Years Of Longevity Research Articles

Subcutaneous implantable cardioverter-defibrillator generator removal: a multicenter analysis

Abstract Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: Public hospital(s). Main funding source(s): University Hospital Cologne Introduction The subcutaneous implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (S-ICD) was a significant recent advance in sudden cardiac death prevention. Device-related complications, including infection or lead fracture, or changes in the medical status, such as necessity for cardiac pacing, may necessitate device removal. (1) Real-world multicenter data on S-ICD removal are sparse. Purpose This multicenter analysis sought to assess the incidence and indications for S-ICD generator removal. Methods Retrospective data and the most recent follow-up data on S-ICD devices implanted at 14 participating centers in Europe, the US and Canada, and information on subsequent device removal was submitted to an online database (2). Limited baseline patient information and the incidence of and reasons for S-ICD generator removal or failure were reported. Premature device removal was defined as device removal for any reason other than regular battery depletion (>5 years of longevity). Results Data from 1106 devices was analyzed. Devices were implanted between 15.10.2009 and 16.04.2021 at the participating centers. The first-generation model 1010 generator was implanted in 55 (5%), the newer models A209 or A219 were implanted in 457 (41.3%) and 594 (53.7%) respectively. Patients were aged 46.7±16.1 years and the indication for ICD therapy was primary prevention in 616 (55.7%) and secondary prevention in 484 (43.8%). During the follow-up period, 37 (3%) patients deceased, and 96 patients were excluded from the analysis due to lack of follow-up (<4 weeks). Premature device removal was performed in 103 (9.3%) during the follow-up period of 31.3±19.5 months. The most common reasons for removal were battery depletion (52%), of which premature, defined as <5 years longevity, depletion accounted for 57%, upgrade to transvenous ICD or CRT (17%) and infection (11%). Other indications for removal included heart transplantation (4%) or ventricular assist device implantation (1.5%), noise detection or inappropriate shocks (6.5%), and patient discomfort (0.7%). (see figure 1) Regular battery depletion occurred in 34 devices after 69.2±5.3 months. There was no difference in device longevity between the different generator models (1010, A209, and A219). There were no significant differences between the different generator models with respect to indications for explanation. Conclusions In this real-world retrospective multicenter analysis, premature S-ICD generator removal was necessary in 9.3% of patients. Premature battery depletion, infections, and the need for pacing were the most common indications for unplanned generator removal.

Transitions Between Mild Cognitive Impairment, Dementia, and Mortality: The Importance of Olfaction.

The existing literature suggests that impaired olfaction may be an early marker for cognitive decline. Tracking the earliest stages of the progression to dementia is paramount, and yet the importance of olfactory ability throughout cognitive states and death remains unclear. Drawing data from the Rush Memory and Aging Project (N=1501; 74% female), olfactory ability was assessed using the Brief Smell Identification Test (range=0-16), while cognitive states (unimpaired, mild cognitive impairment [MCI], and dementia) were determined using a 3-step neuropsychological diagnostic protocol at up to 15 annual occasions. Multistate survival models simultaneously estimated the association of olfactory ability on transitions through cognitive states and death, while multinomial regression models estimated cognitively unimpaired and total life expectancies. Higher olfactory scores were associated with a reduced risk of transitioning from unimpaired cognition to MCI (hazard ratio [HR]=0.86, 95% confidence interval [CI]=0.82-0.88) and from MCI to dementia (HR=0.89, 95% CI=0.86-0.93), indicating that 1-unit increase in olfactory scores was associated with an approximate 14% and 11% reduction in risk, respectively. Additionally, higher olfactory scores were associated with a greater likelihood of transitioning backward from MCI to unimpaired cognition (HR=1.07, 95% CI=1.02-1.12). Furthermore, higher baseline olfactory scores were associated with more years of longevity without cognitive impairment. However, olfaction was not associated with the transition to death when accounting for transitions through cognitive states. Findings suggest that higher olfactory identification scores are associated with a decreased risk of transitioning to impaired cognitive states and that associations between olfaction and mortality may occur primarily through the pathway of neurodegeneration.

Locus of emotional intelligence among oklahoma law enforcement officers

Emotional intelligence has community positive value for the profession of policing, and knowledge about which police officers within an agency have the highest levels of emotional intelligence is of significant management value within law enforcement agencies. The focus of this study was to determine whether differences in emotional intelligence (EI) levels among binary categories of small-agency Oklahoma law enforcement officers were statistically significant. Three research questions guided the study, involving statistical comparison of actual EI scores across varying levels of career longevity and promotion within the law enforcement profession by the study participants. The Assessing Emotions Scale (AES) was used to scale the EI levels of the 86 participants. A self-report survey was used to classify participant longevity or promotion. The application of inferential statistics to the data, in the form of multiple t-tests, revealed statistically significant differences in average EI levels, with the higher mean distribution of EI levels present among those with more than 10 years of longevity, a history of rank promotion, and a history of promotion to supervisory status. The study provides analysis and implications for law enforcement leadership and future research.

Childhood exposure to birth registration laws and old-age mortality.

This paper studies the effects of the enactment of birth registration laws, as the official universal and uniform method of recording births, across US states in the first decades of the 20th century on old-age longevity for children affected by these laws. We show that establishing birth registration laws has long-term benefits for old-age health. The benefits are primarily driven by states with an effective child labor policy, suggesting that registering births helps the enforcement of child labor laws which in turn operate as the mechanism channel to improve old-age longevity. A treatment-on-treated calculation suggests an increase of 0.6years of longevity from not working during childhood due to the birth registration law.

Reproductive Cycle, Size and Age at Sexual Maturity, and Sexual Dimorphism in the Stream-Breeding Frog Crossodactylus schmidti (Hylodidae)

A reproductive strategy includes physiological, morphological, behavioral traits dependent on exogenous and endogenous regulators, including size/age at maturity, temporal variation in gametogenic cycles, and size-fecundity relationships. Sexual differences in reproductive investment, territoriality and resource use may result in sexual dimorphism on body size and other morphological traits. These life-history components are key for understanding the selective forces underlying male and female reproductive strategies in a population. We investigated the reproductive biology of the stream-breeding frog Crossodactylus schmidti through the histological analysis of testes, ovaries, and bone samples. Mature males and females and free-swimming tadpoles occurred in all months, though the monthly proportion of mature females was variable. Free spermatozoa, sperm bundles, and germ cell cysts in several stages occurred in testes of all except two males, whilst ovaries of most females presented all follicle stages, indicating continuous gametogenesis in both sexes. There was no significant seasonal variation in snout–vent length (SVL), body mass (BM) or in the gonadosomatic index for neither sex, further indicating a continuous pattern of reproduction. Minimum SVL and age at sexual maturity was 22.14 mm and 2 a, respectively, in males, and 21.78 mm and 3 a, respectively, in females; both sexes reached up to six years of longevity. Gonad mass increased with BM in both sexes, though this effect was much stronger in females. After controlling for age, females were significantly larger than males in SVL, BM, and MW (mouth width): the larger female body size suggests selection for increased fecundity, whereas the larger MW possibly favors the consumption of large, energetically important prey for sustaining the continuous egg production. Finally, there was a positive correlation between female SVL and number of thumb spines, but the number of thumb spines did not differ between the sexes; we briefly discuss a possible role of thumb spines in the courtship of C. schmidti based on field observations.

Joint Effect of Random Years of Longevity and Mean Reversion in Equity Returns on the Safe Withdrawal Rate in Retirement

Using historical data on inflation-adjusted total equity returns (price change plus dividend) from the SP and (2) mean reversion in equity returns. RRS models the number of years in retirement as a random factor based on the Social Security Administration’s 2015 Actuarial Life Table. The mean-reverting stock return model within RRS is statically calibrated to the 1926 to 2017 SP a 4% withdrawal rate is 99% successful. A simulation model that does not address these two key factors—and the author is not aware of single model that addresses both factors—shows that a 4% withdrawal rate results in a 90% success rate for a retirement lasting 30 years. At the 90% success level, about half of the increase from 4% to 6% comes from treating the length of the retirement as a random factor and other half comes from the mean-reverting model. Many scenarios are run to show how the success rate changes when RRS input assumptions are changed, e.g., age of retiree or stock/bond mix of retiree’s portfolio. Of particular importance is the assumption that future equity returns will repeat the historical record. If the future, long-run trend for equity returns is a 4% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) instead of the 6.93% observed in the historical data, RRS shows that a withdrawal rate of 4% has a success rate of 95%. Regardless of the assumption about future equity returns, directly modeling uncertainty in the length of retirement and mean reversion in equity returns results in more accurate and higher estimates of the safe withdrawal rates compared to models that do not directly address these factors.

Remaining longevity and evidence of failure of cardiac implantable electrophysiology devices recovered from funeral homes.

Given the prohibitive cost of pacemakers and defibrillators for medically underserved patients in low-income countries, these devices are sometimes recovered from funeral homes for charitable reimplantation. Many devices are implanted near the end of the patients' lives, meaning that recovered devices from funeral homes have the potential for significant remaining longevity. After sending letters asking funeral directors in the Philadelphia area to donate explanted pacemakers and defibrillators, 78 devices were recovered. Sixty-seven of these devices were successfully interrogated, and 64 devices reported estimates of remaining battery life in years. Twenty-one defibrillators were also interrogated for evidence of failure. Twenty-two percent of the 64 devices had greater than 4 years of longevity. Fourteen percent of the devices had between 1 and 4 years of longevity, and the remaining 64% had less than 1 year of remaining battery life. We found no evidence from 21 recovered defibrillators that the patient's cause of death was because of defibrillator failure. In almost half (10/21) of the defibrillators, however, the arrhythmia logs were nondecipherable given the entire log was replaced by episodes of signal noise likely occurring after death. A significant percentage of devices explanted in funeral homes have suitable remaining battery life for reuse. While no evidence of defibrillator device failure could be found, the analysis was limited by postmortem signal artifact, which may preclude accurate assessment of rates of failure in devices explanted postmortem.

One Hypothesis about the Decline and Fall of ACORN

After 38 years of longevity (1970 to 2008), including huge growth over its last decade, in 2008 and 2009 the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) was rocked by an embezzlement scandal and two controversies and declined precipitously. By the spring of 2010, all city and statewide ACORN operations had either disaffiliated from the national organization or collapsed altogether, and in November 2010 ACORN filed for bankruptcy. Because ACORN was widely considered the nation's largest and most powerful group organizing the poor, the organization's breathtakingly swift destruction warrants analysis. This commentary analyzes one hypothesis that might have contributed to ACORN's vulnerability to smear campaigns: the organization's long-time practice of combining direct action organizing with individual service provision. THE IRONY OF ACORN'S RAPID DEMISE In early 2008, by most empirical measures of organizing strength, ACORN appeared to be a strong and powerful community organization. Over the preceding 10 years, ACORN had been instrumental in numerous campaigns and victories on a wide range of issues such as winning living wage ordinances (Luce, 2009), increasing the minimum wage (Atlas & Dreier, 2006), fighting predatory lending practices of major financial institutions (Hurd, Donner, & Phillips, 2004), winning a guarantee of affordable housing in the Brooklyn Atlantic Yards mega-development (Atlas, 2009) among dozens of other neighborhood, statewide and national victories. ACORN Housing was helping over 6,000 moderate-income families per year purchase their first homes. In 2008 ACORN Service Centers filed income taxes at no charge for over 50,000 people, resulting in over $65 million dollars in Earned Income Tax Credit/Child Tax Credit returns to low-income families (Rathke, 2009). ACORN was considered the only community organization in the United States that had the ability to coordinate campaigns from the neighborhood to cities and states, all the way up to national policies and corporate campaigns (Dreier, 2009). An independent study by Ranghelli (2006) of the National Center for Responsible Philanthropy, using conservative assumptions, estimated that ACORN campaign victories and services over the 10-year period between 1995 and 2004 resulted in over $15 billion of direct economic development for low- and moderate-income ramifies. According to ACORN's former Chief Organizer Wade Rathke (2009), by 2005 ACORN's combined operations (organizing, housing and tax preparation services, research, and voter registration) employed over 1,000 people, in 85 offices; serviced 400,000 dues-paying members; and raised and spent around $100 million dollars a year. It is beyond the scope of this commentary to analyze all the factors that contributed to ACORN's demise, but from spring 2008 to fall 2009 ACORN was rocked by three separate scandals or controversies that resulted in a public relations disaster for the organization. Most foundations decided to stop funding the organization, and dozens of government bodies (city, state, national) voted to stop funding any ACORN-affiliated organization. Although ACORN fired staff and made numerous internal reforms, it was unable to win the public relations battle in both the mainstream and right-wing media. Because two of these issues (an internal embezzlement of almost $1 million and controversies around voter registration drives) have already been analyzed (see Atlas, 2010), this commentary briefly describes and analyzes one aspect of the final controversy that ACORN encountered, the videotape smear campaign conducted by Hannah Giles and James O'Keefe. This analysis addresses this question: Did ACORN's organizing model of combining direct action organizing with service provision make it more vulnerable to smear campaigns? Because O'Keefe has recently institutionalized his model of citizen journalism, other progressive organizations should try to learn from ACORN's demise to avoid a similar fate. …

Spatial and temporal variation in population structure of Hemigrammus marginatus (Characiformes: Characidae) in streams of the Ivinhema River Basin, Brazil

The present study has assessed spatial and temporal variations in the length structure of Hemigrammus marginatus Ellis, 1911 and estimated growth parameters for the species. Sampling was carried out in five streams in the Vitoria and Piraveve sub-basins of the Ivinhema River from January to December 2002. A total of 933 specimens of H. marginatus were caught (97 in the Vitoria sub-basin and 836 in the Piraveve sub-basin). Mean length of the individuals caught in the Piraveve sub-basin was shorter (21.58 mm, SD = 4.67) than that of individuals caught in the Vitoria sub-basin (29.24 mm, SD = 4.42). Analysis of condition factor calculated from the weight/length relationship revealed that the values were constant both spatially (between sub-basins) and temporally (throughout the year). In the Piraveve sub-basin, the theoretical maximal length estimated for this species was 37.26 mm, with natural mortality rate of 1.22 year1, growth rate (k) of 0.66 year-1, and growth performance index (w) of 3.80 and 4.25 years of longevity. The input of new individuals in the population occurs twice per year, with greater recruitment at the peak of the rainy season (May) and the peak of the dry season (August).

Age, growth and mortality of dog snapper Lutjanus jocu (Bloch & Schneider, 1801) in the northeast coast of Brazil

The age and growth of Lutjanus jocu was assessed through readings of growth marks in sagitta otoliths. From August 1996 to March 2000, fish were sampled (n=3.539) in the northeast portion of the Brazilian Exclusive Economic Zone. Sagitta otoliths were extracted from a sub sample of 216 individuals caught around the oceanic bank Sirius (03°59' s; 35°59' w) and over continental shelf from Ceará (05°03's; 36°02'w) to Bahía States (09°01's; 35°12'w). Opaque bands, presumed to be annual, were observed on whole (n= 210) and sectioned (n= 197) otoliths, showing ages from 0 to 20 and from 0 to 25 years respectively. The von Bertalanffy growth model was fit to length-at-age data resulting in the values of Li= 77.22 cm, K= 0.110 and t0= -3.73. Incremental widths from the first to twentieth opaque band on sectioned otoliths (n = 39) were used on back calculation of length-at-ages and the estimated values were Li= 71,20 cm, K= 0.112 e t0= -4.32. Otolith reading from sections is a reliable technique for aging L. jocu, which presented medium to high longevity and slow growth. Total mortality (Z) estimated by the catch curve was 0.134 corresponding to an annual survival rate of 87.5%. The natural mortality (M) estimated by the Ault et al. (1998) methodology was 0.12 for 25 years of longevity.

MORTALITY RISKS IN ALCOHOLISM AND EFFECTS OF ABSTINENCE AND ADDICTION TREATMENT

The mortality rate from alcoholism and related comorbidities is high. Studies show multiple causes of premature death from alcoholism. Several studies showed that abstinence had a positive effective on the overall survival of alcoholics. Alcoholics who abstained from alcohol, particularly continuously, showed reduced mortality rates and increased years of longevity than alcoholics who relapsed to alcohol consumption. The sources of the findings tend to be derived from treatment populations, in which abstinence is expected to occur in higher rates than in the general population.

Format of an obstetrics and gynecology journal club and four years' experience

Departmental journal clubs have experienced varied degrees of success and longevity. Although a high degree of enthusiasm is difficult to maintain, clear objectives are key factors that encourage active participation. In this report we present a journal club format that has demonstrated popularity and 4 years of longevity. On the basis of this experience, we believe a journal club forum offers medical students and residents the optimal opportunity to learn an approach to critical reading of medical reports. In addition, they gain understanding of experimental design and research protocols and ultimately acquire knowledge of the current medical literature.