[Prevalence and associated factors regarding electronic cigarette smoking among adults in Shandong province]

Objective: To understand the awareness, current or past behavior on electronic cigarette smoking (ECS) and associated factors, among adults aged ≥15 years old in Shandong province. Relationship between ECS and cessation of smoking was also studied. Methods: Using the global standard questionnaire, a cross-sectional survey was conducted among 6 401 adults selected by stratified multi-stage cluster sample method. Electronic data was collected by handheld computer. Data were weighted and analyzed by SPSS 19.0 complex program. Results: The prevalence rates of awareness, ever or current smoking of e-cigarettes appeared as 37.6%, 3.8% and 0.6% respectively. Data from logistic regression analysis showed that risk factors for ECS were living in urban area, at younger age, being current or former cigarettes smoker and with knowledge on the risks of smoking or being encouraged to stop smoking. Among the electronic cigarettes smokers, those who tried to quit smoking (30.1%) had a significantly higher rate than that of the non-smokers (19.5%) (P<0.05), however, the successful quitting rate was much lower than that in the non-ECS users (P<0.05). Conclusions: Rates on the awareness and uptake of electronic cigarettes are on the rise. It is necessary to strengthen and standardize the monitoring programs to provide evidence for setting up targeting intervention strategies.

A model to predict ground reaction force for elastically-suspended backpacks

BACKGROUND

Leg muscle fatigue is the most important factor that affects walking endurance. Considering the legs act as actuators in alternate contact with the ground during walking, the ground reaction force (GRF) of each leg can indirectly reflect the strength of leg muscles. However, it is not clear how the elastically-suspended backpack (ESB) affects GRF of each leg during human level walking.

RESEARCH QUESTION

How is ESB related in GRF of each leg during walking, and how do multiple variables (stiffness and damping of ESB, load mass, walking speed) affect GRF?

METHODS

An extended bipedal walking model (EBW) with a spring-mass-damping system was proposed to predict the GRF of each leg. In order to evaluate the prediction effect of the model, seven healthy subjects were recruited to attend the experiments using our backpack prototype and the GRFs data was compared. Each subject walked under 12 conditions (load states: locked or unlocked, walking speed: 3.6 km/h, 4.0 km/h, 4.5 km/h, 5.0 km/h, 5.5 km/h, 6.0 km/h).

RESULTS

Results showed that the model could quantitatively predict experimental GRFs over the whole gait cycle (R²≥0.9628) and the characteristic forces (two peak forces and one trough force) were close to the experimental data (average predicted accuracy 93.7 %). The model can reflect relationships between variables and GRF. The relationships showed that an apparent tradeoff exists among the three characteristic forces, and the ESB can produce positive or negative effect under different variables.

SIGNIFICANCE

This work could help us understand the experimental GRF phenomena, especially the contradictory experimental phenomenon caused by the different parameters. It could also help designers optimize structural parameters of ESB for excellent effects on human. The ESBs with excellent performance can be wildly used in military and tourism.

1141 Daytime Napping Trajectory Over Time And Its Association With Cognitive Aging: A 13-year Community-based Longitudinal Study Of Older Adults

Introduction

Daytime napping is common in elderly adults and has been associated with cognitive impairment. Prior studies have assessed napping at one time point, making it difficult to examine the longitudinal progression of napping and its association with cognitive aging. We examined objectively measured daytime napping longitudinally across different stages of Alzheimer’s disease (AD): from no cognitive impairment (NCI), to mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and to Alzheimer’s dementia.

Methods

We studied 1,066 participants (female: 810; age: 81.0±7.3 [SD]) in the Rush Memory and Aging Project who have been followed for up to 13 years. Motor activities of up to 10 days were recorded annually and used to assess napping objectively. We defined daytime napping episodes as segments between 10AM and 7PM with continuous zero-activity for ≥10min but &lt;1h (to avoid off-wrist periods). Segments that were &lt;5min apart were merged. Cognitive and clinical evaluations were administered annually to render a clinical diagnostic classification of NCI, MCI, or Alzheimer’s dementia. To examine how napping duration and frequency change with the progression of AD, we performed linear mixed-effects models with 2 change points anchored at the diagnoses of MCI and AD while adjusted for age, sex, and education.

Results

At baseline, participants had 1.44±0.04 (mean±standard error) naps with an accumulated duration of 35.0±1.1 min per day. Napping duration increased by 5.2±0.3 min and frequency increased by 0.21±0.01 times every year (both p&lt;0.0001). The rate of increase was more than doubled after MCI diagnosis with an annual increase of 11.4±0.7 min in duration and 0.40±0.02 times in frequency (both p&lt;0.0001); these were doubled further after AD diagnosis with an annual change of 26.3±3.1 min in duration and 0.84±0.08 times in frequency (both p&lt;0.0001).

Conclusion

Daytime napping duration and frequency increase with aging, and the increase was accelerated with AD progression.

Support

This work was supported by NIH grants RF1AG064312, RF1AG059867, R01AG017917, and R01AG56352.

1145 Longitudinal Association Between Circadian Activity Rhythms And Risk Of Incident Parkinson’s Disease In Older Men

Introduction

Disruption in circadian activity rhythms are very common in older adults, particularly among those with neurodegenerative diseases. However, the longitudinal association between circadian disruption and subsequent risk of developing neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson’s disease (PD), is unclear.

Methods

We examined rest-activity rhythms in 2930 community-dwelling older men (mean age 76.3 ± 5.5 years) without PD and followed them for incident PD over the next 11 years. 24-h rest-activity rhythm parameters (amplitude, mesor, robustness, acrophase) were generated by wrist actigraphy-extended cosinor analysis. Incident PD cases were identified based on physician-diagnosed PD between 2005 and 2016. Logistic regression was used to determine the association between quartiles of rest-activity parameters and risk of incident PD.

Results

78 (2.7%) men developed PD during 11 years of follow-up. The risk of PD increased with decreasing circadian amplitude (strength of the rhythm), mesor (mean level of activity) or robustness (how closely activity follows a cosine 24h pattern); p for trend across quartiles &lt;0.05. After accounting for demographics, clinic site, education, depressive symptoms, body mass index, physical activity, benzodiazepine use, alcohol, caffeine, smoking, comorbidities and baseline cognition, those in the lowest quartile of amplitude, mesor or robustness had approximately three times the risk of developing PD compared to those in the highest quartile of amplitude [ORs (95% CI)= 3.11 (1.54-6.29)], mesor [3.04 (1.54-6.01)] and robustness [2.65 (1.24-5.66)]. The association remained after further adjustment for nighttime sleep disturbances and sleep duration. These associations were somewhat attenuated, but the pattern remained similar after excluding PD cases developed within 2 years after baseline. Acrophase was not significantly associated with risk of PD.

Conclusion

Older men with reduced circadian rhythmicity had an increased risk of incident PD over 11 years. Circadian disruption in the elderly may represent an important prodrome or risk factor for PD. Randomized trials should evaluate whether strategies to improve circadian function impact risk of PD.

Support

This work was supported by the NIA, NIAMS, NCATS, NIH Roadmap for Medical Research and the NHLBI under the grant numbers: U01AG027810, U01AG042124, U01AG042139, U01AG042140, U01AG042143, U01AG042145, U01AG042168, U01AR066160, UL1TR000128, R01HL071194, R01HL070848, R01HL070847, R01HL070842, R01HL070841, R01HL070837, R01HL070838, and R01HL070839.

1135 Longer And More Frequent Naps Predict Incident Alzheimer’s Dementia In Community-based Older Adults

Introduction

Excessive napping duration has been associated with cognitive decline. The effect of napping frequency is less understood, and little is known about the development of Alzheimer’s dementia associated with napping. We tested whether longer or more frequent naps in the elderly are linked to the development of incident Alzheimer’s dementia.

Methods

We studied 1,180 older adults (age: 81.0±7.3 [SD]) in the Rush Memory and Aging Project who have been followed for up to 14 years. Motor activities of up to 10 days were recorded at baseline to assess napping characteristics objectively. We defined daytime napping episodes as motor activity segments between 10AM and 7PM with continuous zero-activity for ≥10min but &lt;1h (to avoid off-wrist periods). Segments that were &lt;5min apart were merged. Alzheimer’s dementia diagnosis was determined using the criteria of the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Strone and the Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders Association. Cox proportional hazards models were performed to examine the associations of daily napping duration and frequency with incident AD.

Results

Of 1,180 non-demented participants at baseline (including 264 with mild cognitive impairment), 277 developed Alzheimer’s dementia within 5.74±3.36 years. On average, participants napped for 38.3±1.0 (SE) min and1.56±0.04 (SE) times per day at baseline. After adjustment for age, sex, and education, every 30-min increase in daily napping duration was associated with a 20% increase in the risk of incident AD (95% confidence interval [CI]: 9%-31%; p=0.0002). One more nap per day was associated with a 19% increase in the risk of AD (95% CI: 8%-30%; p=0.0003). These associations remained after further adjustment for total sleep time.

Conclusion

Longer and more frequent daytime naps predict a higher risk of incident Alzheimer’s dementia. Future studies are needed to examine specific underlying mechanisms.

Support

This work was supported by NIH grants RF1AG064312, RF1AG059867, R01AG017917, and R01AG56352.

1152 Genetic Risk Of Alzheimer’S Disease Is Linked To Short Sleep Duration

Introduction

Sleep disturbances including short sleep duration are common in older adults, especially in those with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, it is unclear to what extent sleep duration is a manifestation of AD disease process. We examined whether genetic variants related to AD influence sleep duration in middle-aged and older adults and estimated the causal effects of AD on sleep duration using a mendelian randomization (MR) analysis.

Methods

We examined 406,687 UK Biobank participants with Caucasian genetic ancestry who self-reported sleep duration at baseline (2006-2010). Sleep duration was assessed by asking: “About how many hours sleep do you get in every 24 hours? (please include naps).” A genetic risk score for AD (AD-GRS) was calculated as a weighted sum of 23 previously identified AD-related single nucleotide polymorphisms in individuals of European ancestry. We evaluated whether AD-GRS predicted sleep duration using linear regression, adjusting for age, sex and principle components for genetic ancestry. We also stratified the analysis by age at baseline (≤55y or &gt;55y) and conducted a MR analysis to estimate the effect of AD (ICD-9/10 codes for AD/dementia diagnosis) on sleep duration.

Results

The participants (aged 56.91±8.00y) had an average sleep duration of 7.2 (Standard deviation [SD]=1.1) hours and AD-GRS of 0.11 (SD=0.40) (range: -1.15~1.85). Higher AD-GRS score predicted shorter sleep duration (b= -0.013, 95%CI:-0.022,-0.005), mainly among those aged over 55y (b= -0.023, 95%CI:-0.034,-0.012) and not in those 55y or younger (b= 0.006, 95%CI:-0.012,0.013); p for interaction by age=0.02. MR analysis using AD-GRS as an instrumental variable suggested that AD was associated with 1.76 hrs (b=-1.76, -2.62~ -0.90) shorter sleep duration in those aged &gt;55y.

Conclusion

Using a novel analytical approach, we found that higher genetic risk for AD predicted shorter sleep duration among older adults. This suggests shared genetic pathways; the biologic processes that lead to AD may also affect sleep duration.

Support

Dr. Leng received support from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) 1K99AG056598, and from GBHI, Alzheimer’s Association, and Alzheimer’s Society (GBHI ALZ UK-19-591141).

[Study on the relationship between smoking behavior and health literacy among grade 4-6 primary students in Shandong province]

Objective: To investigate the associations between smoking and literacy on health among 4-6 grade primary school students. Methods: A questionnaire survey was conducted to research on health literacy and smoking among 4-6 grade pupils in Shandong province, through a multi-stage stratified cluster random sampling method. Sociodemographic characteristics, health literacy level and smoking rate were collected from respondents. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the association of smoking and health literacy. Results: A total of 9 240 questionnaires were distributed, with the rate of valid response as 99.7%. The current smoking rate of the students was 2.6%, on higher in boys (3.1%) than in girls (2.0%). 60.8% of 4-6 grade students were found to have adequate health literacy level. Levels of literacy health in both boy and girl school students appeared 56.7% and 64.9%, respectively. Results indicated that health literacy in smokers (14.4%) was lower than that in non-smokers (62.0%). Results from the binary logistic regression analysis showed that the independent influencing factors would include grade, father's education level, economic situation of the family, self-assessment on the school record and literacy on health (P<0.01). After controlling the other independent variables, the smoking rate was 8.62 (1/0.116) times in students with low literacy level on health, than those with high literacy level. Conclusions: Literacy on health was significantly associated with smoking in the 4-6 grade pupils of Shandong province.

An Occlusion-Aware Framework for Real-Time 3D Pose Tracking

Random forest-based methods for 3D temporal tracking over an image sequence have gained increasing prominence in recent years. They do not require object's texture and only use the raw depth images and previous pose as input, which makes them especially suitable for textureless objects. These methods learn a built-in occlusion handling from predetermined occlusion patterns, which are not always able to model the real case. Besides, the input of random forest is mixed with more and more outliers as the occlusion deepens. In this paper, we propose an occlusion-aware framework capable of real-time and robust 3D pose tracking from RGB-D images. To this end, the proposed framework is anchored in the random forest-based learning strategy, referred to as RFtracker. We aim to enhance its performance from two aspects: integrated local refinement of random forest on one side, and online rendering based occlusion handling on the other. In order to eliminate the inconsistency between learning and prediction of RFtracker, a local refinement step is embedded to guide random forest towards the optimal regression. Furthermore, we present an online rendering-based occlusion handling to improve the robustness against dynamic occlusion. Meanwhile, a lightweight convolutional neural network-based motion-compensated (CMC) module is designed to cope with fast motion and inevitable physical delay caused by imaging frequency and data transmission. Finally, experiments show that our proposed framework can cope better with heavily-occluded scenes than RFtracker and preserve the real-time performance.

Daytime napping, sleep duration and increased 8-year risk of type 2 diabetes in a British population

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Few studies have prospectively examined the relationship between daytime napping and risk of type 2 diabetes. We aimed to study the effects of daytime napping and the joint effects of napping and sleep duration in predicting type 2 diabetes risk in a middle- to older-aged British population.

METHODS AND RESULTS

In 1998-2000, 13 465 individuals with no known diabetes participating in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer-Norfolk study reported daytime napping habit and 24-h sleep duration. Incident type 2 diabetes cases were identified through multiple data sources until 31 July 2006. After adjustment for age and sex, daytime napping was associated with a 58% higher diabetes risk. Further adjustment for education, marital status, smoking, alcohol intake, physical activity, comorbidities and hypnotic drug use had little influence on the association, but additional adjustment for BMI and Waist Circumference attenuated the Odds ratio (OR) (95% CI) to 1.30 (1.01, 1.69). The adjusted ORs (95% CI) associated with short and long sleep duration were 1.46 (1.10, 1.90) and 1.64 (1.16, 2.32), respectively. When sleep duration and daytime napping were examined together, the risk of developing diabetes more than doubled for those who took day naps and had less than 6 h of sleep, compared to those who did not nap and had 6-8 h of sleep.

CONCLUSION

Daytime napping was associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, particularly when combined with short sleep duration. Further physiological studies are needed to confirm the interaction between different domains of sleep in relation to diabetes risk.

Role of mitophagy regulated by Parkin/DJ-1 in remote ischemic postconditioning-induced mitigation of focal cerebral ischemia-reperfusion

OBJECTIVE

We evaluated the role of mitophagy controlled by Parkin/DJ-1 in remote ischemic post conditioning-induced mitigation of focal cerebral ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury in rats.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Ninety adult male rats were randomly assigned into 5 groups including a sham operation group (S) and ischemia-reperfusion group (I/R). Focal cerebral I/R was induced by right middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO). I/R+remote ischemic postconditioning (I/R+RIPoC), I/R+RIPoC+ mitophagy inhibitor Mdivi-1 (I/R+RIPoC+M), and I/R+RIPoC+ normal saline (I/R+RIPoC+NS) groups all received 3 cycles of 10 minutes reperfusion followed by 10 minutes ischemia in bilateral femoral arteries at the beginning of cerebral reperfusion. I/R+RIPoC+M received mitochondrial division inhibitor (Mdivi-1) before ischemia and after 24h of reperfusion, neurological deficit scores (NDSs) were measured and rats were then sacrificed. Brain was removed and size of the infarct was determined. Apoptosis index and LC3-II/I ratio, Parkin/DJ-1 proteins expression, SOD activity, MDA and 15-F2t-Isoprostane content in cerebral ischemic penumbra were studied. Linear correlation between Parkin/DJ-1 proteins expression and LC3-II/I ratio and cerebral infarct size were analyzed.

RESULTS

In experimental groups the NDSs, percentage of cerebral infarct size, apoptosis index, LC3-II/I ratio, MDA and 15-F2t-Isoprostane content significantly increased and Parkin/DJ-1 proteins were up-regulated (p<0.05). In I/R+RIPoC and I/R+RIPoC+NS groups, NDSs, percentage of cerebral infarct size, apoptosis index, MDA and 15-F2t-Isoprostane content decreased significantly while LC3-II/I ratio and SOD activity increased compared to I/R group. Parkin/DJ-1 proteins were up-regulated in I/R+RIPoC, I/R+RIPoC+NS and I/R+RIPoC+M groups (p<0.05). LC3-II/I ratio and SOD activity significantly decreased (p<0.05). Parkin/DJ-1 proteins expression didn't changed in I/R+RIPoC+M group (p>0.05). The Parkin/DJ-1 proteins expression were positively correlated with LC3-II/I ratio, and negatively correlated with cerebral infarct size (p<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

Remote Ischemic Post Conditioning (RIPoC) promoted the mitophagy via up-regulation of Parkin/DJ-1 proteins expression and inhibiting the oxidative stress responses, thus mitigating focal cerebral I/R injury in rats.

MiR-873 regulates ERα transcriptional activity and tamoxifen resistance via targeting CDK3 in breast cancer cells

miRNAs (microRNAs) are frequently and aberrantly expressed in many cancers. MiR-873 has been revealed to be downregulated in colorectal cancer and glioblastoma. However, its function remains unclear. Here we report that miR-873 is downregulated in breast tumor compared with normal tissue. Enforced expression of miR-873 decreases the transcriptional activity of ER (estrogen receptor)-α but not ERβ through the modulation of ERα phosphorylation in ER-positive breast cancer cells. We also found that miR-873 inhibits breast cancer cell proliferation and tumor growth in nude mice. Reporter gene assays revealed cyclin-dependent kinase 3 (CDK3) as a direct target of miR-873. CDK3 was shown to be overexpressed in breast cancer and phosphorylate ERα at Ser104/116 and Ser118. Furthermore, we found that Mir-873 inhibits ER activity and cell growth via targeting CDK3. Interestingly, miR-873 was observed to be downregulated in tamoxifen-resistant MCF-7/TamR cells, while CDK3 is overexpressed in these cells. More importantly, re-expression of miR-873 reversed tamoxifen resistance in MCF-7/TamR cells. Our data demonstrate that miR-873 is a novel tumor suppressor in ER-positive breast cancer and a potential therapeutic approach for treatment of tamoxifen-resistant breast cancer.

Probing limits on spatial resolution using nonlinear optical effects and nonclassical light

Using a simple optical setup to detect and characterize transmission gratings in the far field, we demonstrate that going beyond the diffraction limit is not possible using linear interaction of nonclassical illumination with the target grating. We also confirm that nonlinear optical interactions with the target grating, or with the optical medium around it, do allow improvement in resolution.

The association between social stress and global cognitive function in a population-based study: the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer (EPIC)-Norfolk study

BACKGROUND

Stress is thought to exert both positive and negative effects on cognition, but the precise cognitive effects of social stress and individuals' response to stress remain unclear. We aimed to investigate the association between different measures of social stress and cognitive function in a middle- to older-aged population using data from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer (EPIC)-Norfolk study.

METHOD

Participants completed a comprehensive assessment of lifetime social adversity between 1993 and 1997 and the short form of the Mini Mental State Examination (SF-MMSE), an assessment of global cognitive function, during the third health check between 2004 and 2011 (a median of 10.5 years later). A low MMSE score was defined as a score in the bottom quartile (20-26).

RESULTS

Completed MMSE scores and stress measures were available for 5129 participants aged 48-90 years. Participants who reported that their lives had been more stressful over the previous 10 years were significantly more likely to have low MMSE scores [odds ratio (OR) 1.14, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.04-1.24 per unit increase in perceived stress], independently of sociodemographic factors, physical and emotional health. The effects were restricted to the highest level of stress and the association was stronger among participants with a lower educational level. Adaptation following life event experiences also seemed to be associated with MMSE scores after adjusting for sociodemographic factors, but the association was attenuated with further adjustment.

CONCLUSIONS

In this generally high-functioning population, individuals' interpretations and responses to stressful events, rather than the events themselves, were associated with cognitive function.

Characterization of the carbonic anhydrases 15b expressed in PGCs during early zebrafish development

The main function of carbonic anhydrases is to regulate acid-base balance. In the present study, the zebrafish CA15b sequence was identified from the National Center for Biotechnology Information database (accession No. NM_213182). The 1716 base pair full-length cDNA of CA15b was obtained by 3' and 5'-rapid amplification of cDNA ends analysis. It was expressed (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and Western blot analysis) in the ovary, heart, brain, and muscle, but not in testis or liver. Based on in situ hybridization, CA15b mRNA was transcribed in the ooplasm of stage I to stage II oocytes, in the cortex of stage III oocytes, and along the periphery of stage IV oocytes. Furthermore, this protein was localized (immunohistochemistry) in the plasma membrane of oocytes. Based on whole-mount in situ hybridization, CA15b mRNA was present in every blastomere of embryos from one-cell to blastula stages. Strong signals of the transcripts were present along cleavage furrows of two- and eight-cell stage embryos, which subsequently condensed into four clusters of cells during the blastula stage. During subsequent stages, the four groups of CA15b-expressing cells appeared to move toward the dorsal side of the embryos, clustered into two groups on either side of the midline, and remained visible as they migrated toward the region of the gonad in embryos at 24 hours postfertilization. Expression patterns of CA15b were similar to those of vasa, a marker of primordial germ cells. Thus, we hypothesized that CA15b might be necessary for development of primordial germ cells and female germ cells in zebrafish.

QSAR studies on imidazopyrazine derivatives as Aurora A kinase inhibitors

Aurora kinases have emerged as attractive targets for the development of novel anti-cancer agents. A combined study of molecular docking, pharmacophore modelling and 3D-QSAR was performed on a series of imidazo [1, 2-a] pyrazines as novel Aurora kinase inhibitors to gain insights into the structural determinants and their structure-activity relationship. An ensemble of conformations based on molecular docking was used for PHASE pharmacophore studies. The developed best-fitted pharmacophore model was validated by diverse chemotypes of Aurora A kinase inhibitors and was consistent with the structural requirements for the docked binding mechanism. Subsequently, the pharmacophore-based alignment was used to develop PHASE and comparative molecular similarity indices analysis (CoMSIA) 3D-QSAR models. The best CoMSIA model showed good statistics (q (2 )= 0.567, r (2 )= 0.992), and the predictive ability of the model was validated using an external test set of 13 compounds giving a satisfactory prediction ([Formula: see text]). The 3D contour maps provided insight into the binding mechanism and highlighted key structural features that are essential to the inhibitory activity. Based on the PHASE and CoMSIA 3D-QSAR results, a set of novel Aurora A inhibitors were designed that showed excellent potencies.