Quantifying abnormal alveolar microstructure in cystic fibrosis lung disease via hyperpolarized Xe diffusion MRI.

Rationale: Cystic Fibrosis (CF) progresses through recurrent infection and inflammation, causing permanent lung function loss and airway remodeling. CT scans reveal abnormally low-density lung parenchyma in CF, but its microstructural nature remains insufficiently explored due to clinical CT limitations. To this end, diffusion-weighted Xe MRI is a non-invasive and validated measure of lung microstructure.

Semi-automated software improves interrater reliability and reduces processing time of magnetic resonance imaging-based exocrine pancreatic assessments in pediatric patients.

Objectives: Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging with secretin stimulation (MR-PFTs) is a non-invasive test for pancreatic exocrine function based on assessing the volume of secreted bowel fluid in vivo. Adoption of this methodology in clinical care and research is largely limited to qualitative assessment of secretion as current methods for secretory response quantification require manual thresholding and segmentation of MR images, which can be time-consuming and prone to interrater variability. We describe novel software (PFTquant) that preprocesses and thresholds MR images, performs heuristic detection of non-bowel fluid objects, and provides the user with intuitive semi-automated tools to segment and quantify bowel fluid in a fast and robust manner.

High Heart Rate Variability Buffers the Effect of Attachment Insecurity on Sleep Quality.

Objective: Sleep quality is an important health-protective factor. Psychosocial factors, including attachment orientation, may be valuable for understanding who is at risk of poor sleep quality and associated adverse health outcomes. High attachment anxiety is reliably associated with adverse health outcomes, whereas high attachment avoidance is associated with adverse health outcomes when co-occurring with poor self-regulatory capacity, indexed by heart rate variability (HRV).

Ad libitum dehydration is associated with poorer performance on a sustained attention task but not other measures of cognitive performance among middle-to-older aged community-dwelling adults: A short-term longitudinal study.

Objective: Hydration status and water intake are critical to physiological health. Despite a popular narrative that dehydration impairs cognitive performance, results are mixed in the literature. Therefore, we tested how hydration status was associated with cognitive performance in an ad libitum state over the course of 3 months.

Trajectories of depressive symptoms early in the course of bereavement: Patterns, psychosocial factors and risk of prolonged grief.

In the context of bereavement, little is known about the mechanisms that differentiate normative adjustment patterns from those that may indicate potential psychopathology. This study aimed to replicate and extend previous work by (1) characterizing the trajectories of depressive symptoms from 3 to 12 months after the loss of a spouse, (2) examining whether (a) childhood maltreatment and attachment style predicted distinct depression trajectories, and (b) different depression trajectories were associated with the risk of prolonged grief at 12 months post-loss. Recently bereaved individuals (N = 175) completed self-report assessments at 3, 4, 6, and 12-months post-loss.

WITHDRAWN: Mitochondrial oxygen respiration is associated with loneliness in a sample of community-dwelling adults.

This article has been withdrawn at the request of the author(s) and/or editor. The Publisher apologizes for any inconvenience this may cause. The full Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal can be found at https://www.

Ex vivo LPS-stimulated cytokine production is associated with hydration status in community-dwelling middle-to-older-aged adults.

Purpose: Suboptimal hydration has been linked to a variety of adverse health outcomes. Few studies have examined the impact of hydration status on immune function, a plausible physiological mechanism underlying these associations. Therefore, we tested how variation in hydration status was associated with circulating pro-inflammatory cytokine levels and ex vivo lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated pro-inflammatory cytokine production.

Employment and family income in psychological and immune outcomes during bereavement.

Spousal bereavement is one of the most stressful experiences in adulthood. In a sample of 183 widow(er)s, bereaved about three months prior, we examined the intersection of employment, family income, and health outcomes (proinflammatory marker production, perceived stress, and grief symptoms). Bereaved employees had higher levels of monocyte-stimulated interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factor-α, chemokine ligands 4, and perceived stress than bereaved retirees.

Diminished Cellular Immunity and Executive Cognitive Functioning Among Middle-Aged and Elderly Adults.

Objective: Within the field of psychoneuroimmunology, much attention has been given to immune dysregulation and its impact on cognitive functioning. Some of this work has focused on the association between high levels of basal proinflammatory cytokines and poorer performance on measures of executive functioning; however, effect sizes have been quite small in human studies.

Methods: We investigated whether Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) antibody titers, a marker of immune dysregulation related to cellular immunity, may be associated with executive functioning while also attempting to replicate prior studies using two markers of proinflammatory cytokine production (i.

Self-reported sleep efficiency and duration are associated with bioenergetic function in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of adults.

Poor sleep may impair systemic mitochondrial bioenergetics, but this relationship has not been examined in humans. This study examined associations of self-reported sleep with peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) bioenergetics in adults. Forty-three participants completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index from which sleep indices were calculated.

Links Between Socioeconomic Status, Daily Depressive Affect, Diurnal Cortisol Patterns, and All-Cause Mortality.

Objective: Socioeconomic status (SES) remains a robust risk factor for mortality. Various theoretical models postulate that lower SES is associated with higher negative affect, which then initiates a cascade of physiological disturbances that contribute to illness and early mortality. However, few studies have explicitly investigated the interplay between psychological and biological factors in determining SES disparities in mortality.

Ex vivo LPS-stimulated cytokine production is associated with cortisol curves in response to acute psychosocial stress.

Background: Empirical and theoretical evidence suggest that because of the co-evolution of the endocrine and immune response systems, different types of stressors may lead to similar levels of physiological activation. The present analyses examined associations between two physiological stress responses: the cortisol response to an acute laboratory stressor and ex vivo lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulated inflammatory cytokine production.

Methods: Healthy middle-aged adults (N = 65) completed testing at two appointments, two weeks apart.

Relationship satisfaction determines the association between Epstein-Barr virus latency and somatic symptoms after the loss of a spouse.

The loss of a spouse is associated with a host of negative health outcomes. While bereaved individuals commonly report somatic symptoms, no investigations exist of the association between reactivation of latent Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and somatic symptoms among this population. Further, how an individual perceives the quality of their lost relationship in retrospect may impact loss outcomes.

Executive functioning and rumination as they relate to stress-induced cortisol curves.

Better executive functioning may be associated with more adaptive stress responses than worse executive functioning, potentially due to less propensity for rumination. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that better executive functioning would be associated with decreased total cortisol output (AUC) and cortisol sensitivity with respect to increase/decrease (AUC) in response to a stressor, and that this association is mediated by stress task rumination. Participants completed measures of inhibition, updating/monitoring, and cognitive flexibility, a social-evaluative stressor, and a self-report measure of rumination about the stressor.

Emotion Regulation and Immune Functioning During Grief: Testing the Role of Expressive Suppression and Cognitive Reappraisal in Inflammation Among Recently Bereaved Spouses.

Objective: Losing a spouse is a distressing life event that can negatively affect both mental and physical health. Stress-induced health consequences often include increased risk of cardiovascular disease and altered immune system functioning marked by increased inflammation. Here, we sought to identify individual difference factors that covary with problematic inflammatory outcomes.

Church Attendance and CMV Herpes Virus Latency Among Bereaved and Non-Bereaved Adults.

Objective: There is widespread literature linking church attendance to physical health. However, little is known about the association of church attendance and the immune system, particularly during difficult life transitions. This study investigated the association between church attendance and CMV herpes-virus latency by assessing Cytomegalovirus (CMV) IgG antibody titers among bereaved and non-bereaved individuals.

Computational Optimization Study of Transcatheter Aortic Valve Leaflet Design Using Porcine and Bovine Leaflets.

In this study, a Bayesian optimization (BO) based computational framework is developed to investigate the design of transcatheter aortic valve (TAV) leaflets and to optimize leaflet geometry such that its peak stress under the blood pressure of 120 mmHg is reduced. A generic TAV model is parametrized by mathematical equations describing its 2D shape and its 3D stent-leaflet assembly line. Material properties previously obtained for bovine pericardium (BP) and porcine pericardium (PP) via a combination of flexural and biaxial tensile testing were incorporated into the finite element (FE) model of TAV.

Differential psychological reactions to grief: The role of childhood adversity for depression symptoms among bereaved and non-bereaved adults.

Childhood maltreatment dysregulates an individual's physiological response to stress, increasing reactivity to stressors across the lifespan. Given the prevalence and impact of bereavement, we examined whether the association between childhood maltreatment and depression was exacerbated by spousal bereavement. We identified an interaction between childhood maltreatment and bereavement using linear regression analysis ( = 0.

High social strain and physical health: Examining the roles of anxious arousal, body mass index, and inflammation.

Social relationships have powerful effects on physical health. Indeed, high social strain (i.e.

Sex differences in executive functioning and latent herpesvirus reactivation among bereaved and nonbereaved individuals.

The death of a spouse is a highly stressful event. Better executive functioning has been shown to benefit men to a greater degree than women during stress. We evaluated potential sex differences in stress and immune dysregulation among control and bereaved participants who completed a self-report measure of perceived stress, neuropsychological measures of inhibition and updating/monitoring of information in working memory, and a blood draw to measure Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) antibody titres.

Psychological and Biological Pathways Linking Perceived Neighborhood Characteristics and Body Mass Index.

Background: Perceived neighborhood characteristics are linked to obesity, however, the mechanisms linking these two factors remain unknown.

Purpose: This study aimed to examine associations between perceived neighborhood characteristics and body mass index (BMI), establish whether indirect pathways through psychological distress and inflammation are important, and determine whether these associations vary by race/ethnicity.

Methods: Participants were 1,112 adults enrolled in the Texas City Stress and Health Study.

Grief, depressive symptoms, and inflammation in the spousally bereaved.

Grief is conceptualized by strong negative emotions, which include longing, sadness, and preoccupations with thoughts, recollections, and images of the spouse. In the initial months after the loss of a spouse, those who are widowed are at risk for cardiovascular problems and premature mortality. In the general population, depression is characterized by chronic low-grade inflammation, a key predictor of cardiovascular problems, morbidity, and mortality.

Impaired mental health and low-grade inflammation among fatigued bereaved individuals.

Background: Fatigue is a common symptom in stressed individuals. Bereavement is a major life event that has been associated with impaired mental health. Little research has investigated the prevalence of fatigue and its inflammatory correlates in bereaved individuals.