61 research outputs found
Assessment of hemostatic profile in neonates with necrotizing enterocolitis using Rotational Thromboelastometry (ROTEM)
No full textBackground: This study aimed to explore the hemostatic profile of neonates with necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) using Rotational Thromboelastometry (ROTEM) and to investigate if ROTEM parameters have the capacity to play a role in the differentiation of NEC from sepsis at the disease onset. Methods: This observational study included 62 neonates (mean gestational age 31.6 weeks and mean birth weight 1620g) hospitalized in a neonatal intensive care unit. The neonates were categorized in three groups: neonates with NEC (Bell stage II and above), neonates with sepsis and healthy neonates and they were matched 1:1:1 with regards to gestational age, delivery mode, and sex. Clinical, laboratory data as well as measurements of ROTEM parameters at disease onset were recorded. Results: ROTEM parameters differed between neonates with NEC and neonates with sepsis, indicating that NEC results in accelerated clot formation and higher clot strength compared to sepsis. The EXTEM CFT and A10 parameters demonstrated the highest diagnostic performance for NEC in terms of discrimination between NEC and sepsis (AUC, 0.997; 95% CI: 0.991–1.000 and 0.973; 95% CI: 0.932–1.000, respectively). Conclusions: Neonates with NEC manifested accelerated clot formation and higher clot strength compared to septic and healthy neonates, as these were expressed by ROTEM parameters. Impact: This work reports data on the hemostatic profile of neonates with necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) using Rotational Thromboelastometry (ROTEM) and the capacity of ROTEM parameters in differentiating of NEC from sepsis at the disease onset. Neonates with NEC present acceleration of coagulation and exhibit a hypercoagulable profile, as this is expressed by ROTEM parameters, in comparison to septic and healthy neonates. ROTEM parameters demonstrated a good diagnostic capacity in differentiating NEC from sepsis at the disease onset. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to the International Pediatric Research Foundation, Inc 2023
The effects of social support, social networks, and functional ability on life satisfaction among oldest old adults
No full textSocial support is an important factor for the well-being and health of individuals across the lifespan. For older adults, social support has been linked with life satisfaction and functional health. However, there is little information on how social support and social networks can predict the functional health and life satisfaction for oldest old adults. The present study utilized a recent framework by Pietromonaco and Collins (2017), which identified interconnected processes from social connection to outcomes of health and well-being, mediated by psychosocial, biological, and lifestyle pathways. This theoretical framework was comprehensive in its lens of interpersonal processes through intrapersonal mediators to long-term outcomes of health and well-being. As such, the present study incorporated components from each section of the model, specifically adjusted to pathways of importance for oldest old adults. This study aimed to examine the social connection influences of social support and social network size as they predict the psychological well-being variable of life satisfaction for oldest old adults, through the mediating component of functional health. The contextual variables of age, gender, and residence type were included in the path model to measures how they individually predict the social support and social network of oldest old adults, which could in-turn influence functional health and life satisfaction.
This study included 208 cognitively-intact oldest old adults from the Georgia Centenarian Study (GCS). Additionally, the subgroup of centenarians and near-centenarians (age 98+) in the sample were examined as they represent unique, exceptionally long-lived individuals (n = 137). Measures examined perceived social support (Cutrona Russell, & Rose, 1986), size of social network (Fillenbaum, 1988), activities of daily living (ADL) as functional health (Fillenbaum, 1988), and life satisfaction (Neugarten, Havighurst, & Tobin, 1961). Structural equation modeling in Mplus examined the path models from the contextual variables (age, gender, residence type) to social network and social support, to functional health, and finally life satisfaction. Additionally, mediation was examined with 1000 bootstrap samples in Mplus.
Results demonstrated that the hypothesized model resulted in a marginal fit. Based on plausible modification indices, three paths were added, including age and residence type to functional health, as well as from social support directly to life satisfaction, resulting in an acceptable model fit. Centenarians reported smaller social networks, lower social support, and lower functional health compared to the octogenarians in the sample, and individuals who lived in care facilities reported less social support and lower functional health (ADL) scores. Overall, three significant mediation paths were examined with social support for the total sample of oldest old adults. Social support significantly mediated the relationships between age and ADL, age and life satisfaction, and between social network size and life satisfaction. Thus, social support seems to be the mechanism through which age and social network size influence ADL and life satisfaction, respectively. Interestingly, there was no significant association between ADL and life satisfaction in this study, which could indicate that oldest old adults could report high life satisfaction in late life regardless of their level of functional health. For the centenarian subgroup, findings indicate that the more people in one’s social network, the greater their level of perceived social support. Overall, social support positively predicted life satisfaction for both the total group and for centenarians, confirming the hypothesis regarding the influence of social support for greater life satisfaction among oldest old adults. Future studies should continue to explore other factors from psychosocial, biological, and lifestyle pathways that influence the health and well-being of exceptionally long-lived adults.</p
Exploring social connections and well-being in later life
No full textThe purpose of this dissertation was to explore social connections related to personal characteristics, psychological well-being, and health in later life. Three research studies were conducted using data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP). Study 1 (n = 2,013) examined a comprehensive view of social connections to help parse out important differences in the quality and quantity of connections and how they related to different well-being and personal characteristics contemporaneously. Hierarchical linear regressions in SPSS demonstrated that after accounting for personal characteristics, positive social support from partners was the most consistently associated social connection variable related to psychological well-being. Furthermore, more frequent volunteering and positive social support from friends predicted better subjective physical health, and frequent social interactions with family and friends predicted better subjective mental health. The number of friends and neighbors that older adults had predicted greater happiness, and the number of close family members predicted positive psychological well-being. Finally, older adults who frequently attended religious services tended to have better functional health. Overall, social connections differed by quantity, quality, and social ties related to PWB and health outcomes. Study 2 (n = 1,554) explored the parallel and reciprocal processes between four social connection variables and general happiness over time in later life. The main highlight of this study was the confirmation of reciprocal effects between happiness and the frequency of socializing with friends and family over time. This suggests that being happy with life can significantly impact changes in how often older adults interact socially with friends and family over time, and vice versa. Study 3 (n = 1,554) took an individual differences approach to distinguish patterns among the frequency of socializing in later life, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Configural frequency analyses and longitudinal latent profile analyses presented patterns of socializing with family and friends in relation to personal characteristics and markers of well-being and health to explore individual differences of older adults. Four configural frequency “types” occurred significantly more than expected by chance, among 1) partnered men who socialized less, 2) non-partnered women who socialized more, 3) non-White, less educated participants who socialized less, and 4) White, more educated participants who socialized more. Five latent profile socializing trajectories were identified: a) engaged socializers, b) infrequent socializers, c) augmented socializers, d) decreased socializers, and e) disengaged socializers. Compared to engaged socializers, being male predicted membership into “decreased socializers,” “infrequent socializers,” and “augmented socializers” profiles; b) having less education predicted membership into “decreased socializers,” “disengaged socializers,” and “augmented socializers” profiles; and c) being non-partnered predicted membership in the “decreased socializers” profile. The findings from these three studies contribute to the literature surrounding social connections in later life related to well-being and individual differences. There are several important implications for positive aging and improving social connections in later life, including opportunities for: a) improved programming geared toward enhancing particular social connection components (e.g., volunteering, socializing frequently, and fostering social support), b) interventions focusing on enhancing both happiness and socializing frequency to achieve doubly beneficial reciprocal results, and c) better person-centered care targeted toward individuals at risk of reduced socializing
Happy and Satisfied in Very Late Life? Findings from the Health and Retirement Study
No full textThis research aims to examine cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of positive subjective well-being among centenarians and near-centenarians in the Health and Retirement Study. Participants who eventually survived to age 98 or older (N = 516) were included. Study variables included demographic characteristics, health and activities of daily living (ADL) functioning, cognitive functioning, and positive well-being. Additionally, a smaller subsample (n = 192) of participants with supplemental leave-behind questionnaire (LBQ) data, some of whom (n = 30) were assessed across three comparative time points, were included to examine psychological well-being variables over time. In the full sample, approximately 86% and 81% of participants over or near the age of 100 reported enjoying their lives and being happy, respectively. Also in the full sample, better self-rated health (SRH) was associated with greater happiness/enjoyment. Results with the LBQ subsample (n = 192) identified that a) greater life satisfaction related to better SRH, b) better cognitive functioning related to greater optimism and purpose in life, and c) more educated and non-White participants tended to have greater purpose in life. Finally, for the longitudinal subsample, life satisfaction increased significantly while purpose in life decreased significantly as participants neared age 100. Implications for this study include a greater focus on developing interventions geared toward improving psychological well-being; specifically, increasing purpose in life and optimism, as well as focusing on improving happiness and life enjoyment.This article is published as Arieli R, Lee G, Ryou YJ, Martin P. Happy and Satisfied in Very Late Life? Findings from the Health and Retirement Study. OBM Geriatrics 2022; 6(4): 211; doi:10.21926/obm.geriatr.2204211© 2022 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the conditions of the Creative Commons by Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is correctly cited.This project was in part supported by the United States Department of Agriculture, Hatch Project Grant, IOW04116
"Simha Rotem (1924-2018): Ad memoriam. The broom and the resilience"
No full textSimha Rotem was born in Warsaw in 1924. He was one of the most important member of the Warsaw
Ghetto uprising in April 1943. Under the cover name of Kazik. He was a leader of the young Jews who were one of the
first in Europe to rebel against the Nazi occupation. His original name is Symon Rathajzer, who upon his arrival in
Israel he changed in Simha Rotem to symbolize a new beginning. His heroic and history is full of anecdotes that
encroach of the unbelievable. Rotem came in and out of the ghetto, through the city’s sewers, besieged and burned, to
bringing news and organizing the escape of the few survivors. Thanks to him the last fighters of the ghetto succeeded in
acriding the “Aryan” area of the city, finding refuge from not Jewish people connected with the Polish resistance. In
1944 Rotem fighted in the Warsaw uprising against the Nazi occupation. He was one of the leader of the Jewish exodus
from Poland to Israel. He contributed to save thousands of people. The author died in Jerusalem in 2018
Measuring message gossiping in P2P networks and providing incentives in cryptocurrencies
No full textThesis: M. Eng., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2018.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (pages 47-48).In this thesis, we present Plutus, an efficient and game-theoretically proven incentive mechanism for Algorand, a proof-of-stake cryptocurrency. In order to operate, Algorand requires users to constantly propagate messages but has no mechanism to incentivize users to do so. Plutus solves this problem by keeping track of each message propagation path and rewarding the users who propagated messages using a lottery. We implemented a prototype of Plutus on top of Algorand to measure the performance and overhead of Plutus. Experimental results show that with Plutus, Algorand's block confirmation time increases by only 7% and that there is no penalty on Algorand's scalability.by Rotem Hemo.M. Eng
A Transitional Gundi (Rodentia: Ctenodactylidae) from the Miocene of Israel
No full textabstract: We describe a new species of gundi (Rodentia: Ctenodactylidae: Ctenodactylinae), Sayimys negevensis, on the basis of cheek teeth from the Early Miocene of the Rotem Basin, southern Israel. The Rotem ctenodactylid differs from all known ctenodactylid species, including Sayimys intermedius, which was first described from the Middle Miocene of Saudi Arabia. Instead, it most resembles Sayimys baskini from the Early Miocene of Pakistan in characters of the m1-2 (e.g., the mesoflexid shorter than the metaflexid, the obliquely orientated hypolophid, and the presence of a strong posterolabial ledge) and the upper molars (e.g., the paraflexus that is longer than the metaflexus). However, morphological (e.g., presence of a well-developed paraflexus on unworn upper molars) and dimensional (regarding, in particular, the DP4 and M1 or M2) differences between the Rotem gundi and Sayimys baskini distinguish them and testify to the novelty and endemicity of the former. In its dental morphology, Sayimys negevensis sp. nov. shows a combination of both the ultimate apparition of key-characters and incipient features that would be maintained and strengthened in latter ctenodactylines. Thus, it is a pivotal species that bridges the gap between an array of primitive ctenodactylines and the most derived, Early Miocene and later, gundis.The article is published at http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.015180
The Angiostrongylus vasorum excretory/secretory and surface proteome contains putative modulators of the host coagulation
No full textAngiostrongylus vasorum is a cardiopulmonary nematode of canids and is, among others, associated with bleeding disorders in dogs. The pathogenesis of such coagulopathies remains unclear. A deep proteomic characterization of sex specific A. vasorum excretory/secretory proteins (ESP) and of cuticular surface proteins was performed, and the effect of ESP on host coagulation and fibrinolysis was evaluated in vitro. Proteins were quantified by liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry and functionally characterized through gene ontology and pathway enrichment analysis. In total, 1069 ESP (944 from female and 959 from male specimens) and 1195 surface proteins (705 and 1135, respectively) were identified. Among these were putative modulators of host coagulation, e.g., von Willebrand factor type D domain protein orthologues as well as several proteases, including serine type proteases, protease inhibitors and proteasome subunits. The effect of ESP on dog coagulation and fibrinolysis was evaluated on canine endothelial cells and by rotational thromboelastometry (ROTEM). After stimulation with ESP, tissue factor and serpin E1 transcript expression increased. ROTEM revealed minimal interaction of ESP with dog blood and ESP did not influence the onset of fibrinolysis, leading to the conclusion that Angiostrongylus vasorum ESP and surface proteins are not solely responsible for bleeding in dogs and that the interaction with the host’s vascular hemostasis is limited. It is likely that coagulopathies in A. vasorum infected dogs are the result of a multifactorial response of the host to this parasitic infection.University of Zurich, SwitzerlandBusiness Unit Animal Health, German
Engaging complex diversity in academic institution: The case of “triple periphery” in a context of a divided society
No full textHow Prevalent is Functional Alternative Splicing in the
No full textthis article can be found at doi: 10.1016/j.tig.2003.12.004 Corresponding author: Gil Ast ([email protected]
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