The scope of preserved procedural memory in amnesia

The finding that patients with amnesia retain the ability to learn certain procedural skills has provided compelling evidence of multiple memory systems in the human brain, but the scope, defining features and ecological significance of the preserved mnemonic abilities have not yet been explored. Here, we tested the hypothesis that subjects with amnesia would be able to learn and retain a broad range of procedural skills, by examining their acquisition and retention performance on five novel experimental tasks. The tasks are based on real-world activities and encompass a broad range of perceptual–motor demands: (i) the weaving task involves weaving pieces of fabric from woollen strings, using a manual weaver’s loom; (ii) the geometric figures task consists of tracing geometric figures with a stylus as they move horizontally across a touch screen monitor; (iii) the control stick task involves tracking a sequence of visual target locations using a joystick control; (iv) the pouring task consists of pouring 200 ml of water from a watering can into a series of graduated cylinders, from a point 20 cm above the cylinders; and (v) the spatial sequence task involves learning an ordered sequence of pushing five spatially distributed buttons without visual guidance. Ten chronic and stable amnesic subjects (nine with bilateral medial temporal lobe damage due to herpes simplex encephalitis or anoxia, and one with thalamic stroke) and 25 matching normal comparison subjects were tested on three occasions: initial learning at time 1; retention at time 2 (24 h later); and retention at time 3 (2 months later). Despite impaired declarative memory for the tasks, the amnesic subjects demonstrated acquisition and retention of the five skills; their learning slopes over repeated trials were comparable with those of comparison subjects. These findings indicate that preserved learning of complex perceptual–motor skills in patients with amnesia is a robust phenomenon, and that it can be demonstrated across a variety of conditions and perceptual– motor demands. The comparability of the tasks employed in this study with real-world activities highlights the potential application of this memory dissociation in the rehabilitation of patients with amnesi

Clinical, Molecular Characterization and Long-Term Follow-Up of a Patient with Neonatal Severe Hyperparathyroidism

Heterozygous inactivating pathogenic variants of the calcium-sensing receptor encoding gene cause autosomal dominant familial hypocalciuric hypercalcemia, whereas mutations that inactivate both alleles cause neonatal severe hyperparathyroidism, a rare and potentially fatal disease. We present the clinical and genetic characterization of a Portuguese family with familial hypocalciuric hypercalcemia/neonatal severe hyperparathyroidism as well as the long-term follow-up of the proband. The newborn was admitted due to progressive hypotonia, feeding refusal, and dehydration. Serum calcium and parathormone levels were markedly increased. Radiological evaluation revealed osteopenia and several fractures. Total parathyroidectomy with the reimplantation of a quarter of one gland was performed. At 15 years old, she is clinically well, has normal calcium levels, and detectable parathormone values while under calcium and α-calcidiol treatment. Calcium-sensing receptor encoding gene sequencing revealed a germline homozygous nonsense pathogenic variant later confirmed as inherited.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Enzymatic hydrophobization of jute fabrics and its effect on the mechanical and interfacial properties of jute/PP composites

In this work, a hydrophobic surface of lignocellulosic jute fabric was achieved via the laccase-mediated grafting of octadecylamine (OA) on lignin moieties of jute aiming to improve the interfacial compatibility with the hydrophobic polypropylene (PP) resins in the fiber-reinforced composites. Firstly, the surface and total elemental compositions of the modified jute fabrics were investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and elemental analysis, respectively. The increases in the surface C/O ratio and total nitrogen content of jute fabrics after the laccase/OA treatment indicated that OA molecules were successfully grafted onto the jute surface mediated by laccase. The grafting percentage of OA on jute fabrics was 0.96%. The surface hydrophobicity of jute fabrics with static contact angle of 112.5°, advancing angle of 116.4° and receding angle of 42.7° supported the presence of nonpolar alkyl chains on the jute surface after the laccase-mediated OA-grafting. The tensile strength, tensile modulus as well as the elongation at break of the hydrophobized jute/PP composites were increased. The fracture surface of the composites became neat and the jute fibers on the section surface were surrounded by PP resins closely, which suggested better interfacial adhesion between the jute reinforcement and the PP resin.This work was financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (51173071), Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (NCET-12-0883), Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University (RT_15R26), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (JUSRP51312B, JUSRP51505)

A framework for robustness assessment in the context of corroded RC structures

Structural robustness is an emergent concept related to the structural response to damage. At the present time, robustness is not well defined and much controversy still remains around this subject. Even if robustness has seen growing interest as a consequence of catastrophic consequences due to extreme events, the fact is that the concept can also be very useful when considered on more probable exposure scenarios such as deterioration, among others. This paper intends to be a contribution to the definition of structural robustness, especially in the analysis of reinforced concrete structures subjected to corrosion. To achieve this, first of all, several proposed robustness definitions and indicators and misunderstood concepts will be analyzed and compared. From this point and regarding a concept that could be applied to most type of structures and dam-age scenarios, a robustness definition is proposed. To illustrate the proposed concept, an example of corroded reinforced concrete structures will be analyzed using nonlinear analysis numerical methods based on a contin-uum strong discontinuities approach and isotropic damage models for concrete. Finally the robustness of the presented example will be assessed.COST Action TU-0601; Fundação para Ciência e Tecnologi

Purification and mechanistic characterisation of two polygalacturonases from Sclerotium rolfsii

Sclerotium rolfsii (strain CBS 350.80) was found to produce extraordinary high amounts of polygalacturonases (PGs). Two of these extracellular enzymes were purified by a recently introduced preparative electrophoretic device (isoelectric focusing mode of free flow electrophoresis). PG 1 (39.5 kDa, pI 6.5) and PG 2 (38 kDa, pI 5.4) exhibited quite similar properties, they were found to be both endo-acting enzymes. Both PGs cleaved penta- and trigalacturonic acid while tetragalacturonic acid was only cleaved when trigalacturonic acid was present. The latter substrate was hydrolysed much faster by PG 2. Both enzymes were active on pectins with different degrees of esterification, they were sensitive towards Ca-cations and not glycosylated. The kinetic properties were measured by viscosimetry with polygalacturonic acid as a substrate. NMR experiments on a model substrate revealed an inverting mechanism of carbohydrate hydrolysis for both enzymes

New enzyme based process direction to prevent wool shrinking without substantial tensile strength loss

In this paper a new enzymatic process direction is described for obtaining machine washable wool with acceptable quality. In general, application of protease enzyme technology in wool processing results in considerable loss of tensile strength by diffusion of the enzyme into the interior of wool fibers. To overcome this disadvantage enzymatic activity has been more targeted to the outer surface of the scales by improving the susceptibility of the outer surface scale protein for proteolytic degradation. This has been realized by a pretreatment of wool with hydrogen peroxide at alkaline pH in the presence of high concentrations of salt

Comunicar con la Persona Submetida la Ventilación Mecánica Invasiva: ¿Que Estrategias? Revisión Sistemática

Objetivo: conhecer as estratégias de comunicação com a pessoa submetida a ventilação mecânica invasiva. Metodologia: revisão sistemática com o propósito de responder à questão >, por meio de estudos empíricos, em bases de dados e bibliotecas virtuais, entre janeiro de 2001 e dezembro de 2011, selecionados de acordo com o método PICOS. Resultados: as estratégias devem ser criteriosamente selecionadas e adaptadas às necessidades da pessoa em situação crítica; as estratégias mais simples e acessíveis assumem-se como preferenciais, podendo ser utilizadas de modo isolado ou combinado. Conclusão: as estratégias para comunicar com a pessoa submetida a ventilação mecânica invasiva são sinais sim-não, VOCAs (Voice Output Communication Aids), gestos, acenos de cabeça, leitura de lábios, aperto de mãos, expressão facial, papel e caneta, uso do alfabeto, quadro de palavras e imagens, linguagem corporal e toque.Objective: to learn communication strategies with the person undergoing invasive mechanical ventilation. Methodology: systematic review for the purpose of answering the question > through empirical studies in databases and virtual libraries, between January 2001 and December 2011, selected according to the PICOS method. Results: the strategies must be carefully selected and adapted to the needs of the person in critical condition; simpler and more accessible strategies are assumed as preferred and can be used separately or combined. Conclusion: the strategies for communicating with the person subjected to invasive mechanical ventilation are yes-no signs, VOCAs (Voice Output Communication Aids), gestures, nods, lip reading, hand squeezing, facial expression, pen and paper, using the alphabet, words and pictures chart, body language and touch.Objetivo: conocer las estrategias de comunicación con la persona sometida a ventilación mecánica invasiva. Metodología: revisión sistemática con el fin de responder a la pregunta > mediante estudios empíricos, en bases de datos y bibliotecas virtuales, entre enero de 2001 y diciembre de 2011, seleccionados de acuerdo con el método PICOS. Resultados: estrategias deben ser cuidadosamente seleccionados y adaptados a las necesidades de la persona en situación crítica; las estrategias más simples y más accesible se asumidos como preferido y se pueden utilizar de forma aislada o combinados. Conclusión: las estrategias de comunicación con la persona sometida a ventilación mecánica invasiva son signos de sí o no, VOCAs (Voice Output Communication Aids), gestos, asiente con la cabeza, lectura de labios, apretón del manos, la expresión facial, la pluma y el papel, el uso del alfabeto, las palabras y las imágenes cuadro, el lenguaje corporal y el tacto.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Thermo-alkali-stable catalases from newly isolated Bacillus sp. for the treatment and recycling of textile bleaching effluents

Three thermoalkaliphilic bacteria, which were grown at pH 9.3–10 and 60–65 °C were isolated out of a textile wastewater drain. The unknown micro-organisms were identified as thermoalkaliphilic Bacillus sp. Growth nditions were studied and catalase activities and stabilities compared. Catalases from Bacillus SF showed high stabilities at 60 °C and pH 9 (t1/2=38 h) and thus this strain was chosen for further investigations, such as electron microscopy, immobilization of catalase and hydrogen peroxide degradation studies. Degradation of hydrogen peroxide with an immobilized catalase from Bacillus SF enabled the reuse of the water for the dyeing process. In contrast, application of the free enzyme for treatment of bleaching effluents, caused interaction between the denaturated protein and the dye, resulting in reduced dye uptake, and a higher color difference of 1.3 ΔE* of dyed fabrics compared to 0.9 ΔE* when using the immobilized enzyme