Longitudinal analysis of physical function in older adults: The effects of physical inactivity and exercise training.

Lack of exercise contributes to systemic inflammation and is a major cause of chronic disease. The long-term impact of initiating and sustaining exercise in late life, as opposed to sustaining a sedentary lifestyle, on whole-body health measures such as physical performance is not well known. This is an exploratory study to compare changes in physical performance among older adults initiating exercise late in life versus inactive older adults.

Rapid Transition to Telehealth Group Exercise and Functional Assessments in Response to COVID-19.

Exercise is critical for health maintenance in late life. The COVID-19 shelter in place and social distancing orders resulted in wide-scale interruptions of exercise therapies, placing older adults at risk for the consequences of decreased mobilization. The purpose of this paper is to describe rapid transition of the Gerofit facility-based group exercise program to telehealth delivery.

Impact of Supervised Exercise on One-Year Medication Use in Older Veterans with Multiple Morbidities.

Exercise is touted as the ideal prescription to treat and prevent many chronic diseases. We examined changes in utilization and cost of medication classes commonly prescribed in the management of chronic conditions following participation in 12-months of supervised exercise within the Veterans Affairs Gerofit program. Gerofit enrolled 480 veterans between 1999 and 2017 with 12-months participation, with 453 having one or more active prescriptions on enrollment.

Fundamentals of soft thermofluidic system design.

The soft composition of many natural thermofluidic systems allows them to effectively move heat and control its transfer rate by dynamically changing shape (e.g. dilation or constriction of capillaries near our skin).

Role of Scale Wettability on Rain-Harvesting Behavior in a Desert-Dwelling Rattlesnake.

During storms in the southwestern United States, several rattlesnake species have been observed drinking rain droplets collected on their dorsal scales. This process often includes coiling and flattening of the snake's body, presumably to enhance water collection. Here, we explored this rain-harvesting behavior of the Western Diamond-backed Rattlesnake () from the perspective of surface science.

Oxide-Mediated Formation of Chemically Stable Tungsten-Liquid Metal Mixtures for Enhanced Thermal Interfaces.

Modern microelectronics and emerging technologies such as wearable devices and soft robotics require conformable and thermally conductive thermal interface materials to improve their performance and longevity. Gallium-based liquid metals (LMs) are promising candidates for these applications yet are limited by their moderate thermal conductivity, difficulty in surface-spreading, and pump-out issues. Incorporation of metallic particles into the LM can address these problems, but observed alloying processes shift the LM melting point and lead to undesirable formation of additional surface roughness.

The impact of the affordable care act on breast cancer care in the USA: A multi-institutional analysis.

There are less data available on the effect of the ACA on breast cancer care beyond the screening level. A retrospective review at participating iCaRe2/BCCR institutions was completed before and after ACA. Post-ACA, patients were older, more urban, and more likely to be insured through Medicaid.

Mobility Improvements are Found in Older Veterans After 6-Months of Gerofit Regardless of BMI Classification.

Veterans represent a unique population of older adults as they are more likely to self-report disability and be overweight or obese compared to the general population. We sought to compare changes in mobility function across the obesity spectrum in older Veterans participating in six-months of Gerofit, a clinical exercise program. 270 Veterans completed baseline, three, and six-month functional assessment and were divided post-hoc into groups: normal weight, overweight, and obese.

Droplet-train induced spatiotemporal swelling regimes in elastomers.

In this work, we perform a combined experimental and numerical analysis of elastomer swelling dynamics upon impingement of a train of solvent droplets. We use time scale analysis to identify spatiotemporal regimes resulting in distinct boundary conditions that occur based on relative values of the absorption timescale and the droplet train period. We recognize that when either timescale is significantly larger than the other, two cases of quasi-uniform swelling occur.

Should Structured Exercise Be Promoted As a Model of Care? Dissemination of the Department of Veterans Affairs Gerofit Program.

Exercise provides a wide range of health-promoting benefits, but support is limited for clinical programs that use exercise as a means of health promotion. This stands in contrast to restorative or rehabilitative exercise, which is considered an essential medical service. We propose that there is a place for ongoing, structured wellness and health promotion programs, with exercise as the primary therapeutic focus.

Physical Activity Trackers: Promising Tools to Promote Resilience in Older Surgical Patients.

Objectives: Impending surgery presents a high risk for older adults given their vulnerability to adverse outcomes. New approaches to peri-operative care bring together surgeons, geriatricians, and other Multidisciplinary specialties to co-manage the geriatric surgical patient. However, few have incorporated interventions to promote physical activity (PA) throughout this period.

An innovative educational clinical experience promoting geriatric exercise.

Formal educational training in physical activity promotion is relatively sparse throughout the medical education system. The authors describe an innovative clinical experience in physical activity directed at medical clinicians on a geriatrics rotation. The experience consists of a single 2 1/2 hour session, in which learners are partnered with geriatric patients engaged in a formal supervised exercise program.

A Qualitative Study of Participation in Cardiac Rehabilitation Programs in an Integrated Health Care System.

Introduction: Despite strong incentives to use cardiac rehabilitation (CR), patient participation is low in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). This is paradoxical given that VHA is an integrated health care system that offers a range of CR programs which should logically reduce barriers to access to CR participation. The purpose of this study was to better understand the contextual factors that influence patient participation in CR and how patients consider factors together when making decisions about CR participation.

Microscale Mechanism of Age Dependent Wetting Properties of Prickly Pear Cacti (Opuntia).

Cacti thrive in xeric environments through specialized water storage and collection tactics such as a shallow, widespread root system that maximizes rainwater absorption and spines adapted for fog droplet collection. However, in many cacti, the epidermis, not the spines, dominates the exterior surface area. Yet, little attention has been dedicated to studying interactions of the cactus epidermis with water drops.

Requirement of CHROMOMETHYLASE3 for somatic inheritance of the spontaneous tomato epimutation Colourless non-ripening.

Naturally-occurring epimutants are rare and have mainly been described in plants. However how these mutants maintain their epigenetic marks and how they are inherited remain unknown. Here we report that CHROMOMETHYLASE3 (SlCMT3) and other methyltransferases are required for maintenance of a spontaneous epimutation and its cognate Colourless non-ripening (Cnr) phenotype in tomato.

Tuning LeSPL-CNR expression by SlymiR157 affects tomato fruit ripening.

In plants, microRNAs (miRNAs) play essential roles in growth, development, yield, stress response and interactions with pathogens. However no miRNA has been experimentally documented to be functionally involved in fruit ripening although many miRNAs have been profiled in fruits. Here we show that SlymiR157 and SlymiR156 differentially modulate ripening and softening in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum).

Utility and efficacy of a smartphone application to enhance the learning and behavior goals of traditional cardiac rehabilitation: a feasibility study.

Purpose: Most eligible patients do not participate in traditional clinic-based cardiac rehabilitation (CR) despite well-established benefits. Novel approaches to overcome logistic obstacles and increase efficiencies of learning, behavior modification, and exercise surveillance may increase CR participation. In an observational study, the feasibility and utility of a mobile smartphone application for CR, Heart Coach (HC), were assessed as part of standard care.

The effects of natural cigarette claims on adolescents' brand-related beliefs, attitudes, and intentions.

The marketing of natural cigarettes has been widely criticized by consumer advocates and public policymakers. The present research is designed to inform the ongoing policy debate by examining the effects of natural cigarette claims on adolescents' brand impressions. The authors report the results of an experiment in which high school students viewed images of cigarette packages for three different brands.

A SEPALLATA gene is involved in the development and ripening of strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa Duch.) fruit, a non-climacteric tissue.

Climacteric and non-climacteric fruits have traditionally been viewed as representing two distinct programmes of ripening associated with differential respiration and ethylene hormone effects. In climacteric fruits, such as tomato and banana, the ripening process is marked by increased respiration and is induced and co-ordinated by ethylene, while in non-climacteric fruits, such as strawberry and grape, it is controlled by an ethylene-independent process with little change in respiration rate. The two contrasting mechanisms, however, both lead to texture, colour, and flavour changes that probably reflect some common programmes of regulatory control.

A SQUAMOSA MADS box gene involved in the regulation of anthocyanin accumulation in bilberry fruits.

Anthocyanins are important health-promoting phytochemicals that are abundant in many fleshy fruits. Bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) is one of the best sources of these compounds. Here, we report on the expression pattern and functional analysis of a SQUAMOSA-class MADS box transcription factor, VmTDR4, associated with anthocyanin biosynthesis in bilberry.

Reflections on E. E. Just, Black Apollo of Science, and the experiences of African American scientists.

The text below is a transcript of the keynote address Kenneth Manning gave at the symposium honoring E. E. Just that was held on the campus of Howard University on November 21, 2008.

The promoter from SlREO, a highly-expressed, root-specific Solanum lycopersicum gene, directs expression to cortex of mature roots.

Root-specific promoters are valuable tools for targeting transgene expression, but many of those already described have limitations to their general applicability. We present the expression characteristics of SlREO, a novel gene isolated from tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.).

Genetics and epigenetics of fruit development and ripening.

Fruits come in a vast variety of forms with both dry and fleshy types being essential components of the human diet. Elegant studies on the dry fruits of Arabidopsis have identified a suite of transcription factors involved in their development and dehiscence. Recent discoveries in tomato have revealed a hitherto unsuspected regulatory network involved in the developmental regulation of ripening in these fleshy fruits.

Identification of novel small RNAs in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum).

To date, the majority of plant small RNAs (sRNA) have been identified in rice, poplar and Arabidopsis. To identify novel tomato sRNAs potentially involved in tomato specific processes such as fruit development and/or ripening, we cloned 4,018 sRNAs from tomato fruit tissue at the mature green stage. From this pool of sRNAs, we detected tomato homologues of nine known miRNAs, including miR482; a poplar miRNA not conserved in Arabidopsis or rice.

A naturally occurring epigenetic mutation in a gene encoding an SBP-box transcription factor inhibits tomato fruit ripening.

A major component in the regulatory network controlling fruit ripening is likely to be the gene at the tomato Colorless non-ripening (Cnr) locus. The Cnr mutation results in colorless fruits with a substantial loss of cell-to-cell adhesion. The nature of the mutation and the identity of the Cnr gene were previously unknown.