elegans, Mus domesticus, Canis familiaris, Equus caballus, and Homo sapiens.

    PubMed

    Marck, Adrien; Berthelot, Geoffroy; Foulonneau, Vincent; Marc, Andy; Antero-Jacquemin, Juliana; Noirez, Philippe; Bronikowski, Anne M; Morgan, Theodore J; Garland, Theodore; Carter, Patrick A; Hersen, Pascal; Di Meglio, Jean-Marc; Toussaint, Jean-François

    2017-04-01

    Locomotion is one of the major physiological functions for most animals. Previous studies have described aging mechanisms linked to locomotor performance among different species. However, the precise dynamics of these age-related changes, and their interactions with development and senescence, are largely unknown. Here, we use the same conceptual framework to describe locomotor performances in Caenorhabditis elegans, Mus domesticus, Canis familiaris, Equus caballus, and Homo sapiens. We show that locomotion is a consistent biomarker of age-related changes, with an asymmetrical pattern throughout life, regardless of the type of effort or its duration. However, there is variation (i) among species for the same mode of locomotion, (ii) within species for different modes of locomotion, and (iii) among individuals of the same species for the same mode of locomotion. Age-related patterns are modulated by genetic (such as selective breeding) as well as environmental conditions (such as temperature). However, in all cases, the intersection of the rising developmental phase and the declining senescent phase reveals neither a sharp transition nor a plateau, but a smooth transition, emphasizing a crucial moment: the age at peak performance. This transition may define a specific target for future investigations on the dynamics of such biological interactions. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  4. Age, Stress, and Emotional Complexity: Results from Two Studies of Daily Experiences

    PubMed Central

    Scott, Stacey B.; Sliwinski, Martin J.; Mogle, Jacqueline A.; Almeida, David M.

    2014-01-01

    Experiencing positive and negative emotions together (i.e., co-occurrence) has been described as a marker of positive adaptation during stress and a strength of socio-emotional aging. Using data from daily diary (N=2,022; ages 33-84) and ecological momentary assessment (N=190; ages 20-80) studies, we evaluate the utility of a common operationalization of co-occurrence, the within-person correlation between positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA). Then we test competing predictions regarding when co-occurrence will be observed and whether age differences will be present. Results indicate that the correlation is not an informative indicator of co-occurrence. Although correlations were stronger and more negative when stressors occurred (typically interpreted as lower co-occurrence), objective counts of emotion reports indicated that positive and negative emotions were more 3 to 4 times likely to co-occur when stressors were reported. This suggests that co-occurrence reflects the extent to which negative emotions intrude on typically positive emotional states, rather than the extent to which people maintain positive emotions during stress. The variances of both PA and NA increased at stressor reports, indicating that individuals reported a broader not narrower range of emotion during stress. Finally, older age was associated with less variability in NA and a lower likelihood of co-occurring positive and negative emotions. In sum, these findings cast doubt on the utility of the PA-NA correlation as an index of emotional co-occurrence, and question notion that greater emotional cooccurrence represents either a typical or adaptive emotional state in adults. PMID:25244477

  5. Organ Donation in the 50+ Age Demographic: Survey Results on Decision Rationale and Information Preferences.

    PubMed

    Tartaglia, Alexander; Dodd-McCue, Diane; Myer, Kevin A; Mullins, Andrew

    2016-09-01

    The rate of organ donation by older potential donors is significantly declining even though recent studies show positive clinical outcomes with organs transplanted from older donors. This study examined the 50+ age demographic to identify the rationale for donation decisions, preferred media methods of donation information delivery, and responsiveness to an age-tailored donation message. Results from 579 surveys, 87% from the 50+ age demographic, found respondents prone to self-select themselves as medically ineligible based on current medication and health status, even though they might be medically suitable donors. Their incentive to pursue additional information on donation is limited except when motivated by personal accounts within their families and communities. In addition, even when computer literate, they continue to favor the printed or spoken word for donation information delivery. The results suggest an opportunity for those working with older adults to develop more personalized, localized donation education programs targeting this age demographic. © The Author(s) 2014.

  6. Aging and the aged in Aesopic fables.

    PubMed

    Wortley, J

    1997-01-01

    Little attempt has been made to re-assess the attitudes to aging and old age of the ancient-medieval Greek-speaking world on the basis of the literary remains (which are common to both) since Richardson (1933). There are however some collections (proverbs, sayings, "purple passages" from literature and so forth) which include material revealing attitudes which are in fact quite different from those of today and which can even be surprising. One such collection, the large number of fables which more or less conform to the genre associated with Aesop, is here analyzed to isolate the texts which have to do with aging and the attitudes they reveal. Of the surprisingly few fables which touch upon the matter, most are distinctly complimentary. In most instances the elderly are seen to increase, rather diminish, in certain powers other than physical strength. Fables are found which characterize them as being astute, intelligent, crafty, loyal and, above all, capable of giving sound advice and good leadership when the situation requires it of them. The celebrated Fable of the Tortoise and the Hare, although it was not specifically interpreted in this way in ancient times, best sums up the general attitude: that dogged persistence (the characteristic of the elderly) will ultimately prove superior to all the erratic bursts of youthful speed anytime. Hence Cicero: "Old age is more spirited than youth, and stronger!"

  7. A Conceptual Review of Age Effect on L2 Acquisition

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sang, Yuan

    2017-01-01

    The importance of age effect on an additional language (L2) acquisition has long been recognized in the field of L2 education. Research was conducted to reveal the influence of age to the rate and ultimate attainment of L2 teaching and learning, yet controversial results were discovered. Consequently, stereotypes and misunderstanding exist among…

  8. Psychological vulnerability to daily stressors in old age: Results of short-term longitudinal studies.

    PubMed

    Schilling, Oliver Karl; Diehl, Manfred

    2015-08-01

    A growing numbers of intensive longitudinal studies examine the short-term variability of behavior in response to daily stressors. Collectively, these studies address the vulnerability for stress-related emotional burden as assessed in terms of the intraindividual association between daily stressors and negative affect (NA). This article provides a brief overview of the relevant research on so-called affective reactivity to daily stressors and focuses on findings on development of age-related stressor reactivity across the adult lifespan. Two theoretical propositions have been put forward. Firstly, it has been postulated that aging should be associated with increased affective reactivity, i.e. it has been assumed that the vulnerability in terms of physiological stress reactivity increases across the adult life span and, thus, a higher stress-induced emotional reactivity should result with increasing age. Secondly, it has been argued that due to the continued development of emotional self-regulation skills, there should be an age-related decrease in stress reactivity and, hence, an increased resilience. Findings on age differences in NA reactivity to daily stressors, however, have been inconsistent. A possible explanation for the inconsistent findings may lie in the fact that the postulated dynamics of increased vulnerability or resilience imply different time-related reactions to stressors. In particular, the activation and effectiveness of emotional self-regulation strategies increase with increasing time intervals from the stressors. This leads to the conclusion that with increasing age the resilience for longer periods of stress and accumulated stress should increase. Results from our own research support this hypothesis, where older adults reacted to multiple stressors in a more adaptive way than younger adults.

  9. Neuronal dysfunction with aging and its amelioration

    PubMed Central

    ANDO, Susumu

    2012-01-01

    The author focused on the functional decline of synapses in the brain with aging to understand the underlying mechanisms and to ameliorate the deficits. The first attempt was to unravel the neuronal functions of gangliosides so that gangliosides could be used for enhancing synaptic activity. The second attempt was to elicit the neuronal plasticity in aged animals through enriched environmental stimulation and nutritional intervention. Environmental stimuli were revealed neurochemically and morphologically to develop synapses leading to enhanced cognitive function. Dietary restriction as a nutritional intervention restored the altered metabolism of neuronal membranes with aging, providing a possible explanation for the longevity effect of dietary restriction. These results obtained with aging and dementia models of animals would benefit aged people. PMID:22728441

  10. Anti-aging proof of concept study: results and summary.

    PubMed

    Bruce, Suzanne; Karnik, Jwala; Dryer, Laurence; Burkholder, David

    2014-09-01

    The etiology of aging human skin includes intrinsic physiologic changes greatly accelerated by photoaging, predominantly through exposure to UV light. Consumer interest and demand for anti-aging skin care products is extremely high especially in light of aging populations. Prenatal (fetal) tissue has been shown to possess healing characteristics and regenerative effects. A proprietary tissue engineering technology has been developed to produce a soluble human extracellular matrix material with growth factors and proteins. Neonatal cells are cultured on microbeads under conditions of low oxygen tension. This human cell-conditioned media (hCCM) contains a variety of growth factors and cytokines similar to those found in fetal cells and has been incorporated into a topical preparation for use in facial wound healing (after laser resurfacing procedures) and improving the appearance of aging skin. The objective of this study was to observe the effects of an MRCx™-containing topical skincare regimen on subjects with demonstrated aging skin damage (photodamage) when used consistently over a 3 month time period. Female subjects age 35-65 with Fitzpatrick Skin Type I-IV and mild to moderate amounts of photodamage, fine lines, and wrinkles used Regenica® Replenishing Crème and Regenica® Renew SPF 15 for 3 months. At each visit, photos were taken of subjects while investigators completed skin grading assessments and subjects completed self-assessments. Investigator assessments included evaluation of tactile roughness, visual texture, wrinkles, blotchiness, skin tone evenness, radiance, and translucence on a 5-point scale. Subjects' self-assessments included assessment of fine lines and wrinkles, firmness, evenness of skin tone, brightness, resilience, clarity, and radiance. Changes from baseline were evaluated for each parameter and P values for changes from baseline to each study visit for investigator's assessments and to end-of-study for self-assessments were

  11. Measuring Biological Age via Metabonomics: The Metabolic Age Score.

    PubMed

    Hertel, Johannes; Friedrich, Nele; Wittfeld, Katharina; Pietzner, Maik; Budde, Kathrin; Van der Auwera, Sandra; Lohmann, Tobias; Teumer, Alexander; Völzke, Henry; Nauck, Matthias; Grabe, Hans Jörgen

    2016-02-05

    Chronological age is one of the most important risk factors for adverse clinical outcome. Still, two individuals at the same chronological age could have different biological aging states, leading to different individual risk profiles. Capturing this individual variance could constitute an even more powerful predictor enhancing prediction in age-related morbidity. Applying a nonlinear regression technique, we constructed a metabonomic measurement for biological age, the metabolic age score, based on urine data measured via (1)H NMR spectroscopy. We validated the score in two large independent population-based samples by revealing its significant associations with chronological age and age-related clinical phenotypes as well as its independent predictive value for survival over approximately 13 years of follow-up. Furthermore, the metabolic age score was prognostic for weight loss in a sample of individuals who underwent bariatric surgery. We conclude that the metabolic age score is an informative measurement of biological age with possible applications in personalized medicine.

  12. Age and social gradients in the intensity of aging males' symptoms in Poland.

    PubMed

    Jankowska, Ewa Anita; Szklarska, Alicja; Lopuszanska, Monika; Medras, Marek

    2008-06-01

    We performed the study in order to describe the age-related changes and social gradients in the intensity of aging males' symptoms in healthy men in Poland. We examined 405 men aged 32-79, healthy inhabitants of Poland. Severity of aging males' symptoms was assessed using the Polish version of AMS scale. The social position was expressed using their educational level, commonly accepted as a reliable and specific index of social status in Poland. Male aging in Poland was accompanied by an increase in the intensity of all groups of evaluated symptoms (psychological, sexual and somato-vegetative symptoms, respectively: r = 0.36, r = 0.72, r = 0.59, all p < 0.0001). The results of ANOVA revealed the independent effects of both age and social status on the intensity of psychological symptoms (F = 17.89, p < 0.0001 and F = 9.51, p < 0.0001 for age and educational level, respectively), sexual (F = 114.70, p < 0.0001 and F = 5.90, p < 0.01), and somato-vegetative symptoms (F = 52.86, p < 0.0001 and F = 3.85, p < 0.05). The better the education of Polish men, the less intense the aging males' symptoms, irrespective of their age. Age and social position constitute major determinants of the intensity of aging males' symptoms in Poland.

  13. A novel diagnostic tool reveals mitochondrial pathology in human diseases and aging.

    PubMed

    Scheibye-Knudsen, Morten; Scheibye-Alsing, Karsten; Canugovi, Chandrika; Croteau, Deborah L; Bohr, Vilhelm A

    2013-03-01

    The inherent complex and pleiotropic phenotype of mitochondrial diseases poses a significant diagnostic challenge for clinicians as well as an analytical barrier for scientists. To overcome these obstacles we compiled a novel database, www.mitodb.com, containing the clinical features of primary mitochondrial diseases. Based on this we developed a number of qualitative and quantitative measures, enabling us to determine whether a disorder can be characterized as mitochondrial. These included a clustering algorithm, a disease network, a mitochondrial barcode and two scoring algorithms. Using these tools we detected mitochondrial involvement in a number of diseases not previously recorded as mitochondrial. As a proof of principle Cockayne syndrome, ataxia with oculomotor apraxia 1 (AOA1), spinocerebellar ataxia with axonal neuropathy 1 (SCAN1) and ataxia-telangiectasia have recently been shown to have mitochondrial dysfunction and those diseases showed strong association with mitochondrial disorders. We next evaluated mitochondrial involvement in aging and detected two distinct categories of accelerated aging disorders, one of them being associated with mitochondrial dysfunction. Normal aging seemed to associate stronger with the mitochondrial diseases than the non-mitochondrial partially supporting a mitochondrial theory of aging.

  14. National School-Age Child Care Alliance (NSACCA): National Survey Results. Draft Report.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Marx, Fern

    Presenting preliminary results of a National School-Age Child Care Alliance study of child care providers, this report is an initial analysis of 250 out of 427 questionnaires received as of April, 1993, representing practitioners in 40 states and 180 cities. Tables present data from responses to 16 items on the questionnaire soliciting information…

  15. A High-Throughput Approach for Identification of Nontuberculous Mycobacteria in Drinking Water Reveals Relationship between Water Age and Mycobacterium avium

    PubMed Central

    Haig, Sarah-Jane; Kotlarz, Nadine; LiPuma, John J.

    2018-01-01

    ABSTRACT Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) frequently detected in drinking water (DW) include species associated with human infections, as well as species rarely linked to disease. Methods for improved the recovery of NTM DNA and high-throughput identification of NTM are needed for risk assessment of NTM infection through DW exposure. In this study, different methods of recovering bacterial DNA from DW were compared, revealing that a phenol-chloroform DNA extraction method yielded two to four times as much total DNA and eight times as much NTM DNA as two commercial DNA extraction kits. This method, combined with high-throughput, single-molecule real-time sequencing of NTM rpoB genes, allowed the identification of NTM to the species, subspecies, and (in some cases) strain levels. This approach was applied to DW samples collected from 15 households serviced by a chloraminated distribution system, with homes located in areas representing short (<24 h) and long (>24 h) distribution system residence times. Multivariate statistical analysis revealed that greater water age (i.e., combined distribution system residence time and home plumbing stagnation time) was associated with a greater relative abundance of Mycobacterium avium subsp. avium, one of the most prevalent NTM causing infections in humans. DW from homes closer to the treatment plant (with a shorter water age) contained more diverse NTM species, including Mycobacterium abscessus and Mycobacterium chelonae. Overall, our approach allows NTM identification to the species and subspecies levels and can be used in future studies to assess the risk of waterborne infection by providing insight into the similarity between environmental and infection-associated NTM. PMID:29440575

  16. Generalist genes analysis of DNA markers associated with mathematical ability and disability reveals shared influence across ages and abilities

    PubMed Central

    2010-01-01

    Background The Generalist Genes Hypothesis is based upon quantitative genetic findings which indicate that many of the same genes influence diverse cognitive abilities and disabilities across age. In a recent genome-wide association study of mathematical ability in 10-year-old children, 43 SNP associations were nominated from scans of pooled DNA, 10 of which were validated in an individually genotyped sample. The 4927 children in this genotyped sample have also been studied at 7, 9 and 12 years of age on measures of mathematical ability, as well as on other cognitive and learning abilities. Results Using these data we have explored the Generalist Genes Hypothesis by assessing the association of the available measures of ability at age 10 and other ages with two composite 'SNP-set' scores, formed from the full set of 43 nominated SNPs and the sub-set of 10 SNPs that were previously found to be associated with mathematical ability at age 10. Both SNP sets yielded significant associations with mathematical ability at ages 7, 9 and 12, as well as with reading and general cognitive ability at age 10. Conclusions Although effect sizes are small, our results correspond with those of quantitative genetic research in supporting the Generalist Genes Hypothesis. SNP sets identified on the basis of their associations with mathematical ability at age 10 show associations with mathematical ability at earlier and later ages and show associations of similar magnitude with reading and general cognitive ability. With small effect sizes expected in such complex traits, future studies may be able to capitalise on power by searching for 'generalist genes' using longitudinal and multivariate approaches. PMID:20602751

  17. The Middle Triassic insect radiation revealed by isotopic age and iconic fossils from NW China

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zheng, Daran; Chang, Su-Chin; Wang, He; Fang, Yan; Wang, Jun; Feng, Chongqing; Xie, Guwei; Jarzembowski, Edmund A.; Zhang, Haichun; Wang, Bo

    2017-04-01

    Following the end-Permian mass extinction, the Triassic represented an important period witnessing the recovery and radiation of marine and terrestrial ecosystems. Terrestrial plants and vertebrates have been widely investigated; however the insects, the most diverse organisms on earth, remain enigmatic due to the rarity of Early-Middle Triassic fossils. Here we report new fossils from a Ladinian deposit dated at 238-237 Ma and a Carnian deposit in northwestern China, including the earliest definite caddisfly cases (Trichoptera) and water boatmen (Hemiptera), diverse polyphagan beetles (Coleoptera) and scorpionflies (Mecoptera). Our findings suggest that the Holometabola, comprising the majority of modern-day insect species, experienced an extraordinary diversification in the Middle Triassic and was already been dominant in some Middle and Late Triassic insect faunas, after the extinction of several ecologically dominant, Paleozoic insect groups in the latest Permian and earliest Triassic. This turnover is perhaps related to notable episodes of extreme warming and drying, leading to the eventual demise of coal-swamp ecosystems, evidenced by floral turnover during this interval. The forest revival during the Middle Triassic probably stimulated the rapid radiation and evolution of insects including some key aquatic lineages which built new associations that persist to the present day. Our results provide not only new insights into the early evolution of insect diversity and ecology, but also robust evidence for the view that the Triassic is the "Dawn of the Modern World". Besides, LA-ICP-MS U-Pb dating initially gave a late Ladinian age for the Tongchuan entomnfauna after the results: 237.41 ± 0.91 Ma and 238 ± 0.97 Ma. The age is in agreement with that of the marine Ladinian-Carnian boundary, representing a novel age constraint for the terrestrial strata near this boundary. This age can provide a calibration for marine and terrestrial correlation near Ladinian

  18. Age, stress, and emotional complexity: results from two studies of daily experiences.

    PubMed

    Scott, Stacey B; Sliwinski, Martin J; Mogle, Jacqueline A; Almeida, David M

    2014-09-01

    Experiencing positive and negative emotions together (i.e., co-occurrence) has been described as a marker of positive adaptation during stress and a strength of socioemotional aging. Using data from daily diary (N = 2,022; ages 33-84) and ecological momentary assessment (N = 190; ages 20-80) studies, we evaluate the utility of a common operationalization of co-occurrence, the within-person correlation between positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA). Then we test competing predictions regarding when co-occurrence will be observed and whether age differences will be present. Results indicate that the correlation is not an informative indicator of co-occurrence. Although correlations were stronger and more negative when stressors occurred (typically interpreted as lower co-occurrence), objective counts of emotion reports indicated that positive and negative emotions were 3 to 4 times more likely to co-occur when stressors were reported. This suggests that co-occurrence reflects the extent to which negative emotions intrude on typically positive emotional states, rather than the extent to which people maintain positive emotions during stress. The variances of both PA and NA increased at stressor reports, indicating that individuals reported a broader not narrower range of emotion during stress. Finally, older age was associated with less variability in NA and a lower likelihood of co-occurring positive and negative emotions. In sum, these findings cast doubt on the utility of the PA-NA correlation as an index of emotional co-occurrence, and question notion that greater emotional co-occurrence represents either a typical or adaptive emotional state in adults. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

  19. Age differences in the motor control of speech: An fMRI study of healthy aging.

    PubMed

    Tremblay, Pascale; Sato, Marc; Deschamps, Isabelle

    2017-05-01

    Healthy aging is associated with a decline in cognitive, executive, and motor processes that are concomitant with changes in brain activation patterns, particularly at high complexity levels. While speech production relies on all these processes, and is known to decline with age, the mechanisms that underlie these changes remain poorly understood, despite the importance of communication on everyday life. In this cross-sectional group study, we investigated age differences in the neuromotor control of speech production by combining behavioral and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. Twenty-seven healthy adults underwent fMRI while performing a speech production task consisting in the articulation of nonwords of different sequential and motor complexity. Results demonstrate strong age differences in movement time (MT), with longer and more variable MT in older adults. The fMRI results revealed extensive age differences in the relationship between BOLD signal and MT, within and outside the sensorimotor system. Moreover, age differences were also found in relation to sequential complexity within the motor and attentional systems, reflecting both compensatory and de-differentiation mechanisms. At very high complexity level (high motor complexity and high sequence complexity), age differences were found in both MT data and BOLD response, which increased in several sensorimotor and executive control areas. Together, these results suggest that aging of motor and executive control mechanisms may contribute to age differences in speech production. These findings highlight the importance of studying functionally relevant behavior such as speech to understand the mechanisms of human brain aging. Hum Brain Mapp 38:2751-2771, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  20. Age Differences in Prefrontal Surface Area and Thickness in Middle Aged to Older Adults.

    PubMed

    Dotson, Vonetta M; Szymkowicz, Sarah M; Sozda, Christopher N; Kirton, Joshua W; Green, Mackenzie L; O'Shea, Andrew; McLaren, Molly E; Anton, Stephen D; Manini, Todd M; Woods, Adam J

    2015-01-01

    Age is associated with reductions in surface area and cortical thickness, particularly in prefrontal regions. There is also evidence of greater thickness in some regions at older ages. Non-linear age effects in some studies suggest that age may continue to impact brain structure in later decades of life, but relatively few studies have examined the impact of age on brain structure within middle-aged to older adults. We investigated age differences in prefrontal surface area and cortical thickness in healthy adults between the ages of 51 and 81 years. Participants received a structural 3-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging scan. Based on a priori hypotheses, primary analyses focused on surface area and cortical thickness in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and orbitofrontal cortex. We also performed exploratory vertex-wise analyses of surface area and cortical thickness across the entire cortex. We found that older age was associated with smaller surface area in the dorsolateral prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortices but greater cortical thickness in the dorsolateral prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortices. Vertex-wise analyses revealed smaller surface area in primarily frontal regions at older ages, but no age effects were found for cortical thickness. Results suggest age is associated with reduced surface area but greater cortical thickness in prefrontal regions during later decades of life, and highlight the differential effects age has on regional surface area and cortical thickness.

  1. Does Donor Age of Nonirradiated Achilles Tendon Allograft Influence Mid-Term Results of Revision ACL Reconstruction?

    PubMed Central

    Zaffagnini, Stefano; Roberti di Sarsina, Tommaso; Bonanzinga, Tommaso; Nitri, Marco; Macchiarola, Luca; Stefanelli, Federico; Lucidi, Gianandrea; Grassi, Alberto

    2018-01-01

    Purpose  The purpose of the present study was to investigate if the donor age of nonirradiated Achilles tendon allograft could influence the clinical results of revision anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction. Methods  All patients that underwent ACL revision between 2004 and 2008 with at least 4 years of follow-up were included. For all the patients that met the inclusion criteria, the age of the graft donor was obtained from the tissue bank. Lysholm score was administered to patients that met inclusion criteria. In addition, patients were divided in two groups based on the donor age (<45 years vs. ≥45 years), and the baseline characteristics and outcomes were compared. Results  Fifty-two patients were evaluated at a mean 4.8 ± 0.8 years follow-up with Lysholm score. The Lysholm significantly improved from 62.3 ± 6.6 at preoperative status to 84.4 ± 12.3 at final follow-up. The mean donor age was 48.7 ± 8.4 years; a significant difference in Lysholm score was noted between patients that received an allograft with a donor age <45 years (14 patients; 27%) and those receiving an allograft with a donor age ≥45 years (38; 73%) (89.5 ± 3.2 vs. 80.1 ± 11.1, respectively; p  = 0.0469). The multiple regression model showed the donor age, the final follow-up, and the preoperative Lysholm score as significant predictors of postoperative Lysholm score ( p  < 0.0002). Conclusion  Donor age of nonirradiated Achilles tendon allograft influenced the mid-term results of revision ACL reconstruction, thus advising the use of grafts from young donors. Level of Evidence  Level III, retrospective comparative study. PMID:29675501

  2. Verification of the ages of supercentenarians in the United States: results of a matching study.

    PubMed

    Rosenwaike, Ira; Stone, Leslie F

    2003-11-01

    Unprecedented declines in mortality among the very old have led to the emergence of "true" supercentenarians (persons aged 110 and over). The ages of these individuals have been well-documented in European countries with a history of birth registration, but have not been systematically studied in the United States, which lacks similar documentation and where the inaccuracy of age reporting has been an issue. To verify age, we linked records from the Social Security Administration for close to 700 individuals who died from 1980 to 1999 purportedly at ages 110 and older to records of the U.S. censuses of 1880 and 1900, conducted when these individuals were children. This group was a residual group from an earlier file that was reduced by the SSA after data checks that eliminated incorrect records. The results of the matched records for the residual file indicate that over 90% of the whites were accurately reported as supercentenarians, but only half of the blacks appeared to have attained age 110. The verification of age shows that the United States has more "true" supercentenarians than do other nations.

  3. Recharge and Topographical Controls on Groundwater Circulation in Shallow Crystalline Rock Aquifers revealed by CFC-based Age Data

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kolbe, T.; Abbott, B. W.; Marçais, J.; Thomas, Z.; Aquilina, L.; Labasque, T.; Pinay, G.; De Dreuzy, J. R.

    2016-12-01

    Groundwater transit time and flow path are key factors controlling nitrogen retention and removal capacity at the catchment scale (Abbott et al., 2016), but the relative importance of hydrogeological and topographical factors in determining these parameters remains uncertain (Kolbe et al., 2016). To address this unknown, we used numerical modelling techniques calibrated with CFC groundwater age data to quantify transit time and flow path in an unconfined aquifer in Brittany, France. We assessed the relative importance of parameters (aquifer depth, porosity, arrangement of geological layers, and permeability profile), hydrology (recharge rate), and topography in determining characteristic flow distances (Leray et al., 2016). We found that groundwater flow was highly local (mean travel distance of 350 m) but also relatively old (mean CFC age of 40 years). Sensitivity analysis revealed that groundwater travel distances were not sensitive to geological parameters within the constraints of the CFC age data. However, circulation was sensitive to topography in lowland areas where the groundwater table was close to the land surface, and to recharge rate in upland areas where water input modulated the free surface of the aquifer. We quantified these differences with a local groundwater ratio (rGW-LOCAL) defined as the mean groundwater travel distance divided by the equivalent surface distance water would have traveled along the land surface. Lowland rGW-LOCAL was near 1, indicating primarily topographic controls. Upland rGW-LOCALwas 1.6, meaning the groundwater recharge area was substantially larger than the topographically-defined catchment. This ratio was applied to other catchments in Brittany to test its relevance in comparing controls on groundwater circulation within and among catchments. REFERENCES Abbott et al., 2016, Using multi-tracer inference to move beyond single-catchment ecohydrology. Earth-Science Reviews. Kolbe et al., 2016, Coupling 3D groundwater modeling

  4. Age-ordered shirt numbering reduces the selection bias associated with the relative age effect.

    PubMed

    Mann, David L; van Ginneken, Pleun J M A

    2017-04-01

    When placed into age groups for junior sporting competition, the relative differences in age between children leads to a bias in who is evaluated as being talented. While the impact of this relative age effect (RAE) is clear, until now there has been no evidence to show how to reduce it. The aim of this study was to determine whether the selection bias associated with the RAE could be reduced. Talent scouts from an elite football club watched junior games and ranked players on the basis of their potential. Scouts were allocated to one of three groups provided with contrasting information about the age of the players: (1) no age information, (2) players' birthdates or (3) knowledge that the numbers on the playing shirts corresponded to the relative age of the players. Results revealed a significant selection bias for the scouts in the no-age information group, and that bias remained when scouts knew the players' dates-of-birth. Strikingly though, the selection bias was eliminated when scouts watched the games knowing the shirt numbers corresponded to the relative ages of the players. The selection bias associated with the RAE can be reduced if information about age is presented appropriately.

  5. Anatomy of the larynx and pharynx: effects of age, gender and height revealed by multidetector computed tomography.

    PubMed

    Inamoto, Y; Saitoh, E; Okada, S; Kagaya, H; Shibata, S; Baba, M; Onogi, K; Hashimoto, S; Katada, K; Wattanapan, P; Palmer, J B

    2015-09-01

    Although oropharyngeal and laryngeal structures are essential for swallowing, the three-dimensional (3D) anatomy is not well understood, due in part to limitations of available measuring techniques. This study uses 3D images acquired by 320-row area detector computed tomography ('320-ADCT'), to measure the pharynx and larynx and to investigate the effects of age, gender and height. Fifty-four healthy volunteers (30 male, 24 female, 23-77 years) underwent one single-phase volume scan (0.35 s) with 320-ADCT during resting tidal breathing. Six measurements of the pharynx and two of larynx were performed. Bivariate statistical methods were used to analyse the effects of gender, age and height on these measurements. Length and volume were significantly larger for men than for women for every measurement (P < 0.05) and increased with height (P < 0.05). Multiple regression analysis was performed to understand the interactions of gender, height and age. Gender, height and age each had significant effects on certain values. The volume of the larynx and hypopharynx was significantly affected by height and age. The length of pharynx was associated with gender and age. Length of the vocal folds and distance from the valleculae to the vocal folds were significantly affected by gender (P < 0.05). These results suggest that age, gender and height have independent and interacting effects on the morphology of the pharynx and larynx. Three-dimensional imaging and morphometrics using 320-ADCT are powerful tools for efficiently and reliably observing and measuring the pharynx and larynx. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  6. [PSYCHO PHYSIOLOGICAL MARKERS OF ACCELERATED AGING AMONG THOSE WORKING WITH OCCUPATIONAL HAZARDS].

    PubMed

    Bashkireva, A S; Kachan, Ye Yu; Kulapina, M E

    2015-01-01

    We assessed the significance of psycho physiological markers of accelerated aging of the function of attention using comparative analysis of two occupational groups in order to reveal how the working process affects mental work capacity. We revealed peculiarities of systemic structure of functions which determine mental work capacity depending on the age and length of service in lorry drivers. It was proved that decrease in the mnestic functions of lorry-drivers takes place 10-15 years earlier compared to the control group. Psycho physiological indices, reflecting the functioning of attention, decreased not only with aging but also with longer driving experience. Our results show that it is necessary to conduct further studies of psycho physiological markers of age-related decrease in short-term memory depending on the activities at work in order to prevent accelerated aging and achieve professional longevity.

  7. Barriers to Sustainability in Mature-Age Adult Learners: Working toward Identity Change

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Martin, Akilah R.; Chen, Joseph C.

    2016-01-01

    While research on K-12 environmental education (EE) has been quite robust, there has been less focus on effective approaches for mature-age adult learners. This qualitative study examined perceptions of barriers to sustainability in American, mature-age adult learners. Results revealed two interacting, superordinate themes: personal relevance and…

  8. Reversal of glial and neurovascular markers of unhealthy brain aging by exercise in middle-aged female mice.

    PubMed

    Latimer, Caitlin S; Searcy, James L; Bridges, Michael T; Brewer, Lawrence D; Popović, Jelena; Blalock, Eric M; Landfield, Philip W; Thibault, Olivier; Porter, Nada M

    2011-01-01

    Healthy brain aging and cognitive function are promoted by exercise. The benefits of exercise are attributed to several mechanisms, many which highlight its neuroprotective role via actions that enhance neurogenesis, neuronal morphology and/or neurotrophin release. However, the brain is also composed of glial and vascular elements, and comparatively less is known regarding the effects of exercise on these components in the aging brain. Here, we show that aerobic exercise at mid-age decreased markers of unhealthy brain aging including astrocyte hypertrophy, a hallmark of brain aging. Middle-aged female mice were assigned to a sedentary group or provided a running wheel for six weeks. Exercise decreased hippocampal astrocyte and myelin markers of aging but increased VEGF, a marker of angiogenesis. Brain vascular casts revealed exercise-induced structural modifications associated with improved endothelial function in the periphery. Our results suggest that age-related astrocyte hypertrophy/reactivity and myelin dysregulation are aggravated by a sedentary lifestyle and accompanying reductions in vascular function. However, these effects appear reversible with exercise initiated at mid-age. As this period of the lifespan coincides with the appearance of multiple markers of brain aging, including initial signs of cognitive decline, it may represent a window of opportunity for intervention as the brain appears to still possess significant vascular plasticity. These results may also have particular implications for aging females who are more susceptible than males to certain risk factors which contribute to vascular aging.

  9. Reversal of Glial and Neurovascular Markers of Unhealthy Brain Aging by Exercise in Middle-Aged Female Mice

    PubMed Central

    Latimer, Caitlin S.; Searcy, James L.; Bridges, Michael T.; Brewer, Lawrence D.; Popović, Jelena; Blalock, Eric M.; Landfield, Philip W.; Thibault, Olivier; Porter, Nada M.

    2011-01-01

    Healthy brain aging and cognitive function are promoted by exercise. The benefits of exercise are attributed to several mechanisms, many which highlight its neuroprotective role via actions that enhance neurogenesis, neuronal morphology and/or neurotrophin release. However, the brain is also composed of glial and vascular elements, and comparatively less is known regarding the effects of exercise on these components in the aging brain. Here, we show that aerobic exercise at mid-age decreased markers of unhealthy brain aging including astrocyte hypertrophy, a hallmark of brain aging. Middle-aged female mice were assigned to a sedentary group or provided a running wheel for six weeks. Exercise decreased hippocampal astrocyte and myelin markers of aging but increased VEGF, a marker of angiogenesis. Brain vascular casts revealed exercise-induced structural modifications associated with improved endothelial function in the periphery. Our results suggest that age-related astrocyte hypertrophy/reactivity and myelin dysregulation are aggravated by a sedentary lifestyle and accompanying reductions in vascular function. However, these effects appear reversible with exercise initiated at mid-age. As this period of the lifespan coincides with the appearance of multiple markers of brain aging, including initial signs of cognitive decline, it may represent a window of opportunity for intervention as the brain appears to still possess significant vascular plasticity. These results may also have particular implications for aging females who are more susceptible than males to certain risk factors which contribute to vascular aging. PMID:22046366

  10. Age and sex differences in the incidence of esophageal adenocarcinoma: results from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Registry (1973-2008).

    PubMed

    Mathieu, L N; Kanarek, N F; Tsai, H-L; Rudin, C M; Brock, M V

    2014-01-01

    Risk factors driving sex disparity in esophageal cancer are unclear. Recent molecular evidence suggests hormonal factors. We conducted a national descriptive epidemiological study to assess the hypothesis that estrogen exposure could explain the male predominance in observed esophageal adenocarcinoma incidence. We analyzed the esophageal cancer incidence trends by histology and sex from 1973 to 2008 in nine population-based cancer registries of the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) 9 Registry Database. We used age as a proxy for estrogen exposure in females. The collective age groups annual percentage change in esophageal adenocarcinoma for females is positive (0.03%; 95% confidence interval: 0.02, 0.03%) during the study period. Interestingly, the esophageal adenocarcinoma annual percentage change in incidence rates for females during the same time period is significantly negative from ages 50-54 to ages 60-64. Even though the incidence of esophageal adenocarcinoma rises in both males and females, the male-to-female ratio across age peaks in the 50-54 years then decreases. Furthermore, the esophageal adenocarcinoma age-adjusted incidence rate in postmenopausal females age 80 and above increases with age unlike their male counterparts. Taken together, these data support the hypothesis that the endocrine milieu in pre- and perimenopausal females serves as a protective factor against esophageal adenocarcinoma, and with loss of estrogen or because of the increasing time period away from estrogen exposure, the rate of esophageal adenocarcinoma incidence increases in the older postmenopausal female. Because females comprise the largest portion of the elderly population with esophageal adenocarcinoma, these findings are significant. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. and the International Society for Diseases of the Esophagus.

  11. Age-related injury patterns in Spanish trauma ICU patients. Results from the RETRAUCI.

    PubMed

    Llompart-Pou, Juan Antonio; Chico-Fernández, Mario; Sánchez-Casado, Marcelino; Alberdi-Odriozola, Fermín; Guerrero-López, Francisco; Mayor-García, María Dolores; González-Robledo, Javier; Ballesteros-Sanz, María Ángeles; Herrán-Monge, Rubén; León-López, Rafael; López-Amor, Lucía; Bueno-González, Ana

    2016-09-01

    Injury patterns may differ in trauma patients when age is considered. This information is relevant in the management of trauma patients and for planning preventive measures. We included in the study all patients admitted for traumatic disease in the participating ICUs from November 23 rd , 2012 to July 31 st , 2015 with complete records. Data on epidemiology, injury patterns, severity scores, acute management, resources utilisation and outcome were recorded and compared in the following groups of age: ≤55years (young adults), 56-65 years (adults), 66-75 years (elderly), >75years (very elderly). Quantitative data were reported as median (Interquartile Range (IQR) 25-75) and categorical data as number and percentage. Comparison between groups of age with quantitative variables was performed using the analysis of variance (ANOVA) test. Differences between groups with categorical variables were compared using the chi-square test. A value of p<0.05 was considered significant. We included 2700 patients (78.9% male). Median age was 46 (31-62) years. Blunt trauma was present in 93.7% of the patients. Median RTS was 7.55 (5.97-7.84). Median ISS was 20 (13-26). High-energy trauma secondary to motor-vehicle accident with rhabdomyolysis and drugs abuse showed an inverse linear association with ageing, whilst pedestrian falls with isolated brain injury, being run-over and pre-injury antiplatelets or anticoagulant treatment increased with age (in all cases p<0.001). Multiple injuries were more common in young adults (p<0.001). Acute kidney injury prevalence was higher in elderly and very elderly patients (p<0.001). ICU Mortality increased with age in spite of similar severity scores in all groups (p<0.001). The main cause of death in all groups was intracranial hypertension. Different injury patterns exist in relation with ageing in trauma ICU patients. Adult patients were more likely to present high-energy trauma with significant injuries in different areas whilst elderly

  12. A review of lunar chronology revealing a preponderance of 4.34-4.37 Ga ages

    DOE PAGES

    Borg, Lars E.; Gaffney, Amy M.; Shearer, Charles K.

    2014-11-24

    In this study, data obtained from Sm-Nd and Rb-Sr isotopic measurements of lunar highlands’ samples are renormalized to common standard values and then used to define ages with a common isochron regression algorithm. The reliability of these ages is evaluated using five criteria that include whether: (1) the ages are defined by multiple isotopic systems, (2) the data demonstrate limited scatter outside uncertainty, (3) initial isotopic compositions are consistent with the petrogenesis of the samples, (4) the ages are defined by an isotopic system that is resistant to disturbance by impact metamorphism, and (5) the rare-earth element abundances determined bymore » isotope dilution of bulk of mineral fractions match those measured by in situ analyses. From this analysis, it is apparent that the oldest highlands’ rock ages are some of the least reliable, and that there is little support for crustal ages older than ~4.40 Ga. A model age for ur-KREEP formation calculated using the most reliable Mg-suite Sm-Nd isotopic systematics, in conjunction with Sm-Nd analyses of KREEP basalts, is 4389 ± 45 Ma. This age is a good match to the Lu-Hf model age of 4353 ± 37 Ma determined using a subset of this sample suite, the average model age of 4353 ± 25 Ma determined on mare basalts with the 146Sm- 142Nd isotopic system, with a peak in Pb-Pb ages observed in lunar zircons of ~4340 ± 20 Ma, and the oldest terrestrial zircon age of 4374 ± 6 Ma. The preponderance of ages between 4.34 and 4.37 Ga reflect either primordial solidification of a lunar magma ocean or a widespread secondary magmatic event on the lunar nearside. The first scenario is not consistent with the oldest ages reported for lunar zircons, whereas the second scenario does not account for concordance between ages of crustal rocks and mantle reservoirs.« less

  13. Biological age and tempos of aging in women over 60 in connection with their morphofunctional characteristics

    PubMed Central

    2014-01-01

    Background The study of aging processes and the changes in morphological, physiological, and functional characteristics that are associated with aging is of great interest not only for researchers, but also for the general public. The aim of the present paper is to study the biological age and tempos of aging in women older than 60 years, including long-lived females (over 90-years-old), and their associations with morphofunctional characteristics. Results Somatic traits, body mass components, and functional characteristics were investigated in 119 elderly (between 60 and 74-years-old) and long-lived (over 90-years-old) women in Tiraspol. With the special PC software ‘Diagnostics of Aging: BioAge’ (National Gerontological Center, Moscow, Russia) the biological age and tempos of aging were evaluated in the study participants. The results show close connections between morphofunctional changes, particularly in body mass components, and biological age. The software demonstrated its validity in the estimation of biological age in the group of elderly women. In the homogenous (according to their chronological age) group of women, three subgroups were separated with different tempos of aging: those with lower rates of aging (biological age less than chronological age by two years or more); those consistent with their chronological age, and those with accelerated tempos of aging (biological age higher than chronological age by two years or more). Conclusions Morphofunctional characteristics in the studied groups of women demonstrate the trends of age-involutive changes which can be traced through all groups, from those with slow rates of aging, to those with average rates, to those with accelerated tempos of aging, and finally in long-lived women. The results of comparative analysis show that women with accelerated aging are characterized with such traits as lower skeletal muscle mass, lower hand grip strength, and higher metabolic rate. Canonical discriminant

  14. Differential Cysteine Labeling and Global Label-Free Proteomics Reveals an Altered Metabolic State in Skeletal Muscle Aging

    PubMed Central

    2014-01-01

    The molecular mechanisms underlying skeletal muscle aging and associated sarcopenia have been linked to an altered oxidative status of redox-sensitive proteins. Reactive oxygen and reactive nitrogen species (ROS/RNS) generated by contracting skeletal muscle are necessary for optimal protein function, signaling, and adaptation. To investigate the redox proteome of aging gastrocnemius muscles from adult and old male mice, we developed a label-free quantitative proteomic approach that includes a differential cysteine labeling step. The approach allows simultaneous identification of up- and downregulated proteins between samples in addition to the identification and relative quantification of the reversible oxidation state of susceptible redox cysteine residues. Results from muscles of adult and old mice indicate significant changes in the content of chaperone, glucose metabolism, and cytoskeletal regulatory proteins, including Protein DJ-1, cAMP-dependent protein kinase type II, 78 kDa glucose regulated protein, and a reduction in the number of redox-responsive proteins identified in muscle of old mice. Results demonstrate skeletal muscle aging causes a reduction in redox-sensitive proteins involved in the generation of precursor metabolites and energy metabolism, indicating a loss in the flexibility of the redox energy response. Data is available via ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD001054. PMID:25181601

  15. Proteomic Analysis Reveals Different Involvement of Embryo and Endosperm Proteins during Aging of Yliangyou 2 Hybrid Rice Seeds.

    PubMed

    Zhang, Ying-Xue; Xu, Heng-Heng; Liu, Shu-Jun; Li, Ni; Wang, Wei-Qing; Møller, Ian M; Song, Song-Quan

    2016-01-01

    Seed aging is a process that results in a delayed germination, a decreased germination percentage, and finally a total loss of seed viability. However, the mechanism of seed aging is poorly understood. In the present study, Yliangyou 2 hybrid rice ( Oryza sativa L.) seeds were artificially aged at 100% relative humidity and 40°C, and the effect of artificial aging on germination, germination time course and the change in protein profiles of embryo and endosperm was studied to understand the molecular mechanism behind seed aging. With an increasing duration of artificial aging, the germination percentage and germination rate of hybrid rice seeds decreased. By comparing the protein profiles from the seeds aged for 0, 10 and 25 days, a total of 91 and 100 protein spots were found to show a significant change of more than 2-fold ( P < 0.05) in abundance, and 71 and 79 protein spots were identified, in embryos and endosperms, respectively. The great majority of these proteins increased in abundance in embryos (95%) and decreased in abundance in endosperms (99%). In embryos, most of the identified proteins were associated with energy (30%), with cell defense and rescue (28%), and with storage protein (18%). In endosperms, most of the identified proteins were involved in metabolism (37%), in energy (27%), and in protein synthesis and destination (11%). The most marked change was the increased abundance of many glycolytic enzymes together with the two fermentation enzymes pyruvate decarboxylase and alcohol dehydrogenase in the embryos during aging. We hypothesize that the decreased viability of hybrid rice seeds during artificial aging is caused by the development of hypoxic conditions in the embryos followed by ethanol accumulation.

  16. Proteomic Analysis Reveals Different Involvement of Embryo and Endosperm Proteins during Aging of Yliangyou 2 Hybrid Rice Seeds

    PubMed Central

    Zhang, Ying-Xue; Xu, Heng-Heng; Liu, Shu-Jun; Li, Ni; Wang, Wei-Qing; Møller, Ian M.; Song, Song-Quan

    2016-01-01

    Seed aging is a process that results in a delayed germination, a decreased germination percentage, and finally a total loss of seed viability. However, the mechanism of seed aging is poorly understood. In the present study, Yliangyou 2 hybrid rice (Oryza sativa L.) seeds were artificially aged at 100% relative humidity and 40°C, and the effect of artificial aging on germination, germination time course and the change in protein profiles of embryo and endosperm was studied to understand the molecular mechanism behind seed aging. With an increasing duration of artificial aging, the germination percentage and germination rate of hybrid rice seeds decreased. By comparing the protein profiles from the seeds aged for 0, 10 and 25 days, a total of 91 and 100 protein spots were found to show a significant change of more than 2-fold (P < 0.05) in abundance, and 71 and 79 protein spots were identified, in embryos and endosperms, respectively. The great majority of these proteins increased in abundance in embryos (95%) and decreased in abundance in endosperms (99%). In embryos, most of the identified proteins were associated with energy (30%), with cell defense and rescue (28%), and with storage protein (18%). In endosperms, most of the identified proteins were involved in metabolism (37%), in energy (27%), and in protein synthesis and destination (11%). The most marked change was the increased abundance of many glycolytic enzymes together with the two fermentation enzymes pyruvate decarboxylase and alcohol dehydrogenase in the embryos during aging. We hypothesize that the decreased viability of hybrid rice seeds during artificial aging is caused by the development of hypoxic conditions in the embryos followed by ethanol accumulation. PMID:27708655

  17. Effect of ageing time on suckling lamb meat quality resulting from different carcass chilling regimes.

    PubMed

    Vieira, C; Fernández, A M

    2014-02-01

    The effect of ageing on suckling lamb carcasses subjected to three chilling treatments was studied: Conventional (2 °C for 24h), ultra-fast (-20 °C for 3.5h then 2 °C until 24h post mortem) and slow chilling (12 °C for 7h then 2 °C until 24h post mortem) treatments. Meat quality measurements were carried out in carcasses at 24h post mortem and also after 5 days of ageing. Carcass chilling losses were not affected by a chilling regime. Aged meat showed higher cooking losses than non-aged meat (p<0.05). Sarcomere length of ultra-fast t was shorter (p<0.05) than conventional and conventional was shorter than slow chilling treatment (p<0.05), at 24h and after 5 days of ageing. Conventional and ultra-fast chilling treatments resulted in higher shear force values at 24h post mortem (p<0.05) compared to slow treatment. All treatments improved sensory scores with ageing (p<0.05), but ultra-fast chilling treatment did not attain higher values as the other two treatments. © 2013.

  18. High-fat/high-sucrose diet results in higher bone mass in aged rats.

    PubMed

    Minematsu, Akira; Nishii, Yasue; Sakata, Susumu

    2018-06-01

    Intake of high-fat/high-sucrose (HFS) diet or high fat diet influences bone metabolism in young rodents, but its effects on bone properties of aged rodents still remain unclear. This study aimed to examine the effects of HFS diet intake on trabecular bone architecture (TBA) and cortical bone geometry (CBG) in aged rats. Fifteen male Wistar rats over 1 year were randomly divided into two groups. One group was fed a standard laboratory diet (SLD) and the other group was fed a HFS diet for six months. The femur/tibia, obtained from both groups at the end of experimental period, were scanned by micro-computed tomography for TBA/CBG analyses. Serum biochemical analyses were also conducted. Body weight was significantly higher in the HFS group than in the SLD group. In both femur and tibia, the HFS group showed higher trabecular/cortical bone mass in reference to bone mineral content, volume bone mineral density and TBA/CBG parameters compared with the SLD group. In addition, serum calcium, inorganic phosphorus, total protein, triacylglycerol, HDL and TRACP-5b levels were significantly higher in the HFS group than in the SLD group. There were good correlations between body weight and bone parameters in the femur and tibia. These results suggest that HFS diet intake results in higher bone mass in aged rats. Such effects of HFS diet intake might have been induced by increased body weight.

  19. Aging in the natural world: comparative data reveal similar mortality patterns across primates.

    PubMed

    Bronikowski, Anne M; Altmann, Jeanne; Brockman, Diane K; Cords, Marina; Fedigan, Linda M; Pusey, Anne; Stoinski, Tara; Morris, William F; Strier, Karen B; Alberts, Susan C

    2011-03-11

    Human senescence patterns-late onset of mortality increase, slow mortality acceleration, and exceptional longevity-are often described as unique in the animal world. Using an individual-based data set from longitudinal studies of wild populations of seven primate species, we show that contrary to assumptions of human uniqueness, human senescence falls within the primate continuum of aging; the tendency for males to have shorter life spans and higher age-specific mortality than females throughout much of adulthood is a common feature in many, but not all, primates; and the aging profiles of primate species do not reflect phylogenetic position. These findings suggest that mortality patterns in primates are shaped by local selective forces rather than phylogenetic history.

  20. Perceptions of competence: age moderates views of healthy aging and Alzheimer's disease.

    PubMed

    Berry, Jane M; Williams, Helen L; Thomas, Kevin D; Blair, Jamie

    2015-01-01

    BACKGROUND/STUDY CONTEXT: Older adults have more complex and differentiated views of aging than do younger adults, but less is known about age-related perceptions of Alzheimer's disease. This study investigated age-related perceptions of competence of an older adult labeled as "in good health" (healthy) or "has Alzheimer's disease" (AD), using a person-perception paradigm. It was predicted that older adults would provide more differentiated assessments of the two targets than would younger adults. Younger (n=86; 18-36 years) and older (n=66; 61-95 years) adults rated activities of daily living (ADL), instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), and memory abilities of a female target aged 75 years, described as healthy or with AD. Data on anxiety about aging, knowledge of and experience with aging and AD, knowledge of memory aging, and positive and negative biases toward aging and AD were also collected. Older adults perceived the healthy target as more capable of cognitively effortful activities (e.g., managing finances) and as possessing better memory abilities than the AD target. As predicted, these differences were greater than differences between targets perceived by younger adults. The interaction effect remained significant after statistically controlling for relevant variables, including education and gender. Additionally, exploratory analyses revealed that older adults held less positively biased views of AD than younger adults, but negatively biased views were equivalent between age groups. The results demonstrate that mere labels of "healthy" and "Alzheimer's disease" produce significant and subtle age differences in perceived competencies of older adults, and that biases towards AD vary by age group and valence. Our findings extend the person-perception paradigm to an integrative analysis of aging and AD, are consistent with models of adult development, and complement current research and theory on stereotypes of aging. Future directions for research

  1. Cochlear Implantation in Young Children: Effects of Age at Implantation and Communication Mode.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kirk, Karen Iler; Miyamoto, Richard T.; Ying, Elizabeth A.; Perdew, Amy E.; Zuganelis, Helen

    2000-01-01

    A study examined the effects of age at implantation on the development of communication abilities in 106 early-implanted children. Results revealed significant improvement in communication skills over time. Children implanted prior to age 2 had significantly faster rates of receptive vocabulary and language development than later-implanted…

  2. Age-related decline of precision and binding in visual working memory.

    PubMed

    Peich, Muy-Cheng; Husain, Masud; Bays, Paul M

    2013-09-01

    Working memory declines with normal aging, but the nature of this impairment is debated. Studies based on detecting changes to arrays of visual objects have identified two possible components to age-related decline: a reduction in the number of items that can be stored, or a deficit in maintaining the associations (bindings) between individual object features. However, some investigations have reported intact binding with aging, and specific deficits arising only in Alzheimer's disease. Here, using a recently developed continuous measure of recall fidelity, we tested the precision with which adults of different ages could reproduce from memory the orientation and color of a probed array item. The results reveal a further component of cognitive decline: an age-related decrease in the resolution with which visual information can be maintained in working memory. This increase in recall variability with age was strongest under conditions of greater memory load. Moreover, analysis of the distribution of errors revealed that older participants were more likely to incorrectly report one of the unprobed items in memory, consistent with an age-related increase in misbinding. These results indicate a systematic decline with age in working memory resources that can be recruited to store visual information. The paradigm presented here provides a sensitive index of both memory resolution and feature binding, with the potential for assessing their modulation by interventions. The findings have implications for understanding the mechanisms underpinning working memory deficits in both health and disease.

  3. Age-Related Decline of Precision and Binding in Visual Working Memory

    PubMed Central

    2013-01-01

    Working memory declines with normal aging, but the nature of this impairment is debated. Studies based on detecting changes to arrays of visual objects have identified two possible components to age-related decline: a reduction in the number of items that can be stored, or a deficit in maintaining the associations (bindings) between individual object features. However, some investigations have reported intact binding with aging, and specific deficits arising only in Alzheimer’s disease. Here, using a recently developed continuous measure of recall fidelity, we tested the precision with which adults of different ages could reproduce from memory the orientation and color of a probed array item. The results reveal a further component of cognitive decline: an age-related decrease in the resolution with which visual information can be maintained in working memory. This increase in recall variability with age was strongest under conditions of greater memory load. Moreover, analysis of the distribution of errors revealed that older participants were more likely to incorrectly report one of the unprobed items in memory, consistent with an age-related increase in misbinding. These results indicate a systematic decline with age in working memory resources that can be recruited to store visual information. The paradigm presented here provides a sensitive index of both memory resolution and feature binding, with the potential for assessing their modulation by interventions. The findings have implications for understanding the mechanisms underpinning working memory deficits in both health and disease. PMID:23978008

  4. Differential Effects of Aging on Processes Underlying Task Switching

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    West, Robert; Travers, Stephanie

    2008-01-01

    In this study, we used event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to examine the effects of aging on processes underlying task switching. The response time data revealed an age-related increase in mixing costs before controlling for general slowing and no effect of aging on switching costs. In the cue-locked epoch, the ERP data revealed little effect…

  5. What Do the California Standards Test Results Reveal about the Movement toward Eighth-Grade Algebra for All?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Liang, Jian-Hua; Heckman, Paul E.; Abedi, Jamal

    2012-01-01

    In California, an increasing number of 8th graders have taken algebra courses since 2003. This study examines students' California Standards Test (CST) results in grades 7 through 11, aiming to reveal who took the CST for Algebra I in 8th grade and whether the increase has led to a rise in students' taking higher-level mathematics CSTs and an…

  6. Radiation- and Age-Associated Changes in Peripheral Blood Dendritic Cell Populations among Aging Atomic Bomb Survivors in Japan.

    PubMed

    Kajimura, Junko; Lynch, Heather E; Geyer, Susan; French, Benjamin; Yamaoka, Mika; Shterev, Ivo D; Sempowski, Gregory D; Kyoizumi, Seishi; Yoshida, Kengo; Misumi, Munechika; Ohishi, Waka; Hayashi, Tomonori; Nakachi, Kei; Kusunoki, Yoichiro

    2017-11-30

    Previous immunological studies in atomic bomb survivors have suggested that radiation exposure leads to long-lasting changes, similar to immunological aging observed in T-cell-adaptive immunity. However, to our knowledge, late effects of radiation on dendritic cells (DCs), the key coordinators for activation and differentiation of T cells, have not yet been investigated in humans. In the current study, we hypothesized that numerical and functional decreases would be observed in relationship to radiation dose in circulating conventional DCs (cDCs) and plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs) among 229 Japanese A-bomb survivors. Overall, the evidence did not support this hypothesis, with no overall changes in DCs or functional changes observed with radiation dose. Multivariable regression analysis for radiation dose, age and gender effects revealed that total DC counts as well as subpopulation counts decreased in relationship to increasing age. Further analyses revealed that in women, absolute numbers of pDCs showed significant decreases with radiation dose. A hierarchical clustering analysis of gene expression profiles in DCs after Toll-like receptor stimulation in vitro identified two clusters of participants that differed in age-associated expression levels of genes involved in antigen presentation and cytokine/chemokine production in cDCs. These results suggest that DC counts decrease and expression levels of gene clusters change with age. More than 60 years after radiation exposure, we also observed changes in pDC counts associated with radiation, but only among women.

  7. Radiation- and Age-Associated Changes in Peripheral Blood Dendritic Cell Populations among Aging Atomic Bomb Survivors in Japan.

    PubMed

    Kajimura, Junko; Lynch, Heather E; Geyer, Susan; French, Benjamin; Yamaoka, Mika; Shterev, Ivo D; Sempowski, Gregory D; Kyoizumi, Seishi; Yoshida, Kengo; Misumi, Munechika; Ohishi, Waka; Hayashi, Tomonori; Nakachi, Kei; Kusunoki, Yoichiro

    2018-01-01

    Previous immunological studies in atomic bomb survivors have suggested that radiation exposure leads to long-lasting changes, similar to immunological aging observed in T-cell-adaptive immunity. However, to our knowledge, late effects of radiation on dendritic cells (DCs), the key coordinators for activation and differentiation of T cells, have not yet been investigated in humans. In the current study, we hypothesized that numerical and functional decreases would be observed in relationship to radiation dose in circulating conventional DCs (cDCs) and plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs) among 229 Japanese A-bomb survivors. Overall, the evidence did not support this hypothesis, with no overall changes in DCs or functional changes observed with radiation dose. Multivariable regression analysis for radiation dose, age and gender effects revealed that total DC counts as well as subpopulation counts decreased in relationship to increasing age. Further analyses revealed that in women, absolute numbers of pDCs showed significant decreases with radiation dose. A hierarchical clustering analysis of gene expression profiles in DCs after Toll-like receptor stimulation in vitro identified two clusters of participants that differed in age-associated expression levels of genes involved in antigen presentation and cytokine/chemokine production in cDCs. These results suggest that DC counts decrease and expression levels of gene clusters change with age. More than 60 years after radiation exposure, we also observed changes in pDC counts associated with radiation, but only among women.

  8. Burden of disability attributable to vertigo and dizziness in the aged: results from the KORA-Age study.

    PubMed

    Mueller, Martin; Strobl, Ralf; Jahn, Klaus; Linkohr, Birgit; Peters, Annette; Grill, Eva

    2014-10-01

    Complaints of vertigo and dizziness are common in primary care in the aged. They can be caused by distinct vestibular disorders, but can also be a symptom in other conditions like non-vestibular sensory loss, vascular encephalopathy or anxiety. The aim of this study was to investigate the specific contribution of vertigo and dizziness to the total burden of disability in aged persons when controlling for the presence of other health conditions. Data originate from the MONICA/KORA study, a population-based cohort. Survivors of the original cohorts who were 65 years and older were examined by telephone interview in 2009. Disability was assessed with the Health Assessment Questionnaire. Logistic regression was used to adjust for potential confounders and additive regression to estimate the contribution of vertigo and dizziness to disability prevalence. Adjusted for age, sex and other chronic conditions, vertigo and dizziness were associated with disability (odds ratio 1.66, 95% confidence intervals 1.40-1.98). In both men and women between 65 and 79 years, vertigo and dizziness were among the strongest contributors to the burden of disability with a prevalence of 10.5% (6.6 to 15.1) in men and 9.0% (5.7 to 13.0) in women. In men, this effect is stable across all age-groups, whereas it decreases with age in women. Vertigo and dizziness independently and relevantly contribute to population-attributable disability in the aged. They are not inevitable consequences of ageing but arise from distinct disease entities. Careful management of vertigo and dizziness might increase population health and reduce disability. © The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Public Health Association. All rights reserved.

  9. Effectiveness of the Vital Aging program to promote active aging in Mexican older adults

    PubMed Central

    Mendoza-Ruvalcaba, Neyda Ma; Fernández-Ballesteros, Rocío

    2016-01-01

    Introduction Aging is not only a population phenomenon but also an experience and an individual reality. Vital Aging® is a program that considers active aging as the lifelong adaptation process of maximizing health and independence, physical and cognitive functioning, positive affect regulation and control, and social engagement. Through its different versions and editions, it has demonstrated being an effective program to promote active aging. The aim of this study is to determine the effectiveness of the “face-to-face” and “combined” versions of the program to promote active aging in Mexican older adults trial. Methods Seventy-six older adults aged 60 years and over participated in a quasi-experimental study and were recruited in a senior center to participate in the two experimental conditions: Vital Aging face-to-face (VA-FF) (n=35) and Vital Aging combined (VA-C; multimedia/face-to-face) (n=15), and the remaining 26 adults were assigned to a control group. Pretest and posttest assessments were performed after the theoretical–practical intervention. Mean differences and size effects were calculated for estimating the effect of the program. Results At the end of the study, participants showed improvements in the active aging outcome measures. Positive effects were observed in the frequency of intellectual, cultural – artistic, and social activities, perceptions of aging, satisfaction with social relationships, and self-efficacy for aging. Additionally, those who participated in VA-FF showed better memory performance, meta-memory, and a trend to report less memory problems, while older persons in VA-C showed a trend to have better life satisfaction. No effects were observed in physical activity, frequency of social relationships, and subjective health. Conclusion Findings show that the Vital Aging program in face-to-face and combined versions encourages active aging in Mexican older persons. These results are in general similar to those found in

  10. Analysis of Milk from Mothers Who Delivered Prematurely Reveals Few Changes in Proteases and Protease Inhibitors across Gestational Age at Birth and Infant Postnatal Age.

    PubMed

    Demers-Mathieu, Veronique; Nielsen, Søren Drud; Underwood, Mark A; Borghese, Robyn; Dallas, David C

    2017-06-01

    Background: Peptidomics research has demonstrated that protease activity is higher in breast milk from preterm-delivering mothers than from term-delivering mothers. However, to our knowledge, the effect of the degree of prematurity and postnatal age on proteases and protease inhibitors in human milk remains unknown. Objective: We aimed to determine the change of proteases and protease inhibitors in milk from mothers who delivered prematurely across gestational age (GA) and postnatal age. Methods: Milk samples were collected from 18 mothers aged 26-40 y who delivered preterm infants and who lacked mastitis. For analysis, samples were separated into 2 groups: 9 from early GA (EGA) (24-26 wk GA)-delivering mothers and 9 from late GA (LGA) (27-32 wk GA)-delivering mothers. Within the 9 samples in each group, the collection time ranged from postnatal days 2 to 47. The activity and predicted activity of proteases in preterm milk were determined with the use of fluorometric and spectrophotometric assays and peptidomics, respectively. Protease and protease inhibitor concentrations were determined with the use of ELISA. Linear mixed models were applied to compare enzymes across GA and postnatal age. Results: Carboxypeptidase B2, kallikrein, plasmin, elastase, thrombin, and cytosol aminopeptidase were present and active in the milk of preterm-delivering mothers. Most milk protease and antiprotease concentrations did not change with GA or postnatal age. However, the concentration and activity of kallikrein, the most abundant and active protease in preterm milk, increased by 25.4 ng · mL -1 · d -1 and 0.454 μg · mL -1 · d -1 postnatally, respectively, in EGA milk samples while remaining stable in LGA milk samples. Conclusions: This research demonstrates that proteases are active in human milk and begin to degrade milk protein within the mammary gland before consumption by infants. Proteases and protease inhibitors in milk from mothers of premature infants mostly did not

  11. Healthy ageing at work— Efficacy of group interventions on the mental health of nurses aged 45 and older: Results of a randomised, controlled trial

    PubMed Central

    Müller, Andreas; Angerer, Peter; Schmook, Renate; Nikendei, Christoph; Herbst, Kirsten; Gantner, Melanie; Herzog, Wolfgang; Gündel, Harald

    2018-01-01

    Objective This multicentre, randomised controlled trial (RCT) aimed to evaluate the efficacy of a small-group intervention promoting successful ageing at work in older nurses (aged ≥45). Method A sample of 115 nurses aged ≥45 from 4 trial sites in Germany were randomly assigned to either the intervention group (IG), that received a small-group intervention of seven weekly sessions of 120 min with a booster session after six weeks or to a wait-list control condition (WLC). Outcomes were measured via validated self-report questionnaires at baseline (T1) and at post-treatment (T2). Primary outcomes were mental health-related well-being and mental health-related quality of life (QOL). The secondary outcomes included mental health-related and work-related measures. Results The intention to treat (ITT) analysis showed significant positive effects of the intervention on mental health. A significant small effect (d = 0.3) in favour of the IG was found for psychological health-related quality of life. Positive small effects (d = 0.24 to d = 0.31) were also found for work related mental strain. Conclusions Our small-group intervention based on a theory of successful ageing for nurses aged ≥45 was found to be effective with regard to improvements of psychological health related quality of life and other mental health-related outcomes. Thus, our study shows that the ageing workforce can be reached through specifically designed preventive interventions. The components of our intervention could be easily adapted to the belongings of other professions. Our results suggest that these components should be evaluated in various settings outside the healthcare sector. PMID:29351310

  12. Oxysterol Signatures Distinguish Age-Related Macular Degeneration from Physiologic Aging.

    PubMed

    Lin, Jonathan B; Sene, Abdoulaye; Santeford, Andrea; Fujiwara, Hideji; Sidhu, Rohini; Ligon, Marianne M; Shankar, Vikram A; Ban, Norimitsu; Mysorekar, Indira U; Ory, Daniel S; Apte, Rajendra S

    2018-06-11

    Macrophage aging is pathogenic in numerous diseases, including age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of blindness in older adults. Although prior studies have explored the functional consequences of macrophage aging, less is known about its cellular basis or what defines the transition from physiologic aging to disease. Here, we show that despite their frequent self-renewal, macrophages from old mice exhibited numerous signs of aging, such as impaired oxidative respiration. Transcriptomic profiling of aged murine macrophages revealed dysregulation of diverse cellular pathways, especially in cholesterol homeostasis, that manifested in altered oxysterol signatures. Although the levels of numerous oxysterols in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells and plasma exhibited age-associated changes, plasma 24-hydroxycholesterol levels were specifically associated with AMD. These novel findings demonstrate that oxysterol levels can discriminate disease from physiologic aging. Furthermore, modulation of cholesterol homeostasis may be a novel strategy for treating age-associated diseases in which macrophage aging is pathogenic. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  13. Personalized Age Progression with Bi-Level Aging Dictionary Learning.

    PubMed

    Shu, Xiangbo; Tang, Jinhui; Li, Zechao; Lai, Hanjiang; Zhang, Liyan; Yan, Shuicheng

    2018-04-01

    Age progression is defined as aesthetically re-rendering the aging face at any future age for an individual face. In this work, we aim to automatically render aging faces in a personalized way. Basically, for each age group, we learn an aging dictionary to reveal its aging characteristics (e.g., wrinkles), where the dictionary bases corresponding to the same index yet from two neighboring aging dictionaries form a particular aging pattern cross these two age groups, and a linear combination of all these patterns expresses a particular personalized aging process. Moreover, two factors are taken into consideration in the dictionary learning process. First, beyond the aging dictionaries, each person may have extra personalized facial characteristics, e.g., mole, which are invariant in the aging process. Second, it is challenging or even impossible to collect faces of all age groups for a particular person, yet much easier and more practical to get face pairs from neighboring age groups. To this end, we propose a novel Bi-level Dictionary Learning based Personalized Age Progression (BDL-PAP) method. Here, bi-level dictionary learning is formulated to learn the aging dictionaries based on face pairs from neighboring age groups. Extensive experiments well demonstrate the advantages of the proposed BDL-PAP over other state-of-the-arts in term of personalized age progression, as well as the performance gain for cross-age face verification by synthesizing aging faces.

  14. Formulation of the Age-Education Index: Measuring Age and Education Effects in Neuropsychological Performance

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lam, Max; Eng, Goi Khia; Rapisarda, Attilio; Subramaniam, Mythily; Kraus, Michael; Keefe, Richard S. E.; Collinson, Simon Lowes

    2013-01-01

    The complex interplay of education, age, and cognitive performance on various neuropsychological tests is examined in the current study. New education indices were formulated and further investigated to reveal how age and education variances work together to account for performance on neuropsychological tests. Participants were 830…

  15. Numerical evidences of universal trap-like aging dynamics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cammarota, Chiara; Marinari, Enzo

    2018-04-01

    Trap models have been initially proposed as toy models for dynamical relaxation in extremely simplified rough potential energy landscapes. Their importance has recently grown considerably thanks to the discovery that the trap-like aging mechanism directly controls the out-of-equilibrium relaxation processes of more sophisticated spin models, that are considered as the solvable counterpart of real disordered systems. Further establishing the connection between these spin models, out-of-equilibrium behavior and the trap like aging mechanism could shed new light on the properties, which are still largely mysterious, for the activated out-of-equilibrium dynamics of disordered systems. In this work we discuss numerical evidence based on the computations of the permanence times of an emergent trap-like aging behavior in a variety of very simple disordered models—developed from the trap model paradigm. Our numerical results are backed by analytic derivations and heuristic discussions. Such exploration reveals some of the tricks needed to reveal the trap behavior in spite of the occurrence of secondary processes, of the existence of dynamical correlations and of strong finite system’s size effects.

  16. Strategies for Aging in Place

    PubMed Central

    Gould, Odette N.; Gibbons, Caroline; Simard, Majella; Éthier, Sophie; Villalon, Lita

    2015-01-01

    For healthy and independent older adults, aging in place can be seen as identical to any other adult living at home. Little is known about how frail seniors, particularly those who speak a minority language, manage the challenges of aging in place. The present qualitative descriptive study explores the strategies that Canadian French-speaking seniors have put in place to counter their loss of independence and promote their ability to stay in their home. Semistructured individual interviews were conducted with 39 older adults and transcribed, followed by content analysis to identify common themes related to study objectives. Six themes emerged in response to strategies described for aging in place. Findings reveal the limited extent to which language issues were perceived as a barrier by participants. In conclusion, the results of this study provide us with fruitful insights to guide community nursing practice, future research, and public policy. PMID:28462299

  17. Age Distribution of Groundwater

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Morgenstern, U.; Daughney, C. J.

    2012-04-01

    Groundwater at the discharge point comprises a mixture of water from different flow lines with different travel time and therefore has no discrete age but an age distribution. The age distribution can be assessed by measuring how a pulse shaped tracer moves through the groundwater system. Detection of the time delay and the dispersion of the peak in the groundwater compared to the tracer input reveals the mean residence time and the mixing parameter. Tritium from nuclear weapons testing in the early 1960s resulted in a peak-shaped tritium input to the whole hydrologic system on earth. Tritium is the ideal tracer for groundwater because it is an isotope of hydrogen and therefore is part of the water molecule. Tritium time series data that encompass the passage of the bomb tritium pulse through the groundwater system in all common hydrogeologic situations in New Zealand demonstrate a semi-systematic pattern between age distribution parameters and hydrologic situation. The data in general indicate high fraction of mixing, but in some cases also indicate high piston flow. We will show that still, 45 years after the peak of the bomb tritium, it is possible to assess accurately the parameters of age distributions by measuring the tail of the bomb tritium.

  18. Endoscopic endonasal transsphenoidal surgery for patients aged over 80 years with pituitary adenomas: Surgical and follow-up results.

    PubMed

    Fujimoto, Kenji; Yano, Shigetoshi; Shinojima, Naoki; Hide, Takuichiro; Kuratsu, Jun-Ichi

    2017-01-01

    With the rapid aging of the general population, the number of pituitary adenoma (PA) diagnosed in elderly patients is increasing. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of endoscopic endonasal transsphenoidal surgery (ETSS) for PA in patients aged ≥80 years. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of all patients aged ≥80 years who underwent ETSS for PA at our hospital from January 2001 through December 2014. Treatment results were assessed by the extent of surgical removal, symptom improvement, postoperative complications, and Karnofsky performance status (KPS). The results were also compared with the surgical result of PA patients aged <80 years. Twelve patients aged ≥80 years underwent ETSS for PA. Recovery of visual function was observed in 11 patients (91.7%). Postoperative cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leakage was observed in 3 patients. New hormonal replacement therapy was required in 2 patients. These complications had not affected patient prognosis. During the follow-up periods, deterioration of KPS was observed in 2 patients due to pneumonia or cerebral infarction. In total, 150 PA patients aged <80 years were compared with the patients aged ≥80 years. The percentage of total removal was significantly higher in the younger patient group than that in the older one (54.0% vs 16.6%, respectively; P = 0.016). Visual improvement was observed in 93.2% of the younger patient group, which was almost equal to that in the older one. ETSS is a safe and effective surgical technique in PA patients aged ≥80 years.

  19. Quantifying the impact of µCT-scanning of human fossil teeth on ESR age results.

    PubMed

    Duval, Mathieu; Martín-Francés, Laura

    2017-05-01

    Fossil human teeth are nowadays systematically CT-scanned by palaeoanthropologists prior to any further analysis. It has been recently demonstrated that this noninvasive technique has, in most cases, virtually no influence on ancient DNA preservation. However, it may have nevertheless an impact on other techniques, like Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) dating, by artificially ageing the apparent age of the sample. To evaluate this impact, we µCT-scanned several modern enamel fragments following the standard analytical procedures employed by the Dental Anthropology Group at CENIEH, Spain, and then performed ESR dose reconstruction for each of them. The results of our experiment demonstrate that the systematic high-resolution µCT-scanning of fossil hominin remains introduces a nonnegligible X-ray dose into the tooth enamel, equivalent to 15-30 Gy depending on the parameters used. This dose may be multiplied by a factor of ∼8 if no metallic filter is used. However, this dose estimate cannot be universally extrapolated to any µCT-scan experiment but has instead to be specifically assessed for each device and set of parameters employed. The impact on the ESR age results is directly dependent on the magnitude of the geological dose measured in fossil enamel but could potentially lead to an age overestimation up to 40% in case of Late Pleistocene samples, if not taken into consideration. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  20. Aging and depression vulnerability interaction results in decreased serotonin innervation associated with reduced BDNF levels in hippocampus of rats bred for learned helplessness.

    PubMed

    Aznar, Susana; Klein, Anders B; Santini, Martin A; Knudsen, Gitte M; Henn, Fritz; Gass, Peter; Vollmayr, Barbara

    2010-07-01

    Epidemiological studies have revealed a strong genetic contribution to the risk for depression. Both reduced hippocampal serotonin neurotransmission and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels have been associated with increased depression vulnerability and are also regulated during aging. Brains from young (5 months old) and old (13 months old) congenital Learned Helplessness rats (cLH), and congenital Non Learned Helplessness rats (cNLH) were immunohistochemically stained for the serotonin transporter and subsequently stereologically quantified for estimating hippocampal serotonin fiber density. Hippocampal BDNF protein levels were measured by ELISA. An exacerbated age-related loss of serotonin fiber density specific for the CA1 area was observed in the cLH animals, whereas reduced hippocampal BDNF levels were seen in young and old cLH when compared with age-matched cNLH controls. These observations indicate that aging should be taken into account when studying the neurobiological factors behind the vulnerability for depression and that understanding the effect of aging on genetically predisposed individuals may contribute to a better understanding of the pathophysiology behind depression, particularly in the elderly.

  1. Measuring trends in age at first sex and age at marriage in Manicaland, Zimbabwe.

    PubMed

    Cremin, I; Mushati, P; Hallett, T; Mupambireyi, Z; Nyamukapa, C; Garnett, G P; Gregson, S

    2009-04-01

    To identify reporting biases and to determine the influence of inconsistent reporting on observed trends in the timing of age at first sex and age at marriage. Longitudinal data from three rounds of a population-based cohort in eastern Zimbabwe were analysed. Reports of age at first sex and age at marriage from 6837 individuals attending multiple rounds were classified according to consistency. Survival analysis was used to identify trends in the timing of first sex and marriage. In this population, women initiate sex and enter marriage at younger ages than men but spend much less time between first sex and marriage. Among those surveyed between 1998 and 2005, median ages at first sex and first marriage were 18.5 years and 21.4 years for men and 18.2 years and 18.5 years, respectively, for women aged 15-54 years. High levels of reports of both age at first sex and age at marriage among those attending multiple surveys were found to be unreliable. Excluding reports identified as unreliable from these analyses did not alter the observed trends in either age at first sex or age at marriage. Tracing birth cohorts as they aged revealed reporting biases, particularly among the youngest cohorts. Comparisons by birth cohorts, which span a period of >40 years, indicate that median age at first sex has remained constant over time for women but has declined gradually for men. Although many reports of age at first sex and age at marriage were found to be unreliable, inclusion of such reports did not result in artificial generation or suppression of trends.

  2. Is hypertension in adult age related to unemployment at a young age? Results from the Northern Swedish Cohort.

    PubMed

    Nygren, Karina; Gong, Weidan; Hammarström, Anne

    2015-02-01

    The aim of this study was to analyse the relationship between early unemployment (ages 16-21 years) and adult hypertension after controlling for earlier hypertension, unemployment in adult life, risk factors for hypertension and confounders. A cohort of 927 (86.6% of the original cohort) 9th grade school-leavers was followed from 1981 until 2008. Data were collected through questionnaires, health examinations, and national registers. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression were used as primary statistical methods. At ages 21 and 43, hypertension was significantly more prevalent among men than women (p < .001). Unemployment between the ages of 16 and 21 was related to hypertension at age 43 among women but not men. The odds ratio (OR) was persistently high (OR 3.16 [95% confidence interval 1.45-6.89]) after controlling for late unemployment, hypertension at age 16, risk factors for hypertension and confounders. There was no significant relationship between exposure to early unemployment and hypertension at age 21 for women or men. From a public health perspective, youth unemployment is a societal problem in need of more attention and intervention in order to prevent long-term adverse health outcomes. © 2014 the Nordic Societies of Public Health.

  3. Socio-economic determinants of health behaviours across age groups: results of a cross-sectional survey.

    PubMed

    Dorner, T E; Stronegger, W J; Hoffmann, K; Stein, K Viktoria; Niederkrotenthaler, T

    2013-05-01

    The aim of this study was to analyse the impact of different socio-economic variables on the lifestyle factors, like lack of physical activity, diet rich in meat, and smoking, across sex and age groups in the general Austrian population to formulate more targeted public health measures. The Austrian Health Interview Survey 2006-07 contains data of 15,474 people, representative for the general population. Statistical analyses included linear and logistic regression models. Lack of physical activity was more prevalent in women, while unhealthy nutrition and daily smoking were more prevalent in men. Overall, profession was the strongest predictor for health behaviour in men, while the educational level played the most significant role in women. Subjects in higher age groups had a more healthy nutrition and were less likely to smoke, but had a higher chance for lack of physical activity. Socio-economic factors predict lifestyle choices differently in different age groups. For example, in men, the highest percentage of daily smokers was found in the middle age, while the youngest age group was the one that smoked the most in women. Furthermore, the educational level had a reverse effect on women in the oldest age group, where those with tertiary education smoked three times more than those with less education. Our results emphasise the importance of taking a holistic approach towards health, including educational, cultural and age-specific policies to improve the overall health status and health equality of a population.

  4. Tumor-host signaling interaction reveals a systemic, age-dependent splenic immune influence on tumor development

    PubMed Central

    Beheshti, Afshin; Wage, Justin; McDonald, J. Tyson; Lamont, Clare; Peluso, Michael; Hahnfeldt, Philip; Hlatky, Lynn

    2015-01-01

    The concept of age-dependent host control of cancer development raises the natural question of how these effects manifest across the host tissue/organ types with which a tumor interacts, one important component of which is the aging immune system. To investigate this, changes in the spleen, an immune nexus in the mouse, was examined for its age-dependent interactive influence on the carcinogenesis process. The model is the C57BL/6 male mice (adolescent, young adult, middle-aged, and old or 68, 143, 551 and 736 days old respectively) with and without a syngeneic murine tumor implant. Through global transcriptome analysis, immune-related functions were found to be key regulators in the spleen associated with tumor progression as a function of age with CD2, CD3ε, CCL19, and CCL5 being the key molecules involved. Surprisingly, other than CCL5, all key factors and immune-related functions were not active in spleens from non-tumor bearing old mice. Our findings of age-dependent tumor-spleen signaling interaction suggest the existence of a global role of the aging host in carcinogenesis. Suggested is a new avenue for therapeutic improvement that capitalizes on the pervasive role of host aging in dictating the course of this disease. PMID:26497558

  5. Social representations and normative beliefs of aging.

    PubMed

    Torres, Tatiana de Lucena; Camargo, Brigido Vizeu; Boulsfield, Andréa Barbará; Silva, Antônia Oliveira

    2015-12-01

    This study adopted the theory of social representations as a theoretical framework in order to characterize similarities and differences in social representations and normative beliefs of aging for different age groups. The 638 participants responded to self-administered questionnaire and were equally distributed by sex and age. The results show that aging is characterized by positive stereotypes (knowledge and experience); however, retirement is linked to aging, but in a negative way, particularly for men, involving illness, loneliness and disability. When age was considered, it was verified that the connections with the representational elements became more complex for older groups, showing social representation functionality, largely for the elderly. Adulthood seems to be preferred and old age is disliked. There were divergences related to the perception of the beginning of life phases, especially that of old age. Work was characterized as the opposite of aging, and it revealed the need for actions intended for the elderly and retired workers, with post-retirement projects. In addition, it suggests investment in public policies that encourage intergenerational contact, with efforts to reduce intolerance and discrimination based on age of people.

  6. Results of endoscopic third ventriculostomy in elderly patients ≥65 years of age.

    PubMed

    Niknejad, Hamid Reza; Depreitere, Bart; De Vleeschouwer, Steven; Van Calenbergh, Frank; van Loon, Johannes

    2015-03-01

    Endoscopic third ventriculostomy (ETV) has been accepted as the procedure of choice for the treatment of obstructive hydrocephalus in children and adults. The role and outcome of this procedure in the elderly has not been evaluated yet. Over an 11-year interval we retrospectively analyzed data of patients, 65+ years of age, who underwent ETV in our center. Success of the procedure was assessed in terms of symptom relief and/or elimination of the need for shunting. Additionally pre- and postoperative ventricular volumes were estimated using Evan's index (Ei) and fronto-occipital horn ratio (FOR). In our analysis we compared the results of the elderly patients with those of the pediatric and adult age groups treated in our center. We obtained data of 16 elderly cases (11 males, 5 females), mean age 72.8 years (66-83 years) out of the 91 patients treated with ETV in total. The success rate was 75% in this age group; mean follow-up 18.4 months (2-55 months). In 10 patients a mass lesion was the underlying cause of hydrocephalus. Mean ventricular size reduction was 18% and 13.5% (Ei and FOR) in the success group vs. 7.6% and 6.2% in the failure group. Three out of four patients who had shunting pre-EVT, became shunt independent post-operatively. The presence of flow void over the stoma was 100% correlated with success. All 7 patients with a primary or metastatic brain tumor were able to receive radiation therapy. Also in elderly, ETV is a safe and efficient procedure, with success rates similar to the younger population. Further research is required to set up a prognostic scoring system for this age group. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  7. Is Myanmar jadeitite of Jurassic age? A result from incompletely recrystallized inherited zircon

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yui, Tzen-Fu; Fukoyama, Mayuko; Iizuka, Yoshiyuki; Wu, Chao-Ming; Wu, Tsai-Way; Liou, J. G.; Grove, Marty

    2013-02-01

    Zircons from two Myanmar jadeitite samples were separated for texture, mineral inclusion, U-Pb dating and trace element composition analyses. Three types of zircons, with respect to U-Pb isotope system, were recognized. Type I zircons are inherited ones, yielding an igneous protolith age of 160 ± 1 Ma; Type II zircons are metasomatic/hydrothermal ones, giving a (minimum) jadeitite formation age of 77 ± 3 Ma; and Type III zircons are incompletely recrystallized ones, with non-coherent and geologically meaningless ages from 153 to 105 Ma. These Myanmar jadeitites would therefore have formed through whole-sale metasomatic replacement processes. Compared with Type I zircons, Type II zircons show typical metasomatic/hydrothermal geochemical signatures, with low Th/U ratio (< 0.1), small Ce anomaly (Ce/Ce* = < 5) and low ΣREE content (40-115 ppm). Type III zircons, however, commonly have the above geochemical signatures straddle in between Type I and Type II zircons. It is shown that the resetting rates of various trace element compositions and U-Pb isotope system of inherited zircons are not coupled "in phase" in response to zircon recrystallization during jadeitite formation. The observed abnormally low Th/U ratio and small Ce anomaly of some Type I zircons, as well as the lack of negative Eu anomaly of all Type I zircons, should be suspected to be of secondary origin. In extreme cases, incompletely recrystallized zircons may show typical metasomatic/hydrothermal geochemical signatures, but leave U-Pb isotope system partially reset or even largely unchanged. Such zircons easily lead to incorrect age interpretation, and hence erroneous geological implication. The Myanmar jadeitites, based on the present study, might have formed during the Late Cretaceous subduction before the beginning of India-Asia continental collision at Paleocene. Previously proposed Late Jurassic ages for Myanmar jadeitites are suggested as results rooted on data retrieved from incompletely

  8. Shocked monazite chronometry: integrating microstructural and in situ isotopic age data for determining precise impact ages

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Erickson, Timmons M.; Timms, Nicholas E.; Kirkland, Christopher L.; Tohver, Eric; Cavosie, Aaron J.; Pearce, Mark A.; Reddy, Steven M.

    2017-03-01

    Monazite is a robust geochronometer and occurs in a wide range of rock types. Monazite also records shock deformation from meteorite impact but the effects of impact-related microstructures on the U-Th-Pb systematics remain poorly constrained. We have, therefore, analyzed shock-deformed monazite grains from the central uplift of the Vredefort impact structure, South Africa, and impact melt from the Araguainha impact structure, Brazil, using electron backscatter diffraction, electron microprobe elemental mapping, and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). Crystallographic orientation mapping of monazite grains from both impact structures reveals a similar combination of crystal-plastic deformation features, including shock twins, planar deformation bands and neoblasts. Shock twins were documented in up to four different orientations within individual monazite grains, occurring as compound and/or type one twins in (001), (100), ( 10bar{1} ), {110}, { 212 }, and type two (irrational) twin planes with rational shear directions in [0bar{1}bar{1}] and [bar{1}bar{1}0]. SIMS U-Th-Pb analyses of the plastically deformed parent domains reveal discordant age arrays, where discordance scales with increasing plastic strain. The correlation between discordance and strain is likely a result of the formation of fast diffusion pathways during the shock event. Neoblasts in granular monazite domains are strain-free, having grown during the impact events via consumption of strained parent grains. Neoblastic monazite from the Inlandsee leucogranofels at Vredefort records a 207Pb/206Pb age of 2010 ± 15 Ma (2 σ, n = 9), consistent with previous impact age estimates of 2020 Ma. Neoblastic monazite from Araguainha impact melt yield a Concordia age of 259 ± 5 Ma (2 σ, n = 7), which is consistent with previous impact age estimates of 255 ± 3 Ma. Our results demonstrate that targeting discrete microstructural domains in shocked monazite, as identified through orientation mapping, for in

  9. Whole-Genome Sequencing of a Healthy Aging Cohort.

    PubMed

    Erikson, Galina A; Bodian, Dale L; Rueda, Manuel; Molparia, Bhuvan; Scott, Erick R; Scott-Van Zeeland, Ashley A; Topol, Sarah E; Wineinger, Nathan E; Niederhuber, John E; Topol, Eric J; Torkamani, Ali

    2016-05-05

    Studies of long-lived individuals have revealed few genetic mechanisms for protection against age-associated disease. Therefore, we pursued genome sequencing of a related phenotype-healthy aging-to understand the genetics of disease-free aging without medical intervention. In contrast with studies of exceptional longevity, usually focused on centenarians, healthy aging is not associated with known longevity variants, but is associated with reduced genetic susceptibility to Alzheimer and coronary artery disease. Additionally, healthy aging is not associated with a decreased rate of rare pathogenic variants, potentially indicating the presence of disease-resistance factors. In keeping with this possibility, we identify suggestive common and rare variant genetic associations implying that protection against cognitive decline is a genetic component of healthy aging. These findings, based on a relatively small cohort, require independent replication. Overall, our results suggest healthy aging is an overlapping but distinct phenotype from exceptional longevity that may be enriched with disease-protective genetic factors. VIDEO ABSTRACT. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  10. Variation in Subjective Aging by Sexual Minority Status.

    PubMed

    Barrett, Anne; Barbee, Harry

    2017-06-01

    The past few decades have seen increased scholarly attention to gay and lesbian individuals' aging experiences; however, few studies examine differences in subjective aging by sexual minority status. We identify four perspectives on the association between sexual minority status and subjective aging-double jeopardy, crisis competence, gender interactive, and limited salience perspectives. We examine each perspective's predictions using data from the first wave of Midlife in the United States (1995-1996; MIDUS). Ordinary least square regression models reveal strongest support for the limited salience perspective, suggesting that sexual minority status has weaker effects on subjective aging than do other social factors, such as age, health, and gender. However, some results provide support for the gender interactive perspective, positing that the effect of sexual minority status on subjective aging varies by gender. Our study provides an organizational framework of theoretical perspectives that can guide further examinations of variation in aging experiences by sexual minority status.

  11. Age trends for failures of sustained attention.

    PubMed

    Carriere, Jonathan S A; Cheyne, J Allan; Solman, Grayden J F; Smilek, Daniel

    2010-09-01

    Recent research has revealed an age-related reduction in errors in a sustained attention task, suggesting that sustained attention abilities improve with age. Such results seem paradoxical in light of the well-documented age-related declines in cognitive performance. In the present study, performance on the sustained attention to response task (SART) was assessed in a supplemented archival sample of 638 individuals between 14 and 77 years old. SART errors and response speed appeared to decline in a linear fashion as a function of age throughout the age span studied. In contrast, other measures of sustained attention (reaction time coefficient of variation), anticipation, and omissions) showed a decrease early in life and then remained unchanged for the rest of the life span. Thus, sustained attention shows improvements with maturation in early adulthood but then does not change with aging in older adults. On the other hand, aging across the entire life span leads to a more strategic (i.e., slower) response style that reduces the overt and critical consequences (i.e., SART errors) of momentary task disengagement. (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved.

  12. Age variations in anthropometric and body composition characteristics and undernutrition among female Bathudis: a tribal population of Keonjhar District, Orissa, India.

    PubMed

    Bose, Kaushik; Chakraborty, Falguni; Bisai, Samiran

    2007-09-01

    A cross-sectional study of 183 female Bathudis, a tribal population of the Keonjhar District, Orissa, India, was undertaken to investigate age variations in anthropometric and body composition characteristics and nutritional status. The subjects were categorized into three age groups: < or =30 years, 31-50 years, >50 years. Height, weight, circumferences and skinfolds data were collected. Body mass index (BMI) and several body composition variables and indices were derived using standard equations. The results revealed that there existed significant negative age variations for most of the anthropometric and body composition variables and indices. Correlation studies of age with these variables and indices revealed significant negative correlations. Linear regression analyses revealed that for all variables, age had a significant negative impact. Studies on the nutritional status of these women revealed that with increasing age, there was an increase in the frequency of undernutrition. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that among Bathudi women, age was significantly negatively related with anthropometric and body composition variables and indices. Moreover, with increasing age, the level of undernutrition increased.

  13. Acute outcomes after MitraClip therapy in highly aged patients: results from the German TRAnscatheter Mitral valve Interventions (TRAMI) Registry.

    PubMed

    Schillinger, Wolfgang; Hünlich, Mark; Baldus, Stephan; Ouarrak, Taoufik; Boekstegers, Peter; Hink, Ulrich; Butter, Christian; Bekeredjian, Raffi; Plicht, Björn; Sievert, Horst; Schofer, Joachim; Senges, Jochen; Meinertz, Thomas; Hasenfuß, Gerd

    2013-05-20

    The influence of age on baseline demographics and outcomes of patients selected for MitraClip has not been previously investigated. Baseline demographics and acute outcomes in 1,064 patients from the German TRAMI registry were stratified by age (525 patients ≥76 years and 539 patients <76 years). In elderly patients, logistic EuroSCORE was higher (25[15-40]% vs. 18[10-31]%, p<0.0001) and the proportion of women was greater (47.2% vs. 29.3%, p<0.0001). Elderly patients were more likely to have preserved left ventricular ejection fraction >50% (40.1% vs. 21.8%, p<0.0001) and degenerative mitral regurgitation (DMR, 35.3% vs. 25.6%, p<0.01). Age was the most frequent reason for non-surgical treatment in the elderly (69.4% vs. 36.1%, p<0.0001). The intrahospital MACCE (death, myocardial infarction, stroke) was low in both groups (3.5% vs. 3.4%, p=0.93) and the proportion of non-severe mitral regurgitation at discharge was similar (95.8% vs. 96.4%, p=0.73). A logistic regression model did not reveal any significant impact of age on acute efficacy and safety of MitraClip therapy. In both groups, the majority of patients were discharged home (81.8% vs. 86.2%, p=0.06). Elderly and younger patients have similar benefits from MitraClip therapy. Age was the most frequent cause for denying surgery in elderly patients.

  14. Health literacy in old age: results of a German cross-sectional study.

    PubMed

    Vogt, Dominique; Schaeffer, Doris; Messer, Melanie; Berens, Eva-Maria; Hurrelmann, Klaus

    2017-03-22

    Health literacy is especially important for older people to maintain or enhance remaining health resources and self-management skills. The aim of the study was to determine the level of health literacy and the association between health literacy, demographic and socio-economic factors in German older adults aged 65 years and above stratified by age group. Health literacy was assessed via computer-assisted personal interviews using HLS-EU-Q47 on a representative sample of the German-speaking population. Descriptive statistics, bivariate analyses and logistic regression modelling stratified by age group were conducted to assess health literacy of 475 respondents aged 65 years and above. Overall, 66.3% of all respondents aged 65 years and above had limited health literacy. Limited health literacy was especially prevalent among respondents above 76 years of age (80.6%). Limited health literacy was associated with financial deprivation (OR: 3.05; 95% CI: 1.99-4.67) and limited functional health literacy (OR: 2.16; 95% CI: 1.29-3.61). Financial deprivation was strongest predictor for limited health literacy in the total sample and stratified by age group. Limited health literacy is a frequent phenomenon in German adults aged 65 years and above. Research on health literacy in old age and the role in health disparities is urgently needed. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  15. Early age at time of primary Epstein-Barr virus infection results in poorly controlled viral infection in infants from Western Kenya: clues to the etiology of endemic Burkitt lymphoma.

    PubMed

    Piriou, Erwan; Asito, Amolo S; Sumba, Peter O; Fiore, Nancy; Middeldorp, Jaap M; Moormann, Ann M; Ploutz-Snyder, Robert; Rochford, Rosemary

    2012-03-15

    Infection with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) early in life and repeated malaria exposure have been proposed as risk factors for endemic Burkitt lymphoma (eBL). Infants were enrolled from 2 rural sites in Kenya: the Kisumu District, where malaria transmission is holoendemic and risk for eBL is high, and the Nandi District, where malaria transmission is limited and the risk for eBL is low. Blood samples were taken from infants through 2 years of age to measure EBV viral load, EBV antibodies, and malaria parasitemia. We observed a significantly younger age at time of primary EBV infection in children from Kisumu compared with children from Nandi (mean age, 7.28 months [±0.33 SEM] in Kisumu vs 8.39 months [±0.26 SEM] in Nandi), with 35.3% of children in Kisumu infected before 6 months of age. To analyze how different predictors affected EBV viral load over time, we performed multilevel mixed modeling. This modeling revealed that residence in Kisumu and younger age at first EBV infection were significant predictors for having a higher EBV viral load throughout the period of observation. Children from a region at high risk for eBL were infected very early in life with EBV, resulting in higher viral loads throughout infancy.

  16. Presenting self-monitoring test results for consumers: the effects of graphical formats and age.

    PubMed

    Tao, Da; Yuan, Juan; Qu, Xingda

    2018-05-11

    To examine the effects of graphical formats and age on consumers' comprehension and perceptions of the use of self-monitoring test results. Participants (36 older and 36 young adults) were required to perform verbatim comprehension and value interpretation tasks with hypothetical self-monitoring test results. The test results were randomly presented by four reference range number lines: basic, color enhanced, color/text enhanced, and personalized information enhanced formats. We measured participants' task performance and eye movement data during task completion, and their perceptions and preference of the graphical formats. The 4 graphical formats yielded comparable task performance, while text/color and personalized information enhanced formats were believed to be easier and more useful in information comprehension, and led to increased confidence in correct comprehension of test results, compared with other formats (all p's < .05). Perceived health risk increased as the formats applied more information cues (p = .008). There were age differences in task performance and visual attention (all p's < .01), while young and older adults had similar perceptions for the 4 formats. Personalized information enhanced format was preferred by both groups. Text/color and personalized information cues appear to be useful for comprehending test results. Future work can be directed to improve the design of graphical formats especially for older adults, and to assess the formats in clinical settings.

  17. Extracellular RNA profiles with human age.

    PubMed

    Dluzen, Douglas F; Noren Hooten, Nicole; De, Supriyo; Wood, William H; Zhang, Yongqing; Becker, Kevin G; Zonderman, Alan B; Tanaka, Toshiko; Ferrucci, Luigi; Evans, Michele K

    2018-05-24

    Circulating extracellular RNAs (exRNAs) are potential biomarkers of disease. We thus hypothesized that age-related changes in exRNAs can identify age-related processes. We profiled both large and small RNAs in human serum to investigate changes associated with normal aging. exRNA was sequenced in 13 young (30-32 years) and 10 old (80-85 years) African American women to identify all RNA transcripts present in serum. We identified age-related differences in several RNA biotypes, including mitochondrial transfer RNAs, mitochondrial ribosomal RNA, and unprocessed pseudogenes. Age-related differences in unique RNA transcripts were further validated in an expanded cohort. Pathway analysis revealed that EIF2 signaling, oxidative phosphorylation, and mitochondrial dysfunction were among the top pathways shared between young and old. Protein interaction networks revealed distinct clusters of functionally-related protein-coding genes in both age groups. These data provide timely and relevant insight into the exRNA repertoire in serum and its change with aging. Published 2018. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA. Aging Cell published by the Anatomical Society and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  18. Aging effects on DNA methylation modules in human brain and blood tissue

    PubMed Central

    2012-01-01

    Background Several recent studies reported aging effects on DNA methylation levels of individual CpG dinucleotides. But it is not yet known whether aging-related consensus modules, in the form of clusters of correlated CpG markers, can be found that are present in multiple human tissues. Such a module could facilitate the understanding of aging effects on multiple tissues. Results We therefore employed weighted correlation network analysis of 2,442 Illumina DNA methylation arrays from brain and blood tissues, which enabled the identification of an age-related co-methylation module. Module preservation analysis confirmed that this module can also be found in diverse independent data sets. Biological evaluation showed that module membership is associated with Polycomb group target occupancy counts, CpG island status and autosomal chromosome location. Functional enrichment analysis revealed that the aging-related consensus module comprises genes that are involved in nervous system development, neuron differentiation and neurogenesis, and that it contains promoter CpGs of genes known to be down-regulated in early Alzheimer's disease. A comparison with a standard, non-module based meta-analysis revealed that selecting CpGs based on module membership leads to significantly increased gene ontology enrichment, thus demonstrating that studying aging effects via consensus network analysis enhances the biological insights gained. Conclusions Overall, our analysis revealed a robustly defined age-related co-methylation module that is present in multiple human tissues, including blood and brain. We conclude that blood is a promising surrogate for brain tissue when studying the effects of age on DNA methylation profiles. PMID:23034122

  19. Biological age and tempos of aging in women over 60 in connection with their morphofunctional characteristics.

    PubMed

    Negasheva, Marina; Lapshina, Natalia; Okushko, Rostislav; Godina, Elena

    2014-05-19

    The study of aging processes and the changes in morphological, physiological, and functional characteristics that are associated with aging is of great interest not only for researchers, but also for the general public. The aim of the present paper is to study the biological age and tempos of aging in women older than 60 years, including long-lived females (over 90-years-old), and their associations with morphofunctional characteristics. Somatic traits, body mass components, and functional characteristics were investigated in 119 elderly (between 60 and 74-years-old) and long-lived (over 90-years-old) women in Tiraspol. With the special PC software 'Diagnostics of Aging: BioAge' (National Gerontological Center, Moscow, Russia) the biological age and tempos of aging were evaluated in the study participants. The results show close connections between morphofunctional changes, particularly in body mass components, and biological age. The software demonstrated its validity in the estimation of biological age in the group of elderly women. In the homogenous (according to their chronological age) group of women, three subgroups were separated with different tempos of aging: those with lower rates of aging (biological age less than chronological age by two years or more); those consistent with their chronological age, and those with accelerated tempos of aging (biological age higher than chronological age by two years or more). Morphofunctional characteristics in the studied groups of women demonstrate the trends of age-involutive changes which can be traced through all groups, from those with slow rates of aging, to those with average rates, to those with accelerated tempos of aging, and finally in long-lived women. The results of comparative analysis show that women with accelerated aging are characterized with such traits as lower skeletal muscle mass, lower hand grip strength, and higher metabolic rate. Canonical discriminant analysis revealed a number of

  20. Spread of activation and deactivation in the brain: does age matter?

    PubMed Central

    Gordon, Brian A.; Tse, Chun-Yu; Gratton, Gabriele; Fabiani, Monica

    2014-01-01

    Cross-sectional aging functional MRI results are sometimes difficult to interpret, as standard measures of activation and deactivation may confound variations in signal amplitude and spread, which however, may be differentially affected by age-related changes in various anatomical and physiological factors. To disentangle these two types of measures, here we propose a novel method to obtain independent estimates of the peak amplitude and spread of the BOLD signal in areas activated (task-positive) and deactivated (task-negative) by a Sternberg task, in 14 younger and 28 older adults. The peak measures indicated that, compared to younger adults, older adults had increased activation of the task-positive network, but similar levels of deactivation in the task-negative network. Measures of signal spread revealed that older adults had an increased spread of activation in task-positive areas, but a starkly reduced spread of deactivation in task-negative areas. These effects were consistent across regions within each network. Further, there was greater variability in the anatomical localization of peak points in older adults, leading to reduced cross-subject overlap. These results reveal factors that may confound the interpretation of studies of aging. Additionally, spread measures may be linked to local connectivity phenomena and could be particularly useful to analyze age-related deactivation patterns, complementing the results obtained with standard peak and region of interest analyses. PMID:25360115

  1. Cerebrospinal fluid metabolomics reveals altered waste clearance and accelerated aging in HIV patients with neurocognitive impairment

    PubMed Central

    Cassol, Edana; Misra, Vikas; Dutta, Anupriya; Morgello, Susan; Gabuzda, Dana

    2014-01-01

    Objective(s): HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) remain prevalent in HIV-infected patients on antiretroviral therapy (ART), but the underlying mechanisms are unclear. Some features of HAND resemble those of age-associated cognitive decline in the absence of HIV, suggesting that overlapping mechanisms may contribute to neurocognitive impairment. Design: Cross-sectional analysis of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from 100 individuals (46 HIV-positive patients and 54 HIV-negative controls). Methods: Untargeted CSF metabolite profiling was performed using liquid/gas chromatography followed by mass spectrometry. Cytokine profiling was performed by Bioplex. Bioinformatic analyses were performed in Metaboanalyst and R. Results: Alterations in the CSF metabolome of HIV patients on ART mapped to pathways associated with neurotransmitter production, mitochondrial function, oxidative stress, and metabolic waste. Many CSF metabolites altered in HIV overlapped with those altered with advanced age in HIV-negative controls, suggesting a pattern indicative of accelerated aging. Machine learning models identified neurotransmitters (glutamate, N-acetylaspartate), markers of glial activation (myo-inositol), and ketone bodies (beta-hydroxybutyric acid, 1,2-propanediol) as top-ranked classifiers of HAND. These CSF metabolites correlated with worse neurocognitive test scores, plasma inflammatory biomarkers [interferon (IFN)-α, IFN-γ, interleukin (IL)-8, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-2Ra], and intrathecal IFN responses (IFN-γ and kynurenine : tryptophan ratio), suggesting inter-relationships between systemic and intrathecal inflammation and metabolic alterations in CSF. Conclusions: Alterations in the CSF metabolome of HIV patients on ART suggest that persistent inflammation, glial responses, glutamate neurotoxicity, and altered brain waste disposal systems contribute to mechanisms involved in HAND that may be augmented with aging. PMID:24752083

  2. Representation of age and ageing identities in popular music texts.

    PubMed

    Kelly, Jacinta; Watson, Roger; Pankratova, Marina; Pedzeni, Ann-Marie

    2016-06-01

    To critically examine the representation of ageing identities in popular music texts. Having a positive outlook provides both short-term benefits and has been proven to help people live longer. Music is capable of conveying positive and negative emotion towards ageing, however, only a limited number of unpublished studies exist on how age and ageing is represented in popular music. Qualitative discourse analysis. In July 2014, a search without time limits was completed of the music lyrics databases, The Music Lyric Database, Songfacts, The Macronium and Absolute lyrics for English language music texts relating to age and ageing. Findings revealed (N = 76) relevant music texts offering up negative and positive discourses of age and ageing, with negative predominating. Identities of age and ageing were categorized as 'contented and celebrated aged', 'pitiful and petulant pensioners' and 'frail and flagging old folks'. From this study, it is evident that mainly negative representations of age and ageing are available in popular music texts. It is imagined that the negative representations of age and ageing can be dispiriting, confidence and esteem lowering for older people and their potential impact might be considered carefully by artists. However, while evidence exists that negative and positive emotions can influence health and well-being, further qualitative research is needed to explore what impact precisely the negative texts have on those experiencing ageing. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  3. TiO2 nanoparticle induced space charge decay in thermal aged transformer oil

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lv, Yuzhen; Du, Yuefan; Li, Chengrong; Qi, Bo; Zhong, Yuxiang; Chen, Mutian

    2013-04-01

    TiO2 nanoparticle with good dispersibility and stability in transformer oil was prepared and used to modify insulating property of aged oil. It was found that space charge decay rate in the modified aged oil can be significantly enhanced to 1.57 times of that in the aged oil at first 8 s after polarization voltage was removed. The results of trap characteristics reveal that the modification of nanoparticle can not only greatly lower the shallow trap energy level in the aged oil but also increase the trap density, resulting in improved charge transportation via trapping and de-trapping process in shallower traps.

  4. Quantitative proteomic analysis reveals novel mitochondrial targets of estrogen deficiency in the aged female rat heart.

    PubMed

    Lancaster, T S; Jefferson, S J; Hunter, J Craig; Lopez, Veronica; Van Eyk, J E; Lakatta, E G; Korzick, D H

    2012-10-17

    The incidence of myocardial infarction rises sharply at menopause, implicating a potential role for estrogen (E(2)) loss in age-related increases in ischemic injury. We aimed to identify quantitative changes to the cardiac mitochondrial proteome of aging females, based on the hypothesis that E(2) deficiency exacerbates age-dependent disruptions in mitochondrial proteins. Mitochondria isolated from left ventricles of adult (6 mo) and aged (24 mo) F344 ovary-intact or ovariectomized (OVX) rats were labeled with 8plex isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification (iTRAQ; n = 5-6/group). Groups studied were adult, adult OVX, aged, and aged OVX. In vivo coronary artery ligation and in vitro mitochondrial respiration studies were also performed in a subset of rats. We identified 965 proteins across groups and significant directional changes in 67 proteins of aged and/or aged OVX; 32 proteins were unique to aged OVX. Notably, only six proteins were similarly altered in adult OVX (voltage-dependent ion channel 1, adenine nucleotide translocator 1, cytochrome c oxidase subunits VIIc and VIc, catalase, and myosin binding protein C). Proteins affected by aging were primarily related to cellular metabolism, oxidative stress, and cell death. The largest change occurred in monoamine oxidase-A (MAO-A), a source of oxidative stress. While acute MAO-A inhibition induced mild uncoupling in aged mitochondria, reductions in infarct size were not observed. Age-dependent alterations in mitochondrial signaling indicate a highly selective myocardial response to E(2) deficiency. The combined proteomic and functional approaches described here offer possibility of new protein targets for experimentation and therapeutic intervention in the aged female population.

  5. Analysis of Milk from Mothers Who Delivered Prematurely Reveals Few Changes in Proteases and Protease Inhibitors across Gestational Age at Birth and Infant Postnatal Age123

    PubMed Central

    Demers-Mathieu, Veronique; Nielsen, Søren Drud; Underwood, Mark A; Borghese, Robyn

    2017-01-01

    Background: Peptidomics research has demonstrated that protease activity is higher in breast milk from preterm-delivering mothers than from term-delivering mothers. However, to our knowledge, the effect of the degree of prematurity and postnatal age on proteases and protease inhibitors in human milk remains unknown. Objective: We aimed to determine the change of proteases and protease inhibitors in milk from mothers who delivered prematurely across gestational age (GA) and postnatal age. Methods: Milk samples were collected from 18 mothers aged 26–40 y who delivered preterm infants and who lacked mastitis. For analysis, samples were separated into 2 groups: 9 from early GA (EGA) (24–26 wk GA)-delivering mothers and 9 from late GA (LGA) (27–32 wk GA)-delivering mothers. Within the 9 samples in each group, the collection time ranged from postnatal days 2 to 47. The activity and predicted activity of proteases in preterm milk were determined with the use of fluorometric and spectrophotometric assays and peptidomics, respectively. Protease and protease inhibitor concentrations were determined with the use of ELISA. Linear mixed models were applied to compare enzymes across GA and postnatal age. Results: Carboxypeptidase B2, kallikrein, plasmin, elastase, thrombin, and cytosol aminopeptidase were present and active in the milk of preterm-delivering mothers. Most milk protease and antiprotease concentrations did not change with GA or postnatal age. However, the concentration and activity of kallikrein, the most abundant and active protease in preterm milk, increased by 25.4 ng · mL−1 · d−1 and 0.454 μg · mL−1 · d−1 postnatally, respectively, in EGA milk samples while remaining stable in LGA milk samples. Conclusions: This research demonstrates that proteases are active in human milk and begin to degrade milk protein within the mammary gland before consumption by infants. Proteases and protease inhibitors in milk from mothers of premature infants mostly

  6. Age-related changes in the functional neuroanatomy of overt speech production.

    PubMed

    Sörös, Peter; Bose, Arpita; Sokoloff, Lisa Guttman; Graham, Simon J; Stuss, Donald T

    2011-08-01

    Alterations of existing neural networks during healthy aging, resulting in behavioral deficits and changes in brain activity, have been described for cognitive, motor, and sensory functions. To investigate age-related changes in the neural circuitry underlying overt non-lexical speech production, functional MRI was performed in 14 healthy younger (21-32 years) and 14 healthy older individuals (62-84 years). The experimental task involved the acoustically cued overt production of the vowel /a/ and the polysyllabic utterance /pataka/. In younger and older individuals, overt speech production was associated with the activation of a widespread articulo-phonological network, including the primary motor cortex, the supplementary motor area, the cingulate motor areas, and the posterior superior temporal cortex, similar in the /a/ and /pataka/ condition. An analysis of variance with the factors age and condition revealed a significant main effect of age. Irrespective of the experimental condition, significantly greater activation was found in the bilateral posterior superior temporal cortex, the posterior temporal plane, and the transverse temporal gyri in younger compared to older individuals. Significantly greater activation was found in the bilateral middle temporal gyri, medial frontal gyri, middle frontal gyri, and inferior frontal gyri in older vs. younger individuals. The analysis of variance did not reveal a significant main effect of condition and no significant interaction of age and condition. These results suggest a complex reorganization of neural networks dedicated to the production of speech during healthy aging. Copyright © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  7. Human age and skin physiology shape diversity and abundance of Archaea on skin

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Moissl-Eichinger, Christine; Probst, Alexander J.; Birarda, Giovanni

    The human skin microbiome acts as an important barrier protecting our body from pathogens and other environmental influences. Recent investigations have provided evidence that Archaea are a constant but highly variable component of the human skin microbiome, yet factors that determine their abundance changes are unknown. Here, we tested the hypothesis that the abundance of archaea on human skin is influenced by human age and skin physiology by quantitative PCR of 51 different skin samples taken from human subjects of various age. Our results reveal that archaea are more abundant in human subjects either older than 60 years or youngermore » than 12 years as compared to middle-aged human subjects. These results, together with results obtained from spectroscopy analysis, allowed us gain first insights into a potential link of lower sebum levels and lipid content and thus reduced skin moisture with an increase in archaeal signatures. In conclusion, amplicon sequencing of selected samples revealed the prevalence of specific eury- and mainly thaumarchaeal taxa, represented by a core archaeome of the human skin.« less

  8. Human age and skin physiology shape diversity and abundance of Archaea on skin

    DOE PAGES

    Moissl-Eichinger, Christine; Probst, Alexander J.; Birarda, Giovanni; ...

    2017-06-22

    The human skin microbiome acts as an important barrier protecting our body from pathogens and other environmental influences. Recent investigations have provided evidence that Archaea are a constant but highly variable component of the human skin microbiome, yet factors that determine their abundance changes are unknown. Here, we tested the hypothesis that the abundance of archaea on human skin is influenced by human age and skin physiology by quantitative PCR of 51 different skin samples taken from human subjects of various age. Our results reveal that archaea are more abundant in human subjects either older than 60 years or youngermore » than 12 years as compared to middle-aged human subjects. These results, together with results obtained from spectroscopy analysis, allowed us gain first insights into a potential link of lower sebum levels and lipid content and thus reduced skin moisture with an increase in archaeal signatures. In conclusion, amplicon sequencing of selected samples revealed the prevalence of specific eury- and mainly thaumarchaeal taxa, represented by a core archaeome of the human skin.« less

  9. Effects of aging and gender on interhemispheric function.

    PubMed

    Bellis, T J; Wilber, L A

    2001-04-01

    The ability of the two hemispheres of the brain to communicate with one another via the corpus callosum is important for a wide variety of sensory, motor, and cognitive functions, many of them communication related. Anatomical evidence suggests that aging results in structural changes in the corpus callosum and that the course over time of age-related changes in corpus callosum structure may depend on the gender of the individual. Further, it has been hypothesized that age- and gender-related changes in corpus callosum structure may result in concomitant decreased performance on tasks that are reliant on interhemispheric integrity. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of age and gender on auditory behavioral and visuomotor temporal indices of interhemispheric function across the life span of the normal adult. Results from 120 consistently right-handed adults from age 20 to 75 years revealed that interhemispheric integrity, as measured by dichotic listening, auditory temporal patterning, and visuomotor interhemispheric transfer time tasks, decreases relatively early in the adult life span (i.e., between the ages of 40 and 55 years) and shows no further decrease thereafter. In addition, the course over time of interhemispheric decline is different for men compared to women for some tasks. These findings suggest that decreased interhemispheric function may be a possible factor contributing to auditory and communication difficulties experienced by aging adults. In addition, results of this study hold implications for the clinical assessment of interhemispheric function in aging adults and for future research into the functional ramifications of decreased multimodality interhemispheric transfer.

  10. Iron promotes protein insolubility and aging in C. elegans

    PubMed Central

    Klang, Ida M.; Schilling, Birgit; Sorensen, Dylan J.; Sahu, Alexandria K.; Kapahi, Pankaj; Andersen, Julie K.; Swoboda, Peter; Killilea, David W.; Gibson, Bradford W.; Lithgow, Gordon J.

    2014-01-01

    Many late-onset proteotoxic diseases are accompanied by a disruption in homeostasis of metals (metallostasis) including iron, copper and zinc. Although aging is the most prominent risk factor for these disorders, the impact of aging on metallostasis and its role in proteotoxic disease remain poorly understood. Moreover, it is not clear whether a loss of metallostasis influences normal aging. We have investigated the role of metallostasis in longevity of Caenorhabditis elegans. We found that calcium, copper, iron, and manganese levels increase as a function of age, while potassium and phosphorus levels tend to decrease. Increased dietary iron significantly accelerated the age-related accumulation of insoluble protein, a molecular pathology of aging. Proteomic analysis revealed widespread effects of dietary iron in multiple organelles and tissues. Pharmacological interventions to block accumulation of specific metals attenuated many models of proteotoxicity and extended normal lifespan. Collectively, these results suggest that a loss of metallostasis with aging contributes to age-related protein aggregation. PMID:25554795

  11. Iron promotes protein insolubility and aging in C. elegans.

    PubMed

    Klang, Ida M; Schilling, Birgit; Sorensen, Dylan J; Sahu, Alexandria K; Kapahi, Pankaj; Andersen, Julie K; Swoboda, Peter; Killilea, David W; Gibson, Bradford W; Lithgow, Gordon J

    2014-11-01

    Many late-onset proteotoxic diseases are accompanied by a disruption in homeostasis of metals (metallostasis) including iron, copper and zinc. Although aging is the most prominent risk factor for these disorders, the impact of aging on metallostasis and its role in proteotoxic disease remain poorly understood. Moreover, it is not clear whether a loss of metallostasis influences normal aging. We have investigated the role of metallostasis in longevity ofCaenorhabditis elegans. We found that calcium, copper, iron, and manganese levels increase as a function of age, while potassium and phosphorus levels tend to decrease. Increased dietary iron significantly accelerated the age-related accumulation of insoluble protein, a molecular pathology of aging. Proteomic analysis revealed widespread effects of dietary iron in multiple organelles and tissues. Pharmacological interventions to block accumulation of specific metals attenuated many models of proteotoxicity and extended normal lifespan. Collectively, these results suggest that a loss of metallostasis with aging contributes to age-related protein aggregation.

  12. Digital histologic analysis reveals morphometric patterns of age-related involution in breast epithelium and stroma.

    PubMed

    Sandhu, Rupninder; Chollet-Hinton, Lynn; Kirk, Erin L; Midkiff, Bentley; Troester, Melissa A

    2016-02-01

    Complete age-related regression of mammary epithelium, often termed postmenopausal involution, is associated with decreased breast cancer risk. However, most studies have qualitatively assessed involution. We quantitatively analyzed epithelium, stroma, and adipose tissue from histologically normal breast tissue of 454 patients in the Normal Breast Study. High-resolution digital images of normal breast hematoxylin and eosin-stained slides were partitioned into epithelium, adipose tissue, and nonfatty stroma. Percentage area and nuclei per unit area (nuclear density) were calculated for each component. Quantitative data were evaluated in association with age using linear regression and cubic spline models. Stromal area decreased (P = 0.0002), and adipose tissue area increased (P < 0.0001), with an approximate 0.7% change in area for each component, until age 55 years when these area measures reached a steady state. Although epithelial area did not show linear changes with age, epithelial nuclear density decreased linearly beginning in the third decade of life. No significant age-related trends were observed for stromal or adipose nuclear density. Digital image analysis offers a high-throughput method for quantitatively measuring tissue morphometry and for objectively assessing age-related changes in adipose tissue, stroma, and epithelium. Epithelial nuclear density is a quantitative measure of age-related breast involution that begins to decline in the early premenopausal period. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  13. Intrinsic and Extrinsic School Motivation as a Function of Age: The Mediating Role of Autonomy Support

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gillet, Nicolas; Vallerand, Robert J.; Lafreniere, Marc-Andre K.

    2012-01-01

    The main purpose of the present research was to investigate school intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and amotivation as a function of age in a sample of 1,600 elementary and high school students aged 9-17 years. First, results revealed a systematic decrease in intrinsic motivation and self-determined extrinsic motivation from age 9 to 12 years,…

  14. Eye lens radiocarbon reveals centuries of longevity in the Greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus).

    PubMed

    Nielsen, Julius; Hedeholm, Rasmus B; Heinemeier, Jan; Bushnell, Peter G; Christiansen, Jørgen S; Olsen, Jesper; Ramsey, Christopher Bronk; Brill, Richard W; Simon, Malene; Steffensen, Kirstine F; Steffensen, John F

    2016-08-12

    The Greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus), an iconic species of the Arctic Seas, grows slowly and reaches >500 centimeters (cm) in total length, suggesting a life span well beyond those of other vertebrates. Radiocarbon dating of eye lens nuclei from 28 female Greenland sharks (81 to 502 cm in total length) revealed a life span of at least 272 years. Only the smallest sharks (220 cm or less) showed signs of the radiocarbon bomb pulse, a time marker of the early 1960s. The age ranges of prebomb sharks (reported as midpoint and extent of the 95.4% probability range) revealed the age at sexual maturity to be at least 156 ± 22 years, and the largest animal (502 cm) to be 392 ± 120 years old. Our results show that the Greenland shark is the longest-lived vertebrate known, and they raise concerns about species conservation. Copyright © 2016, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

  15. Primary Prevention of Lead Exposure—Blood Lead Results at Age Two Years

    PubMed Central

    Campbell, Carla; Gracely, Edward; Tran, Mary; Starkey, Naomi; Kersten, Hans; Palermo, Peter; Rothman, Nancy; Line, Laura; Hansen-Turton, Tine

    2012-01-01

    Objectives: The Philadelphia Lead Safe Homes (LSH) Study was designed to evaluate whether educational and environmental interventions in the first year of life for families of newborns increased knowledge of lead exposure prevention and were associated with less elevation of blood lead levels (BLLs) for these children, when compared to children receiving standard care. Methods: The current study performed descriptive statistics on the second-year BLL data for both groups and compared these using chi-square tests for proportions and unpaired t-tests for means. Results: A BLL result was found for 159 (50.6%) of the 314 LSH cohort children and 331 (52.7%) of the 628 control children (p = 0.1). Mean and standard deviation for age at draw was 23.8 (3.4) months versus 23.6 (3.1) months (P = 0.6). Geometric mean BLLs were 3.7 versus 3.5 µg/dL (P = 0.4). The percentages of the cohort group with a BLL of ≥20, ≥10 and ≥5 μg/dL, respectively, were 0.6%, 5% and 30%; for the controls 1.2%, 6.6%, and 25%. These percentages were not significantly different between groups. Conclusion: A comparison of geometric mean BLLs and percentages above several BLL cut points drawn at age two years in a group of urban newborns benefitting from study interventions versus a group of similar urban children did not yield statistically significant differences. Both groups had relatively lower lead levels when compared to historical cohort groups, which may reflect a continuing downward trend in BLLs in U.S. children. The interventions did result in benefits to the families such as an increase in parental knowledge about lead exposure prevention and in-home wet cleaning activity, and a decrease in lead dust levels in study homes. PMID:22690192

  16. Aging accelerates memory extinction and impairs memory restoration in Drosophila.

    PubMed

    Chen, Nannan; Guo, Aike; Li, Yan

    2015-05-15

    Age-related memory impairment (AMI) is a phenomenon observed from invertebrates to human. Memory extinction is proposed to be an active inhibitory modification of memory, however, whether extinction is affected in aging animals remains to be elucidated. Employing a modified paradigm for studying memory extinction in fruit flies, we found that only the stable, but not the labile memory component was suppressed by extinction, thus effectively resulting in higher memory loss in aging flies. Strikingly, young flies were able to fully restore the stable memory component 3 h post extinction, while aging flies failed to do so. In conclusion, our findings reveal that both accelerated extinction and impaired restoration contribute to memory impairment in aging animals. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  17. A person trade-off study to estimate age-related weights for health gains in economic evaluation.

    PubMed

    Petrou, Stavros; Kandala, Ngianga-Bakwin; Robinson, Angela; Baker, Rachel

    2013-10-01

    An increasing body of literature is exploring whether the age of the recipient of health care should be a criterion in how health care resources are allocated. The existing literature is constrained both by the relatively small number of age comparison groups within preference-elicitation studies, and by a paucity of methodological robustness tests for order and framing effects and the reliability and transitivity of preferences that would strengthen confidence in the results. This paper reports the results of a study aimed at estimating granulated age-related weights for health gains across the age spectrum that can potentially inform health care decision-making. A sample of 2,500 participants recruited from the health care consumer panels of a social research company completed a person trade-off (or 'matching') study designed to estimate age-related weights for 5- and 10-year life extensions. The results are presented in terms of matrices for alternative age comparisons across the age spectrum. The results revealed a general, although not invariable, tendency to give more weight to health gains, expressed in terms of life extensions, in younger age groups. In over 85% of age comparisons, the person trade-off exercises revealed a preference for life extensions by the younger of the two age groups that were compared. This pattern held regardless of the method of aggregating responses across study participants. Moreover, the relative weight placed on life extensions by the younger of the two age groups was generally, although not invariably, found to increase as the age difference between the comparator age groups increased. Further analyses revealed that the highest mean relative weight placed on life extensions was estimated for 30-year-olds when the ratio of means method was used to aggregate person trade-off responses across study participants. The highest mean relative weight placed on life extensions was estimated for 10-year-olds for 5-year life extensions

  18. Aggressive Versus Nonaggressive Antisocial Behavior: Distinctive Etiological Moderation by Age

    PubMed Central

    Burt, S. Alexandra; Neiderhiser, Jenae M.

    2015-01-01

    Research has supported the existence of distinct behavioral patterns, demographic correlates, and etiologic mechanisms for aggressive (AGG) versus nonaggressive but delinquent (DEL) antisocial behavior. Though behavioral genetic studies have the potential to further crystallize these dimensions, inconsistent results have limited their contribution. These inconsistencies may stem in part from the limited attention paid to the impact of age. In the current study, the authors thus examined age-related etiological moderation of AGG and DEL antisocial behavior in a sample of 720 sibling pairs (ranging in age from 10 to 18 years) with varying degrees of genetic relatedness. Results reveal that the magnitude of genetic and environmental influences on AGG remained stable across adolescence. By contrast, genetic influences on DEL increased dramatically with age, whereas shared environmental influences decreased. Subsequent longitudinal analyses fully replicated these results. Such findings highlight etiological distinctions between aggression and delinquency, and offer insights into the expression of genetic influences during development. PMID:19586186

  19. Multidomain Trajectories of Psychological Functioning in Old Age: A Longitudinal Perspective on (Uneven) Successful Aging

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Morack, Jennifer; Ram, Nilam; Fauth, Elizabeth B.; Gerstorf, Denis

    2013-01-01

    Life-span developmentalists have long been interested in the nature of and the contributing factors to successful aging. Using variable-oriented approaches, research has revealed critical insights into the intricacies of human development and successful aging. In the present study, we opted instead for a more subgroup-oriented approach and…

  20. New haystacks reveal new needles: using Caenorhabditis elegans to identify novel targets for ameliorating body composition changes during human aging.

    PubMed

    Wolkow, Catherine A

    2010-01-01

    Dramatic changes in body composition accompany aging in humans, particularly with respect to adiposity and the musculature. People accumulate fat as they age and lose muscle mass and strength. Caenorhabditis elegans nematodes are small, hermaphroditic soil nematodes that offer a flexible model for studying genetic pathways regulating body composition in humans. While there are significant physiological differences between worms and people, many of the genetic pathways relevant to human lipid and muscle homeostasis are present in worms. Initial studies indicate that adiposity increases in C. elegans during aging, as occurs in humans. Furthermore, substantial evidence demonstrates age-related loss of muscle mass in worms. Possible mechanisms for these changes in C. elegans are presented. Recent studies have highlighted neuroendocrine and environmental signals regulating C. elegans fat metabolism. Potential dysfunction of these pathways during aging could affect overall fat accumulation. By contrast, muscle decline in aging worms results from accumulated damage and 'wear-and-tear' over life span. However, neuroendocrine pathways also regulate muscle mass in response to food availability. Such pathways might provide useful therapeutic approaches for combating muscle loss during aging. From this chapter, readers will develop a deeper understanding of the ways that C.elegans can be used for mechanistic gerontological studies. Copyright © 2010 S. Karger AG, Basel.

  1. Prospective memory across adolescence: the effects of age and cue focality.

    PubMed

    Wang, Lijuan; Altgassen, Mareike; Liu, Wei; Xiong, Weirui; Akgün, Canan; Kliegel, Matthias

    2011-01-01

    The present study examined the role of controlled attention in age differences in event-based prospective memory performance across adolescence. The researchers tested whether presenting the prospective memory cue in or out of focal awareness of the ongoing task (resulting in low versus high demands for controlled attention, respectively) might affect age-related prospective memory performance. In total, 119 Chinese participants ages 13 to 20 took part in this study (60 adolescents: age M = 13.26 years, SD = 0.50; 23 boys; 59 young adults: age M = 19.70 years, SD = 0.87; 19 men). Findings demonstrated a significant interaction, F(1, 114) = 6.41, p < .05. No effect of age on prospective memory performance was revealed when a focal cue was used (F < 1), whereas there was a reliable age effect between adolescents and young adults when nonfocal prospective memory cues were presented, F(1, 59) = 16.13, p < .01. This pattern of results suggests that the interplay of both available resources of controlled attention and working memory, along with specific task demands, may contribute to possible age differences in prospective memory performance across adolescence. Results are discussed in the context of the multiprocess theory of prospective memory.

  2. Age of the youngest volcanism at Eagle Lake, northeastern California—40Ar/39Ar and paleomagnetic results

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Clynne, Michael A.; Calvert, Andrew T.; Champion, Duane E.; Muffler, L.J.P.; Sawlan, Michael G.; Downs, Drew T.

    2017-03-22

    The age of the youngest volcanism at Eagle Lake, California, was investigated using stratigraphic, paleomagnetic, and 40Ar/39Ar techniques. The three youngest volcanic lava flows at Eagle Lake yielded ages of 130.0±5.1, 127.5±3.2 and 123.6±18.7 ka, and are statistically indistinguishable. Paleomagnetic results demonstrate that two of the lava flows are very closely spaced in time, whereas the third is different by centuries to at most a few millennia. These results indicate that the basalt lava flows at Eagle Lake are not Holocene in age, and were erupted during an episode of volcanism at about 130–125 ka that is unlikely to have spanned more than a few thousand years. Thus, the short-term potential for subsequent volcanism at Eagle Lake is considered low. 

  3. Perspectives on healthy aging among Thai elderly: a qualitative study.

    PubMed

    Thanakwang, Kattika; Soonthorndhada, Kusol; Mongkolprasoet, Jiraporn

    2012-12-01

    In this qualitative study, we provide an in-depth understanding of the views of healthy aging among Thai elderly and explore the ways that contribute to healthy aging. Data were collected using focus groups and in-depth interviews in four selected provinces of Thailand, and were analyzed using content analysis. The results revealed that Thai elderly described being healthy as the result of multiple components involving physical, mental, and social well-being. Healthy aging was viewed as an absence of serious diseases, having functional independence, a positive psycho-emotional outlook, and making a social contribution. The factors considered to contribute to healthy aging included activities promoting physical and psychological health, as well as active engagement in social activities. Understanding how the elderly define healthy aging and identifying the most important components and factors that contribute to being healthy provides insight into possible policy implications and interventions to promote health and well-being among Thai elderly. © 2012 Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.

  4. Impact of age and vector construct on striatal and nigral transgene expression

    PubMed Central

    Polinski, Nicole K; Manfredsson, Fredric P; Benskey, Matthew J; Fischer, D Luke; Kemp, Christopher J; Steece-Collier, Kathy; Sandoval, Ivette M; Paumier, Katrina L; Sortwell, Caryl E

    2016-01-01

    Therapeutic protein delivery using viral vectors has shown promise in preclinical models of Parkinson’s disease (PD) but clinical trial success remains elusive. This may partially be due to a failure to include advanced age as a covariate despite aging being the primary risk factor for PD. We investigated transgene expression following intracerebral injections of recombinant adeno-associated virus pseudotypes 2/2 (rAAV2/2), 2/5 (rAAV2/5), 2/9 (rAAV2/9), and lentivirus (LV) expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP) in aged versus young adult rats. Both rAAV2/2 and rAAV2/5 yielded lower GFP expression following injection to either the aged substantia nigra or striatum. rAAV2/9-mediated GFP expression was deficient in the aged striatonigral system but displayed identical transgene expression between ages in the nigrostriatal system. Young and aged rats displayed equivalent GFP levels following LV injection to the striatonigral system but LV-delivered GFP was deficient in delivering GFP to the aged nigrostriatal system. Notably, age-related transgene expression deficiencies revealed by protein quantitation were poorly predicted by GFP-immunoreactive cell counts. Further, in situ hybridization for the viral CβA promoter revealed surprisingly limited tropism for astrocytes compared to neurons. Our results demonstrate that aging is a critical covariate to consider when designing gene therapy approaches for PD. PMID:27933309

  5. Aging, selective attention, and feature integration.

    PubMed

    Plude, D J; Doussard-Roosevelt, J A

    1989-03-01

    This study used feature-integration theory as a means of determining the point in processing at which selective attention deficits originate. The theory posits an initial stage of processing in which features are registered in parallel and then a serial process in which features are conjoined to form complex stimuli. Performance of young and older adults on feature versus conjunction search is compared. Analyses of reaction times and error rates suggest that elderly adults in addition to young adults, can capitalize on the early parallel processing stage of visual information processing, and that age decrements in visual search arise as a result of the later, serial stage of processing. Analyses of a third, unconfounded, conjunction search condition reveal qualitatively similar modes of conjunction search in young and older adults. The contribution of age-related data limitations is found to be secondary to the contribution of age decrements in selective attention.

  6. ac aging and space-charge characteristics in low-density polyethylene polymeric insulation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chen, G.; Fu, M.; Liu, X. Z.; Zhong, L. S.

    2005-04-01

    In the present work efforts have been made to investigate the influence of ac aging on space-charge dynamics in low-density polyethylene (LDPE). LDPE films with 200 μm were aged under various electric stress levels at 50 Hz for various times at ambient temperature. Space-charge dynamics in the samples after aging were monitored using the pulsed electroacoustic technique. It has been revealed that the space charge under ac aging conditions is related to the level of the applied field, duration of the voltage application, as well as the electrode materials. By comparing with the results of unaged sample the results from aged sample provide a direct evidence of changing trapping characteristics after ac aging. Negative space charge is present in the bulk of the material and the total amount of charge increases with the aging time. The amount of charge increases with the applied field. Charge decay test indicates that the charges are captured in deep traps. These deep traps are believed to form during the aging and related to change caused by injected charge. By using different electrode materials such as gold, brass alloy, and polyethylene loaded with carbon black, it was found that the electrode has an important role in the formation of charge, hence subsequent changes caused by charge. The charge dynamics of the aged samples under dc bias differ from the sample without ac aging, indicating changes brought in by ac aging. Chemical analysis by Fourier transform infrared spectroscope and Raman microscope reveals no detectable chemical changes taken place in the bulk of the material after ac aging. Finally, the consequence of the accumulation of space charge under ac conditions on the lifetime of the material has been discussed. The presence of deeply trapped space charge leads to an electric stress enhancement which may shorten the lifetime of the insulation system.

  7. Sphincter tears in primiparous women: Is age a factor?

    PubMed Central

    BOWLING, C. Bryce; WHEELER, Thomas L.; GERTEN, Kimberly A.; CHAPMAN, Victoria R.; BURGIO, Kathryn L.; RICHTER, Holly E.

    2011-01-01

    Introduction and Hypothesis Anal sphincter tears during vaginal delivery may result in serious sequelae. We examined whether younger primiparous patients were at increased risk for sphincter tears during vaginal delivery. Methods Data from an obstetric automated record were analyzed. Primiparous women delivering term infants (n = 5,937) were included to test for an association between age and sphincter tear rates. Three age groups were considered: young adolescents (≤16 years), older adolescents (17-20 years) and adults (≥21 years). Results No significant difference was found in tear rates among age cohorts (9.2%, 8.0%, and 9.6% respectively; p = 0.12). Logistic regression modeling revealed that young adolescents were not more likely to have sphincter tears compared to older cohorts. Conclusions Younger adolescents may not be at increased risk of anal sphincter tears. Decisions regarding interventions to decrease sphincter tears during vaginal delivery should not be made on the basis of maternal age alone. PMID:18985267

  8. Aqueous alteration revealed by diverse mineralogy at Amazonian-aged Lyot crater, Mars

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pan, L.; Ehlmann, B. L.

    2016-12-01

    Located close to the hemispheric dichotomy, Lyot crater is the largest (with diameter 220 km) and deepest impact crater in the northern lowlands of Mars. The impact event could have released substantial amount of volatiles and strongly influenced the evolution of Amazonian Mars climate [1]. Previous works have shown that the impact event probably induced overland flow that formed the channels north of Lyot [2] and within the crater, kilometer-long valleys have formed in micro-environments that post-date the impact [3]. These features suggest that groundwater may have been mobilized in the subsurface, and there was melting of ice-rich deposits after the impact event. In a recent mineralogy survey [4], diverse hydrated minerals in and around Lyot crater have been revealed by data acquired from Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM). The concentration of hydrated minerals in this region is much greater than average northern plains, suggesting substantial aqueous alteration directly associated to the Lyot impact or in the regional stratigraphy. We have found 7 Fe/Mg phyllosilicate detections, likely smectite or mixed-layer smectite-chlorite, in the central ring region; 10 chlorite/prehnite detections (identified with a typical 2.35 µm absorption, in which 2 have an additional 1.48 µm absorption that matches prehnite, confirming [5]) in the central ring, crater floor, outer rim, and ejecta blanket; and 9 locations with absorptions at 2.21 µm with/without the coexistence with the 2.35 µm feature, which can be explained by illite/muscovite or a mixture of hydrated silica and chlorite/prehnite. The unit with 2.21-µm absorptions is often associated with the smooth mantling deposit, superposed on the valleys within the crater and on the crater rim. Further morphological analysis over these units with distinct mineralogy will shed light on the aqueous activity that formed these minerals. Combined with geological map of the region, we will establish

  9. The effect of post-synthesis aging on the ligand exchange activity of iron oxide nanoparticles.

    PubMed

    Davis, Kathleen; Vidmar, Michael; Khasanov, Airat; Cole, Brian; Ghelardini, Melanie; Mayer, Justin; Kitchens, Christopher; Nath, Amar; Powell, Brian A; Mefford, O Thompson

    2018-02-01

    Ligand exchange is a widely-used method of controlling the surface chemistry of nanomaterials. Exchange is dependent on many factors including the age of the core particle being modified. Aging of the particles can impact surface structure and composition, which in turn can affect ligand binding. To quantify the effects of aging on ligand exchange, we employed a technique to track the exchange of radiolabeled 14 C-oleic acid with unlabeled, oleic acid bound to iron oxide nanoparticles. Liquid scintillation counting (LSC) was used to determine the amount of 14 C-oleic acid adsorbing to the particles throughout the duration of the exchange for particles aged for 2days, 7days, and 30days. Results revealed an increase in the total amount of ligands exchanged with aging up to 30days. Kinetic analysis of these results revealed a significant decrease in the overall rate of ligand exchange between 2 and 30days. The change in extent of adsorption with age could suggest increased availability of free binding sites. A follow-up study comparing exchange with oxidized and unoxidized particles suggested this increase in ligand adsorption may be due to changes in the Fe 2+ /Fe 3+ ratio on the surface as the particles aged. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  10. Ageing-related stereotypes in memory: When the beliefs come true.

    PubMed

    Bouazzaoui, Badiâa; Follenfant, Alice; Ric, François; Fay, Séverine; Croizet, Jean-Claude; Atzeni, Thierry; Taconnat, Laurence

    2016-01-01

    Age-related stereotype concerns culturally shared beliefs about the inevitable decline of memory with age. In this study, stereotype priming and stereotype threat manipulations were used to explore the impact of age-related stereotype on metamemory beliefs and episodic memory performance. Ninety-two older participants who reported the same perceived memory functioning were divided into two groups: a threatened group and a non-threatened group (control). First, the threatened group was primed with an ageing stereotype questionnaire. Then, both groups were administered memory complaints and memory self-efficacy questionnaires to measure metamemory beliefs. Finally, both groups were administered the Logical Memory task to measure episodic memory, for the threatened group the instructions were manipulated to enhance the stereotype threat. Results indicated that the threatened individuals reported more memory complaints and less memory efficacy, and had lower scores than the control group on the logical memory task. A multiple mediation analysis revealed that the stereotype threat effect on the episodic memory performance was mediated by both memory complaints and memory self-efficacy. This study revealed that stereotype threat impacts belief in one's own memory functioning, which in turn impairs episodic memory performance.

  11. Micronutrient status in middle childhood and age at menarche: results from the Bogotá School Children Cohort.

    PubMed

    Villamor, Eduardo; Marín, Constanza; Mora-Plazas, Mercedes; Oliveros, Henry

    2017-12-01

    Childhood intake of animal foods is associated with age at first menstrual period (menarche). It is unknown whether the micronutrients present in these foods could explain this association. Our objective was to investigate the associations of micronutrient status biomarkers in middle childhood with age at menarche. We quantified circulating Hb, ferritin, mean corpuscular volume, Zn, vitamin B12, erythrocyte folate and retinol in 1464 pre-menarcheal girls aged 5-12 years in Bogotá, Colombia, and followed them for a median 5·7 years for the occurrence and date of menarche. We estimated median age at menarche and hazard ratios (HR) with 95 % CI by levels of each biomarker with use of Kaplan-Meier survival probabilities and Cox regression, respectively. Median age at menarche was 12·4 years. Middle childhood Hb was inversely related to age at menarche whereas plasma ferritin was positively associated with this outcome in a linear manner. HR of menarche for every 1 sd of Hb (11 g/l) and ferritin (23·2 µg/l) were 1·11 (95 % CI 1·04, 1·18; P=0·001) and 0·94 (95 % CI 0·88, 0·99; P=0·02), respectively, after adjustment for baseline age, C-reactive protein concentration, maternal age at menarche and parity and socioeconomic status. The association with ferritin was stronger in girls aged 9-10 years at baseline. Additional adjustment for baseline height- and BMI-for-age did not change the results. We conclude that higher Fe status in middle childhood is related to later age at menarche whereas Hb concentrations are inversely associated with age at onset of menses.

  12. Seafloor Age-Stacking Reveals No Evidence for Milankovitch Cycle Influence on Abyssal Hills at Intermediate, Fast and Super-Fast Spreading Rates

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Goff, J.; Zahirovic, S.; Müller, D.

    2017-12-01

    Recently published spectral analyses of seafloor bathymetry concluded that abyssal hills, highly linear ridges that are formed along seafloor spreading centers, exhibit periodicities that correspond to Milankovitch cycles - variations in Earth's orbit that affect climate on periods of 23, 41 and 100 thousand years. These studies argue that this correspondence could be explained by modulation of volcanic output at the mid-ocean ridge due to lithostatic pressure variations associated with rising and falling sea level. If true, then the implications are substantial: mapping the topography of the seafloor with sonar could be used as a way to investigate past climate change. This "Milankovitch cycle" hypothesis predicts that the rise and fall of abyssal hills will be correlated to crustal age, which can be tested by stacking, or averaging, bathymetry as a function of age; stacking will enhance any age-dependent signal while suppressing random components, such as fault-generated topography. We apply age-stacking to data flanking the Southeast Indian Ridge ( 3.6 cm/yr half rate), northern East Pacific Rise ( 5.4 cm/yr half rate) and southern East Pacific Rise ( 7.8 cm/yr half rate), where multibeam bathymetric coverage is extensive on the ridge flanks. At the greatest precision possible given magnetic anomaly data coverage, we have revised digital crustal age models in these regions with updated axis and magnetic anomaly traces. We also utilize known 2nd-order spatial statistical properties of abyssal hills to predict the variability of the age-stack under the null hypothesis that abyssal hills are entirely random with respect to crustal age; the age-stacked profile is significantly different from zero only if it exceeds this expected variability by a large margin. Our results indicate, however, that the null hypothesis satisfactorily explains the age-stacking results in all three regions of study, thus providing no support for the Milankovitch cycle hypothesis. The

  13. Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography Reveals Mature, Tangled Vascular Networks in Eyes With Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration Showing Resistance to Geographic Atrophy.

    PubMed

    Dansingani, Kunal K; Freund, K Bailey

    2015-10-01

    To demonstrate a vascular pattern seen on optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) that appears to correlate with reduced rates of geographic atrophy (GA) in eyes receiving long-term anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) treatment for neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Non-consecutive, retrospective cohort study. Patients were included if they had received more than 50 anti-VEGF injections during a period of at least 4 years for neovascular AMD in at least one eye, with absence or minimal progression of GA. Clinical charts and imaging were reviewed retrospectively; study eyes underwent OCTA. Nine eyes of eight patients were included. Mean age was 82 years, and mean follow-up of study eyes 9.1 years; study eyes received a mean of 65.8 injections. OCTA revealed tangled networks of neovessels associated with type 1 lesions. With prolonged anti-VEGF treatment, GA appears to occur less commonly in eyes with type 1 neovascularization. OCTA shows mature tangled vessels with substantial flow within type 1 lesions. Mature, tangled networks may be associated with a decreased likelihood of developing GA despite the presence of choriocapillaris atrophy. Copyright 2015, SLACK Incorporated.

  14. [Age and gender aspects of the status of lipid profile and stress-realizing systems of the human body in the aging process].

    PubMed

    Myakotnykh, V S; Emelyanov, V V; Gavrilov, V I; Ermakova, E Y; Soloviev, R V; Borovkova, T A; Kutyreva, Y E; Berezina, D A; Torgashov, M N; Myakotnykh, K V

    In the course of inspection 1136 persons of different age and sex data on dynamics of the main components of lipid profile, the concentration of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in blood plasma and indicators of levels of free cortisol, melatonin sulfate, metanephrine and normetanephrine in urine daily were obtained. Clear age and gender differences related both to the content of atherogenic fractions of lipids in the blood, and types of dyslipidemia were revealed. Fundamental differences in the age dynamics of indicators of stress-realizing systems in men and women and the correlation of these indicators with the level of low density lipoproteins and atherogenic coefficient were identified. The data obtained may indicate different mechanisms of development of atherosclerosis and its associated pathological aging in people of different sex and age, which enables the practical use of research results for the earliest diagnosis and prognosis of a number of associated with age and pathological conditions.

  15. Pilot age and expertise predict flight simulator performance

    PubMed Central

    Kennedy, Quinn; Noda, Art; Yesavage, Jerome A.

    2010-01-01

    Background Expert knowledge may compensate for age-related declines in basic cognitive and sensory-motor abilities in some skill domains. We investigated the influence of age and aviation expertise (indexed by Federal Aviation Administration pilot ratings) on longitudinal flight simulator performance. Methods Over a 3-year period, 118 general aviation pilots aged 40 to 69 years were tested annually, in which their flight performance was scored in terms of 1) executing air-traffic controller communications; 2) traffic avoidance; 3) scanning cockpit instruments; 4) executing an approach to landing; and 5) a flight summary score. Results More expert pilots had better flight summary scores at baseline and showed less decline over time. Secondary analyses revealed that expertise effects were most evident in the accuracy of executing aviation communications, the measure on which performance declined most sharply over time. Regarding age, even though older pilots initially performed worse than younger pilots, over time older pilots showed less decline in flight summary scores than younger pilots. Secondary analyses revealed that the oldest pilots did well over time because their traffic avoidance performance improved more vs younger pilots. Conclusions These longitudinal findings support previous cross-sectional studies in aviation as well as non-aviation domains, which demonstrated the advantageous effect of prior experience and specialized expertise on older adults’ skilled cognitive performances. PMID:17325270

  16. Alterations in lenticular proteins during ageing and selenite-induced cataractogenesis in Wistar rats

    PubMed Central

    Sakthivel, Muniyan; Elanchezhian, Rajan; Thomas, Philip A.

    2010-01-01

    Purpose To determine putative alterations in the major lenticular proteins in Wistar rats of different ages and to compare these alterations with those occurring in rats with selenite-induced cataract. Methods Lenticular transparency was determined by morphological examination using slit-lamp biomicroscopy. Alterations in lenticular protein were determined by sodium dodecyl sulfate-PAGE (SDS–PAGE) and confirmed immunologically by western blot. Results Morphological examination did not reveal observable opacities in the lenses of the rats of different age groups; however, dense nuclear opacities were noted in lenses of rats in the selenite-cataract group. Western blot assays revealed age-related changes in soluble and urea-soluble lenticular proteins. Decreased αA- and βB1-crystallins in the soluble fraction and aggregation of αA-crystallin, in addition to the degraded fragment of βB1-crystallin, in the urea-soluble fraction appeared to occur in relation to increasing age of the rats from which the lenses were taken; similarly, cytoskeletal proteins appeared to decline with increasing age. The lenses from rats in the selenite-cataract group exhibited similar changes, except that there was also high molecular weight aggregation of αA-crystallin. Conclusions The results of this study suggest that there is loss, as well as aggregation, of αA-crystallin in the aging rat lens, although there is no accompanying loss of lenticular transparency. PMID:20300567

  17. Predicting age from cortical structure across the lifespan.

    PubMed

    Madan, Christopher R; Kensinger, Elizabeth A

    2018-03-01

    Despite interindividual differences in cortical structure, cross-sectional and longitudinal studies have demonstrated a large degree of population-level consistency in age-related differences in brain morphology. This study assessed how accurately an individual's age could be predicted by estimates of cortical morphology, comparing a variety of structural measures, including thickness, gyrification and fractal dimensionality. Structural measures were calculated across up to seven different parcellation approaches, ranging from one region to 1000 regions. The age prediction framework was trained using morphological measures obtained from T1-weighted MRI volumes collected from multiple sites, yielding a training dataset of 1056 healthy adults, aged 18-97. Age predictions were calculated using a machine-learning approach that incorporated nonlinear differences over the lifespan. In two independent, held-out test samples, age predictions had a median error of 6-7 years. Age predictions were best when using a combination of cortical metrics, both thickness and fractal dimensionality. Overall, the results reveal that age-related differences in brain structure are systematic enough to enable reliable age prediction based on metrics of cortical morphology. © 2018 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  18. Age and motives for volunteering: testing hypotheses derived from socioemotional selectivity theory.

    PubMed

    Okun, Morris A; Schultz, Amy

    2003-06-01

    Following a meta-analysis of the relations between age and volunteer motives (career, understanding, enhancement, protective, making friends, social, and values), the authors tested hypotheses derived from socioemotional selectivity theory regarding the effects of age on these volunteer motives. The Volunteer Functions Inventory was completed by 523 volunteers from 2 affiliates of the International Habitat for Humanity. Multiple regression analyses revealed, as predicted, that as age increases, career and understanding volunteer motivation decrease and social volunteer motivation increases. Contrary to expectations, age did not contribute to the prediction of enhancement, protective, and values volunteer motivations and the relation between age and making friends volunteer motivation was nonlinear. The results were discussed in the context of age-differential and age-similarity perspectives on volunteer motivation.

  19. Gastric emptying scintigraphy results in children are affected by age, anthropometric factors, and study duration

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    A standardized 4-hour adult-based gastric emptying scintigraphy (GES) protocol is increasingly being used in children to evaluate for gastroparesis. We sought to determine the effect of age, anthropometrics, and study duration on GES results using this protocol in children. Retrospective review of c...

  20. False Memory in Aging Resulting From Self-Referential Processing

    PubMed Central

    2013-01-01

    Objectives. Referencing the self is known to enhance accurate memory, but less is known about how the strategy affects false memory, particularly for highly self-relevant information. Because older adults are more prone to false memories, we tested whether self-referencing increased false memories with age. Method. In 2 studies, older and younger adults rated adjectives for self-descriptiveness and later completed a surprise recognition test comprised of words rated previously for self-descriptiveness and novel lure words. Lure words were subsequently rated for self-descriptiveness in order to assess the impact of self-relevance on false memory. Study 2 introduced commonness judgments as a control condition, such that participants completed a recognition test on adjectives rated for commonness in addition to adjectives in the self-descriptiveness condition. Results. Across both studies, findings indicate an increased response bias to self-referencing that increased hit rates for both older and younger adults but also increased false alarms as information became more self-descriptive, particularly for older adults. Discussion. Although the present study supports previous literature showing a boost in memory for self-referenced information, the increase in false alarms, especially in older adults, highlights the potential for memory errors, particularly for information that is strongly related to the self. PMID:23576449

  1. Experimental evolution of slowed cognitive aging in Drosophila melanogaster.

    PubMed

    Zwoinska, Martyna K; Maklakov, Alexei A; Kawecki, Tadeusz J; Hollis, Brian

    2017-03-01

    Reproductive output and cognitive performance decline in parallel during aging, but it is unknown whether this reflects a shared genetic architecture or merely the declining force of natural selection acting independently on both traits. We used experimental evolution in Drosophila melanogaster to test for the presence of genetic variation for slowed cognitive aging, and assess its independence from that responsible for other traits' decline with age. Replicate experimental populations experienced either joint selection on learning and reproduction at old age (Old + Learning), selection on late-life reproduction alone (Old), or a standard two-week culture regime (Young). Within 20 generations, the Old + Learning populations evolved a slower decline in learning with age than both the Old and Young populations, revealing genetic variation for cognitive aging. We found little evidence for a genetic correlation between cognitive and demographic aging: although the Old + Learning populations tended to show higher late-life fecundity than Old populations, they did not live longer. Likewise, selection for late reproduction alone did not result in improved late-life learning. Our results demonstrate that Drosophila harbor genetic variation for cognitive aging that is largely independent from genetic variation for demographic aging and suggest that these two aspects of aging may not necessarily follow the same trajectories. © 2016 The Author(s). Evolution published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of The Society for the Study of Evolution.

  2. Age effects on explicit and implicit memory

    PubMed Central

    Ward, Emma V.; Berry, Christopher J.; Shanks, David R.

    2013-01-01

    It is well-documented that explicit memory (e.g., recognition) declines with age. In contrast, many argue that implicit memory (e.g., priming) is preserved in healthy aging. For example, priming on tasks such as perceptual identification is often not statistically different in groups of young and older adults. Such observations are commonly taken as evidence for distinct explicit and implicit learning/memory systems. In this article we discuss several lines of evidence that challenge this view. We describe how patterns of differential age-related decline may arise from differences in the ways in which the two forms of memory are commonly measured, and review recent research suggesting that under improved measurement methods, implicit memory is not age-invariant. Formal computational models are of considerable utility in revealing the nature of underlying systems. We report the results of applying single and multiple-systems models to data on age effects in implicit and explicit memory. Model comparison clearly favors the single-system view. Implications for the memory systems debate are discussed. PMID:24065942

  3. Results of liver transplants from donors aged 70 plus: analysis of Andalusian transplant register.

    PubMed

    Franco, C C; Martínez, J M A; Bellido, C B; Artacho, G S; Gómez, L M M; Diez-Canedo, J S; Aunión, C D; Ruiz, F J P; Bravo, M A G

    2013-01-01

    The progressive increase in the number of liver transplantation candidates has brought with it a consequent increase in waiting list mortality, making it necessary to revise donor selection criteria and to analyze the factors that optimize outcomes. This retrospective observational study of 1802 liver transplantations performed in Andalusia between 2000 and 2010 analyzes the outcomes from donors aged 70 years or older (n = 211) in terms of survival rates of the graft and the recipient, the type of transplant, donor age, and DMELD (Donor-Model for End-Stage Liver Disease) score. The most frequent reasons for transplantation were alcoholic cirrhosis (45.5%), hepatitis C cirrhosis (20.4%), and liver cancer (11.8%). The overall survival rate at 5 years was 67%; with a significant decrease in survival rates for recipients with a DMELD greater than 1400 (44%). In the 70-year-old-plus donor group, the overall patient and graft survival rates were 57% and 52%, respectively. The re-transplantation rate increased proportionately with donor age: 5.9% between 70 and 74 years, 9.5% from 75 to 79 years, and 17.6% from 80 to 84 years. In the alcoholic cirrhosis recipient sub-group, the overall survival rate at 5 years was 69% (P < .05) compared to 34% in hepatitis C patients (P < .05). The widening of the donor age selection criteria is therefore a safe option, provided that a DMELD score less than 1400 is obtained. Although re-transplantation rates increase progressively with donor age, they remain less than 10%. It is necessary to carefully screen recipients of older organs, taking into account that the best results are obtained for patients who have alcoholic cirrhosis, are hepatitis C negative, and have a DMELD score that is less than 1,400. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  4. Initial aging phenomena in copper-chromium alloys

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Suzuki, H.; Motohiro, K.

    1985-01-01

    The effects of quenching and aging temperatures on the initial aging curves of Cu-Cr alloy were examined mainly by means of electrical resistivity measurements. Three Cu-Cr alloy specimens having 0.24, 0.74, and 1.0% Cr were solution-treated at 950-1050 C, quenched into ice-water, and subsequently aged at 300-500 C. The results were as follows: (1) At the very early stage of aging (within about 30 sec), an abrupt decrease of resistivity with lowering aging tempratures. (T sub A) and rising solution temperatures (T sub S) was observed at (T sub A) up to about 400 C. In contrast, a transient increase of resistivity with rising T sub A and lowering T sub S was observed at T sub A from about 450 to 500 C. These phenomena seem to be caused by a rapid formation of solute clusters and the reversion of clusters formed during quenching, which are enhanced by quenched-in vacancies, respectively. (2) The amount of precipitation increased at the latter stage of aging with rising T sub S and T sub A as generally expected, where T sub S was not so high as to form secondary defects. (3) As a result, the initial aging phenomena in Cr-Cr alloy were revealed to be complicated against expectations. This was considered to be due to the migration energy of vacancies so larger in Cu-base.

  5. Aging, mortality, and the fast growth trade-off of Schizosaccharomyces pombe

    PubMed Central

    Nakaoka, Hidenori; Wakamoto, Yuichi

    2017-01-01

    Replicative aging has been demonstrated in asymmetrically dividing unicellular organisms, seemingly caused by unequal damage partitioning. Although asymmetric segregation and inheritance of potential aging factors also occur in symmetrically dividing species, it nevertheless remains controversial whether this results in aging. Based on large-scale single-cell lineage data obtained by time-lapse microscopy with a microfluidic device, in this report, we demonstrate the absence of replicative aging in old-pole cell lineages of Schizosaccharomyces pombe cultured under constant favorable conditions. By monitoring more than 1,500 cell lineages in 7 different culture conditions, we showed that both cell division and death rates are remarkably constant for at least 50–80 generations. Our measurements revealed that the death rate per cellular generation increases with the division rate, pointing to a physiological trade-off with fast growth under balanced growth conditions. We also observed the formation and inheritance of Hsp104-associated protein aggregates, which are a potential aging factor in old-pole cell lineages, and found that these aggregates exhibited a tendency to preferentially remain at the old poles for several generations. However, the aggregates were eventually segregated from old-pole cells upon cell division and probabilistically allocated to new-pole cells. We found that cell deaths were typically preceded by sudden acceleration of protein aggregation; thus, a relatively large amount of protein aggregates existed at the very ends of the dead cell lineages. Our lineage tracking analyses, however, revealed that the quantity and inheritance of protein aggregates increased neither cellular generation time nor cell death initiation rates. Furthermore, our results demonstrated that unusually large amounts of protein aggregates induced by oxidative stress exposure did not result in aging; old-pole cells resumed normal growth upon stress removal, despite the

  6. Age Differences and Dimensions of Religious Behavior

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Johnson, Arthur L.; And Others

    1974-01-01

    This research explores the magnitude, sources, and consequences of differences among age strata in various dimensions of religious orientation and practice. Analysis of a national sample of 4444 Lutheran church members, ages 16-65, revealed patterns of age strata differences that supported a "selective gap" theory rather than a "great gap"…

  7. Socio-economic variables influencing mean age at marriage in Karnataka and Kerala.

    PubMed

    Prakasam, C P; Upadhyay, R B

    1985-01-01

    "In this paper an attempt was made to study the influence of certain socio-economic variables on the male and the female age at marriage in Karnataka and Kerala [India] for the year 1971. Step-wise regression method has been used to select the predictor variables influencing mean age at marriage. The results reveal that percent female literate...and percent female in labour force...are found to influence female mean age at marriage in Kerala, while the variables for Karnataka were percent female literate..., percent male literate..., and percent urban male population...." excerpt

  8. Functional neuroanatomy of arithmetic and word reading and its relationship to age

    PubMed Central

    Evans, Tanya M.; Flowers, D. Lynn; Luetje, Megan M.; Napoliello, Eileen; Eden, Guinevere F.

    2016-01-01

    Arithmetic and written language are uniquely human skills acquired during early schooling and used daily. While prior studies have independently characterized the neural bases for arithmetic and reading, here we examine both skills in a single study to capture their shared and unique cognitive mechanisms, as well as the role of age/experience in modulating their neural representations. We used functional MRI in 7- to 29-year-olds who performed single-digit subtraction, single-digit addition, and single-word reading. Using a factorial design, we examined the main effects of Task (subtraction, addition, reading) and Age (as a continuous variable), and their interactions. A main effect of Task revealed preferential activation for subtraction in bilateral intraparietal sulci and supramarginal gyri, right insula, inferior frontal gyrus, and cingulate. The right middle temporal gyrus and left superior temporal gyrus were preferentially active for both addition and reading, and left fusiform gyrus was preferentially active for reading. A main effect of Age revealed increased activity in older participants in right angular gyrus, superior temporal sulcus, and putamen, and less activity in left supplementary motor area, suggesting a left frontal to right temporo-parietal shift of activity with increasing age/experience across all tasks. Interactions for Task by Age were found in right hippocampus and left middle frontal gyrus, with older age invoking greater activity for addition and at the same time less activity for subtraction and reading. Together, in a study conducted in the same participants using similar task and acquisition parameters, the results reveal the neural substrates of these educationally relevant cognitive skills in typical participants in the context of age/experience. PMID:27566261

  9. Comprehensive circular RNA profiling reveals that circular RNA100783 is involved in chronic CD28-associated CD8(+)T cell ageing.

    PubMed

    Wang, Yu-Hong; Yu, Xu-Hui; Luo, Shan-Shun; Han, Hui

    2015-01-01

    Ageing brings about the gradual deterioration of the immune system, also known as immunosenescence. The role of non-coding circular RNA in immunosenescence is under studied. Using circular RNA microarray data, we assembled Comparison groups (C1, C2, C3 and C4) that allowed us to compare the circular RNA expression profiles between CD28(+)CD8(+) T cells and CD28(-)CD8(+) T cells isolated from healthy elderly or adult control subjects. Using a step-wise biomathematical strategy, the differentially-expressed circRNAs were identified in C1 (CD28(+)CD8(+) vs CD28(-)CD8(+)T cells in the elderly) and C4 (CD28(-)CD8(+)T cells in the elderly vs in the adult), and the commonly-expressed circRNA species from these profiles were optimized as immunosenescence biomarkers. Four overlapping upregulated circular RNAs (100550, 100783, 101328 and 102592) expressed in cross-comparison between C1 and C4 were validated using quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Of these, only circular RNA100783 exhibited significant validation. None of the down-regulated circular RNAs were expressed in the C1 and the C4 cross-comparisons. Therefore, we further predicted circular RNA100783-targeted miRNA-gene interactions using online DAVID annotation. The analysis revealed that a circular RNA100783-targeted miRNA-mRNA network may be involved in alternative splicing, the production of splice variants, and in the regulation of phosphoprotein expression. Considering the hypothesis of splicing-related biogenesis of circRNAs, we propose that circular RNA100783 may play a role in phosphoprotein-associated functions duringCD28-related CD8(+) T cell ageing. This study is the first to employ circular RNA profiling to investigate circular RNA-micro RNA interactions in ageing human CD8(+)T cell populations and the accompanying loss of CD28 expression. The overlapping expression of circular RNA100783 may represent a novel biomarker for the longitudinal tracking ofCD28-related CD8(+) T cell ageing and global

  10. Outcomes of Mixed-Age Groupings. Research Highlights.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Stegelin, Dolores A.

    1997-01-01

    A review of the literature on mixed-age settings reveals benefits in the areas of social and cognitive development. Research on the psychosocial advantages of mixed-age groupings is less consistent. Factors such as group size, age range, time together, and context-specific curriculum activities may have a relationship to the level of success and…

  11. Depth of Processing and Age Differences.

    PubMed

    Kheirzadeh, Shiela; Pakzadian, Sarah Sadat

    2016-10-01

    The present article is aimed to investigate whether there are any differences between youngsters and adults in their working and long-term memory functioning. The theory of Depth of Processing (Craik and Lockhart in J Verbal Learning Verbal Behav 11:671-684, 1972) discusses the varying degrees of strengths of memory traces as the result of differential levels of processing on the retrieved input. Additionally, they claim that there are three levels of visual, auditory and semantic processes applied on the stimuli in the short-term memory leading to discrepancy in the durability of the memory traces and the later ease of recall and retrieval. In the present article, it is tried to demonstrate if there are evidences of more durable memory traces formed after semantic, visual and auditory processions of the incoming language data in two groups of (a) children in their language learning critical age and (b) youngsters who have passed the critical age period. The comparisons of the results made using two-way ANOVAs revealed the superiority of semantic processing for both age groups in recall, retention and consequently recognition of the new English vocabularies by EFL learners.

  12. [Structural lag and room for possibilities in old age exemplified by central transitions. Initial results of a novel discipline trialogue between diaconal studies, psychology and theology].

    PubMed

    Wiloth, S; Siebert, J; Bachmann, A; Wahl, H-W; Nüssel, F; Eurich, J

    2015-12-01

    Although the need for interdisciplinary research is generally accepted in gerontology, such interdisciplinary communication is often limited to various combinations of psychological, sociological and biomedical scientific approaches. We argue that gerontology requires a continuous examination of novel disciplinary constellations to obtain a better understanding of aging in its complexity and to further develop this scientific field in its entirety. The present study introduced and tested for the first time an innovative disciplinary trialogue, i.e. the combination of psychology, theology and diaconal studies. In particular, it is assumed that this combination can contribute to a more profound interpretation of the prominent concept of structural lag which is underresearched in gerontology. The analysis of structural lag with another overarching concept, "room for possibilities", can provide a synergy-rich interpretation category for a range of challenges connected with old age. In this respect, three major transitions were selected to shed light on these concepts and examined by means of three focus group interviews: transition to retirement, need for long-term care in the private home context and transition to nursing home life. The data were evaluated using qualitative content analysis. The interdisciplinary-oriented evaluation of the interviews and the qualitative data analysis revealed the relevance of different perceptions of time in all three transitions. In addition, different dynamics in terms of the interplay of gains and losses as well as participation were found to be important for a better understanding of the three transitions. In particular, the subjective interpretation of the time remaining for living and the predetermined or self-selected time structuring of the daily routine were important factors for the perception of one's own potential. The results also underline a range of unused room for possibilities and the existence of structural lag for

  13. Successful mental health aging: results from a longitudinal study of older Australian men.

    PubMed

    Almeida, Osvaldo P; Norman, Paul; Hankey, Graeme; Jamrozik, Konrad; Flicker, Leon

    2006-01-01

    The authors investigated the associations of medical and lifestyle factors with the mental health of men in their 80s. This was a prospective study of a community-representative cohort of older men. Successful mental health aging was defined as reaching age 80 years with Mini-Mental State Examination score (MMSE) of 24 or more and Geriatric Depression Scale-15 items (GDS-15) score of 5 or less. Of 601 men followed for 4.8 years, 76.0% enjoyed successful mental health aging. Successful mental health aging was inversely associated with age (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.87; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.81-0.94), non-English-speaking background (HR = 0.42; 95% CI: 0.21-0.85), and the consumption of full-cream milk (HR = 0.63; 95% CI: 0.45-0.89), and directly associated with high school or university education (HR = 1.92; 95% CI: 1.34-2.75) and vigorous (HR = 1.89; 95% CI: 1.17-3.05) and nonvigorous physical activity (HR = 1.50; 95% CI: 1.05-2.14). Marital status, smoking and alcohol use, weekly consumption of meat or fish, and a medical history of hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, diabetes, myocardial infarction, and stroke were not associated with mental health outcomes in men aged 80 years or over. Three in four men who reach age 80 years undergo successful mental health aging. Factors associated with successful mental health aging include education and lifestyle behaviors such as physical activity. Lifestyle modification by means of increasing physical activity and reducing saturated fat intake may prove to be a safe, inexpensive, and readily available strategy to help maximize the successful mental health aging of the population.

  14. Within-Cohort Age-Related Differences in Cognitive Functioning

    PubMed Central

    Salthouse, Timothy A.

    2013-01-01

    It is widely accepted that the level of cognitive functioning can be influenced by characteristics of the environment that change over time. Many developmental researchers have referred to these influences as cohort effects, and have used year of birth as the basis for determining cohort membership. Furthermore, age-related differences in cognitive functioning are sometimes assumed to be primarily attributable to cohort differences, which implies that differences between birth cohorts should be much larger than differences within birth cohorts. Comparisons of composite scores for five cognitive abilities in different people tested at different ages in different years revealed that within-cohort differences across ages were often as large as between-cohort differences across ages. These results lead to questions about the practice of relying on birth cohort to represent influences on cognitive functioning associated with temporal shifts in characteristics of the environment. PMID:23319401

  15. Gardening and age-related weight gain: Results from a cross-sectional survey of Denver residents.

    PubMed

    Litt, Jill S; Lambert, Jeffrey Richard; Glueck, Deborah H

    2017-12-01

    This study examined whether gardening modifies the association between age and body mass index (BMI). We used data from the Neighborhood Environments and Health Survey, which was conducted in Denver (N = 469) between 2006 and 2007. We fit two general linear mixed models. The base model had BMI in kg/m 2 as the outcome, and age, an indicator variable for non-gardening status and the age-by-non-gardening status interaction as predictors. The adjusted model included as covariates the potential confounders of education, ethnicity and self-reported health. We assessed self-selection bias and confounding. BMI was 27.18 kg/m 2 for non-gardeners, 25.62 kg/m 2 for home gardeners, and 24.17 kg/m 2 for community gardeners. In the base model, a statistically significant association was observed between age and BMI for non-gardeners but not for the combined community and home gardening group (F = 9.27, ndf = 1, ddf = 441, p = 0.0025). In the adjusted model, the association between age and BMI in non-gardeners was not statistically significant (F = 1.72, ndf = 1, ddf = 431, p = 0.1908). Gardeners differed on social and demographic factors when compared to non-gardeners. The results from the base model are consistent with the hypothesis that gardening might offset age-related weight gain. However, the cross-sectional design does not permit differentiation of true causal effects from the possible effects of bias and confounding. As a follow-up study, to remove bias and confounding, we are conducting a randomized clinical trial of community gardening in Denver.

  16. What Facial Appearance Reveals Over Time: When Perceived Expressions in Neutral Faces Reveal Stable Emotion Dispositions

    PubMed Central

    Adams, Reginald B.; Garrido, Carlos O.; Albohn, Daniel N.; Hess, Ursula; Kleck, Robert E.

    2016-01-01

    It might seem a reasonable assumption that when we are not actively using our faces to express ourselves (i.e., when we display nonexpressive, or neutral faces), those around us will not be able to read our emotions. Herein, using a variety of expression-related ratings, we examined whether age-related changes in the face can accurately reveal one’s innermost affective dispositions. In each study, we found that expressive ratings of neutral facial displays predicted self-reported positive/negative dispositional affect, but only for elderly women, and only for positive affect. These findings meaningfully replicate and extend earlier work examining age-related emotion cues in the face of elderly women (Malatesta et al., 1987a). We discuss these findings in light of evidence that women are expected to, and do, smile more than men, and that the quality of their smiles predicts their life satisfaction. Although ratings of old male faces did not significantly predict self-reported affective dispositions, the trend was similar to that found for old female faces. A plausible explanation for this gender difference is that in the process of attenuating emotional expressions over their lifetimes, old men reveal less evidence of their total emotional experiences in their faces than do old women. PMID:27445944

  17. A Brief Dietary Assessment Predicts Executive Dysfunction in an Elderly Cohort: Results from the Einstein Aging Study.

    PubMed

    Sundermann, Erin E; Katz, Mindy J; Lipton, Richard B; Lichtenstein, Alice H; Derby, Carol A

    2016-11-01

    To examine the association between diet and executive function, episodic memory and global verbal cognition in the Einstein Aging Study (EAS) cohort and determine whether race modifies this relationship. Cross-sectional. Community. EAS participants without dementia who completed the Rapid Eating and Activity Assessment for Patients (REAP) (N = 492). The previously validated REAP is based on the 2000 U.S. dietary guidelines. REAP scores were dichotomized as less-healthy (revealing three significant orthogonal components: episodic memory, executive function, and global cognition. Impaired cognitive function in each domain was defined as 2 standard deviations (SD) or more below the mean on any task or a total score of 1.5 SD or more below the mean. Using logistic regression, the association between diet and cognitive impairment was assessed, adjusting for age, education, sex, cardiovascular comorbidities, hypertension, body mass index, diabetes mellitus, depressive symptoms, race, and the interaction between race and diet group. The sample was 60% female and 74% white and had a mean age of 80. In the entire sample, impaired executive function was associated with the interaction between race and diet group (P = .08), whereas other cognitive domains were not. In race-stratified analyses, healthier diet was associated with lower odds of impaired executive function in whites (odds ratio (OR) = 0.44, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.21-0.93, P = .03), as were healthier scores on the saturated fat subscale (OR = 0.34, 95% CI = 0.16-0.71, P = .004). In blacks, REAP scores were not associated with cognitive domains. Healthy diet was associated with lower risk of executive dysfunction in whites. Race differences may be due to greater vascular risk in blacks or differences in generalizability of the REAP. © 2016, Copyright the Authors Journal compilation © 2016, The

  18. Effectiveness of the Vital Aging program to promote active aging in Mexican older adults.

    PubMed

    Mendoza-Ruvalcaba, Neyda Ma; Fernández-Ballesteros, Rocío

    2016-01-01

    Aging is not only a population phenomenon but also an experience and an individual reality. Vital Aging ® is a program that considers active aging as the lifelong adaptation process of maximizing health and independence, physical and cognitive functioning, positive affect regulation and control, and social engagement. Through its different versions and editions, it has demonstrated being an effective program to promote active aging. The aim of this study is to determine the effectiveness of the "face-to-face" and "combined" versions of the program to promote active aging in Mexican older adults trial. Seventy-six older adults aged 60 years and over participated in a quasi-experimental study and were recruited in a senior center to participate in the two experimental conditions: Vital Aging face-to-face (VA-FF) (n=35) and Vital Aging combined (VA-C; multimedia/face-to-face) (n=15), and the remaining 26 adults were assigned to a control group. Pretest and posttest assessments were performed after the theoretical-practical intervention. Mean differences and size effects were calculated for estimating the effect of the program. At the end of the study, participants showed improvements in the active aging outcome measures. Positive effects were observed in the frequency of intellectual, cultural - artistic, and social activities, perceptions of aging, satisfaction with social relationships, and self-efficacy for aging. Additionally, those who participated in VA-FF showed better memory performance, meta-memory, and a trend to report less memory problems, while older persons in VA-C showed a trend to have better life satisfaction. No effects were observed in physical activity, frequency of social relationships, and subjective health. Findings show that the Vital Aging program in face-to-face and combined versions encourages active aging in Mexican older persons. These results are in general similar to those found in editions performed in Spain, revealing its consistency

  19. Ancient DNA reveals a migration of the ancient Di-qiang populations into Xinjiang as early as the early Bronze Age.

    PubMed

    Gao, Shi-Zhu; Zhang, Ye; Wei, Dong; Li, Hong-Jie; Zhao, Yong-Bin; Cui, Yin-Qiu; Zhou, Hui

    2015-05-01

    Xinjiang is at the crossroads between East and West Eurasia, and it harbors a relatively complex genetic history. In order to better understand the population movements and interactions in this region, mitochondrial and Y chromosome analyses on 40 ancient human remains from the Tianshanbeilu site in eastern Xinjiang were performed. Twenty-nine samples were successfully assigned to specific mtDNA haplogroups, including the west Eurasian maternal lineages of U and W and the east Eurasian maternal lineages of A, C, D, F, G, Z, M7, and M10. In the male samples, two Y chromosome haplogroups, C* and N1 (xN1a, N1c), were successfully assigned. Our mitochondrial and Y-chromosomal DNA analyses combined with the archaeological studies revealed that the Di-qiang populations from the Hexi Corridor had migrated to eastern Xinjiang and admixed with the Eurasian steppe populations in the early Bronze Age. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  20. Does life satisfaction change in old age: results from an 8-year longitudinal study.

    PubMed

    Gana, Kamel; Bailly, Nathalie; Saada, Yaël; Joulain, Michèle; Alaphilippe, Daniel

    2013-07-01

    The unexpected positive relationship between aging and happiness was called "the paradox of well-being," which is still a matter of debate. This study examined longitudinal change in life satisfaction (LS) in older adults. LS was assessed with the satisfaction with life scale, in a sample of individuals (N = 899; aged 62-95 years, at first occasion; M = 72.73, SD = 5.68) for a period of 8 years (5 waves of data). A multiple indicator (e.g., second order) growth modeling was used to assess change in LS. Findings from both unconditional and conditional model (in which time-invariant, i.e., age, gender, and education, and time-varying, i.e., self-perceived health, covariates were incorporated in the model) indicated a linear increase in LS for the 8-year period. As expected, the results showed significant random variation in both intercept and slope, indicating that participants start at different levels and change at different rates. Our findings contribute to the debate concerning the paradox of well-being, which calls for explanation. There are few theories that provide some explanation (e.g., the socioemotional selectivity theory). However, to enhance researchers' understanding of developmental changes that contribute to the paradox of well-being, a more integrative theoretical model is needed.

  1. Nociceptor Sensitization Depends on Age and Pain Chronicity123

    PubMed Central

    Dodge, Amanda K.

    2016-01-01

    Abstract Peripheral inflammation causes mechanical pain behavior and increased action potential firing. However, most studies examine inflammatory pain at acute, rather than chronic time points, despite the greater burden of chronic pain on patient populations, especially aged individuals. Furthermore, there is disagreement in the field about whether primary afferents contribute to chronic pain. Therefore, we sought to evaluate the contribution of nociceptor activity to the generation of pain behaviors during the acute and chronic phases of inflammation in both young and aged mice. We found that both young (2 months old) and aged (>18 months old) mice exhibited prominent pain behaviors during both acute (2 day) and chronic (8 week) inflammation. However, young mice exhibited greater behavioral sensitization to mechanical stimuli than their aged counterparts. Teased fiber recordings in young animals revealed a twofold mechanical sensitization in C fibers during acute inflammation, but an unexpected twofold reduction in firing during chronic inflammation. Responsiveness to capsaicin and mechanical responsiveness of A-mechanonociceptor (AM) fibers were also reduced chronically. Importantly, this lack of sensitization in afferent firing during chronic inflammation occurred even as these inflamed mice exhibited continued behavioral sensitization. Interestingly, C fibers from inflamed aged animals showed no change in mechanical firing compared with controls during either the acute or chronic inflammatory phases, despite strong behavioral sensitization to mechanical stimuli at these time points. These results reveal the following two important findings: (1) nociceptor sensitization to mechanical stimulation depends on age and the chronicity of injury; and (2) maintenance of chronic inflammatory pain does not rely on enhanced peripheral drive. PMID:26866058

  2. Drosophila geotaxis as a tool for the study of aging

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Schnebel, Edgar M.; Hoffmann, R. Nicholas; Grossfield, Joe

    1988-01-01

    Age dependent changes in geotaxis profiles were examined in 27 wild-type populations of Drosophila, representing a diversity of species, semispecies and strains. In addition, four strains of D. melanogaster were tested. Tests were carried out at a minimum of three test ages, and involve the use of a calibrated, adjustable inclined plane that can be set at any angle between 0 and 85 deg. Among selected lines, decline in geotactic response occurs later in the long lived flies than in the controls. Longer lived flies continue to show an increase in negative geotactic response through age 14 days. These results suggest that common processes may be influencing the rate of decline in geotactic response and longevity. Further analysis of the mechanisms underlying age dependent changes in geotaxis may reveal factors which influence the aging process itself. The use of geotaxis aging markers in a broad range of Drosophila species reflecting varying degrees of genetic relatedness is proposed to test the universality vs. specificity of aging processes.

  3. Decline of umami preference in aged rats.

    PubMed

    Miura, Hirohito; Ooki, Makoto; Kanemaru, Norikazu; Harada, Shuitsu

    2014-08-08

    The effects of aging on the umami sensation were compared between the preference and neural responses from the greater superficial petrosal nerve (GSP innervating the soft palate) and the chorda tympani nerve (CT innervating the fungiform papillae) in the Sprague Dawley rat. A two-bottle preference test revealed that younger rats (5-12 weeks) preferred significantly 0.001 M 5'-inosine monophosphate (IMP), 0.01 M mono sodium glutamate (MSG), and binary mixtures of 0.001 M IMP+0.01 M MSG than deionized water. However, aged rats (21-22 months) showed no significant preference to these umami solutions compared to deionized water. Among the other four basic taste stimuli, there were no significant differences in preference between young and aged rats. Regardless of the age of the rat, neural responses from the GSP and CT produced robust integrated responses to all three umami solutions used in the two-bottle tests. These results indicate that the lack of preference to umami in aged rats is a central nervous system phenomenon and suggests that the loss of preference to umami taste in aged rats is caused by homeostatic changes in the brain incurred by aging. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  4. Primary prevention of lead exposure--blood lead results at age two years.

    PubMed

    Campbell, Carla; Gracely, Edward; Tran, Mary; Starkey, Naomi; Kersten, Hans; Palermo, Peter; Rothman, Nancy; Line, Laura; Hansen-Turton, Tine

    2012-04-01

    The Philadelphia Lead Safe Homes (LSH) Study was designed to evaluate whether educational and environmental interventions in the first year of life for families of newborns increased knowledge of lead exposure prevention and were associated with less elevation of blood lead levels (BLLs) for these children, when compared to children receiving standard care. The current study performed descriptive statistics on the second-year BLL data for both groups and compared these using chi-square tests for proportions and unpaired t-tests for means. A BLL result was found for 159 (50.6%) of the 314 LSH cohort children and 331 (52.7%) of the 628 control children (p = 0.1). Mean and standard deviation for age at draw was 23.8 (3.4) months versus 23.6 (3.1) months (P = 0.6). Geometric mean BLLs were 3.7 versus 3.5 µg/dL (P = 0.4). The percentages of the cohort group with a BLL of ≥ 20, ≥ 10 and ≥ 5 μg/dL, respectively, were 0.6%, 5% and 30%; for the controls 1.2%, 6.6%, and 25%. These percentages were not significantly different between groups. A comparison of geometric mean BLLs and percentages above several BLL cut points drawn at age two years in a group of urban newborns benefitting from study interventions versus a group of similar urban children did not yield statistically significant differences. Both groups had relatively lower lead levels when compared to historical cohort groups, which may reflect a continuing downward trend in BLLs in U.S. children. The interventions did result in benefits to the families such as an increase in parental knowledge about lead exposure prevention and in-home wet cleaning activity, and a decrease in lead dust levels in study homes.

  5. Influence of social support on cognitive change and mortality in old age: results from the prospective multicentre cohort study AgeCoDe

    PubMed Central

    2012-01-01

    Background Social support has been suggested to positively influence cognition and mortality in old age. However, this suggestion has been questioned due to inconsistent operationalisations of social support among studies and the small number of longitudinal studies available. This study aims to investigate the influence of perceived social support, understood as the emotional component of social support, on cognition and mortality in old age as part of a prospective longitudinal multicentre study in Germany. Methods A national subsample of 2,367 primary care patients was assessed twice over an observation period of 18 months regarding the influence of social support on cognitive function and mortality. Perceived social support was assessed using the 14-item version of the FSozU, which is a standardised and validated questionnaire of social support. Cognition was tested by the neuropsychological test battery of the Structured Interview for the Diagnosis of Dementia (SIDAM). The influence of perceived support on cognitive change was analysed by multivariate ANCOVA; mortality was analysed by multivariate logistic and cox regression. Results Sample cognitive change (N = 1,869): Mean age was 82.4 years (SD 3.3) at the beginning of the observation period, 65.9% were female, mean cognition was 49 (SD 4.4) in the SIDAM. Over the observation period cognitive function declined in 47.2% by a mean of 3.4 points. Sample mortality (N = 2,367): Mean age was 82.5 years (SD 3.4), 65.7% were female and 185 patients died during the observation period. Perceived social support showed no longitudinal association with cognitive change (F = 2.235; p = 0.135) and mortality (p = 0.332; CI 0.829-1.743). Conclusions Perceived social support did not influence cognition and mortality over an 18 months observation period. However, previous studies using different operationalisations of social support and longer observation periods indicate that such an influence may exist. This influence is

  6. Exercise at Different Ages and Appendicular Lean Mass and Strength in Later Life: Results From the Berlin Aging Study II.

    PubMed

    Eibich, Peter; Buchmann, Nikolaus; Kroh, Martin; Wagner, Gert G; Steinhagen-Thiessen, Elisabeth; Demuth, Ilja; Norman, Kristina

    2016-04-01

    Excessive loss of muscle mass in advanced age is a major risk factor for decreased physical ability and falls. Physical activity and exercise training are typically recommended to maintain muscle mass and prevent weakness. How exercise in different stages of life relates to muscle mass, grip strength, and risk for weakness in later life is not well understood. Baseline data on 891 participants at least 60 years old from the Berlin Aging Study II (BASE-II) were analyzed. Linear and logistic regressions of self-reported exercise in early adulthood, old age, or both on appendicular lean mass (ALM), grip strength, and a risk indicator for weakness (ALM/ body mass index cutoff) were calculated. In addition, treatment bounds are analyzed to address potential confounding using a method proposed by Oster. Analyses indicate that for men only, continuous exercise is significantly associated with higher muscle mass (SD = 0.24, p < .001), grip strength (SD = 0.18, p < .05), and lower risk for clinically relevant low muscle mass (odds ratio = 0.36, p < .01). Exercise in early adulthood alone is not significantly associated with muscle mass or strength. No significant associations were observed for women. The results of the current study underscore the importance of health programs to promote physical activity with a focus on young adults, a group known to be affected from environmentally associated decline of physical activity, and to promote the continuation of physical exercise from early adulthood into later life in general. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  7. Old age and vulnerability between first, second and third person perspectives. Ethnographic explorations of aging in contemporary Denmark.

    PubMed

    Grøn, Lone

    2016-12-01

    This paper is based on an ethnographic fieldwork aimed at exploring ethnographically how vulnerability in old age is perceived and experienced in contemporary Denmark. The fieldwork showed remarkable differences between two phases of the fieldwork: the first addressing vulnerability from the "outside" through group interviews with professionals, leaders and older people who were not (yet) vulnerable; and the second from the "inside" through more in depth fieldwork with older people who in diverse ways could be seen as vulnerable. After a short introduction to anthropological and social gerontological literature on characteristics of "Western" aging: medicalization, successful, healthy and active aging, I present findings from both phases of this ethnographic fieldwork arguing that the ethnographic approach reveals the composite and complex nature of vulnerability in old age and the constant interactions between first, second and third person perspectives. Through these methodological and analytical moves a complex and empirically tenable understanding of vulnerability in old age has emerged which 1. moves beyond rigid dichotomies that have characterized the study of old age, 2. integrates individual experience, social interaction and the structural and discursive context into the analysis, and 3. reveals the complex interplay between vulnerability and agency in diverse situations and settings of old age. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  8. Cortical grey matter content is associated with both age and bimanual performance, but is not observed to mediate age-related behavioural decline.

    PubMed

    van Ruitenbeek, Peter; Serbruyns, Leen; Solesio-Jofre, Elena; Meesen, Raf; Cuypers, Koen; Swinnen, Stephan P

    2017-01-01

    Declines in both cortical grey matter and bimanual coordination performance are evident in healthy ageing. However, the relationship between ageing, bimanual performance, and grey matter loss remains unclear, particularly across the whole adult lifespan. Therefore, participants (N = 93, range 20-80 years) performed a complex Bimanual Tracking Task, and structural brain images were obtained using magnetic resonance imaging. Analyses revealed that age correlated negatively with task performance. Voxel-based morphometry analysis revealed that age was associated with grey matter declines in task-relevant cortical areas and that grey matter in these areas was negatively associated with task performance. However, no evidence for a mediating effect of grey matter in age-related bimanual performance decline was observed. We propose a new hypothesis that functional compensation may account for the observed absence of mediation, which is in line with the observed pattern of increased inter-individual variance in performance with age.

  9. Aging of vestibular function evaluated using correlational vestibular autorotation test

    PubMed Central

    Hsieh, Li-Chun; Lin, Hung-Ching; Lee, Guo-She

    2014-01-01

    Background Imbalance from degeneration of vestibular end organs is a common problem in the elderly. However, the decline of vestibular function with aging was revealed in few vestibular function tests such as vestibular autorotation test (VAT). In the current VAT, there are drawbacks of poor test–retest reliability, slippage of the sensor at high-speed rotations, and limited data about the effect of aging. We developed a correlational-VAT (cVAT) system that included a small, light sensor (less than 20 g) with wireless data transmission technique to evaluate the aging of vestibular function. Material and methods We enrolled 53 healthy participants aged between 25 and 75 years and divided them into five age groups. The test conditions were vertical and horizontal head autorotations of frequencies from 0 to 3 Hz with closed eyes or open eyes. The cross-correlation coefficient (CCC) between eye velocity and head velocity was obtained for the head autorotations between 1 Hz and 3 Hz. The mean of the CCCs was used to represent the vestibular function. Results Age was significantly and negatively correlated with the mean CCC for all test conditions, including horizontal or vertical autorotations with open eyes or closed eyes (P<0.05). The mean CCC with open eyes declined significantly at 55–65 years old and the mean CCC with closed eyes declined significantly at 65–75 years old. Conclusion Vestibular function evaluated using mean CCC revealed a decline with age, and the function of visual-vestibulo-ocular reflex declined 10 years earlier than the function of vestibulo-ocular reflex. PMID:25214774

  10. Shift in skin microbiota of Western European women across aging.

    PubMed

    Jugé, Romain; Rouaud-Tinguely, Pauline; Breugnot, Josselin; Servaes, Katia; Grimaldi, Christine; Roth, Marie-Paule; Coppin, Hélène; Closs, Brigitte

    2018-05-23

    The objective of our study was to compare the microbiota diversity between two different age groups of Western European women. Skin-swab samples were collected directly on the forehead of 34 healthy Western European women: 17 younger (21-31 years old) and 17 older individuals (54-69 years old). Bacterial communities were evaluated using the 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Data revealed a higher alpha-diversity on the skin of older individuals compared to younger ones. Overall microbiota structure was different between the two age groups, as demonstrated by beta-diversity analysis, which also highlighted a high interpersonal variation within older individuals. Furthermore, taxonomic composition analysis showed both an increase of Proteobacteria and a decrease of Actinobacteria on the older skin. At the genus level, older skin exhibited a significant increase in Corynebacterium and a decrease in Propionibacterium relative abundance. Our study revealed a shift in the distribution of skin microbiota during chronological aging in Western European women. Altogether these results could become the basis to develop new approaches aiming to rebalance the skin microbiota, which is modified during the aging process. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

  11. Socioeconomic Status and Age Variations in Health-Related Quality of Life: Results From the National Health Measurement Study

    PubMed Central

    Cherepanov, Dasha; Palta, Mari; Dunham, Nancy Cross; Feeny, David; Fryback, Dennis G.

    2009-01-01

    Objectives We examine whether multiple health-related quality of life (HRQoL) measures are stratified by socioeconomic status (SES) and age in the United States. Methods Data are from the 2005/2006 National Health Measurement Study, a telephone survey of a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults. We plot mean HRQoL scores by SES within age groups. Regression analyses test whether education, income, and assets each have independent associations with three “preference-based” HRQoL measures and self-rated health (SRH). We test whether these associations vary by age. Results There are SES disparities in HRQoL and SRH among adults in the United States at all age groups. Income differentials in HRQoL are strong across current adult age cohorts, except the 75–89 age cohort. Education and assets have statistically significant but weaker associations with HRQoL. All three SES measures are associated with SRH (net of each other) at every age group. Those in the lowest income and education groups in the 35–44 age cohort have worse HRQoL and SRH than those in higher SES groups in the 65+ age cohort. Discussion Significant improvements in HRQoL at the population level will only be possible if we improve the HRQoL of people at the lowest end of the socioeconomic distribution. PMID:19307286

  12. Myths of ageing.

    PubMed

    Mulley, Graham

    2007-01-01

    Historical and contemporary images of ageing have generally reinforced negative stereotypes of old age. An examination of sculpture, painting, poetry, literature and film, as well as television, advertising, newspaper stories, birthday cards and road signs reveals that old age is often shown as being a time of loneliness, depression and physical decline. These conditions do occur but their prevalence and severity have been exaggerated. There are many myths of ageing that have been influenced by these representations: that old people with physical or cognitive decline are social problems; that families no longer care for their elders; that geriatric medicine is an unglamorous specialty. Low expectations of old people and ageist thinking can adversely affect how we speak of disadvantaged old people. The challenge is to question inaccurate assumptions. Key to the improvement of medical care of older people is to extend the teaching of geriatric medicine and improve and coordinate research.

  13. Depositional ages of clastic metasediments from Samos and Syros, Greece: results of a detrital zircon study

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Löwen, Kersten; Bröcker, Michael; Berndt, Jasper

    2015-01-01

    Siliciclastic metasediments from the islands of Samos and Syros, Cycladic blueschist unit, Greece, were studied to determine maximum sedimentation ages. Four samples from the Ampelos unit on Samos yielded age distribution spectra that range from ~320 Ma to ~3.2 Ga with a dominance of Cambrian-Neoproterozoic zircons (500-1,100 Ma). The youngest well-constrained age groups cluster at 500-550 Ma. Our results allow to link the Samos metasediments with occurrences showing similar age distribution patterns elsewhere in the eastern Mediterranean region (Greece, Turkey, Libya, Israel and Jordan) that record the influx of `Pan-African' detritus. The lack of post-500-Ma zircons in the Samos samples is in marked contrast to the data from Syros that indicates Triassic to Cretaceous depositional ages. The samples from Syros were collected from the matrix of a meta-ophiolitic mélange that is exposed near the top of the metamorphic succession as well as from outcrops representing the basal part of the underlying marble-schist sequence. The zircon populations from Syros were mainly supplied by Mesozoic sources dominated by Triassic protolith ages. Subordinate is the importance of pre-Triassic zircons, but this may reflect bias induced by the research strategy. Sediment accumulation continued until Late Cretaceous time, but the overall contribution of Jurassic to Cretaceous detritus is more limited. Zircon populations are dominated by grains with small degree of rounding suggesting relatively short sediment transportation. Available observations are in accordance with a model suggesting deposition close to the magmatic source rocks.

  14. Mobile Eye Tracking Reveals Little Evidence for Age Differences in Attentional Selection for Mood Regulation

    PubMed Central

    Isaacowitz, Derek M.; Livingstone, Kimberly M.; Harris, Julia A.; Marcotte, Stacy L.

    2014-01-01

    We report two studies representing the first use of mobile eye tracking to study emotion regulation across adulthood. Past research on age differences in attentional deployment using stationary eye tracking has found older adults show relatively more positive looking, and seem to benefit more mood-wise from this looking pattern, compared to younger adults. However, these past studies have greatly constrained the stimuli participants can look at, despite real-world settings providing numerous possibilities for what to choose to look at. We therefore used mobile eye tracking to study age differences in attentional selection, as indicated by fixation patterns to stimuli of different valence freely chosen by the participant. In contrast to stationary eye tracking studies of attentional deployment, Study 1 showed that younger and older individuals generally selected similar proportions of valenced stimuli, and attentional selection had similar effects on mood across age groups. Study 2 replicated this pattern with an adult lifespan sample including middle-aged individuals. Emotion regulation-relevant attention may thus differ depending on whether stimuli are freely chosen or not. PMID:25527965

  15. Signaling pathway activation drift during aging: Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome fibroblasts are comparable to normal middle-age and old-age cells.

    PubMed

    Aliper, Alexander M; Csoka, Antonei Benjamin; Buzdin, Anton; Jetka, Tomasz; Roumiantsev, Sergey; Moskalev, Alexy; Zhavoronkov, Alex

    2015-01-01

    For the past several decades, research in understanding the molecular basis of human aging has progressed significantly with the analysis of premature aging syndromes. Progerin, an altered form of lamin A, has been identified as the cause of premature aging in Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome (HGPS), and may be a contributing causative factor in normal aging. However, the question of whether HGPS actually recapitulates the normal aging process at the cellular and organismal level, or simply mimics the aging phenotype is widely debated. In the present study we analyzed publicly available microarray datasets for fibroblasts undergoing cellular aging in culture, as well as fibroblasts derived from young, middle-age, and old-age individuals, and patients with HGPS. Using GeroScope pathway analysis and drug discovery platform we analyzed the activation states of 65 major cellular signaling pathways. Our analysis reveals that signaling pathway activation states in cells derived from chronologically young patients with HGPS strongly resemble cells taken from normal middle-aged and old individuals. This clearly indicates that HGPS may truly represent accelerated aging, rather than being just a simulacrum. Our data also points to potential pathways that could be targeted to develop drugs and drug combinations for both HGPS and normal aging.

  16. [The influence of substances revealing geroprotective of spontaneous carcinogenesis in mice].

    PubMed

    Popovich, I G

    2004-01-01

    The review presents the results of experimental studies conducted by the author. CBA, SHR, HER-2/neu and SAM mice revealed inhibition of age-related alterations in estrus function and spontaneous tumour development and showed life span extension under the influence of the pineal gland hormone Melatonin, synthetic peptide bioregulator Epitalon, delta-sleep-inducing peptide Deltaran, enterosorbent Aqualen and succinic acid containing preparation Neuronol (Noogam). The observed effect depended on the dose and conditions of administration, as well as genetic predisposition of the particular mice strains to tumour development.

  17. Plasticity of the aging brain: new directions in cognitive neuroscience.

    PubMed

    Gutchess, Angela

    2014-10-31

    Cognitive neuroscience has revealed aging of the human brain to be rich in reorganization and change. Neuroimaging results have recast our framework around cognitive aging from one of decline to one emphasizing plasticity. Current methods use neurostimulation approaches to manipulate brain function, providing a direct test of the ways that the brain differently contributes to task performance for younger and older adults. Emerging research into emotional, social, and motivational domains provides some evidence for preservation with age, suggesting potential avenues of plasticity, alongside additional evidence for reorganization. Thus, we begin to see that aging of the brain, amidst interrelated behavioral and biological changes, is as complex and idiosyncratic as the brain itself, qualitatively changing over the life span. Copyright © 2014, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

  18. Centrosome and microtubule instability in aging Drosophila cells

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Schatten, H.; Chakrabarti, A.; Hedrick, J.

    1999-01-01

    Several cytoskeletal changes are associated with aging which includes alterations in muscle structure leading to muscular atrophy, and weakening of the microtubule network which affects cellular secretion and maintenance of cell shape. Weakening of the microtubule network during meiosis in aging oocytes can result in aneuploidy or trisomic zygotes with increasing maternal age. Imbalances of cytoskeletal organization can lead to disease such as Alzheimer's, muscular disorders, and cancer. Because many cytoskeletal diseases are related to age we investigated the effects of aging on microtubule organization in cell cultures of the Drosophila cell model system (Schneider S-1 and Kc23 cell lines). This cell model is increasingly being used as an alternative system to mammalian cell cultures. Drosophila cells are amenable to genetic manipulations and can be used to identify and manipulate genes which are involved in the aging processes. Immunofluorescence, scanning, and transmission electron microscopy were employed for the analysis of microtubule organizing centers (centrosomes) and microtubules at various times after subculturing cells in fresh medium. Our results reveal that centrosomes and the microtubule network becomes significantly affected in aging cells after 5 days of subculture. At 5-14 days of subculture, 1% abnormal out of 3% mitoses were noted which were clearly distinguishable from freshly subcultured control cells in which 3% of cells undergo normal mitosis with bipolar configurations. Microtubules are also affected in the midbody during cell division. The midbody in aging cells becomes up to 10 times longer when compared with midbodies in freshly subcultured cells. During interphase, microtubules are often disrupted and disorganized, which may indicate improper function related to transport of cell organelles along microtubules. These results are likely to help explain some cytoskeletal disorders and diseases related to aging.

  19. [Active and healthy living in old age--results from a representative survey of community-dwelling senior citizens in Hamburg].

    PubMed

    Dapp, Ulrike; Lorentz, Ch; Laub, S; Anders, J; von Renteln-Kruse, W; Minder, Ch; Dirksen-Fischer, M

    2009-06-01

    The majority of community-dwelling people 60 years and older are independent and live actively. However, there is little information about elderly persons' views on aging, health and health promotion. Therefore, an anonymous, written questionnaire survey was performed in a representative sample of inhabitants from a section of the city of Hamburg, 60 years and older; 5 year intervals, 14 subsamples according to 7 age groups of females and males. Questionnaires from 950 participants (29% response) could be evaluated: mean age 71.5 years, 58% women, 34% living alone, 5% with professional healthcare needs as indicated by status according to German nursing care insurance. Senior citizens' positive attitudes towards aging and health were predominant: 69% of respondents felt young, 85% worried about loss of autonomy in old age. The results provide evidence indicating potential for improving health-promoting lifestyles in parts of the older population by evaluating and strengthening older persons' competencies and by considering their concerns seriously. These results provide valuable information for future plans in the public-health sector in the city of Hamburg where particular health-promoting actions for elderly persons will be considered.

  20. Ancient X chromosomes reveal contrasting sex bias in Neolithic and Bronze Age Eurasian migrations.

    PubMed

    Goldberg, Amy; Günther, Torsten; Rosenberg, Noah A; Jakobsson, Mattias

    2017-03-07

    Dramatic events in human prehistory, such as the spread of agriculture to Europe from Anatolia and the late Neolithic/Bronze Age migration from the Pontic-Caspian Steppe, can be investigated using patterns of genetic variation among the people who lived in those times. In particular, studies of differing female and male demographic histories on the basis of ancient genomes can provide information about complexities of social structures and cultural interactions in prehistoric populations. We use a mechanistic admixture model to compare the sex-specifically-inherited X chromosome with the autosomes in 20 early Neolithic and 16 late Neolithic/Bronze Age human remains. Contrary to previous hypotheses suggested by the patrilocality of many agricultural populations, we find no evidence of sex-biased admixture during the migration that spread farming across Europe during the early Neolithic. For later migrations from the Pontic Steppe during the late Neolithic/Bronze Age, however, we estimate a dramatic male bias, with approximately five to 14 migrating males for every migrating female. We find evidence of ongoing, primarily male, migration from the steppe to central Europe over a period of multiple generations, with a level of sex bias that excludes a pulse migration during a single generation. The contrasting patterns of sex-specific migration during these two migrations suggest a view of differing cultural histories in which the Neolithic transition was driven by mass migration of both males and females in roughly equal numbers, perhaps whole families, whereas the later Bronze Age migration and cultural shift were instead driven by male migration, potentially connected to new technology and conquest.

  1. Y-chromosome phylogeographic analysis of the Greek-Cypriot population reveals elements consistent with Neolithic and Bronze Age settlements.

    PubMed

    Voskarides, Konstantinos; Mazières, Stéphane; Hadjipanagi, Despina; Di Cristofaro, Julie; Ignatiou, Anastasia; Stefanou, Charalambos; King, Roy J; Underhill, Peter A; Chiaroni, Jacques; Deltas, Constantinos

    2016-01-01

    The archeological record indicates that the permanent settlement of Cyprus began with pioneering agriculturalists circa 11,000 years before present, (ca. 11,000 y BP). Subsequent colonization events followed, some recognized regionally. Here, we assess the Y-chromosome structure of Cyprus in context to regional populations and correlate it to phases of prehistoric colonization. Analysis of haplotypes from 574 samples showed that island-wide substructure was barely significant in a spatial analysis of molecular variance (SAMOVA). However, analyses of molecular variance (AMOVA) of haplogroups using 92 binary markers genotyped in 629 Cypriots revealed that the proportion of variance among the districts was irregularly distributed. Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed potential genetic associations of Greek-Cypriots with neighbor populations. Contrasting haplogroups in the PCA were used as surrogates of parental populations. Admixture analyses suggested that the majority of G2a-P15 and R1b-M269 components were contributed by Anatolia and Levant sources, respectively, while Greece Balkans supplied the majority of E-V13 and J2a-M67. Haplotype-based expansion times were at historical levels suggestive of recent demography. Analyses of Cypriot haplogroup data are consistent with two stages of prehistoric settlement. E-V13 and E-M34 are widespread, and PCA suggests sourcing them to the Balkans and Levant/Anatolia, respectively. The persistent pre-Greek component is represented by elements of G2-U5(xL30) haplogroups: U5*, PF3147, and L293. J2b-M205 may contribute also to the pre-Greek strata. The majority of R1b-Z2105 lineages occur in both the westernmost and easternmost districts. Distinctively, sub-haplogroup R1b- M589 occurs only in the east. The absence of R1b- M589 lineages in Crete and the Balkans and the presence in Asia Minor are compatible with Late Bronze Age influences from Anatolia rather than from Mycenaean Greeks.

  2. Age-related changes in serological susceptibility patterns to measles: results from a seroepidemiological study in Dongguan, China.

    PubMed

    Xiong, Yongzhen; Wang, Dong; Lin, Weiyan; Tang, Hao; Chen, Shaoli; Ni, Jindong

    2014-01-01

    The present study was performed to determine the seroprevalence of IgG measles antibodies in Dongguan residents (irrespective of vaccination status), to analyze the changes in age-related serological susceptibility patterns. A total of 1960 residents aged 0-60 years and 315 mother-infant pairs were studied. Serum IgG antibodies against measles virus were measured by ELISA. The overall seroprevalence was 93.4% in the general population in Dongguan, China. In subgroups aged 1-29 years who were likely vaccinated, there was a declining trend of seropositivity with age from 98.6% at 1-4 years to 85.7% at 20-29 years (P<0.0001). Seroprevalence were near or>95% in the older population (30-39 years and ≥ 40 years) who had not been immunized against measles. Age and sex were independent factors associated with seropositivity. Seroprevalence in pregnant women and their newborns was 87.0% and 84.1%, respectively. Our results suggest that the waning vaccine-induced immunity may be the main cause of increased serological susceptibility in young adults and young infants. An additional vaccination strategy that targets young adults is important for elimination of measles.

  3. GH Mediates Exercise-Dependent Activation of SVZ Neural Precursor Cells in Aged Mice

    PubMed Central

    Blackmore, Daniel G.; Vukovic, Jana; Waters, Michael J.; Bartlett, Perry F.

    2012-01-01

    Here we demonstrate, both in vivo and in vitro, that growth hormone (GH) mediates precursor cell activation in the subventricular zone (SVZ) of the aged (12-month-old) brain following exercise, and that GH signaling stimulates precursor activation to a similar extent to exercise. Our results reveal that both addition of GH in culture and direct intracerebroventricular infusion of GH stimulate neural precursor cells in the aged brain. In contrast, no increase in neurosphere numbers was observed in GH receptor null animals following exercise. Continuous infusion of a GH antagonist into the lateral ventricle of wild-type animals completely abolished the exercise-induced increase in neural precursor cell number. Given that the aged brain does not recover well after injury, we investigated the direct effect of exercise and GH on neural precursor cell activation following irradiation. This revealed that physical exercise as well as infusion of GH promoted repopulation of neural precursor cells in irradiated aged animals. Conversely, infusion of a GH antagonist during exercise prevented recovery of precursor cells in the SVZ following irradiation. PMID:23209615

  4. The Onset of STI Diagnosis through Age 30: Results from the Seattle Social Development Project Intervention

    PubMed Central

    Hill, Karl G.; Bailey, Jennifer A.; Hawkins, J. David; Catalano, Richard F.; Kosterman, Rick; Oesterle, Sabrina; Abbott, Robert D.

    2013-01-01

    Objectives To examine (1) whether onset of sexually transmitted infections (STI) through age 30 differed for youths who received a social developmental intervention during elementary grades compared to those in the control condition; (2) potential social-developmental mediators of this intervention; and (3) the extent to which these results differed by ethnicity. Design A nonrandomized controlled trial followed participants to age 30, 18 years after the intervention ended. Three intervention conditions were compared: a full intervention group, assigned to intervention in grades 1 through 6; a late intervention group, assigned to intervention in grades 5 and 6 only; and a no-treatment control group. Setting Eighteen public elementary schools serving diverse neighborhoods including high-crime neighborhoods of Seattle. Analysis Sample 608 participants in three intervention conditions interviewed from age 10 through 30. Interventions Teacher training in classroom instruction and management, child social and emotional skill development, and parent workshops. Outcome Cumulative onset of participant report of STI diagnosis. Intervention Mechanisms Adolescent family environment, bonding to school, antisocial peer affiliation, early sex initiation, alcohol use, cigarette use, and marijuana use were tested. Analysis and Results Complementary log-log survival analysis found significantly lower odds of STI onset for the full intervention compared to the control condition. The lowering of STI onset risk was significantly greater for African Americans and Asian Americans compared to European Americans. Family environment, school bonding and delayed initiation of sexual behavior mediated the relationship between treatment and STI hazard. Conclusions A universal intervention for urban elementary school children, focused on classroom management and instruction, children’s social competence, and parenting practices may reduce the onset of STI through age 30, especially for African

  5. Staying on Task: Age-Related Changes in the Relationship Between Executive Functioning and Response Time Consistency.

    PubMed

    Vasquez, Brandon P; Binns, Malcolm A; Anderson, Nicole D

    2016-03-01

    Little is known about the relationship of executive functioning with age-related increases in response time (RT) distribution indices (intraindividual standard deviation [ISD], and ex-Gaussian parameters mu, sigma, tau). The goals of this study were to (a) replicate findings of age-related changes in response time distribution indices during an engaging touch-screen RT task and (b) investigate age-related changes in the relationship between executive functioning and RT distribution indices. Healthy adults (24 young [aged 18-30], 24 young-old [aged 65-74], and 24 old-old [aged 75-85]) completed a touch-screen attention task and a battery of neuropsychological tests. The relationships between RT performance and executive functions were examined with structural equation modeling (SEM). ISD, mu, and tau, but not sigma, increased with age. SEM revealed tau as the most salient RT index associated with neuropsychological measures of executive functioning. Further analysis demonstrated that correlations between tau and a weighted executive function composite were significant only in the old-old group. Our results replicate findings of greater RT inconsistency in older adults and reveal that executive functioning is related to tau in adults aged 75-85. These results support literature identifying tau as a marker of cognitive control, which deteriorates in old age. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  6. How an aging society affects the economic costs of inactivity in Germany: empirical evidence and projections.

    PubMed

    Dallmeyer, Sören; Wicker, Pamela; Breuer, Christoph

    2017-01-01

    Aging societies represent a major challenge for health care systems all over the world. As older people tend to be more physically inactive, economic costs of inactivity are likely to increase notably. The present study aims to investigate this relationship between an aging society and economic costs of inactivity using the example of Germany. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, this study applied the comparative risk assessment method developed by the WHO to estimate the direct costs of inactivity for the period 2001-2013 differentiated by gender-specific age-groups (15-29; 30-44; 45-64; 65+). Based on population statistics predicting the aging of the German population for the years 2014-2060, this research projects the development of future costs of inactivity and potential effects of interventions promoting physical activity among the German population. The results reveal an increase in the level of physical activity during the observed period (2001-2013) which compensated the negative effect of aging and resulted in a decline of inactivity costs. The projections for the years 2014-2060 indicate a constant increase in direct per capita costs until 2060 because of an aging society. Scenarios indicating how a short-term reduction of physical inactivity impacts costs of inactivity reveal the crucial role of the oldest age-group in this context. The findings indicate that the aging of the German population demands further actions and initiatives to promote physical activity, especially for the oldest age-group.

  7. Age effects on visual-perceptual processing and confrontation naming.

    PubMed

    Gutherie, Audrey H; Seely, Peter W; Beacham, Lauren A; Schuchard, Ronald A; De l'Aune, William A; Moore, Anna Bacon

    2010-03-01

    The impact of age-related changes in visual-perceptual processing on naming ability has not been reported. The present study investigated the effects of 6 levels of spatial frequency and 6 levels of contrast on accuracy and latency to name objects in 14 young and 13 older neurologically normal adults with intact lexical-semantic functioning. Spatial frequency and contrast manipulations were made independently. Consistent with the hypotheses, variations in these two visual parameters impact naming ability in young and older subjects differently. The results from the spatial frequency-manipulations revealed that, in general, young vs. older subjects are faster and more accurate to name. However, this age-related difference is dependent on the spatial frequency on the image; differences were only seen for images presented at low (e.g., 0.25-1 c/deg) or high (e.g., 8-16 c/deg) spatial frequencies. Contrary to predictions, the results from the contrast manipulations revealed that overall older vs. young adults are more accurate to name. Again, however, differences were only seen for images presented at the lower levels of contrast (i.e., 1.25%). Both age groups had shorter latencies on the second exposure of the contrast-manipulated images, but this possible advantage of exposure was not seen for spatial frequency. Category analyses conducted on the data from this study indicate that older vs. young adults exhibit a stronger nonliving-object advantage for naming spatial frequency-manipulated images. Moreover, the findings suggest that bottom-up visual-perceptual variables integrate with top-down category information in different ways. Potential implications on the aging and naming (and recognition) literature are discussed.

  8. Age and input effects in the acquisition of mood in Heritage Portuguese.

    PubMed

    Flores, Cristina; Santos, Ana Lúcia; Jesus, Alice; Marques, Rui

    2017-07-01

    The present study analyzes the effect of age and amount of input in the acquisition of European Portuguese as a heritage language. An elicited production task centred on mood choice in complement clauses was applied to a group of fifty bilingual children (six- to sixteen-year-olds) who are acquiring Portuguese as a minority language in a German dominant environment. The results show a significant effect of the age at testing and the amount of input in the acquisition of the subjunctive. In general, acquisition is delayed with respect to monolinguals, even though higher convergence with the monolingual grammar is observed after twelve years of age. Results also reveal that children with more exposure to the heritage language at home show faster acquisition than children from mixed households: the eight- to nine-year-old age boundary seems relevant for those speakers with more exposure, and the twelve- to thirteen-year-old age boundary for those with less exposure.

  9. N,S,O-Heterocycles in Aged Champagne Reserve Wines and Correlation with Free Amino Acid Concentrations.

    PubMed

    Le Menn, Nicolas; Marchand, Stephanie; de Revel, Gilles; Demarville, Dominique; Laborde, Delphine; Marchal, Richard

    2017-03-22

    Champagne regulations allow winegrowers to stock still wines to compensate for quality shifts in vintages, mainly due to climate variations. According to their technical requirements and house style, Champagne producers use these stored wines in their blends to enhance complexity. The presence of lees and aging at low pH (2.95-3.15), as in Champagne wines, lead to several modifications in wine composition. These conditions, combined with extended aging, result in the required environment for the Maillard chemical reaction, involving aromatic molecules, including sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen heterocycles (such as thiazole, furan, and pyrazine derivatives), which may have a sensory impact on wine. Some aromatic heterocycles in 50 monovarietal wines aged from 1 to 27 years provided by Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin Champagne house were determined by the SPME-GC-MS method. The most interesting result highlighted a strong correlation between certain heterocycle concentrations and wine age. The second revealed a correlation between heterocyclic compound and free amino acid concentrations measured in the wines, suggesting that these compounds are potential aromatic precursors when wine is aged on lees and, thus, potential key compounds in the bouquet of aged Champagnes. The principal outcome of these assays was to reveal, for the first time, that aromatic heterocycle concentrations in Champagne base wines are correlated with wine age.

  10. Single-crystal 40Ar/39Ar incremental heating reveals bimodal sanidine ages in the Bishop Tuff

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Andersen, N. L.; Jicha, B. R.; Singer, B. S.

    2015-12-01

    The 650 km3 Bishop Tuff (BT) is among the most studied volcanic deposits because it is an extensive marker bed deposited just after the Matuyama-Brunhes boundary. Reconstructions of the vast BT magma reservoir from which high-silica rhyolite erupted have long influenced thinking about how large silicic magma systems are assembled, crystallized, and mixed. Yet, the longevity of the high silica rhyolitic melt and exact timing of the eruption remain controversial due to recent conflicting 40Ar/39Ar sanidine vs. SIMS and ID-TIMS U-Pb zircon dates. We have undertaken 21 40Ar/39Ar incremental heating ages on 2 mm BT sanidine crystals from pumice in 3 widely separated outcrops of early-erupted fall and flow units. Plateau ages yield a bimodal distribution: a younger group has a mean of 766 ka and an older group gives a range between 772 and 782 ka. The younger population is concordant with the youngest ID-TIMS and SIMS U-Pb zircon ages recently published, as well as the astronomical age of BT in marine sediment. Of 21 crystals, 17 yield older, non-plateau, steps likely affected by excess Ar that would bias traditional 40Ar/39Ar total crystal fusion ages. The small spread in older sanidine ages, together with 25+ kyr of pre-eruptive zircon growth, suggest that the older sanidines are not partially outgassed xenocrysts. A bimodal 40Ar/39Ar age distribution implies that some fraction of rhyolitic melt cooled below the Ar closure temperature at least 10 ky prior to eruption. We propose that rapid "thawing" of a crystalline mush layer released older crystals into rhyolitic melt from which sanidine also nucleated and grew immediately prior to the eruption. High precision 40Ar/39Ar dating can thus provide essential information on thermo-physical processes at the millenial time scale that are critical to interpreting U-Pb zircon age distributions that are complicated by large uncertainties associated with zircon-melt U-Th systematics.

  11. Gender and age variations in the self-image of Jamaican adolescents.

    PubMed

    Smith, D E; Muenchen, R A

    1995-01-01

    The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationships among gender, age, and self-image of adolescents attending three secondary schools in Jamaica. The relatively few studies that have been done regarding self-perceptions of these youth are not only dated but have utilized a unidimensional conceptualization of the self. The Offer Self-Image Questionnaire which employs a multidimensional construct of the self was administered to a sample of 174 Jamaican adolescents ranging in age from 14 to 18 years (M = 15.90 years, SD = 1.21). Results revealed statistically significant effects for both gender and age. Gender was found to be significant on one self-image dimension: Morals, while age differences were evident on six dimensions: Social Relationships, Morals, Sexual Attitudes, Mastery of the External World, Vocational and Educational Goals, and Emotional Health. The results in some instances were contrary to those of past research. Discussion focused on cultural socialization and other factors affecting youth in Jamaican society.

  12. Iron Age and Anglo-Saxon genomes from East England reveal British migration history

    PubMed Central

    Schiffels, Stephan; Haak, Wolfgang; Paajanen, Pirita; Llamas, Bastien; Popescu, Elizabeth; Loe, Louise; Clarke, Rachel; Lyons, Alice; Mortimer, Richard; Sayer, Duncan; Tyler-Smith, Chris; Cooper, Alan; Durbin, Richard

    2016-01-01

    British population history has been shaped by a series of immigrations, including the early Anglo-Saxon migrations after 400 CE. It remains an open question how these events affected the genetic composition of the current British population. Here, we present whole-genome sequences from 10 individuals excavated close to Cambridge in the East of England, ranging from the late Iron Age to the middle Anglo-Saxon period. By analysing shared rare variants with hundreds of modern samples from Britain and Europe, we estimate that on average the contemporary East English population derives 38% of its ancestry from Anglo-Saxon migrations. We gain further insight with a new method, rarecoal, which infers population history and identifies fine-scale genetic ancestry from rare variants. Using rarecoal we find that the Anglo-Saxon samples are closely related to modern Dutch and Danish populations, while the Iron Age samples share ancestors with multiple Northern European populations including Britain. PMID:26783965

  13. Iron Age and Anglo-Saxon genomes from East England reveal British migration history.

    PubMed

    Schiffels, Stephan; Haak, Wolfgang; Paajanen, Pirita; Llamas, Bastien; Popescu, Elizabeth; Loe, Louise; Clarke, Rachel; Lyons, Alice; Mortimer, Richard; Sayer, Duncan; Tyler-Smith, Chris; Cooper, Alan; Durbin, Richard

    2016-01-19

    British population history has been shaped by a series of immigrations, including the early Anglo-Saxon migrations after 400 CE. It remains an open question how these events affected the genetic composition of the current British population. Here, we present whole-genome sequences from 10 individuals excavated close to Cambridge in the East of England, ranging from the late Iron Age to the middle Anglo-Saxon period. By analysing shared rare variants with hundreds of modern samples from Britain and Europe, we estimate that on average the contemporary East English population derives 38% of its ancestry from Anglo-Saxon migrations. We gain further insight with a new method, rarecoal, which infers population history and identifies fine-scale genetic ancestry from rare variants. Using rarecoal we find that the Anglo-Saxon samples are closely related to modern Dutch and Danish populations, while the Iron Age samples share ancestors with multiple Northern European populations including Britain.

  14. Relations between Preschool Attention Span-Persistence and Age 25 Educational Outcomes.

    PubMed

    McClelland, Megan M; Acock, Alan C; Piccinin, Andrea; Rhea, Sally Ann; Stallings, Michael C

    2013-04-01

    This study examined relations between children's attention span-persistence in preschool and later school achievement and college completion. Children were drawn from the Colorado Adoption Project using adopted and non-adopted children ( N = 430). Results of structural equation modeling indicated that children's age 4 attention span-persistence significantly predicted math and reading achievement at age 21 after controlling for achievement levels at age 7, adopted status, child vocabulary skills, gender, and maternal education level. Relations between attention span-persistence and later achievement were not fully mediated by age 7 achievement levels. Logistic regressions also revealed that age 4 attention span-persistence skills significantly predicted the odds of completing college by age 25. The majority of this relationship was direct and was not significantly mediated by math or reading skills at age 7 or age 21. Specifically, children who were rated one standard deviation higher on attention span-persistence at age 4 had 48.7% greater odds of completing college by age 25. Discussion focuses on the importance of children's early attention span-persistence for later school achievement and educational attainment.

  15. Age-related white matter integrity differences in oldest-old without dementia.

    PubMed

    Bennett, Ilana J; Greenia, Dana E; Maillard, Pauline; Sajjadi, S Ahmad; DeCarli, Charles; Corrada, Maria M; Kawas, Claudia H

    2017-08-01

    Aging is known to have deleterious effects on cerebral white matter, yet little is known about these white matter alterations in advanced age. In this study, 94 oldest-old adults without dementia (90-103 years) underwent diffusion tensor imaging to assess relationships between chronological age and multiple measures of integrity in 18 white matter regions across the brain. Results revealed significant age-related declines in integrity in regions previously identified as being sensitive to aging in younger-old adults (corpus callosum, fornix, cingulum, external capsule). For the corpus callosum, the effect of age on genu fractional anisotropy was significantly weaker than the relationship between age and splenium fractional anisotropy. Importantly, age-related declines in white matter integrity did not differ in cognitively normal and cognitively impaired not demented oldest-old, suggesting that they were not solely driven by cognitive dysfunction or preclinical dementia in this advanced age group. Instead, white matter in these regions appears to remain vulnerable to normal aging processes through the 10th decade of life. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  16. A corticostriatal deficit promotes temporal distortion of automatic action in ageing

    PubMed Central

    Matamales, Miriam; Skrbis, Zala; Bailey, Matthew R; Balsam, Peter D; Balleine, Bernard W; Götz, Jürgen

    2017-01-01

    The acquisition of motor skills involves implementing action sequences that increase task efficiency while reducing cognitive loads. This learning capacity depends on specific cortico-basal ganglia circuits that are affected by normal ageing. Here, combining a series of novel behavioural tasks with extensive neuronal mapping and targeted cell manipulations in mice, we explored how ageing of cortico-basal ganglia networks alters the microstructure of action throughout sequence learning. We found that, after extended training, aged mice produced shorter actions and displayed squeezed automatic behaviours characterised by ultrafast oligomeric action chunks that correlated with deficient reorganisation of corticostriatal activity. Chemogenetic disruption of a striatal subcircuit in young mice reproduced age-related within-sequence features, and the introduction of an action-related feedback cue temporarily restored normal sequence structure in aged mice. Our results reveal static properties of aged cortico-basal ganglia networks that introduce temporal limits to action automaticity, something that can compromise procedural learning in ageing. PMID:29058672

  17. Financial literacy is associated with medial brain region functional connectivity in old age.

    PubMed

    Han, S Duke; Boyle, Patricia A; Yu, Lei; Fleischman, Debra A; Arfanakis, Konstantinos; Leurgans, Sue; Bennett, David A

    2014-01-01

    Financial literacy refers to the ability to access and utilize financial information in ways that promote better outcomes. In old age, financial literacy has been associated with a wide range of positive characteristics; however, the neural correlates remain unclear. Recent work has suggested greater co-activity between anterior-posterior medial brain regions is associated with better brain functioning. We hypothesized financial literacy would be associated with this pattern. We assessed whole-brain functional connectivity to a posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) seed region of interest (ROI) in 138 participants of the Rush Memory and Aging Project. Results revealed financial literacy was associated with greater functional connectivity between the PCC and three regions: the right ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), the left postcentral gyrus, and the right precuneus. Results also revealed financial literacy was associated negatively with functional connectivity between the PCC and left caudate. Post hoc analyses showed the PCC-vmPFC relationship accounted for the most variance in a regression model adjusted for all four significant functional connectivity relationships, demographic factors, and global cognition. These findings provide information on the neural mechanisms associated with financial literacy in old age. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  18. Financial Literacy is Associated with Medial Brain Region Functional Connectivity in Old Age

    PubMed Central

    Han, S. Duke; Boyle, Patricia A.; Yu, Lei; Fleischman, Debra A.; Arfanakis, Konstantinos; Leurgans, Sue; Bennett, David A.

    2014-01-01

    Financial literacy refers to the ability to access and utilize financial information in ways that promote better outcomes. In old age, financial literacy has been associated with a wide range of positive characteristics; however, the neural correlates remain unclear. Recent work has suggested greater co-activity between anterior-posterior medial brain regions is associated with better brain functioning. We hypothesized financial literacy would be associated with this pattern. We assessed whole-brain functional connectivity to a posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) seed region of interest in 138 participants of the Rush Memory and Aging Project. Results revealed financial literacy was associated with greater functional connectivity between the PCC and three regions: the right ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), the left postcentral gyrus, and the right precuneus. Results also revealed financial literacy was associated negatively with functional connectivity between the PCC and left caudate. Post-hoc analyses showed the PCC-vmPFC relationship accounted for the most variance in a regression model adjusted for all four significant functional connectivity relationships, demographic factors, and global cognition. These findings provide information on the neural mechanisms associated with financial literacy in old age. PMID:24893911

  19. Anti-aging medicine: a patient/practitioner movement to redefine aging.

    PubMed

    Mykytyn, Courtney Everts

    2006-02-01

    Having enjoyed tremendous growth for the past 5 years, the anti-aging medicine movement is redefining aging so that it becomes a target for biomedical intervention. Targeting aging for intervention dislodges popular understandings of aging: for anti-aging practitioners it no longer matters if aging is natural since it can be itself the target of therapy. So-called "age-associated" diseases like cancer are, in this framework, conceived of as symptoms of aging. Anti-aging medicine is a broad term that may comprise groups selling remedies over the Internet, companies touting the "anti-aging"ness of their products, practitioners who work outside of scientific medicine, and practitioners of anti-aging medicine in clinics who believe that their work is strictly scientific. This article, drawing from more than 3 years of ethnographic interviews, participant observation in clinics and conferences, and a review of the literature, considers the last group. It examines the involvement stories of anti-aging medicine practitioners in two Western United States metropolitan cities. These stories reflect the practices of anti-aging medicine practitioners and the accompanying rationale for involvement. Often originally patients themselves, practitioners frame their involvement with the anti-aging movement in three ways. First, they describe aging as it is currently experienced as a time of decline, suffering, and weakness. This anguish is not inevitable, they argue, and their work toward treating aging biomedically is situated as clearly moral. Secondly, intense frustration with the current biomedical environment has motivated practitioners to look for other ways in which to practice: anti-aging medicine is their chosen alternative. Finally, with dramatic expectations of future biotechnologies and disdain for current medical treatments of old age, anti-aging practitioners embrace a scientific revolutionary identity. These stories of migrations from patient to practitioner reveal

  20. Influence of ROBO1 and RORA on risk of age-related macular degeneration reveals genetically distinct phenotypes in disease pathophysiology.

    PubMed

    Jun, Gyungah; Nicolaou, Michael; Morrison, Margaux A; Buros, Jacqueline; Morgan, Denise J; Radeke, Monte J; Yonekawa, Yoshihiro; Tsironi, Evangelia E; Kotoula, Maria G; Zacharaki, Fani; Mollema, Nissa; Yuan, Yang; Miller, Joan W; Haider, Neena B; Hageman, Gregory S; Kim, Ivana K; Schaumberg, Debra A; Farrer, Lindsay A; DeAngelis, Margaret M

    2011-01-01

    ROBO1 is a strong candidate gene for age-related macular degeneration (AMD) based upon its location under a linkage peak on chromosome 3p12, its expression pattern, and its purported function in a pathway that includes RORA, a gene previously associated with risk for neovascular AMD. Previously, we observed that expression of ROBO1 and RORA is down-regulated among wet AMD cases, as compared to their unaffected siblings. Thus, we hypothesized that contribution of association signals in ROBO1, and interaction between these two genes may be important for both wet and dry AMD. We evaluated association of 19 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in ROBO1 with wet and dry stages of AMD in a sibling cohort and a Greek case-control cohort containing 491 wet AMD cases, 174 dry AMD cases and 411 controls. Association signals and interaction results were replicated in an independent prospective cohort (1070 controls, 164 wet AMD cases, 293 dry AMD cases). The most significantly associated ROBO1 SNPs were rs1387665 under an additive model (meta P = 0.028) for wet AMD and rs9309833 under a recessive model (meta P = 6 × 10(-4)) for dry AMD. Further analyses revealed interaction between ROBO1 rs9309833 and RORA rs8034864 for both wet and dry AMD (interaction P<0.05). These studies were further supported by whole transcriptome expression profile studies from 66 human donor eyes and chromatin immunoprecipitation assays from mouse retinas. These findings suggest that distinct ROBO1 variants may influence the risk of wet and dry AMD, and the effects of ROBO1 on AMD risk may be modulated by RORA variants.

  1. Aging scaled Brownian motion

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Safdari, Hadiseh; Chechkin, Aleksei V.; Jafari, Gholamreza R.; Metzler, Ralf

    2015-04-01

    Scaled Brownian motion (SBM) is widely used to model anomalous diffusion of passive tracers in complex and biological systems. It is a highly nonstationary process governed by the Langevin equation for Brownian motion, however, with a power-law time dependence of the noise strength. Here we study the aging properties of SBM for both unconfined and confined motion. Specifically, we derive the ensemble and time averaged mean squared displacements and analyze their behavior in the regimes of weak, intermediate, and strong aging. A very rich behavior is revealed for confined aging SBM depending on different aging times and whether the process is sub- or superdiffusive. We demonstrate that the information on the aging factorizes with respect to the lag time and exhibits a functional form that is identical to the aging behavior of scale-free continuous time random walk processes. While SBM exhibits a disparity between ensemble and time averaged observables and is thus weakly nonergodic, strong aging is shown to effect a convergence of the ensemble and time averaged mean squared displacement. Finally, we derive the density of first passage times in the semi-infinite domain that features a crossover defined by the aging time.

  2. Aging scaled Brownian motion.

    PubMed

    Safdari, Hadiseh; Chechkin, Aleksei V; Jafari, Gholamreza R; Metzler, Ralf

    2015-04-01

    Scaled Brownian motion (SBM) is widely used to model anomalous diffusion of passive tracers in complex and biological systems. It is a highly nonstationary process governed by the Langevin equation for Brownian motion, however, with a power-law time dependence of the noise strength. Here we study the aging properties of SBM for both unconfined and confined motion. Specifically, we derive the ensemble and time averaged mean squared displacements and analyze their behavior in the regimes of weak, intermediate, and strong aging. A very rich behavior is revealed for confined aging SBM depending on different aging times and whether the process is sub- or superdiffusive. We demonstrate that the information on the aging factorizes with respect to the lag time and exhibits a functional form that is identical to the aging behavior of scale-free continuous time random walk processes. While SBM exhibits a disparity between ensemble and time averaged observables and is thus weakly nonergodic, strong aging is shown to effect a convergence of the ensemble and time averaged mean squared displacement. Finally, we derive the density of first passage times in the semi-infinite domain that features a crossover defined by the aging time.

  3. Emotion processing in the aging brain is modulated by semantic elaboration

    PubMed Central

    Ritchey, Maureen; Bessette-Symons, Brandy; Hayes, Scott M.; Cabeza, Roberto

    2010-01-01

    The neural correlates of emotion processing have been shown to vary with age: older adults (OAs) exhibit increased frontal activations and, under some circumstances, decreased amygdala activations relative to young adults (YAs) during emotion processing. Some of these differences are additionally modulated by valence, with age-related biases toward positive versus negative stimuli, and are thought to depend on OAs’ capacity for controlled elaboration. However, the role of semantic elaboration in mediating valence effects in the aging brain has not yet been explicitly tested. In the present study, YAs and OAs were scanned while they viewed negative, neutral, and positive pictures during either a deep, elaborative task or a shallow, perceptual task. FMRI results reveal that emotion-related activity in the amygdala is preserved in aging and insensitive to elaboration demands. This study provides novel evidence that differences in valence processing are modulated by elaboration: relative to YAs, OAs show enhanced activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (PFC) and ventrolateral PFC in response to positive versus negative stimuli, but only during elaborative processing. These positive valence effects are predicted by individual differences in executive function in OAs for the deep but not shallow task. Finally, psychophysiological interaction analyses reveal age effects on valence-dependent functional connectivity between medial PFC and ventral striatum, as well as age and task effects on medial PFC-retrosplenial cortex interactions. Altogether, these findings provide support for the hypothesis that valence shifts in the aging brain are mediated by controlled processes such as semantic elaboration, self-referential processing, and emotion regulation. PMID:20869375

  4. CircRNA accumulation in the aging mouse brain

    PubMed Central

    Gruner, Hannah; Cortés-López, Mariela; Cooper, Daphne A.; Bauer, Matthew; Miura, Pedro

    2016-01-01

    Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a newly appreciated class of RNAs expressed across diverse phyla. These enigmatic transcripts are most commonly generated by back-splicing events from exons of protein-coding genes. This results in highly stable RNAs due to the lack of free 5′ and 3′ ends. CircRNAs are enriched in neural tissues, suggesting that they might have neural functions. Here, we sought to determine whether circRNA accumulation occurs during aging in mice. Total RNA-seq profiling of young (1 month old) and aged (22 month old) cortex, hippocampus and heart samples was performed. This led to the confident detection of 6,791 distinct circRNAs across these samples, including 675 novel circRNAs. Analysis uncovered a strong bias for circRNA upregulation during aging in neural tissues. These age-accumulation trends were verified for individual circRNAs by RT-qPCR and Northern analysis. In contrast, comparison of aged versus young hearts failed to reveal a global trend for circRNA upregulation. Age-accumulation of circRNAs in brain tissues was found to be largely independent from linear RNA expression of host genes. These findings suggest that circRNAs might play biological roles relevant to the aging nervous system. PMID:27958329

  5. Changes in structure and geometric properties of human hair by aging.

    PubMed

    Nagase, Shinobu; Kajiura, Yoshio; Mamada, Akira; Abe, Hiroko; Shibuichi, Satoshi; Satoh, Naoki; Itou, Takashi; Shinohara, Yuya; Amemiya, Yoshiyuki

    2009-01-01

    To clarify hair changes by aging, the effect of age on hair properties was investigated from macro- to microscopic view points. Sensory hair luster tests were performed on 230 Japanese females from 10 to 70 years of age, revealing that hair luster decreases with age. The age dependence of the hair diameter and the ellipticity of the hair cross section could not explain luster reduction by aging. It has been determined that an irregular increase in fiber curvature occurs with age and is a cause of luster reduction with aging. A detailed structural analysis by synchrotron radiation microbeam X-ray diffraction revealed that the inhomogeneity in the lateral distribution of the hair microstructure increased with age and relates to the irregular increase in curvature. Such an increase in curvature is one of the important factors that leads to a poor alignment of hairs and luster reduction, and is related to the appearance of aging hair.

  6. AgeFactDB--the JenAge Ageing Factor Database--towards data integration in ageing research.

    PubMed

    Hühne, Rolf; Thalheim, Torsten; Sühnel, Jürgen

    2014-01-01

    AgeFactDB (http://agefactdb.jenage.de) is a database aimed at the collection and integration of ageing phenotype data including lifespan information. Ageing factors are considered to be genes, chemical compounds or other factors such as dietary restriction, whose action results in a changed lifespan or another ageing phenotype. Any information related to the effects of ageing factors is called an observation and is presented on observation pages. To provide concise access to the complete information for a particular ageing factor, corresponding observations are also summarized on ageing factor pages. In a first step, ageing-related data were primarily taken from existing databases such as the Ageing Gene Database--GenAge, the Lifespan Observations Database and the Dietary Restriction Gene Database--GenDR. In addition, we have started to include new ageing-related information. Based on homology data taken from the HomoloGene Database, AgeFactDB also provides observation and ageing factor pages of genes that are homologous to known ageing-related genes. These homologues are considered as candidate or putative ageing-related genes. AgeFactDB offers a variety of search and browse options, and also allows the download of ageing factor or observation lists in TSV, CSV and XML formats.

  7. AgeFactDB—the JenAge Ageing Factor Database—towards data integration in ageing research

    PubMed Central

    Hühne, Rolf; Thalheim, Torsten; Sühnel, Jürgen

    2014-01-01

    AgeFactDB (http://agefactdb.jenage.de) is a database aimed at the collection and integration of ageing phenotype data including lifespan information. Ageing factors are considered to be genes, chemical compounds or other factors such as dietary restriction, whose action results in a changed lifespan or another ageing phenotype. Any information related to the effects of ageing factors is called an observation and is presented on observation pages. To provide concise access to the complete information for a particular ageing factor, corresponding observations are also summarized on ageing factor pages. In a first step, ageing-related data were primarily taken from existing databases such as the Ageing Gene Database—GenAge, the Lifespan Observations Database and the Dietary Restriction Gene Database—GenDR. In addition, we have started to include new ageing-related information. Based on homology data taken from the HomoloGene Database, AgeFactDB also provides observation and ageing factor pages of genes that are homologous to known ageing-related genes. These homologues are considered as candidate or putative ageing-related genes. AgeFactDB offers a variety of search and browse options, and also allows the download of ageing factor or observation lists in TSV, CSV and XML formats. PMID:24217911

  8. Disk displacement, eccentric condylar position, osteoarthrosis - misnomers for variations of normality? Results and interpretations from an MRI study in two age cohorts.

    PubMed

    Türp, Jens C; Schlenker, Anna; Schröder, Johannes; Essig, Marco; Schmitter, Marc

    2016-11-17

    Clinical decision-making and prognostic statements in individuals with manifest or suspected temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) may involve assessment of (a) the position of articular disc relative to the mandibular condyle, (b) the location of the condyle relative to the temporal joint surfaces, and (c) the depth of the glenoid fossa of the temporomandibular joints (TMJs). The aim of this study was twofold: (1) Determination of the prevalence of these variables in two representative population-based birth cohorts. (2) Reinterpretation of the clinical significance of the findings. From existing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of the TMJs that had been taken in 2005 and 2006 from 72 subjects born between 1930 and 1932 and between 1950 and 1952, respectively, the condylar position at closed jaw was calculated as percentage displacement of the condyle from absolute centricity. By using the criteria introduced by Orsini et al. (Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol Oral Radiol Endod 86:489-97, 1998), a textbook-like disc position at closed jaw was distinguished from an anterior location. TMJ morphology of the temporal joint surfaces was assessed at open jaw by measuring the depth of the glenoid fossa, using the method proposed by Muto et al. (J Oral Maxillofac Surg 52:1269-72, 1994). Frequency distributions were recorded for the condylar and disc positions at closed jaw. Student's t-test with independent samples was used as test of significance to detect differences of condylar positions between the age cohorts (1930 vs. 1950) and the sexes. The significance levels were set at 5%. First, the results from the measurement of the age cohorts were compared without differentiation of sexes, i.e., age cohort 1930-1932 versus age cohort 1950-1952. Subsequently, the age cohorts were compared by sex, i.e., men in cohort 1930-1932 versus men in cohort 1950-1952, and women in cohort 1930-1932 women men in cohort 1950-1952. In both cohorts, condylar position was characterized by

  9. Investigation on thermal oxidative aging of nitrile rubber (NBR) O-rings under compression stress

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, X. R.; Zhang, W. F.; Lou, W. T.; Huang, Y. X.; Dai, W.

    2017-11-01

    The degradation behaviors of nitrile rubber O-rings exposure to air under compression were investigated at three elevated temperatures. The physical and mechanical properties of the aging samples before and after exposure at selected time were studied by measuring weight loss, tensile strength and elongation at break. The Attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy and fracture morphology were used to reveal the microstructural changes of the aging samples. The results indicate that the weight decreased with exposure time and temperature. Based on the results of the crosslinking density, the crosslinking predominates during the most of aging process. The significant changes in tensile strength and elongation at break also indicate the severe degradation in air. The fracture morphology results show that the fracture surface after 64 days of exposure to air turns rough and present defects. The ATR-FTIR results demonstrate that the hydroxyl groups were formed for the samples aged in air.

  10. The rate of change in declining steroid hormones: a new parameter of healthy aging in men?

    PubMed

    Walther, Andreas; Philipp, Michel; Lozza, Niclà; Ehlert, Ulrike

    2016-09-20

    Research on healthy aging in men has increasingly focused on age-related hormonal changes. Testosterone (T) decline is primarily investigated, while age-related changes in other sex steroids (dehydroepiandrosterone [DHEA], estradiol [E2], progesterone [P]) are mostly neglected. An integrated hormone parameter reflecting aging processes in men has yet to be identified. 271 self-reporting healthy men between 40 and 75 provided both psychometric data and saliva samples for hormone analysis. Correlation analysis between age and sex steroids revealed negative associations for the four sex steroids (T, DHEA, E2, and P). Principal component analysis including ten salivary analytes identified a principal component mainly unifying the variance of the four sex steroid hormones. Subsequent principal component analysis including the four sex steroids extracted the principal component of declining steroid hormones (DSH). Moderation analysis of the association between age and DSH revealed significant moderation effects for psychosocial factors such as depression, chronic stress and perceived general health. In conclusion, these results provide further evidence that sex steroids decline in aging men and that the integrated hormone parameter DSH and its rate of change can be used as biomarkers for healthy aging in men. Furthermore, the negative association of age and DSH is moderated by psychosocial factors.

  11. The rate of change in declining steroid hormones: a new parameter of healthy aging in men?

    PubMed Central

    Walther, Andreas; Philipp, Michel; Lozza, Niclà; Ehlert, Ulrike

    2016-01-01

    Research on healthy aging in men has increasingly focused on age-related hormonal changes. Testosterone (T) decline is primarily investigated, while age-related changes in other sex steroids (dehydroepiandrosterone [DHEA], estradiol [E2], progesterone [P]) are mostly neglected. An integrated hormone parameter reflecting aging processes in men has yet to be identified. 271 self-reporting healthy men between 40 and 75 provided both psychometric data and saliva samples for hormone analysis. Correlation analysis between age and sex steroids revealed negative associations for the four sex steroids (T, DHEA, E2, and P). Principal component analysis including ten salivary analytes identified a principal component mainly unifying the variance of the four sex steroid hormones. Subsequent principal component analysis including the four sex steroids extracted the principal component of declining steroid hormones (DSH). Moderation analysis of the association between age and DSH revealed significant moderation effects for psychosocial factors such as depression, chronic stress and perceived general health. In conclusion, these results provide further evidence that sex steroids decline in aging men and that the integrated hormone parameter DSH and its rate of change can be used as biomarkers for healthy aging in men. Furthermore, the negative association of age and DSH is moderated by psychosocial factors. PMID:27589836

  12. Insensitivity of Astrocytes to Interleukin-10 Signaling following Peripheral Immune Challenge Results in Prolonged Microglial Activation in the Aged Brain

    PubMed Central

    Norden, Diana M.; Trojanowski, Paige J.; Walker, Frederick R.; Godbout, Jonathan P.

    2017-01-01

    Immune-activated microglia from aged mice produce exaggerated levels of cytokines. Despite high levels of microglial IL-10 in the aged brain, neuroinflammation was prolonged and associated with depressive-like deficits. Because astrocytes respond to IL-10 and, in turn, attenuate microglial activation, we investigated if astrocyte-mediated resolution of microglial activation was impaired with age. Here, aged astrocytes had a dysfunctional profile with higher GFAP, lower glutamate transporter expression, and significant cytoskeletal re-arrangement. Moreover, aged astrocytes had reduced expression of growth factors and IL-10 Receptor-1 (IL-10R1). Following in vivo LPS immune challenge, aged astrocytes had a molecular signature associated with reduced responsiveness to IL-10. This IL-10 insensitivity of aged astrocytes resulted in a failure to induce IL-10R1 and TGFβ and resolve microglial activation. Additionally, adult astrocytes reduced microglial activation when co-cultured ex vivo, while aged astrocytes did not. Consistent with the aging studies, IL-10RKO astrocytes did not augment TGFβ after immune challenge and failed to resolve microglial activation. Collectively, a major cytokine-regulatory loop between activated microglia and astrocytes is impaired in the aged brain. PMID:27318131

  13. [Comparative biochemistry of process of ageing in men and women].

    PubMed

    Miakotnykh, V S; Berezina, D A; Borovkova, T A; Gavrilov, I V

    2014-01-01

    In the research of a number of biochemical indicators in 858 men and 899 women aged from 20 till 70 years divided into 6 compared groups depending on age and gender clear distinctions in the dynamics of the components of the lipid status, status of lipid peroxidation and antioxidant activity of the blood system, the content of middlemolecular peptides are revealed. Simultaneous determination of the biological age of the subjects also revealed a distinct gender differencies testifying to lower rate of aging of men, despite the probability of earlier, in comparison with women, development of dislipidemia and atherosclerosis. Association of the received gender distinctions both with changes of level of estrogen in women due to menopause and with the peculiarities of stressful impacts on male and female organism in different age periods is supposed.

  14. Progressive alterations in multipotent hematopoietic progenitors underlie lymphoid cell loss in aging.

    PubMed

    Young, Kira; Borikar, Sneha; Bell, Rebecca; Kuffler, Lauren; Philip, Vivek; Trowbridge, Jennifer J

    2016-10-17

    Declining immune function with age is associated with reduced lymphoid output of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). Currently, there is poor understanding of changes with age in the heterogeneous multipotent progenitor (MPP) cell compartment, which is long lived and responsible for dynamically regulating output of mature hematopoietic cells. In this study, we observe an early and progressive loss of lymphoid-primed MPP cells (LMPP/MPP4) with aging, concomitant with expansion of HSCs. Transcriptome and in vitro functional analyses at the single-cell level reveal a concurrent increase in cycling of aging LMPP/MPP4 with loss of lymphoid priming and differentiation potential. Impaired lymphoid differentiation potential of aged LMPP/MPP4 is not rescued by transplantation into a young bone marrow microenvironment, demonstrating cell-autonomous changes in the MPP compartment with aging. These results pinpoint an age and cellular compartment to focus further interrogation of the drivers of lymphoid cell loss with aging. © 2016 Young et al.

  15. Aging and risky decision-making: New ERP evidence from the Iowa Gambling Task.

    PubMed

    Di Rosa, Elisa; Mapelli, Daniela; Arcara, Giorgio; Amodio, Piero; Tamburin, Stefano; Schiff, Sami

    2017-02-15

    Several pieces of evidence have highlighted the presence of an age-related decline in risky decision-making (DM), but the reason of this decline is still unclear. The aim of the present study was to investigate the neural correlates of feedback processing in risky DM. Twenty-one younger (age <50 years) and 15 older (age >50 years) adults were tested with the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) during Event Related Potentials (ERP) recording. The analysis was focused on the feedback-related negativity (FRN) and P3, two ERP components that represent different stages of feedback processing. Behavioral results revealed that older adults, despite showing a significant learning trend, completed the IGT with a gain of a smaller amount of money compared to the younger ones. ERP results revealed that while the FRN response was comparable in the two groups, the P3 amplitude was significantly reduced after negative feedback in older adults, compared with the younger ones. Furthermore, the difference in the P3 amplitude evoked by positive and negative feedback was significantly correlated with age. Hence, the present findings suggest that older adults seem to be less willing to shift attention from positive to negative information, and that this relevant change in the later stages of feedback processing could be the cause of a poor performance in risky DM contexts. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  16. Longitudinal imaging of Caenorhabditis elegans in a microfabricated device reveals variation in behavioral decline during aging

    PubMed Central

    Churgin, Matthew A; Jung, Sang-Kyu; Yu, Chih-Chieh; Chen, Xiangmei; Raizen, David M; Fang-Yen, Christopher

    2017-01-01

    The roundworm C. elegans is a mainstay of aging research due to its short lifespan and easily manipulable genetics. Current, widely used methods for long-term measurement of C. elegans are limited by low throughput and the difficulty of performing longitudinal monitoring of aging phenotypes. Here we describe the WorMotel, a microfabricated device for long-term cultivation and automated longitudinal imaging of large numbers of C. elegans confined to individual wells. Using the WorMotel, we find that short-lived and long-lived strains exhibit patterns of behavioral decline that do not temporally scale between individuals or populations, but rather resemble the shortest and longest lived individuals in a wild type population. We also find that behavioral trajectories of worms subject to oxidative stress resemble trajectories observed during aging. Our method is a powerful and scalable tool for analysis of C. elegans behavior and aging. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.26652.001 PMID:28537553

  17. Increases in Academic Connectedness and Self-Esteem among High School Students Who Serve as Cross-Age Peer Mentors

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Karcher, Michael

    2009-01-01

    Cross-age mentoring programs are peer helping programs in which high school students serve as mentors to younger children. The study in this article compared fall-to-spring changes on connectedness, attachment, and self-esteem between 46 teen mentors and 45 comparison classmates. Results revealed an association between serving as a cross-age peer…

  18. Results of the IEA Round Robin on Viscosity and Aging of Fast Pyrolysis Bio-oils: Long-Term Tests and Repeatability

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Elliott, Douglas C.; Oasmaa, Anja; Meier, Dietrich

    2012-11-06

    An international round robin study of the viscosity and aging of fast pyrolysis bio-oil has been undertaken recently and this work is an outgrowth from that effort. Two bio-oil samples were distributed to the laboratories for aging tests and extended viscosity studies. The accelerated aging test was defined as the change in viscosity of a sealed sample of bio-oil held for 24 h at 80 °C. The test was repeated 10 times over consecutive days to determine the repeatability of the method. Other bio-oil samples were placed in storage at three temperatures, 21 °C, 4 °C and -17 °C formore » a period up to a year to evaluate the change in viscosity. The variation in the results of the aging test was shown to be low within a given laboratory. Storage of bio-oil under refrigeration can minimize the amount of change in viscosity. The accelerated aging test gives a measure of change similar to that of 6-12 months of storage at room temperature. These results can be helpful in setting standards for use of bio-oil, which is just coming into the marketplace.« less

  19. [Products of bee-keeping and prophylaxis of premature aging].

    PubMed

    Dubtsova, E A; Kas'ianenko, V I; Komissarenko, I A; Lazebnik, L B

    2008-01-01

    Natural bee honey is one of compound natural products in which structure more than four hundred various components are revealed, including enzymes, organic acids, vitamins and microelements. One of the basic biological properties of honey is the ability to slow down processes of aging, because there are vitamins E, C, enzymes with antioxidative properties and a succinic acid in its structure. Examination of 193 beekeepers daily using honey in quantity of 57.2 +/- 8.6 gram with definition of their biological age was carried out. The received results have been compared to results of examination of 35 workers who are doing manual labour in the same degree, as the beekeepers, but do not use products of beekeeping. The research has shown that the biological age of 70% of beekeepers is lower than that of the average in population, 15% of beekeepers are of the same and 15% are of higher biological age than that of the average in population. The biological age of people in the group of comparison is lower than the average in population only in 28.6% of cases, corresponds in 31.4% and is higher than the average in population in 40.0% of cases. The biological age of beekeepers appeared not only less, than of the persons who are not using products of beekeeping, but it also is less than biological age of the population as a whole.

  20. Radiocarbon age-offsets in an arctic lake reveal the long-term response of permafrost carbon to climate change

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Gaglioti, Benjamin V.; Mann, Daniel H.; Jones, Benjamin M.; Pohlman, John W.; Kunz, Michael L.; Wooller, Matthew J.

    2014-01-01

    Continued warming of the Arctic may cause permafrost to thaw and speed the decomposition of large stores of soil organic carbon (OC), thereby accentuating global warming. However, it is unclear if recent warming has raised the current rates of permafrost OC release to anomalous levels or to what extent soil carbon release is sensitive to climate forcing. Here we use a time series of radiocarbon age-offsets (14C) between the bulk lake sediment and plant macrofossils deposited in an arctic lake as an archive for soil and permafrost OC release over the last 14,500 years. The lake traps and archives OC imported from the watershed and allows us to test whether prior warming events stimulated old carbon release and heightened age-offsets. Today, the age-offset (2 ka; thousand of calibrated years before A.D. 1950) and the depositional rate of ancient OC from the watershed into the lake are relatively low and similar to those during the Younger Dryas cold interval (occurring 12.9–11.7 ka). In contrast, age-offsets were higher (3.0–5.0 ka) when summer air temperatures were warmer than present during the Holocene Thermal Maximum (11.7–9.0 ka) and Bølling-Allerød periods (14.5–12.9 ka). During these warm times, permafrost thaw contributed to ancient OC depositional rates that were ~10 times greater than today. Although permafrost OC was vulnerable to climate warming in the past, we suggest surface soil organic horizons and peat are presently limiting summer thaw and carbon release. As a result, the temperature threshold to trigger widespread permafrost OC release is higher than during previous warming events.

  1. The Anatomy of the Aging Face: A Review.

    PubMed

    Cotofana, Sebastian; Fratila, Alina A M; Schenck, Thilo L; Redka-Swoboda, Wolfgang; Zilinsky, Isaac; Pavicic, Tatjana

    2016-06-01

    Rejuvenative procedures of the face are increasing in numbers, and a plethora of different therapeutic options are available today. Every procedure should aim for the patient's safety first and then for natural and long-lasting results. The face is one of the most complex regions in the human body and research continuously reveals new insights into the complex interplay of the different participating structures. Bone, ligaments, muscles, fat, and skin are the key players in the layered arrangement of the face.Aging occurs in all involved facial structures but the onset and the speed of age-related changes differ between each specific structure, between each individual, and between different ethnic groups. Therefore, knowledge of age-related anatomy is crucial for a physician's work when trying to restore a youthful face.This review focuses on the current understanding of the anatomy of the human face and tries to elucidate the morphological changes during aging of bone, ligaments, muscles, and fat, and their role in rejuvenative procedures. Thieme Medical Publishers 333 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001, USA.

  2. Perceptions of successful aging in Black older adults.

    PubMed

    Troutman, Meredith; Nies, Mary A; Mavellia, Helen

    2011-01-01

    Successful aging is important; however, there is a lack of knowledge on how to promote successful aging in Black older adults. In this study, which examined Black older adults' perceptions of successful aging, a cross-sectional descriptive design was used to examine the psychometric properties of the Successful Aging Inventory and qualitative characteristics of successful aging in 100 Black older adults. The participants' responses to an open-ended question, "What does successful aging mean to you?" revealed relevant aspects of successful aging. Six broad categories emerged: Independence/Ability, Health, Mindset, Activity/Service, Family, and Spirituality. These categories suggest foci for potential interventions to promote successful aging in Black older adults.

  3. Familial concordance for age at natural menopause: results from the Breakthrough Generations Study.

    PubMed

    Morris, Danielle H; Jones, Michael E; Schoemaker, Minouk J; Ashworth, Alan; Swerdlow, Anthony J

    2011-09-01

    Existing estimates of the heritability of menopause age have a wide range. Furthermore, few studies have analyzed to what extent familial similarities might reflect shared environment, rather than shared genes. We therefore analyzed familial concordance for age at natural menopause and the effects of shared genetic and environmental factors on this concordance. Participants were 2,060 individuals comprising first-degree relatives, aged 31 to 90 years, and participating in the UK Breakthrough Generations Study. Menopause data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire and analyzed using logistic regression and variance-components models. Women were at an increased risk of early menopause (≤45 y) if their mother (odds ratio, 6.2; P < 0.001) or non-twin sister (odds ratio, 5.5; P < 0.001) had had an early menopause. Likewise, women had an increased risk of late menopause (≥54 y) if their relative had had a late menopause (mother: odds ratio, 6.1; P < 0.01; non-twin sister: odds ratio, 2.3; P < 0.001). Estimated heritability was 41.6% (P < 0.01), with an additional 13.6% (P = 0.02) of the variation in menopause age attributed to environmental factors shared by sisters. We confirm that early menopause aggregates within families and show, for the first time, that there is also strong familial concordance for late menopause. Both genes and shared environment were the source of variation in menopause age. Past heritability estimates have not accounted for shared environment, and thus, the effect of genetic variants on menopause age may previously have been overestimated.

  4. Phenobarbital Treatment at a Neonatal Age Results in Decreased Efficacy of Omeprazole in Adult Mice

    PubMed Central

    Tien, Yun-Chen; Piekos, Stephanie C.; Pope, Chad

    2017-01-01

    Drug-drug interactions (DDIs) occur when the action of one drug interferes with or alters the activity of another drug taken concomitantly. This can lead to decreased drug efficacy or increased toxicity. Because of DDIs, physicians in the clinical practice attempt to avoid potential interactions when multiple drugs are coadministrated; however, there is still a large knowledge gap in understanding how drugs taken in the past can contribute to DDIs in the future. The goal of this study was to investigate the consequence of neonatal drug exposure on efficacy of other drugs administered up through adult life. We selected a mouse model to test phenobarbital exposure at a neonatal age and its impact on efficacy of omeprazole in adult life. The results of our experiment show an observed decrease in omeprazole’s ability to raise gastric pH in adult mice that received single or multiple doses of phenobarbital at a neonatal age. This effect may be associated with the permanent induction of cytochrome P450 enzymes in adult liver after neonatal phenobarbital treatment. Our data indicates that DDIs may result from drugs administered in the past in an animal model and should prompt re-evaluation of how DDIs are viewed and how to avoid long-term DDIs in clinical practice. PMID:28062542

  5. Rejuvenation of the aged muscle stem cell population restores strength to injured aged muscles

    PubMed Central

    Cosgrove, Benjamin D.; Gilbert, Penney M.; Porpiglia, Ermelinda; Mourkioti, Foteini; Lee, Steven P.; Corbel, Stephane Y.; Llewellyn, Michael E.; Delp, Scott L.; Blau, Helen M.

    2014-01-01

    The aged suffer from progressive muscle weakness and regenerative failure. We demonstrate that muscle regeneration is impaired with aging due in part to a cell-autonomous functional decline in skeletal muscle stem cells (MuSCs). Two-thirds of aged MuSCs are intrinsically defective relative to young MuSCs, with reduced capacity to repair myofibers and repopulate the stem cell reservoir in vivo following transplantation due to a higher incidence of cells that express senescence markers and that have elevated p38α/β MAPK activity. We show that these limitations cannot be overcome by transplantation into the microenvironment of young recipient muscles. In contrast, subjecting the aged MuSC population to transient inhibition of p38α/β in conjunction with culture on soft hydrogel substrates rapidly expands the residual functional aged MuSC population, rejuvenating its potential for regeneration, serial transplantation, and strengthening damaged muscles of aged mice. These findings reveal a synergy between biophysical and biochemical cues that provides a paradigm for a localized autologous muscle stem cell therapy in aged individuals. PMID:24531378

  6. Alterations in lenticular proteins during ageing and selenite-induced cataractogenesis in Wistar rats.

    PubMed

    Sakthivel, Muniyan; Elanchezhian, Rajan; Thomas, Philip A; Geraldine, Pitchairaj

    2010-03-16

    To determine putative alterations in the major lenticular proteins in Wistar rats of different ages and to compare these alterations with those occurring in rats with selenite-induced cataract. Lenticular transparency was determined by morphological examination using slit-lamp biomicroscopy. Alterations in lenticular protein were determined by sodium dodecyl sulfate-PAGE (SDS-PAGE) and confirmed immunologically by western blot. Morphological examination did not reveal observable opacities in the lenses of the rats of different age groups; however, dense nuclear opacities were noted in lenses of rats in the selenite-cataract group. Western blot assays revealed age-related changes in soluble and urea-soluble lenticular proteins. Decreased alphaA- and betaB1-crystallins in the soluble fraction and aggregation of alphaA-crystallin, in addition to the degraded fragment of betaB1-crystallin, in the urea-soluble fraction appeared to occur in relation to increasing age of the rats from which the lenses were taken; similarly, cytoskeletal proteins appeared to decline with increasing age. The lenses from rats in the selenite-cataract group exhibited similar changes, except that there was also high molecular weight aggregation of alphaA-crystallin. The results of this study suggest that there is loss, as well as aggregation, of alphaA-crystallin in the aging rat lens, although there is no accompanying loss of lenticular transparency.

  7. Complex inhibition of autophagy by mitochondrial aldehyde dehydrogenase shortens lifespan and exacerbates cardiac aging.

    PubMed

    Zhang, Yingmei; Wang, Cong; Zhou, Jingmin; Sun, Aijun; Hueckstaedt, Lindsay K; Ge, Junbo; Ren, Jun

    2017-08-01

    Autophagy, a conservative degradation process for long-lived and damaged proteins, participates in a cascade of biological processes including aging. A number of autophagy regulators have been identified. Here we demonstrated that mitochondrial aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH2), an enzyme with the most common single point mutation in humans, governs cardiac aging through regulation of autophagy. Myocardial mechanical and autophagy properties were examined in young (4months) and old (26-28months) wild-type (WT) and global ALDH2 transgenic mice. ALDH2 overexpression shortened lifespan by 7.7% without affecting aging-associated changes in plasma metabolic profiles. Myocardial function was compromised with aging associated with cardiac hypertrophy, the effects were accentuated by ALDH2. Aging overtly suppressed autophagy and compromised autophagy flux, the effects were exacerbated by ALDH2. Aging dampened phosphorylation of JNK, Bcl-2, IKKβ, AMPK and TSC2 while promoting phosphorylation of mTOR, the effects of which were exaggerated by ALDH2. Co-immunoprecipitation revealed increased dissociation between Bcl-2 and Beclin-1 (result of decreased Bcl-2 phosphorylation) in aging, the effect of which was exacerbated with ALDH2. Chronic treatment of the autophagy inducer rapamycin alleviated aging-induced cardiac dysfunction in both WT and ALDH2 mice. Moreover, activation of JNK and inhibition of either Bcl-2 or IKKβ overtly attenuated ALDH2 activation-induced accentuation of cardiomyocyte aging. Examination of the otherwise elderly individuals revealed a positive correlation between cardiac function/geometry and ALDH2 gene mutation. Taken together, our data revealed that ALDH2 enzyme may suppress myocardial autophagy possibly through a complex JNK-Bcl-2 and IKKβ-AMPK-dependent mechanism en route to accentuation of myocardial remodeling and contractile dysfunction in aging. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Genetic and epigenetic control of heart failure

  8. Beliefs About Behavior Account for Age Differences in the Correspondence Bias

    PubMed Central

    Blanchard-Fields, Fredda

    2011-01-01

    Objectives. Older adults tend to exhibit the correspondence bias to a greater extent than young adults. The current study examined whether these age differences are a function of the degree to which an individual subscribes to a lay theory of attitude–behavior consistency. Methods. First, participants responded to questions regarding their beliefs about attitude–behavior consistency. Approximately 2 weeks later, 144 (67 young adults and 77 older adults) participants completed the correspondence bias task. Results. As expected, older adults were more biased than young adults. Analyses revealed that the degree to which an individual holds attitude–behavior consistency beliefs in the dishonesty domain accounted for age-related differences in the correspondence bias. Discussion. The results of this study suggest that age differences in the correspondence bias task are in part driven by older adults holding stronger attitude–behavior consistency beliefs than young adults. PMID:21071624

  9. Age-, sex-, and education-specific norms for an extended CERAD Neuropsychological Assessment Battery-Results from the population-based LIFE-Adult-Study.

    PubMed

    Luck, Tobias; Pabst, Alexander; Rodriguez, Francisca S; Schroeter, Matthias L; Witte, Veronica; Hinz, Andreas; Mehnert, Anja; Engel, Christoph; Loeffler, Markus; Thiery, Joachim; Villringer, Arno; Riedel-Heller, Steffi G

    2018-05-01

    To provide new age-, sex-, and education-specific reference values for an extended version of the well-established Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease Neuropsychological Assessment Battery (CERAD-NAB) that additionally includes the Trail Making Test and the Verbal Fluency Test-S-Words. Norms were calculated based on the cognitive performances of n = 1,888 dementia-free participants (60-79 years) from the population-based German LIFE-Adult-Study. Multiple regressions were used to examine the association of the CERAD-NAB scores with age, sex, and education. In order to calculate the norms, quantile and censored quantile regression analyses were performed estimating marginal means of the test scores at 2.28, 6.68, 10, 15.87, 25, 50, 75, and 90 percentiles for age-, sex-, and education-specific subgroups. Multiple regression analyses revealed that younger age was significantly associated with better cognitive performance in 15 CERAD-NAB measures and higher education with better cognitive performance in all 17 measures. Women performed significantly better than men in 12 measures and men than women in four measures. The determined norms indicate ceiling effects for the cognitive performances in the Boston Naming, Word List Recognition, Constructional Praxis Copying, and Constructional Praxis Recall tests. The new norms for the extended CERAD-NAB will be useful for evaluating dementia-free German-speaking adults in a broad variety of relevant cognitive domains. The extended CERAD-NAB follows more closely the criteria for the new DSM-5 Mild and Major Neurocognitive Disorder. Additionally, it could be further developed to include a test for social cognition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

  10. Age-related differences in the structural complexity of subcortical and ventricular structures.

    PubMed

    Madan, Christopher R; Kensinger, Elizabeth A

    2017-02-01

    It has been well established that the volume of several subcortical structures decreases in relation to age. Different metrics of cortical structure (e.g., volume, thickness, surface area, and gyrification) have been shown to index distinct characteristics of interindividual differences; thus, it is important to consider the relation of age to multiple structural measures. Here, we compare age-related differences in subcortical and ventricular volume to those differences revealed with a measure of structural complexity, quantified as fractal dimensionality. Across 3 large data sets, totaling nearly 900 individuals across the adult lifespan (aged 18-94 years), we found greater age-related differences in complexity than volume for the subcortical structures, particularly in the caudate and thalamus. The structural complexity of ventricular structures was not more strongly related to age than volume. These results demonstrate that considering shape-related characteristics improves sensitivity to detect age-related differences in subcortical structures. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  11. THE PRESSURE OF AGING

    PubMed Central

    AlGhatrif, Majd; Wang, Mingyi; Fedorova, Olga V.; Bagrov, Alexei Y.; Lakatta, Edward G.

    2016-01-01

    Significant hemodynamic changes ensue with aging, leading to an ever-growing epidemic of hypertension. Alterations in central arterial properties play a major role in these hemodynamic changes. These alterations are characterized by an initial decline in aortic distensibility and a rise of diastolic blood pressure, followed by a sharp increase in pulse wave velocity (PWV), and a rise in pulse pressure (PP) beyond the sixth decade. However, the trajectories of PWV and PP diverge with advancing age, more profoundly in men than women, likely reflecting the more pronounced aortic dilatation in men. There is an increased prevalence of salt-sensitive hypertension with advancing age, that is, in part, mediated by marinobufagenin, an endogenous sodium pump ligand, which is also linked to central arterial stiffness. Within the arterial wall, biomechanical and humoral changes are accompanied by significant biomolecular alterations producing a proinflammatory state, in which activation of angiotensin II signaling plays a pivotal role. This proinflammatory state is in origin a reparatory response to a damaged arterial wall under a pulsatile injury. However the same reparatory process results in fibrosis, which in turn worsens arterial stiffness and produce more pulsatile hemodynamics; this relationship between the pulsatile damage and proinflammatory state is best described as a feed-forward loop. Effective efforts to counter the surging epidemic of hypertension with the aging of our population should be aimed at revealing early, pre-clinical hemodynamic and arterial wall alterations, and develop interventions that halt these processes before they reach the stage the medical community defined as “disease”. PMID:27884238

  12. Does age of fracture affect the outcome of vertebroplasty? Results from data from a prospective multicenter FDA IDE study.

    PubMed

    Syed, Mubin I; Shaikh, Azim

    2012-11-01

    To evaluate whether the age of a fracture is a variable that can identify patients for whom vertebroplasty would be most beneficial. Data from 256 patients with painful osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures (VCFs) who underwent vertebroplasty were examined to assess the effect of fracture age on outcomes. Patients ranged in age from 34-76 years, and the age of fractures ranged from 6 weeks or less (n = 117) to more than 52 weeks (n = 3). Most patients had a fracture age of 12 weeks or less (n = 207), with only 17% having a fracture age greater than 12 weeks. The duration of back pain was used as a surrogate for fracture age and was confirmed by edema on magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, abnormal bone scans, and the presence of central pain over the spinous process The primary outcome was pain reduction as determined by the change in the visual analog scale (VAS) pain score from baseline and at 1, 3, 6, and 24 months after vertebroplasty. A fracture age of 12 weeks or less versus greater than 12 weeks did not affect outcomes, with patients in both groups achieving equivalent benefit after vertebroplasty. Patients with a fracture age of 6 weeks or less had a slightly improved benefit at 3 months after vertebroplasty compared with those having a fracture age of greater than 6 weeks, but the benefit beyond 3 months was the same. Results of the study showed that the age of a fracture does not independently affect the outcomes of vertebroplasty. Copyright © 2012 SIR. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  13. Neuropsychological assessment of executive functions in women: effects of age and education.

    PubMed

    Plumet, Jocelyne; Gil, Roger; Gaonac'h, Daniel

    2005-09-01

    The cognitive processes underlying age-related alterations in tests assumed to reflect frontal lobe functions were investigated with a card sorting test and an alternate semantic fluency task. The tests were administered to 133 healthy women belonging to 3 age groups (range=50-92 years) classed according to 2 education levels. The results revealed a negative association between total word fluency and perseveration in the sorting test. Aging similarly affected performance in both education groups in some components of the tasks (atypical word fluency and sensitivity to distraction). However, aging did not affect performance to the same extent in each education group in other components (particularly those reflecting switching abilities and strategies). This quasi-experimental approach provides useful tools to identify specific processing mechanisms underlying executive functions in normal aging. Copyright (c) 2005 APA, all rights reserved.

  14. Aging specifically impairs switching to an allocentric navigational strategy.

    PubMed

    Harris, Mathew A; Wiener, Jan M; Wolbers, Thomas

    2012-01-01

    Navigation abilities decline with age, partly due to deficits in numerous component processes. Impaired switching between these various processes (i.e., switching navigational strategies) is also likely to contribute to age-related navigational impairments. We tested young and old participants on a virtual plus maze task (VPM), expecting older participants to exhibit a specific strategy switching deficit, despite unimpaired learning of allocentric (place) and egocentric (response) strategies following reversals within each strategy. Our initial results suggested that older participants performed worse during place trial blocks but not response trial blocks, as well as in trial blocks following a strategy switch but not those following a reversal. However, we then separated trial blocks by both strategy and change type, revealing that these initial results were due to a more specific deficit in switching to the place strategy. Place reversals and switches to response, as well as response reversals, were unaffected. We argue that this specific "switch-to-place" deficit could account for apparent impairments in both navigational strategy switching and allocentric processing and contributes more generally to age-related decline in navigation.

  15. The effect of a music therapy intergenerational program on children and older adults' intergenerational interactions, cross-age attitudes, and older adults' psychosocial well-being.

    PubMed

    Belgrave, Melita

    2011-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of participation in a music-based intergenerational music program on cross-age interactions and cross-age attitudes of elementary-age children and older adults, and older adults' psychosocial well-being. Twenty-one children in the 4th grade volunteered to participate in the experimental (n = 12) or control (n = 9) group. Twenty-six older adults from a retirement living facility also volunteered to participate in the experimental (n = 14) or control (n = 12) group. Ten 30-min music sessions occurred in which participants engaged in singing, structured conversation, moving to music, and instrument playing interventions. Data analysis of cross-age interactions revealed that the interventions "structured conversation" and "moving to music" were more effective in eliciting interaction behaviors than the interventions "singing" and "instrument playing." Standardized measures revealed that children's attitudes towards older adults improved, though not significantly so, after participation in the intergenerational program. Results of biweekly post-session questionnaires revealed a decrease in negative descriptions of older adults and an increase in positive descriptions of older adults--suggesting a more positive view towards aging. Results revealed that older adults' attitudes towards children improved significantly after their participation in the intergenerational program. While standardized measures revealed that older adults did not perceive a significant improvement in their psychosocial well-being, their bi-weekly post-session questionnaires showed they perceived increased feelings of usefulness and other personal benefits from the intergenerational interactions. Suggestions for future research, the utility of varied measurement instruments, and implications for practice are discussed.

  16. Validating Thermal Inactivation of Salmonella spp. in Fresh and Aged Chicken Litter

    PubMed Central

    Kim, Jinkyung; Diao, Junshu; Shepherd, Marion W.; Singh, Randhir; Heringa, Spencer D.; Gong, Chao

    2012-01-01

    Our results revealed that a 7-log reduction of Salmonella can be achieved by exposing fresh chicken litter for 80.5 to 100.8, 78.4 to 93.1, and 44.1 to 63 min at 70, 75, and 80°C, respectively, depending on initial moisture contents. However, the aged chicken litter requires more heat treatment. PMID:22179246

  17. Relations between Preschool Attention Span-Persistence and Age 25 Educational Outcomes

    PubMed Central

    McClelland, Megan M.; Acock, Alan C.; Piccinin, Andrea; Rhea, Sally Ann; Stallings, Michael C.

    2012-01-01

    This study examined relations between children’s attention span-persistence in preschool and later school achievement and college completion. Children were drawn from the Colorado Adoption Project using adopted and non-adopted children (N = 430). Results of structural equation modeling indicated that children’s age 4 attention span-persistence significantly predicted math and reading achievement at age 21 after controlling for achievement levels at age 7, adopted status, child vocabulary skills, gender, and maternal education level. Relations between attention span-persistence and later achievement were not fully mediated by age 7 achievement levels. Logistic regressions also revealed that age 4 attention span-persistence skills significantly predicted the odds of completing college by age 25. The majority of this relationship was direct and was not significantly mediated by math or reading skills at age 7 or age 21. Specifically, children who were rated one standard deviation higher on attention span-persistence at age 4 had 48.7% greater odds of completing college by age 25. Discussion focuses on the importance of children’s early attention span-persistence for later school achievement and educational attainment. PMID:23543916

  18. Emotion processing in the aging brain is modulated by semantic elaboration.

    PubMed

    Ritchey, Maureen; Bessette-Symons, Brandy; Hayes, Scott M; Cabeza, Roberto

    2011-03-01

    The neural correlates of emotion processing have been shown to vary with age: older adults (OAs) exhibit increased frontal activations and, under some circumstances, decreased amygdala activations relative to young adults (YAs) during emotion processing. Some of these differences are additionally modulated by valence, with age-related biases toward positive versus negative stimuli, and are thought to depend on OAs' capacity for controlled elaboration. However, the role of semantic elaboration in mediating valence effects in the aging brain has not yet been explicitly tested. In the present study, YAs and OAs were scanned while they viewed negative, neutral, and positive pictures during either a deep, elaborative task or a shallow, perceptual task. fMRI results reveal that emotion-related activity in the amygdala is preserved in aging and insensitive to elaboration demands. This study provides novel evidence that differences in valence processing are modulated by elaboration: relative to YAs, OAs show enhanced activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (PFC) and ventrolateral PFC in response to positive versus negative stimuli, but only during elaborative processing. These positive valence effects are predicted by individual differences in executive function in OAs for the deep but not shallow task. Finally, psychophysiological interaction analyses reveal age effects on valence-dependent functional connectivity between medial PFC and ventral striatum, as well as age and task effects on medial PFC-retrosplenial cortex interactions. Altogether, these findings provide support for the hypothesis that valence shifts in the aging brain are mediated by controlled processes such as semantic elaboration, self-referential processing, and emotion regulation. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. Traumatic stress and accelerated DNA methylation age: A meta-analysis.

    PubMed

    Wolf, Erika J; Maniates, Hannah; Nugent, Nicole; Maihofer, Adam X; Armstrong, Don; Ratanatharathorn, Andrew; Ashley-Koch, Allison E; Garrett, Melanie; Kimbrel, Nathan A; Lori, Adriana; Va Mid-Atlantic Mirecc Workgroup; Aiello, Allison E; Baker, Dewleen G; Beckham, Jean C; Boks, Marco P; Galea, Sandro; Geuze, Elbert; Hauser, Michael A; Kessler, Ronald C; Koenen, Karestan C; Miller, Mark W; Ressler, Kerry J; Risbrough, Victoria; Rutten, Bart P F; Stein, Murray B; Ursano, Robert J; Vermetten, Eric; Vinkers, Christiaan H; Uddin, Monica; Smith, Alicia K; Nievergelt, Caroline M; Logue, Mark W

    2018-06-01

    Recent studies examining the association between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and accelerated aging, as defined by DNA methylation-based estimates of cellular age that exceed chronological age, have yielded mixed results. We conducted a meta-analysis of trauma exposure and PTSD diagnosis and symptom severity in association with accelerated DNA methylation age using data from 9 cohorts contributing to the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium PTSD Epigenetics Workgroup (combined N = 2186). Associations between demographic and cellular variables and accelerated DNA methylation age were also examined, as was the moderating influence of demographic variables. Meta-analysis of regression coefficients from contributing cohorts revealed that childhood trauma exposure (when measured with the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire) and lifetime PTSD severity evidenced significant, albeit small, meta-analytic associations with accelerated DNA methylation age (ps = 0.028 and 0.016, respectively). Sex, CD4T cell proportions, and natural killer cell proportions were also significantly associated with accelerated DNA methylation age (all ps < 0.02). PTSD diagnosis and lifetime trauma exposure were not associated with advanced DNA methylation age. There was no evidence of moderation of the trauma or PTSD variables by demographic factors. Results suggest that traumatic stress is associated with advanced epigenetic age and raise the possibility that cells integral to immune system maintenance and responsivity play a role in this. This study highlights the need for additional research into the biological mechanisms linking traumatic stress to accelerated DNA methylation age and the importance of furthering our understanding of the neurobiological and health consequences of PTSD. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  20. Active Aging in Very Old Age and the Relevance of Psychological Aspects.

    PubMed

    Paúl, Constança; Teixeira, Laetitia; Ribeiro, Oscar

    2017-01-01

    Active aging encompasses a socially and individually designed mix of different domains that range from personal and familial, to social and professional. In being a key policy concept often focused on the young-old individuals, efforts in studying its dimensions in advanced ages have seldom been made. Nevertheless, there is a recognized need to promote adequate responses to the growing number of individuals reaching advanced ages and to recognize their specific dependability on health-related aspects, services attendance, social interactions, or on psychological characteristics for what it means to "age actively." This study provides a secondary analysis of data and follows the preceding work on the operationalization of the World Health Organization's (WHO) active aging model by means of an assessment protocol to measure which variables, within the model's determinants, contribute the most for an active aging process (1). Authors used the achieved model (composed by six factors: health, psychological component, cognitive performance, social relationships, biological component, and personality) and performed multi-group analysis of structural invariance to examine hypothetical differences between age groups (<75 years vs. ≥75 years) and to contrast obtained findings with the originally achieved model for the total sample (1,322 individuals aged 55 +). The structural covariances for the two age groups were statistically different. The comparison of components between age groups revealed a major relevance of the psychological component for the older age group. These findings reinforce the importance of psychological functioning in active aging in oldest old, and the need for further research on specific psychological features underlying the subjective meaning of active aging in more advanced ages.

  1. Age Estimation Based on Children's Voice: A Fuzzy-Based Decision Fusion Strategy

    PubMed Central

    Ting, Hua-Nong

    2014-01-01

    Automatic estimation of a speaker's age is a challenging research topic in the area of speech analysis. In this paper, a novel approach to estimate a speaker's age is presented. The method features a “divide and conquer” strategy wherein the speech data are divided into six groups based on the vowel classes. There are two reasons behind this strategy. First, reduction in the complicated distribution of the processing data improves the classifier's learning performance. Second, different vowel classes contain complementary information for age estimation. Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients are computed for each group and single layer feed-forward neural networks based on self-adaptive extreme learning machine are applied to the features to make a primary decision. Subsequently, fuzzy data fusion is employed to provide an overall decision by aggregating the classifier's outputs. The results are then compared with a number of state-of-the-art age estimation methods. Experiments conducted based on six age groups including children aged between 7 and 12 years revealed that fuzzy fusion of the classifier's outputs resulted in considerable improvement of up to 53.33% in age estimation accuracy. Moreover, the fuzzy fusion of decisions aggregated the complementary information of a speaker's age from various speech sources. PMID:25006595

  2. Distinct Aging Effects on Functional Networks in Good and Poor Cognitive Performers

    PubMed Central

    Lee, Annie; Tan, Mingzhen; Qiu, Anqi

    2016-01-01

    Brain network hubs are susceptible to normal aging processes and disruptions of their functional connectivity are detrimental to decline in cognitive functions in older adults. However, it remains unclear how the functional connectivity of network hubs cope with cognitive heterogeneity in an aging population. This study utilized cognitive and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data, cluster analysis, and graph network analysis to examine age-related alterations in the network hubs’ functional connectivity of good and poor cognitive performers. Our results revealed that poor cognitive performers showed age-dependent disruptions in the functional connectivity of the right insula and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), while good cognitive performers showed age-related disruptions in the functional connectivity of the left insula and PCC. Additionally, the left PCC had age-related declines in the functional connectivity with the left medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Most interestingly, good cognitive performers showed age-related declines in the functional connectivity of the left insula and PCC with their right homotopic structures. These results may provide insights of neuronal correlates for understanding individual differences in aging. In particular, our study suggests prominent protection roles of the left insula and PCC and bilateral ACC in good performers. PMID:27667972

  3. Aging gracefully: a comparative study of Japanese and Malaysian women aged 65-75.

    PubMed

    Kok, Jin Kuan; Yap, Yuet Ngor

    2014-12-01

    Longer lives and extended retirement have created a 'young old age' stage of life. How people spend their "young old age" has become increasingly important. This research aims to investigate the different ageing experiences of Japanese and Malaysian women and the activities they engaged in their "young old age". In-depth interviews were conducted to collect data and an adapted grounded theory approach was used for data analysis. Findings reveal many common characteristics for both groups of research participants. The emerging themes show that Japanese and Malaysian Chinese have different life missions evident in their daily activities, one passing on culture and the other passing on family values and life experience. They also differ in their choice of living arrangement (independent versus dependent/interdependent), attitudes to life (fighting versus accepting) and activities in which to engage (aesthetic pursuits versus family oriented activities). Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  4. Hospital Versus Home Death: Results from the Mexican Health and Aging Study

    PubMed Central

    Cárdenas-Turanzas, Marylou; Torres-Vigil, Isabel; Tovalín-Ahumada, Horacio; Nates, Joseph L.

    2013-01-01

    Context Characterizing where people die is needed to inform palliative care programs in Mexico. Objectives To determine whether access to health care influences the place of death of older Mexicans and examine the modifying effects of demographic and clinical characteristics. Methods We analyzed 2001 baseline and 2003 follow-up data from the Mexican Health and Aging Study. Cases included adults who completed the baseline interview and died before the follow-up interview and for whom a proxy interview was obtained in 2003. The main outcome variable was the place of death (hospital vs. home). The predictors of the place of death were identified using logistic regression analysis. Results The study group included 473 deceased patients; 52.9% died at home. Factors associated with hospital death were having spent at least one night in a hospital during the last year of life (odds ratio [OR]: 6.73; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 3.29, 13.78) and dying in a city other than the city of usual residence (OR: 4.68, 95% CI: 2.56, 8.57). Factors associated with home death were not having health care coverage (OR: 2.78, 95% CI: 1.34, 5.88), living in a city of less than 100,000 residents (OR: 2.44, 95% CI: 1.43, 4.17), and older age (OR: 1.03, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.05). Conclusion Older Mexicans with access to health care services were more likely to die in the hospital even after controlling for important clinical and demographic characteristics. Findings from the study may be used to plan the provision of accessible end-of-life hospital and home-based services. PMID:21146354

  5. [Worrying behaviour in pre-school children aged three to seven years: a factor analysis of the results of a questionnaire].

    PubMed

    Pilecki, Maciej Wojciech; Kowal, Małgorzata; Woronkowicz, Agnieszka; Sobiecki, Jan; Kryst, Łukasz; Kamińska-Reyman, Jadwiga

    2014-01-01

    The aims of the study were: 1) the assessment of the interaction between the factors specified for behavioural problems observed in pre-school children based on a factor analysis and 2) the assessment of the relationship the specified factors have with the age and gender of the study group. A factor analysis based on a Principal Component Analysis of the main results of a Disturbing Behaviour Questionnaire (DBQ) completed by pre-school teachers, which includes categories of behaviour observed among pre-school age children that provoke the greatest concern among parents, guardians and educators. Nine-hundred and sixty-one children aged from 2.7 to 7.9 years (mean: 5.4; SD 1.13) from randomly chosen pre-schools in all districts of Krak6w. Based on a screen plot, as well as on a substantive analysis of the results, a decision was taken to employ a four-factor analysis (Lagging behind, Excessive behaviour, Eating-avoidance and Overeating) explaining 68% of the common factor variance. A very high Cronbach's alpha value was returned for the reliability of the individual scales. The conducted analysis of the relationship of the scales with age and gender indicated a greater intensity of disturbing behaviour in boys for the Lagging behind factor, the Excessive behaviour factor and the overall scale for the Disturbing Behaviour Questionnaire (DBQ). These were the scales, along with the Eating-avoidance scale, that were found to be related to age. A greater intensity of disturbing behaviour was found to occur in the younger children. The relationship between the Overeating and Excessive behaviour scales that was found among girls but not among boys indicated that--even at such a young age--the characteristics associated with eating in the context of gender were already present. The authors consider that the coherence of the results obtained and their consistency with other studies ofpre-school age children provide a sound platform for further analyses using the questionnaire

  6. Aging-associated oxidative stress inhibits liver progenitor cell activation in mice

    PubMed Central

    Wang, Bei; Zhou, Hong; Dang, Shipeng; Shi, Yufang; Hao, Li; Luo, Qingquan; Jin, Min; Zhou, Qianjun; Zhang, Yanyun

    2017-01-01

    Recent studies have discovered aging-associated changes of adult stem cells in various tissues and organs, which potentially contribute to the organismal aging. However, aging-associated changes of liver progenitor cells (LPCs) remain elusive. Employing young (2-month-old) and old (24-month-old) mice, we found diverse novel alterations in LPC activation during aging. LPCs in young mice could be activated and proliferate upon liver injury, whereas the counterparts in old mice failed to respond and proliferate, leading to the impaired liver regeneration. Surprisingly, isolated LPCs from young and old mice did not exhibit significant difference in their clonogenic and proliferative capacity. Later, we uncovered that the decreased activation and proliferation of LPCs were due to excessive reactive oxygen species produced by neutrophils infiltrated into niche, which was resulted from chemokine production from activated hepatic stellate cells during aging. This study demonstrates aging-associated changes in LPC activation and reveals critical roles for the stem cell niche, including neutrophils and hepatic stellate cells, in the negative regulation of LPCs during aging. PMID:28458256

  7. Aging-associated oxidative stress inhibits liver progenitor cell activation in mice.

    PubMed

    Cheng, Yiji; Wang, Xue; Wang, Bei; Zhou, Hong; Dang, Shipeng; Shi, Yufang; Hao, Li; Luo, Qingquan; Jin, Min; Zhou, Qianjun; Zhang, Yanyun

    2017-04-29

    Recent studies have discovered aging-associated changes of adult stem cells in various tissues and organs, which potentially contribute to the organismal aging. However, aging-associated changes of liver progenitor cells (LPCs) remain elusive. Employing young (2-month-old) and old (24-month-old) mice, we found diverse novel alterations in LPC activation during aging. LPCs in young mice could be activated and proliferate upon liver injury, whereas the counterparts in old mice failed to respond and proliferate, leading to the impaired liver regeneration. Surprisingly, isolated LPCs from young and old mice did not exhibit significant difference in their clonogenic and proliferative capacity. Later, we uncovered that the decreased activation and proliferation of LPCs were due to excessive reactive oxygen species produced by neutrophils infiltrated into niche, which was resulted from chemokine production from activated hepatic stellate cells during aging. This study demonstrates aging-associated changes in LPC activation and reveals critical roles for the stem cell niche, including neutrophils and hepatic stellate cells, in the negative regulation of LPCs during aging.

  8. GENE EXPRESSION PROFILING IN AGING RATS AND MICE REVEALS CHANGES IN XENOBIOTIC METABOLISM GENES

    EPA Science Inventory

    Detoxification and elimination of xenobiotics are major functions of the liver and is important in maintaining the metabolic homeostasis of the organism. The degree to which aging affects hepatic metabolism is not known. The expression of xenobiotic metabolizing enzymes (XMEs), i...

  9. Body Image Dissatisfaction and Distortion, Steroid Use, and Sex Differences in College Age Bodybuilders.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Peters, Mark Anthony; Phelps, LeAddelle

    2001-01-01

    Compares college age bodybuilders by sex and steroid intake on two variables: body image dissatisfaction and body image distortion. Results reveal only a significant effect for gender on body distortion. No steroid-use differences were apparent for either body image dissatisfaction or body image distortion. Analyses indicate that female…

  10. Analysis of epigenetic changes in survivors of preterm birth reveals the effect of gestational age and evidence for a long term legacy

    PubMed Central

    2013-01-01

    Background Preterm birth confers a high risk of adverse long term health outcomes for survivors, yet the underlying molecular mechanisms are unclear. We hypothesized that effects of preterm birth can be mediated through measurable epigenomic changes throughout development. We therefore used a longitudinal birth cohort to measure the epigenetic mark of DNA methylation at birth and 18 years comparing survivors of extremely preterm birth with infants born at term. Methods Using 12 extreme preterm birth cases and 12 matched, term controls, we extracted DNA from archived neonatal blood spots and blood collected in a similar way at 18 years of age. DNA methylation was measured at 347,789 autosomal locations throughout the genome using Infinium HM450 arrays. Representative methylation differences were confirmed by Sequenom MassArray EpiTYPER. Results At birth we found 1,555 sites with significant differences in methylation between term and preterm babies. At 18 years of age, these differences had largely resolved, suggesting that DNA methylation differences at birth are mainly driven by factors relating to gestational age, such as cell composition and/or maturity. Using matched longitudinal samples, we found evidence for an epigenetic legacy associated with preterm birth, identifying persistent methylation differences at ten genomic loci. Longitudinal comparisons of DNA methylation at birth and 18 years uncovered a significant overlap between sites that were differentially-methylated at birth and those that changed with age. However, we note that overlapping sites may either differ in the same (300/1,555) or opposite (431/1,555) direction during gestation and aging respectively. Conclusions We present evidence for widespread methylation differences between extreme preterm and term infants at birth that are largely resolved by 18 years of age. These results are consistent with methylation changes associated with blood cell development, cellular composition, immune

  11. Salt preference: age and sex related variability.

    PubMed

    Verma, Punam; Mittal, Sunita; Ghildiyal, Archana; Chaudhary, Lalita; Mahajan, K K

    2007-01-01

    Salt preference was assessed in 60 adults of 18-21 yrs of age (30 males and 30 females) and in 60 children of 7-12 yrs of age (30 boys and 30 girls). Subjects rated the preference on Likert scale for popcorns of five salt concentrations (OM, 1M, 2M, 3M and +3M). Statistical analysis using Two way ANOVA revealed statistically significant effect of age and sex on salt preference (F4,100 = 15.027, P < 0.01) and One Way ANOVA revealed statistically significant sex difference in salt preference of adults (F4,50 = 16.26, P < 0.01) but no statistically significant sex difference in salt preference of children (F4,50 = 4.08, P > 0.05). Dietary experiences during development and more physical activity in children may be responsible for higher salt preference in children while finding no sex variability in children favours the role of sex hormones in salt preference of male and females.

  12. Processing speed and memory mediate age-related differences in decision making.

    PubMed

    Henninger, Debra E; Madden, David J; Huettel, Scott A

    2010-06-01

    Decision making under risk changes with age. Increases in risk aversion with age have been most commonly characterized, although older adults may be risk seeking in some decision contexts. An important, and unanswered, question is whether these changes in decision making reflect a direct effect of aging or, alternatively, an indirect effect caused by age-related changes in specific cognitive processes. In the current study, older adults (M = 71 years) and younger adults (M = 24 years) completed a battery of tests of cognitive capacities and decision-making preferences. The results indicated systematic effects of age upon decision quality-with both increased risk seeking and increased risk aversion observed in different tasks-consistent with prior studies. Path analyses, however, revealed that age-related effects were mediated by individual differences in processing speed and memory. When those variables were included in the model, age was no longer a significant predictor of decision quality. The authors conclude that the reduction in decision quality and associated changes in risk preferences commonly ascribed to aging are instead mediated by age-related changes in underlying cognitive capacities. (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved

  13. Metabolomic signature associated with reproduction-regulated aging in Caenorhabditis elegans.

    PubMed

    Wan, Qin-Li; Shi, Xiaohuo; Liu, Jiangxin; Ding, Ai-Jun; Pu, Yuan-Zhu; Li, Zhigang; Wu, Gui-Sheng; Luo, Huai-Rong

    2017-02-06

    In Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) , ablation of germline stem cells (GSCs) leads to infertility, which extends lifespan. It has been reported that aging and reproduction are both inextricably associated with metabolism. However, few studies have investigated the roles of polar small molecules metabolism in regulating longevity by reproduction. In this work, we combined the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and ultra-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS) to profile the water-soluble metabolome in C. elegans . Comparing the metabolic fingerprint between two physiological ages among different mutants, our results demonstrate that aging is characterized by metabolome remodeling and metabolic decline. In addition, by analyzing the metabolic profiles of long-lived germline-less glp-1 mutants, we discovered that glp-1 mutants regulate the levels of many age-variant metabolites to attenuate aging, including elevated concentrations of the pyrimidine and purine metabolism intermediates and decreased concentrations of the citric acid cycle intermediates. Interestingly, by analyzing the metabolome of daf-16;glp-1 double mutants, our results revealed that some metabolic exchange contributing to germline-mediated longevity was mediated by transcription factor FOXO/DAF-16, including pyrimidine metabolism and the TCA cycle. Based on a comprehensive metabolic analysis, we provide novel insight into the relationship between longevity and metabolism regulated by germline signals in C. elegans .

  14. Coccomyxa Gloeobotrydiformis Improves Learning and Memory in Intrinsic Aging Rats.

    PubMed

    Sun, Luning; Jin, Ying; Dong, Liming; Sui, Hai-Juan; Sumi, Ryo; Jahan, Rabita; Hu, Dahai; Li, Zhi

    2015-01-01

    Declining in learning and memory is one of the most common and prominent problems during the aging process. Neurotransmitter changes, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction and abnormal signal transduction were considered to participate in this process. In the present study, we examined the effects of Coccomyxa gloeobotrydiformis (CGD) on learning and memory ability of intrinsic aging rats. As a result, CGD treated (50 mg/kg·d or 100 mg/kg ·d for a duration of 8 weeks) 22-month-old male rats, which have shown significant improvement on learning and spatial memory ability compared with control, which was evidently revealed in both the hidden platform tasks and probe trials. The following immunohistochemistry and Western blot experiments suggested that CGD could increase the content of Ach and thereby improve the function of the cholinergic neurons in the hippocampus, and therefore also improving learning and memory ability of the aged rats by acting as an anti-inflammatory agent. The effects of CGD on learning and memory might also have an association with the ERK/CREB signalling. The results above suggest that the naturally made drug CGD may have several great benefit as a multi-target drug in the process of prevention and/or treatment of age-dependent cognitive decline and aging process.

  15. Low-Temperature Thermochronology Investigation in Uruguay and Southernmost Brazil: Apatite (U-Th)/He Results

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Machado, J. P.; Bicca, M. M.

    2017-12-01

    Low-temperature thermochronology has successfully allowed one to reveal exhumation histories of many orogenic belts across the Earth, and lately these techniques have been applied in cratonic regions. The present study aims to constrain thermal history and exhumation of the South Atlantic Passive Margin, between Uruguay and Southernmost Brazil, a region scarce of thermochronological data. This location has become relatively stable after the Neoproterozoic Brasiliano Orogeny, being more intensely disturbed by tectonics during the Gondwana Breakup and consequent opening of the Atlantic Ocean (Jurassic - Cretaceous). Both apatite and zircon (U-Th)/He methods are being applied on basement rocks, and since those have a long cooling history, radiation damage is expected to play an important role in crystal ages. A total of 25 samples were analyzed, and preliminary apatite (U-Th)/He results reveals unweighted sample ages ranging from Permian to Lower-Cretaceous in Southernmost Brazil, with a couple of outliers with Devonian - Carboniferous ages. In Uruguay results can be grouped in two different clusters: one of samples with Jurassic to Lower-Cretaceous ages, and another of Devonian to Permian ages. This wide range of results can be assign to variations in the uranium content of the grains, due the presence of inclusions, compositional zonation or substantial radiation damage of the crystalline lattice. In most cases, ages tend to increase with crystal eU content. No clear relationship between ages and tectonic terranes has been found so far, neither between ages and elevation, since the region does not have significant topographic variations. Younger ages are commonly found closer to the coastal region, possibly in response to the rift shoulders uplift during Gondwana breakup and further exhumation and denudation at higher rates. An anomalous concentration of older ages in the southern region of the Pelotas Batholith, close to the Brazil - Uruguay border, suggests a

  16. Social Work Faculty's Knowledge of Aging: Results from a National Sample

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wang, Donna S.; Chonody, Jill M.; Krase, Kathryn

    2013-01-01

    Social work students have reported in previous studies that they receive insufficient coursework and training to work effectively with older adults. A critical factor in these deficiencies may be the level of knowledge of social work faculty. This study sought to assess social work faculty's knowledge of aging using the Knowledge of Aging for…

  17. Aging as a predictor of nursing workload in Intensive Care Unit: results from a Brazilian Sample.

    PubMed

    Ferretti-Rebustini, Renata Eloah de Lucena; Nogueira, Lilia de Souza; Silva, Rita de Cassia Gengo E; Poveda, Vanessa de Brito; Machado, Selma Pinheiro; Oliveira, Elaine Machado de; Andolhe, Rafaela; Padilha, Katia Grillo

    2017-04-03

    Verify if aging is an independent predictor of NW in ICU, according to age groups, and its predictive value as a determinant of NW in ICU. Study was conducted from 2012 to 2016. A convenience sample composed by patients (age ≥ 18) admitted to nine ICU belonging to a Brazilian hospital, was analyzed. Age was assumed as an independent variable and NW (measured by the Nursing Activities Score - NAS) as dependent. Linear regression model and ROC curve were used for the analysis. 890 participants (361 older people), mostly males (58.1%). The mean NAS score was higher among older participants in comparison to adults (p=0.004) but not within categories of aging (p=0.697). Age was responsible for 0.6% of NAS score. Each year of age increases NAS score in 0.081 points (p=0.015). However, age was not a good predictor of NAS score (AUC = 0.394; p=0.320). The care of older people in ICU is associated with an increase in NW, compared to adults. Aging can be considered an associated factor but not a good predictor of NW in ICU. Verificar si el envejecimiento es un predictor independiente de la Carga de Trabajo de Enfermería (CTE) en la Unidad de Cuidados Intensivos (UCI), según grupos etarios y su valor predictivo como determinante de la CTE en la UCI. Se analizó una muestra de conveniencia compuesta por pacientes (edad ≥ 18) ingresados en nueve UCI pertenecientes a un hospital brasileño. La edad se asumió como variable independiente y como variable dependiente la carga de trabajo de enfermería -medida por el sistema Nursing Activities Score (NAS) de puntuación de actividades de enfermería. Para el análisis, se utilizaron el modelo de regresión lineal y la curva ROC. 890 participantes (361 adultos mayores), en su mayoría varones (58,1%). La puntuación NAS promedio fue mayor entre los participantes adultos mayores en comparación con los adultos (p=0,004), pero no en las categorías de envejecimiento (p=0,697). La edad fue responsable del 0,6% de la puntuaci

  18. Developmental trajectories of aggressive behavior in children from ages 8 to 10: The role of sex and hormones.

    PubMed

    Azurmendi, Aitziber; Pascual-Sagastizabal, Eider; Vergara, Ana I; Muñoz, Jose M; Braza, Paloma; Carreras, Rosario; Braza, Francisco; Sánchez-Martín, José R

    2016-01-01

    This study explored the developmental trajectory of aggressive behavior from age 8 to age 10 in school-aged children, taking into account possible sex differences, as well as the involvement of certain hormones. Participants were 90 children (49 boys and 41 girls) from four schools. At the beginning of the study, the children were 8-year old and were in 3rd grade of primary school. The second data collection phase was carried out two years later (at age 10) when the children were in 5th grade (primary). Their aggressive behavior was measured by the Direct and Indirect Aggression Scale, an instrument which uses peer rating. Hormone levels, testosterone, cortisol and estradiol were analyzed using an enzymoimmunoassay technique in saliva samples. The results revealed a difference in aggressive behavior between the ages of 8 and 10, in boys only, who were found to be more aggressive at age 10. A regression analysis revealed that cortisol and estradiol contributed to explaining the changes observed in aggressive behavior in boys. Boys whose cortisol levels rose most between the ages of 8 and 10 were also those whose aggressive behavior increased most during the same timeframe. Moreover, boys whose estradiol levels rose most between the ages of 8 and 10 were also those whose aggressive behavior decreased most during the same timeframe. Our results highlight the importance of studying aggressive behavior from a longitudinal perspective, taking into account sex differences and biological measures. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  19. Pupillometry reveals reduced unconscious emotional reactivity in autism.

    PubMed

    Nuske, Heather J; Vivanti, Giacomo; Hudry, Kristelle; Dissanayake, Cheryl

    2014-09-01

    Recent theoretical conceptualisations have suggested that emotion processing impairments in autism stem from disruption to the sub-cortical, rapid emotion-processing system. We argue that a clear way to ascertain whether this system is affected in autism is by measuring unconscious emotional reactivity. Using backwards masking, we presented fearful expressions non-consciously (subliminally) as well as consciously (supraliminally), and measured pupillary responses as an index of emotional reactivity in 19 children with autism and 19 typically developing children, aged 2-5 years. The pupillary responses of the children with autism revealed reduced unconscious emotional reactivity, with no group differences on consciously presented emotion. Together, these results indicate a hyporesponsiveness to non-consciously presented emotion suggesting a fundamental difference in emotion processing in autism, which requires consciousness and more time. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  20. Phenobarbital Treatment at a Neonatal Age Results in Decreased Efficacy of Omeprazole in Adult Mice.

    PubMed

    Tien, Yun-Chen; Piekos, Stephanie C; Pope, Chad; Zhong, Xiao-Bo

    2017-03-01

    Drug-drug interactions (DDIs) occur when the action of one drug interferes with or alters the activity of another drug taken concomitantly. This can lead to decreased drug efficacy or increased toxicity. Because of DDIs, physicians in the clinical practice attempt to avoid potential interactions when multiple drugs are coadministrated; however, there is still a large knowledge gap in understanding how drugs taken in the past can contribute to DDIs in the future. The goal of this study was to investigate the consequence of neonatal drug exposure on efficacy of other drugs administered up through adult life. We selected a mouse model to test phenobarbital exposure at a neonatal age and its impact on efficacy of omeprazole in adult life. The results of our experiment show an observed decrease in omeprazole's ability to raise gastric pH in adult mice that received single or multiple doses of phenobarbital at a neonatal age. This effect may be associated with the permanent induction of cytochrome P450 enzymes in adult liver after neonatal phenobarbital treatment. Our data indicates that DDIs may result from drugs administered in the past in an animal model and should prompt re-evaluation of how DDIs are viewed and how to avoid long-term DDIs in clinical practice. Copyright © 2017 by The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.

  1. Cognitive Learning Strategy as a Partial Effect on Major Field Test in Business Results

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Strang, Kenneth David

    2014-01-01

    An experiment was developed to determine if cognitive learning strategies improved standardized university business exam results. Previous studies revealed that factors such as prior ability, age, gender, and culture predicted a student's Major Field Test in Business (MFTB) score better than course content. The experiment control consisted of…

  2. In Vivo Brillouin Analysis of the Aging Crystalline Lens

    PubMed Central

    Besner, Sebastien; Scarcelli, Giuliano; Pineda, Roberto; Yun, Seok-Hyun

    2016-01-01

    Purpose To analyze the age dependence of the longitudinal modulus of the crystalline lens in vivo using Brillouin scattering data in healthy subjects. Methods Brillouin scans were performed along the crystalline lens in 56 eyes from 30 healthy subjects aged from 19 to 63 years. Longitudinal elastic modulus was acquired along the sagittal axis of the lens with a transverse and axial resolution of 4 and 60 μm, respectively. The relative lens stiffness was computed, and correlations with age were analyzed. Results Brillouin axial profiles revealed nonuniform longitudinal modulus within the lens, increasing from a softer periphery toward a stiffer central plateau at all ages. The longitudinal modulus at the central plateau showed no age dependence in a range of 19 to 45 years and a slight decrease with age from 45 to 63 years. A significant intersubject variability was observed in an age-matched analysis. Importantly, the extent of the central stiff plateau region increased steadily over age from 19 to 63 years. The slope of change in Brillouin modulus in the peripheral regions were nearly age-invariant. Conclusions The adult human lens showed no measurable age-related increase in the peak longitudinal modulus. The expansion of the stiff central region of the lens is likely to be the major contributing factor to age-related lens stiffening. Brillouin microscopy may be useful in characterizing the crystalline lens for the optimization of surgical or pharmacological treatments aimed at restoring accommodative power. PMID:27699407

  3. Transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses of cucumber fruit peels reveal a developmental increase in terpenoid glycosides associated with age-related resistance to Phytophthora capsici

    PubMed Central

    Mansfeld, Ben N; Colle, Marivi; Kang, Yunyan; Jones, A Daniel; Grumet, Rebecca

    2017-01-01

    The oomycete, Phytophthora capsici, infects cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) fruit. An age-related resistance (ARR) to this pathogen was previously observed in fruit of cultivar ‘Vlaspik’ and shown to be associated with the peel. Young fruits are highly susceptible, but develop resistance at ~10–12 days post pollination (dpp). Peels from resistant (16 dpp) versus susceptible (8 dpp) age fruit are enriched with genes associated with defense, and methanolic extracts from resistant age peels inhibit pathogen growth. Here we compared developing fruits from ‘Vlaspik’ with those of ‘Gy14’, a line that does not exhibit ARR. Transcriptomic analysis of peels of the two lines at 8 and 16 dpp identified 80 genes that were developmentally upregulated in resistant ‘Vlaspik’ 16 dpp versus 8 dpp, but not in susceptible ‘Gy14’ at 16 dpp. A large number of these genes are annotated to be associated with defense and/or specialized metabolism, including four putative resistance (R) genes, and numerous genes involved in flavonoid and terpenoid synthesis and decoration. Untargeted metabolomic analysis was performed on extracts from 8 and 16 dpp ‘Vlaspik’ and ‘Gy14’ fruit peels using Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatography and Quadrupole Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry. Multivariate analysis of the metabolomes identified 113 ions uniquely abundant in resistant ‘Vlaspik’ 16 dpp peel extracts. The most abundant compounds in this group had relative mass defects consistent with terpenoid glycosides. Two of the three most abundant ions were annotated as glycosylated nor-terpenoid esters. Together, these analyses reveal potential mechanisms by which ARR to P. capsici may be conferred. PMID:28580151

  4. [PSYCHO PHYSIOLOGICAL MARKERS OF ACCELERATED AGING AMONG THOSE WORKING WITH OCCUPATIONAL HAZARDS].

    PubMed

    Bashkireva, A S; Kachan, Ye Yu; Kulapina, M E

    2015-01-01

    Using comparative analysis of two occupational groups we assessed the significance of psycho physiological markers of short-term memory accelerated aging in order to reveal how the age-related changes and working process affect mental work capacity. We revealed peculiarities of systemic structure of functions which determine mental work capacity depending on the age and length of service in lorry drivers. It was proved that age and long driving experience affect mnestic functions which show up quantitative and qualitative changes such as reduced volume of memorized information, longer time needed to memorize it, and tendency to diminished accuracy of memorization. We also proved that premature age-related changes of psycho physiological indices in drivers are the "risk indicators", while long driving experience is a real risk factor contributing to the acceleration of aging.

  5. Paternal age increases the risk for autism in an Iranian population sample

    PubMed Central

    2010-01-01

    Background Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder which is known to have a strong genetic component and is most likely oligogenic. However, the necessary role of environmental factors has been well documented. Prior research suggests that parental characteristics, such as age and level of education, may be associated with a risk of autism. Parental age has been shown to be associated with many disorders, such as schizophrenia, childhood cancer and fetal death. However, results from studies of parental age and autism are inconsistent. Methods In the present study, we investigated the association of autism with parental age in 179 autism cases and 1611 matched cohort children from Iran. Each case was matched with nine cohort controls on parental education, sex, order of birth, consanguineous marriage, urbanism and province of residence. The Cox regression model was used to carry out conditional logistic regression on the matched data. Results There was a significant association between higher paternal age, but not maternal age, and an increasing risk of autism. An analysis of the combined effect of parental age and education also revealed that parents with higher education had an increased risk of having autistic children, with a dose-response effect of parental age. Conclusions This study, which is the first epidemiological study of autism in Iran, provides evidence of the association of paternal age and risk of autism. PMID:20678245

  6. Myocardial strain in healthy adults across a broad age range as revealed by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging at 1.5 and 3.0T: Associations of myocardial strain with myocardial region, age, and sex.

    PubMed

    Mangion, Kenneth; Clerfond, Guillaume; McComb, Christie; Carrick, David; Rauhalammi, Samuli M; McClure, John; Corcoran, David S; Woodward, Rosemary; Orchard, Vanessa; Radjenovic, Aleksandra; Zhong, Xiaodong; Berry, Colin

    2016-11-01

    To assess myocardial strain using cine displacement encoding with stimulated echoes (DENSE) using 1.5T and 3.0T MRI in healthy adults. Healthy adults without any history of cardiovascular disease underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at 1.5T and 3.0T within 2 days. The MRI protocol included balanced steady-state free-precession (b-SSFP), 2D cine-echo planar imaging (EPI)-DENSE, and late gadolinium enhancement in subjects >45 years. Acquisitions were divided into six segments; global and segmental peak longitudinal and circumferential strain were derived and analyzed by field strength, age, and gender. In all, 89 volunteers (mean age 44.8 ± 18.0 years, range: 18-87 years) underwent MRI at 1.5T, and 88 of these subjects underwent MRI at 3.0T (1.4 ± 1.4 days between the scans). Compared with 3.0T, the magnitudes of global circumferential (-19.5 ± 2.6% vs. -18.47 ± 2.6%; P = 0.001) and longitudinal (-12.47 ± 3.2% vs. -10.53 ± 3.1%; P = 0.004) strain were greater at 1.5T. At 1.5T, longitudinal strain was greater in females than in males: -10.17 ± 3.4% vs. -13.67 ± 2.4%; P = 0.001. Similar observations occurred for circumferential strain at 1.5T (-18.72 ± 2.2% vs. -20.10 ± 2.7%; P = 0.014) and at 3.0T (-17.92 ± 1.8% vs. -19.1 ± 3.1%; P = 0.047). At 1.5T, longitudinal and circumferential strain were not associated with age after accounting for sex (longitudinal strain P = 0.178, circumferential strain P = 0.733). At 3.0T, longitudinal and circumferential strain were associated with age (P < 0.05). Longitudinal strain values were greater in the apico-septal, basal-lateral, and mid-lateral segments and circumferential strain in the inferior, infero-lateral, and antero-lateral LV segments. Myocardial strain parameters as revealed by cine-DENSE at different MRI field strengths were associated with myocardial region, age, and sex. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2016;44:1197-1205. © 2016 The Authors Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging published by Wiley Periodicals

  7. Analysis of age as a factor in NASA astronaut selection and career landmarks.

    PubMed

    Kovacs, Gregory T A; Shadden, Mark

    2017-01-01

    NASA's periodic selection of astronauts is a highly selective process accepting applications from the general population, wherein the mechanics of selection are not made public. This research was an effort to determine if biases (specifically age) exist in the process and, if so, at which points they might manifest. Two sets of analyses were conducted. The first utilized data requested via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) on NASA astronaut applicants for the 2009 and 2013 selection years. Using a series of multinomial and logistic regressions, the data were analyzed to uncover whether age of the applicants linearly or nonlinearly affected their likelihood of receiving an invitation, as well as their likelihood of being selected into the astronaut program. The second used public data on age at selection and age at other career milestones for every astronaut selected from 1959 to 2013 to analyze trends in age over time using ordinary least-squares (OLS) regression and Pearson's correlation. The results for the FOIA data revealed a nonlinear relationship between age and receiving an interview, as well as age and selection into the astronaut program, but the most striking observation was the loss of age diversity at each stage of selection. Applicants younger or older than approximately 40 years were significantly less likely to receive invitations for interviews and were significantly less likely to be selected as an astronaut. Analysis of the public-source data for all selections since the beginning of the astronaut program revealed significant age trends over time including a gradual increase in selectee age and decreased tenure at NASA after last flight, with average age at retirement steady over the entire history of the astronaut program at approximately 48 years.

  8. Analysis of age as a factor in NASA astronaut selection and career landmarks

    PubMed Central

    Shadden, Mark

    2017-01-01

    NASA’s periodic selection of astronauts is a highly selective process accepting applications from the general population, wherein the mechanics of selection are not made public. This research was an effort to determine if biases (specifically age) exist in the process and, if so, at which points they might manifest. Two sets of analyses were conducted. The first utilized data requested via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) on NASA astronaut applicants for the 2009 and 2013 selection years. Using a series of multinomial and logistic regressions, the data were analyzed to uncover whether age of the applicants linearly or nonlinearly affected their likelihood of receiving an invitation, as well as their likelihood of being selected into the astronaut program. The second used public data on age at selection and age at other career milestones for every astronaut selected from 1959 to 2013 to analyze trends in age over time using ordinary least-squares (OLS) regression and Pearson’s correlation. The results for the FOIA data revealed a nonlinear relationship between age and receiving an interview, as well as age and selection into the astronaut program, but the most striking observation was the loss of age diversity at each stage of selection. Applicants younger or older than approximately 40 years were significantly less likely to receive invitations for interviews and were significantly less likely to be selected as an astronaut. Analysis of the public-source data for all selections since the beginning of the astronaut program revealed significant age trends over time including a gradual increase in selectee age and decreased tenure at NASA after last flight, with average age at retirement steady over the entire history of the astronaut program at approximately 48 years. PMID:28749968

  9. Influence of social support on cognitive change and mortality in old age: results from the prospective multicentre cohort study AgeCoDe.

    PubMed

    Eisele, Marion; Zimmermann, Thomas; Köhler, Mirjam; Wiese, Birgitt; Heser, Kathrin; Tebarth, Franziska; Weeg, Dagmar; Olbrich, Julia; Pentzek, Michael; Fuchs, Angela; Weyerer, Siegfried; Werle, Jochen; Leicht, Hanna; König, Hans-Helmut; Luppa, Melanie; Riedel-Heller, Steffi; Maier, Wolfgang; Scherer, Martin

    2012-03-20

    Social support has been suggested to positively influence cognition and mortality in old age. However, this suggestion has been questioned due to inconsistent operationalisations of social support among studies and the small number of longitudinal studies available. This study aims to investigate the influence of perceived social support, understood as the emotional component of social support, on cognition and mortality in old age as part of a prospective longitudinal multicentre study in Germany. A national subsample of 2,367 primary care patients was assessed twice over an observation period of 18 months regarding the influence of social support on cognitive function and mortality. Perceived social support was assessed using the 14-item version of the FSozU, which is a standardised and validated questionnaire of social support. Cognition was tested by the neuropsychological test battery of the Structured Interview for the Diagnosis of Dementia (SIDAM). The influence of perceived support on cognitive change was analysed by multivariate ANCOVA; mortality was analysed by multivariate logistic and cox regression. Sample cognitive change (N = 1,869): Mean age was 82.4 years (SD 3.3) at the beginning of the observation period, 65.9% were female, mean cognition was 49 (SD 4.4) in the SIDAM. Over the observation period cognitive function declined in 47.2% by a mean of 3.4 points. Sample mortality (N = 2,367): Mean age was 82.5 years (SD 3.4), 65.7% were female and 185 patients died during the observation period. Perceived social support showed no longitudinal association with cognitive change (F = 2.235; p = 0.135) and mortality (p = 0.332; CI 0.829-1.743). Perceived social support did not influence cognition and mortality over an 18 months observation period. However, previous studies using different operationalisations of social support and longer observation periods indicate that such an influence may exist. This influence is rather small and the result of complex

  10. Oligomeric status of the dihydropyridine receptor in aged skeletal muscle.

    PubMed

    Ryan, M; Carlson, B M; Ohlendieck, K

    2000-10-01

    A prominent feature of aging is represented by a decrease in muscle mass and strength. Abnormalities in Ca2+ -regulatory membrane complexes are involved in many muscular disorders. In analogy, we determined potential age-related changes in a key component of excitation-contraction coupling, the dihydropyridine receptor. Immunoblotting of the microsomal fraction from aged rabbit muscle revealed a drastic decline in the voltage-sensing alpha1-subunit of this transverse-tubular receptor, but only marginally altered expression of its auxiliary alpha(2)-subunit and the Na+/K+ -ATPase. A shift to slower fibre type characteristics was indicated by an age-related increase in the slow calsequestrin isoform. Chemical crosslinking analysis showed that the triad receptor complex has a comparable tendency of protein-protein interactions in young and aged muscles. Hence, a reduced expression and not modified oligomerization of the principal dihydropyridine receptor subunit might be involved in triggering impaired triadic signal transduction and abnormal Ca2+ -homeostasis resulting in a progressive functional decline of skeletal muscles. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.

  11. Resting-state networks associated with cognitive processing show more age-related decline than those associated with emotional processing.

    PubMed

    Nashiro, Kaoru; Sakaki, Michiko; Braskie, Meredith N; Mather, Mara

    2017-06-01

    Correlations in activity across disparate brain regions during rest reveal functional networks in the brain. Although previous studies largely agree that there is an age-related decline in the "default mode network," how age affects other resting-state networks, such as emotion-related networks, is still controversial. Here we used a dual-regression approach to investigate age-related alterations in resting-state networks. The results revealed age-related disruptions in functional connectivity in all 5 identified cognitive networks, namely the default mode network, cognitive-auditory, cognitive-speech (or speech-related somatosensory), and right and left frontoparietal networks, whereas such age effects were not observed in the 3 identified emotion networks. In addition, we observed age-related decline in functional connectivity in 3 visual and 3 motor/visuospatial networks. Older adults showed greater functional connectivity in regions outside 4 out of the 5 identified cognitive networks, consistent with the dedifferentiation effect previously observed in task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging studies. Both reduced within-network connectivity and increased out-of-network connectivity were correlated with poor cognitive performance, providing potential biomarkers for cognitive aging. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  12. Subjective Age and Changes in Memory in Older Adults.

    PubMed

    Stephan, Yannick; Sutin, Angelina R; Caudroit, Johan; Terracciano, Antonio

    2016-07-01

    The subjective experience of aging, indexed by how old or young an individual feels, has been related to well-being and health-related outcomes among older adults. The present study examined whether subjective age is associated with memory level and changes, as indexed by measures of immediate and delayed recall. A complementary purpose was to test the mediating role of depressive symptoms and physical activity in the relation between subjective age and memory changes. Participants were drawn from three waves of the Health and Retirement Study. Subjective age, baseline memory measures, and covariates were assessed during the 2008 wave (N = 5809), depressive symptoms and physical activity were assessed again in the 2010 wave, and the follow-up memory measures were assessed in the 2012 wave. Regression analyses that included demographic, metabolic, and vascular covariates revealed that a younger subjective age at baseline was associated with better concurrent performance and with slower decline in immediate and delayed recall. Bootstrap procedures indicated that fewer depressive symptoms mediated these associations. Additional analyses revealed that memory level and change were unrelated to changes in subjective age. Beyond chronological age, the subjective experience of age is associated with cognitive aging. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  13. Transcriptional and Cell Cycle Alterations Mark Aging of Primary Human Adipose-Derived Stem Cells.

    PubMed

    Shan, Xiaoyin; Roberts, Cleresa; Kim, Eun Ji; Brenner, Ariana; Grant, Gregory; Percec, Ivona

    2017-05-01

    Adult stem cells play a critical role in the maintenance of tissue homeostasis and prevention of aging. While the regenerative potential of stem cells with low cellular turnover, such as adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs), is increasingly recognized, the study of chronological aging in ASCs is technically difficult and remains poorly understood. Here, we use our model of chronological aging in primary human ASCs to examine genome-wide transcriptional networks. We demonstrate first that the transcriptome of aging ASCs is distinctly more stable than that of age-matched fibroblasts, and further, that age-dependent modifications in cell cycle progression and translation initiation specifically characterize aging ASCs in conjunction with increased nascent protein synthesis and a distinctly shortened G1 phase. Our results reveal novel chronological aging mechanisms in ASCs that are inherently different from differentiated cells and that may reflect an organismal attempt to meet the increased demands of tissue and organ homeostasis during aging. Stem Cells 2017;35:1392-1401. © 2017 AlphaMed Press.

  14. Incidence of dementia in elderly Latin Americans: Results of the Maracaibo Aging Study.

    PubMed

    Maestre, Gladys E; Mena, Luis J; Melgarejo, Jesus D; Aguirre-Acevedo, Daniel C; Pino-Ramírez, Gloria; Urribarrí, Milady; Chacon, Inara J; Chávez, Carlos A; Falque-Madrid, Luis; Gaona, Ciro A; Terwilliger, Joseph D; Lee, Joseph H; Scarmeas, Nikolaos

    2018-02-01

    There are few longitudinal studies of dementia in developing countries. We used longitudinal data from the Maracaibo Aging Study to accurately determine the age- and sex-specific incidence of dementia in elderly Latin Americans. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Fourth Edition, Text Revision) was used to diagnose dementia, which was classified as Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, or other. Age- and sex-specific incidence was estimated as the number of new cases of dementia divided by person-years (p-y) of follow-up. The incidence of all dementia diagnoses was 9.10 per 1000 p-y (95% confidence interval [CI] 7.13-11.44; 8026 total p-y), 5.18 for Alzheimer's disease (95% CI 3.72-7.03; 7916 total p-y), and 3.35 for vascular dementia (95% CI 2.19-4.91; 7757 total p-y). Among Maracaibo Aging Study participants younger than 65 years, the incidence of dementia was higher than that of US Whites. Among individuals older than 65 years, the incidence was comparable to the mean of previous incidence estimates for other populations worldwide. Copyright © 2017 the Alzheimer's Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  15. Prevalence of self-reported food allergy in different age groups of georgian population.

    PubMed

    Lomidze, N; Gotua, M

    2015-04-01

    Epidemiological studies in high income countries suggested that a big proportion of the population in Europe and America report adverse reactions to food. Self-reported prevalence of food allergy varied from 1.2% to 17% for milk, 0.2% to 7% for egg, 0% to 2% for peanuts and fish, 0% to 10% for shellfish, and 3% to 35% for any food. The aim of our study was to report the prevalence of self-reported food allergy in the different age groups of Georgian population and to reveal the most common self-reported food allergens. ISAAC phase III study methodology and questionnaires were used for data collection. Questions about food allergy were added to the survey and involved questions about self-reported food allergy. 6-7 years old 6140 children (response rate-94,5%) and 13-14 years old 5373 adolescents (response rate-86,9%) from two locations of Georgia, Tbilisi and Kutaisi were surveyed. 500 randomly assessed adults from Tbilisi aged 18 years and older were added later (response rate-97,6%). Findings revealed that self-reported food allergy among 6-7 years old age group and 13-14 years old age were almost the same (15,7% and 15,9% correspondingly) and slightly lower in adult population - 13,9%. Study revealed, that hen's egg was the commonest implicated food for 6-7 years age group, hazel nut - for 13-14 years old age group followed by hen's egg. Walnut and hazel nut were most reported foods for adult population. The findings also revealed that food allergy is one of the most important risk factor for symptoms associated with asthma (OR-3,05; 95%CI 2.50-3.74), rhinoconjunctivitis (OR-2,85; 95%CI 2.24-3.64) and eczema (OR-5,42; 95%CI 4.08-7.18) in childhood. The data has provided the first epidemiological information related to food allergy among children and adults in Georgia. Results should serve as baseline information for food allergy screening, diagnosis and treatment. Our findings can also inform the public health officials on the disease burden and may offer some

  16. Metabolism of AGEs--bacterial AGEs are degraded by metallo-proteases.

    PubMed

    Cohen-Or, Ifat; Katz, Chen; Ron, Eliora Z

    2013-01-01

    Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs) are the final products of non-enzymatic protein glycation that results in loss of protein structure and function. We have previously shown that in E. coli AGEs are continually formed as high-molecular weight protein complexes. Moreover, we showed that AGEs are removed from the cells by an active, ATP-dependent secretion and that these secreted molecules have low molecular weight. Taken together, these results indicate that E. coli contains a fraction of low molecular weight AGEs, in addition to the high-molecular weight AGEs. Here we show that the low-molecular weight AGEs originate from high-molecular weight AGEs by proteolytic degradation. Results of in-vitro and in vivo experiments indicated that this degradation is carried out not by the major ATP-dependent proteases that are responsible for the main part of bacterial protein quality control but by an alternative metal-dependent proteolysis. This proteolytic reaction is essential for the further secretion of AGEs from the cells. As the biochemical reactions involving AGEs are not yet understood, the implication of a metalloprotease in breakdown of high molecular weight AGEs and their secretion constitutes an important step in the understanding of AGEs metabolism.

  17. Aging and the visual, haptic, and cross-modal perception of natural object shape.

    PubMed

    Norman, J Farley; Crabtree, Charles E; Norman, Hideko F; Moncrief, Brandon K; Herrmann, Molly; Kapley, Noah

    2006-01-01

    One hundred observers participated in two experiments designed to investigate aging and the perception of natural object shape. In the experiments, younger and older observers performed either a same/different shape discrimination task (experiment 1) or a cross-modal matching task (experiment 2). Quantitative effects of age were found in both experiments. The effect of age in experiment 1 was limited to cross-modal shape discrimination: there was no effect of age upon unimodal (ie within a single perceptual modality) shape discrimination. The effect of age in experiment 2 was eliminated when the older observers were either given an unlimited amount of time to perform the task or when the number of response alternatives was decreased. Overall, the results of the experiments reveal that older observers can effectively perceive 3-D shape from both vision and haptics.

  18. Age-related carbonylation of fibrocartilage structural proteins drives tissue degenerative modification.

    PubMed

    Scharf, Brian; Clement, Cristina C; Yodmuang, Supansa; Urbanska, Aleksandra M; Suadicani, Sylvia O; Aphkhazava, David; Thi, Mia M; Perino, Giorgio; Hardin, John A; Cobelli, Neil; Vunjak-Novakovic, Gordana; Santambrogio, Laura

    2013-07-25

    Aging-related oxidative stress has been linked to degenerative modifications in different organs and tissues. Using redox proteomic analysis and illustrative tandem mass spectrometry mapping, we demonstrate oxidative posttranslational modifications in structural proteins of intervertebral discs (IVDs) isolated from aging mice. Increased protein carbonylation was associated with protein fragmentation and aggregation. Complementing these findings, a significant loss of elasticity and increased stiffness was measured in fibrocartilage from aging mice. Studies using circular dichroism and intrinsic tryptophan fluorescence revealed a significant loss of secondary and tertiary structures of purified collagens following oxidation. Collagen unfolding and oxidation promoted both nonenzymatic and enzymatic degradation. Importantly, induction of oxidative modification in healthy fibrocartilage recapitulated the biochemical and biophysical modifications observed in the aging IVD. Together, these results suggest that protein carbonylation, glycation, and lipoxidation could be early events in promoting IVD degenerative changes. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. Age at Arrival and Life Chances Among Childhood Immigrants.

    PubMed

    Hermansen, Are Skeie

    2017-02-01

    This study examines the causal relationship between childhood immigrants' age at arrival and their life chances as adults. I analyze panel data on siblings from Norwegian administrative registries, which enables me to disentangle the effect of age at arrival on adult socioeconomic outcomes from all fixed family-level conditions and endowments shared by siblings. Results from sibling fixed-effects models reveal a progressively stronger adverse influence of immigration at later stages of childhood on completed education, employment, adult earnings, occupational attainment, and social welfare assistance. The persistence of these relationships within families indicates that experiences related to the timing of childhood immigration have causal effects on later-life outcomes. These age-at-arrival effects are considerably stronger among children who arrive from geographically distant and economically less-developed origin regions than among children originating from developed countries. The age-at-arrival effects vary less by parental education and child gender. On the whole, the findings indicate that childhood immigration after an early-life formative period tends to constrain later human capital formation and economic opportunities over the life course.

  20. Age of acquisition and allophony in Spanish-English bilinguals

    PubMed Central

    Barlow, Jessica A.

    2014-01-01

    This study examines age of acquisition (AoA) in Spanish-English bilinguals’ phonetic and phonological knowledge of /l/ in English and Spanish. In English, the lateral approximant /l/ varies in darkness by context [based on the second formant (F2) and the difference between F2 and the first formant (F1)], but the Spanish /l/ does not. Further, English /l/ is overall darker than Spanish /l/. Thirty-eight college-aged adults participated: 11 Early Spanish-English bilinguals who learned English before the age of 5 years, 14 Late Spanish-English bilinguals who learned English after the age of 6 years, and 13 English monolinguals. Participants’ /l/ productions were acoustically analyzed by language and context. The results revealed a Spanish-to-English phonetic influence on /l/ productions for both Early and Late bilinguals, as well as an English-to-Spanish phonological influence on the patterning of /l/ for the Late Bilinguals. These findings are discussed in terms of the Speech Learning Model and the effect of AoA on the interaction between a bilingual speaker’s two languages. PMID:24795664

  1. Age of acquisition and allophony in Spanish-English bilinguals.

    PubMed

    Barlow, Jessica A

    2014-01-01

    This study examines age of acquisition (AoA) in Spanish-English bilinguals' phonetic and phonological knowledge of /l/ in English and Spanish. In English, the lateral approximant /l/ varies in darkness by context [based on the second formant (F2) and the difference between F2 and the first formant (F1)], but the Spanish /l/ does not. Further, English /l/ is overall darker than Spanish /l/. Thirty-eight college-aged adults participated: 11 Early Spanish-English bilinguals who learned English before the age of 5 years, 14 Late Spanish-English bilinguals who learned English after the age of 6 years, and 13 English monolinguals. Participants' /l/ productions were acoustically analyzed by language and context. The results revealed a Spanish-to-English phonetic influence on /l/ productions for both Early and Late bilinguals, as well as an English-to-Spanish phonological influence on the patterning of /l/ for the Late Bilinguals. These findings are discussed in terms of the Speech Learning Model and the effect of AoA on the interaction between a bilingual speaker's two languages.

  2. [Body weight change and health outcomes in middle-aged men--a prospective study results].

    PubMed

    Kaleta, Dorota; Kwaśniewska, Magdalena; Bednarek-Gejo, Anna; Dziankowska-Zaborszczyk, Elzbieta; Jegier, Anna; Kostka, Tomasz; Drygas, Wojciech K

    2005-01-01

    In recent years more attention is paid to the role of body weight change and cardiovascular disease risk. The aim of the study was to evaluate correlation between body weight change and risk of ischaemic heart disease (IHD) and selected cardiovascular disease risk in middle-aged male during long-term surveillance. The study was conducted among group of healthy male volunteers (n=189) aged 30-49 years at baseline. Prevalence of disease due to cardiovascular causes was ascertained in study participants during an average follow-up of 17.7 +/- 4.4 years. Changes in weight were classified in three categories: stable weight (+/- 5 kg), weight gain (>5 kg) or weight loss (>5 kg). Logistic regression analysis was performed to study the correlation between weight change and Relative Risk (RR) of cardiovascular disease in the examined subjects. All analyses were adjusted for age, smoking and level of leisure-time physical activity. In this study 48.4% men maintained weight, 5.9% lowered weight and 45.7% gained weight. Ischaemic heart disease was diagnosed in 12.2% of men, including non fatal myocardial infarction in 5.3%, hypertension in 40.7%, and hyperchoesterolaemia in 62.4%, respectively. Among participants with weight gain of more than 5 kg total cardiovascular disease risk was 4 times higher (adjusted RR=4.07, 95% CI, 1.33-12.44), ischaemic heart disease 3 times higher (adjusted RR=3.27, 95% CI, 1.17-9.17), and hypercholesterolaemia 2 times higher (adjusted RR=2.15, 95% CI, 1.09-4.24) in comparison with those with stable weight. This study results suggests that maintaining stable weight during adulthood can be effective strategy for lowering cardiovascular disease risk.

  3. The use of information theory for the evaluation of biomarkers of aging and physiological age.

    PubMed

    Blokh, David; Stambler, Ilia

    2017-04-01

    The present work explores the application of information theoretical measures, such as entropy and normalized mutual information, for research of biomarkers of aging. The use of information theory affords unique methodological advantages for the study of aging processes, as it allows evaluating non-linear relations between biological parameters, providing the precise quantitative strength of those relations, both for individual and multiple parameters, showing cumulative or synergistic effect. Here we illustrate those capabilities utilizing a dataset on heart disease, including diagnostic parameters routinely available to physicians. The use of information-theoretical methods, utilizing normalized mutual information, revealed the exact amount of information that various diagnostic parameters or their combinations contained about the persons' age. Based on those exact informative values for the correlation of measured parameters with age, we constructed a diagnostic rule (a decision tree) to evaluate physiological age, as compared to chronological age. The present data illustrated that younger subjects suffering from heart disease showed characteristics of people of higher age (higher physiological age). Utilizing information-theoretical measures, with additional data, it may be possible to create further clinically applicable information-theory-based markers and models for the evaluation of physiological age, its relation to age-related diseases and its potential modifications by therapeutic interventions. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  4. Resting cerebral blood flow, attention, and aging.

    PubMed

    Bertsch, Katja; Hagemann, Dirk; Hermes, Michael; Walter, Christof; Khan, Robina; Naumann, Ewald

    2009-04-24

    Aging is accompanied by a decline of fluid cognitive functions, e.g., a slowing of information processing, working memory, and division of attention. This is at least partly due to structural and functional changes in the aging brain. Although a decrement of resting cerebral blood flow (CBF) has been positively associated with cognitive functions in patients with brain diseases, studies with healthy participants have revealed inconsistent results. Therefore, we investigated the relation between resting cerebral blood flow and cognitive functions (tonic and phasic alertness, selective and divided attention) in two samples of healthy young and older participants. We found higher resting CBF and better cognitive performances in the young than in the older sample. In addition, resting CBF was inversely correlated with selective attention in the young and with tonic alertness in the elderly participants. This finding is discussed with regard to the neural efficiency hypothesis of human intelligence.

  5. Nematode-bacterium symbioses--cooperation and conflict revealed in the "omics" age.

    PubMed

    Murfin, Kristen E; Dillman, Adler R; Foster, Jeremy M; Bulgheresi, Silvia; Slatko, Barton E; Sternberg, Paul W; Goodrich-Blair, Heidi

    2012-08-01

    Nematodes are ubiquitous organisms that have a significant global impact on ecosystems, economies, agriculture, and human health. The applied importance of nematodes and the experimental tractability of many species have promoted their use as models in various research areas, including developmental biology, evolutionary biology, ecology, and animal-bacterium interactions. Nematodes are particularly well suited for the investigation of host associations with bacteria because all nematodes have interacted with bacteria during their evolutionary history and engage in a variety of association types. Interactions between nematodes and bacteria can be positive (mutualistic) or negative (pathogenic/parasitic) and may be transient or stably maintained (symbiotic). Furthermore, since many mechanistic aspects of nematode-bacterium interactions are conserved, their study can provide broader insights into other types of associations, including those relevant to human diseases. Recently, genome-scale studies have been applied to diverse nematode-bacterial interactions and have helped reveal mechanisms of communication and exchange between the associated partners. In addition to providing specific information about the system under investigation, these studies also have helped inform our understanding of genome evolution, mutualism, and innate immunity. In this review we discuss the importance and diversity of nematodes, "omics"' studies in nematode-bacterial systems, and the wider implications of the findings.

  6. Nematode-Bacterium Symbioses - Cooperation and Conflict Revealed in the 'Omics' Age

    PubMed Central

    Murfin, Kristen E.; Dillman, Adler R.; Foster, Jeremy M.; Bulgheresi, Silvia; Slatko, Barton E.; Sternberg, Paul W.; Goodrich-Blair, Heidi

    2012-01-01

    Nematodes are ubiquitous organisms that have a significant global impact on ecosystems, economies, agriculture, and human health. The applied importance of nematodes and the experimental tractability of many species have promoted their use as models in various research areas, including developmental biology, evolutionary biology, ecology, and animal-bacterium interactions. Nematodes are particularly well suited for investigating host associations with bacteria because all nematodes have interacted with bacteria during their evolutionary history and engage in a diversity of association types. Interactions between nematodes and bacteria can be positive (mutualistic) or negative (pathogenic/parasitic) and may be transient or stably maintained (symbiotic). Furthermore, since many mechanistic aspects of nematode-bacterium interactions are conserved their study can provide broader insights into other types of associations, including those relevant to human diseases. Recently, genome-scale studies have been applied to diverse nematode-bacterial interactions, and have helped reveal mechanisms of communication and exchange between the associated partners. In addition to providing specific information about the system under investigation, these studies also have helped inform our understanding of genome evolution, mutualism, and innate immunity. In this review we will discuss the importance and diversity of nematodes, 'omics' studies in nematode-bacterial systems, and the wider implications of the findings. PMID:22983035

  7. Long-term (60-month) results for the implantable miniature telescope: efficacy and safety outcomes stratified by age in patients with end-stage age-related macular degeneration

    PubMed Central

    Boyer, David; Freund, K Bailey; Regillo, Carl; Levy, Marc H; Garg, Sumit

    2015-01-01

    Background The purpose of this study was to evaluate the long-term results of an implantable miniature telescope (IMT) in patients with bilateral, end-stage, age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Methods A prospective, open-label, multicenter clinical trial with fellow eye controls enrolled 217 patients (mean age 76 years) with AMD and moderate-to-profound bilateral central visual acuity loss (20/80–20/800) resulting from untreatable geographic atrophy, disciform scars, or both. A subgroup analysis was performed with stratification for age (patient age 65 to <75 years [group 1; n=70] and patient age ≥75 years [group 2; n=127]), with a comparative evaluation of change in best-corrected distance visual acuity (BCDVA), quality of life, ocular complications from surgery, adverse events, and endothelial cell density (ECD). Follow-up in an extension study was 60 months. Results Data were available for 22, 38, and 31 patients in group 1 and 42, 46, and 32 patients in group 2 at 36, 48, and 60 months, respectively. Mean BCDVA improvement from baseline to 60 months was 2.41±2.69 lines in all patients (n=76), with 2.64±2.55 lines in group 1 and 2.09±2.88 lines in group 2. Quality of life scores were significantly higher in group 1. The most common significant surgery-related ocular complications in group 1 were iritis >30 days after surgery (7/70; 10%) and persistent corneal edema (3/70; 4.3%); and in group 2 were a decrease in BCDVA in the implanted eye or IMT removal (10/127 each; 7.9%), corneal edema >30 days after surgery (9/127; 7.1%), and persistent corneal edema (6/127; 4.7%). Significant adverse events included four corneal transplants, comprising two (2.9%) in group 1 and two (1.6%) in group 2. At 60 months, one patient in group 1 (3.2%) and three patients in group 2 (9.4%) had lost ≥2 lines of vision. The IMT was removed in one (1.4%) and ten (7.9%) patients in group 1 and group 2, respectively. Mean ECD loss was 20% at 3 months. Chronic loss was 3% per

  8. Vergence analysis reveals the influence of axial distances on accommodation with age and axial ametropia.

    PubMed

    Davies, Leon N; Dunne, Mark C M; Gibson, George A; Wolffsohn, James S

    2010-07-01

    Despite numerous investigations, the aetiology and mechanism of accommodation and presbyopia remains equivocal. Using Gaussian first-order ray tracing calculations, we examine the contribution that ocular axial distances make to the accommodation response. Further, the influence of age and ametropia are also considered. The data show that all changes in axial distances during accommodation reduce the accommodation response, with the reduction in anterior chamber depth contributing most to this overall attenuation. Although the total power loss due to the changes in axial distances remained constant with increasing age, hyperopes exhibited less accommodation than myopes. The study, therefore, enhances our understanding of biometric accommodative changes and demonstrates the utility of vergence analysis in the assessment of accommodation.

  9. Understanding Aging in a Middle Eastern Context: The SHARE-Israel Survey of Persons Aged 50 and Older

    PubMed Central

    Litwin, Howard

    2013-01-01

    This article describes the development of SHARE-Israel, the survey of persons aged 50 and older in Israel, and preliminary results from an early data release. The introduction of an HRS-inspired computer-based survey into a Middle East country required linguistic and cultural adaptations of the survey mechanisms that had not been previously experienced in other countries. Preliminary findings showed that the majority group of veteran Jewish-Israelis aged 50 and over is in a favorable position in terms of health, employment status and household income compared to Arab-Israelis and to new immigrants to Israel from the Former Soviet Union. Arab-Israelis aged 50 and over are at greater risk due to greater disability and lower incomes. Recent immigrants from the former Soviet Union are at greatest risk. They report having the highest degree of depression, long term problems and activity limitation, the fewest children, low rates of home ownership and low incomes. Comparing the older Israeli population with their European counterparts revealed that Israelis are more depressed; more Israeli women are employed, and fewer Israeli men are retired; and household income in Israel is lower, but rises relatively when correcting for purchasing power parity. These trends point to several areas that will require attention in the formulation of public policy on behalf of the aging population in Israel. PMID:18626759

  10. Understanding aging in a Middle Eastern context: the SHARE-Israel survey of persons aged 50 and older.

    PubMed

    Litwin, Howard

    2009-03-01

    This article describes the development of SHARE-Israel, the survey of persons aged 50 and older in Israel, and preliminary results from an early data release. The introduction of an HRS-inspired computer-based survey into a Middle East country required linguistic and cultural adaptations of the survey mechanisms that had not been previously experienced in other countries. Preliminary findings showed that the majority group of veteran Jewish-Israelis aged 50 and over is in a favorable position in terms of health, employment status and household income compared to Arab-Israelis and to new immigrants to Israel from the Former Soviet Union. Arab-Israelis aged 50 and over are at greater risk due to greater disability and lower incomes. Recent immigrants from the former Soviet Union are at greatest risk. They report having the highest degree of depression, long term problems and activity limitation, the fewest children, low rates of home ownership and low incomes. Comparing the older Israeli population with their European counterparts revealed that Israelis are more depressed; more Israeli women are employed, and fewer Israeli men are retired; and household income in Israel is lower, but rises relatively when correcting for purchasing power parity. These trends point to several areas that will require attention in the formulation of public policy on behalf of the aging population in Israel.

  11. 1D-¹H-nuclear magnetic resonance metabolomics reveals age-related changes in metabolites associated with experimental venous thrombosis.

    PubMed

    Obi, Andrea T; Stringer, Kathleen A; Diaz, Jose A; Finkel, Michael A; Farris, Diana M; Yeomans, Larisa; Wakefield, Thomas; Myers, Daniel D

    2016-04-01

    Age is a significant risk factor for the development of venous thrombosis (VT), but the mechanism(s) that underlie this risk remain(s) undefined and poorly understood. Aging is known to adversely influence inflammation and affect metabolism. Untargeted metabolomics permits an agnostic assessment of the physiological landscape and lends insight into the mechanistic underpinnings of clinical phenotypes. The objective of this exploratory study was to test the feasibility of a metabolomics approach for identifying potential metabolic mechanisms of age-related VT. We subjected whole blood samples collected from young and old nonthrombosed controls and VT mice 2 days after thrombus induction using the electrolytic inferior vena cava, to a methanol:chloroform extraction and assayed the resulting aqueous fractions using 1D-(1)H- nuclear magnetic resonance. Normalized mouse metabolite data were compared across groups using analysis of variance (ANOVA) with Holm-Sidak post-testing. In addition, associations between metabolite concentrations and parameters of thrombosis such as thrombus and vein wall weights, and markers of inflammation, vein wall P- and E-selectin levels, were assessed using linear regression. The relatedness of the found significant metabolites was visually assessed using a bioinformatics tool, Metscape, which generates compound-reaction-enzyme-gene networks to aid in the interpretation of metabolomics data. Old mice with VT had a greater mean vein wall weight compared with young mice with VT (P < .05). Clot weight differences between old and young mice followed the same trend as vein wall weight (0.011 ± 0.04 g vs 0.008 ± 0.003 g; P = not significant). Glutamine (ANOVA, P < .01), proline (ANOVA, P < .01), and phenylalanine (ANOVA, P < .05) levels were increased in old VT mice compared with age-matched controls and young VT mice. Betaine and/or trimethylamine N-oxide levels were increased in aged mice compared with young animals. Vein wall weight was

  12. Cognitive Age: A New Multidimensional Approach to Measuring Age Identity.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Barak, Benny

    1987-01-01

    Conducted exploratory field study to examine how age-concepts are experienced and to assess relationship of age identities to each other. Proposes Cognitive Age as a new multidimensional age scale that merges the standard scale, Identity Age, and Personal Age. Study results attest to Cognitive Age scale's reliability and validity. (Author/NB)

  13. Metabolic Profiling Reveals Effects of Age, Sexual Development and Neutering in Plasma of Young Male Cats.

    PubMed

    Allaway, David; Gilham, Matthew S; Colyer, Alison; Jönsson, Thomas J; Swanson, Kelly S; Morris, Penelope J

    2016-01-01

    Neutering is a significant risk factor for obesity in cats. The mechanisms that promote neuter-associated weight gain are not well understood but following neutering, acute changes in energy expenditure and energy consumption have been observed. Metabolic profiling (GC-MS and UHPLC-MS-MS) was used in a longitudinal study to identify changes associated with age, sexual development and neutering in male cats fed a nutritionally-complete dry diet to maintain an ideal body condition score. At eight time points, between 19 and 52 weeks of age, fasted blood samples were taken from kittens neutered at either 19 weeks of age (Early Neuter (EN), n = 8) or at 31 weeks of age (Conventional Neuter (CN), n = 7). Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to compare plasma metabolites (n = 370) from EN and CN cats. Age was the primary driver of variance in the plasma metabolome, including a developmental change independent of neuter group between 19 and 21 weeks in lysolipids and fatty acid amides. Changes associated with sexual development and its subsequent loss were also observed, with differences at some time points observed between EN and CN cats for 45 metabolites (FDR p<0.05). Pathway Enrichment Analysis also identified significant effects in 20 pathways, dominated by amino acid, sterol and fatty acid metabolism. Most changes were interpretable within the context of male sexual development, and changed following neutering in the CN group. Felinine metabolism in CN cats was the most significantly altered pathway, increasing during sexual development and decreasing acutely following neutering. Felinine is a testosterone-regulated, felid-specific glutathione derivative secreted in urine. Alterations in tryptophan, histidine and tocopherol metabolism observed in peripubertal cats may be to support physiological functions of glutathione following diversion of S-amino acids for urinary felinine secretion.

  14. Alpha-synuclein levels in blood plasma decline with healthy aging.

    PubMed

    Koehler, Niklas K U; Stransky, Elke; Meyer, Mirjam; Gaertner, Susanne; Shing, Mona; Schnaidt, Martina; Celej, Maria S; Jovin, Thomas M; Leyhe, Thomas; Laske, Christoph; Batra, Anil; Buchkremer, Gerhard; Fallgatter, Andreas J; Wernet, Dorothee; Richartz-Salzburger, Elke

    2015-01-01

    There is unequivocal evidence that alpha-synuclein plays a pivotal pathophysiological role in neurodegenerative diseases, and in particular in synucleinopathies. These disorders present with a variable extent of cognitive impairment and alpha-synuclein is being explored as a biomarker in CSF, blood serum and plasma. Considering key events of aging that include proteostasis, alpha-synuclein may not only be useful as a marker for differential diagnosis but also for aging per se. To explore this hypothesis, we developed a highly specific ELISA to measure alpha-synuclein. In healthy males plasma alpha-synuclein levels correlated strongly with age, revealing much lower concentrations in older (avg. 58.1 years) compared to younger (avg. 27.6 years) individuals. This difference between the age groups was enhanced after acidification of the plasmas (p<0.0001), possibly reflecting a decrease of alpha-synuclein-antibody complexes or chaperone activity in older individuals. Our results support the concept that alpha-synuclein homeostasis may be impaired early on, possibly due to disturbance of the proteostasis network, a key component of healthy aging. Thus, alpha-synuclein may be a novel biomarker of aging, a factor that should be considered when analyzing its presence in biological specimens.

  15. Impacts of Chromatin States and Long-Range Genomic Segments on Aging and DNA Methylation

    PubMed Central

    Sun, Dan; Yi, Soojin V.

    2015-01-01

    Understanding the fundamental dynamics of epigenome variation during normal aging is critical for elucidating key epigenetic alterations that affect development, cell differentiation and diseases. Advances in the field of aging and DNA methylation strongly support the aging epigenetic drift model. Although this model aligns with previous studies, the role of other epigenetic marks, such as histone modification, as well as the impact of sampling specific CpGs, must be evaluated. Ultimately, it is crucial to investigate how all CpGs in the human genome change their methylation with aging in their specific genomic and epigenomic contexts. Here, we analyze whole genome bisulfite sequencing DNA methylation maps of brain frontal cortex from individuals of diverse ages. Comparisons with blood data reveal tissue-specific patterns of epigenetic drift. By integrating chromatin state information, divergent degrees and directions of aging-associated methylation in different genomic regions are revealed. Whole genome bisulfite sequencing data also open a new door to investigate whether adjacent CpG sites exhibit coordinated DNA methylation changes with aging. We identified significant ‘aging-segments’, which are clusters of nearby CpGs that respond to aging by similar DNA methylation changes. These segments not only capture previously identified aging-CpGs but also include specific functional categories of genes with implications on epigenetic regulation of aging. For example, genes associated with development are highly enriched in positive aging segments, which are gradually hyper-methylated with aging. On the other hand, regions that are gradually hypo-methylated with aging (‘negative aging segments’) in the brain harbor genes involved in metabolism and protein ubiquitination. Given the importance of protein ubiquitination in proteome homeostasis of aging brains and neurodegenerative disorders, our finding suggests the significance of epigenetic regulation of this

  16. [Results of Re-switch from Intravitreal Aflibercept to Ranibizumab in Patients with Exudative Age-related Macular Degeneration].

    PubMed

    Waibel, Sören; Matthé, Egbert; Sandner, Dirk

    2018-05-01

    The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of re-switch from intravitreal aflibercept to ranibizumab in patients with exudative age-related macular degeneration. This retrospective case series included 17 eyes of 17 patients who had previously switched from ranibizumab to aflibercept and finally back to ranibizumab. Main outcomes were change of visual acuity (VA) and assessment of central macular thickness (CMT). Secondary outcomes included predictive factors which had a beneficial effect as VA and CMT before re-switch, number of previous injections and gender. The mean VA was 0.64 ± 0.36 logMAR before the switch, and 0.87 ± 0.40 logMAR before the re-switch, and gained with a slight but not significantly improvement up to 0.85 ± 0.58 logMAR after the re-switch (p = 0.896). The average CMT before the switch was 448.6 µm ± 181.5. This decreased to 343.8 µm ± 161.3 after the switch (p = 0.614) to 299.1 µm ± 155.8 at switchback (p = 0.133). Overall, 8 patients (47%) had an improvement of vision, whereas in 5 patients (30%) VA deteriorated. Further analysis of predictive factors revealed a mean improvement of VA in male patients after re-switch, while female patients lost VA, with statistical significance between after the switch and after the re-switch to the benefit of male patients (p = 0.016). A re-switch from aflibercept to ranibizumab may enable improvement in morphological parameters and stabilization of VA in patients with exudative age-related macular degeneration who achieved no more benefit from the initial switch. Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

  17. Curcumin eliminates the inhibitory effect of advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) on gene expression of AGE receptor-1 in hepatic stellate cells in vitro

    PubMed Central

    Lin, Jianguo; Tang, Youcai; Kang, Qiaohua; Chen, Anping

    2012-01-01

    Diabetes is featured by hyperglycemia, which facilitates the formation of advanced glycation end-products (AGEs). AGEs are a causal factor in development of diabetic complications. AGE receptor-1 (AGE-R1) is responsible for detoxification and clearance of AGEs. Type 2 diabetes mellitus is commonly accompanied by non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, which could cause hepatic fibrosis. Little attention has been paid to effects of AGEs on hepatic fibrogenesis. Curcumin, a phytochemical from turmeric, has been reported to inhibit the activation of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs), the major effectors during hepatic fibrogenesis, and to protect against hepatic fibrogenesis in vitro and in vivo. The current study was designed to evaluate effects of AGEs on inducing HSC activation, to assess the role of curcumin in diminishing the AGE effects and to explore the underlying mechanisms. Our results showed that AGEs stimulated HSC activation by inducing cell proliferation and expression of genes relevant to HSC activation, which were abrogated by curcumin. Curcumin induced gene expression of AGE-R1 in passaged HSCs, which might facilitate the attenuation of the stimulatory effects of AGEs on the activation of HSCs. Further experiments revealed that curcumin inhibited the activity of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) and induced gene expression and the activity of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma (PPARγ), leading to the induction of AGE-R1 gene expression. In summary, AGEs stimulated HSC activation. Curcumin eliminated the AGE effects at least partially by inducing AGE-R1 gene expression. The process was mediated by inhibiting ERK activity, inducing gene expression of PPARγ and stimulating its trans-activity. PMID:22449800

  18. Age gene expression and coexpression progressive signatures in peripheral blood leukocytes.

    PubMed

    Irizar, Haritz; Goñi, Joaquín; Alzualde, Ainhoa; Castillo-Triviño, Tamara; Olascoaga, Javier; Lopez de Munain, Adolfo; Otaegui, David

    2015-12-01

    Both cellular senescence and organismic aging are known to be dynamic processes that start early in life and progress constantly during the whole life of the individual. In this work, with the objective of identifying signatures of age-related progressive change at the transcriptomic level, we have performed a whole-genome gene expression analysis of peripheral blood leukocytes in a group of healthy individuals with ages ranging from 14 to 93 years. A set of genes with progressively changing gene expression (either increase or decrease with age) has been identified and contextualized in a coexpression network. A modularity analysis has been performed on this network and biological-term and pathway enrichment analyses have been used for biological interpretation of each module. In summary, the results of the present work reveal the existence of a transcriptomic component that shows progressive expression changes associated to age in peripheral blood leukocytes, highlighting both the dynamic nature of the process and the need to complement young vs. elder studies with longitudinal studies that include middle aged individuals. From the transcriptional point of view, immunosenescence seems to be occurring from a relatively early age, at least from the late 20s/early 30s, and the 49-56 year old age-range appears to be critical. In general, the genes that, according to our results, show progressive expression changes with aging are involved in pathogenic/cellular processes that have classically been linked to aging in humans: cancer, immune processes and cellular growth vs. maintenance. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  19. Age and Mortality in Pediatric Severe Traumatic Brain Injury: Results from an International Study.

    PubMed

    Sarnaik, Ajit; Ferguson, Nikki Miller; O'Meara, A M Iqbal; Agrawal, Shruti; Deep, Akash; Buttram, Sandra; Bell, Michael J; Wisniewski, Stephen R; Luther, James F; Hartman, Adam L; Vavilala, Monica S

    2018-02-23

    Although small series have suggested that younger age is associated with less favorable outcome after severe traumatic brain injury (TBI), confounders and biases have limited our understanding of this relationship. We hypothesized that there would be an association between age and mortality in children within an ongoing observational, cohort study. The first 200 subjects from the Approaches and Decisions for Acute Pediatric TBI trial were eligible for this analysis (inclusion criteria: severe TBI (Glasgow Coma Scale [GCS] score ≤ 8], age 18 years, and intracranial pressure (ICP) monitor placed; exclusion: pregnancy). Children with suspected abusive head trauma (AHT) were excluded to avoid bias related to the association between AHT and mortality. Demographics, and prehospital and resuscitation events were collected/analyzed, and children were stratified based on age at time of injury (< 5, 5-< 11, 11-18 years) and presented as mean ± standard error of the mean (SEM). Analyses of variance were used to test the equality of the means across the group for continuous variable, and Chi-square tests were used to compare percentages for discrete variables (post hoc comparisons were made using t test and Bonferroni corrections, as needed). Kaplan-Meier curves were generated for each age subgroup describing the time of death, and log-rank was used to compare the curves. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to assess the effect of age on time to death while controlling for covariates. In the final cohort (n = 155, 45 excluded for AHT), overall age was 9.2 years ± 0.4 and GCS was 5.3 ± 0.1. Mortality was similar between strata (14.0, 20.0, 20.9%, respectively, p = 0.58). Motor vehicle accidents were the most common mechanism across all strata, while falls tended to be more common in the youngest stratum (p = 0.08). The youngest stratum demonstrated increased incidence of spontaneous hypothermia at presentation and decreased hemoglobin

  20. Knowledge of memory aging across the lifespan.

    PubMed

    Cherry, Katie E; Blanchard, Blakeley; Walker, Erin J; Smitherman, Emily A; Lyon, Bethany A

    2014-01-01

    The authors examined knowledge of normal and pathological memory aging in a lifespan sample of 198 individuals who ranged in age from 13 to 88 years. Participants completed the Knowledge of Memory Aging Questionnaire (Cherry, Brigman, Hawley, & Reese, 2003). The authors hypothesized that high school students would be less knowledgeable about memory aging issues than college students, middle-aged, and community-dwelling older adults. Consistent with this hypothesis, response accuracy was lower for high school students compared to their older counterparts. Follow-up analyses revealed that high school students' responses to a subset of questions that tap ageist views of adult cognition were less accurate than the other age groups, implying a response bias toward stereotypical images of memory aging. Implications for research and the design of instructional materials to increase people's knowledge about normative changes in adult cognition are discussed.

  1. Effects of Age, Gender, and Retirement on Perceived Sleep Problems: Results from the VISAT Combined Longitudinal and Cross-Sectional Study

    PubMed Central

    Marquiáe, Jean-Claude; Folkard, Simon; Ansiau, David; Tucker, Philip

    2012-01-01

    Objectives: This study examined the effects of age, gender, and retirement on the subjective frequency of various sleep problems in individuals on a normal work schedule. Design: Data were taken from the VISAT study (Aging, Health, – Work), which allowed both cross-sectional and longitudinal aspects of age-related changes to be examined. Setting: Various sorts of companies in southern France. Participants: The cohorts comprised 623 male and female, employed and retired, wage earners who were 32, 42, 52, and 62 years old at the time of the first measurement (t1, 1996), and who were seen again 5 (t2) and 10 (t3) years later. Interventions: N/A. Measurements and Results: Subjective ratings of the frequency of sleep problems and hypnotic usage were recorded on all 3 occasions, as was the employment status of the individuals. After controlling for age and gender, an effect of decade was observed for difficulty falling asleep and difficulty maintaining sleep, indicating that the frequency of these sleep problems was rated higher in 2006 than in 1996 by people of the same age at both measurement occasions. The perceived frequency of difficulty maintaining sleep, difficulty getting back to sleep, and premature awakening was found to increase up to the mid-50s but to then remain relatively constant, or even in the case of premature awakening to reduce, up to the age of 72. There was also a significant improvement in premature awakening among those individuals who changed from being active to being retired during the study period (n = 111). In contrast, the rated frequency of difficulty falling asleep and hypnotic usage increased fairly linearly over the entire age range. Conclusions: Sleep complaints were reported early in the workers’ lives, and were more frequent with age, but some of them improved after retirement, especially the complaint of premature awakening. Citation: Marquiáe JC; Folkard S; Ansiau D; Tucker P. Effects of age, gender, and retirement on

  2. Genome-wide SNP analysis reveals a genetic basis for sea-age variation in a wild population of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar).

    PubMed

    Johnston, Susan E; Orell, Panu; Pritchard, Victoria L; Kent, Matthew P; Lien, Sigbjørn; Niemelä, Eero; Erkinaro, Jaakko; Primmer, Craig R

    2014-07-01

    Delaying sexual maturation can lead to larger body size and higher reproductive success, but carries an increased risk of death before reproducing. Classical life history theory predicts that trade-offs between reproductive success and survival should lead to the evolution of an optimal strategy in a given population. However, variation in mating strategies generally persists, and in general, there remains a poor understanding of genetic and physiological mechanisms underlying this variation. One extreme case of this is in the Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), which can show variation in the age at which they return from their marine migration to spawn (i.e. their 'sea age'). This results in large size differences between strategies, with direct implications for individual fitness. Here, we used an Illumina Infinium SNP array to identify regions of the genome associated with variation in sea age in a large population of Atlantic salmon in Northern Europe, implementing individual-based genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and population-based FST outlier analyses. We identified several regions of the genome which vary in association with phenotype and/or selection between sea ages, with nearby genes having functions related to muscle development, metabolism, immune response and mate choice. In addition, we found that individuals of different sea ages belong to different, yet sympatric populations in this system, indicating that reproductive isolation may be driven by divergence between stable strategies. Overall, this study demonstrates how genome-wide methodologies can be integrated with samples collected from wild, structured populations to understand their ecology and evolution in a natural context. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  3. Preserved number of entorhinal cortex layer II neurons in aged macaque monkeys

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gazzaley, A. H.; Thakker, M. M.; Hof, P. R.; Morrison, J. H.; Bloom, F. E. (Principal Investigator)

    1997-01-01

    The perforant path, which consists of the projection from the layer II neurons of the entorhinal cortex to the outer molecular layer of the dentate gyrus, is a critical circuit involved in learning and memory formation. Accordingly, disturbances in this circuit may contribute to age-related cognitive deficits. In a previous study, we demonstrated a decrease in N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor subunit 1 immunofluorescence intensity in the outer molecular layer of aged macaque monkeys. In this study, we used the optical fractionator, a stereological method, to determine if a loss of layer II neurons occurred in the same animals in which the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor subunit 1 alteration was observed. Our results revealed no significant differences in the number of layer II neurons between juvenile, young adult, and aged macaque monkeys. These results suggest that the circuit-specific decrease in N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor subunit 1 reported previously occurs in the absence of structural compromise of the perforant path, and thus may be linked to an age-related change in the physiological properties of this circuit.

  4. A Brain Network Processing the Age of Faces

    PubMed Central

    Homola, György A.; Jbabdi, Saad; Beckmann, Christian F.; Bartsch, Andreas J.

    2012-01-01

    Age is one of the most salient aspects in faces and of fundamental cognitive and social relevance. Although face processing has been studied extensively, brain regions responsive to age have yet to be localized. Using evocative face morphs and fMRI, we segregate two areas extending beyond the previously established face-sensitive core network, centered on the inferior temporal sulci and angular gyri bilaterally, both of which process changes of facial age. By means of probabilistic tractography, we compare their patterns of functional activation and structural connectivity. The ventral portion of Wernicke's understudied perpendicular association fasciculus is shown to interconnect the two areas, and activation within these clusters is related to the probability of fiber connectivity between them. In addition, post-hoc age-rating competence is found to be associated with high response magnitudes in the left angular gyrus. Our results provide the first evidence that facial age has a distinct representation pattern in the posterior human brain. We propose that particular face-sensitive nodes interact with additional object-unselective quantification modules to obtain individual estimates of facial age. This brain network processing the age of faces differs from the cortical areas that have previously been linked to less developmental but instantly changeable face aspects. Our probabilistic method of associating activations with connectivity patterns reveals an exemplary link that can be used to further study, assess and quantify structure-function relationships. PMID:23185334

  5. Changes in the Proliferative Program Limit Astrocyte Homeostasis in the Aged Post-Traumatic Murine Cerebral Cortex.

    PubMed

    Heimann, Gábor; Canhos, Luisa L; Frik, Jesica; Jäger, Gabriele; Lepko, Tjasa; Ninkovic, Jovica; Götz, Magdalena; Sirko, Swetlana

    2017-08-01

    Aging leads to adverse outcomes after traumatic brain injury. The mechanisms underlying these defects, however, are not yet clear. In this study, we found that astrocytes in the aged post-traumatic cerebral cortex develop a significantly reduced proliferative response, resulting in reduced astrocyte numbers in the penumbra. Moreover, experiments of reactive astrocytes in vitro reveal that their diminished proliferation is due to an age-related switch in the division mode with reduced cell-cycle re-entry rather than changes in cell-cycle length. Notably, reactive astrocytes in vivo and in vitro become refractory to stimuli increasing their proliferation during aging, such as Sonic hedgehog signaling. These data demonstrate for the first time that age-dependent, most likely intrinsic changes in the proliferative program of reactive astrocytes result in their severely hampered proliferative response to traumatic injury thereby affecting astrocyte homeostasis. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press.

  6. The relationship between antibiotic therapy in early childhood and the symptoms of allergy in children aged 6-8 years - the questionnaire study results.

    PubMed

    Raciborski, Filip; Tomaszewska, Aneta; Komorowski, Jarosław; Samel-Kowalik, Piotr; Białoszewski, Artur Z; Walkiewicz, Artur; Lusawa, Adam; Szymański, Jakub; Opoczyńska, Dagmara; Drużba, Michał; Borowicz, Jacek; Lipiec, Agnieszka; Kapalczynski, Wojciech J; Samoliński, Bolesław

    2012-09-01

    Studies based on the ISAAC questionnaire suggest a correlation between the use of antibiotics and the prevalence of asthma and allergy in children aged 6-7 years. The number of courses of antibiotic therapy is an important factor. To investigate the relationship between the use of antibiotics during the first years of life and the prevalence of allergy and asthma among children (aged 6-8 years) in the urban population of Poland. A survey-based study with a self-completed questionnaire. The respondents were parents of children aged 6-8 years living in Warszawa, Poland. 1461 completed questionnaires were collected. Asthma was declared in 4.3% of the children. Wheezing and/or sibilant rhonchi within 12 months before the study was observed in 13.5% of the cases. Asthma medication was taken by 21.8% of the children. Allergic rhinitis was declared in 18.7% of the children. Problems with sneezing, rhinorrhea, and nasal congestion not associated with cold or fever were observed in 40.7% of the children. The analysis of the odds ratios between the use of antibiotics and the symptoms of allergic diseases revealed a clear correlation. The highest odds ratio was observed between the completion of over three courses of antibiotic therapy prior to the age of 12 months and the declaration of one of the following: asthma (OR = 5.59, 95% CI: 2.6-12.01), wheezing and/or sibilant rhonchi (OR = 4.68, 95% CI: 3.01-7.27) and taking medicines for breathlessness (OR = 5.12, 95% CI: 3.42-7.68). There is a direct relationship between antibiotic use in the first 3 years of life and asthma and allergy symptoms in children aged 6-8 years old.

  7. Aging specifically impairs switching to an allocentric navigational strategy

    PubMed Central

    Harris, Mathew A.; Wiener, Jan M.; Wolbers, Thomas

    2012-01-01

    Navigation abilities decline with age, partly due to deficits in numerous component processes. Impaired switching between these various processes (i.e., switching navigational strategies) is also likely to contribute to age-related navigational impairments. We tested young and old participants on a virtual plus maze task (VPM), expecting older participants to exhibit a specific strategy switching deficit, despite unimpaired learning of allocentric (place) and egocentric (response) strategies following reversals within each strategy. Our initial results suggested that older participants performed worse during place trial blocks but not response trial blocks, as well as in trial blocks following a strategy switch but not those following a reversal. However, we then separated trial blocks by both strategy and change type, revealing that these initial results were due to a more specific deficit in switching to the place strategy. Place reversals and switches to response, as well as response reversals, were unaffected. We argue that this specific “switch-to-place” deficit could account for apparent impairments in both navigational strategy switching and allocentric processing and contributes more generally to age-related decline in navigation. PMID:23125833

  8. Grandparenting predicts late-life cognition: Results from the Women's Healthy Ageing Project.

    PubMed

    Burn, Katherine; Szoeke, Cassandra

    2015-06-01

    Social engagement provides dynamic stimulation for older individuals that influences cognition. Grandparenting is an increasingly popular form of childcare that provides social activity for older adults. To investigate the relationship between grandparenting, as a form of social engagement, and cognitive function in adults aged over 65, a decade after our previous work. Participants were 224 Australian women (mean age=70) from the longitudinal prospective Women's Healthy Ageing Project (WHAP). Cognitive function was assessed using a neuropsychological battery consisting of previously validated measures including the California Verbal Learning Test, Digit Span task, and Controlled Oral Word Association Test. Individual test scores were combined using factor analysis into executive function and episodic memory scores. Grandmothers minding grandchildren had higher executive function than those who were not minding grandchildren or who did not have grandchildren (p<0.05). Minding grandchildren for one day per week predicted better executive function performance than more frequent grandparenting (p<0.05), consistent with previous findings. While grandparenting is associated with better executive function overall, highly frequent grandparenting is associated with lower executive function, which may be due to demands. Social engagement comprises various aspects which need to be taken into consideration when studying cognition. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. Maternal gestational diabetes and childhood obesity at age 9–11: results of a multinational study

    PubMed Central

    Zhao, Pei; Liu, Enqing; Qiao, Yijuan; Katzmarzyk, Peter T.; Chaput, Jean-Philippe; Fogelholm, Mikael; Johnson, William D.; Kuriyan, Rebecca; Kurpad, Anura; Lambert, Estelle V.; Maher, Carol; Maia, José A.R.; Matsudo, Victor; Olds, Timothy; Onywera, Vincent; Sarmiento, Olga L.; Standage, Martyn; Tremblay, Mark S.; Tudor-Locke, Catrine; Hu, Gang

    2016-01-01

    Aims/hypothesis The aim of this study was to examine the association between maternal gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and childhood obesity at age 9–11 years in 12 countries around the world. Methods A multinational cross-sectional study of 4,740 children aged 9–11 years was conducted. Maternal GDM was diagnosed according to the ADA or WHO criteria. Height and waist circumference were measured using standardised methods. Weight and body fat were measured using a portable Tanita SC-240 Body Composition Analyzer. Multilevel modelling was used to account for the nested nature of the data. Results The prevalence of reported maternal GDM was 4.3%. The overall prevalence of childhood obesity, central obesity and high body fat were 12.3%, 9.9% and 8.1%, respectively. The multivariable-adjusted (maternal age at delivery, education, infant feeding mode, gestational age, number of younger siblings, child unhealthy diet pattern scores, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, sleeping time, sedentary time, sex and birthweight) odds ratios among children of GDM mothers compared with children of non-GDM mothers were 1.53 (95% CI 1.03, 2.27) for obesity, 1.73 (95% CI 1.14, 2.62) for central obesity and 1.42 (95% CI 0.90, 2.26) for high body fat. The positive association was still statistically significant for central obesity after additional adjustment for current maternal BMI but was no longer significant for obesity and high body fat. Conclusions/interpretation Maternal GDM was associated with increased odds of childhood obesity at 9–11 years old but this association was not fully independent of maternal BMI. PMID:27510911

  10. A Steady State Visually Evoked Potential Investigation of Memory and Ageing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Macpherson, Helen; Pipingas, Andrew; Silberstein, Richard

    2009-01-01

    Old age is generally accompanied by a decline in memory performance. Specifically, neuroimaging and electrophysiological studies have revealed that there are age-related changes in the neural correlates of episodic and working memory. This study investigated age-associated changes in the steady state visually evoked potential (SSVEP) amplitude and…

  11. Temporal Trends of Suicide Mortality in Mainland China: Results from the Age-Period-Cohort Framework.

    PubMed

    Wang, Zhenkun; Wang, Jinyao; Bao, Junzhe; Gao, Xudong; Yu, Chuanhua; Xiang, Huiyun

    2016-08-03

    The aim of this study is to explore the long-term trends of suicide mortality in China. We implemented the age-period-cohort (APC) framework, using data from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013. Our results showed that the net drift of suicide mortality was -4.727% (95% CI: -4.821% to -4.634%) per year for men and -6.633% (95% CI: -6.751% to -6.515%) per year for women, and the local drift values were below 0 in all age groups (p < 0.01 for all) for both sexes during the period of 1994-2013. Longitudinal age curves indicated that, in the same birth cohort, suicide death risk increased rapidly to peak at the life stage of 20-24 years old and 15-24 years old for men and women, respectively, and then showed a decelerated decline, followed by a rise thereafter after 54 years old for men and a slight one after 69 years old for women. The estimated period and cohort RRs were found to show similar monotonic downward patterns (significantly with p < 0.01 for all) for both sexes, with more quickly decreasing for women than for men during the whole period. The decreasing trend of suicide was likely to be related to the economic rapid growth, improvements in health care, enhancement on the level of education, and increasing awareness of suicide among the public in China. In addition, fast urbanization and the effective control of pesticides and rodenticides might be the special reasons behind these trends we observed in this study.

  12. Incorporation of Copper Enhances the Anti-Ageing Property of Flame-Sprayed High-Density Polyethylene Coatings

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jia, Zhengmei; Huang, Jing; Gong, Yongfeng; Jin, Peipeng; Suo, Xinkun; Li, Hua

    2017-02-01

    High-density polyethylene (HDPE)-copper (Cu) composite coatings were prepared through depositing HDPE-Cu core-shell particles by flame spraying. The HDPE-Cu composite coatings and the HDPE coatings were aged in xenon lamp ageing testing chamber. The variations of chemical compositions and surface morphology of the coatings before and after the ageing testing were analyzed using infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, differential scanning calorimetry and ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometer. Results show that there is no chemical composition variation in the HDPE-Cu coatings. Cracks were found on the surfaces of the HDPE coatings, while the HDPE-Cu coating shows almost intact surface morphology. These results suggest that the HDPE-Cu coatings present better anti-ageing performances than the HDPE coatings. Further assessment of the function of Cu shells on the anti-ageing property reveals that Cu shells not only enhanced the absorption of the coatings to ultraviolet, but also increased their reflectivity to visible light. Additionally, the Cu shells enhanced the decomposition temperature and thermal stability of HDPE in the composite coatings. These results give bright insight into potential anti-ageing applications of the polymer-based structures.

  13. Hemisphere, gender and age-related effects on iron deposition in deep gray matter revealed by quantitative susceptibility mapping.

    PubMed

    Gong, Nan-Jie; Wong, Chun-Sing; Hui, Edward S; Chan, Chun-Chung; Leung, Lam-Ming

    2015-10-01

    The purpose of this work was to investigate the effects of hemispheric location, gender and age on susceptibility value, as well as the association between susceptibility value and diffusional metrics, in deep gray matter. Iron content was estimated in vivo using quantitative susceptibility mapping. Microstructure was probed using diffusional kurtosis imaging. Regional susceptibility and diffusional metrics were measured for the putamen, caudate nucleus, globus pallidus, thalamus, substantia nigra and red nucleus in 42 healthy adults (age range 25-78 years). Susceptibility value was significantly higher in the left than the right side of the caudate nucleus (P = 0.043) and substantia nigra (P < 0.001). Women exhibited lower susceptibility values than men in the thalamus (P < 0.001) and red nucleus (P = 0.032). Significant age-related increases of susceptibility were observed in the putamen (P < 0.001), red nucleus (P < 0.001), substantia nigra (P = 0.004), caudate nucleus (P < 0.001) and globus pallidus (P = 0.017). The putamen exhibited the highest rate of iron accumulation with aging (slope of linear regression = 0.73 × 10(-3) ppm/year), which was nearly twice those in substantia nigra (slope = 0.40 × 10(-3) ppm/year) and caudate nucleus (slope = 0.39 × 10(-3) ppm/year). Significant positive correlations between the susceptibility value and diffusion measurements were observed for fractional anisotropy (P = 0.045) and mean kurtosis (P = 0.048) in the putamen without controlling for age. Neither correlation was significant after controlling for age. Hemisphere, gender and age-related differences in iron measurements were observed in deep gray matter. Notably, the putamen exhibited the highest rate of increase in susceptibility with aging. Correlations between susceptibility value and microstructural measurements were inconclusive. These findings could provide new clues for unveiling mechanisms underlying iron-related neurodegenerative diseases. Copyright

  14. In-office insertion of a miniaturized insertable cardiac monitor: Results from the Reveal LINQ In-Office 2 randomized study.

    PubMed

    Rogers, John D; Sanders, Prashanthan; Piorkowski, Christopher; Sohail, M Rizwan; Anand, Rishi; Crossen, Karl; Khairallah, Farhat S; Kaplon, Rachelle E; Stromberg, Kurt; Kowal, Robert C

    2017-02-01

    Recent miniaturization of an insertable cardiac monitor (ICM) may make it possible to move device insertion from a hospital to office setting. However, the safety of this strategy is unknown. The primary objective was to compare the safety of inserting the Reveal LINQ ICM in an office vs a hospital environment. Ancillary objectives included summarizing device- and procedure-related adverse events and responses to a physician questionnaire. Five hundred twenty-one patients indicated for an ICM were randomized (1:1 ratio) to undergo ICM insertion in a hospital or office environment at 26 centers in the United States in the Reveal LINQ In-Office 2 study (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT02395536). Patients were followed for 90 days. ICM insertion was successful in all 482 attempted patients (office: 251; hospital: 231). The untoward event rate (composite of unsuccessful insertion and ICM- or insertion-related complications) was 0.8% (2 of 244) in the office and 0.9% (2 of 227) in the hospital (95% confidence interval, -3.0% to 2.9%; 5% noninferiority: P < .001). In addition, adverse events occurred during 2.5% (6 of 244) of office and 4.4% (10 of 227) of hospital insertions (95% confidence interval [office minus inhospital rates], -5.8% to 1.9%; 5% noninferiority: P < .001). Physicians indicated that for procedures performed in an office vs a hospital, there were fewer delays >15 minutes (16% vs 35%; P < .001) and patient response was more often "very positive." Physicians considered the office location "very convenient" more frequently than the hospital location (85% vs 27%; P < .001). The safety profile for the insertion of the Reveal LINQ ICM is excellent irrespective of insertion environment. These results may expand site of service options for LINQ insertion. Copyright © 2016 Heart Rhythm Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  15. Phenotypic factor analysis of psychopathology reveals a new body-related transdiagnostic factor.

    PubMed

    Pezzoli, Patrizia; Antfolk, Jan; Santtila, Pekka

    2017-01-01

    Comorbidity challenges the notion of mental disorders as discrete categories. An increasing body of literature shows that symptoms cut across traditional diagnostic boundaries and interact in shaping the latent structure of psychopathology. Using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, we reveal the latent sources of covariation among nine measures of psychopathological functioning in a population-based sample of 13024 Finnish twins and their siblings. By implementing unidimensional, multidimensional, second-order, and bifactor models, we illustrate the relationships between observed variables, specific, and general latent factors. We also provide the first investigation to date of measurement invariance of the bifactor model of psychopathology across gender and age groups. Our main result is the identification of a distinct "Body" factor, alongside the previously identified Internalizing and Externalizing factors. We also report relevant cross-disorder associations, especially between body-related psychopathology and trait anger, as well as substantial sex and age differences in observed and latent means. The findings expand the meta-structure of psychopathology, with implications for empirical and clinical practice, and demonstrate shared mechanisms underlying attitudes towards nutrition, self-image, sexuality and anger, with gender- and age-specific features.

  16. Multiple prethymic defects underlie age-related loss of T progenitor competence

    PubMed Central

    Zediak, Valerie P.; Maillard, Ivan

    2007-01-01

    Aging in mice and humans is characterized by declining T-lymphocyte production in the thymus, yet it is unclear whether aging impacts the T-lineage potential of hematopoietic progenitors. Although alterations in the lymphoid progenitor content of aged mouse bone marrow (BM) have been described, irradiation-reconstitution experiments have failed to reveal defects in T-lineage potential of BM hematopoietic progenitors or purified hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) from aged mice. Here, we assessed T-progenitor potential in unmanipulated recipient mice without conditioning irradiation. T-progenitor potential was reduced in aged BM compared with young BM, and this reduction was apparent at the earliest stages of intrathymic differentiation. Further, enriched populations of aged HSCs or multipotent progenitors (MPPs) gave rise to fewer T-lineage cells than their young counterparts. Whereas the T-precursor frequency within the MPP pool was unchanged, there was a 4-fold decline in T-precursor frequency within the HSC pool. In addition, among the T-competent HSC clones, there were fewer highly proliferative clones in the aged HSC pool than in the young HSC pool. These results identify T-compromised aged HSCs and define the nature and cellular sites of prethymic, age-related defects in T-lineage differentiation potential. PMID:17456721

  17. Mortality in Incident Cognitive Impairment: Results of the Prospective AgeCoDe Study.

    PubMed

    Luck, Tobias; Riedel-Heller, Steffi G; Roehr, Susanne; Wiese, Birgitt; van der Leeden, Carolin; Heser, Kathrin; Bickel, Horst; Pentzek, Michael; König, Hans-Helmut; Werle, Jochen; Mamone, Silke; Mallon, Tina; Wolfsgruber, Steffen; Weeg, Dagmar; Fuchs, Angela; Brettschneider, Christian; Scherer, Martin; Maier, Wolfgang; Weyerer, Siegfried

    2017-04-01

    To investigate mortality risk and survival time in new-incident cases of cognitive impairment (CI) in old age. Prospective cohort study in six German cities. German Study on Ageing, Cognition, and Dementia in Primary Care Patients (AgeCoDe). Two thousand eighty-nine nondemented GP patients aged 75+. Every 18 months, trained psychologists and physicians conducted structured clinical interviews at the participants' homes. Dates of death were obtained from relatives, general practitioner (GP), or the local registry offices. We used the Kaplan-Meier survival method to estimate survival times of individuals with and without incident CI and multivariable Cox proportional hazards regressions to assess the association between CI and mortality risk, controlled for covariates. Out of the 2,089 included patients at follow-up I, 859 (41.1%) died during the subsequent mean observation period of 8.0 years. Patients with incident CI at follow-up I showed a significantly higher case-fatality rate per 1,000 person-years (74.2, 95% CI = 64.2-84.2 vs 47.8, 95% CI = 44.6-51.0) and a significantly shorter mean survival time in the observation period than those without (7.8 vs 9.1 years; P < .001). The association between incident CI and mortality remained significant in the multivariable Cox analyses-incident CI was associated with a 42% increased, incident severe CI with a 75% increased mortality risk. Our findings suggest an elevated mortality risk in newly acquired cognitive deficits in old age. Even though further studies are required to analyze potential underlying mechanisms, our findings support the notion that such cognitive deficits should be taken seriously in clinical practice not only for an increased risk of developing dementia but also for a broader range of possible adverse health outcomes. © 2016, Copyright the Authors Journal compilation © 2016, The American Geriatrics Society.

  18. Long-term results after limited macular translocation surgery for wet age-related macular degeneration.

    PubMed

    Oshima, Hisaaki; Iwase, Takeshi; Ishikawa, Kohei; Yamamoto, Kentaro; Terasaki, Hiroko

    2017-01-01

    To evaluate the long-term results of limited macular translocation (LMT) surgery with radial chorioscleral outfolding in patients with wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and subfoveal choroidal neovascularization (CNV). In addition, to identify the factors associated with the final best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA). The medical records of 20 eyes of 20 consecutive patients (65.2±9.8 years) who had undergone LMT for the treatment of wet AMD and were followed for at least 5 years, were reviewed. The surgical outcomes including the BCVA, degree of foveal displacement, and complications were recorded. The mean foveal displacement was 1332 ± 393 μm after the LMT. The CNV was removed in 16 eyes and photocoagulated in 4 eyes. The mean preoperative VA was 0.83 ± 0.33 logMAR units which significantly improved to 0.59 ± 0.37 logMAR units at 1 year after the surgery (P = 0.015). This BCVA was maintained at 0.59 ± 0.41 logMAR units on the final examination. The final BCVA was significantly correlated with that at 1 year after the surgery (r = 0.83, P<0.001). Multiple linear regression analysis showed that the final BCVA was significantly correlated with the BCVA at 1 year after the surgery (P<0.001), a recurrence of a CNV (P = 0.001), and the age (P = 0.022). LMT improves the BCVA significantly at 1 year, and the improved BCVA lasted for at least 5 years. These results indicate that the impaired function of the sensory retina at the fovea can recover on the new RPE after the displacement for at least 5 years. The ability to maintain good retinal function on the new RPE for a long period is important for future treatments of CNVs such as the transplantation of RPE cells and stem cells.

  19. Spatio-temporal variation in age structure and abundance of the endangered snail kite: Pooling across regions masks a declining and aging population

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Reichert, Brian E.; Kendall, William L.; Fletcher, Robert J.; Kitchens, Wiley M.

    2016-01-01

    While variation in age structure over time and space has long been considered important for population dynamics and conservation, reliable estimates of such spatio-temporal variation in age structure have been elusive for wild vertebrate populations. This limitation has arisen because of problems of imperfect detection, the potential for temporary emigration impacting assessments of age structure, and limited information on age. However, identifying patterns in age structure is important for making reliable predictions of both short- and long-term dynamics of populations of conservation concern. Using a multistate superpopulation estimator, we estimated region-specific abundance and age structure (the proportion of individuals within each age class) of a highly endangered population of snail kites for two separate regions in Florida over 17 years (1997–2013). We find that in the southern region of the snail kite—a region known to be critical for the long-term persistence of the species—the population has declined significantly since 1997, and during this time, it has increasingly become dominated by older snail kites (> 12 years old). In contrast, in the northern region—a region historically thought to serve primarily as drought refugia—the population has increased significantly since 2007 and age structure is more evenly distributed among age classes. Given that snail kites show senescence at approximately 13 years of age, where individuals suffer higher mortality rates and lower breeding rates, these results reveal an alarming trend for the southern region. Our work illustrates the importance of accounting for spatial structure when assessing changes in abundance and age distribution and the need for monitoring of age structure in imperiled species.

  20. Rosa26-GFP Direct Repeat (RaDR-GFP) Mice Reveal Tissue- and Age-Dependence of Homologous Recombination in Mammals In Vivo

    PubMed Central

    Kay, Jennifer E.; Na, Li; Rowland, Elizabeth A.; Winther, Kelly E.; Chow, Danielle N.; Kimoto, Takafumi; Matsuguchi, Tetsuya; Jonnalagadda, Vidya S.; Maklakova, Vilena I.; Singh, Vijay R.; Wadduwage, Dushan N.; Rajapakse, Jagath; So, Peter T. C.; Collier, Lara S.; Engelward, Bevin P.

    2014-01-01

    Homologous recombination (HR) is critical for the repair of double strand breaks and broken replication forks. Although HR is mostly error free, inherent or environmental conditions that either suppress or induce HR cause genomic instability. Despite its importance in carcinogenesis, due to limitations in our ability to detect HR in vivo, little is known about HR in mammalian tissues. Here, we describe a mouse model in which a direct repeat HR substrate is targeted to the ubiquitously expressed Rosa26 locus. In the Rosa26 Direct Repeat-GFP (RaDR-GFP) mice, HR between two truncated EGFP expression cassettes can yield a fluorescent signal. In-house image analysis software provides a rapid method for quantifying recombination events within intact tissues, and the frequency of recombinant cells can be evaluated by flow cytometry. A comparison among 11 tissues shows that the frequency of recombinant cells varies by more than two orders of magnitude among tissues, wherein HR in the brain is the lowest. Additionally, de novo recombination events accumulate with age in the colon, showing that this mouse model can be used to study the impact of chronic exposures on genomic stability. Exposure to N-methyl-N-nitrosourea, an alkylating agent similar to the cancer chemotherapeutic temozolomide, shows that the colon, liver and pancreas are susceptible to DNA damage-induced HR. Finally, histological analysis of the underlying cell types reveals that pancreatic acinar cells and liver hepatocytes undergo HR and also that HR can be specifically detected in colonic somatic stem cells. Taken together, the RaDR-GFP mouse model provides new understanding of how tissue and age impact susceptibility to HR, and enables future studies of genetic, environmental and physiological factors that modulate HR in mammals. PMID:24901438

  1. Metabolomic signature associated with reproduction-regulated aging in Caenorhabditis elegans

    PubMed Central

    Wan, Qin-Li; Shi, Xiaohuo; Liu, Jiangxin; Ding, Ai-Jun; Pu, Yuan-Zhu; Li, Zhigang; Wu, Gui-Sheng; Luo, Huai-Rong

    2017-01-01

    In Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans), ablation of germline stem cells (GSCs) leads to infertility, which extends lifespan. It has been reported that aging and reproduction are both inextricably associated with metabolism. However, few studies have investigated the roles of polar small molecules metabolism in regulating longevity by reproduction. In this work, we combined the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and ultra-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS) to profile the water-soluble metabolome in C. elegans. Comparing the metabolic fingerprint between two physiological ages among different mutants, our results demonstrate that aging is characterized by metabolome remodeling and metabolic decline. In addition, by analyzing the metabolic profiles of long-lived germline-less glp-1 mutants, we discovered that glp-1 mutants regulate the levels of many age-variant metabolites to attenuate aging, including elevated concentrations of the pyrimidine and purine metabolism intermediates and decreased concentrations of the citric acid cycle intermediates. Interestingly, by analyzing the metabolome of daf-16;glp-1 double mutants, our results revealed that some metabolic exchange contributing to germline-mediated longevity was mediated by transcription factor FOXO/DAF-16, including pyrimidine metabolism and the TCA cycle. Based on a comprehensive metabolic analysis, we provide novel insight into the relationship between longevity and metabolism regulated by germline signals in C. elegans PMID:28177875

  2. Results of interlaboratory comparison of fission track ages for 1992 fission track workshop

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Miller, D.S.; Crowley, K.D.; Dokka, R.K.; Galbraith, R.F.; Kowallis, B.J.; Naeser, C.W.

    1993-01-01

    Two apatites and one sphene were made available to the fission track research community for analysis prior to the 1992 Fission Track Workshop held in Philadelphia, U.S.A., 13-17 July. Eighteen laboratories throughout the world received aliquots of apatite and sphene. To date, analyses by 33 different scientists have been representing 15 different laboratories. With respect to the previous two interlaboratory comparisons, there is a noticeable improvement in the accuracy of the age results (Naeser and Cebula, 1978; Naeser et al., 1981; Miller et al., 1985;Miller et al.1990). Ninety-four percent of the analysis used the external detector method (EDM) combined with the zeta technique while the remaining individuals used the population method (POP). Track length measurements (requested for the first time in the interlaboratory comparison studies) were in relatively good agreement. ?? 1993.

  3. [Mutism and acute behavioral disorders revealing MELAS syndrome].

    PubMed

    Coomans, H; Barroso, B; Bertandeau, E; Bonnan, M; Dakar, A; Demasles, S; Garraud, S; Krim, E; Martin-Négrier, M-L

    2011-11-01

    MELAS syndrome (mitochondrial encephalomyopathy, lactic acidosis and stroke-like episodes) is a rare genetic mitochondrial disease which can cause cerebral (cerebrovascular accident, migraine, mental deterioration..), sensorial (bilateral symmetrical deafness) and peripheral (muscular involvement, neuropathy) disorders potentially associated with diabetes, renal or cardiac disorders, or growth retardation. Eighty percent of the patients have the 3243 A>G mutation in the leucine RNA transfer gene. Clinical manifestations leading to discovery of the mutation can be extremely varied, affecting patients of different age groups. We report the case of a 49-year-old man who presented acute fits of confusion followed by mutism and praxic disorders. History taking revealed recently diagnosed type 2 diabetes, axonal neuropathy, and bilateral symmetrical deafness requiring hearing aids. The initial MRI showed FLAIR sequences with bi-parietal abnormalities, no signs of recent stroke on the DW/B10000 sequences, and basal ganglia calcifications. Blood tests and morphological findings ruled out a vascular origin. Search for lactic acidosis remained constantly negative in blood samples despite positive cerebrospinal fluid samples (N×3). The 3243 A>G mitochondrial DNA mutation was identified. The neuropsychological evaluation revealed a serious dysexecutive syndrome with a major impact on the patient's self sufficiency. Neurocognitive disorders are not common in MELAS syndrome. Brain MRI results and the presence of extra-neurological signs can be helpful for diagnosis. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

  4. Teenagers' High Arrest Rates: Features of Young Age or Youth Poverty?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Males, Mike A.; Brown, Elizabeth A.

    2014-01-01

    The association of more crime with youthful age is widely accepted in social science. However, a literature search revealed no studies of the age-crime relationship that controlled for young ages' economic disadvantage. This research gap is addressed using the California Criminal Justice Statistics Center's arrest detail and Census poverty…

  5. The concept of aging in ayurveda.

    PubMed

    Dwivedi, K K; Paul, M; Behere, P B; Singh, R H

    1993-01-01

    The present study reveals that the process of aging was elaborately described in Ayurveda. In order to prology the life span and to promote longevity a separate discipline called Rasayana Tantra was also developed. The sailent feature of this discipline are described in this article.

  6. Effects of sex and proficiency in second language processing as revealed by a large-scale fNIRS study of school-aged children.

    PubMed

    Sugiura, Lisa; Ojima, Shiro; Matsuba-Kurita, Hiroko; Dan, Ippeita; Tsuzuki, Daisuke; Katura, Takusige; Hagiwara, Hiroko

    2015-10-01

    Previous neuroimaging studies in adults have revealed that first and second languages (L1/L2) share similar neural substrates, and that proficiency is a major determinant of the neural organization of L2 in the lexical-semantic and syntactic domains. However, little is known about neural substrates of children in the phonological domain, or about sex differences. Here, we conducted a large-scale study (n = 484) of school-aged children using functional near-infrared spectroscopy and a word repetition task, which requires a great extent of phonological processing. We investigated cortical activation during word processing, emphasizing sex differences, to clarify similarities and differences between L1 and L2, and proficiency-related differences during early L2 learning. L1 and L2 shared similar neural substrates with decreased activation in L2 compared to L1 in the posterior superior/middle temporal and angular/supramarginal gyri for both sexes. Significant sex differences were found in cortical activation within language areas during high-frequency word but not during low-frequency word processing. During high-frequency word processing, widely distributed areas including the angular/supramarginal gyri were activated in boys, while more restricted areas, excluding the angular/supramarginal gyri were activated in girls. Significant sex differences were also found in L2 proficiency-related activation: activation significantly increased with proficiency in boys, whereas no proficiency-related differences were found in girls. Importantly, cortical sex differences emerged with proficiency. Based on previous research, the present results indicate that sex differences are acquired or enlarged during language development through different cognitive strategies between sexes, possibly reflecting their different memory functions. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  7. Effects of age and sex on the results of an ankle plantar-flexor manual muscle test.

    PubMed

    Jan, Mei-Hwa; Chai, Huei-Ming; Lin, Yeong-Fwu; Lin, Janice Chien-Ho; Tsai, Li-Ying; Ou, Yu-Chih; Lin, Da-Hon

    2005-10-01

    The ability to perform 20 or more one-leg heel-rises is considered a "normal" grade for muscle strength (force-generating capacity of muscle) of the ankle plantar flexors, regardless of age and sex. Because muscle strength is closely related to age and sex, the "normal" test criterion was re-evaluated in different groups categorized by age and sex. One hundred eighty sedentary volunteers (21-80 years of age) without lower-limb lesions performed as many repetitions of one-leg heel-rise as possible. Lunsford and Perry criteria were used to determine completion of the test. The age and sex of the participants influenced the maximal repetitions of heel-rise, and the repetitions decreased with age and in female subjects. The muscle strength of the ankle plantar flexors, as measured by manual muscle testing, varied with age and sex. Clinicians should consider the variances of age and sex when they perform manual muscle testing of the ankle plantar flexors.

  8. Measures of aging with disability in U.S. secondary data sets: Results of a scoping review.

    PubMed

    Putnam, Michelle; Molton, Ivan R; Truitt, Anjali R; Smith, Amanda E; Jensen, Mark P

    2016-01-01

    There remain significant knowledge gaps in our understanding of aging with long-term disability. It is possible that important advances in knowledge could be gained using existing secondary data sets. However, little is known regarding which of the data sets available to researchers contain the age-related measures needed for this purpose, specifically age of onset and/or duration of disability measures. To better understand the capacity to investigate aging with long-term disability (e.g. mobility limitation) and aging with long-term chronic conditions (e.g. spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis) using extant data. Public use national and regional data sets were identified through existing reports, web-based searches, and expert nomination. The age- and disability-related variables, including age of onset and duration of disability, were tabulated for data sets meeting inclusion criteria. Analysis was descriptive. A total of N = 44 data sets were reviewed. Of these, 22 contained both age and disability variables. Within these 22 data sets, 9 contained an age of onset or duration of disability variable. Six of the nine data sets contained age of diagnosis for a single or set of health conditions. Onset of functional limitation is in two, and onset of self-reported and/or employment disability is in four, of the nine data sets respectively. There is some, but limited opportunity to investigate aging with long-term disability in extant U.S. public use secondary data sets. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  9. New results from the MRO/CRISM investigation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Murchie, Scott L.; Mustard, John; Arvidson, Raymond; Bishop, Janice; Clancy, R. Todd; Ehlmann, Bethany; Skok, J. R.; Wray, James; Lichtenberg, Kimberly; Andrews-Hanna, Jeffrey

    The CRISM visible-infrared imaging spectrometer on the MRO spacecraft has completed over 1.7 Mars years of its investigation. During that time CRISM has acquired over 11,500 hyper-spectral observations at 20-40 m/pixel (typically coordinated with 30 cm/pixel HiRISE images and 6 m/pixel CTX images), 12,500 globally distributed measurements of aerosol opacity and trace gas abundances, and 200 m/pixel mapping of 70% of Mars at 72 wavelengths. Ma-jor results from the first Mars year of operation include characterization of the composition, stratigraphy, and geologic setting of ten distinct classes of deposits containing minerals diagnos-tic of past aqueous processes, and monitoring of spatial and seasonal variations in atmospheric properties during the year of a global dust event. New results during the second Mars year of operations include: (a) discovery of Noachian-aged hydrothermal alteration of the crust, includ-ing formation of serpentine; (b) Hesperian-aged hydrothermal deposits, for example in Syrtis Major; (c) more complete mapping of late Noachian-to Hesperian-aged sulfate-bearing layered deposits, revealing correlation with expected locations of groundwater discharge; (d) detailed mineral mapping of candidate MSL landing sites, and characterization of seasonal change at the Phoenix site; and (e) limb profiles of gases and aerosols showing their distribution at vertical scales <1 km.

  10. Influence of Perceived Stress on Incident Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment: Results From the Einstein Aging Study.

    PubMed

    Katz, Mindy J; Derby, Carol A; Wang, Cuiling; Sliwinski, Martin J; Ezzati, Ali; Zimmerman, Molly E; Zwerling, Jessica L; Lipton, Richard B

    2016-01-01

    Stress is a potentially remediable risk factor for amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). Our objective is to determine whether perceived stress predicts incident aMCI and to determine if the influence of stress on aMCI is independent of known aMCI risk factors, particularly demographic variables, depression, and apolipoprotein genotype. The Einstein Aging Study is a longitudinal community-based study of older adults. The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) was administered annually in the Einstein Aging Study to participants (N=507; 71 developed incident aMCI; mean follow-up time=3.6 y, SD=2.0) who were aged 70 years and older, free of aMCI and dementia at baseline PSS administration, and had at least 1 subsequent annual follow-up. Cox hazard models were used to examine time to aMCI onset adjusting for covariates. High levels of perceived stress are associated with a 30% greater risk of incident aMCI (per 5-point increase in PSS: hazard ratio=1.30; 95% confidence interval, 1.08-1.58) independent of covariates. The consistency of results after covariate adjustment and the lack of evidence for reverse causation in longitudinal analyses suggest that these findings are robust. Understanding of the effect of perceived stress on cognition may lead to intervention strategies that prevent the onset of aMCI and Alzheimer dementia.

  11. Pervasive Effects of Aging on Gene Expression in Wild Wolves

    PubMed Central

    Charruau, Pauline; Johnston, Rachel A.; Stahler, Daniel R.; Lea, Amanda; Snyder-Mackler, Noah; Smith, Douglas W.; vonHoldt, Bridgett M.; Cole, Steven W.; Tung, Jenny; Wayne, Robert K.

    2016-01-01

    Abstract Gene expression levels change as an individual ages and responds to environmental conditions. With the exception of humans, such patterns have principally been studied under controlled conditions, overlooking the array of developmental and environmental influences that organisms encounter under conditions in which natural selection operates. We used high-throughput RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) of whole blood to assess the relative impacts of social status, age, disease, and sex on gene expression levels in a natural population of gray wolves (Canis lupus). Our findings suggest that age is broadly associated with gene expression levels, whereas other examined factors have minimal effects on gene expression patterns. Further, our results reveal evolutionarily conserved signatures of senescence, such as immunosenescence and metabolic aging, between wolves and humans despite major differences in life history and environment. The effects of aging on gene expression levels in wolves exhibit conservation with humans, but the more rapid expression differences observed in aging wolves is evolutionarily appropriate given the species’ high level of extrinsic mortality due to intraspecific aggression. Some expression changes that occur with age can facilitate physical age-related changes that may enhance fitness in older wolves. However, the expression of these ancestral patterns of aging in descendant modern dogs living in highly modified domestic environments may be maladaptive and cause disease. This work provides evolutionary insight into aging patterns observed in domestic dogs and demonstrates the applicability of studying natural populations to investigate the mechanisms of aging. PMID:27189566

  12. [Investigating work, age, health and work participation in the ageing work force in Germany].

    PubMed

    Ebener, M; Hasselhorn, H M

    2015-04-01

    Working life in Germany is changing. The work force is ageing and the number of people available to the labour market will - from now on - shrink considerably. Prospectively, people will have to work longer; but still today, most people leave employment long before reaching official retirement age. What are the reasons for this? In this report, a conceptual framework and the German lidA Cohort Study are presented. The "lidA conceptual framework on work, age, health and work participation" visualises determinants of employment (11 "domains") in higher working age, e. g., "work", "health", "social status" and "life style". The framework reveals 4 key characteristics of withdrawal from work: leaving working life is the result of an interplay of different domains (complexity); (early) retirement is a process with in part early determinants in the life course (processual character); retirement has a strong individual component (individuality); retirement is embedded in a strong structural frame (structure). On the basis of this framework, the "lidA Cohort Study on work, age, health and work participation" (www.lida-studie.de) investigates long-term effects of work on health and work participation in the ageing work force in Germany. It is the only large study in Germany operationalising the concept of employability in a broad interdisciplinary approach. Employees subject to social security and born in 1959 or in 1965 will be interviewed (CAPI) every 3 years (N[wave 1]=6 585, N[wave 2]=4 244) and their data will be linked (where consented) with social security data covering employment history and with health insurance data. The study design ("Schaie's most efficient design") allows for a tri-factor model that isolates the impact of age, cohort and time. In 2014, the second wave was completed. In the coming years lidA will analyse the association of work, health and work participation, and identify age as well as generation differences. lidA will investigate the

  13. Genetics of healthy aging and longevity.

    PubMed

    Brooks-Wilson, Angela R

    2013-12-01

    Longevity and healthy aging are among the most complex phenotypes studied to date. The heritability of age at death in adulthood is approximately 25 %. Studies of exceptionally long-lived individuals show that heritability is greatest at the oldest ages. Linkage studies of exceptionally long-lived families now support a longevity locus on chromosome 3; other putative longevity loci differ between studies. Candidate gene studies have identified variants at APOE and FOXO3A associated with longevity; other genes show inconsistent results. Genome-wide association scans (GWAS) of centenarians vs. younger controls reveal only APOE as achieving genome-wide significance (GWS); however, analyses of combinations of SNPs or genes represented among associations that do not reach GWS have identified pathways and signatures that converge upon genes and biological processes related to aging. The impact of these SNPs, which may exert joint effects, may be obscured by gene-environment interactions or inter-ethnic differences. GWAS and whole genome sequencing data both show that the risk alleles defined by GWAS of common complex diseases are, perhaps surprisingly, found in long-lived individuals, who may tolerate them by means of protective genetic factors. Such protective factors may 'buffer' the effects of specific risk alleles. Rare alleles are also likely to contribute to healthy aging and longevity. Epigenetics is quickly emerging as a critical aspect of aging and longevity. Centenarians delay age-related methylation changes, and they can pass this methylation preservation ability on to their offspring. Non-genetic factors, particularly lifestyle, clearly affect the development of age-related diseases and affect health and lifespan in the general population. To fully understand the desirable phenotypes of healthy aging and longevity, it will be necessary to examine whole genome data from large numbers of healthy long-lived individuals to look simultaneously at both common and

  14. Stereotactic radiosurgery for brain metastases: a case-matched study comparing treatment results for patients 80 years of age or older versus patients 65-79 years of age.

    PubMed

    Watanabe, Shinya; Yamamoto, Masaaki; Sato, Yasunori; Kawabe, Takuya; Higuchi, Yoshinori; Kasuya, Hidetoshi; Yamamoto, Tetsuya; Matsumura, Akira; Barfod, Bierta E

    2014-11-01

    Recently, an increasing number of patients with brain metastases, even patients over 80 years of age, have been treated with stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS). However, there is little information on SRS treatment results for patients with brain metastases 80 years of age and older. The authors undertook this study to reappraise whether SRS treatment results for patients 80 years of age or older differ from those of patients who are 65-79 years old. This was an institutional review board-approved, retrospective cohort study. Among 2552 consecutive brain metastasis patients who underwent SRS during the 1998-2011 period, we studied 165 who were 80 years of age or older (Group A) and 1181 who were age 65-79 years old (Group B). Because of the remarkable disproportion in patient numbers between the 2 groups and considerable differences in pre-SRS clinical factors, the authors conducted a case-matched study using the propensity score matching method. Ultimately, 330 patients (165 from each group, A and B) were selected. For time-to-event outcomes, the Kaplan-Meier method was used to estimate overall survival and competing risk analysis was used to estimate other study end points, as appropriate. Although the case-matched study showed that post-SRS median survival time (MST, months) was shorter in Group A patients (5.3 months, 95% CI 3.9-7.0 months) than in Group B patients (6.9 months, 95% CI 5.0-8.1 months), this difference was not statistically significant (HR 1.147, 95% CI 0.921-1.429, p = 0.22). Incidences of neurological death and deterioration were slightly lower in Group A than in Group B patients (6.3% vs 11.8% and 8.5% vs 13.9%), but these differences did not reach statistical significance (p = 0.11 and p = 0.16). Furthermore, competing risk analyses showed that the 2 groups did not differ significantly in cumulative incidence of local recurrence (HR 0.830, 95% CI 0.268-2.573, p = 0.75), rates of repeat SRS (HR 0.738, 95% CI 0.438-1.242, p = 0.25), or incidence

  15. Automated telemetry reveals age specific differences in flight duration and speed are driven by wind conditions in a migratory songbird.

    PubMed

    Mitchell, Greg W; Woodworth, Bradley K; Taylor, Philip D; Norris, D Ryan

    2015-01-01

    Given that winds encountered on migration could theoretically double or half the energy expenditure of aerial migrants, there should be strong selection on behaviour in relation to wind conditions aloft. However, evidence suggests that juvenile songbirds are less choosy about wind conditions at departure relative to adults, potentially increasing energy expenditure during flight. To date, there has yet to be a direct comparison of flight efficiency between free-living adult and juvenile songbirds during migration in relation to wind conditions aloft, likely because of the challenges of following known aged individual songbirds during flight. We used an automated digital telemetry array to compare the flight efficiency of adult and juvenile Savannah sparrows (Passerculus sandwichensis) as they flew nearly 100 km during two successive stages of their fall migration; a departure flight from their breeding grounds out over the ocean and then a migratory flight along a coast. Using a multilevel path modelling framework, we evaluated the effects of age, flight stage, tailwind component, and crosswind component on flight duration and groundspeed. We found that juveniles departed under wind conditions that were less supportive relative to adults and that this resulted in juveniles taking 1.4 times longer to complete the same flight trajectories as adults. We did not find an effect of age on flight duration or groundspeed after controlling for wind conditions aloft, suggesting that both age groups were flying at similar airspeeds. We also found that groundspeeds were 1.7 times faster along the coast than over the ocean given more favourable tailwinds along the coast and because birds appeared to be climbing in altitude over the ocean, diverting some energy from horizontal to vertical movement. Our results provide the first evidence that adult songbirds have considerably more efficient migratory flights than juveniles, and that this efficiency is driven by the selection of

  16. Functional MRI evidence for the decline of word retrieval and generation during normal aging.

    PubMed

    Baciu, M; Boudiaf, N; Cousin, E; Perrone-Bertolotti, M; Pichat, C; Fournet, N; Chainay, H; Lamalle, L; Krainik, A

    2016-02-01

    regions would simply reveal dedifferentiation that occurs with aging. Altogether, our results suggest that normal aging is associated with a more difficult access to lexico-semantic operations and representations by a slowdown in executive functions, without any conceptual loss.

  17. Age, sex, and racial differences in harsh physical punishment: Results from a nationally representative United States sample

    PubMed Central

    Taillieu, Tamara L.; Afifi, Tracie O.; Mota, Natalie; Keyes, Katherine M.; Sareen, Jitender

    2015-01-01

    The purpose of this research was to examine age, sex, and racial differences in the prevalence of harsh physical punishment in childhood in a nationally representative sample of the United States. Data were from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) collected in 2004 and 2005 (n = 34,653). Logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine age, sex, and racial differences in the prevalence of harsh physical punishment. Results suggest that the prevalence of harsh physical punishment has been decreasing among more recently born age groups; however, there appear to be sex and racial differences in this trend over time. The magnitude of the decrease appears to be stronger for males than for females. By race, the decrease in harsh physical punishment over time is only apparent among Whites; Black participants demonstrate little change over time, and harsh physical punishment seems to be increasing over time among Hispanics. Prevention and intervention efforts that educate about the links of physical punishment to negative outcomes and alternative non-physical discipline strategies may be particularly useful in reducing the prevalence of harsh physical punishment over time. PMID:25466426

  18. Age, sex, and racial differences in harsh physical punishment: results from a nationally representative United States sample.

    PubMed

    Taillieu, Tamara L; Afifi, Tracie O; Mota, Natalie; Keyes, Katherine M; Sareen, Jitender

    2014-12-01

    The purpose of this research was to examine age, sex, and racial differences in the prevalence of harsh physical punishment in childhood in a nationally representative sample of the United States. Data were from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) collected in 2004 and 2005 (n=34,653). Logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine age, sex, and racial differences in the prevalence of harsh physical punishment. Results suggest that the prevalence of harsh physical punishment has been decreasing among more recently born age groups; however, there appear to be sex and racial differences in this trend over time. The magnitude of the decrease appears to be stronger for males than for females. By race, the decrease in harsh physical punishment over time is only apparent among Whites; Black participants demonstrate little change over time, and harsh physical punishment seems to be increasing over time among Hispanics. Prevention and intervention efforts that educate about the links of physical punishment to negative outcomes and alternative non-physical discipline strategies may be particularly useful in reducing the prevalence of harsh physical punishment over time. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. Spatial Frequency Discrimination: Effects of Age, Reward, and Practice.

    PubMed

    van den Boomen, Carlijn; Peters, Judith Carolien

    2017-01-01

    Social interaction starts with perception of the world around you. This study investigated two fundamental issues regarding the development of discrimination of higher spatial frequencies, which are important building blocks of perception. Firstly, it mapped the typical developmental trajectory of higher spatial frequency discrimination. Secondly, it developed and validated a novel design that could be applied to improve atypically developed vision. Specifically, this study examined the effect of age and reward on task performance, practice effects, and motivation (i.e., number of trials completed) in a higher spatial frequency (reference frequency: 6 cycles per degree) discrimination task. We measured discrimination thresholds in children aged between 7 to 12 years and adults (N = 135). Reward was manipulated by presenting either positive reinforcement or punishment. Results showed a decrease in discrimination thresholds with age, thus revealing that higher spatial frequency discrimination continues to develop after 12 years of age. This development continues longer than previously shown for discrimination of lower spatial frequencies. Moreover, thresholds decreased during the run, indicating that discrimination abilities improved. Reward did not affect performance or improvement. However, in an additional group of 5-6 year-olds (N = 28) punishments resulted in the completion of fewer trials compared to reinforcements. In both reward conditions children aged 5-6 years completed only a fourth or half of the run (64 to 128 out of 254 trials) and were not motivated to continue. The design thus needs further adaptation before it can be applied to this age group. Children aged 7-12 years and adults completed the run, suggesting that the design is successful and motivating for children aged 7-12 years. This study thus presents developmental differences in higher spatial frequency discrimination thresholds. Furthermore, it presents a design that can be used in future

  20. Using freelisting to identify, assess, and characterize age differences in shared cultural domains.

    PubMed

    Schrauf, Robert W; Sanchez, Julia

    2008-11-01

    Freelisting is a brief, paper-and-pencil technique in which participants make lists of items that they believe belong in a particular domain. Where cultural domains are shared, as for young and old in the same society, subtle intracultural differences may be difficult to detect. This article presents a series of techniques for revealing and describing this intracultural variation in freelisted data among young versus old age groups. Older (N = 30) and younger (N = 31) Mexicans in Mexico City made freelists in four quotidian domains: animals, emotions, illnesses, and gendered occupations. We used minimum residual factor analysis (consensus analysis) to establish domain coherence and assess overall consensus concerning contents of the domains. We established subvariation within the overall consensus by comparing levels of observed versus predicted inter-informant agreement. Results showed divergent patterns of inter-informant agreement between young and old participants across domains. Qualitative examination of items with higher salience for young versus old revealed age differences consistent with prior findings in each domain. The concatenation of these techniques renders freelisting an accessible, easily administered tool for probing age and group differences in cultural domains.

  1. Glutathione maintenance mitigates age-related susceptibility to redox cycling agents.

    PubMed

    Thomas, Nicholas O; Shay, Kate P; Kelley, Amanda R; Butler, Judy A; Hagen, Tory M

    2016-12-01

    Isolated hepatocytes from young (4-6mo) and old (24-26mo) F344 rats were exposed to increasing concentrations of menadione, a vitamin K derivative and redox cycling agent, to determine whether the age-related decline in Nrf2-mediated detoxification defenses resulted in heightened susceptibility to xenobiotic insult. An LC 50 for each age group was established, which showed that aging resulted in a nearly 2-fold increase in susceptibility to menadione (LC 50 for young: 405μM; LC 50 for old: 275μM). Examination of the known Nrf2-regulated pathways associated with menadione detoxification revealed, surprisingly, that NAD(P)H: quinone oxido-reductase 1 (NQO1) protein levels and activity were induced 9-fold and 4-fold with age, respectively (p=0.0019 and p=0.018; N=3), but glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4) declined by 70% (p=0.0043; N=3). These results indicate toxicity may stem from vulnerability to lipid peroxidation instead of inadequate reduction of menadione semi-quinone. Lipid peroxidation was 2-fold higher, and GSH declined by a 3-fold greater margin in old versus young rat cells given 300µM menadione (p<0.05 and p≤0.01 respectively; N=3). We therefore provided 400µMN-acetyl-cysteine (NAC) to hepatocytes from old rats before menadione exposure to alleviate limits in cysteine substrate availability for GSH synthesis during challenge. NAC pretreatment resulted in a >2-fold reduction in cell death, suggesting that the age-related increase in menadione susceptibility likely stems from attenuated GSH-dependent defenses. This data identifies cellular targets for intervention in order to limit age-related toxicological insults to menadione and potentially other redox cycling compounds. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  2. Musculoskeletal system in the old age and the demand for healthy ageing biomarkers.

    PubMed

    Collino, Sebastiano; Martin, François-Pierre; Karagounis, Leonidas G; Horcajada, Marie Noelle; Moco, Sofia; Franceschi, Claudio; Kussmann, Martin; Offord, Elizabeth

    2013-01-01

    Population ageing has emerged as a major demographic trend worldwide due to improved health and longevity. This global ageing phenomenon will have a major impact on health-care systems worldwide due to increased morbidity and greater needs for hospitalization/institutionalization. As the ageing population increases worldwide, there is an increasing awareness not only of increased longevity but also of the importance of "healthy ageing" and "quality of life". Yet, the age related chronic inflammation is believed to be pathogenic with regards to its contribution to frailty and degenerative disorders. In particular, the frailty syndrome is increasingly being considered as a key risk indicator of adverse health outcomes. In addition, elderly may be also prone to be resistant to anabolic stimuli which is likely a key factor in the loss of skeletal muscle mass with ageing. Vital to understand these key biological processes is the development of biological markers, through system biology approaches, aiding at strategies for tailored therapeutic and personalized nutritional program. Overall aim is to prevent or attenuate decline of key physiological functions required to live an active, independent life. This review focus on core indicators of health and functions in older adults, where nutrition and tailored personalized programs could exhibit preventive roles, and where the aid of metabolomics technologies are increasingly displaying potential in revealing key molecular mechanisms/targets linked to specific ageing and/or healthy ageing processes. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. Age patterns of smoking initiation among Kuwait university male students.

    PubMed

    Sugathan, T N; Moody, P M; Bustan, M A; Elgerges, N S

    1998-12-01

    The present study is a detailed evaluation of age at smoking initiation among university male students in Kuwait based on a random sample of 664 students selected from all students during 1993. The Acturial Life Table analysis revealed that almost one tenth of the students initiated cigarette smoking between ages 16 and 17 with the rate of initiation increasing rapidly thereafter and reaching 30% by age 20 and almost 50% by the time they celebrate their 24th birthday. The most important environmental risk factor positively associated for smoking initiation was observed to be the history of smoking among siblings with a relative risk of 1.4. Compared to students of medicine and engineering, the students of other faculties revealed a higher risk in smoking initiation with an RR = 1.77 for sciences and commerce and 1.61 for other faculties (arts, law, education and Islamic studies). The analysis revealed a rising generation trend in cigarette smoking. There is a need for reduction of this trend among young adults in Kuwait and throughout other countries in the region.

  4. The effectiveness of age-appropriate pre-operative information session on the anxiety level of school-age children undergoing elective surgery in Jordan.

    PubMed

    Shaheen, Abeer; Nassar, Omayyah; Khalaf, Inaam; Kridli, Suha Al-Oballi; Jarrah, Samiha; Halasa, Suhaila

    2018-06-01

    Undergoing surgery is an anxious experience for children. Applying anxiety reduction age-appropriate programs by nurses would be beneficial in reducing anxiety to children. To test the effectiveness of age-appropriate preoperative information session in reducing anxiety levels of school-age children undergoing elective surgery in Jordan. The study used a quasi-experimental design. One hundred and twenty-six children were recruited from an educational hospital in Amman from January to June 2012 and were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. The anxiety levels of children were assessed using the State Anxiety Scale for children, and children's levels of cooperation after surgery were assessed using Children Emotional Manifestation Scale. The heart rate and blood pressure of children were also measured 1 hour before going to operation room. The study results revealed that children in the intervention group reported lower anxiety levels and more cooperation than children in the control group. Also, they displayed lower heart rate and blood pressure than children in the control group. The application of age-appropriate preoperative intervention for children could be beneficial in decreasing anxiety levels and increasing their cooperation post surgery. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

  5. Old age pension and intergenerational living arrangements: a regression discontinuity design

    PubMed Central

    2017-01-01

    China launched a pension program for rural residents in 2009, now covering more than 300 million Chinese. This program offers a unique setting for studying the ageing population, given the rapidity of China’s population ageing, traditions of filial piety and co-residence, decreasing number of children, and dearth of formal social security, at a relatively low income level. This paper examines whether receipt of the old-age pension payment equips elderly parents and their adult children to live apart and whether parents substitute children’s time involved in instrumental support to them with service consumption. Employing a regression discontinuity design to a primary longitudinal survey conducted in Guizhou province of China, this paper overcomes challenges in the literature that households eligible for pension payment might be systematically different from ineligible households and that it is difficult to separate the effect of pension from that of age or cohort heterogeneity. Around the pension eligibility age cut-off, results reveal large and significant reduction in intergenerational co-residence of the extended family and increase in service consumption among elderly parents. PMID:29051720

  6. Effects of aging on action-intentional programming.

    PubMed

    Shoraka, Ali R; Otzel, Dana M; M Zilli, Eduardo; Finney, Glen R; Doty, Leilani; Falchook, Adam D; Heilman, Kenneth M

    2018-03-01

    Action-intentional programs control "when" we initiate, inhibit, continue, and stop motor actions. The purpose of this study was to learn if there are changes in the action-intentional system with healthy aging, and if these changes are asymmetrical (right versus left upper limb) or related to impaired interhemispheric communication. We administered tests of action-intention to 41 middle-aged and older adults (61.9 ± 12.3 years). Regression analyses revealed that older age predicted a decrement in performance for tests of crossed motor response inhibition as well as slower motor initiation with the left hand. Changes in action-intention with aging appear to be related to alterations of interhemispheric communication and/or age-related right hemisphere dysfunction; however, further research is needed to identify the mechanisms for age-related changes in the brain networks that mediate action-intention.

  7. Age-Related Differences in the Reliance on Executive Control in Working Memory: Role of Task Demand

    PubMed Central

    Isingrini, Michel; Angel, Lucie; Fay, Séverine; Taconnat, Laurence; Lemaire, Patrick; Bouazzaoui, Badiâa

    2015-01-01

    We examined the hypothesis that age-related differences in the reliance on executive control may be better explained by variations of task demand than by a mechanism specifically linked to aging. To this end, we compared the relationship between the performance of young and older adults on two executive functioning tests and an updating working-memory task with different load levels. The results revealed a significant interaction between age, task demand, and individual executive capacities, indicating that executive resources were only involved at lower loads in older adults, and only at higher loads in young adults. Overall, the results are not consistent with the proposition that cognition places greater demand on executive control in older adults. However, they support the view that how much young and older adults rely on executive control to accomplish cognitive tasks depends on task demand. Finally, interestingly these results are consistent with the CRUNCH model accounting for age-related differences in brain activations. PMID:26700019

  8. Age-Related Differences in the Reliance on Executive Control in Working Memory: Role of Task Demand.

    PubMed

    Isingrini, Michel; Angel, Lucie; Fay, Séverine; Taconnat, Laurence; Lemaire, Patrick; Bouazzaoui, Badiâa

    2015-01-01

    We examined the hypothesis that age-related differences in the reliance on executive control may be better explained by variations of task demand than by a mechanism specifically linked to aging. To this end, we compared the relationship between the performance of young and older adults on two executive functioning tests and an updating working-memory task with different load levels. The results revealed a significant interaction between age, task demand, and individual executive capacities, indicating that executive resources were only involved at lower loads in older adults, and only at higher loads in young adults. Overall, the results are not consistent with the proposition that cognition places greater demand on executive control in older adults. However, they support the view that how much young and older adults rely on executive control to accomplish cognitive tasks depends on task demand. Finally, interestingly these results are consistent with the CRUNCH model accounting for age-related differences in brain activations.

  9. Targeted Ablation of the Abcc6 Gene Results in Ectopic Mineralization of Connective Tissues

    PubMed Central

    Klement, John F.; Matsuzaki, Yasushi; Jiang, Qiu-Jie; Terlizzi, Joseph; Choi, Hae Young; Fujimoto, Norihiro; Li, Kehua; Pulkkinen, Leena; Birk, David E.; Sundberg, John P.; Uitto, Jouni

    2005-01-01

    Pseudoxanthoma elasticum (PXE), characterized by connective tissue mineralization of the skin, eyes, and cardiovascular system, is caused by mutations in the ABCC6 gene. ABCC6 encodes multidrug resistance-associated protein 6 (MRP6), which is expressed primarily in the liver and kidneys. Mechanisms producing ectopic mineralization as a result of these mutations remain unclear. To elucidate this complex disease, a transgenic mouse was generated by targeted ablation of the mouse Abcc6 gene. Abcc6 null mice were negative for Mrp6 expression in the liver, and complete necropsies revealed profound mineralization of several tissues, including skin, arterial blood vessels, and retina, while heterozygous animals were indistinguishable from the wild-type mice. Particularly striking was the mineralization of vibrissae, as confirmed by von Kossa and alizarin red stains. Electron microscopy revealed mineralization affecting both elastic structures and collagen fibers. Mineralization of vibrissae was noted as early as 5 weeks of age and was progressive with age in Abcc6−/− mice but was not observed in Abcc6+/− or Abcc6+/+ mice up to 2 years of age. A total body computerized tomography scan of Abcc6−/− mice revealed mineralization in skin and subcutaneous tissue as well as in the kidneys. These data demonstrate aberrant mineralization of soft tissues in PXE-affected organs, and, consequently, these mice recapitulate features of this complex disease. PMID:16135817

  10. Aging and Emotion Recognition: Not Just a Losing Matter

    PubMed Central

    Sze, Jocelyn A.; Goodkind, Madeleine S.; Gyurak, Anett; Levenson, Robert W.

    2013-01-01

    Past studies on emotion recognition and aging have found evidence of age-related decline when emotion recognition was assessed by having participants detect single emotions depicted in static images of full or partial (e.g., eye region) faces. These tests afford good experimental control but do not capture the dynamic nature of real-world emotion recognition, which is often characterized by continuous emotional judgments and dynamic multi-modal stimuli. Research suggests that older adults often perform better under conditions that better mimic real-world social contexts. We assessed emotion recognition in young, middle-aged, and older adults using two traditional methods (single emotion judgments of static images of faces and eyes) and an additional method in which participants made continuous emotion judgments of dynamic, multi-modal stimuli (videotaped interactions between young, middle-aged, and older couples). Results revealed an age by test interaction. Largely consistent with prior research, we found some evidence that older adults performed worse than young adults when judging single emotions from images of faces (for sad and disgust faces only) and eyes (for older eyes only), with middle-aged adults falling in between. In contrast, older adults did better than young adults on the test involving continuous emotion judgments of dyadic interactions, with middle-aged adults falling in between. In tests in which target stimuli differed in age, emotion recognition was not facilitated by an age match between participant and target. These findings are discussed in terms of theoretical and methodological implications for the study of aging and emotional processing. PMID:22823183

  11. Age-related differences in neuromagnetic brain activity underlying concurrent sound perception.

    PubMed

    Alain, Claude; McDonald, Kelly L

    2007-02-07

    Deficits in parsing concurrent auditory events are believed to contribute to older adults' difficulties in understanding speech in adverse listening conditions (e.g., cocktail party). To explore the level at which aging impairs sound segregation, we measured auditory evoked fields (AEFs) using magnetoencephalography while young, middle-aged, and older adults were presented with complex sounds that either had all of their harmonics in tune or had the third harmonic mistuned by 4 or 16% of its original value. During the recording, participants were asked to ignore the stimuli and watch a muted subtitled movie of their choice. For each participant, the AEFs were modeled with a pair of dipoles in the superior temporal plane, and the effects of age and mistuning were examined on the amplitude and latency of the resulting source waveforms. Mistuned stimuli generated an early positivity (60-100 ms), an object-related negativity (ORN) (140-180 ms) that overlapped the N1 and P2 waves, and a positive displacement that peaked at approximately 230 ms (P230) after sound onset. The early mistuning-related enhancement was similar in all three age groups, whereas the subsequent modulations (ORN and P230) were reduced in older adults. These age differences in auditory cortical activity were associated with a reduced likelihood of hearing two sounds as a function of mistuning. The results reveal that inharmonicity is rapidly and automatically registered in all three age groups but that the perception of concurrent sounds declines with age.

  12. Animal models of aging research: implications for human aging and age-related diseases.

    PubMed

    Mitchell, Sarah J; Scheibye-Knudsen, Morten; Longo, Dan L; de Cabo, Rafael

    2015-01-01

    Aging is characterized by an increasing morbidity and functional decline that eventually results in the death of an organism. Aging is the largest risk factor for numerous human diseases, and understanding the aging process may thereby facilitate the development of new treatments for age-associated diseases. The use of humans in aging research is complicated by many factors, including ethical issues; environmental and social factors; and perhaps most importantly, their long natural life span. Although cellular models of human disease provide valuable mechanistic information, they are limited in that they may not replicate the in vivo biology. Almost all organisms age, and thus animal models can be useful for studying aging. Herein, we review some of the major models currently used in aging research and discuss their benefits and pitfalls, including interventions known to extend life span and health span. Finally, we conclude by discussing the future of animal models in aging research.

  13. Sex differences in neurochemical markers that correlate with behavior in aging mice.

    PubMed

    Frick, K M; Burlingame, L A; Delaney, S S; Berger-Sweeney, J

    2002-01-01

    Sex differences in neurochemical markers that correlate with behavior in aging mice NEUROBIOL AGING. We examined whether the enzymatic activities of choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) and glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) were altered similarly with age in male and female mice, and whether these changes were correlated with age-related alterations in memory and anxiety. ChAT and GAD activities were measured in neocortex, hippocampus, and striatum of behaviorally characterized male and female C57BL/6 mice (5, 17, and 25 months). Generally, ChAT activity was increased, and GAD activity decreased, with age. However, disparate changes were revealed between the sexes; activities of both enzymes were decreased in 17-month males, whereas alterations in females were not observed until 25-months. Furthermore, enzyme-behavior correlations differed between the sexes; in males, ChAT activity was related to one behavioral task, whereas in females, activities of both enzymes were correlated with multiple tasks. Significant enzyme-behavior correlations were most evident at 17 months of age, likely the result of behavioral and enzymatic sex differences at this age. These data represent the first comprehensive report illustrating differential alterations of ChAT and GAD activities in aging male and female mice.

  14. The role of exposure on differences in driver death rates by gender and age: Results of a quasi-induced method on crash data in Spain.

    PubMed

    Pulido, José; Barrio, Gregorio; Hoyos, Juan; Jiménez-Mejías, Eladio; Martín-Rodríguez, María Del Mar; Houwing, Sjoerd; Lardelli-Claret, Pablo

    2016-09-01

    Part of the differences by age and gender in driver death rates from traffic injuries depends on the amount of exposure (km/year travelled). Unfortunately, direct indicators of exposure are not available in many countries. Our aim was to compare the age and gender differences in death rates with and without adjustment by exposure using a quasi-induced exposure approach in Spain, during 2004-2012. Crude and adjusted death rate ratios (CDRR and ADRR, respectively) were calculated for each age and gender group. To obtain the latter estimates, in accordance with quasi-exposure reasoning, the number of registered drivers was replaced by the number of non-infractor drivers, passively involved in collisions with another vehicle whose driver committed an infraction. 18-29 years and female drivers were chosen as the reference categories for age and gender. Striking differences were found between CDRR and ADRR estimates. When CDRR were estimated, we found the highest traffic mortality among the youngest drivers, except for females in non-urban roads. ADRR however showed the highest mortality among the oldest groups, especially in females, peaking among drivers >74 years in all types of roads. Regarding differences by gender, both estimates revealed higher traffic mortality in males, although the differences were much smaller when using ADRR. CDRR and ADRR for males tended to converge as age increased. Death risk from traffic injuries among drivers is clearly influenced by the amount of exposure. These findings further emphasize the need to obtain direct traffic exposure estimates by subgroups of drivers. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. Seniors' body weight dissatisfaction and longitudinal associations with weight changes, anorexia of aging, and obesity: results from the NuAge Study.

    PubMed

    Roy, Mathieu; Shatenstein, Bryna; Gaudreau, Pierrette; Morais, José A; Payette, Hélène

    2015-03-01

    We examined longitudinal associations between weight dissatisfaction, weight changes, anorexia of aging, and obesity among 1,793 seniors followed over 4 years between 2003 and 2009. Obesity prevalence (body mass index [BMI] ≥ 30) and prevalence/incidence of weight dissatisfaction, anorexia of aging (self-reported appetite loss), and weight changes ≥5% were assessed. Predictors of weight loss ≥5%, anorexia of aging, and weight dissatisfaction were examined using logistic regressions. Half of seniors experienced weight dissatisfaction (50.6%, 95% confidence interval [CI] = [48.1, 53.1]). Anorexia of aging and obesity prevalence was 7.0% (95% CI = [5.7, 8.3]) and 25.1% (95% CI = [22.9, 27.3]), whereas incidence of weight gain/loss ≥5% was 6.6% (95% CI = [1.3, 11.9]) and 8.8% (95% CI = [3.3, 14.3]). Weight gain ≥5% predicts men's subsequent weight dissatisfaction (odds ratio [OR] = 6.66, 95% CI = [2.06, 21.60]). No other association was observed. Weight dissatisfaction is frequent but not associated with subsequent eating disorders. In men, weight gain predicted weight dissatisfaction. Seniors' weight dissatisfaction does not necessarily equate weight changes. Due to its high prevalence, it is of public health interest to understand how seniors' weight dissatisfaction may impact health. © The Author(s) 2014.

  16. Beliefs about behavior account for age differences in the correspondence bias.

    PubMed

    Stanley, Jennifer Tehan; Blanchard-Fields, Fredda

    2011-03-01

    Older adults tend to exhibit the correspondence bias to a greater extent than young adults. The current study examined whether these age differences are a function of the degree to which an individual subscribes to a lay theory of attitude-behavior consistency. First, participants responded to questions regarding their beliefs about attitude-behavior consistency. Approximately 2 weeks later, 144 (67 young adults and 77 older adults) participants completed the correspondence bias task. As expected, older adults were more biased than young adults. Analyses revealed that the degree to which an individual holds attitude-behavior consistency beliefs in the dishonesty domain accounted for age-related differences in the correspondence bias. The results of this study suggest that age differences in the correspondence bias task are in part driven by older adults holding stronger attitude-behavior consistency beliefs than young adults.

  17. Is Older Age Associated with Higher Self- and Other-Rated ASD Characteristics?

    PubMed

    Lever, Anne G; Geurts, Hilde M

    2018-06-01

    Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) characteristics seem to abate over time, but whether this protracts until late adulthood is largely unknown. We cross-sectionally investigated self- and other-reported ASD characteristics of adults with (ASD: N max-self  = 237, N max-other  = 130) and without ASD (COM: N max-self  = 198, N max-other  = 148) aged 19-79 years. Within the ASD group, self-reported ASD characteristics, and sensory sensitivities were highest in middle adulthood, while age was not associated to empathy. Sex differences were also found. However, age-and sex-related differences were not revealed by others and self- and other-report were poorly concordant. These results show that ASD characteristics in adulthood are differently perceived across age, sex, and informants and suggest that it is important to repeatedly assess self-reported ASD characteristics during adulthood.

  18. Potential public health impact of Age-Related Eye Disease Study results: AREDS report no. 11.

    PubMed

    Bressler, Neil M; Bressler, Susan B; Congdon, Nathan G; Ferris, Frederick L; Friedman, David S; Klein, Ronald; Lindblad, Anne S; Milton, Roy C; Seddon, Johanna M

    2003-11-01

    To estimate the potential public health impact of the findings of the Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS) on reducing the number of persons developing advanced age-related macular degeneration (AMD) during the next 5 years in the United States. The AREDS clinical trial provides estimates of AMD progression rates and of reduction in risk of developing advanced AMD when a high-dose nutritional supplement of antioxidants and zinc is used. These results are applied to estimates of the US population at risk, to estimate the number of people who would potentially avoid advanced AMD during 5 years if those at risk were to take a supplement such as that used in AREDS. An estimated 8 million persons at least 55 years old in the United States have monocular or binocular intermediate AMD or monocular advanced AMD. They are considered to be at high risk for advanced AMD and are those for whom the AREDS formulation should be considered. Of these people, 1.3 million would develop advanced AMD if no treatment were given to reduce their risk. If all of these people at risk received supplements such as those used in AREDS, more than 300,000 (95% confidence interval, 158,000-487,000) of them would avoid advanced AMD and any associated vision loss during the next 5 years. If people at high risk for advanced AMD received supplements such as those suggested by AREDS results, the potential impact on public health in the United States would be considerable during the next 5 years.

  19. The onset of STI diagnosis through age 30: results from the Seattle Social Development Project Intervention.

    PubMed

    Hill, Karl G; Bailey, Jennifer A; Hawkins, J David; Catalano, Richard F; Kosterman, Rick; Oesterle, Sabrina; Abbott, Robert D

    2014-02-01

    The objectives of this study were to examine (1) whether the onset of sexually transmitted infections (STI) through age 30 differed for youths who received a social developmental intervention during elementary grades compared to those in the control condition; (2) potential social-developmental mediators of this intervention; and (3) the extent to which these results differed by ethnicity. A nonrandomized controlled trial followed participants to age 30, 18 years after the intervention ended. Three intervention conditions were compared: a full-intervention group, assigned to intervention in grades 1 through 6; a late intervention group, assigned to intervention in grades 5 and 6 only; and a no-treatment control group. Eighteen public elementary schools serving diverse neighborhoods including high-crime neighborhoods of Seattle are the setting of the study. Six hundred eight participants in three intervention conditions were interviewed from age 10 through 30. Interventions include teacher training in classroom instruction and management, child social and emotional skill development, and parent workshops. Outcome is the cumulative onset of participant report of STI diagnosis. Adolescent family environment, bonding to school, antisocial peer affiliation, early sex initiation, alcohol use, cigarette use, and marijuana use were tested as potential intervention mechanisms. Complementary log-log survival analysis found significantly lower odds of STI onset for the full-intervention compared to the control condition. The lowering of STI onset risk was significantly greater for African Americans and Asian Americans compared to European Americans. Family environment, school bonding, and delayed initiation of sexual behavior mediated the relationship between treatment and STI hazard. A universal intervention for urban elementary school children, focused on classroom management and instruction, children's social competence, and parenting practices may reduce the onset of STI

  20. Decades of field data reveal that turtles senesce in the wild

    PubMed Central

    Warner, Daniel A.; Miller, David A. W.; Bronikowski, Anne M.; Janzen, Fredric J.

    2016-01-01

    Lifespan and aging rates vary considerably across taxa; thus, understanding the factors that lead to this variation is a primary goal in biology and has ramifications for understanding constraints and flexibility in human aging. Theory predicts that senescence—declining reproduction and increasing mortality with advancing age—evolves when selection against harmful mutations is weaker at old ages relative to young ages or when selection favors pleiotropic alleles with beneficial effects early in life despite late-life costs. However, in many long-lived ectotherms, selection is expected to remain strong at old ages because reproductive output typically increases with age, which may lead to the evolution of slow or even negligible senescence. We show that, contrary to current thinking, both reproduction and survival decline with adult age in the painted turtle, Chrysemys picta, based on data spanning >20 y from a wild population. Older females, despite relatively high reproductive output, produced eggs with reduced hatching success. Additionally, age-specific mark–recapture analyses revealed increasing mortality with advancing adult age. These findings of reproductive and mortality senescence challenge the contention that chelonians do not age and more generally provide evidence of reduced fitness at old ages in nonmammalian species that exhibit long chronological lifespans. PMID:27140634

  1. Age Discrimination, Social Closure and Employment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Roscigno, Vincent J.; Mong, Sherry; Byron, Reginald; Tester, Griff

    2007-01-01

    Age discrimination in employment has received mounting attention over the past two decades, and from various cross-cutting social science disciplines. Findings from survey and experimental analyses have revealed the pervasiveness of ageist stereotypes, while aggregate and life course analyses suggest trends toward downward occupational mobility…

  2. Ballroom Dance: Linking Serious Leisure to Successful Aging.

    PubMed

    Stevens-Ratchford, Regena G

    2016-09-01

    This study explored ballroom dance as serious leisure and successful aging in a sample of community-dwelling older adults. Qualitative procedures were used to explore stories of ballroom dance and successful aging. Participants described positive successful aging and active leisure engagement. Three themes emerged from thematic analyses: (a) Ballroom Dance as Serious Leisure: Its Dimensions; (b) Ballroom Dance: Its Link to Successful Aging; (c) The Affinity: We Love to Dance!. The participants' ballroom dance revealed serious leisure characteristics in conjunction with their successful aging. They loved to dance, self-identified as ballroom dancers, and orchestrated their dance activities within its social world. Future research should examine the relation of successful aging to the social world of ballroom dance. © The Author(s) 2016.

  3. Age Differences in Daily Social Activities

    PubMed Central

    Marcum, Christopher Steven

    2014-01-01

    The extent to which older and younger people do different activities when they are with others and when they are alone is examined in this article. I leverage interpersonal data in combination with information on activities from the American Time Use Survey to shed light on the long held finding that older people have less social contact than younger people. The results show that, net of intervening factors, age is associated with declines in time spent with others for virtually all types of time use. However, the variety of activities that older and younger people do also differs. Using leisure activities to probe this finding reveals that, when older people spend time with others it tends to be during activities that are sui generis social activities—such as attending parties—but that this is not necessarily the case for younger people. The literature on time use and aging is discussed in light of these findings and a new hypothesis on agency in the life course is proposed. PMID:25190898

  4. Cross-age comparisons reveal multiple strategies for lexical ambiguity resolution during natural reading

    PubMed Central

    Stites, Mallory C.; Federmeier, Kara D.; Stine-Morrow, Elizabeth A. L.

    2013-01-01

    Eye-tracking was used to investigate how younger and older (60+) adults use syntactic and semantic information to disambiguate noun/verb (NV) homographs (e.g. park). In event-related potential work using the same materials, Lee and Federmeier (2009, 2011) found that young adults elicited a sustained frontal negativity to NV-homographs when only syntactic cues were available (i.e., in syntactic prose); this effect was eliminated by semantic constraints. The negativity was only present in older adults with high verbal fluency. The current study shows parallel findings: young adults exhibit inflated first fixation durations to NV-homographs in syntactic prose, but not semantically congruent sentences. This effect is absent in older adults as a group. Verbal fluency modulates the effect in both age groups: high fluency is associated with larger first fixation effects in syntactic prose. Older, but not younger, adults also show significantly increased rereading of the NV-homographs in syntactic prose. Verbal fluency modulates this effect as well: high fluency is associated with a reduced tendency to reread, regardless of age. This relationship suggests a tradeoff between initial and downstream processing costs for ambiguity during natural reading. Together, the eye-tracking and ERP data suggest that effortful meaning selection recruits mechanisms important for suppressing contextually inappropriate meanings, which also slow eye movements. Efficacy of fronto-temporal circuitry, as captured by verbal fluency, predicts the success of engaging these mechanisms in both young and older adults. Failure to recruit these processes requires compensatory rereading or leads to comprehension failures (Lee & Federmeier, 2012). PMID:23687920

  5. Composition and development of reproduction in two-age Appalachian hardwood stands: 20-year results

    Treesearch

    Gary W. Miller; James N. Kochenderfer; Desta Fekedulegn

    2004-01-01

    In the early 1980s, silviculturists with the Northeastern Research Station and Monongahela National Forest envisioned that managing some Appalachian hardwood stands to promote two-age structures would be part of an effective strategy for managing multi-use forests. Two-age stands provided the light and seedbed conditions necessary for regenerating numerous desirable...

  6. Mediterranean diet and cognitive function in older age: results from the Women’s Health Study

    PubMed Central

    Samieri, Cécilia; Grodstein, Francine; Rosner, Bernard A.; Kang, Jae H.; Cook, Nancy R.; Manson, JoAnn E.; Buring, Julie E.; Willett, Walter C.; Okereke, Olivia I.

    2013-01-01

    Background Adherence to a Mediterranean diet may help prevent cognitive decline in older age, but studies are limited. We examined the association of adherence to the Mediterranean diet with cognitive function and decline. Methods We included 6,174 participants, aged 65+ years, from the cognitive sub-study of the Women’s Health Study. Women provided dietary information in 1998 and completed a cognitive battery 5 years later, followed by two assessments at 2-year intervals. The primary outcomes were composite scores of global cognition and verbal memory. The alternate Mediterranean diet adherence 9-point-score was constructed based on intakes of: vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, nuts, fish, red and processed meats, moderate alcohol, and the ratio of monounsaturated-to-saturated fats. Results After multivariable adjustment, the alternate Mediterranean diet score was not associated with trajectories of repeated cognitive scores (P-trend across quintiles=0.26 and 0.40 for global cognition and verbal memory, respectively), nor with overall global cognition and verbal memory at older ages, assessed by averaging the three cognitive measures (P-trend=0.63 and 0.44, respectively). Among alternate Mediterranean diet components, higher monounsaturated-to-saturated fats ratio was associated with more favorable cognitive trajectories (P-trend=0.03 and 0.05 for global cognition and verbal memory, respectively). Greater whole grain intake was not associated with cognitive trajectories, but was related to better average global cognition (P-trend=0.02). Conclusions In this large study of older women, we observed no association of the Mediterranean diet with cognitive decline. Relations between individual Mediterranean diet components, particularly whole grains, and cognitive function merit further study. PMID:23676264

  7. Memory, language, and ageing.

    PubMed Central

    Burke, D M; Mackay, D G

    1997-01-01

    This overview provides both theoretical and empirical reasons for emphasizing practice and familiar skills as a practical strategy for enhancing cognitive functioning in old age. Our review of empirical research on age-related changes in memory and language reveals a consistent pattern of spared and impaired abilities in normal old age. Relatively preserved in old age is memory performance involving highly practised skills and familiar information, including factual, semantic and autobiographical information. Relatively impaired in old age is memory performance that requires the formation of new connections, for example, recall of recent autobiographical experiences, new facts or the source of newly acquired facts. This pattern of impaired new learning versus preserved old learning cuts across distinctions between semantic memory, episodic memory, explicit memory and perhaps also implicit memory. However, familiar verbal information is not completely preserved when accessed on the output side rather than the input side: aspects of language production, namely word finding and spelling, exhibit significant age-related declines. This emerging pattern of preserved and impaired abilities presents a fundamental challenge for theories of cognitive ageing, which must explain why some aspects of language and memory are more vulnerable to the effects of ageing than others. Information-universal theories, involving mechanisms such as general slowing that are independent of the type or structure of the information being processed, require additional mechanisms to account for this pattern of cognitive aging. Information-specific theories, where the type or structure of the postulated memory units can influence the effects of cognitive ageing, are able to account for this emerging pattern, but in some cases require further development to account for comprehensive cognitive changes such as general slowing. PMID:9460069

  8. Defective TFH Cell Function and Increased TFR Cells Contribute to Defective Antibody Production in Aging.

    PubMed

    Sage, Peter T; Tan, Catherine L; Freeman, Gordon J; Haigis, Marcia; Sharpe, Arlene H

    2015-07-14

    Defective antibody production in aging is broadly attributed to immunosenescence. However, the precise immunological mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we demonstrate an increase in the ratio of inhibitory T follicular regulatory (TFR) cells to stimulatory T follicular helper (TFH) cells in aged mice. Aged TFH and TFR cells are phenotypically distinct from those in young mice, exhibiting increased programmed cell death protein-1 expression but decreased ICOS expression. Aged TFH cells exhibit defective antigen-specific responses, and programmed cell death protein-ligand 1 blockade can partially rescue TFH cell function. In contrast, young and aged TFR cells have similar suppressive capacity on a per-cell basis in vitro and in vivo. Together, these studies reveal mechanisms contributing to defective humoral immunity in aging: an increase in suppressive TFR cells combined with impaired function of aged TFH cells results in reduced T-cell-dependent antibody responses in aged mice. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  9. Lung Fibroblasts, Aging, and Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis.

    PubMed

    Pardo, Annie; Selman, Moisés

    2016-12-01

    Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is an aging-associated, progressive, and irreversible lung disease of unknown etiology, elusive pathogenesis, and very limited therapeutic options. The hallmarks of IPF are aberrant activation of alveolar epithelial cells and accumulation of fibroblasts and myofibroblasts along with excessive production of extracellular matrix. The linkage of aging with this disorder is uncertain, but a number of changes associated with aging, including telomere attrition, cell senescence, and mitochondrial dysfunction, have been revealed in IPF lungs. Also, aging seems to confer a profibrotic phenotype upon fibroblasts and to increase the severity of the fibrogenic response in non-IPF fibrotic lung disorders. Better knowledge of the pathophysiological mechanisms linking aging to IPF will advance understanding of its pathogenesis and may provide new therapeutic windows to treatment of this devastating disease.

  10. Visual-somatosensory integration and balance: evidence for psychophysical integrative differences in aging.

    PubMed

    Mahoney, Jeannette R; Holtzer, Roee; Verghese, Joe

    2014-01-01

    Research detailing multisensory integration (MSI) processes in aging and their association with clinically relevant outcomes is virtually non-existent. To our knowledge, the relationship between MSI and balance has not been well-established in aging. Given known alterations in unisensory processing with increasing age, the aims of the current study were to determine differential behavioral patterns of MSI in aging and investigate whether MSI was significantly associated with balance and fall-risk. Seventy healthy older adults (M = 75 years; 58% female) participated in the current study. Participants were instructed to make speeded responses to visual, somatosensory, and visual-somatosensory (VS) stimuli. Based on reaction times (RTs) to all stimuli, participants were classified into one of two groups (MSI or NO MSI), depending on their MSI RT benefit. Static balance was assessed using mean unipedal stance time. Overall, results revealed that RTs to VS stimuli were significantly shorter than those elicited to constituent unisensory conditions. Further, the current experimental design afforded differential patterns of multisensory processing, with 75% of the elderly sample demonstrating multisensory enhancements. Interestingly, 25% of older adults did not demonstrate multisensory RT facilitation; a finding that was attributed to extremely fast RTs overall and specifically in response to somatosensory inputs. Individuals in the NO MSI group maintained significantly better unipedal stance times and reported less falls, compared to elders in the MSI group. This study reveals the existence of differential patterns of multisensory processing in aging, while describing the clinical translational value of MSI enhancements in predicting balance and falls risk.

  11. Visual-Somatosensory Integration and Balance: Evidence for Psychophysical Integrative Differences in Aging

    PubMed Central

    Mahoney, Jeannette R.; Holtzer, Roee; Verghese, Joe

    2014-01-01

    Research detailing multisensory integration (MSI) processes in aging and their association with clinically relevant outcomes is virtually non-existent. To our knowledge, the relationship between MSI and balance has not been well-established in aging. Given known alterations in unisensory processing with increasing age, the aims of the current study were to determine differential behavioral patterns of MSI in aging and investigate whether MSI was significantly associated with balance and fall-risk. Seventy healthy older adults (M = 75 years; 58% female) participated in the current study. Participants were instructed to make speeded responses to visual, somatosensory, and visual-somatosensory (VS) stimuli. Based on reaction times (RTs) to all stimuli, participants were classified into one of two groups (MSI or NO MSI), depending on their MSI RT benefit. Static balance was assessed using mean unipedal stance time. Overall, results revealed that RTs to VS stimuli were significantly shorter than those elicited to constituent unisensory conditions. Further, the current experimental design afforded differential patterns of multisensory processing, with 75% of the elderly sample demonstrating multisensory enhancements. Interestingly, 25% of older adults did not demonstrate multisensory RT facilitation; a finding that was attributed to extremely fast RTs overall and specifically in response to somatosensory inputs. Individuals in the NO MSI group maintained significantly better unipedal stance times and reported less falls, compared to elders in the MSI group. This study reveals the existence of differential patterns of multisensory processing in aging, while describing the clinical translational value of MSI enhancements in predicting balance and falls risk. PMID:25102664

  12. Effect of chemical etching and aging in boiling water on the corrosion resistance of Nitinol wires with black oxide resulting from manufacturing process.

    PubMed

    Shabalovskaya, S; Rondelli, G; Anderegg, J; Simpson, B; Budko, S

    2003-07-15

    The effect of chemical etching in a HF/HNO(3) acid solution and aging in boiling water on the corrosion resistance of Nitinol wires with black oxide has been evaluated with the use of potentiodynamic, modified potentiostatic ASTM F746, and scratch tests. Scanning-electron microscopy, elemental XPS, and Auger analysis were employed to characterize surface alterations induced by surface treatment and corrosion testing. The effect of aging in boiling water on the temperatures of martensitic transformations and shape recovery was evaluated by means of measuring the wire electroresistance. After corrosion tests, as-received wires revealed uniformly cracked surfaces reminiscent of the stress-corrosion-cracking phenomenon. These wires exhibited negative breakdown potentials in potentiostatic tests and variable breakdown potentials in potentiodynamic tests (- 100 mV to + 400 mV versus SCE). Wires with treated surfaces did not reveal cracking or other traces of corrosion attacks in potentiodynamic tests up to + 900-1400-mV potentials and no pitting after stimulation at + 800 mV in potentiostatic tests. They exhibited corrosion behavior satisfactory for medical applications. Significant improvement of corrosion parameters was observed on the reverse scans in potentiodynamic tests after exposure of treated wires to potentials > 1000 mV. In scratch tests, the prepared surfaces repassivated only at low potentials, comparable to that of stainless steel. Tremendous improvement of the corrosion behavior of treated Nitinol wires is associated with the removal of defect surface material and the growth of stable TiO(2) oxide. The role of precipitates in the corrosion resistance of Nitinol-scratch repassivation capacity in particular-is emphasized in the discussion. Copyright 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater 66B: 331-340, 2003

  13. Symbolic Play in Mixed-Age and Same-Age Groups.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Umek, Ljubica Marjanovic; Musek, Petra Lesnik

    1997-01-01

    Investigated the content, degree of complexity, and wholeness of the transformation in symbolic play among same-age and mixed-age groups of 4- to 7-year olds in Slovenia. Results confirm that, in mixed-age groups, the role definition in symbolic play is provided on a higher level than in same-age groups, which enables social imaginative play to…

  14. Phase transformation of dental zirconia following artificial aging.

    PubMed

    Lucas, Thomas J; Lawson, Nathaniel C; Janowski, Gregg M; Burgess, John O

    2015-10-01

    Low-temperature degradation (LTD) of yttria-stabilized zirconia can produce increased surface roughness with a concomitant decrease in strength. This study determined the effectiveness of artificial aging (prolonged boiling/autoclaving) to induce LTD of Y-TZP (yttria-tetragonal zirconia-polycrystals) and used artificial aging for transformation depth progression analyses. The null hypothesis is aging techniques tested produce the same amount of transformation, transformation is not time/temperature dependent and LTD causes a constant transformation throughout the Y-TZP samples. Dental-grade Y-TZP samples were randomly divided into nine subgroups (n = 5): as received, 3.5 and 7 day boiling, 1 bar autoclave (1, 3, 5 h), and 2 bar autoclave (1, 3, 5 h). A 4-h boil treatment (n = 2) was performed post-experiment for completion of data. Transformation was measured using traditional X-ray diffraction and low-angle X-ray diffraction. The fraction of t → m transformation increased with aging time. The 3.5 day boil and 2 bar 5 h autoclave produced similar transformation results, while the 7 day boiling treatment revealed the greatest transformation. The surface layer of the aged specimen underwent the most transformation while all samples displayed decreasing transformation with depth. Surface transformation was evident, which can lead to rougher surfaces and increased wear of opposing dentition/materials. Therefore, wear studies addressing LTD of Y-TZP are needed utilizing accelerated aging. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  15. Longitudinal Change of Self-Perceptions of Aging and Mortality

    PubMed Central

    2014-01-01

    Objective. To understand the association between self-perceptions of aging (SPA) and mortality in late life. Method. The sample (n = 1,507) was drawn from the Australian Longitudinal Study of Aging (baseline age = 65–103 years). We used joint growth curve and survival models on 5 waves of data for a period of 16 years to investigate the random intercept and slope of SPA for predicting all-cause mortality. Results. The unadjusted model revealed that poor SPA at baseline, as well as decline in SPA, increased the risk of mortality (SPA intercept hazard ratio [HR] = 1.21, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.13, 1.31; SPA slope HR = 1.17, 95% CI = 1.02, 1.33). This relationship remained significant for the SPA intercept after adjusting for other risk factors including demographics, physical health, cognitive functioning, and well-being. Conclusion. These findings suggest that a single measurement of SPA in late life may be very informative of future long-term vulnerability to health decline and mortality. Furthermore, a dynamic measure of SPA may be indicative of adaptation to age-related changes. This supports a “self-fulfilling” hypothesis, whereby SPA is a lens through which age-related changes are interpreted, and these interpretations can affect future health and health behaviors. PMID:23419867

  16. Age-shifting in malaria incidence as a result of induced immunological deficit: a simulation study.

    PubMed

    Pemberton-Ross, Peter; Smith, Thomas A; Hodel, Eva Maria; Kay, Katherine; Penny, Melissa A

    2015-07-25

    Effective population-level interventions against Plasmodium falciparum malaria lead to age-shifts, delayed morbidity or rebounds in morbidity and mortality whenever they are deployed in ways that do not permanently interrupt transmission. When long-term intervention programmes target specific age-groups of human hosts, the age-specific morbidity rates ultimately adjust to new steady-states, but it is very difficult to study these rates and the temporal dynamics leading up to them empirically because the changes occur over very long time periods. This study investigates the age and magnitude of age- and time- shifting of incidence induced by either pre-erythrocytic vaccination (PEV) programmes or seasonal malaria chemo-prevention (SMC), using an ensemble of individual-based stochastic simulation models of P. falciparum dynamics. The models made various assumptions about immunity decay, transmission heterogeneity and were parameterized with data on both age-specific infection and disease incidence at different levels of exposure, on the durations of different stages of the parasite life-cycle and on human demography. Effects of transmission intensity, and of levels of access to malaria treatment were considered. While both PEV and SMC programmes are predicted to have overall strongly positive health effects, a shift of morbidity into older children is predicted to be induced by either programme if transmission levels remain static and not reduced by other interventions. Predicted shifting of burden continue into the second decade of the programme. Even if long-term surveillance is maintained it will be difficult to avoid mis-attribution of such long-term changes in age-specific morbidity patterns to other factors. Conversely, short-lived transient changes in incidence measured soon after introduction of a new intervention may give over-positive views of future impacts. Complementary intervention strategies could be designed to specifically protect those age-groups at

  17. Metabolism of AGEs – Bacterial AGEs Are Degraded by Metallo-Proteases

    PubMed Central

    Cohen-Or, Ifat; Katz, Chen; Ron, Eliora Z.

    2013-01-01

    Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs) are the final products of non-enzymatic protein glycation that results in loss of protein structure and function. We have previously shown that in E. coli AGEs are continually formed as high-molecular weight protein complexes. Moreover, we showed that AGEs are removed from the cells by an active, ATP-dependent secretion and that these secreted molecules have low molecular weight. Taken together, these results indicate that E. coli contains a fraction of low molecular weight AGEs, in addition to the high-molecular weight AGEs. Here we show that the low-molecular weight AGEs originate from high-molecular weight AGEs by proteolytic degradation. Results of in-vitro and in vivo experiments indicated that this degradation is carried out not by the major ATP-dependent proteases that are responsible for the main part of bacterial protein quality control but by an alternative metal-dependent proteolysis. This proteolytic reaction is essential for the further secretion of AGEs from the cells. As the biochemical reactions involving AGEs are not yet understood, the implication of a metalloprotease in breakdown of high molecular weight AGEs and their secretion constitutes an important step in the understanding of AGEs metabolism. PMID:24130678

  18. THE SCHULHOF FAMILY: SOLVING THE AGE PUZZLE

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Vokrouhlický, David; Ďurech, Josef; Pravec, Petr

    The Schulhof family, a tight cluster of small asteroids around the central main belt body (2384) Schulhof, belongs to a so far rare class of very young families (estimated ages less than 1 Myr). Characterization of these asteroid clusters may provide important insights into the physics of the catastrophic disruption of their parent body. The case of the Schulhof family has been up to now complicated by the existence of two proposed epochs of its origin. In this paper, we first use our own photometric observations, as well as archival data, to determine the rotation rate and spin axis orientation ofmore » the largest fragment (2384) Schulhof. Our data also allow us to better constrain the absolute magnitude of this asteroid, and thus also improve the determination of its geometric albedo. Next, using the up-to-date catalog of asteroid orbits, we perform a new search of smaller members in the Schulhof family, increasing their number by 50%. Finally, the available data are used to access Schulhof's family age anew. We now find that the younger of the previously proposed two ages of this family is not correct, resulting from a large orbital uncertainty of single-opposition members. Our new runs reveal a single age solution of about 800 kyr with a realistic uncertainty of 200 kyr.« less

  19. The Schulhof Family: Solving the Age Puzzle

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vokrouhlický, David; Ďurech, Josef; Pravec, Petr; Kušnirák, Peter; Hornoch, Kamil; Vraštil, Jan; Krugly, Yurij N.; Inasaridze, Raguli Ya.; Ayvasian, Vova; Zhuzhunadze, Vasili; Molotov, Igor E.; Pray, Donald; Husárik, Marek; Pollock, Joseph T.; Nesvorný, David

    2016-03-01

    The Schulhof family, a tight cluster of small asteroids around the central main belt body (2384) Schulhof, belongs to a so far rare class of very young families (estimated ages less than 1 Myr). Characterization of these asteroid clusters may provide important insights into the physics of the catastrophic disruption of their parent body. The case of the Schulhof family has been up to now complicated by the existence of two proposed epochs of its origin. In this paper, we first use our own photometric observations, as well as archival data, to determine the rotation rate and spin axis orientation of the largest fragment (2384) Schulhof. Our data also allow us to better constrain the absolute magnitude of this asteroid, and thus also improve the determination of its geometric albedo. Next, using the up-to-date catalog of asteroid orbits, we perform a new search of smaller members in the Schulhof family, increasing their number by 50%. Finally, the available data are used to access Schulhof's family age anew. We now find that the younger of the previously proposed two ages of this family is not correct, resulting from a large orbital uncertainty of single-opposition members. Our new runs reveal a single age solution of about 800 kyr with a realistic uncertainty of 200 kyr.

  20. Aging results for PRD 49 III/epoxy and Kevlar 49/epoxy composite pressure vessels

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hamstad, M. A.

    1983-01-01

    Kevlar 49/epoxy composite is growing in use as a structural material because of its high strength-to-weight ratio. Currently, it is used for the Trident rocket motor case and for various pressure vessels on the Space Shuttle. In 1979, the initial results for aging of filament-wound cylindrical pressure vessels which were manufactured with preproduction Kevlar 49 (Hamstad, 1979) were published. This preproduction fiber was called PRD 49 III. This report updates the continuing study to 10-year data and also presents 7.5-year data for spherical pressure vessels wound with production Kevlar 49. For completeness, this report will again describe the specimens of the original study with PRD 49 as well as specimens for the new study with Kevlar 49.