Smoking, dementia and cognitive decline in the elderly, a systematic review.

Background. Nicotine may aid reaction time, learning and memory, but smoking increases cardiovascular risk. Cardiovascular risk factors have been linked to increased risk of dementia. A previous meta-analysis found that current smokers were at higher risk of subsequent dementia, Alzheimers disease, vascular dementia and cognitive decline. Methods. In order to update and examine this further a systematic review and meta-analysis was carried out using different search and inclusion criteria, database selection and more recent publications. Both reviews were restricted to those aged 65 and over. Results. The review reported here found a significantly increased risk of Alzheimers disease with current smoking and a likely but not significantly increased risk of vascular dementia, dementia unspecified and cognitive decline. Neither review found clear relationships with former smoking. Conclusion. Current smoking increases risk of Alzheimers disease and may increase risk of other dementias. This reinforces need for smoking cessation, particularly aged 65 and over. Nicotine alone needs further investigation. © 2008 Peters et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

A computer aided teleoperator system Final report

Computer aided teleoperator system for remote handling task

Age differences in the use of serving size information on food labels: numeracy or attention?

ObjectiveThe ability to use serving size information on food labels is important for managing age-related chronic conditions such as diabetes, obesity and cancer. Past research suggests that older adults are at risk for failing to accurately use this portion of the food label due to numeracy skills. However, the extent to which older adults pay attention to serving size information on packages is unclear. We compared the effects of numeracy and attention on age differences in accurate use of serving size information while individuals evaluated product healthfulness.DesignAccuracy and attention were assessed across two tasks in which participants compared nutrition labels of two products to determine which was more healthful if they were to consume the entire package. Participants' eye movements were monitored as a measure of attention while they compared two products presented side-by-side on a computer screen. Numeracy as well as food label habits and nutrition knowledge were assessed using questionnaires.SettingSacramento area, California, USA, 2013-2014.SubjectsStratified sample of 358 adults, aged 20-78 years.ResultsAccuracy declined with age among those older adults who paid less attention to serving size information. Although numeracy, nutrition knowledge and self-reported food label use supported accuracy, these factors did not influence age differences in accuracy.ConclusionsThe data suggest that older adults are less accurate than younger adults in their use of serving size information. Age differences appear to be more related to lack of attention to serving size information than to numeracy skills

Differentiating human versus non-human bone by exploring the nutrient foramen: implications for forensic anthropology

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)One of the roles of a forensic anthropologist is to assist medico-legal investigations in the identification of human skeletal remains. In some instances, only small fragments of bone may be present. In this study, a non-destructive novel technique is presented to distinguish between human and non-human long bones. This technique is based on the macroscopic and computed tomography (CT) analysis of nutrient foramina. The nutrient foramen of long bone diaphyses transmits the nutrient artery which provides much of the oxygen and nutrients to the bone. The nutrient foramen and its canal were analysed in six femora and humeri of human, sheep (Ovies aries) and pig (Sus scrofa) species. The location, position and direction of the nutrient foramina were measured macroscopically. The length of the canal, angle of the canal, circumference and area of the entrance of the foramen were measured from CT images. Macroscopic analysis revealed the femora nutrient foramina are more proximal, whereas humeri foramina are more distal. The human bones and sheep humerus conform to the perceived directionality, but the pig bones and sheep femur do not. Amongst the parameters measured in the CT analysis, the angle of the canal had a discriminatory power. This study shows the potential of this technique to be used independently or complementary to other methods in distinguishing between human and non-human bone in forensic anthropology

Interpretable classification of Alzheimer's disease pathologies with a convolutional neural network pipeline.

Neuropathologists assess vast brain areas to identify diverse and subtly-differentiated morphologies. Standard semi-quantitative scoring approaches, however, are coarse-grained and lack precise neuroanatomic localization. We report a proof-of-concept deep learning pipeline that identifies specific neuropathologies-amyloid plaques and cerebral amyloid angiopathy-in immunohistochemically-stained archival slides. Using automated segmentation of stained objects and a cloud-based interface, we annotate > 70,000 plaque candidates from 43 whole slide images (WSIs) to train and evaluate convolutional neural networks. Networks achieve strong plaque classification on a 10-WSI hold-out set (0.993 and 0.743 areas under the receiver operating characteristic and precision recall curve, respectively). Prediction confidence maps visualize morphology distributions at high resolution. Resulting network-derived amyloid beta (Aβ)-burden scores correlate well with established semi-quantitative scores on a 30-WSI blinded hold-out. Finally, saliency mapping demonstrates that networks learn patterns agreeing with accepted pathologic features. This scalable means to augment a neuropathologist's ability suggests a route to neuropathologic deep phenotyping

Event-Driven Network Programming

Software-defined networking (SDN) programs must simultaneously describe static forwarding behavior and dynamic updates in response to events. Event-driven updates are critical to get right, but difficult to implement correctly due to the high degree of concurrency in networks. Existing SDN platforms offer weak guarantees that can break application invariants, leading to problems such as dropped packets, degraded performance, security violations, etc. This paper introduces EVENT-DRIVEN CONSISTENT UPDATES that are guaranteed to preserve well-defined behaviors when transitioning between configurations in response to events. We propose NETWORK EVENT STRUCTURES (NESs) to model constraints on updates, such as which events can be enabled simultaneously and causal dependencies between events. We define an extension of the NetKAT language with mutable state, give semantics to stateful programs using NESs, and discuss provably-correct strategies for implementing NESs in SDNs. Finally, we evaluate our approach empirically, demonstrating that it gives well-defined consistency guarantees while avoiding expensive synchronization and packet buffering

Misunderstanding of Front-Of-Package Nutrition Information on US Food Products.

Front-of-package nutrition symbols (FOPs) are presumably readily noticeable and require minimal prior nutrition knowledge to use. Although there is evidence to support this notion, few studies have focused on Facts Up Front type symbols which are used in the US. Participants with varying levels of prior knowledge were asked to view two products and decide which was more healthful. FOPs on packages were manipulated so that one product was more healthful, allowing us to assess accuracy. Attention to nutrition information was assessed via eye tracking to determine what if any FOP information was used to make their decisions. Results showed that accuracy was below chance on half of the comparisons despite consulting FOPs. Negative correlations between attention to calories, fat, and sodium and accuracy indicated that consumers over-relied on these nutrients. Although relatively little attention was allocated to fiber and sugar, associations between attention and accuracy were positive. Attention to vitamin D showed no association to accuracy, indicating confusion surrounding what constitutes a meaningful change across products. Greater nutrition knowledge was associated with greater accuracy, even when less attention was paid. Individuals, particularly those with less knowledge, are misled by calorie, sodium, and fat information on FOPs

Transition-metal complexes with oxidoborates. Synthesis and XRD characterization of [(H3NCH2CH2NH2)Zn{κ3O,O′,O′′-B12O18(OH)6-κ1O′′′}Zn(en)(NH2CH2CH2NH3)]·8H2O (en=1,2-diaminoethane): a neutral bimetallic zwiterionic polyborate system containing the ‘isolated’ dodecaborate(6−) anion

The title compound, [(H3NCH2CH2NH2)Zn{κ3O,O′,O′′-B12O18(OH)6-κ1O′′′}Zn(en)(NH2CH2CH2NH3)]·8H2O (en=1,2-diaminoethane) (1), was prepared as a crystalline solid in moderate yield from the reaction of B(OH)3 with [Zn(en)3][OH]2 in aqueous solution (15:1) ratio. The structure contains a neutral bimetallic complex comprised of a unusual dodecaborate(6-) anion ligating two [H3NCH2CH2NH2Zn(en)n]3+ centers in a monodentate (n=1) or tridentate (n=0) manner.</p