Can verbal instruction enhance the recall of an everyday task and promote error-monitoring in people with dementia of the Alzheimer-type?

People with dementia of the Alzheimer-type (DAT) have difficulties with performing everyday tasks and error awareness is poor. Here we investigated whether recall of actions and error monitoring in everyday task performance improved when they instructed another person on how to make tea. In this situation, both visual and motor cues are present, and attention sustained by the requirement to keep instructing. The data were drawn from a longitudinal study recording performance in four participants with DAT, filmed regularly for five years in their own homes, completing three tea-making conditions: performed-recall (they made tea themselves); instructed-recall (they instructed the experimenter on how to make tea); and verbal-recall (they described how to make tea). Accomplishment scores (percentage of task they correctly recalled), errors and error-monitoring were coded. Task accomplishment was comparable in the performed-recall and instructed-recall conditions, but both were significantly better than task accomplishment in the verbal-recall condition. Third person instruction did not improve error-monitoring. This study has implications for everyday task rehabilitation for people with DAT

Monitoring and evaluation of irrigation and drainage facilities for pilot distributaries in Sindh Province, Pakistan. Volume 2 - Bareji Distributary, Mirpurkhas District. Interim report

Irrigation management / Monitoring / Evaluation / Irrigation canals / Distributary canals / Drainage / Maintenance / Land use / Irrigation practices / Basin irrigation / Furrow irrigation / Water distribution / Equity / Flow discharge / Watercourses / Water table / Groundwater / Water quality / Pakistan / Sindh Province / Mirpurkhas District / Bareji Distributary

Fisebility study of collection and rearing of proleus stage of lobster (Panolirus homarus) in the cement tanks

The present study was carried out from late October2010 to end of June 2011. Executive operations were done in two stages; proleus catching from the sea and stocking/rearing them in a control conditions. Totally, it took 8 months from start to finish. The research objectives were; - Proleus catching techniques achievement. -Proleus keeping, stoking and rearing achievement. 32 pieces of proleus and post-proleus were collected by special installed collectors at the beneath of the sea. They were stocked after adaptation and initially biometry. In order to stocking, two 4th-tone tanks (one for proleus stage and another one for post-proleus stage) were applied. 0.77 gram and 11.8 gram was recorded as average weighted for proleus and post- proleus, respectively. Four stations were chosen for collecting of require samples. They were starched from west side of Ramin’s Jetty toward east. 84% of the samples were caught from the station two, using sandwich collectors. Collector’s efficiencies were compared to each others, in this study. A significant difference was observed between the sandwich collectors efficiency with the other collectors (p0.05). Comparison of the proleus abundance between stations showed a significant difference between station 2 and other stations, but there wasn’t any sig. difference between the stations number 2, 3 and 4, together (p>0.05). The samples were fed by fish waste, bivalves and squid. The amount of larval requirement food was calculated based on 15% of their body weight. During breading period, 50% of the rearing tanks water was exchanged, daily. Total weight, total length and carapace length was measured, monthly. 0.6 gram, 5.5 mm and 1 mm was recorded for mean total weight, mean total length and mean carapace length for proleus and 18.3 gram, 25.4 mm and 8 mm was recorded for mean total weight, mean total length and mean carapace length for post-proleus. According to the results, can be realized that growth rate in post-proleus was much faster than the growth rate of proleus. Finally, comparison of the total weight, total length and carapace length between proleus and post-proleus were showed a sig. differences between the two reared groups (p>0.05)

Profile of children with congenital adrenal hyperplasia - a hospital study

Objective: To collect baseline information on congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) and to identify relevant issues specific to this disease in Pakistan.Methods: A retrospective analysis of medical records of pediatric patients registered for serum 17 hydroxyprogesterone (17-OHP) measurement and documented to have CAH in the period 1987 to 1998 was carried out at The Aga Khan University, Karachi (AKU). The clinical notes were reviewed for documentation of CAH as the diagnosis.Results: Of the 152 children registered for 17-OHP testing, sixty-three were diagnosed with CAH. Salt wasting, simple virilization and non-classical CAH was found in 40 (63%), 18(29.0%) and 5 (8.0%) patients respectively. Twenty-one (33.9%) patients were incorrectly assigned sex and of these, 20 (32.2%) patients were females who were either considered males or just not assigned gender. Parental consanguinity was found in 33 (52.3%) cases. No case had a history of similar features in either parent but in 19 (30.6%) cases similar features were present in siblings. Sixteen cases (25.4%) had a history of sibling death in the neonatal period and 7 had a history of sibling death in infancy. Maternal obstetric histories identified 3 (4.8%) cases with a history of still birth(s) and 4 (6.4%) with a history of abortion(s).Conclusion: Children with CAH should be diagnosed early as a rational and judicious choice of sex assignment is a critical aspect of treatment. The high rate of consanguinity emphasized the need to establish the true incidence of the defect in Pakistani populatio

Night-to-night variation in sleep associates with day-to-day variation in vigilance, cognition, memory, and behavioral problems in Alzheimer's disease

Introduction Sleep disturbances are commonly reported in people living with Alzheimer's disease (AD), but it is currently unknown whether night-to-night variation in sleep predicts day-to-day variation in vigilance, cognition, mood, and behavior (daytime measures). Methods Subjective and objective sleep and daytime measures were collected daily for 2 weeks in 15 participants with mild AD, eight participants with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and 22 participants with no cognitive impairment (NCI). Associations between daytime measures and four principal components of sleep (duration, quality, continuity, and latency) were quantified using mixed-model regression. Results Sleepiness, alertness, contentedness, everyday memory errors, serial subtraction, and behavioral problems were predicted by at least one of the components of sleep, and in particular sleep duration and continuity. Associations between variations in sleep and daytime measures were linear or quadratic and often different between participants with AD and those with NCI. Discussion These findings imply that daytime functioning in people with AD may be improved by interventions that target sleep continuity

Effect of intensive versus standard blood pressure control on major adverse cardiac events and serious adverse events: A bivariate analysis of randomized controlled trials

Background: Intensive blood pressure (BP) lowering may offer protective effects against major adverse cardiac event (MACE) but is also associated with a greater risk of a serious adverse event (SAE). The risk-benefit profile of intensive versus standard BP control has not been comprehensively assessed. Methods: Four studies were identified from a systematic literature search for randomized controlled trials comparing intensive versus standard BP lowering that reported both MACE and SAE endpoints. A previously described statistical approach was applied to characterize the efficacy-safety tradeoff of BP control. The bivariate outcome was computed to quantitatively assess the net clinical benefit (NCB) of intensive BP lowering as compared to standard treatment, with positive values indicating increased risks and negative values indicating decreased risks. Results: Data from the SPRINT trial demonstrated that intensive strategy was superior in MACE but inferior in SAE, thereby eroding the NCB (bivariate outcome: 0.33% [−0.50% to 1.21%]). Intensive strategy from the SPS3 trial fulfilled non-inferiority in both MACE and SAE but did not reach a favorable NCB (−1.31% [−2.25% to 0.01%]). The ACCORD trial suggested that intensive strategy was non-inferior in MACE but inferior in SAE (−0.19% [−0.79% to 1.37%]). Results from the VALISH trial were inconclusive for SAE but suggested non-inferiority in MACE (−1.19% [−3.24% to 0.68%]). Conclusions: Compared to the standard blood pressure target, pooled data from randomized controlled trials suggest that intensive strategy did not achieve a net clinical benefit when weighing the benefit of MACE reduction against the risk of SAE under the bivariate framework.Abbreviations: Blood pressure (BP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), major adverse cardiac event (MACE), net clinical benefit (NCB), serious adverse event (SAE), systolic blood pressure (SBP)