2,165 research outputs found
Is the incidence of dementia declining?
No full textAction on preventative health could lower the risk of dementia for future generations, argues this report.
Executive summary
The world-wide projections of the prevalence of dementia in the coming decades have been a source of great concern to health systems and societies around the world. The World Alzheimer Report 2010 estimated that there were 36 million people with dementia in 2010, with an expected doubling every 20 years to nearly 115 million in 2050. These sobering figures are based on assumptions that the age-adjusted prevalence of dementia would remain constant and the population would continue to age at the current rate.
The assumption that the incidence of dementia will remain stable is now being put into question. There is emerging evidence to suggest that the incidence of dementia in older individuals may be declining. It appears that this change may be recent and has possibly occurred only in the last one to two decades. It may also be restricted so far to high income countries, although data from low and middle income countries are lacking.
The reasons for this change are not understood, but education, more stimulating environments and better control of vascular risk factors may have contributed. The data are still preliminary and more studies are needed to establish the extent of this change and understand its causes. It should be noted that the decline is not large enough to offset the increase in prevalence of dementia due to the ageing of the population and therefore investment and efforts to develop better treatments and care for people with dementia need to continue.
The fact that dementia rates are malleable is an encouraging finding but the reduction cannot be taken for granted as gains in population health can easily be lost if societies do not remain vigilant and continually proactive. These preliminary findings provide a strong argument for large scale Government investment in dementia-prevention strategies, which should start from early life
Sachdev–Ye–Kitaev model as Liouville quantum mechanics
No full textAbstractWe show that the proper inclusion of soft reparameterization modes in the Sachdev–Ye–Kitaev model of N randomly interacting Majorana fermions reduces its long-time behavior to that of Liouville quantum mechanics. As a result, all zero temperature correlation functions decay with the universal exponent ∝τ−3/2 for times larger than the inverse single particle level spacing τ≫NlnN. In the particular case of the single particle Green function this behavior is manifestation of the zero-bias anomaly, or scaling in energy as ϵ1/2. We also present exact diagonalization study supporting our conclusions
Genetic Engineering for the Poor: Golden Rice and Public Health in India
No full textVitamin A deficiency (VAD) affects millions of people, causing serious health problems. Golden Rice (GR), which has been genetically engineered to produce β-carotene, is being proposed as a remedy. While this new technology has aroused controversial debates, its actual impact remains unclear. We develop a methodology for ex ante evaluation, taking into account health and nutrition details, as well as socioeconomic and policy factors. The framework is used for empirical analyses in India. Given broad public support, GR could more than halve the disease burden of VAD. Juxtaposing health benefits and overall costs suggests that GR could be very cost-effective
Arterial stiffness, the brain and cognition: A systematic review
No full textAbstract not availableJoel Singer, Julian N. Trollor, Bernhard T. Baune, Perminder S. Sachdev, Evelyn Smit
Variability of thinness and its relation to cardio-metabolic risk factors using four body mass index references in school-children from Delhi, India
No full textObjectives: to compare: (i) prevalences of thinness in school-children by four body mass index references in common use viz., Centre for Disease Control (CDC); Cole; Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP); World Health Organization (WHO); and (ii) relationship of thinness with absence of cardio-metabolic risk factors in these BMI references.Design: cross-sectionalSetting: schools in Delhi.Participats: anthropometry and blood pressure were measured in 16,245 school children aged 5 to 18 years. Fasting lipids and blood sugar were estimated in 2796 subjects.Outcome measures: age and sex-specific prevalences of thinness and predictive ability of reference cut-off for detecting any cardio-metabolic risk factor were compared.Results: prevalence of thinness varied with the reference employed; more so for boys. Overall prevalence of thinness was least with IAP reference and highest with CDC cut-offs (6.6% to 16.9% in boys, 6.5% to 10.3% in girls). Children identified as thin by any reference had comparable, significantly lower risks (OR 0.59 to 0.73) of associated cardio-metabolic aberrations. In subjects with any cardio-metabolic or blood pressure aberration, the prevalence of thinness was highest with CDC and least with IAP definition.Conclusions: prevalence of thinness varies considerably with the reference employed. Thin children, identified by any reference, have a lower risk of associated cardio-metabolic aberrations; however, thinness is a poor diagnostic test for this purpose. In populations undergoing nutrition transition, there is a need to link cardio-metabolic risk factors with recommended anthropometric criteria to define undernutritio
Ultrapotent and broad neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 variants by modular, tetravalent, bi-paratopic antibodies
No full textNeutralizing antibodies (nAbs) that target the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein have received emergency use approval for treatment of COVID-19. However, with the emergence of variants of concern, there is a need for new treatment options. We report a format that enables modular assembly of bi-paratopic tetravalent nAbs with antigen-binding sites from two distinct nAbs. The tetravalent nAb purifies in high yield and exhibits biophysical characteristics that are comparable to those of clinically used therapeutic antibodies. The tetravalent nAb binds to the spike protein trimer at least 100-fold more tightly than bivalent IgGs (apparent K(D) < 1 pM) and neutralizes a broad array of SARS-CoV-2 pseudoviruses, chimeric viruses, and authentic viral variants with high potency. Together, these results establish the tetravalent diabody-Fc-Fab as a robust, modular platform for rapid production of drug-grade nAbs with potencies and breadth of coverage that greatly exceed those of conventional bivalent IgGs
Response of DNA molecules to external fields: Electric and hydrodynamic
No full textCasimir PhD Series: 2020-03ChemE/Product and Process Engineerin
Digital versus manual tracing in cephalometric analysis: A systematic review and meta-analysis
No full textBackground: Over the years, various researchers have attempted to compare digital cephalometry with the conventional manual approach. There is a need to comprehensively analyze the findings from the earlier studies and determine the potential advantages and limitations of each method. The present systematic review aimed to compare the accuracy of digital and manual tracing in cephalometric analysis for the identification of skeletal and dental landmarks. Methods: A systematic search was performed using the keywords “Digital” AND “Manual” AND “Cephalometry” to identify relevant studies published in the English language in the past decade. The electronic data resources consulted for the elaborate search included the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Scopus, ERIC, and ScienceDirect with controlled vocabulary and free text terms. Results: A total of n = 20 studies were identified that fulfilled the inclusion and exclusion criteria within the timeframe of 2013 to 2023. The data extracted from the included articles and corresponding meta-analyses are presented in the text. Conclusions: The findings of the present systematic review and meta-analysis revealed trends suggesting that digital tracing may offer reliable measurements for specific cephalometric parameters efficiently and accurately. Orthodontists must consider the potential benefits of digital cephalometry, including time-saving and user-friendliness
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