Browsing by Author "Mez, Jesse"

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    Alzheimer's disease genetic risk variants beyond APOE ε4 predict mortality
    (Elsevier, 2017-08-24) Mez, Jesse; Marden, Jessica R.; Mukherjee, Shubhabrata; Walter, Stefan; Gibbons, Laura E.; Gross, Alden L.; Zahodne, Laura B.; Gilsanz, Paola; Brewster, Paul; Nho, Kwangsik; Crane, Paul K.; Larson, Eric B.; Glymour, M. Maria; Radiology and Imaging Sciences, School of Medicine
    • A genetic risk score from 21 non-APOE late-onset Alzheimer's disease risk variants predicts mortality. • The genetic risk score likely confers risk for mortality through its effect on dementia incidence. • Late-onset Alzheimer's disease risk loci effect estimates from genome-wide association unlikely suffer from selection bias.
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    Alzheimer’s Disease Heterogeneity Explained by Polygenic Risk Scores Derived from Brain Transcriptomic Profiles
    (Wiley, 2023) Chung, Jaeyoon; Sahelijo, Nathan; Maruyama, Toru; Hu, Junming; Panitch, Rebecca; Xia, Weiming; Mez, Jesse; Stein, Thor D.; Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative; Saykin, Andrew J.; Takeyama, Haruko; Farrer, Lindsay A.; Crane, Paul K.; Nho, Kwangsik; Jun, Gyungah R.; Radiology and Imaging Sciences, School of Medicine
    Introduction: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is heterogeneous, both clinically and neuropathologically. We investigated whether polygenic risk scores (PRSs) integrated with transcriptome profiles from AD brains can explain AD clinical heterogeneity. Methods: We conducted co-expression network analysis and identified gene sets (modules) that were preserved in three AD transcriptome datasets and associated with AD-related neuropathological traits including neuritic plaques (NPs) and neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs). We computed the module-based PRSs (mbPRSs) for each module and tested associations with mbPRSs for cognitive test scores, cognitively defined AD subgroups, and brain imaging data. Results: Of the modules significantly associated with NPs and/or NFTs, the mbPRSs from two modules (M6 and M9) showed distinct associations with language and visuospatial functioning, respectively. They matched clinical subtypes and brain atrophy at specific regions. Discussion: Our findings demonstrate that polygenic profiling based on co-expressed gene sets can explain heterogeneity in AD patients, enabling genetically informed patient stratification and precision medicine in AD. Highlights: Co-expression gene-network analysis in Alzheimer's disease (AD) brains identified gene sets (modules) associated with AD heterogeneity. AD-associated modules were selected when genes in each module were enriched for neuritic plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. Polygenic risk scores from two selected modules were linked to the matching cognitively defined AD subgroups (language and visuospatial subgroups). Polygenic risk scores from the two modules were associated with cognitive performance in language and visuospatial domains and the associations were confirmed in regional-specific brain atrophy data.
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    Amyloid PET predicts longitudinal functional and cognitive trajectories in a heterogeneous cohort
    (Wiley, 2025) Younes, Kyan; Johns, Emily; Young, Christina B.; Kennedy, Gabriel; Mukherjee, Shubhabrata; Vossler, Hillary A.; Winer, Joseph; Cody, Karly; Henderson, Victor W.; Poston, Kathleen L.; Betthauser, Tobey J.; Bevis, Bill; Brooks, William M.; Burns, Jeffrey M.; Coombes, Stephen A.; DeCarli, Charles; DiFilippo, Frank P.; Duara, Ranjan; Fan, Audrey P.; Gibbons, Laura E.; Golde, Todd; Johnson, Sterling C.; Lepping, Rebecca J.; Leverenz, James; McDougall, Sean; Rogalski, Emily; Sanders, Elizabeth; Pasaye, Joshua; Sridhar, Jaiashre; Saykin, Andrew J.; Sridharan, Anjali; Swerdlow, Russell; Trittschuh, Emily H.; Vaillancourt, David; Vidoni, Eric; Wang, Wei-En; Mez, Jesse; Hohman, Timothy J.; Tosun, Duygu; Biber, Sarah; Kukull, Walter A.; Crane, Paul K.; Mormino, Elizabeth C.; Radiology and Imaging Sciences, School of Medicine
    Introduction: Amyloid positron emission tomography (PET) is increasingly available for diagnosis of Alzheimer`s disease (AD); however, its practical implications in heterogenous cohorts are debated. Methods: Amyloid PET from 890 National Alzheimer`s Coordinating Center participants with up to 10 years post-PET follow up was analyzed. Cox proportional hazards and linear mixed models were used to investigate amyloid burden prediction of etiology and prospective functional status and cognitive decline. Results: Amyloid positivity was associated with progression from unimpaired to mild cognitive impairment and dementia. Amyloid burden in the unimpaired group was associated with lower initial memory levels and faster decline in memory, language, and global cognition. In the Impaired group, amyloid was associated with lower initial levels and faster decline for memory, language, executive function, and global cognition. Discussion: Amyloid burden is an important prognostic marker in a clinically heterogeneous cohort. Future work is needed to establish the proportion of decline driven by AD versus non-AD processes in the context of mixed pathology. Highlights: Our findings highlight the importance of amyloid positron emission tomography (PET) in heterogenous cohorts, including diverse demographics, clinical syndromes, and underlying etiologies. The results also provide evidence that higher amyloid levels were linked to functional progression from unimpaired cognition to mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and from MCI to dementia. In cognitively unimpaired individuals, higher amyloid burden was associated with poorer memory at baseline and subsequent declines in memory, language, and global cognition. Among individuals with cognitive impairment, amyloid burden was associated with worse initial memory, language, executive function, and global cognition, and faster declines over time.
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    Association of amyloid and cardiovascular risk with cognition: Findings from KBASE
    (Wiley, 2024) Chaudhuri, Soumilee; Dempsey, Desarae A.; Huang, Yen-Ning; Park, Tamina; Cao, Sha; Chumin, Evgeny J.; Craft, Hannah; Crane, Paul K.; Mukherjee, Shubhabrata; Choi, Seo-Eun; Scollard, Phoebe; Lee, Michael; Nakano, Connie; Mez, Jesse; Trittschuh, Emily H.; Klinedinst, Brandon S.; Hohman, Timothy J.; Lee, Jun-Young; Kang, Koung Mi; Sohn, Chul-Ho; Kim, Yu Kyeong; Yi, Dahyun; Byun, Min Soo; Risacher, Shannon L.; Nho, Kwangsik; Saykin, Andrew J.; Lee, Dong Young; KBASE Research Group; Radiology and Imaging Sciences, School of Medicine
    Background: Limited research has explored the effect of cardiovascular risk and amyloid interplay on cognitive decline in East Asians. Methods: Vascular burden was quantified using Framingham's General Cardiovascular Risk Score (FRS) in 526 Korean Brain Aging Study (KBASE) participants. Cognitive differences in groups stratified by FRS and amyloid positivity were assessed at baseline and longitudinally. Results: Baseline analyses revealed that amyloid-negative (Aβ-) cognitively normal (CN) individuals with high FRS had lower cognition compared to Aβ- CN individuals with low FRS (p < 0.0001). Longitudinally, amyloid pathology predominantly drove cognitive decline, while FRS alone had negligible effects on cognition in CN and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) groups. Conclusion: Our findings indicate that managing vascular risk may be crucial in preserving cognition in Aβ- individuals early on and before the clinical manifestation of dementia. Within the CN and MCI groups, irrespective of FRS status, amyloid-positive individuals had worse cognitive performance than Aβ- individuals. Highlights: Vascular risk significantly affects cognition in amyloid-negative older Koreans. Amyloid-negative CN older adults with high vascular risk had lower baseline cognition. Amyloid pathology drives cognitive decline in CN and MCI, regardless of vascular risk. The study underscores the impact of vascular health on the AD disease spectrum.
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    Associations between Amyloid, Cardiovascular Risk, and Cognitive Function in Korean Older Adults: Insights from the KBASE Cohort
    (Wiley, 2025-01-09) Chaudhuri, Soumilee; Dempsey, Desarae A.; Huang, Yen-Ning; Cao, Sha; Chumin, Evgeny J.; Craft, Hannah; Crane, Paul K.; Mukherjee, Shubhabrata; Choi, Seo-Eun; Lee, Michael L.; Scollard, Phoebe; Mez, Jesse; Trittschuh, Emily H.; Klinedinst, Brandon S.; Nakano, Connie; Hohman, Timothy J.; Yi, Dahyun; Byun, Min Soo; Risacher, Shannon L.; Nho, Kwangsik; Saykin, Andrew J.; Lee, Dong Young; Korean Brain Aging Study for the Early Diagnosis and Prediction of Alzheimer’s Disease (KBASE); Radiology and Imaging Sciences, School of Medicine
    Background: Understanding the relationship between cardiovascular burden, amyloid, and cognition in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is essential for targeted interventions, especially in ethnically diverse populations where research remains limited. This study aimed to investigate these relationships in a cohort of Korean older adults along the AD spectrum. Method: 526 participants from the Korean Brain Aging Study for the Early Diagnosis and Prediction of Alzheimer’s Disease (KBASE) cohort were included in this study. Vascular burden was quantified using Framingham Risk Score (FRS) and participants were categorized into four groups based on combinations of FRS (FRS High or FRS Low with a median split) and amyloid status (Aβ+ or Aβ‐ based on a cut‐off of 1.2373). Cognitive function was evaluated using standardized neuropsychological tests processed with structural equation models to produce domain scores for memory, executive functioning, language, and visuospatial. ANOVA was employed at baseline to analyze cognitive differences among these groups and within each clinical diagnosis. Longitudinal mixed effects models spanning a period of four years from the initial visit captured cognitive changes over time within these groups (Figure 1). Result: Significant group and pairwise differences were observed among the four groups in all cognitive domains (p < 0.0001). Stratified analysis within each clinical diagnoses group revealed that CN individuals in FRS high Aβ‐ demonstrated significantly lower memory scores compared to those with FRS low Aβ‐ (p < 0.0001), this trend was absent from MCI and AD groups (Figure 2). Longitudinally, FRS high Aβ+ and FRS low Aβ+ groups consistently demonstrated lower memory scores compared to the FRS low Aβ‐ group. Interestingly, no significant difference in cognition was observed between FRS high Aβ‐ and FRS low Aβ‐ groups over time. However, the most pronounced divergence in longitudinal cognition of the four FRS and Amyloid groups was observed within the MCI diagnosis group (Figure 3). Conclusion: This study highlights the differential impact of cardiovascular risk on cognition depending on amyloid status and clinical diagnosis group. This underscores the importance of considering both cardiovascular risk factors and amyloid pathology early‐on in understanding clinical manifestation and cognitive decline in the AD spectrum, particularly in ethnically diverse populations.
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    Characterization of Language Profiles in Cognitively‐Defined Subgroups of Alzheimer’s Disease
    (Wiley, 2025-01-03) Gallée, Jeanne; Gibbons, Laura E.; Mukherjee, Shubhabrata; Scollard, Phoebe; Choi, Seo-Eun; James, Bryan D.; Klinedinst, Brandon S.; Lee, Michael L.; Mez, Jesse; Trittschuh, Emily H.; Saykin, Andrew J.; Crane, Paul K.; Medical and Molecular Genetics, School of Medicine
    Background: The relationship between Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathology and the associated clinical syndrome a patient presents with remains indeterminate. Cognitively‐defined subgroups of AD have revealed distinctions based on relative cognitive impairments, including AD‐Language, where challenges in language are substantial, and AD‐No Domain, where no relative asymmetries across cognitive domains occur. Pathological features of AD have been associated as the primary neuropathology of the logopenic variant of primary progressive aphasia (lvPPA). Hallmark clinical features of lvPPA include relatively spared comprehension in the face of decline in naming and repetition abilities. This work aimed to test the hypothesis that the lvPPA language profile was overrepresented in AD‐Language when compared to AD‐No Domain. Method: Measures of verbal comprehension, confrontation naming, and phrase‐level repetition were obtained from all participants from the Religious Orders Study (ROS), the RUSH Memory and Aging Project (MAP) and the Minority Aging Research Study (MARS) using confirmatory factor analyses. We subsetted the data to include participants belonging to the AD‐Language and AD‐No Domain groups at their initial AD diagnosis visit. We compared patterns of language profiles based on strengths and weaknesses in comprehension, naming, and repetition. Pearson’s Chi‐squared tests with Yates continuity correction was used to test if the language patterns were statistically different between the two AD subgroups. Results: We analyzed language performance in 642 participants across AD‐Language (31.8%) and AD‐No Domain (68.2%) groups (Table 1). Thresholds were based on AD‐No Domain and set as the median for each subdomain (comprehension = ‐.101, naming = ‐.957, repetition = .233) to establish whether a score represented a relative strength or weakness in the language profile. Eight patterns of language profiles based on strengths and weaknesses in comprehension, naming, and repetition were formed (Figure 1). The distribution of language patterns differed significantly between AD‐Language and AD‐No Domain (χ2 = 97.6, p <.001). Furthermore, the lvPPA pattern was found more frequently in AD‐Language (χ2 = 28.1, p <.001). Conclusion: Heterogeneity within the AD‐Language spectrum includes a significant proportion that is consistent with the language profile of lvPPA. Relative performance in domains of verbal comprehension, confrontation naming, and phrase‐level repetition varied by AD subgroup.
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    Cognitively defined Alzheimer's dementia subgroups have distinct atrophy patterns
    (Wiley, 2024) Crane, Paul K.; Groot, Colin; Ossenkoppele, Rik; Mukherjee, Shubhabrata; Choi, Seo-Eun; Lee, Michael; Scollard, Phoebe; Gibbons, Laura E.; Sanders, R. Elizabeth; Trittschuh, Emily; Saykin, Andrew J.; Mez, Jesse; Nakano, Connie; Mac Donald, Christine; Sohi, Harkirat; Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative; Risacher, Shannon; Medicine, School of Medicine
    Introduction: We sought to determine structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) characteristics across subgroups defined based on relative cognitive domain impairments using data from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) and to compare cognitively defined to imaging-defined subgroups. Methods: We used data from 584 people with Alzheimer's disease (AD) (461 amyloid positive, 123 unknown amyloid status) and 118 amyloid-negative controls. We used voxel-based morphometry to compare gray matter volume (GMV) for each group compared to controls and to AD-Memory. Results: There was pronounced bilateral lower medial temporal lobe atrophy with relative cortical sparing for AD-Memory, lower left hemisphere GMV for AD-Language, anterior lower GMV for AD-Executive, and posterior lower GMV for AD-Visuospatial. Formal asymmetry comparisons showed substantially more asymmetry in the AD-Language group than any other group (p = 1.15 × 10-10 ). For overlap between imaging-defined and cognitively defined subgroups, AD-Memory matched up with an imaging-defined limbic predominant group. Discussion: MRI findings differ across cognitively defined AD subgroups.
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    Differential patterns of gray matter volumes and associated gene expression profiles in cognitively-defined Alzheimer's disease subgroups
    (Elsevier, 2021) Groot, Colin; Grothe, Michel J.; Mukherjee, Shubhabrata; Jelistratova, Irina; Jansen, Iris; van Loenhoud, Anna Catharina; Risacher, Shannon L.; Saykin, Andrew J.; Mac Donald, Christine L.; Mez, Jesse; Trittschuh, Emily H.; Gryglewski, Gregor; Lanzenberger, Rupert; Pijnenburg, Yolande A.L.; Barkhof, Frederik; Scheltens, Philip; van der Flier, Wiesje M.; Crane, Paul K.; Ossenkoppele, Rik; Radiology and Imaging Sciences, School of Medicine
    The clinical presentation of Alzheimer's disease (AD) varies widely across individuals but the neurobiological mechanisms underlying this heterogeneity are largely unknown. Here, we compared regional gray matter (GM) volumes and associated gene expression profiles between cognitively-defined subgroups of amyloid-β positive individuals clinically diagnosed with AD dementia (age: 66 ± 7, 47% male, MMSE: 21 ± 5). All participants underwent neuropsychological assessment with tests covering memory, executive-functioning, language and visuospatial-functioning domains. Subgroup classification was achieved using a psychometric framework that assesses which cognitive domain shows substantial relative impairment compared to the intra-individual average across domains, which yielded the following subgroups in our sample; AD-Memory (n = 41), AD-Executive (n = 117), AD-Language (n = 33), AD-Visuospatial (n = 171). We performed voxel-wise contrasts of GM volumes derived from 3Tesla structural MRI between subgroups and controls (n = 127, age 58 ± 9, 42% male, MMSE 29 ± 1), and observed that differences in regional GM volumes compared to controls closely matched the respective cognitive profiles. Specifically, we detected lower medial temporal lobe GM volumes in AD-Memory, lower fronto-parietal GM volumes in AD-Executive, asymmetric GM volumes in the temporal lobe (left < right) in AD-Language, and lower GM volumes in posterior areas in AD-Visuospatial. In order to examine possible biological drivers of these differences in regional GM volumes, we correlated subgroup-specific regional GM volumes to brain-wide gene expression profiles based on a stereotactic characterization of the transcriptional architecture of the human brain as provided by the Allen human brain atlas. Gene-set enrichment analyses revealed that variations in regional expression of genes involved in processes like mitochondrial respiration and metabolism of proteins were associated with patterns of regional GM volume across multiple subgroups. Other gene expression vs GM volume-associations were only detected in particular subgroups, e.g., genes involved in the cell cycle for AD-Memory, specific sets of genes related to protein metabolism in AD-Language, and genes associated with modification of gene expression in AD-Visuospatial. We conclude that cognitively-defined AD subgroups show neurobiological differences, and distinct biological pathways may be involved in the emergence of these differences.
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    Differential trajectories of hypometabolism across cognitively-defined Alzheimer’s disease subgroups
    (Elsevier, 2021) Groot, Colin; Risacher, Shannon L.; Chen, J.Q. Alida; Dicks, Ellen; Saykin, Andrew J.; MacDonald, Christine L.; Mez, Jesse; Trittschuh, Emily H.; Mukherjee, Shubhabrata; Barkhof, Frederik; Scheltens, Philip; van der Flier, Wiesje M.; Ossenkoppele, Rik; Crane, Paul K.; Radiology and Imaging Sciences, School of Medicine
    Disentangling biologically distinct subgroups of Alzheimer's disease (AD) may facilitate a deeper understanding of the neurobiology underlying clinical heterogeneity. We employed longitudinal [18F]FDG-PET standardized uptake value ratios (SUVRs) to map hypometabolism across cognitively-defined AD subgroups. Participants were 384 amyloid-positive individuals with an AD dementia diagnosis from ADNI who had a total of 1028 FDG-scans (mean time between first and last scan: 1.6 ± 1.8 years). These participants were categorized into subgroups on the basis of substantial impairment at time of dementia diagnosis in a specific cognitive domain relative to the average across domains. This approach resulted in groups of AD-Memory (n = 135), AD-Executive (n = 8), AD-Language (n = 22), AD-Visuospatial (n = 44), AD-Multiple Domains (n = 15) and AD-No Domains (for whom no domain showed substantial relative impairment; n = 160). Voxelwise contrasts against controls revealed that all AD-subgroups showed progressive hypometabolism compared to controls across temporoparietal regions at time of AD diagnosis. Voxelwise and regions-of-interest (ROI)-based linear mixed model analyses revealed there were also subgroup-specific hypometabolism patterns and trajectories. The AD-Memory group had more pronounced hypometabolism compared to all other groups in the medial temporal lobe and posterior cingulate, and faster decline in metabolism in the medial temporal lobe compared to AD-Visuospatial. The AD-Language group had pronounced lateral temporal hypometabolism compared to all other groups, and the pattern of metabolism was also more asymmetrical (left < right) than all other groups. The AD-Visuospatial group had faster decline in metabolism in parietal regions compared to all other groups, as well as faster decline in the precuneus compared to AD-Memory and AD-No Domains. Taken together, in addition to a common pattern, cognitively-defined subgroups of people with AD dementia show subgroup-specific hypometabolism patterns, as well as differences in trajectories of metabolism over time. These findings provide support to the notion that cognitively-defined subgroups are biologically distinct.
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    Epigenetic age acceleration and cognitive resilience in the Framingham Heart Study
    (Wiley, 2025-01-03) Dacey, Ryan; Durape, Shruti; Wang, Mengyao; Hwang, Phillip H.; Gurnani, Ashita S.; Ang, Ting Fang Alvin; Devine, Sherral A.; Choi, Seo-Eun; Lee, Michael L.; Scollard, Phoebe; Gibbons, Laura E.; Mukherjee, Shubhabrata; Trittschuh, Emily H.; Sherva, Richard; Dumitrescu, Logan C.; Hohman, Timothy J.; Cuccaro, Michael L.; Saykin, Andrew J.; Crane, Paul K.; Li, Yi; Levy, Daniel; Ma, Jiantao; Liu, Chunyu; Lunetta, Kathryn L.; Au, Rhoda; Farrer, Lindsay A.; Mez, Jesse; Radiology and Imaging Sciences, School of Medicine
    Background: There is growing evidence that epigenetic age acceleration may predict late life cognitive decline and dementia, but it is unknown whether this is due to accelerated neurodegeneration or reduction in cognitive resilience. We examined the relationship between epigenetic clocks and domain specific neuropsychological (NP) factor scores, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), and all‐cause dementia, before and after accounting for plasma total tau (t‐tau), a marker of neurodegeneration. Method: DNA methylation and plasma t‐tau (Simoa assay; Quanterix) data from 2091 Framingham Heart Study Offspring cohort participants were generated from blood at the same Exam 8 visit (2005‐2008). Three epigenetic clock measures: DunedinPACE, PC PhenoAge, and PC GrimAge were estimated from the DNA methylation data. Longitudinal NP factor scores were previously derived for memory, language, and executive function using confirmatory factor analysis. We tested the association of epigenetic age acceleration with cognitive trajectories using linear mixed effects models and with time to MCI, all‐cause dementia and AD using Cox‐proportional hazard models. Models were run with and without adjustment for plasma t‐tau. All models included APOE ε4‐carrier status, education, smoking, age, and sex as covariates. Epigenetic measures were standardized in all models. Result: At Exam 8, the sample was, on average, 66.3 (SD = 9.0) years of age, 54.8% female, and had 16.4 (SD = 2.7) years of education. DundeinPACE was significantly associated with faster decline in executive function (βtimeXepi_age = ‐0.005, 95% CI:[‐0.009,‐0.002], p = 0.0020), but not with baseline executive function. Older PhenoAge (βepi_age = ‐0.041, 95% CI:[‐0.067,‐0.014], p = 0.0028) and GrimAge (βepi_age = ‐0.042, 95% CI:[‐0.073,‐0.011], p = 0.0084) were significantly associated with worse baseline executive function, but not with rate of decline. Older PhenoAge also was significantly associated with worse baseline memory (βepi_age = ‐0.037, 95% CI:[‐0.061,‐0.012], p = 0.0036). DunedinPACE was significantly associated with time to MCI (HR = 1.20, 95% CI:[1.06,1.35], p = 0.0034), AD (HR = 1.30, 95% CI:[1.07,1.57], p = 0.0068) and all‐cause dementia (HR = 1.30, 95% CI:[1.10,1.53], p = 0.0017). Results remained similar after adjustment for plasma t‐tau. Conclusion: Epigenetic age acceleration may be a marker of cognitive resilience, particularly in executive function. Of the three epigenetic clocks examined, DundedinPACE showed the most robust associations with cognitive resilience, with lower DunedinPACE associated with greater cognitive resilience.