Muscle mass and fat mass in relation to bone mineral density in very old men and women: the Framingham Heart Study

Aim of the study was investigate the cross-sectional relationship between body composition and bone mineral density (BMD) in very old men and women. The study sample consisted of 504 women and 285 men, aged 72-93 yr, participating in examination 22 (1992-1993) of the Framingham Heart Study. Total body BMD, regional BMD, and soft-tissue body composition was measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Both muscle mass and percentage body fat were positively associated with total body BMD in women. After adjustment for age, physical activity, smoking status, estrogen use, and thiazide use, BMD increased with increasing tertile of muscle mass (p = 0.007) and with increasing tertile of percentage body fat (p = 0.0001) in women. In men muscle mass, not percentage body fat, was positively associated with BMD. After adjustment for potential confounders, BMD remained associated with muscle mass only (p = 0.02). These results were similar for leg BMD and arm BMD. The study suggests that the influence of muscle and fat mass on bone mineral density is different between very old men and women.     

Designing the MPC105 PCI bridge/memory controller

The MPC105 peripheral component interconnection bridge/memory controller provides a platform-specification-compliant bridge between Power PC microprocessors and the PCI bus. With it, designers can create systems using peripherals already designed for a variety of standard PC interfaces. This bridge chip also integrates a secondary cache controller and high-performance memory controller that supports DRAM or synchronous DRAM and ROM or flash ROM     

EIR1, a root-specific protein involved in auxin transport, is required for gravitropism in Arabidopsis thaliana

The EIR1 gene of Arabidopsis is a member of a family of plant genes with similarities to bacterial membrane transporters. This gene is expressed only in the root, which is consistent with the phenotypes of the eir1 mutants-the roots are agravitropic and have a reduced sensitivity to ethylene. The roots of eir1 mutants are also insensitive to the excess auxin produced by alf1-1 and fail to induce an auxin-inducible gene in the expansion zone. Although they fail to respond to internally generated auxin, they respond normally to externally applied auxin. Expression of the EIR1 gene in Saccharomyces cerevisiae confers resistance to fluorinated indolic compounds. Taken together, these data suggest that the EIR1 protein has a root-specific role in the transport of auxin.     

Native valve infective endocarditis in elderly and younger adult patients: comparison of clinical features and outcomes with use of the Duke criteria and the Duke Endocarditis Database

The effect of age on the presentation and outcome of infective endocarditis (IE) is unclear. Many of the available data are based on analyses of mixed populations of patients including intravenous drug users or those with prosthetic valve endocarditis or native valve IE. We used the Duke criteria to compare the characteristics of 44 episodes of definite native valve IE in elderly patients (> 64 years old) with the characteristics of 64 similarly defined episodes of native valve IE in younger, nonintravenous-drug-using adult patients (> 29 years and < 60 years old). Our data suggest that the clinical presentation, characteristics, and outcome of native valve IE are similar for elderly patients and younger adult patients, although elderly patients were hospitalized an average of 12 days longer. Although we found that the occurrence of renal failure and cerebral embolism during an episode of IE was associated with higher rates of death (odds ratios, 4.8 and 4.0, respectively), age was not a significant contributor to mortality.