Title: Study Recommends Putting Your Left Face Forward
Category: Health News
Created: 4/27/2012 6:06:00 PM
Last Editorial Review: 4/30/2012 12:00:00 AM

Title: Healthy Heart in Middle Age Delivers Big Dividends
Category: Health News
Created: 5/1/2017 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/2/2017 12:00:00 AM

Title: AHA News: Firefighter In Need of a New Heart Got By With a Little Help From His Friends
Category: Health News
Created: 4/24/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 4/27/2020 12:00:00 AM

ABSTRACT

In Gram-negative bacteria, the permeability of the outer membrane governs rates of antibiotic uptake and thus the efficacy of antimicrobial treatment. Hydrophilic drugs like β-lactam antibiotics depend on diffusion through pore-forming outer membrane proteins to reach their intracellular targets. In this study, we investigated the distribution of porin genes in more than 2,700 Klebsiella isolates and found a widespread loss of OmpK35 functionality, particularly in those strains isolated from clinical environments. Using a defined set of outer-membrane-remodeled mutants, the major porin OmpK35 was shown to be largely responsible for β-lactam permeation. Sequence similarity network analysis characterized the porin protein subfamilies and led to discovery of a new porin family member, OmpK38. Structure-based comparisons of OmpK35, OmpK36, OmpK37, OmpK38, and PhoE showed near-identical pore frameworks but defining differences in the sequence characteristics of the extracellular loops. Antibiotic sensitivity profiles of isogenic Klebsiella pneumoniae strains, each expressing a different porin as its dominant pore, revealed striking differences in the antibiotic permeability characteristics of each channel in a physiological context. Since K. pneumoniae is a nosocomial pathogen with high rates of antimicrobial resistance and concurrent mortality, these experiments elucidate the role of porins in conferring specific drug-resistant phenotypes in a global context, informing future research to combat antimicrobial resistance in K. pneumoniae.

IMPORTANCE Klebsiella pneumoniae is a pathogen of humans with high rates of mortality and a recognized global rise in incidence of carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae (CRKP). The outer membrane of K. pneumoniae forms a permeability barrier that modulates the ability of antibiotics to reach their intracellular target. OmpK35, OmpK36, OmpK37, OmpK38, PhoE, and OmpK26 are porins in the outer membrane of K. pneumoniae, demonstrated here to have a causative relationship to drug resistance phenotypes in a physiological context. The data highlight that currently trialed combination treatments with a carbapenem and β-lactamase inhibitors could be effective on porin-deficient K. pneumoniae. Together with structural data, the results reveal the role of outer membrane proteome remodeling in antimicrobial resistance of K. pneumoniae and point to the role of extracellular loops, not channel parameters, in drug permeation. This significant finding warrants care in the development of phage therapies for K. pneumoniae infections, given the way porin expression will be modulated to confer phage-resistant—and collateral drug-resistant—phenotypes in K. pneumoniae.

BACKGROUND:

Pediatric subspecialists routinely provide procedural sedation outside the operating room. No large study has reported trends in outpatient pediatric procedural sedation. Our purpose in this study was to identify significant trends in outpatient procedural sedation using the Pediatric Sedation Research Consortium.

Background

Advances in information communications technology (ICT) provide opportunities for enhanced diabetes care. Knowledge of the more acceptable communication modalities in patients of different ages will help to inform the direction of future innovations.

OBJECTIVE

To report U.S. national population-based rates and trends in diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) and hyperglycemic hyperosmolar state (HHS) among adults, in both the emergency department (ED) and inpatient settings.

OBJECTIVE

We aimed to evaluate trends in bone mineral density (BMD) and the prevalence of osteoporosis/osteopenia in U.S. adults with prediabetes and normal glucose regulation (NGR) and further investigate the association among prediabetes, osteopenia/osteoporosis, and fracture.

Along with the recovery of market, property investment also rebounds with new trends. Here are three new trends of property investment that become more and more popular in 2015.

Season 5 of Respawn Entertainment’s hero-based battle royale kicks off next week and it looks like they’re doing more than just blowing up the map. This new Apex Legends trailer shows off what appears to be a horde mode PvE quest initiated by the newest Legend of the bunch: Loba. It looks like you’ll be […]

Always forgetting birthdays? Terrible at staying in touch? New tech promises to turn you into the best buddy ever. We put it to the test

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Manny gives fashion advice. Chris learns that he doesn’t know how to Kindle. And Anna Marie orders avatar tuna. Is it a slow news week?

The I, Daniel Blake star on her parents’ generosity, working in a call centre and her love of ice-cream

Born in London, Squires, 32, studied at Rose Bruford College in London. She starred in the Ken Loach film, I, Daniel Blake in 2016, earning a Bafta nomination and winning most promising newcomer at the British Independent Film awards. Her West End debut in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof followed in 2017. Her television work includes The Miniaturist and Collateral; in the autumn she will play the lead in the Channel 4 drama, Adult Material.

What is your greatest fear?
Snakes.

The UK government says its coronavirus strategies are based on science, but the scientific advice it has received won’t be made public until after the pandemic

Relationships that suffer as a result of unreconcilable politics may force you to make a decision. To make that less distressing, choose consciously.

Tennessee Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill stepped up for a teammate who was in need.

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Chinese telecoms company Huawei has defended its role in the development of 5G in the UK and said disrupting its involvement would "do Britain a disservice".

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The French leader said the strict rules "must be respected" over the next four weeks but told the public that the epidemic was "starting to slow down."

Follow our live coronavirus updates HERE Coronavirus: The symptoms

Coronavirus: The symptoms

Follow our live coronavirus updates HERE

An NHS dentist is spending her time away from the frontline co-ordinating food donation packages for fellow heathcare staff during the coronavirus pandemic.

Billionaire Sir Richard Branson today warned Virgin Atlantic will need financial aid from the Government in order to survive the coronavirus crisis as he defended himself amid backlash over a bailout request.

England's Deputy Chief Medical Officer has defended the Government's response to the coronavirus outbreak and its distribution of vital protective equipment to frontline workers.

Brits could be allowed to meet up with small "bubbles" of up to 10 of their closest family or friends in an effort to wind down the coronavirus lockdown.

The UK death toll could jump past 100,000 by the end of the year if lockdown is lifted too early, a top professor has warned.

Flamingos form long-lasting friendships and some "behave like married couples", according to new research.

Bosses at John Lewis have started talks on which department stores should keep their doors permanently closed once the coronavirus lockdown ends, according to sources.

A couple spending their diamond wedding anniversary apart because of the coronavirus pandemic each got a special treat to make their celebrations a little sweeter thanks to their local supermarket.

Captain Tom Moore has sent a message to the nation saying he is "completely overwhelmed" by the love he has received ahead of his 100th birthday.

The coronavirus pandemic is wreaking more havoc across the world than any terrorist attack, the World Health Organisation's director general has said.

Smart Education And Learning Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Age, By Component (Hardware, Software, Service), By Learning Mode, By End User, By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2020 - 2027Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05891723/?utm_source=PRN The global smart education and learning market size is expected to reach USD 680.1 billion by 2027. The market is anticipated to witness a CAGR of 17.9% from 2020 to 2027. Demand for smart education and learning solutions is increasing among the growing population in corporate and academic sectors, owing to benefits such as improved education quality and easy access to educational content. Increasing adoption of consumer electronics, such as smartphones, e-readers, laptops, and e-learning applications, has altered conventional education methodology and has enhanced the efficiency of an individual to learn. Additionally, there are enormous opportunities for advancements in the market, owing to improved internet accessibility.Also, the COVID - 19 outbreak has emerged an opportunity for the market with an increasing number of states and countries closing educational institutes. For instance, over 90.0% of the world's students are not attending their schools due to this pandemic, as mentioned by UNESCO (The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization). Commonwealth of Learning (COL), an intergovernmental organization of The Commonwealth (Canada), has supported educational institutions and governments in building robust distance education solutions for quality e-learning practices. However, lack of awareness among end-users about the latest technologies and inadequate amount of resources for delivering quality education in developing regions is anticipated to hinder market growth.The simulation-based learning segment is anticipated to exhibit the highest CAGR because this mode enables corporate professional and educational institutions to create a realistic experience in a controlled environment.It also allows professionals and learners to practice, navigate, explore, and obtain more information through a virtual medium before they start working on real-life tasks.Growing awareness among people and the rising popularity of smart education are encouraging solution providers to invest in research and development for creating more reliable, better, and cost-effective solutions. Manufacturers are making substantial investments in developing new products for enhancing the user experience.Smart education and learning market report highlights:• Growing demand for smart educational practices can be accredited to factors, such as reducing expenses of online training, curbing geographic challenges in physically attending classes, and time constraints faced by aspirants• Increasing penetration of the Internet of Things (IoT), enhanced internet accessibility, and rapid adoption of mobile technology have encouraged users to adopt smart education and learning solutions• Innovative techniques, such as gamification, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), microlearning, and adaptive learning, which improve the overall educational process, are expected to drive the market over the projected period• North America accounted for the largest market share in 2019 owing to its large consumer base for e-learning methodsRead the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05891723/?utm_source=PRN About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place. __________________________ Contact Clare: clare@reportlinker.com US: (339)-368-6001 Intl: +1 339-368-6001

'It seems - like humans - flamingos form social bonds for a variety of reasons,' researcher says

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Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), for people who lost income due to COVID-19, provides $2,000 a month for up to four months.

Jonathan Majors plays Atticus Black, who takes a road trip to find his missing father.

Apple capitalized on the Federal Reserve's emergency measures in response to the coronavirus outbreak to issue its cheapest bonds in year

The actor on walking the red carpet while having an allergic reaction, her controversial Calvin Klein campaign and dressing like Michael Jackson

I’m not known for wearing outfits that are as completely covered up as this. Often, you are uncomfortable on the red carpet, worried that something is going to pop out, unzip or break. There was something about this look that felt like protection and armour to me. I wore it to the 2018 CFDA fashion awards and I loved how extreme it felt: chic and strong, slightly androgynous but with a femininity to it. It came together nicely with no stress – until I was in the car, when I realised I was having some kind of allergic reaction to my makeup! One of my eyes swelled up right before I was stepping out on to the red carpet. I panicked and put on my reading glasses to camouflage the fact that one eye was almost completely shut!

As a teenager, my relationship with apparel was fraught because I never cultivated my own style. My mom and I bought everything from thrift shops – I would wear the same jeans all year and then cut them into shorts – but every time I would go on a set I would be decked out in designer clothes. There was a disconnect: clothes were just something belonging to other people that I would embody, and then shed.

What’s hot and what’s not in fashion this week

Kaia As in Gerber, who joins the likes of Alexa and Jane Birkin – she now has a bag named after her, by Saint Laurent. Style icon status: confirmed.

Coronavirus: the symptoms Follow our live coronavirus updates here Who is Robert Jenrick?

Priti Patel had defended Boris Johnson after he was branded a "racist" by rapper Dave on stage at the 2020 Brit Awards.

My mother-in-law, Carol, lives alone. It was her 75th birthday the other day. Normally, I send flowers. Normally, she spends some part of the day with the family members who live nearby and not across the country as my husband, Mark, and I do. And normally, she makes plans to celebrate with a friend. But these are not normal times. I was worried about sending a flower delivery person. Social distancing means no visiting with friends or family, no matter how close they are. So, my sister-in-law dropped off a gift and Mark and I sang “Happy Birthday” down the phone line with our kids. But I could hear the loneliness in Carol’s voice.

This was hardly the worst thing anyone experienced in America on that particular April day. We are fortunate that Carol is healthy and safe. But it upset me anyway. People over 60 are more vulnerable to COVID-19 than anyone else. They are also vulnerable to loneliness, especially when they live alone. By forcing us all into social isolation, one public health crisis—the coronavirus—is shining a bright light on another, loneliness. It will be some time before we have a vaccine for the coronavirus. But the antidote to loneliness is accessible to all of us: friendship.

Those who valued friendship as much as family had higher levels of health and happiness.

All too often we fail to appreciate what we have until it’s gone. And this shared global moment has illuminated how significant friends are to day-to-day happiness. Science has been accumulating evidence that friendship isn’t just critical for our happiness but our health and longevity. Its presence or absence matters at every point in life, but the cumulative effects of either show up most starkly in the later stages of life. That is also the moment when demographics and health concerns can conspire to make friendships harder to find or sustain. As the world hits pause, it’s worth reminding ourselves why friendship is more important now than ever.

Friendship has long been understood to be valuable and pleasurable. Ancient Greek philosophers enjoyed debating its virtues, in the company of friends. But friendship has largely been considered a cultural phenomenon, a pleasant by-product of the human capacity for language and living in groups. In the 1970s and 1980s, a handful of epidemiologists and sociologists began to establish a link between social relationships and health. They showed those who were more socially isolated were more likely to die over the course of the studies. In 2015, a meta-analysis of more than 3 million people whose average age was 66 showed that social isolation and loneliness increased the risk of early mortality by up to 30 percent.1 Yet loneliness and social isolation are not the same thing. Social isolation is an objective measure of the number and extent of social contact a person has day to day. Loneliness is a subjective feeling of mismatch between how much social connection you want and how much you have.

Once the link between health and relationships was established in humans, it was noticed in other species as well. Primatologists studying baboons in Africa remarked that when female baboons lost their primary grooming partners to lions or drought, they worked to build bonds with other animals in place of the one they’d lost. When the researchers analyzed the social behavior of the animals and their outcomes over generations, they found in multiple studies that the animals with the strongest social networks live longer and have more and healthier babies than those that are more isolated.2 Natural selection has resulted in survival of the friendliest.

Since baboons don’t drive each other to the hospital, something deeper than social support must be at work. Friendship is getting “under the skin,” as biologists say. Some of the mechanisms by which it works have yet to be explained, but studies have demonstrated that social connection improves cardiovascular functioning, reduces susceptibility to inflammation and viral disease, sharpens cognition, reduces depression, lowers stress, and even slows biological aging.3

We also now have a clearer definition of what friendship is. Evolutionary biologists concluded that friendship in monkeys—as well as people—required at least three things: it had to be long-lasting, positive, and cooperative. When an anthropologist looked for consistent definitions of friendship across cultures, he found something similar. Friendships were described as positive, and they nearly always include a willingness to help, especially in times of crisis. What friendship is about at the end of the day is creating intensely bonded groups that act as protection against life’s stresses.4

Social connection reduces depression, lowers stress, and even slows biological aging.

That buffering effect is particularly powerful as we age. Those first epidemiology studies focused on people in the middle of life. In 1987, epidemiologist Teresa Seeman of the University of California, Los Angeles, wondered if age and type of relationship mattered for health.5 She found that for those under 60, whether or not they were married mattered most. Being unmarried in midlife put people at greater risk of dying earlier than normal. But that did not turn out to be true for the oldest groups. For those over 60, close ties with friends and relatives mattered more than having a spouse. “That was a real lightbulb that went on,” Seeman says.

In a 2016 study, researchers at the University of North Carolina found that in both adolescence and old age, having friends was associated with a lower risk of physiological problems.6 The more friends you had, the lower the risk. By contrast, adults in middle age were less affected by variation in how socially connected they were. But the quality of their social relationships—whether friendships provided support or added strain—mattered more. Valuing friendship also proved increasingly important with age in a 2017 study by William Chopik of Michigan State University. He surveyed more than 270,000 adults from 15 to 99 years of age and found that those who valued friendship as much as family had higher levels of health, happiness, and subjective well-being across the lifespan. The effects were especially strong in those over 65. As you get older, friendships become more important, not less; whether you’re married is relatively less significant.7

There’s a widespread sense, especially among younger people, that people are lonely post-retirement. The truth is more complicated. Social networks do get smaller later in life for a variety of reasons. In retirement, people lose regular interaction with colleagues. Most diseases, and the probability of getting them, worsen with age. It’s more likely you will lose a spouse. Friends start to die as well. Mental and physical capacities may diminish, and social lives may be limited by hearing loss or reduced mobility.

Yet some of this social-narrowing is intentional. If time is of the essence, the motivation to derive emotional meaning from life increases, says Laura Carstensen, director of the Stanford Center for Longevity. She found that people choose to spend time with those they really care about. They emphasize quality of relationships over quantity. While family members fill much of a person’s inner social circle, friends are there, too, and regularly fill in in the absence of family. A related, more optimistic perspective on retirement is that with fewer professional and family obligations, there are more hours for the things we want to do and the people with whom we want to do them.

At all stages of life, how we do friendship—whether we focus on one or two close friends or socialize more widely—has to do with our natural levels of sociability and motivation. Those vary, of course. I recently spoke with a man who had retired to Las Vegas. When he and his wife moved to their new house, his wife began baking cookies and distributing them to neighbors. She started throwing block parties for silly holidays and those neighbors showed up. No one had bothered to organize such a thing before. Even in retirement, this woman is what psychologists call a “social broker”—someone who brings people together. She has most likely always been friendly.

What best predicted health wasn’t cholesterol levels, but satisfaction in relationships.

How you live your life before you reach 60 makes a difference, experts on aging say. Friendship is a lifelong endeavor, but not everyone treats it that way. Think of relationships the way we do smoking, says epidemiologist Lisa Berkman of Harvard University. “If you start smoking when you’re 14, and stop smoking when you’re 65, in many ways, the damage is done,” she says “It’s not undoable. Stopping makes some things better. It’s worth doing but it’s very late in the game.” Similarly, if you only focus on friendships when your family and professional obligations slow, you will be at a disadvantage. Damage will have been done. The payoff in making friendship a priority was born out in the long-running Harvard Study of Adult Development, which followed more than 700 men for the entire course of their lives. What best predicted how healthy those men were at 80 wasn’t middle-aged cholesterol levels, it was how satisfied they were in their relationships at 50.8

Fortunately, it is possible to make new friends at every stage of life. In Los Angeles, I met a group of 70-something women who bonded as volunteers for Generation Xchange, an educational and community health nonprofit. The program places older adults in early elementary classrooms as teachers’ aids for a school year. As a result of the extra adult attention in class, the children’s reading scores have gone up and behavioral problems have gone down. The volunteers’ health has improved—they’ve lost weight, and lowered blood pressure and cholesterol. But they have also become friends, which is just what UCLA’s Seeman had in mind when she started the program. “One of the reasons our program may be successful is that we are motivating them to get engaged through their joint interest in helping the kids,” Seeman says. “It takes the pressure off of making friends. You can start getting to know each other in the context of the school and our team. Hopefully, the friendships can grow out of that.”

Concerns about loneliness among the elderly are well-founded. Demographics are not working in favor of the fight against loneliness. By 2035, older adults are projected to outnumber children for the first time in American history. Because of drops in marriage and childbearing, more of those older adults will be unmarried and childless than ever before. The percentage of older adults living alone rose steadily through the 20th century, and now hovers at 27 percent. And a digital divide still exists between older adults and their children and grandchildren, according to recent studies. That means older adults are less able to use virtual technology like Zoom to stay connected during the COVID-19 pandemic—though some are learning. Laura Fisher, a personal trainer in New York City, found that putting her business online meant training older clients one-on-one in videoconferencing. She now works out with one of her young clients in New York City and her client’s grandmother in Israel. Generally, older adults who use social media report more support from both their grown children and their friends. “For older people, social media is a real avenue of connection, of relational well-being,” says psychologist Jeff Hancock who runs the social media lab at Stanford University.

That is good news in this moment of enforced social isolation. So is the fact that being apart has reminded so many of us of how much we enjoy being together. For my part, I sent those flowers to my mother-in-law after all when I discovered contactless delivery. When the flowers arrived, we spoke again. And then I called her again two days later. “It’s great to talk to you,” she said.

Lydia Denworth is a contributing editor for Scientific American and the author of Friendship: The Evolution, Biology, and Extraordinary Power of Life’s Fundamental Bond.

Lead image: SanaStock / Shutterstock

References

1 Holt-Lunstad, J., et al. Loneliness and social isolation as risk factors for mortality: a meta-analytic review. Perspectives on Psychological Science 10, 227-237 (2015).

2 Silk, J.B., Alberts, S.C., & Altmann, J. Social bonds of female baboons enhance infant survival. Science 302, 1231-1234 (2003).

3 Holt-Lunstad, J., Uchino, B.N., Smith, T.W., & Hicks, A. On the importance of relationship quality: The impact of ambivalence in friendships on cardiovascular functioning. Annals of Behavioral Medicine 33, 278-290 (2007).

4 Uchino, B.N., Kent de Grey, R.G., & Cronan, S. The quality of social networks predicts age-related changes in cardiovascular reactivity to stress. Psychology and Aging 31, 321–326 (2016).

5 Seeman, T.E., et al. Social network ties and mortality among tile elderly in the Alameda County Study. American Journal of Epidemiology 126, 714-723 (1987).

6 Yang, Y.C., et al. Social relationships and physiological determinants of longevity across the human life span. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113, 578-583 (2016).

7 Chopik, W.J. Associations among relational values, support, health, and well‐being across the adult lifespan. Personal Relationships 24, 408-422 (2017).

8 Vaillant, G.E. & Mukamal, K. Successful aging. American Journal of Psychiatry 158, 839-847 (2001).

Coronavirus pandemic has caused production shutdowns and delays

Sue Perkins presented 'The Great British Bake Off' with Mel Giedroyc from 2010 to 2016