Impact of aging : sporadic, and genetic risk factors on vulnerability to apoptosis in Alzheimer's disease

The identification of specific genetic (presenilin-1 [PS1] and amyloid precursor protein [APP] mutations) and environmental factors responsible for Alzheimer's disease (AD) has revealed evidence for a shared pathway of neuronal death. Moreover, AD-specific cell defects may be observed in many other nonneuronal cells (e.g., lymphocytes). Thus, lymphocytes may serve as a cellular system in which to study risk factors of sporadic, as well as genetic AD in vivo. The aim of our present study was to clarify whether lymphocytes bearing genetic or sporadic risk factors of AD share an increased susceptibility to cell death. Additionally we examined whether a cell typespecific vulnerability pattern was present and how normal aging, the main risk factor of sporadic AD, contributes to changes in susceptibility to cell death. Here, we report that lymphocytes affected by sporadic or genetic APP and PS1 AD risk factors share an increased vulnerability to cell death and exhibit a similar cell type-specific pattern, given that enhanced vulnerability was most strongly developed in the CD4+ T-cell subtype. In this paradigm, sporadic risk factors revealed the highest impact on cell type-specific sensitivity of CD4+ T cells to apoptosis. In contrast, normal aging results in an increased susceptibility to apoptosis of both, CD4+ and CD8+ T cells

The new concrete

The New Concrete is a long-overdue survey of the rise of concrete poetry in the digital age. The accessibility of digital text and image manipulation, modern print techniques and the rise of self-publishing have invigorated a movement that first emerged in an explosion of literary creativity during the 1950s and 1960s. This new volume is a highly illustrated overview of contemporary artists and poets working at the intersection of visual art and literature, producing some of the most engaging and challenging work in either medium. Featuring an introductory essay by renowned American poet Kenneth Goldsmith and edited by celebrated poets Victoria Bean and Chris McCabe, The New Concrete is an indispensable introduction to the breadth of concrete poetry being produced today. Edited by Victoria Bean and Chris McCabe, with an essay by Kenneth Goldsmit

International Social Survey Programme: Social Inequality IV - ISSP 2009

Social inequality. Themes: Importance of social background, merit, discrimination,corruption and good relations as prerequisites for success in society(wealthy family, well-educated parents, good education, ambitions, hardworking, knowing the right people, political connections, givingbribes, person´s race and religion, gender); attitude towards equalityof educational opportunity in one´s country (corruption as criteria forsocial mobility, only students from the best secondary schools have agood chance to obtain a university education, only rich people canafford the costs of attending university, same chances for everyone toenter university, regardless of gender, ethnicity or socialbackground); opinion about own salary: actual occupational earning isadequate; estimation of actual and reasonable earnings for occupationalgroups: doctor, chairman of a large national corporation, shopassistant, unskilled worker in a factory, cabinet minister in thenational government; income differences are too large in therespondent´s country; responsibility of government to reduce incomedifferences; government should provide a decent standard of living forthe unemployed and spend less on benefits for poor people; demand forhigher taxes for people with high incomes; opinion on taxes for peoplewith high income; justification of better medical supply and bettereducation for people with higher income; perception of class conflictsbetween social groups in the country (poor and rich people, workingclass and middle class, management and workers, people at the top ofsociety and people at the bottom); self-assessment and assessment ofthe family the respondent grew up in on a top-bottom-scale; socialposition compared to father (social mobility); salary criteria (scale:responsibility, education, needed support for family and children,quality of job performance or hard work at the job); feeling of a justpayment; characterisation of the actual and the desired social systemof the country, measured by classification on pyramid diagrams (imageof society). Demography: sex; age; marital status; steady life partner; years ofschooling; highest education level; country specific education anddegree; current employment status (respondent and partner); hoursworked weekly; occupation (ISCO 1988) (respondent and partner);supervising function at work; working for private or public sector orself-employed (respondent and partner); if self-employed: number ofemployees; trade union membership; earnings of respondent (countryspecific); family income (country specific); size of household;household composition; party affiliation (left-right); country specificparty affiliation; participation in last election; religiousdenomination; religious main groups; attendance of religious services;self-placement on a top-bottom scale; region (country specific); sizeof community (country specific); type of community: urban-rural area;country of origin or ethnic group affiliation; occupation status andprofession of respondent´s father and mother during the youth of therespondent (ISCO 88); number of books in the parental home during theyouth of the respondent (cultural resources); occupational status andprofession in the first job and the current job (ISCO 88 and workingtype); self-assessment of the social class; estimated amount of familywealth (monetary value of assets); work orientation:self-characterisation at this time and in the youth of the respondentconcerning his performance at work respectively at school. Additionally coded: administrative mode of data-collection; weightingfactor; case substitution

Reduction of cardiac imaging tests during the COVID-19 pandemic: The case of Italy. Findings from the IAEA Non-invasive Cardiology Protocol Survey on COVID-19 (INCAPS COVID)

Background: In early 2020, COVID-19 massively hit Italy, earlier and harder than any other European country. This caused a series of strict containment measures, aimed at blocking the spread of the pandemic. Healthcare delivery was also affected when resources were diverted towards care of COVID-19 patients, including intensive care wards. Aim of the study: The aim is assessing the impact of COVID-19 on cardiac imaging in Italy, compare to the Rest of Europe (RoE) and the World (RoW). Methods: A global survey was conducted in May–June 2020 worldwide, through a questionnaire distributed online. The survey covered three periods: March and April 2020, and March 2019. Data from 52 Italian centres, a subset of the 909 participating centres from 108 countries, were analyzed. Results: In Italy, volumes decreased by 67% in March 2020, compared to March 2019, as opposed to a significantly lower decrease (p < 0.001) in RoE and RoW (41% and 40%, respectively). A further decrease from March 2020 to April 2020 summed up to 76% for the North, 77% for the Centre and 86% for the South. When compared to the RoE and RoW, this further decrease from March 2020 to April 2020 in Italy was significantly less (p = 0.005), most likely reflecting the earlier effects of the containment measures in Italy, taken earlier than anywhere else in the West. Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic massively hit Italy and caused a disruption of healthcare services, including cardiac imaging studies. This raises concern about the medium- and long-term consequences for the high number of patients who were denied timely diagnoses and the subsequent lifesaving therapies and procedures