Associations between arterial stiffness and platelet activation in normotensive overweight and obese young adults.

Obese individuals have elevated platelet activation and arterial stiffness, but the strength and temporality of the relationship between these factors remain unclear. We aimed to determine the effect of increased arterial stiffness on circulating platelet activity in overweight/obese young adults. This analysis included 92 participants (mean age 40 years, 60 women) in the Slow Adverse Vascular Effects of excess weight (SAVE) trial, a clinical trial examining the effects of a lifestyle intervention with or without sodium restriction on vascular health in normotensive overweight/obese young adults.

Assistive devices in context: cross-sectional association between challenges in the home environment and use of assistive devices for mobility.

Purpose: A primary goal for aging policy is to optimize independence in later life. We estimate the cross-sectional association between physical and social challenge in the home environment and use of assistive devices (AD) for mobility in the home, controlling for lower extremity physical performance (short physical performance battery [SPPB]) and other factors.

Design And Methods: Data are from the Women's Health and Aging Study I, a prospective study of the factors related to physical disability in a sample of moderately to severely disabled older women.

Adolescent risk-taking, cancer risk, and life course approaches to prevention.

Adolescent risk-taking may have long-term consequences for adult cancer risk. Behaviors such as smoking and sexual activity, commonly initiated during adolescence, may result--decades later--in cancer. Life course epidemiology focuses on unique vulnerabilities at specific development periods and their importance to later development of disease.

Experimental measurement of speeds of sound in dense supercritical carbon monoxide and development of a high-pressure, high-temperature equation of state.

We report the adiabatic sound speeds for supercritical fluid carbon monoxide along two isotherms, from 0.17 to 2.13 GPa at 297 K and from 0.

Risk factors for ESRD in individuals with preserved estimated GFR with and without albuminuria: results from the Kidney Early Evaluation Program (KEEP).

Background: Given the increasing costs and poor outcomes of end-stage renal disease (ESRD), we sought to identify risk factors for ESRD in people with preserved estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), with or without albuminuria, who were at high risk of ESRD.

Methods: This cohort study included participants in the National Kidney Foundation's Kidney Early Evaluation Program (KEEP) with eGFR ≥ 60 mL/min/1.73 m(2) at baseline stratified by the presence or absence of albuminuria.

A novel statistical approach shows evidence for multi-system physiological dysregulation during aging.

Previous studies have identified many biomarkers that are associated with aging and related outcomes, but the relevance of these markers for underlying processes and their relationship to hypothesized systemic dysregulation is not clear. We address this gap by presenting a novel method for measuring dysregulation via the joint distribution of multiple biomarkers and assessing associations of dysregulation with age and mortality. Using longitudinal data from the Women's Health and Aging Study, we selected a 14-marker subset from 63 blood measures: those that diverged from the baseline population mean with age.

Hypertension and low HDL cholesterol were associated with reduced kidney function across the age spectrum: a collaborative study.

Purpose: To determine if the associations among established risk factors and reduced kidney function vary by age.

Methods: We pooled cross-sectional data from 14,788 nondiabetics aged 40 to 100 years in 4 studies: Cardiovascular Health Study, Health, Aging, and Body Composition Study, Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, and Prevention of Renal and Vascular End-Stage Disease cohort.

Results: Hypertension and low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol were associated with reduced cystatin C-based estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) across the age spectrum.

Association of arterial rigidity with incident kidney disease and kidney function decline: the Health ABC study.

Background And Objective: The association of large arterial rigidity and kidney function decline in longitudinal analyses is not well established. This study evaluated the association of aortic pulse wave velocity (aPWV) and pulse pressure (PP) with rapid kidney function decline and incident CKD in the Health, Aging and Body Composition study.

Design, Setting, Participants, & Measurements: Participants were 2129 older adults with a baseline measurement of aPWV, PP, and cystatin C and at least one additional measurement of cystatin C, either at year 3 or year 10.

Alzheimer's Association recommendations for operationalizing the detection of cognitive impairment during the Medicare Annual Wellness Visit in a primary care setting.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act added a new Medicare benefit, the Annual Wellness Visit (AWV), effective January 1, 2011. The AWV requires an assessment to detect cognitive impairment. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) elected not to recommend a specific assessment tool because there is no single, universally accepted screen that satisfies all needs in the detection of cognitive impairment.

Identification of a target gene and activating stimulus for the YpdA/YpdB histidine kinase/response regulator system in Escherichia coli.

Escherichia coli contains 30 two-component systems (TCSs), each consisting of a histidine kinase and a response regulator. Whereas most TCSs are well characterized in this model organism, little is known about the YpdA/YpdB system. To identify YpdB-regulated genes, we compared the transcriptomes of E.

Lifestyle Activities in Sociodemographically at-risk Urban, Older Adults Prior to Participation in the Baltimore Experience Corps(®) Trial.

Experience Corps(®) places teams of trained volunteers in elementary school classrooms to promote academic achievement in children, and serve as a health promotion intervention for older adults. Prior to randomization, individuals reported participation in several activities of varying cognitive, physical, and social demands. Maintaining an active lifestyle, particularly in intellectually demanding activities, was associated with physical, mental, and cognitive health in adulthood.

Hyperuricemia and the progression of chronic kidney disease: is uric acid a marker or an independent risk factor?

Hyperuricemia is seen when kidney function declines. Whether elevated uric acid (UA) levels play a role in the initiation and progression of kidney disease is a subject of a great debate. Animal studies demonstrate that elevated UA level is a risk factor for kidney disease.

Frailty status and altered dynamics of circulating energy metabolism hormones after oral glucose in older women.

Objectives: Frailty status is associated with altered glucose-insulin dynamics. Here, we sought to investigate whether alteration in the dynamics of other circulating energy metabolism hormones after oral glucose is associated with frailty status.

Design: Substudy of older women in a prospective cohort.

Hemoglobin decline, function, and mortality in the elderly: the cardiovascular health study.

While anemia is associated with poor functional and mortality outcomes in the elderly, the impact of hemoglobin decline is less studied. We evaluated the determinants and consequences of hemoglobin decline in 3,758 non-anemic participants from the Cardiovascular Health Study, a prospective cohort of community-dwelling elderly ≥65 years old at baseline and followed for up to 16 years. Hemoglobin was measured at baseline and 3 years later and anemia defined by World Health Organization (WHO) criteria.

All-cause and cause-specific mortality associated with diabetes in prevalent hemodialysis patients.

Background: Diabetes is the most common risk factor for end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and has been associated with increased risk of death. In order to better understand the influence of diabetes on outcomes in hemodialysis, we examine the risk of death of diabetic participants in the HEMODIALYSIS (HEMO) study.

Methods: In the HEMO study, 823 (44.

Structural and organizational characteristics associated with performance of essential public health services in small jurisdictions: findings from a statewide study in Massachusetts.

Background: This study examined jurisdictional, organizational, and structural characteristics associated with capacity to deliver 10 essential public health services (EPHS) in Massachusetts, a state where a majority of local public health departments serve small municipalities.

Design: A survey was administered to local health directors or board of health chairs.

Measures: The main outcome of the study was capacity to perform EPHS, measured by a 25-item screening tool.

A comprehensive toolbox for the rapid construction of lacZ fusion reporters.

β-Galactosidase encoded by lacZ remains a popular reporter enzyme. Here, we present three fast and convenient tools that facilitate rapid construction of reporter lacZ fusions. The first enables the simple generation of lacZ (slacZ)-based chromosomally encoded reporter fusions within the lac operon in Escherichia coli using Red®/ET® recombination.

Resting metabolic rate in old-old women with and without frailty: variability and estimation of energy requirements.

Objectives: To measure resting metabolic rate (RMR) in old-old adults living in the community and examine the association between measured RMR and frailty status and compare it with expected RMR generated by a predictive equation.

Design: Physiological substudy conducted as a home visit within an observational cohort study.

Setting: Baltimore City and County, Maryland.

Elevated Serum Carboxymethyl-Lysine, an Advanced Glycation End Product, Predicts Severe Walking Disability in Older Women: The Women's Health and Aging Study I.

Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) have been implicated in the pathogenesis of sarcopenia. Our aim was to characterize the relationship between serum carboxymethyl-lysine (CML), a major circulating AGE, and incident severe walking disability (inability to walk or walking speed <0.4 m/sec) over 30 months of followup in 394 moderately to severely disabled women, ≥65 years, living in the community in Baltimore, Maryland (the Women's Health and Aging Study I).

Patterns of 12-year change in physical activity levels in community-dwelling older women: can modest levels of physical activity help older women live longer?

Few studies have addressed changes in physical activity participation over time among the elderly. The authors hypothesized that there were distinct trajectories of physical activity level over time and identifiable predictors of such trajectories, as well as that the maintenance of regular physical activity, even below recommended levels, was associated with lower mortality risk. Using longitudinal data (1994-2009) from 433 initially high-functioning older women aged 70-79 years at baseline, a joint latent class and survival mixture model identified 4 activity trajectory classes: always active (16.

The role of education and intellectual activity on cognition.

Although educational attainment has been consistently related to cognition in adulthood, the mechanisms are still unclear. Early education, and other social learning experiences, may provide the skills, knowledge, and interest to pursue intellectual challenges across the life course. Therefore, cognition in adulthood might reflect continued engagement with cognitively complex environments.

Hyperglycemia and incidence of frailty and lower extremity mobility limitations in older women.

Objectives: To determine the degree to which hyperglycemia predicts the development of frailty and lower extremity mobility limitations.

Design: Secondary data analysis of longitudinal data collected in a prospective cohort study.

Setting: Baltimore, Maryland.