Evolution of the Gene Lineage Encoding the Carbon Dioxide Receptor in Insects

A heterodimer of the insect chemoreceptors Gr21a and Gr63a has been shown to be the carbon dioxide receptor in Drosophila melanogaster (Meigen) (Diptera: Drosophilidae). Comparison of the genes encoding these two proteins across the 12 available drosophilid fly genomes allows refined definition of their N-termini. These genes are highly conserved, along with a paralog of Gr21a, in the Anopheles gambiae, Aedes aegypti, and Culex pipiens mosquitoes, as well as in the silk moth Bombyx mori and the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum. In the latter four species we name these three proteins Gr1, Gr2, and Gr3. Intron evolution within this distinctive three gene lineage is considerable, with at least 13 inferred gains and 39 losses. Surprisingly, this entire ancient gene lineage is absent from all other available more basal insect and related arthropod genomes, specifically the honey bee, parasitoid wasp, human louse, pea aphid, waterflea, and blacklegged tick genomes. At least two of these species can detect carbon dioxide, suggesting that they evolved other means to do so

Biochar: pyrogenic carbon for agricultural use: a critical review.

O biocarvão (biomassa carbonizada para uso agrícola) tem sido usado como condicionador do solo em todo o mundo, e essa tecnologia é de especial interesse para o Brasil, uma vez que tanto a ?inspiração?, que veio das Terras Pretas de Índios da Amazônia, como o fato de o Brasil ser o maior produtor mundial de carvão vegetal, com a geração de importante quantidade de resíduos na forma de finos de carvão e diversas biomassas residuais, principalmente da agroindústria, como bagaço de cana, resíduos das indústrias de madeira, papel e celulose, biocombustíveis, lodo de esgoto etc. Na última década, diversos estudos com biocarvão têm sido realizados e atualmente uma vasta literatura e excelentes revisões estão disponíveis. Objetivou-se aqui não fazer uma revisão bibliográfica exaustiva, mas sim uma revisão crítica para apontar alguns destaques na pesquisa sobre biochar. Para isso, foram selecionados alguns temaschave considerados críticos e relevantes e fez-se um ?condensado? da literatura pertinente, mais para orientar as pesquisas e tendências do que um mero olhar para o passad

Do self-reported hearing and visual impairments predict longitudinal dementia in older adults?

Background Sensory impairments have been associated with dementia in older adults. However, the contribution of different impairments and how they interact in the development of dementia is not clear. We examined the independent and interaction effects of hearing impairment (HI) and visual impairment (VI) on incident dementia. Design Multi-centric population-based prospective cohort study. Setting Data were taken from the AgeDifferent.de platform, pooling participants aged 75 and older from the German LEILA75+ and AgeCoDe/AgeQualiDe cohorts. Participants Older adults (N = 3497) with mean age 79.8 years, 67.2% female. Measurements Standardized interviews and questionnaires were used to assess self-reported HI and VI at baseline and all-cause dementia in 9 follow-ups, spanning over 20 years. Methods Competing risk regression models were conducted to test the main and interaction effects of HI and VI on dementia incidence, adjusting for established risk factors of dementia and accumulated mortality. Results HI and VI at baseline were reported by 30.3% and 16.6% of individuals, respectively. Adjusting for baseline information on sociodemographics, substance use, cognitive functioning and morbidity, and controlling for accumulated mortality risk, HI (sHR 1.16, 95% CI 1.04–1.30, p = 0.011) but not VI (sHR 1.07, 95% CI 0.90–1.28, p = 0.462) was significantly associated with incident dementia. There was no interaction between HI and VI (sHR 1.09, 95% CI 0.81–1.46, p = 0.567). Conclusions Hearing impairment is associated with an increased incidence of all-cause dementia in older adults. There is no excess risk or risk compensation through the additional presence or absence of visual impairment. Early prevention measures for hearing impairment might help to reduce the long-term risk of dementia

New Insights into the Genetic Etiology of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias

Characterization of the genetic landscape of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and related dementias (ADD) provides a unique opportunity for a better understanding of the associated pathophysiological processes. We performed a two-stage genome-wide association study totaling 111,326 clinically diagnosed/‘proxy’ AD cases and 677,663 controls. We found 75 risk loci, of which 42 were new at the time of analysis. Pathway enrichment analyses confirmed the involvement of amyloid/tau pathways and highlighted microglia implication. Gene prioritization in the new loci identified 31 genes that were suggestive of new genetically associated processes, including the tumor necrosis factor alpha pathway through the linear ubiquitin chain assembly complex. We also built a new genetic risk score associated with the risk of future AD/dementia or progression from mild cognitive impairment to AD/dementia. The improvement in prediction led to a 1.6- to 1.9-fold increase in AD risk from the lowest to the highest decile, in addition to effects of age and the APOE ε4 allele

Do self-reported hearing and visual impairments predict longitudinal dementia in older adults?

Background Sensory impairments have been associated with dementia in older adults. However, the contribution of different impairments and how they interact in the development of dementia is not clear. We examined the independent and interaction effects of hearing impairment (HI) and visual impairment (VI) on incident dementia. Design Multi-centric population-based prospective cohort study. Setting Data were taken from the AgeDifferent.de platform, pooling participants aged 75 and older from the German LEILA75+ and AgeCoDe/AgeQualiDe cohorts. Participants Older adults (N = 3497) with mean age 79.8 years, 67.2% female. Measurements Standardized interviews and questionnaires were used to assess self-reported HI and VI at baseline and all-cause dementia in 9 follow-ups, spanning over 20 years. Methods Competing risk regression models were conducted to test the main and interaction effects of HI and VI on dementia incidence, adjusting for established risk factors of dementia and accumulated mortality. Results HI and VI at baseline were reported by 30.3% and 16.6% of individuals, respectively. Adjusting for baseline information on sociodemographics, substance use, cognitive functioning and morbidity, and controlling for accumulated mortality risk, HI (sHR 1.16, 95% CI 1.04–1.30, p = 0.011) but not VI (sHR 1.07, 95% CI 0.90–1.28, p = 0.462) was significantly associated with incident dementia. There was no interaction between HI and VI (sHR 1.09, 95% CI 0.81–1.46, p = 0.567). Conclusions Hearing impairment is associated with an increased incidence of all-cause dementia in older adults. There is no excess risk or risk compensation through the additional presence or absence of visual impairment. Early prevention measures for hearing impairment might help to reduce the long-term risk of dementia

Prevalence of pain and its associated factors among the oldest-olds in different care settings – results of the AgeQualiDe study

Background The prevalence of pain is very common in the oldest age group. Managing pain successfully is a key topic in primary care, especially within the ageing population. Different care settings might have an impact on the prevalence of pain and everyday life. Methods Participants from the German longitudinal cohort study on Needs, Health Service Use, Costs and Health-related Quality of Life in a large Sample of Oldest-old Primary Care Patients (85+) (AgeQualiDe) were asked to rate their severity of pain as well as the impairment with daily activities. Besides gender, age, education, BMI and use of analgesics we focused on the current housing situation and on cognitive state. Associations of the dependent measures were tested using four ordinal logistic regression models. Model 1 and 4 consisted of the overall sample, model 2 and 3 were divided according to no cognitive impairment (NCI) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Results Results show a decline in pain at very old age but nonetheless a high prevalence among the 85+ year olds. Sixty-three per cent of the participants report mild to severe pain and 69% of the participants mild to extreme impairment due to pain with daily activities. Use of analgesics, depression and living at home with care support are significantly associated with higher and male gender with lower pain ratings. Conclusions Sufficient pain management among the oldest age group is inevitable. Outpatient care settings are at risk of overlooking pain. Therefore focus should be set on pain management in these settings

Modeling Denitrification : Can We Report What We Don't Know?

Funding Information: This study is the products of a workshop funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft through the research unit DFG‐FOR 2337: Denitrification in Agricultural Soils: Integrated Control and Modelling at Various Scales (DASIM), and by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) under the “Make our Planet Great Again—German Research Initiative”, Grant 306060, implemented by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). This work was supported by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme project VERIFY (grant agreement no. 776810). We would like to thank the contribution of all workshop participants of the II. DASIM Modeler Workshop. Publisher Copyright: © 2023. The Authors.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Changes in Social Network Size Are Associated With Cognitive Changes in the Oldest-Old

Objectives: Social isolation is increasing in aging societies and several studies have shown a relation with worse cognition in old age. However, less is known about the association in the oldest-old (85+); the group that is at highest risk for both social isolation and dementia. Methods: Analyses were based on follow-up 5 to 9 of the longitudinal German study on aging, cognition, and dementia in primary care patients (AgeCoDe) and the study on needs, health service use, costs, and health-related quality of life in a large sample of oldest-old primary care patients (AgeQualiDe), a multi-center population-based prospective cohort study. Measurements included the Lubben Social Network Scale (LSNS-6), with a score below 12 indicating social isolation, as well as the Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE) as an indicator of cognitive function. Results: Dementia-free study participants (n = 942) were M = 86.4 (SD = 3.0) years old at observation onset, 68.2% were women. One third (32.3%) of them were socially isolated. Adjusted linear hybrid mixed effects models revealed significantly lower cognitive function in individuals with smaller social networks (β = 0.5, 95% CI = 0.3–0.7, p < .001). Moreover, changes in an individual’s social network size were significantly associated with cognitive changes over time (β = 0.2, 95% CI = 0.1–0.4, p = .003), indicating worse cognitive function with shrinking social networks. Conclusion: Social isolation is highly prevalent among oldest-old individuals, being a risk factor for decreases in cognitive function. Consequently, it is important to maintain a socially active lifestyle into very old age. Likewise, this calls for effective ways to prevent social isolation

Effects of APOE e4-allele and mental work demands on cognitive decline in old age: Results from the German Study on Ageing, Cognition, and Dementia in Primary Care Patients (AgeCoDe)

Objectives Previous studies have observed protective effects of high mental demands at work on cognitive functioning and dementia risk. However, it is unclear what types of demands drive this effect and whether this effect is subject to a person's genetic risk. We investigated to what extent eight different types of mental demands at work together with the APOE e4 allele, a major risk gene for late-onset Alzheimer's disease, affect cognitive functioning in late life. Methods/Design The population-based German Study on Ageing, Cognition, and Dementia in Primary Care Patients (AgeCoDe, n = 2 154) followed cognitively healthy individuals aged 75 years and older in seven assessment waves. Cognitive functioning was assessed via the mini-mental status examination. Results Mixed-effects modeling (adjusted for education, gender, marital status, stroke, depression, and diabetes) indicated that participants who had an occupational history of working in jobs with high compared to low demands in “Language & Knowledge”, “Pattern detection”, “Information processing”, and “Service” had a slower cognitive decline. APOE e4-allele carriers had an accelerated cognitive decline, but this decline was significantly smaller if they had a medium compared to a low level of demands in contrast to non-carriers. Conclusions Our longitudinal observations suggest that cognitive decline could be slowed by an intellectually enriched lifestyle even in risk gene carriers. Fostering intellectual engagement throughout the life-course could be a key prevention initiative to promote better cognitive health in old age