6,332 publications from this institution
Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a complex multifactorial disorder with a substantial genetic component. However, the clinical manifestations of PCOS are heterogeneous with notable differences between lean and obese women, implying a different pathophysiology manifesting in differential body mass index (BMI). We performed a meta-analysis of genome-wide association study (GWAS) data from six well-characterised cohorts, using a case-control study design stratified by BMI, aiming to identify genetic variants associated with lean and overweight/obese PCOS subtypes.
No abstract is provided for this article.
The nutrition Consensus Report (1) and four featured papers (2–5) in the special section on nutrition in this issue of Diabetes Care focus on nutrition therapy and medical nutrition therapy (MNT) in the management and prevention of diabetes. The Consensus Report, which is intended to update and replace the 2014 American Diabetes Association (ADA) nutrition position statement (6), examines “studies published in English between 1 January 2014 and 28 February 2018” to “provide clinical professionals with evidence-based guidance” (1) related to the 42 questions listed in Table 1. The ADA has indicated, “A consensus report is not an ADA position and represents expert opinion only” and does not include the ADA evidence-grading system (7). We examine the Consensus Report and nutrition articles featured in this issue considering epidemiological trends, population health versus professional intervention approaches, implications of feeding studies and interventional trials, and potential for personalization/individualization of nutritional approach based on genetic, metabolomic, and microbiomic variation or personal/cultural preferences. View this table: Table 1 Questions addressed by the nutrition Consensus Report expert panel The 2014 statement (6) focused on nutrition therapy for “adults with diabetes” whereas the 2019 Consensus Report has a broader scope and addresses nutrition therapy for “adults with diabetes or prediabetes” (1). Inclusion of adults with prediabetes expands the population base for nutrition therapy to 43.3% of U.S. adults based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention prevalence estimates that 9.4% of U.S. adults have diabetes and 33.9% of U.S. adults have prediabetes (8). A recent systematic review and meta-analysis published in Diabetes Care (9) synthesized the global evidence on the impact of lifestyle modifications on reducing the incidence of diabetes in a parsimonious model to inform resource allocation. Although evidence from clinical trials shows that type 2 diabetes is largely preventable clinically, population-level reductions in the …
Some believe that improved physical fitness can counter the effects of overweight and obesity on illness and death. If so, the implication is that obesity may be a less important factor in mortality than fitness. The investigators reviewed data on body mass index (BMI) and mortality for 116,564 women participating in the Nurses’ Health Study. In 1976, the women were 30 to 55 years of age and had no known cardiovascular disease or cancer. The 10,282 deaths occurring during 24 years of follow-up included 5223 from cancer and 2370 from cardiovascular disease. A direct relationship between BMI and mortality was evident when only women who had never smoked were analyzed. On multivariate analysis, the relationship held for deaths from cancer and, more strongly, for deaths from cardiovascular causes. Increased mortality correlated significantly with both excess weight/obesity and physical inactivity. Overall mortality for obese women, whose BMI was 30 kg/m2 or higher, was double that for lean women having a BMI less than 25 kg/m2. Deaths from cardiovascular disease were 3 times as high, and cancer mortality was increased 65%. Physical inactivity, defined as less than 1 hour of exercise per week, was associated with a 52% increase in overall mortality and with a doubling of cardiovascular mortality. Overweight and obesity predicted increased mortality independently of the level of physical activity, and higher activity levels did not weaken the association between obesity and mortality. Compared with lean, active women, the relative risk of death was 1.55 for lean, inactive women, 1.91 for obese women who were active, and 2.42 for obese women who were inactive. In the entire cohort, excess weight and physical inactivity together accounted for an estimated 26% of all premature deaths, 47% of deaths from cardiovascular causes, and 16% of deaths from cancer. When analysis was limited to women who had never smoked, the respective figures were 31%, 59%, and 21%. The BMI and the level of physical activity significantly and independently predicted mortality in these middle-aged women, but a high activity level did not eliminate the excess of deaths associated with obesity. In addition, being lean did not counteract the increased mortality associated with inactivity. Public health efforts should emphasize the importance of maintaining healthy body weight and also the need to engage regularly in physical activity.
Background: Consumption of whole fruits, but not fruit juice, has been associated with lower risk of type 2 diabetes. However, individual fruits have different compositions of carbohydrate, phytochemicals and other nutrients, and may thus have different effects on diabetes risk. We examined whether consumption of specific fruits was prospectively associated with risk of type 2 diabetes in US men and women. In addition, we evaluated whether the associations of fruits with diabetes were determined by the glycemic load (GL) of fruits consumption. Methods: After excluding participants with chronic diseases at baseline, we evaluated 66,720 women from the Nurses' Health Study (1984-2008); 85,961 women from the Nurses’ Health Study II (1991-2009); and 26,149 men from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (1986-2008). Validated semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaires were administered to assess habitual consumption of fruits and other foods every two to four years. Incidences of type 2 diabetes were identified using biennial self-reported questionnaires and confirmed using supplementary questionnaires. The associations were prospectively assessed in each cohort, using Cox proportional hazard regression. Sociodemographics, lifestyle, caloric intakes, intakes of other fruits, and other dietary factors were adjusted for to control for confounding. Cohort-specific estimates were pooled by a random-effects meta-analysis. Results: During 3,447,866 person-years of follow-up, 11,521 participants were newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. The pooled multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) for type 2 diabetes (for every 3 servings/week increase of fruit intake) were 0.74 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.66, 0.83] for blueberries; 0.86 (0.80, 0.93) for grapes or raisins; 0.86 (0.75, 0.99) for prunes; 0.91 (0.81, 1.03) for bananas; 0.93 (0.88, 0.97) for apples or pears; 0.95 (0.91, 1.00) for grapefruits; 0.96 (0.90, 1.02) for peaches, plums or apricots; 1.01 (0.97, 1.05) for oranges; 1.06 (0.96, 1.19) for strawberries; and 1.11 (1.03, 1.20) for cantaloupe. No significant heterogeneity was found among the three cohorts, except associations with banana consumption. In contrast, each drink per day of fruit juice was associated with a HR (95% CI) of 1.07 (1.00, 1.14). The HRs for type 2 diabetes were 0.81 (0.69, 0.96) per 1 serving/day of high GL fruits, 0.96 (0.86, 1.07) for moderate GL fruits, and 1.05 (0.92, 1.19) for low GL fruits. Conclusion: Our data suggest that intakes of certain whole fruits, including grapes or raisins, prunes, apples or pears, grapefruits, and blueberries, are associated with lower risk of type 2 diabetes, whereas high consumption of fruit juice may lead to increased risk. Future research is needed to confirm our findings and elucidate mechanism underlying the associations for individual fruits.
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We consider the formulation of the Schwarz alternating method for a new class of elliptic cubic spline collocation discretization schemes. The convergence of the method is studied using Jacobi and Gauss-Seidel iterative methods for implementing the interaction among subdomains. The Schwarz Cubic Spline Collocation (SCSC) method is formulated for hypercube architectures and implemented on the NCUBE (128 processors) machine. The performance and convergence of the hypercube SCSC algorithm is studied with respect to domain partition and subdomain overlapping area. The numerical results indicate that the partition and mapping of the SCSC on the NCUBE is almost optimal while the speedup obtained is similar to other domain decomposition techniques.
No abstract is provided for this article.
The chemistry of organic interfaces is important to a very wide range of areas of science and technology; examples include the fabrication of microelectronic devices, the formation of structures by adhesion, cell-surface chemistry, the use of organic thin films as lubricants and corrosion protective agents, and a range of phenomena involving wetting and spreading of liquids on organic surfaces. This chapter provides an introductory survey of Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs), concentrating on the best studied of these systems—monolayers of long-chain alkanethiolates on gold. SAMs of alkanethiolates are typically formed by adsorption of an alkanethiol or dialkyl disulfide onto gold from solution; both types of organosulfur compounds form similar SAMs. Scanning tunneling microscopy has recently been able to generate high-resolution images of SAMs by working with very low tunneling currents. Single-component and mixed SAMs of alkanethiolates on gold provide excellent control over the structure of the monolayer perpendicular to the plane of the SAM.
