ReportWire

Tag: Bu

  • Boston University researchers say CTE is a cause of dementia

    [ad_1]

    Boston University researchers in a groundbreaking study found that those with CTE have a much higher chance of being diagnosed with dementia.

    The largest study of its kind from the Boston University CTE Center reveals that the progressive brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy should be recognized as a new cause of dementia.

    The BU researchers discovered that those with advanced CTE — who had been exposed to repetitive head impacts — had four times higher odds of having dementia.

    “This study provides evidence of a robust association between CTE and dementia as well as cognitive symptoms, supporting our suspicions of CTE being a possible cause of dementia,” said Michael Alosco, associate professor of neurology at Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine.

    “Establishing that cognitive symptoms and dementia are outcomes of CTE moves us closer to being able to accurately detect and diagnose CTE during life, which is urgently needed,” added Alosco, who’s the co-director of clinical research at the BU CTE Center.

    The researchers studied 614 brain donors who had been exposed to repetitive head impacts, primarily contact sport athletes.

    By isolating 366 brain donors who had CTE alone, compared to 248 donors without CTE, researchers found that those with the most advanced form of CTE had four times increased odds of having dementia.

    The four times odds are similar to the strength of the relationship between dementia and advanced Alzheimer’s disease pathology, which is the leading cause of dementia.

    Dementia is a clinical syndrome that refers to impairments in thinking and memory, in addition to trouble with performing tasks of daily living like driving and managing finances. Alzheimer’s disease is the leading cause, but there are several other progressive brain diseases listed as causes of dementia that are collectively referred to as Alzheimer’s disease related dementias (ADRD).

    With this new study, the authors argue that CTE should now also be formally considered an ADRD.

    The study also reveals that dementia due to CTE is often misdiagnosed during life as Alzheimer’s disease, or not diagnosed at all. Among those who received a dementia diagnosis during life, 40% were told they had Alzheimer’s disease despite showing no evidence of Alzheimer’s disease at autopsy. An additional 38% were told the causes of their loved one’s dementia was “unknown” or could not be specified.

    In addition, this study addressed the controversial viewpoint expressed by some clinicians and researchers that CTE has no clinical symptoms. As recently as 2022, clinicians and researchers affiliated with the Concussion in Sport Group meeting, which was underwritten by international professional sports organizations, claimed, “It is not known whether CTE causes specific neurological or psychiatric problems.”

    Alosco said, “There is a viewpoint out there that CTE is a benign brain disease; this is the opposite of the experience of most patients and families. Evidence from this study shows CTE has a significant impact on people’s lives, and now we need to accelerate efforts to distinguish CTE from Alzheimer’s disease and other causes of dementia during life.”

    As expected, the study did not find associations with dementia or cognition for low-stage CTE.

    The BU CTE Center is an independent academic research center at the Boston University Avedisian and Chobanian School of Medicine. It conducts pathological, clinical and molecular research on CTE and other long-term consequences of repetitive brain trauma in athletes and military personnel.

     

     

    [ad_2]

    Rick Sobey

    Source link

  • Video: A Football Coach Walks the Line on C.T.E.

    Video: A Football Coach Walks the Line on C.T.E.

    [ad_1]

    “The game of football gave me a degree. I met my wife. I had a family because of it. It was my way out. But I also think that it’s important for me to walk the line between being a football coach while also being parent to a son diagnosed with C.T.E. Does it hurt that I lost my son — 100 percent it does. But I also will tell you truthfully that the game also gives a lot.” “That’s right, Meiko. You’re recording your album, right? All right.” “He was a sweet kid, very kind. Took piano lessons, wrote poetry. He was a big smile guy.” [applause] “First down and 10. Yeah, Meiko. Yeah, Meiko. Yeah!” “First time I saw Meiko in his football uniform, I thought he was adorable. He was so happy to put the eye black on, and the excitement made me happy.” “Sleeping in his uniform.” “Yeah. Yeah. He loved it.” “Yeah, Meiko. Way to drive. Keep driving. Keep driving.” “I wasn’t concerned. They were all so little. They were 7 and weighed nothing. And the hits, it almost looked like they just bounced off each other. I recall Meiko having a concussion. That was middle school. I’m calling it a concussion. Back then, I didn’t realize that’s what happened. But he had a major hit. And I guess, for me as a parent, ‘OK, you’re OK. I hear you talking, and you’re walking, a little wobbly, but you’re walking.’ So there’s no physical injury. There were more, you know, high school and college that we just did not address. We didn’t have the knowledge. He started talking about how he was depressed. He would tell me he heard voices in one of his teeth. He thought there was some sort of chip planted, and people were spying on him. It just wasn’t him. He wasn’t himself.” “It felt like he was a prisoner in his own brain. Like, I kept wanting to knock the wall down to say, ‘Come on out of there, man.’ Like, the old Meiko. Now, that’s what I wanted.” Announcer: “Police in Maryland say someone shot and killed 25-year-old Meiko Locksley around 10:20 Sunday night.” “I remember Mike coming to me in the midst of this pain that we were experiencing after we found out that Meiko was killed, and, I mean, it was within the next day. And he said, we should have his brain donated so it can be studied for C.T.E.” “I really wanted to know if the concussions played any part in the connection with his deteriorating mental health.” “And I think back, even now, my God, I could have done something differently. So — a little guilt.” “The tragedy of Meiko’s mental health inspired me, and he lives on through me because it’s a big part of my program. It definitely makes me think twice about how we practice, how often we are having contact. So I think this awareness has made the game safer. I’m judged Saturday on winning games. And that’s how we afford the life we live. And so I would want to do whatever is best that gives us and these players the best chance to, as I like to say, create value for themselves as football players. Football is a contact sport. Football could result in concussions. Football could result in concussions that lead possibly to C.T.E. But if you were to ask me today how I feel, like I said, I have grandsons now that love football and are playing contact football before high school. So, I’m walking it very truthfully.”

    [ad_2]

    Kassie Bracken, Ben Laffin, Alfredo Chiarappa and Joe Ward

    Source link

  • Renewed shelling threatens key Ukrainian nuclear plant

    Renewed shelling threatens key Ukrainian nuclear plant

    [ad_1]

    KYIV, Ukraine — Powerful explosions shook Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, the site of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, the global nuclear watchdog said Sunday, calling for “urgent measures to help prevent a nuclear accident” in the Russian-occupied facility.

    Rafael Mariano Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said two explosions — one Saturday evening and another Sunday morning — near the Zaporizhzhia plant abruptly ended a period of relative calm around the nuclear facility that has been the site of fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces since Russia invaded on Feb. 24.

    Fears of a nuclear catastrophe have been at the forefront since Russian troops occupied the plant during the early days of the war. Continued fighting has raised the specter of a disaster.

    In renewed shelling both close to and at the site, IAEA experts at the Zaporizhzhia facility reported hearing more than a dozen blasts within a short period Sunday morning and could see some explosions from their windows, the statement said.

    Several buildings, systems and equipment at the power plant — none of them critical for the plant’s nuclear safety — were damaged in the shelling, the IAEA said, citing the plant’s management.

    Still, Grossi said reports of the shelling were “extremely disturbing.” He added: “Whoever is behind this, it must stop immediately.

    “As I have said many times before, you’re playing with fire!” Grossi said, and appealed to both sides to urgently implement a nuclear safety and security zone around the facility.

    Russia has been pounding Ukraine’s power grid and other key infrastructure from the air, causing widespread blackouts for millions of Ukrainians amid frigid weather. That has left Ukrainians without heat, power or water as snow blankets the capital, Kyiv, and other cities.

    Ukraine’s state nuclear power operator said Russian forces were behind the shelling of the Zaporizhzhia plant. Energoatom said in a Telegram post Sunday that the targeted and damaged equipment in the facility is consistent with Kremlin’s strategy “to damage or destroy as much of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure as possible as” winter sets in.

    The most recent strikes damaged the system that would enable the plant’s power units 5 and 6 to start producing electricity again for Ukraine, the power operator said. It listed chemical desalinated water storage tanks and steam generator purge system as being damaged in the shelling Sunday, although the full extent of the damage is still being assessed.

    The State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine decided to bring the two units to a minimally controlled power level to obtain steam, which is critical in winter for ensuring the safety of power units, the plant’s staff, the local population and the environment, Energoatom said.

    Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov, however, blamed Ukrainian forces, claiming they shelled the power plant twice Sunday. He also said two shells hit near the power lines supplying the plant with electricity.

    Elsewhere in the Zaporizhzhia region, Russian forces shelled civilian infrastructure in about a dozen communities, destroying 30 homes, the Ukrainian presidency said Sunday.

    In the central Dnipropetrovsk region, one person was wounded and 20 buildings damaged in shelling of Nikopol, a city across the river from the Zaporizhzhia plant, the report said. Three districts in the northern Kharkiv region — Kupyansk, Chuguiv and Izyum — also came under Russian artillery fire in the past 24 hours.

    In the eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions, Russian shelling killed one person in Donetsk and damaged power lines, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office.

    The situation in the southern Kherson region “remains difficult,” the report said, citing the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces. Russian forces fired tank shells, rockets and other artillery on the city of Kherson, which was recently liberated from Ukrainian forces, and the settlements of Chervyn Mayak, Kachkarivka, Tokarivka, Chornobayivka and Antonivka.

    Shelling late Saturday struck an oil depot in Kherson, igniting a huge fire that sent black billowing smoke into the air. Russian troops also shelled people lining up to get bread in the Kherson regional town of Bilozerka, wounding five, the report said.

    In the city of Kherson — which still has little power, heat or water — more than 80 tons of humanitarian aid have been sent so far, said local administrator Yaroslav Yanushevych, including a UNICEF shipment of 1,500 winter outfits for children, two 35-40-kilowatt generators and drinking water.

    Also on Sunday, a funeral was held in eastern Poland for the second of the two men killed in a missile explosion Tuesday. The other man was buried on Saturday. Poland and the head of NATO have both said the missile strike appeared to be unintentional and was probably launched by Ukraine as it tried to shoot down Russia missiles or drones.

    ———

    Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin contributed.

    ————

    Follow all AP stories about the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Ukraine: Rockets strike mayor’s office in separatist Donetsk

    Ukraine: Rockets strike mayor’s office in separatist Donetsk

    [ad_1]

    KYIV, Ukraine — Pro-Kremlin officials on Sunday blamed Ukraine for a rocket attack that struck the mayor’s office in a key Ukrainian city controlled by the separatists as Russia’s war nears the eight-month mark.

    Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials said Russian rockets struck a city across from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, wounding six people.

    The attacks on both sides came as Russia has lost ground in the nearly seven weeks since Ukraine’s armed forces opened their southern counteroffensive.

    Last week, in retaliation, the Kremlin launched what is believed to be its largest coordinated air and missile raids on Ukraine’s key infrastructure since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

    The municipal mayor’s building in separatist-controlled Donetsk was seriously damaged by the rocket attack. Plumes of smoke swirled around the building, which had rows of blown-out windows and a partially collapsed ceiling. Cars nearby were burned out.

    There were no immediate reports of casualties. Kyiv didn’t immediately claim responsibility or comment on the attack.

    Kremlin-backed separatist authorities have previously accused Ukraine of numerous strikes on infrastructure and residential targets in the occupied regions, often employing the U.S.-supplied long-range HIMARS rockets, without providing corroborating information.

    Separately, Ukrainian authorities on Sunday reported that at least six people were wounded as a result of Russian rocket attacks across from Zaporizhzhia, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, where Russia has stationed its troops.

    Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Ukrainian president’s office, said two residents of Nikopol had been hospitalized following the strikes, which also damaged five power lines, gas pipelines, and a raft of civilian businesses and residential buildings.

    Russia and Ukraine have repeatedly accused each other of firing at and around the plant, which continues to be run by its pre-occupation Ukrainian staff under Russian oversight.

    Ukrainian officials have also regularly reported attacks on civilian communities across the Dnieper river from the plant, including in Nikopol and nearby Marhanets.

    The presidential office and regional authorities said Russian rockets destroyed two schools, a park and private houses in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia, which has seen sustained Russian shelling since Moscow illegally annexed it along with three other Ukrainian provinces last month.

    The annexation announcement came despite the fact that some 20% of Zaporizhzhia remains under Ukrainian military control, with some analysts painting the recent large-scale strikes as part of the Kremlin’s strategy to subdue the region.

    The Ukraine presidential office also said that Moscow continued to shell civilian settlements along the front line in the eastern Kharkiv and Luhansk regions, where Kyiv has also been pressing a counteroffensive. It added that “active hostilities” continued in the southern Kherson region, another key focus of the ongoing Ukrainian advance, with repeated Russian strikes on a series of villages recently retaken by Kyiv.

    Russian officials, meanwhile, said their air defenses in the southern Belgorod region bordering Ukraine shot down “a minimum” of 16 Ukrainian missiles, Ria Novosti reported.

    The regional governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, wrote on Telegram that three members of the same family were wounded as a result of shelling.

    He later added that an older local resident was a fourth victim.

    “The old man is in shell shock. All necessary medical assistance is being provided to him,” Gladkov said. He said two other men with shrapnel wounds had been hospitalized. He presented no evidence for his report.

    Russian authorities in border regions have repeatedly accused Kyiv of firing at their territory, and claimed that civilians were being wounded in the attacks. Ukraine hasn’t claimed responsibility for or commented on the alleged attacks.

    Russia has long used Belgorod as a staging ground for shelling and missile attacks on Ukrainian territory.

    On Saturday, two men from a former Soviet republic who were training at a Russian military firing range in Belgorod fired at volunteer soldiers during target practice, killing 11 and wounding 15 before being slain themselves. The Russian Defense Ministry, which reported the killings, called the incident a terrorist attack.

    This week’s wide-ranging retaliatory attacks by Russia, which included the use of self-destructing explosive drones from Iran, killed dozens of people.

    On Sunday, the French government confirmed it’s pledging air defense missiles to protect Ukrainian cities against drone strikes and stepped-up training for Ukrainian soldiers as it seeks to puncture perceptions that France has lagged in supporting Ukraine.

    Up to 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers will be embedded with military units in France, rotating through for several weeks of combat training, more specialized training in logistics and other needs, and training on equipment being supplied by France, the French defense minister, Sébastien Lecornu, said in an interview published Sunday in Le Parisien.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that Moscow didn’t see a need for additional widespread strikes, but that his military would continue selective ones. He said that of 29 targets the Russian military planned to knock out in this week’s attacks, seven weren’t damaged and would be taken out gradually.

    The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank based in Washington, interpreted Putin’s remarks as intended to counter criticism from pro-war Russian bloggers who “largely praised the resumption of strikes against Ukrainian cities, but warned that a short campaign would be ineffective.”

    ISW, in an online update late Saturday, accused Moscow of conducting “massive, forced deportations of Ukrainians,” which it said likely amount to ethnic cleansing.

    The update referenced statements made this week by Russian authorities, which claimed that “several thousand” children from a southern region occupied by Moscow had been placed in rest homes and children’s camps in Russia amid an ongoing Ukrainian counteroffensive. The original remarks by Russia’s deputy prime minister, Marat Khusnullin, were reported by RIA Novosti agency on Friday.

    Russian authorities have previously openly admitted to placing children from Russian-held areas of Ukraine, who they said were orphans, for adoption with Russian families, in a potential breach of a key international treaty on genocide prevention.

    Elsewhere, the Ukrainian military on Sunday morning accused pro-Kremlin fighters of evicting civilians in occupied territories in order to accommodate officers in their homes, an act it also described as a violation of international humanitarian law.

    The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in its regular Facebook update that the evictions were happening in the Russian-held city of Rubizhne, in the eastern Luhansk region where Kyiv has been pressing a counteroffensive. It didn’t provide corroborating evidence for its claim.

    ———

    Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Retail sales flat in September as inflation takes a bite

    Retail sales flat in September as inflation takes a bite

    [ad_1]

    NEW YORK — The pace of sales at U.S. retailers was unchanged in September from August as rising prices for rent and food chipped away at money available for other things.

    Retail sales were flat last month, down from a revised. 0.4% growth in August, the Commerce Department reported Friday. Retail sales fell 0.4% in July.

    Excluding sales of automobiles and at gas stations, retail sales rose 0.3%. Excluding gas sales, spending was up 0.1%

    While the report showed the resilience of the American consumer, the figures are not adjusted for inflation unlike many other government reports. In fact, sales at grocery stores rose 0.4%, helped by rising prices in food.

    Evidence that the Fed’s fight to cool the economy may be taking hold can also be seen, particularly with big-ticket items. Sales at auto dealers fell 0.4% last month, and shoppers continued to pull back on appliances, electronics and furniture, all categories that did well during the early part of the pandemic. Business at consumer electronics and appliance stores fell 0.8%.

    Sales at clothing stores rose 0.5%, while business at department stores rose 1.3% That indicates a solid back-to-school season but adjusted for inflation, spending was modest, analysts said. Business at restaurants rose 0.5%, while online sales ticked up at the same pace.

    Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail said the report was “representative of an economy that is tightening and of a shopper that is becoming more discerning and cautious about what they buy.”

    Consumer spending accounts for nearly 70% of U.S. economic activity and Americans have remained mostly resilient even with inflation near four-decade highs. Yet surging prices for everything from mortgages to rent have upped the anxiety level. Overall spending has slowed and shifted increasingly toward necessities like food, while spending on electronics, furniture, new clothes and other non-necessities has faded.

    “Even if people are employed and on paper look reasonably comfortable they are not feeling comfortable, and they are very concerned about what’s to come next,” said Joel Rampoldt, a managing director in the retail practice at AlixPartners.

    Inflation in the United States accelerated in September, with the cost of housing and other necessities putting more pressure on households, eliminating pay gains and almost guaranteeing that the Federal Reserve will keep raising interest rates aggressively.

    Consumer prices, excluding volatile food and energy costs, jumped 6.6% in September from a year ago — the fastest such pace in four decades. And on a month-to-month basis, core prices surged 0.6% for a second straight time, defying expectations for a slowdown and signaling that the Fed’s multiple rate hikes have yet to ease inflation pressures. Core prices typically provide a better picture of underlying price trends.

    Overall prices rose 8.2% in September compared with a year earlier, down slightly from August, the government said Thursday in its monthly inflation report.

    It is a crucial period for retailers as they prepare for the holiday shopping season, which accounts on average for 20% of the industry’s annual sales. Inflation is already changing shopper habits, causing them to trade down to cheaper stores like Walmart and dollar stores and within aisles, switching to cheaper brands.

    Walmart and Target are among others that are pushing deals earlier while others are offering new financing for customers.

    Conn’s HomePlus, a Texas furniture and mattress chain that caters to households at the lower end of the economic scale, launched a new layaway program that caters to the 20% to 25% of the chain’s applicants not eligible to qualify for other financing.

    “(Shoppers’) ability to spend on discretionary is more limited than it was before, ” said CEO Chandra Holt. Sales on things like deluxe coffee makers other consumer electronics have faded, she said. .

    A slew of holiday forecasts from various research and consulting firms point to a sales slowdown from last year, but adjusted for inflation, retailers could actually see a decline. AlixPartners predicts holiday sales to be up anywhere from 4% to 7% from last year, which was up 16%, according to its calculations. The National Retail Federation, the nation’s largest retail trade group, hasn’t released its holiday forecast.

    Janet Barnes, a 42-year-old College Park, Maryland resident, says she’s trading down and going to cheaper stores for groceries as prices spike. Instead of Wegmans or Whole Foods, she now heads to the discount chain Lidl and said she saves about 40% in groceries. Thrift stores have replaced Nordstrom, she said.

    “We are creatures of habit, said Barnes. “But it is not a bad deal to see what else is going on — and test something else.”

    —————-

    Follow Anne D’Innocenzio: http://twitter.com/ADInnocenzio

    AP Economics Writer Chris Rugaber in Washington contributed to this report.

    [ad_2]

    Source link