Publications

Introduction: Plant-based diets have been associated with health benefits, including lower risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D) and coronary heart disease (CHD). However, the association between plant-based diets and mortality remains unclear as previous studies did not take into account the quality of plant-based foods. To overcome this limitation, we recently developed three plant-based diet indices—an overall plant-based diet index (PDI), a healthful plant-based diet index (hPDI), and an unhealthful plant-based diet index (uPDI, emphasizing processed carbohydrates and fats)—and reported that hPDI and uPDI were differentially associated with T2D and CHD. In this study, we investigate associations between long-term changes in plant-based diet indices and subsequent total and cause-specific mortality in the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (HPFS). Hypothesis: We hypothesized that improved plant-based diet quality is associated with lower total and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality. Method: We included 47,983 women, aged 63±7y (mean±SD) in the NHS and 25,737 men, aged 63±9y in the HPFS who had no history of CVD or cancer on or before 1998 (baseline). We used multivariable Cox proportional-hazards regression to assess the association between 12-y pre-baseline changes (1986-1998) in three plant-based diet indices and subsequent total and cause-specific mortality (1998-2014). We adjusted for age, race, initial corresponding plant-based diet index score, BMI, family history of diabetes, myocardial infarction, or cancer, history of hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, or T2D, medications, postmenopausal status and postmenopausal hormone use in women, initial and 12-y pre-baseline changes in weight and other lifestyle-related factors. Results: Compared with those participants whose diets remained relatively stable during the pre-baseline 12-year period, among participants with the greatest increase in plant-based diet indices, the pooled hazard ratio (95% confidence interval [CI]) for total mortality was 0.92 (95% CI, 0.87 to 0.97) for PDI, 0.90 (95% CI, 0.86 to 0.95) for hPDI, and 1.11 (95% CI, 1.05 to 1.16) for uPDI. For CVD-specific mortality, a 10-point increase in hPDI was associated with a 10% lower risk (95% CI, 5 to 15), while a 10-point increase in uPDI was associated with a 6% higher risk (95% CI, 0 to 12). We found no evidence for changes in plant-based diet indices and subsequent risk of cancer mortality. Conclusions: Improved plant-based diet quality over a 12-year period was associated with a lower risk of total and CVD mortality, whereas increased consumption of an unhealthful plant-based diet was associated with a higher risk of total and CVD mortality.

Künstliche millimetergroße „autonom bewegte“ Objekte gleiten ohne Einwirkung einer äußeren Kraft auf der Oberfläche einer Flüssigkeit. Das System basiert auf der Kombination zweier Prozesse: der durch katalytische Zersetzung von Wasserstoffperoxid angetriebenen Bewegung von Einzelobjekten und deren durch Kapillarwechselwirkungen an der Flüssigkeits/Luft-Schnittstelle verursachten Relativbewegung (Selbstanordnung). Das Bild zeigt die Rotations/Translations-Bewegung eines Einzelobjekts; die Art der Bewegung eines Paares dieser Objekte hängt von ihrer Chiralität ab.

Nuts are nutrient-rich foods that contain many bioactive compounds that are beneficial for cardiovascular health. Higher consumption of nuts has been associated with a reduced risk of several cardiovascular diseases (CVD) in prospective cohort studies, including a 19% and 25% lower risk of CVD incidence and mortality, respectively, and a 24% and 27% lower risk of coronary heart disease incidence and mortality, respectively. An 18% lower risk of stroke mortality, a 15% lower risk of atrial fibrillation, and a 19% lower risk of total mortality have also been observed. The role of nuts in stroke incidence, stroke subtypes, peripheral arterial disease and heart failure has been less consistent. This narrative review summarizes recommendations for nuts by clinical practice guidelines and governmental organizations, epidemiological evidence for nuts and CVD outcomes, nut-containing dietary patterns, potential mechanisms of nuts and CVD risk reduction, and future research directions, such as the use of biomarkers to help better assess nut intake. Although there are still some uncertainties around nuts and CVD prevention which require further research, as summarized in this review, there is a substantial amount of evidence that supports that consuming nuts will have a positive impact on primary and secondary prevention of CVD.

Pneumatically operated soft robots require complex infrastructure for their operation: microcontrollers must control hard pneumatic valves via power electronics. Although soft digital logic gates based on soft valves have been demonstrated as a replacement for electronic control, the development of memory from logic gates is cumbersome (three logic gates with mono-stable membranes for the development of a single S-R latch), and such memory is only capable of holding, but not storing, information; after a power reset, the membranes relax to their idle states, and the information is lost. In this work, we introduce a soft memory device with a bistable membrane that allows the permanent storage of binary information in soft materials, and we demonstrate its writing and erasing operations. We also introduce a new type of pneumatically-driven soft display, the soft bubble display. We connect the display to our soft memory device to visualize the information that is held in the memory. Our work highlights the importance of material-based memory and its future use for programming soft robots.

'Polymethyl Methacrylate (PMMA)' published in 'Encyclopedia of Nanotechnology'

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a childhood-onset neurodevelopmental disorder with a significant public-health impact. Previously, we described a candidate gene study in a population-based birth cohort that demonstrated an association with ADHD-affected males and the dopamine receptor D2 (DRD2). The current study evaluates potential associations of dopamine receptor genes and Cloninger temperament traits within this same sample. Participants with stringent lifetime ADHD diagnoses were ascertained systematically from the genetically isolated Northern Finland 1986 Birth Cohort (n=9432), resulting in 178 cases and 157 controls. Markers in all known dopamine receptor genes were genotyped. We report an association of DRD2 with low Persistence in females (rs1079727 P=0.02, rs1124491 P=0.02, rs1800497 P=0.03). The associated DRD2 minor allelic haplotype (CAA, P=0.03) is the same haplotype we previously associated with ADHD in males in this birth cohort. The current study further supports previous results on the role of DRD2 in individuals with ADHD. Investigations suggest that DRD2 may have an impact on both males and females, but the particular outcome appears sex-specific, manifesting as ADHD in males and low Persistence in females. Furthermore, these findings suggest that the putative role of low Persistence as an endophenotype for ADHD deserves further investigation.

Recent progress was achieved in refining and generalizing the methods previously developed for treating the stable crack growth problem, with particular attention to the approximate asymptotic solution of Rice, Drugan and Sham for stress and deformation fields near the tip of a growing crack. The microstructural aspects of ductile fracture were studied in dual-phase steels and high-strength 4340 steels. Very interesting results were obtained in the work on hydrogen effects in steels. In medium strength steels, the ductility-reducing effect of hydrogen is tentatively attributed to the accumulation of hydrogen at internal interfaces with a resulting loss in the resistance to interfacial separation. Extension of Needleman and Rice's work on the growth of cavities at elevated temperatures to the investigation of the effects of triaxial stressing relates the rate of void growth by grain boundary diffusion and dislocation creep to the triaxiality. It provides a good model to analyze the growth of macro-cracks in polycrystals by the mechanisms of growth and coalescence of micro-voids.