The Green Heart Project: Objectives, Design, and Methods.

The Green Heart Project is a controlled, community-based clinical trial to evaluate the effects of increasing greenery on community health. The study was initiated in 2018 in a low-to-middle-income residential area of nearly 30,000 racially diverse residents in Louisville, KY. Community engagement was maintained throughout the project, with feedback integrated into its design and implementation.

Formaldehyde and the transient receptor potential ankyrin-1 contribute to electronic cigarette aerosol-induced endothelial dysfunction in mice.

Electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) aerosol exposures can induce endothelial dysfunction (ED) in healthy young humans and animals. Thermal degradation of ENDS solvents, propylene glycol, and vegetable glycerin (PG: VG), generates abundant formaldehyde (FA) and other carbonyls. Because FA can activate the transient receptor potential ankyrin-1 (TRPA1) sensor, we hypothesized that FA in ENDS aerosols provokes TRPA1-mediated changes that include ED and "respiratory braking"-biomarkers of harm.

Intra-neighborhood associations between residential greenness and blood pressure.

Introduction: Previous investigations have reported that individuals living in greener neighborhoods have better cardiovascular health. It is unclear whether the effects reported at large geographic scales persist when examined at an intra-neighborhood level. The effects of greenness have not been thoroughly examined using high-resolution metrics of greenness exposure, and how they vary with spatial scales of assessment or participant characteristics.

Long-term exposure to air pollution and risk of stroke by ecoregions: The REGARDS study.

Several cohort studies have found associations between long-term exposure to air pollution and stroke risk. However, it is unclear whether the surrounding ecology may modify these associations. This study evaluates associations of air pollution with stroke risk by ecoregions, which are areas of similar type, quality, and quantity of environmental resources in the REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study.

Smoking-associated Electrocardiographic Abnormalities Predict Cardiovascular Mortality: Insights from NHANES.

Background—: Smoking is associated with arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death, but the biological mechanisms remain unclear. Abnormal electrocardiogram (ECG) durations of ventricular repolarization (QT interval), atrial depolarization (P wave), and atrioventricular depolarization (PR interval and segment), predict cardiac arrhythmia and mortality.

Objectives—: To elucidate how smoking affects cardiac excitation, we assessed in a nationally representative sample (NHANES III) associations between cotinine, abnormalities in P duration, PR interval, PR segment, rate-corrected QT (QTc), QRS duration, and JT interval, and long-term mortality.

The Green Heart Project: Objectives, Design, and Methods.

The Green Heart Project is a community-based trial to evaluate the effects of increasing greenery on urban environment and community health. The study was initiated in 2018 in a low-to-middle-income mixed-race residential area of nearly 28,000 residents in Louisville, KY. The 4 square mile area was surveyed for land use, population characteristics, and greenness, and assigned to 8 paired clusters of demographically- and environmentally matched "target" (T) and adjacent "control" (C), clusters.

Anti-inflammatory mechanisms in cancer research: Characterization of a distinct M2-like macrophage model derived from the THP-1 cell line.

Aims: Macrophages play an essential role in cancer development. Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) have predominantly M2-like attributes that are associated with tumor progression and poor patient survival. Numerous methods have been reported for differentiating and polarizing macrophages in vitro, but there is no standardized and validated model for creating TAMs.

ETV4-Dependent Transcriptional Plasticity Maintains MYC Expression and Results in IMiD Resistance in Multiple Myeloma.

Unlabelled: Immunomodulatory drugs (IMiD) are a backbone therapy for multiple myeloma (MM). Despite their efficacy, most patients develop resistance, and the mechanisms are not fully defined. Here, we show that IMiD responses are directed by IMiD-dependent degradation of IKZF1 and IKZF3 that bind to enhancers necessary to sustain the expression of MYC and other myeloma oncogenes.

Transcriptional Heterogeneity Overcomes Super-Enhancer Disrupting Drug Combinations in Multiple Myeloma.

Unlabelled: Multiple myeloma (MM) is a malignancy that is often driven by MYC and that is sustained by IRF4, which are upregulated by super-enhancers. IKZF1 and IKZF3 bind to super-enhancers and can be degraded using immunomodulatory imide drugs (IMiD). Successful IMiD responses downregulate MYC and IRF4; however, this fails in IMiD-resistant cells.

Greenness and equity: Complex connections between intra-neighborhood contexts and residential tree planting implementation.

Associations between neighborhood greenness and socioeconomic status (SES) are established, yet intra-neighborhood context and SES-related barriers to tree planting remain unclear. Large-scale tree planting implementation efforts are increasingly common and can improve human health, strengthen climate adaptation, and ameliorate environmental inequities. Yet, these efforts may be ineffective without in-depth understanding of local SES inequities and barriers to residential planting.

Exposure to Volatile Organic Compounds Is Associated with Hypertension in Black Adults: The Jackson Heart Study.

Background: The prevalence of hypertension is higher among Black adults than among White and Hispanic adults. Nevertheless, reasons underlying the higher rates of hypertension in the Black population remain unclear but may relate to exposure to environmental chemicals such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

Methods: We evaluated the associations of blood pressure (BP) and hypertension with VOC exposure in non-smokers and smokers in a subgroup of the Jackson Heart Study (JHS), consisting of 778 never smokers and 416 age- and sex-matched current smokers.

Genomic targets of HOP2 are enriched for features found at recombination hotspots.

HOP2 is a conserved protein that plays a positive role in homologous chromosome pairing and a separable role in preventing illegitimate connections between nonhomologous chromosome regions during meiosis. We employed ChIP-seq to discover that Arabidopsis HOP2 binds along the length of all chromosomes, except for centromeric and nucleolar organizer regions, and no binding sites were detected in the organelle genomes. A large number of reads were assigned to the HOP2 locus itself, yet TAIL-PCR and SNP analysis of the aligned sequences indicate that many of these reads originate from the transforming T-DNA, supporting the role of HOP2 in preventing nonhomologous exchanges.

The Relationship between Perceptions and Objective Measures of Greenness.

Exposure to greenness has been studied through objective measures of remote visualization of greenspace; however, the link to how individuals interpret spaces as green is missing. We examined the associations between three objective greenspace measures with perceptions of greenness. We used a subsample (n = 175; 2018-2019) from an environmental cardiovascular risk cohort to investigate perceptions of residential greenness.

Community-Based Evaluation of the Associations Between Well-Being and Cardiovascular Disease Risk.

Background Although the effects of psychological health and optimism have been extensively investigated, data from community-based cohorts assessing the association between psychological health and cardiovascular disease risk factors are sparse, and the concurrent relationship between subjective well-being and cardiovascular health has not been studied. Methods and Results The current cross-sectional study examined the association between well-being and cardiovascular risk factors among 719 individuals living in a middle- to low-income neighborhood. After adjusting for age, sex, race, body mass index, education, smoking status, and exercise status, we found that higher levels of well-being were significantly associated with lower odds of dyslipidemia (odds ratio [OR], 0.

E-cigarettes and their lone constituents induce cardiac arrhythmia and conduction defects in mice.

E-cigarette use has surged, but the long-term health effects remain unknown. E-cigarette aerosols containing nicotine and acrolein, a combustion and e-cigarette byproduct, may impair cardiac electrophysiology through autonomic imbalance. Here we show in mouse electrocardiograms that acute inhalation of e-cigarette aerosols disturbs cardiac conduction, in part through parasympathetic modulation.

Pyridine nucleotide redox potential in coronary smooth muscle couples myocardial blood flow to cardiac metabolism.

Adequate oxygen delivery to the heart during stress is essential for sustaining cardiac function. Acute increases in myocardial oxygen demand evoke coronary vasodilation and enhance perfusion via functional upregulation of smooth muscle voltage-gated K (Kv) channels. Because this response is controlled by Kv1 accessory subunits (i.

Mortality risk associated with greenness, air pollution, and physical activity in a representative U.S. cohort.

Several cohort studies suggest greenness is associated with decreased mortality risk. Potential confounding by or interactions between physical activity and air pollution remains unclear. This study evaluates associations of greenness, air pollution, and physical activity with mortality risk and investigates confounding and effect modification across these key risk factors.

The Arabidopsis HOP2 gene has a role in preventing illegitimate connections between nonhomologous chromosome regions.

Meiotic homologous chromosomes synapse and undergo crossing over (CO). In many eukaryotes, both synapsis and crossing over require the induction of double stranded breaks (DSBs) and subsequent repair via homologous recombination. In these organisms, two key proteins are recombinases RAD51 and DMC1.

Electronic Cigarette Solvents, JUUL E-Liquids, and Biomarkers of Exposure: In Vivo Evidence for Acrolein and Glycidol in E-Cig-Derived Aerosols.

Despite the increasing popularity of e-cigarettes, their long-term health effects remain unknown. In animal models, exposure to e-cigarette has been reported to result in pulmonary and cardiovascular injury, and in humans, the acute use of e-cigarettes increases heart rate and blood pressure and induces endothelial dysfunction. In both animal models and humans, cardiovascular dysfunction associated with e-cigarettes has been linked to reactive aldehydes such as formaldehyde and acrolein generated in e-cigarette aerosols.

Greenness, air pollution, and mortality risk: A U.S. cohort study of cancer patients and survivors.

Background: Several studies suggest that living in areas of high surrounding greenness may be associated with a lower cardiopulmonary mortality risk. However, associations of greenness with specific causes of death in cancer patients and survivors has not been examined and it is unknown whether this relationship is affected by area levels of fine particulate matter air pollution (PM). This study evaluated associations between greenness and PM on causes of death in a large, U.