Practice effects in healthy adults: A longitudinal study on frequent repetitive cognitive testing

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cognitive deterioration is a core symptom of many neuropsychiatric disorders and target of increasing significance for novel treatment strategies. Hence, its reliable capture in long-term follow-up studies is prerequisite for recording the natural course of diseases and for estimating potential benefits of therapeutic interventions. Since repeated neuropsychological testing is required for respective longitudinal study designs, occurrence, time pattern and magnitude of practice effects on cognition have to be understood first under healthy good-performance conditions to enable design optimization and result interpretation in disease trials.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Healthy adults (N = 36; 47.3 ± 12.0 years; mean IQ 127.0 ± 14.1; 58% males) completed 7 testing sessions, distributed asymmetrically from high to low frequency, over 1 year (baseline, weeks 2-3, 6, 9, months 3, 6, 12). The neuropsychological test battery covered 6 major cognitive domains by several well-established tests each.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Most tests exhibited a similar pattern upon repetition: (1) Clinically relevant practice effects during high-frequency testing until month 3 (Cohen's <it>d </it>0.36-1.19), most pronounced early on, and (2) a performance plateau thereafter upon low-frequency testing. Few tests were non-susceptible to practice or limited by ceiling effects. Influence of confounding variables (age, IQ, personality) was minor.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Practice effects are prominent particularly in the early phase of high-frequency repetitive cognitive testing of healthy well-performing subjects. An optimal combination and timing of tests, as extractable from this study, will aid in controlling their impact. Moreover, normative data for serial testing may now be collected to assess normal learning curves as important comparative readout of pathological cognitive processes.</p

Marktforschung in der Praxis: Kundenpräferenzen beim Kauf eines neuen Fernsehgerätes

In der heutigen Zeit sind Medien aller Art im alltäglichen Leben anzutreffen. Ob früh am Morgen die frisch gedruckte Zeitung, das Radio in der Küche, der Lieblingsfilm im Fernsehen oder das Internet via Mobiltelefon. Viele Menschen können sich heutzutage ein Leben ohne Mobiltelefon oder Fernsehgerät nicht mehr vorstellen. Die Industrie hat dies erkannt und bringt fast täglich neue Weiterentwicklungen auf den Markt. Smartphones, die beinahe so viel können wie ein Laptop oder Fernseher, die den Zuschauer via 3D-Technologie in das Geschehen eintauchen lassen, entwickeln sich zu Standardprodukten. Bei der heutigen Geschwindigkeit der Neuentwicklungen und den immer kürzer werdenden Produktlebenszyklen ist es besonders wichtig, den Endverbraucher vom Mehrwert zu überzeugen. In diesem Zusammenhang ist es notwendig herauszukristallisieren, worauf der Endkunde Wert legt und welche Informationsschwächen er hat. Hierzu haben acht Studierende der TH Wildau aus dem Fachbereich Betriebswirtschaft/Wirtschaftsinformatik eine empirische Studie entwickelt.In your everyday life, media of all kinds are found. Whether early in the morning, freshly printed newspaper, the radio in the kitchen, favorite movies on TV or the Internet via mobile phone. Many people can not imagine a life without mobile phone or TV. The industry has recognized that and almost every day they have new developments for the market. Smartphones have nearly as much as functions as a laptop or a television and are able to bring the viewers into actions via 3D technology as a standard. Because of the speed of new developments and the shortening product life cycle it is especially important to convince the consumer«s added value. In this case it is important to have a look what is significant for the end consumer and what lack of information does the consumer have. Concerning these problems, eight students of the University of Applied Science Wildau from the Department of Business Administration and Business Informatics designed an empirical study

Clinical and neuroimaging findings in MOGAD–MRI and OCT

Myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody-associated disorders (MOGAD) are rare in both children and adults, and have been recently suggested to be an autoimmune neuroinflammatory group of disorders that are different from aquaporin-4 autoantibody-associated neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder and from classic multiple sclerosis. In-vivo imaging of the MOGAD patient central nervous system has shown some distinguishing features when evaluating magnetic resonance imaging of the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves, as well as retinal imaging using optical coherence tomography. In this review, we discuss key clinical and neuroimaging characteristics of paediatric and adult MOGAD. We describe how these imaging techniques may be used to study this group of disorders and discuss how image analysis methods have led to recent insights for consideration in future studies

a multicentre prevalence study

Objectives: The aim of this study was to measure the prevalence of skin diseases in aged nursing home residents and to explore possible associations with demographic and medical characteristics. Design: Descriptive multicentre prevalence study. Setting and participants: The study was conducted in a random sample of ten institutional long-term care facilities in the federal state of Berlin, Germany. In total, n=223 residents were included. Results: In total, 60 dermatological diseases were diagnosed. The most frequently diagnosed skin disease was xerosis cutis (99.1%, 95% CI 97.7% to 100.0%) followed by tinea ungium (62.3%, 95% CI 56.0% to 69.1%) and seborrheic keratosis (56.5%, 95% CI 50.2% to 63.0%). Only few bivariate associations have been detected between skin diseases and demographic and medical characteristics. Conclusion: Study results indicate that almost every resident living in residential care has at least one dermatological diagnosis. Dermatological findings range from highly prevalent xerosis and cutaneous infection up to skin cancer. Not all conditions require immediate dermatological treatment and can be managed by targeted skin care interventions. Caregivers need knowledge and diagnostic skills to make appropriate clinical decisions. It is unlikely that specialised dermatological care will be delivered widely in the growing long-term care sector. Trial registration number: This study is registered at https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02216526

Correction: Cognitive Performance and Long-Term Social Functioning in Psychotic Disorder: A Three-Year Follow-Up Study:A Three-Year Follow-Up Study (vol 11, e0151299, 2016)

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0151299.].</p

Impact of coping styles on substance use in persons with psychosis, siblings, and controls

BACKGROUND: Substance use is overrepresented in patients with psychosis. Maladaptive coping has been proposed as one of the mechanisms which might underlie this high prevalence. Patients are known to apply more maladaptive coping compared to the healthy population. However, it is unknown whether coping is associated with the use of different substances across those with different vulnerability for psychosis, and whether coping mediates the possible association between life events and substance use. METHODS: In this multicenter, cohort study, 429 patients, 504 siblings, and 220 controls were included. We determined whether coping was associated with tobacco smoking, cannabis use, or alcohol consumption. Multivariable logistic regression models were applied whilst correcting for potential confounders. We performed post-hoc analyses to explore the association between negative life events, tobacco smoking, and the role of coping as a mediator in patients with psychosis. RESULTS: A positive association was found in patients between passive coping and tobacco smoking (fully adjusted OR 1.65, 95% CI 1.18-2.31). Tobacco smoking patients experienced more negative life events compared to non-smoking patients and passive coping mediated this association. In siblings and controls, none of the coping strategies were associated with substance use. CONCLUSIONS: The coping style of patients with psychosis is associated with tobacco smoking and mediates the association between negative events and tobacco smoking. No significant associations were found in siblings, controls or concerning other substance use. Future research is required to examine whether enhancing healthy coping strategies decreases tobacco use in patients with psychosis

The association between smoking behaviour, social cognition and social functioning in patients with a non-affective psychotic disorder:A prospective follow-up study

INTRODUCTION: In patients with psychotic disorders, both tobacco smoking and deficits in social cognition and social functioning are highly prevalent. However, little is known about their relationship in psychosis. The authors sought to evaluate the multi-cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between tobacco smoking, social cognition and social functioning in a large prospective study. METHODS: This study was performed within the Genetic Risk and Outcome of Psychosis (GROUP) Study, a cohort study conducted in patients with non-affective psychosis (N = 1074), their unaffected siblings (N = 1047) and healthy controls (N = 549). At baseline, three years and six years of follow-up, data on tobacco smoking (using the Composite International Diagnostic Review), social cognition (emotion processing and theory of mind) and social functioning were collected. To assess associations between tobacco smoking and social cognition or social functioning, multivariate linear mixed-effects models and multiple linear regression models were used. Bonferroni correction for multiple testing was applied. RESULTS: A significant positive association was found between smoking and emotion processing (as part of social cognition) in the patient group (estimate = 1.96, SE = 0.6, p = 0.003). However, smoking was significantly negatively associated with participating in pro-social activities compared with smoking (estimate = 2.55, SE = 0.9, p = 0.004). Change in smoking behaviour was not associated with social cognition or social functioning in the longitudinal analyses. CONCLUSION: Findings indicate that smoking patients with a non-affective psychotic disorder slightly outperformed their non-smoking peers on a task on social cognition, but participated less in pro-social activities. Commencement or cessation of smoking was not related to social cognition or functioning

The Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences:Optimal cut-off scores for detecting individuals with a psychotic disorder

OBJECTIVES: The need for a brief screening tool for psychosis is widely recognized. The Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences (CAPE) is a popular self‐report measure of psychosis, but a cut‐off score that can detect those most likely to fulfill diagnostic criteria for psychotic disorder is not established. METHODS: A case–control sample from the Genetic Risk and Outcome of Psychosis Project study (N = 1375, healthy individuals, n = 507, and individuals with a psychotic disorder, n = 868), was used to examine cut‐off scores of the CAPE with receiver operating curve analyses. We examined 27 possible cut‐off scores computed from a combination of scores from the frequency and distress scales of the various factors of the CAPE. RESULTS: The weighted severity positive symptom dimension was most optimal in detecting individuals with a psychotic disorder (>1.75 cut‐off; area under the curve = 0.88; sensitivity, 75%; specificity, 88%), which correctly identified 80% of the sample as cases or controls with a diagnostic odds ratio of 22.69. CONCLUSIONS: The CAPE can be used as a first screening tool to detect individuals who are likely to fulfill criteria for a psychotic disorder. The >1.75 cut‐off of the weighted severity positive symptom dimension provides a better prediction than all alternatives tested so far

Percepções de professores da educação básica sobre alimentação saudável e educação alimentar e nutricional na escola

Introduction: Since 2018, food and nutrition education has been part of the Law of Guidelines and Bases of Education, which represents an important achievement for the promotion of healthy eating in the school environment. Objective: This study sought to investigate perceptions about food and nutrition education and the concept of healthy eating and its contemporary correlations with important topics such as sustainability, family farming and consumption of processed foods by teachers in the basic education network in the municipality of Vila Velha-ES. Methods: This is a cross-sectional, descriptive study with a qualitative and quantitative approach. A semi-structured questionnaire with closed and open questions was applied. The analysis of closed questions was performed by descriptive statistics and the answers to open questions were analyzed according to the technique of the Collective Subject Discourse - DSC. Results: The results showed that teachers have limited perceptions of specific aspects of the themes that involve healthy eating, even approaching what is relevant in the current discussion. It was also possible to verify that the teachers consider it important to approach the theme “healthy eating” at school, despite feeling little capacity for it. Conclusion: It is suggested that efforts should be unified so that there is qualification from the school community about food and nutrition education, effectively making it a tool for promoting healthy eating at school.Introdução: Desde 2018, a educação alimentar e nutricional está inserida na Lei de Diretrizes e Bases da Educação, o que representa importante conquista para a promoção da alimentação saudável no ambiente escolar. Objetivo: Este estudo buscou investigar percepções acerca da educação alimentar e nutricional e do conceito de alimentação saudável e suas correlações contemporâneas com temas importantes como sustentabilidade, agricultura familiar e consumo de alimentos industrializados por professores da rede básica de ensino no município de Vila Velha-ES. Metodologia: Trata-se de um estudo transversal, descritivo com abordagem quali-quantitativa. Foi aplicado questionário semiestruturado com questões fechadas e abertas. A análise das questões fechadas se deu por estatística descritiva e as respostas às questões abertas foram analisadas de acordo com a técnica do Discurso do Sujeito Coletivo – DSC. Resultados: Todas as 16 professoras da escola abordada aceitaram participar do estudo. Os resultados demonstraramque as professoras possuem percepções limitadas a aspectos específicos das temáticas que envolvem a alimentação saudável, mesmo se aproximando do que é relevante na discussão atual. Pôde-se constatar também que as professoras consideram importante a abordagem do tema “alimentação saudável” na escola, apesar de se sentirem pouco capacitadas para tal. Conclusão: Sugere-se que esforços sejam unificados para que haja qualificação da comunidade escolar acerca da educação alimentar e nutricional, tornando-a efetivamente uma ferramenta de promoção da alimentação saudável na escola. Palavras-chave: Educação Alimentar e Nutricional. Alimentação Saudável. Professores de Ensino fundamental

Novel insights into PORCN mutations, associated phenotypes and pathophysiological aspects.

BACKGROUND: Goltz syndrome (GS) is a X-linked disorder defined by defects of mesodermal- and ectodermal-derived structures and caused by PORCN mutations. Features include striated skin-pigmentation, ocular and skeletal malformations and supernumerary or hypoplastic nipples. Generally, GS is associated with in utero lethality in males and most of the reported male patients show mosaicism (only three non-mosaic surviving males have been described so far). Also, precise descriptions of neurological deficits in GS are rare and less severe phenotypes might not only be caused by mosaicism but also by less pathogenic mutations suggesting the need of a molecular genetics and functional work-up of these rare variants. RESULTS: We report two cases: one girl suffering from typical skin and skeletal abnormalities, developmental delay, microcephaly, thin corpus callosum, periventricular gliosis and drug-resistant epilepsy caused by a PORCN nonsense-mutation (c.283C > T, p.Arg95Ter). Presence of these combined neurological features indicates that CNS-vulnerability might be a guiding symptom in the diagnosis of GS patients. The other patient is a boy with a supernumerary nipple and skeletal anomalies but also, developmental delay, microcephaly, cerebral atrophy with delayed myelination and drug-resistant epilepsy as predominant features. Skin abnormalities were not observed. Genotyping revealed a novel PORCN missense-mutation (c.847G > C, p.Asp283His) absent in the Genome Aggregation Database (gnomAD) but also identified in his asymptomatic mother. Given that non-random X-chromosome inactivation was excluded in the mother, fibroblasts of the index had been analyzed for PORCN protein-abundance and -distribution, vulnerability against additional ER-stress burden as well as for protein secretion revealing changes. CONCLUSIONS: Our combined findings may suggest incomplete penetrance for the p.Asp283His variant and provide novel insights into the molecular etiology of GS by adding impaired ER-function and altered protein secretion to the list of pathophysiological processes resulting in the clinical manifestation of GS