Incarceration Exposure, Biological Aging, and Depression Symptoms in an African American Sample of Older Adults.

Objectives: The study draws upon perspectives on life-course stressors and health to assess whether lifetime incarceration exposure is a determinant of biological aging and self-reported depression. Methods: Using data from a sample of 460 African American participants (average age= 57) in the Family and Community Health Study, the study examined two epigenetic indices of biological aging, DunedinPoAm and GrimAge, as well as a self-reported measure of depression symptoms. Estimates were derived from multivariate regression models with adjustments for selection on observables and confounding factors. Results: Exposure to incarceration was a significant determinant of accelerated biological aging (GrimAge) and the pace of aging (DunedinPoAm) and depressive symptoms. Discussion: Among formerly incarcerated older adults, past experiences with the stressors of incarceration predict key biomarkers of physiological deterioration and depressive symptoms. Incarceration contributes to the mental and physical health burden of older adults.

Efficient, nonparametric removal of noise and recovery of probability distributions from time series using nonlinear-correlation functions: Additive noise.

Single-molecule and related experiments yield time series of an observable as it fluctuates due to thermal motion. In such data, it can be difficult to distinguish fluctuating signal from fluctuating noise. We present a method of separating signal from noise using nonlinear-correlation functions. The method is fully nonparametric: No a priori model for the system is required, no knowledge of whether the system is continuous or discrete is needed, the number of states is not fixed, and the system can be Markovian or not. The noise-corrected, nonlinear-correlation functions can be converted to the system's Green's function; the noise-corrected moments yield the system's equilibrium-probability distribution. As a demonstration, we analyze synthetic data from a three-state system. The correlation method is compared to another fully nonparametric approach-time binning to remove noise, and histogramming to obtain the distribution. The correlation method has substantially better resolution in time and in state space. We develop formulas for the limits on data quality needed for signal recovery from time series and test them on datasets of varying size and signal-to-noise ratio. The formulas show that the signal-to-noise ratio needs to be on the order of or greater than one-half before convergence scales at a practical rate. With experimental benchmark data, the positions and populations of the states and their exchange rates are recovered with an accuracy similar to parametric methods. The methods demonstrated here are essential components in building a complete analysis of time series using only high-order correlation functions.

Tinea Gladiatorum Detection With a Dermatophyte Test Strip.

OBJECTIVE: Determine sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and concordance of diafactory hs-TP (DTS) to detect tinea gladiatorum using direct potassium hydroxide (KOH) microscopy as the reference standard. DESIGN: Prospective, comparative study. SETTING: Seventeen Minnesota high schools during the winter wrestling season. PATIENTS: Seventy-one consecutive high school wrestlers identified with a suspicious rash during skin inspection. INTERVENTIONS: Samples were obtained from each rash for both DTS and direct KOH microscopy. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Readings were recorded as positive or negative. RESULTS: Direct KOH microscopy identified tinea gladiatorum in 35 of the 71 samples (46%). DTS sensitivity was 80% (95% confidence interval 63%-92%), and specificity was 82% (66%-92%). PPV was 85% (68%-95%), and NPV was 86% (72 %-91%). The DTS result was 83% concordant (72%-91%) with direct KOH microscopy. CONCLUSIONS: Similar to rapid Covid antigen tests, DTS required brief, basic training to perform and gave onsite results in 5 to 30 minutes. Although DTS is not approved for use in the United States by the FDA, concordance compared with direct KOH microscopy in diagnosing tinea gladiatorum was similar to results reported for DTS-TU in tinea unguium and tinea pedis. Further study comparing DTS to a reference standard using PCR plus direct microscopy is warranted.

Specifying the psychosocial pathways whereby child and adolescent adversity shape adult health outcomes.

BACKGROUND: Social scientists generally agree that health disparities are produced, at least in part, by adverse social experiences, especially during childhood and adolescence. Building on this research, we use an innovative method to measure early adversity while drawing upon a biopsychosocial perspective on health to formulate a model that specifies indirect pathways whereby childhood and adolescent adversity become biologically embedded and influence adult health. METHOD: Using nearly 20 years of longitudinal data from 382 Black Americans, we use repeated-measures latent class analysis (RMLCA) to construct measures of childhood/adolescent adversities and their trajectories. Then, we employ structural equation modeling to examine the direct and indirect effects of childhood/adolescent adversity on health outcomes in adulthood through psychosocial maladjustment. RESULTS: RMLCA identified two classes for each component of childhood/adolescent adversity across the ages of 10 to 18, suggesting that childhood/adolescent social adversities exhibit a prolonged heterogeneous developmental trajectory. The models controlled for early and adult mental health, sociodemographic and health-related covariates. Psychosocial maladjustment, measured by low self-esteem, depressive and anxiety symptoms, and lack of self-control, mediated the relationship between childhood/adolescent adversity, especially parental hostility, racial discrimination, and socioeconomic class, and both self-reported illness and blood-based accelerated biological aging (with proportion mediation ranging from 8.22% to 79.03%). CONCLUSION: The results support a biopsychosocial model of health and provide further evidence that, among Black Americans, early life social environmental experiences, especially parenting, financial stress, and racial discrimination, are associated with adult health profiles, and furthermore, psychosocial mechanisms mediate this association.

Incarceration exposure and epigenetic aging in neighborhood context.

OBJECTIVE: Research has implicated incarceration exposure as a social determinant of health, with recent work suggesting incarceration may trigger a stress response that accelerates physiological deterioration. The objective of the current study is to assess whether neighborhood stressors intensify the health consequences of incarceration exposure. METHODS: We test whether two neighborhood context measures - socioeconomic disadvantage and perceived crime - moderate the association between incarceration exposure and a measure of accelerated epigenetic aging based on the GrimAge index. Our sample included 408 African American young adults from the Family and Community Health study. RESULTS: Results from regression analyses with inverse probability of treatment weights suggest that incarceration exposure and neighborhood disadvantage are independently associated with accelerated biological aging. The results also show that the impact of incarceration exposure on accelerated aging is amplified for individuals in neighborhoods with higher levels of perceived crime. CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that the neighborhood contexts where formerly incarcerated individuals return have a substantial impact on their pace of biological aging. Policies aimed at reducing ambient stressors after release may promote healthy aging among formerly incarcerated African American adults.

The "Boyfriend Loophole" and Intimate Partner Homicides: A Longitudinal Analysis Using the National Violent Death Reporting System.

Intimate partner homicides (IPHs) often occur in the context of violent relationships, and firearms often facilitate lethal outcomes. Accordingly, policies have been implemented to reduce firearm access among individuals with histories of intimate partner violence (IPV) or violent propensities. There is considerable variation, however, in the enactment and implementation of such state-level firearm protection laws. Some states fail to extend IPV-related firearm related protections to dating partners, creating what has been referred to elsewhere as the "boyfriend loophole", or what will be referred to here as the "partner loophole". The goal of this analysis was to examine trends in National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) data to assess the relationship of IPHs among unmarried victims in association with state partner loopholes. State policies were abstracted to identify partner loopholes. A series of negative binomial generalized estimating equations were performed using lagged policy variables, year fixed-effects, robust standard errors, and errors clustered by state. Model findings suggest that increased firearm access is related to higher rates of unmarried IPH victimization, however, the associations between the presence of a partner loophole and IPH rates amongst unmarried victims varied between racial subgroups. Significant, protective relationships with closed partner loopholes were identified for the IPH rates amongst white unmarried victims, however, not amongst victims of color. The partner loophole policies considered here, and other individual IPV-related and/or firearm-related policies may be an important component of protections, however, our findings suggest they are not independently sufficient to equitably reduce the burden of IPH. Continuing to develop public health and policy evaluation literature will be essential to progressing towards a policy landscape and cultural environment that are equitably protective.

Shifts in lifestyle and socioeconomic circumstances predict change-for better or worse-in speed of epigenetic aging: A study of middle-aged black women.

BACKGROUND: While numerous studies have documented the power of new generation epigenetic clocks to predict morbidity and mortality, research regarding the causes of variation in speed of epigenetic aging is in the early stages. To the extent that these epigenetic clocks are robust measures of biological aging, they should be sensitive to various nutritional, behavioral, ecological, and social factors that have been shown to affect health. OBJECTIVE: Investigate over an 11-year period the extent to which changes in socioeconomic stress and lifestyle predict changes in speed of epigenetic aging among a sample of middle-aged African American women. METHODS: Using data from the Family and Community Health Study, we investigated whether changes in socioeconomic stress, diet, smoking, exercise, alcohol consumption, and relationship status predict changes in speed of biological aging assessed with 3 s-generation epigenetic clocks: AccelGrimAge, DunedinPoAm, and AccelPhenoAge. The study was able to avoid the challenges associated with self-reports of diet and smoking by employing recently developed epigenetic measures. RESULTS: Changes in socioeconomic stress and diet were associated with changes in speed of biological aging as assessed by all three epigenetic clocks, and changes in smoking was related to changes in AccelGrimAge and DunedinPoAm. Analyses controlling for cell-type indicated that in large measure diet exerts its effect on aging through its impact on the immune system. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that adoption of a healthy diet and reduction in the use of tobacco are related to a decrease in epigenetic aging, whereas increased pressure relating to income, housing and economic independence are associated with an increase in the speed of aging. These effects were especially strong for the two epigenetic clocks AccelGrimAge and DunedinPoAm. Overall, the results indicate that stress and lifestyle changes may, for better or worse, influence the "biological weathering" often experienced by middle-aged African American women.

Unstable Childhood, Adult Adversity, and Smoking Accelerate Biological Aging Among Middle-Age African Americans: Similar Findings for GrimAge and PoAm.

Objectives: The recent biological clocks GrimAge and PoAm are robust predictors of morbidity and mortality. Little research, however, has investigated the factors that influence their ticking speed. No study has used multivariate analyses to examine whether childhood adversity, adult hardship, lifestyle practices, or some combination of these factors best explains acceleration of these indices. Methods: Using a sample of 506 middle-age African Americans, the present study investigated the extent to which childhood instability, adult adversity, and lifestyle predict accelerated GrimAge and PoAm. Results: The two clocks were highly correlated and the pattern of findings was very similar for the two measures. Childhood instability, adult financial hardship, and smoking were significant predictors of both clocks. Discussion: The findings support a life course perspective where both the long arm of childhood as well as later life conditions influence speed of aging. Similar results across the two clocks enhance confidence in the findings.

Neighborhood structural disadvantage and biological aging in a sample of Black middle age and young adults.

OBJECTIVES: Research on the social determinants of health has suggested that neighborhood disadvantage may undermine healthy aging and is particularly relevant for understanding health disparities. Recently, this work has examined deoxyribonucleic acid methylation (DNAm)-based measures of biological aging to understand the risk factors for morbidity and mortality. However, it is unknown whether neighborhood disadvantage is related to different indices of DNAm-based aging among Black Americans and whether such neighborhood effects vary as a function of age or gender. METHODS: Our analyses of a Black American sample included 448 young adults and 493 middle-aged adults. We measured neighborhood disadvantage using the Area Deprivation Index at the census block group level. DNAm-based accelerated aging indices were measured using established procedures. Regressions with clustered standard errors were used for the analysis. RESULTS: Neighborhood disadvantage was independently associated with acceleration in PhenoAge, GrimAge, and DunedinPoAm, among young and middle-aged adults. Further, there was no evidence that gender conditioned the effects of neighborhood disadvantage on the aging indices. CONCLUSIONS: Regardless of age groups or gender, accelerated biological aging among Black Americans is partly rooted in differences in neighborhood disadvantage. From a policy standpoint, our findings suggest that programs that decrease neighborhood disadvantage are likely to increase healthy aging, especially among Black Americans.

Losing Years Doing Time: Incarceration Exposure and Accelerated Biological Aging among African American Adults.

Research suggests that incarceration exposure increases the prevalence of morbidity and premature mortality. This work is only beginning to examine whether the stressors of the incarceration experience become biologically embedded in ways that affect physiological deterioration. Using data from a longitudinal sample of 410 African American adults in the Family and Community Health Study and an epigenetic index of aging, this study tests the extent to which incarceration accelerates epigenetic aging and whether experiences with violence moderate this association. Results from models that adjust for selection effects suggest that incarceration exposure predicted accelerated aging, leaving formerly incarcerated African American individuals biologically older than their calendar age. Direct experiences with violence also exacerbated the effects of incarceration. These findings suggest that incarceration possibly triggers a stress response that affects a biological signature of physiological deterioration.

Re(Setting) Epigenetic Clocks: An Important Avenue Whereby Social Conditions Become Biologically Embedded across the Life Course.

Research on biological embedding of the social environment has been expedited by increased availability of biomarkers. Recently, this arsenal of measures has been expanded to include epigenetic clocks that indicate in years the extent to which an individual is older or younger than their chronological age. These measures of biological aging, especially GrimAge, are robust predictors of both illness and time to death. Importantly for sociologists, several studies have linked social conditions to these indices of aging. The present study extends this research using longitudinal data from a sample of 223 black women participating in the Family and Community Health Study. We find that changes in income and living arrangements over an 11-year period predict changes in speed of biological aging. These results provide further support for the idea that epigenetic aging is a mechanism whereby social conditions become biologically embedded. The utility of epigenetic clocks for sociological studies of health are discussed.

Nonlinear measurements of kinetics and generalized dynamical modes. I. Extracting the one-dimensional Green's function from a time series.

Often, a single correlation function is used to measure the kinetics of a complex system. In contrast, a large set of k-vector modes and their correlation functions are commonly defined for motion in free space. This set can be transformed to the van Hove correlation function, which is the Green's function for molecular diffusion. Here, these ideas are generalized to other observables. A set of correlation functions of nonlinear functions of an observable is used to extract the corresponding Green's function. Although this paper focuses on nonlinear correlation functions of an equilibrium time series, the results are directly connected to other types of nonlinear kinetics, including perturbation-response experiments with strong fields. Generalized modes are defined as the orthogonal polynomials associated with the equilibrium distribution. A matrix of mode-correlation functions can be transformed to the complete, single-time-interval (1D) Green's function. Diagonalizing this matrix finds the eigendecays. To understand the advantages and limitation of this approach, Green's functions are calculated for a number of models of complex dynamics within a Gaussian probability distribution. Examples of non-diffusive motion, rate heterogeneity, and range heterogeneity are examined. General arguments are made that a full set of nonlinear 1D measurements is necessary to extract all the information available in a time series. However, when a process is neither dynamically Gaussian nor Markovian, they are not sufficient. In those cases, additional multidimensional measurements are needed.

Nonlinear measurements of kinetics and generalized dynamical modes. II. Application to a simulation of solvation dynamics in an ionic liquid.

Solvation dynamics in ionic liquids show features that are often associated with supercooled liquids, including "stretched" nonexponential relaxation. To better understand the mechanism behind the stretching, the nonlinear mode-correlation methods proposed in Paper I [S. R. Hodge and M. A. Berg, J. Chem. Phys. 155, 024122 (2021)] are applied to a simulation of a prototypical ionic liquid. A full Green's function is recovered. In addition, specific tests for non-Gaussian dynamics are made. No deviations from Gaussian dynamics are found. This finding is incompatible with rate heterogeneity as a cause of the nonexponential relaxation and appears to be in conflict with an earlier multidimensional analysis of the same data. Although this conflict is not resolved here, this work does demonstrate the practicality of mode-correlation analysis in the face of finite datasets and calculations.

COVID-19-related violence trend data challenges & a resource for injury researchers.

Published works have raised concerns that certain violent behaviors and firearm acquisition have encountered dramatic increases since the onset of COVID-19. While these works provide important preliminary insights, they lack the empirical robustness necessary to inform a targeted societal response. Having the ability to perform the research needed to support evidence-based policy requires that data at national, state and local-levels be accessible and of sufficient quality. While related, robust data sources do arguably exist, their availability may come long after the window for effective prevention and intervention efforts has closed or may otherwise present with quality limitations, leaving populations at risk for various forms of violence without the support of protective policies.The University of Iowa Injury Prevention Research Center and the Public Policy Center has compiled a compendium of secondary data sources in an effort to promote exploration of relationships between the COVID-19 pandemic and rates of injury and violence. The forms of violence and firearm-related behavior that were identified as being at risk for amplification given the social stress, economic stress and isolation associated with the public health emergency period included: firearm acquisition, firearm violence, intimate partner violence and family violence.

Jump-precursor state emerges below the crossover temperature in supercooled o-terphenyl.

In a supercooled liquid, the crossover temperature T_{c} separates a high-temperature region of diffusive dynamics from a low-temperature region of activated dynamics. A molecular-dynamics simulation of all-atom, flexible o-terphenyl [Eastwood et al., J. Phys. Chem. B 117, 12898 (2013)10.1021/jp402102w] is analyzed with advanced statistical methods to reveal the molecular features associated with this crossover. The simulations extend to an α-relaxation time of 14 µs (272.5 K), two orders of magnitude slower than at T_{c} (290 K). At T_{c} and below, a distinct state emerges that immediately precedes an orientational jump. Compared to the initial, tightly caged state, this jump-precursor state has a looser cage, with solid-angular excursions of 0.054-0.0125 × 4π sr. At T_{c} (290 K), rate heterogeneity is already the dominant cause of stretched relaxation. Exchange within the distribution of rates is faster than α relaxation at T_{c}, but becomes equal to it at the lowest temperature simulated (272.5 K). The results trend toward a recent experimental observation near the glass transition (243 K) [Kaur et al., Phys. Rev. E 98, 040603(R) (2018)10.1103/PhysRevE.98.040603], which saw exchange substantially slower than α relaxation. Overall, the dynamic crossover comprises multiple phenomena: the development of heterogeneity, an increasing jump size, an emerging jump-precursor state, and a lengthening exchange time. The crossover is neither sharp, nor a simple superposition of the high- and low-temperature regimes; it is a broad region that contains unique and complex phenomena.

Push and pushback: Control behavior as a precipitant of verbal and violent disputes.

We examine to what extent control behavior precipitates disputes involving adversaries in different social relationships. We hypothesize that disputes between intimate partners and illegal business partners are more likely than other disputes to involve control because they involve a higher level of interdependence between the participants. A sample of male inmates (n = 479) and nonoffenders (n = 206) were asked whether control behaviors (e.g., verbal commands) precipitated their most recent disputes (n = 1184). Bivariate probit regression models allowed us to examine mutual control as well as unilateral control. Disputes between intimate partners were more likely than disputes between adversaries in other relationships to be precipitated by mutual control, but not unilateral or one-sided control by men. Disputes between illegal business partners also predicted mutual control, but not unilateral control. Discussions of the motives for violence would benefit from consideration of the classic social psychological literature on power and influence.

Differences and ratios in a nonsymbolic 'Artificial algebra': Effects of extended training.

Grace et al. (2018) showed that humans could estimate ratios and differences of stimulus magnitudes by feedback and without explicit instruction in a nonsymbolic 'artificial algebra' task, but that responding depended on both operations even though only one was trained. Here we asked whether control by the trained operation would increase over several sessions, that is, if perceptual learning would occur. Observers (n = 16) completed four sessions in which feedback was based on either ratios or differences for stimulus pairs that varied in brightness (Experiment 1) or line length (Experiment 2). Results showed that control by the trained and untrained operations increased and decreased, respectively, over the sessions, indicating perceptual learning. For about two thirds of individual sessions, regressions indicated significant control by both differences and ratios, suggesting that the perceptual system automatically computes two operations. The similarity of results across experiments with both intensive (brightness) and extensive (line length) stimulus dimensions suggests that differences and ratios are computed centrally, perhaps as part of a general system for processing magnitudes (cf. Walsh, 2003).

Childhood Adversities as Determinants of Cardiovascular Disease Risk and Perceived Illness Burden in Adulthood: Comparing Retrospective and Prospective Self-Report Measures in a Longitudinal Sample of African Americans.

A large body of evidence suggests that exposure to childhood adversities increases risk for poor quality physical health in adulthood. Much of this evidence is based on retrospective measures which are believed to be contaminated by the limitations and biases of autobiographical memory. Using longitudinal data on 454 African Americans (61 percent female) this study examines the corroboration between prospective and retrospective measures of childhood adversities gathered approximately two decades apart, and the relative ability of the measures to predict self-reported illnesses and a biomarker of 30-year cardiovascular disease risk. Comparisons indicated that the retrospective and prospective measures demonstrated weak convergence and did not provide completely equivalent information about self-reported adverse childhood experiences. A series of regression models indicated that the two measures of adversities exhibited similar associations with the cardiovascular disease biomarker but divergent associations with self-reported illnesses. Furthermore, both the prospective and retrospective measures simultaneously predicted cardiovascular disease risk in adulthood. That the prospective measure did not significantly predict perceived illnesses after adjusting for the retrospective measure is evidence that childhood adversities predict self-reported health burden insofar as respondents remember those adversities as adults. The findings provide evidence that retrospective self-report measures of childhood adversities do not closely converge with prospective measures, and that retrospective measures may not provide valid estimates of the association between childhood adversities and perceived illnesses in adulthood.

Childhood adversity and cardiovascular disease risk: An appraisal of recall methods with a focus on stress-buffering processes in childhood and adulthood.

INTRODUCTION: Associations between childhood/adolescent adversity and poor adult physical health have been reported in past work. Much of this work has relied on either retrospective or prospective measures of childhood experiences. However, the effect of different assessment methods on potential stress buffering processes remains largely unknown. OBJECTIVE: We first examined the extent to which long-term cardiovascular disease risk (CVD) was predicted by reports obtained from 10-year old youth regarding adversity experienced in the prior year and those obtained from the same individuals as adults (age 29) regarding their experience of childhood adversity from ages 0-10, focusing in each case on similar types of adversity. To test stress buffering perspectives, we examined the effects of parental emotional support on the association between each measure of childhood adversities and cardiovascular health. METHODS: We used data from a longitudinal sample of 454 African Americans enrolled in the Family and Community Health Study. The outcome variable was a 30-year CVD risk score computed from the Framingham algorithm. The hypotheses were tested with beta regression models. RESULTS: The findings revealed a link between childhood adversity and adult CVD risk at age 29, for both measures of adversity. Consistent with the stress-buffering hypothesis, prospectively assessed parental emotional support in adolescence, but not adulthood, buffered effects on cardiovascular risk for each type of assessment of childhood adversity. CONCLUSIONS: Prospective and retrospective measures correlated in a manner similar to prior reports (i.e. significantly, but poorly). Further, in line with stress-buffering hypothesis, parental emotional support received at age 10 yielded different buffering effects than parental emotional support received at age 29. The study's findings suggest that theoretically consistent patterns of stress-buffering are detectable using either type of assessment of childhood adversity and provide useful information in the prediction of adult CVD risk.

The Opioid Hydra: Understanding Overdose Mortality Epidemics and Syndemics Across the Rural-Urban Continuum.

The rapid increase of fatal opioid overdoses over the past two decades is a major U.S. public health problem, especially in non-metropolitan communities. The crisis has transitioned from pharmaceuticals to illicit synthetic opioids and street mixtures, especially in urban areas. Using latent profile analysis, we classify n = 3,079 counties into distinct classes using CDC fatal overdose rates for specific opioids in 2002-2004, 2008-2012, and 2014-2016. We identify three distinct epidemics (prescription opioids, heroin, and prescription-synthetic opioid mixtures) and one syndemic involving all opioids. We find that prescription-related epidemic counties, whether rural or urban, have been "left behind" the rest of the nation. These communities are less populated and more remote, older and mostly white, have a history of drug abuse, and are former farm and factory communities that have been in decline since the 1990s. Overdoses in these places exemplify the "deaths of despair" narrative. By contrast, heroin and opioid syndemic counties tend to be more urban, connected to interstates, ethnically diverse, and in general more economically secure. The urban opioid crisis follows the path of previous drug epidemics, affecting a disadvantaged subpopulation that has been left behind rather than the entire community. County data on opioid epidemic class membership are provided.