6,332 publications from this institution
Background: Greater red meat intake is associated with increased type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease risk (CVD). Recently, inclusion of lean red meat in a heart-healthy diet to reduce CVD risk was suggested based on short-term controlled feeding trial evidence, indicating that varying amounts of lean red meat intakes had similar effects on a lipid profile. However, the fat content of red meat may not be solely responsible for the adverse effects of red meat contributing to progression of metabolic abnormalities. Other components and mediating pathways including obesity-related inflammation and insulin resistance may be involved. We hypothesized that greater red meat intake would be associated with biomarkers of inflammation and glucose metabolism and that these potential associations would be partly explained by body mass index (BMI). Design: We analyzed data from diabetes-free female participants in the Nurses’ Health Study (n=3690). Multiple linear regression was conducted to assess the associations of total, unprocessed and processed red meat intakes (quartile categories) with plasma C-reactive protein (CRP), ferritin, adiponectin, fasting insulin, and hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c). The contribution of BMI on the associations between red meat intake and biomarkers was evaluated using publicly available SAS macro. The effect of substituting a serving of red meat with a serving of another major protein food source was estimated. Results: Greater total, unprocessed and processed red meat consumptions were associated with higher plasma CRP, ferritin, fasting insulin, and HbA1c and lower adiponectin after adjustment for demographic information (all p for trend ≤0.03). Adiponectin was not associated with any types of red meat intake when further adjusted for medical and lifestyle factors. After adjustment for BMI, most of these associations with inflammatory and glucose metabolic biomarkers were substantially attenuated and no longer significant. BMI accounted for a statistically significant proportion of associations with CRP, HbA1c, and fasting insulin (all p for contribution ≤0.02), but not with ferritin. Substituting a serving of total red meat intake with alternative protein food in a combination of poultry, fish, legumes and nuts was associated with significantly lower CRP (β±SE: -0.106±0.043), ferritin (-0.212±0.075), HbA1c (-0.052±0.015), and fasting insulin (-0.0119±0.036)(all p≤0.02 for comparing extreme quartiles). Conclusions: Greater red meat intake is associated with unfavorable plasma concentrations of inflammatory and glucose metabolic biomarkers in diabetes-free women. BMI accounts for a significant proportion of the associations with these biomarkers, except for ferritin. Substituting red meat with another protein food is associated with a healthier biomarker profile of inflammatory and glucose metabolism.
Patterned paper wet with multivalent cations can template the production of films of ionotropic hydrogels in topologically complex shapes such as Möbius strips and interlocking rings (see figure). The films have lateral dimensions as low as 2mm, and range in thickness from 0.2 to 1.3mm. The films are magnetically responsive when cross-linked by Ho3+ or Gd3+. Detailed facts of importance to specialist readers are published as "Supporting Information". Such documents are peer-reviewed, but not copy-edited or typeset. They are made available as submitted by the authors. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.
Abstract Background Considerable variation in the prevalence of childhood asthma and its symptoms (wheezing) has been observed in previous studies and there is evidence that the prevalence has been increasing over time. Methods We have systematically reviewed the reported prevalence and time trends of wheezing symptoms among children, worldwide and within the same country over time. All studies comprising more than 1000 persons and meeting certain other quality criteria published over a 16-year period, between January 1990 and December 2005, are reported and a comparison of ISAAC (International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood) and non-ISAAC studies is made, in part as a way of expanding the power to examine time trends (the older studies tend to be non-ISAAC), but also to examine possible methodological differences between ISAAC and non-ISAAC questions. Results A wide range of current prevalence of wheeze was observed between and within countries over time. The UK had the highest recorded prevalence of 32.2% in children aged 13–14 in 1994–5 and Ethiopia had the lowest prevalence, 1.7% in children aged 10–19 in 1996. All studies in Australia and the UK were compared using multiple logistic regression. ISAAC phase I and III studies reported significantly higher prevalence of current wheeze (OR = 1.638) compared with non-ISAAC studies, after adjusting for various other factors (country, survey year, age of child, parental vs child response to the survey). Australia showed a significantly higher prevalence of current wheezing (OR = 1.343) compared with the UK, there was a significant increase in the prevalence odds ratio per survey year (2.5% per year), a significant decrease per age of child (0.7% per year), and a significantly higher response in current wheezing if the response was self-completed by the child (OR = 1.290). These factors, when explored separately for ISAAC and non-ISAAC studies, showed very different results. In ISAAC studies, or non-ISAAC studies using ISAAC questions, there was a significant decrease in current wheezing prevalence over time (2.5% per year). In non-ISAAC studies, which tend to cover an earlier period, there was a significant increase (2.6% per year) in current wheezing prevalence over time. This is very likely to be a result of prevalence of wheezing increasing from the 1970s up to the early 1990s, but decreasing since then. Conclusion The UK has the highest recorded prevalence of wheezing and Ethiopia the lowest. Prevalence of wheezing in Australia and the UK has increased from the 1970s up to the early 1990s, but decreased since then and ISAAC studies report significantly higher prevalences than non-ISAAC studies.
Scanning tunneling microscopy has been used to characterize the effects of Nm impurities on the incommensurate charge-density-wave (CDW) phase in 1T-${\mathrm{TaS}}_{2}$. Real- and reciprocal-space data indicate that disorder in the CDW is due to dislocations and small random rotations of the CDW. The dislocations destroy translational order; however, calculations show that the orientational order is long range. These results are consistent with weak pinning and suggest the possibility of a hexatic CDW phase. The similarity of our data to results obtained for other two-dimensional systems is discussed.
The mechanism of lasing in single cadmium sulfide (CdS) nanowire cavities was elucidated by temperature-dependent and time-resolved photoluminescence (PL) measurements. Temperature-dependent PL studies reveal rich spectral features and show that an exciton-exciton interaction is critical to lasing up to 75 K, while an exciton-phonon process dominates at higher temperatures. These measurements together with temperature and intensity dependent life-time and threshold studies suggest that lasing is due to formation of excitons, and moreover, have implications for the design of efficient, low-threshold nanowire lasers.
One-dimensional (1D) structures offer unique opportunities for materials synthesis since crystal phases and morphologies that are difficult or impossible to achieve in macroscopic crystals can be synthesized as 1D nanowires (NWs). Recently, we demonstrated one such phenomenon unique to growth on a 1D substrate, termed Plateau–Rayleigh (P-R) crystal growth, where periodic shells develop along a NW core to form diameter-modulated NW homostructures with tunable morphologies. Here we report a novel extension of the P-R crystal growth concept with the synthesis of heterostructures in which Ge (Si) is deposited on Si (Ge) 1D cores to generate complex NW morphologies in 1, 2, or 3D. Depositing Ge on 50 nm Si cores with a constant GeH4 pressure yields a single set of periodic shells, while sequential variation of GeH4 pressure can yield multimodulated 1D NWs with two distinct sets of shell periodicities. P-R crystal growth on 30 nm cores also produces 2D loop structures, where Ge (Si) shells lie primarily on the outside (inside) of a highly curved Si (Ge) core. Systematic investigation of shell morphology as a function of growth time indicates that Ge shells grow in length along positive curvature Si cores faster than along straight Si cores by an order of magnitude. Short Ge deposition times reveal that shells develop on opposite sides of 50 and 100 nm Si cores to form straight 1D morphologies but that shells develop on the same side of 20 nm cores to produce 2D loop and 3D spring structures. These results suggest that strain mediates the formation of 2 and 3D morphologies by altering the NW's surface chemistry and that surface diffusion of heteroatoms on flexible freestanding 1D substrates can facilitate this strain-mediated mechanism.
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Most studies of sleep and health outcomes rely on self-reported sleep duration, although correlation with objective measures is poor. In this study, we defined sociodemographic and sleep characteristics associated with misreporting and assessed whether accounting for these factors better explains variation in objective sleep duration among 2,086 participants in the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos who completed more than 5 nights of wrist actigraphy and reported habitual bed/wake times from 2010 to 2013. Using linear regression, we examined self-report as a predictor of actigraphy-assessed sleep duration. Mean amount of time spent asleep was 7.85 (standard deviation, 1.12) hours by self-report and 6.74 (standard deviation, 1.02) hours by actigraphy; correlation between them was 0.43. For each additional hour of self-reported sleep, actigraphy time spent asleep increased by 20 minutes (95% confidence interval: 19, 22). Correlations between self-reported and actigraphy-assessed time spent asleep were lower with male sex, younger age, sleep efficiency <85%, and night-to-night variability in sleep duration ≥1.5 hours. Adding sociodemographic and sleep factors to self-reports increased the proportion of variance explained in actigraphy-assessed sleep slightly (18%–32%). In this large validation study including Hispanics/Latinos, we demonstrated a moderate correlation between self-reported and actigraphy-assessed time spent asleep. The performance of self-reports varied by demographic and sleep measures but not by Hispanic subgroup.
