Mitigating the effects of high fat diet on the brain and behavior with berry supplementation.

Research on the potential of berries to modulate the effects of high fat diets on the brain and behavior is a relatively small and growing field. This review provides an overview of current findings from animal studies assessing the impact of high fat diets supplemented with blueberries, blackberries, grapes and jaboticaba berries on cognitive performance and neuroprotection. High fat diets are demonstrated to increase brain markers of oxidative stress and inflammation and result in other neural alterations that can contribute to impairments in learning and memory.

The Paradoxical Impact of Companionship on the Mental Health of Older African American Men.

Objectives: African Americans comprise 9% of the 46 million U.S. adults over age 65.

Peer Education: Productive Engagement for Older African Americans in Recovery From Depression.

Background And Objectives: Older adults who have personal experience with the mental health service delivery system gain unique and potentially valuable insight from their treatment experiences. Research suggests that incorporating trained individuals in recovery from a mental illness (i.e.

Blueberry supplementation attenuates microglia activation and increases neuroplasticity in mice consuming a high-fat diet.

Objectives: Consuming a high-fat diet (HFD) may result in behavioral deficits similar to those observed in aging animals. Blueberries may prevent and even reverse age-related alterations in neurochemistry and behavior. It was previously demonstrated that middle-aged mice fed HFD had impaired memory; however, supplementation of HFD with blueberry reduced these memory deficits.

Strengths and Challenges of the Alaska WIC Breastfeeding Peer Counselor Program: A Qualitative Study of Program Implementation.

Objective: To explore the implementation of a breastfeeding (BF) peer counselor (BFPC) program with Alaska Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).

Methods: The study used focus groups, surveys, and interviews, with transcripts analyzed in Atlas.ti and survey data summarized in Microsoft Excel.

Reducing the Shared Burden of Chronic Conditions among Persons Aging with Disability and Older Adults in the United States through Bridging Aging and Disability.

Persons aging with long-term disabilities such as spinal cord injury or multiple sclerosis and older adults share similar chronic conditions in mid and later life in the United States. The rising general interest and more prevalent federal requirements for use of evidence-based practices (EBP) in health promotion and chronic condition interventions highlight the gap between demand and the availability of EBPs for persons aging with disability in particular. Addressing this gap will require focused efforts that will benefit substantially by bridging the fields of aging and disability/rehabilitation to develop new EBPs, translate existing EBPs across populations, and borrow best practices across fields where there are few current EBPs.

Practical methods for generating alternating magnetic fields for biomedical research.

Alternating magnetic fields (AMFs) cause magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) to dissipate heat while leaving surrounding tissue unharmed, a mechanism that serves as the basis for a variety of emerging biomedical technologies. Unfortunately, the challenges and costs of developing experimental setups commonly used to produce AMFs with suitable field amplitudes and frequencies present a barrier to researchers. This paper first presents a simple, cost-effective, and robust alternative for small AMF working volumes that uses soft ferromagnetic cores to focus the flux into a gap.

Student experiences of interprofessional simulation: Findings from a qualitative study.

Interprofessional simulation provides healthcare profession students an opportunity to collaborate in a team. The purpose of this study was to examine student perspectives of an interprofessional simulation experience within the fields of nursing, physical therapy, nutrition, and social work. An exploratory case study design was employed, using open-ended interview questions post-simulation to generate information about the student's perceptions of the experience.

A Comparison of Compliance and Noncompliance in Breast Cancer Screening among African American Women.

African American women are more likely to be diagnosed with late stage breast cancer, due in part to low participation in screening procedures. The purpose of this study was to explore the differences among African American women who were compliant and noncompliant with standard mammography screening recommendations. The study participants were African American women (N = 599) over the age of 40 with no history of cancer, who were recruited to attend a local community health event.

Cultural and emotional determinants of cervical cancer screening among older Hispanic women.

Older adults are at highest risk of cancer and yet have the lowest rates of cancer screening participation. Older minority adults bear the burden of cancer screening disparities leading to late stage cancer diagnoses. This investigation, utilization data from the 2008 wave of the Health and Retirement study examined the cultural and emotional factors thought to influence cervical cancer screening among older Hispanic women.

Body image in emerging adults: The protective role of self-compassion.

Self-compassion is thought to protect from body image concerns. However, the mechanisms of this effect remain unclear. This study examined three positive dimensions of self-compassion as moderators of the mediated relationship between perceived overweight status, appearance comparison, and appearance esteem.

Association of Changes in Diet Quality with Total and Cause-Specific Mortality.

Background: Few studies have evaluated the relationship between changes in diet quality over time and the risk of death.

Methods: We used Cox proportional-hazards models to calculate adjusted hazard ratios for total and cause-specific mortality among 47,994 women in the Nurses' Health Study and 25,745 men in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study from 1998 through 2010. Changes in diet quality over the preceding 12 years (1986-1998) were assessed with the use of the Alternate Healthy Eating Index-2010 score, the Alternate Mediterranean Diet score, and the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet score.

Alcohol Intake and Cognitively Healthy Longevity in Community-Dwelling Adults: The Rancho Bernardo Study.

To better understand the association of alcohol intake with cognitively healthy longevity (CHL), we explored the association between amount and frequency of alcohol intake and CHL among 1,344 older community-dwelling adults. Alcohol intake was assessed by questionnaire in 1984-1987. Cognitive function was assessed in approximate four-year intervals between 1988 and 2009.

Retrotransposons Are the Major Contributors to the Expansion of the Muller F Element.

The discordance between genome size and the complexity of eukaryotes can partly be attributed to differences in repeat density. The Muller F element (∼5.2 Mb) is the smallest chromosome in , but it is substantially larger (>18.

An Empirical Dietary Inflammatory Pattern Score Enhances Prediction of Circulating Inflammatory Biomarkers in Adults.

Two indexes exist to describe dietary inflammatory potential: an empirical dietary inflammatory pattern (EDIP) composed of food groups as reported on a food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ) and a literature-derived dietary inflammatory index (DII) composed mainly of nutrients. We compared the ability of the 2 indexes to predict concentrations of inflammatory markers and hypothesized that the EDIP would be more predictive because it was derived on the basis of circulating inflammatory markers. Both EDIP and DII scores were calculated from FFQ data reported by 5826 women in the Nurses' Health Study II and 5227 men in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study.

Home Modifications among Community-Dwelling Older Adults: A Closer Look at Race and Ethnicity.

This study investigated racial and ethnic differences in home modification use. Data from the 2011 National Health and Aging Trends Study were used (n=6,764). Compared with non-Hispanic Whites, Hispanics were less likely to have a grab bar (odds ratio (OR) = 0.

De-identification of psychiatric intake records: Overview of 2016 CEGS N-GRID shared tasks Track 1.

The 2016 CEGS N-GRID shared tasks for clinical records contained three tracks. Track 1 focused on de-identification of a new corpus of 1000 psychiatric intake records. This track tackled de-identification in two sub-tracks: Track 1.

Extending the Promise of the Older Americans Act to Persons Aging With Long-Term Disability.

This article discusses the need for Older Americans Act (OAA) programs to evaluate and develop where needed the capacity to serve persons aging with long-term disabilities such as intellectual and/or developmental disabilities and physical disabilities including polio, spinal cord injury, and multiple sclerosis. The rationale for this work is the universal access to OAA programs for all adults over 60, regardless of the disability type, age of onset, or severity, acknowledging that other needs-based criteria often need to be met to receive services. Recommendations for increasing OAA and aging network capacity include addressing long-standing divisions between the fields of aging and disability, a comprehensive review of all Administration for Community Living programs and policies, engaging in program adaptation to build capacity, advancing knowledge and skills of the professional workforce, creating new knowledge to support delivery of evidence-based interventions to all older adults including those with lifelong and early and midlife onset of disability.

Using a Standardized Patient to Improve Collaboration and Problem Solving Skills With CPAP Usage in the Home.

A review of literature revealed a lack of research pertaining to nurses' or student nurses' knowledge of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) and the ability to troubleshoot CPAP malfunction. This study sought to answer the following questions: What are associate degree nursing (ADN) students' knowledge, interdisciplinary communication, and problem-solving skills regarding patients' home use of CPAP? Is there a change after participation in a simulation with a patient on CPAP in home setting? Twenty-one ADN students enrolled in small Midwest college participated. A preexperimental design of one group pretest posttest was used.

Decreasing hazards of Alzheimer's disease with the use of antidepressants: mitigating the risk of depression and apolipoprotein E.

Objective: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease, manifesting in clinically observable deficits in memory, thinking, and behavior that disproportionately affects older adults. Susceptibility genes, such as apolipoprotein ε4, have long been associated with an increased risk of AD diagnosis. Studies have shown associations between depression and increased risk of AD development.