Is the Geriatric ImPACT iPad Test a Valid Measurement of Cognitive Function in Older Adults?

The number of older adults will rapidly increase within the next generation (Brookmeyer, Johnson, Ziegler-Graham, & Arrighi, 2007). Alzheimer’s disease risk increases with age, especially after age 60 (NIA, n.d.). Aging leads to a decrease in functional independence, and this side effect is exacerbated by cognitive decline (Johnson, Lui, & Yaffe, 2007). Executive function is a predictor of Alzheimer’s disease onset and progression (Zhang, Han, Verhaeghen, & Nilsson, 2007). The Geriatric ImPACTTM test is a potential new and more convenient testing methods than traditional methods used. The purpose of this research is to validate the Geriatric ImPACTTM test by comparing the scores to those of traditionally used paper and pencil tests. The paper and pencil tests showed correlation with the Geriatric ImPACTTM, indicating that the Geriatric ImPACTTM tests the same cognitive domains of the traditional testing battery. This test is validated and is more convenient to use than the paper and pencil tests. Future research is needed to confirm this and should use a larger sample size, including participants with diagnosed cognitive decline

Zoning of the commercial poultry industry in Ontario as a method of avian influenza mitigation

L’Organisation mondiale de la santé animale (OIE) est l’institution internationale responsable de la mise en place des mesures sanitaires associées aux échanges commerciaux d’animaux vivants. Le zonage est une méthode de contrôle recommandée par l’OIE pour certaines maladies infectieuses, dont l’influenza aviaire. Les éclosions d’influenza aviaire été extrêmement coûteuses pour l’industrie avicole partout dans le monde. Afin d’évaluer la possibilité d’user de cette approche en Ontario, les données sur les sites de production avicole ont été fournies par les fédérations d’éleveurs de volailles ce cette province. L’information portant sur les industries associées à la production avicole, soit les meuneries, les abattoirs, les couvoirs, et les usines de classification d’œufs, a été obtenue par l’entremise de plusieurs sources, dont des représentants de l’industrie avicole. Des diagrammes de flux a été crée afin de comprendre les interactions entre les sites de production et les industries associées à ceux-ci. Ces industries constituaient les éléments de bas nécessaires au zonage. Cette analyse a permis de créer une base de données portant sur intrants et extrants de production pour chaque site d’élevage avicole, ainsi que pour les sites de production des industries associées à l’aviculture. À l’aide du logiciel ArcGIS, cette information a été fusionnée à des données géospatiales de Statistique Canada de l’Ontario et du Québec. La base de données résultante a permis de réaliser les essais de zonage. Soixante-douze essais ont été réalisés. Quatre ont été retenus car celles minimisaient de façon similaire les pertes de production de l’industrie. Ces essais montrent que la méthode utilisée pour l’étude du zonage peut démontrer les déficits et les surplus de production de l’industrie avicole commerciale en Ontario. Ceux-ci pourront servir de point de départ lors des discussions des intervenants de l’industrie avicole, étant donné que la coopération et la communication sont essentielles au succès du zonage.The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) is the international reference body for international trade standards for live animals. Zoning is a method of controlling certain infectious diseases, including avian influenza, recommended by the OIE for use when appropriate. Avian influenza outbreaks have been extremely costly to the poultry industry throughout the world. In order to assess whether this approach was possible in Ontario, data on poultry industry production sites were provided by the Ontario poultry marketing boards. Zone borders were formed based on two criteria. The first criterion was the supply of essential products and services such that within-zone commercial poultry production could be maintained. The second was the contiguity of the zone’s territory. Four associated industries were identified which provide essential products and services: feed mills, abattoirs, hatcheries, and egg grading stations. A product flow analysis was completed to understand the direction of product movements between the poultry production sites and the sites of the four associated industries. This analysis was used to create a database of input requirements and output production capacity from each type of poultry production site. Using ArcGIS, this information was merged with geospatial data from Statistics Canada on Ontario and Quebec to create the database used for zoning scenarios. Seventy-two scenarios were completed; of these, four were chosen which minimized production loss over the whole industry. These scenarios demonstrate that the method used for the zoning study can identify the production deficits and surpluses of the commercial poultry industry in Ontario. These scenarios can serve as a starting point for discussion among industry stakeholders, as cooperation and communication are essential to the success of zoning

Mythologizing Charles Van Doren: The 1950s, the Media, and the Making of Cultural Memory

The myth of Charles Van Doren, as recorded in mass media retellings of the 1959 television quiz show scandal, is a story of a good-intentioned, intelligent young man who was tempted by the muses of fame and fortune to make a deal with some television devils, then was involved in the cover-up of their deceptions, only to finally tell the truth and yet still pay dearly for his transgressions. The Charles Van Doren story this dissertation tells, however, is more about the loaded phrase "the 1950s," which implies simultaneously contradictory narratives of progress and stagnation, assimilation and isolation, hope and fear; more about "the Media," our "window on the world," our reflection, our bearer of good dreams; and more about the business and government institutions that boosted their own public images while reaping in financial rewards—at the expense of Charles Van Doren, hundreds of other quiz show contestants, and the American public at large.Informed by audience reception, consumerism, cultural memory, genre, popular culture, and technology studies; Cold War history; feminist theory; historiography; literary criticism; mass communication research; media criticism; political economy; and television history, my research utilizes archival records, historical mass media, and other primary and secondary sources to tell a different story of Charles Van Doren than the one most often remembered. Chapter 1 is a tale of the commercial television industry in the Cold War and of the industry practices manipulated by quiz show producers for profit. Chapter 2 considers the female consumers the television industry wanted so desperately to reach and the social implications of intentionally including intelligent women as quiz show winners. Chapter 3 reconstructs the history of crafted symbolism attached to Van Doren across mass media. Chapter 4 features the voices of an American public clamorously protesting the larger American institutions they blamed for Van Doren's fall. Chapter 5 assesses the ways Charles Van Doren has come to represent the quiz show scandal in our cultural memory as well as the significant relationships between the television industry and its regulatory overseers, which have shaped what gets remembered (and how), to protect their own interests

BUYER’S REMORSE? WHITE EDUCATORS’ COGNITIVE DISSONANCE, RACIAL IDENTITIES, AND THE PROMISE OF MULTICULTURAL TEACHER EDUCATION

Two gaps plague education in the U.S. One is the gap in achievement between students of color and their White peers, and the other is the racial gap between an ethnically diverse student body and an increasingly White teaching staff. Contributing to this gap are the racial identities and ideologies that White teachers employ to explain the persistent underachievement of students of color. Unfortunately, multicultural teacher education (MTE) often fails to help educators develop an understanding of how racism has been institutionalized into American education and how it continues to create and perpetuate inequities. MTE also often triggers cognitive dissonance in White participants, which may account for the fact that they are more likely than their peers of color to drop out of a graduate MTE certificate program designed for in-service educators. This study examines factors that impact White educators’ participation in an MTE program as well as their development of non-racist identities and ideologies

Netrin-1-like Peptides Are Secreted by Tetrahymena thermophila

Netrin-1 is a peptide signaling molecule that has many roles in vertebrates. In the ciliated protozoan, Tetrahymena thermophila, netrin-1 acts as a chemorepellent, causing cells to exhibit a characteristic avoidance behavior. We have previously shown that netrin-1 avoidance by T. thermophila is inhibited by genistein, which is a broad spectrum tyrosine kinase inhibitor. One question we wished to answer in our current study was, “Is genistein specifically acting upon tyrosine kinases in order to inhibit netrin avoidance in Tetrahymena?” In order to answer this question, we used the phytoestrogen, diadzein, as a negative control for genistein inhibition. Diadzein had no effect on avoidance, suggesting that genistein inhibition is specific. In order to gain more information about the nature of the kinases involved in netrin-1 signaling, we tested several other kinase inhibitors, including a src inhibitor, a focal adhesion kinase inhibitor, and a Rho kinase inhibitor. Each of these kinases has been implicated in netrin-1 signaling in some vertebrate cell types. However, none of these inhibitors affected Tetrahymena avoidance to netrin-1. Finally, we wished to answer the question, “Is netrin-1 actually serving an autocrine signaling role in Tetrahymena, or is the peptide merely serving as an agonist for another receptor?” In order to answer this question, we prepared a whole cell extract of Tetrahymena using 0.1% SDS. We also washed Tetrahymena in our behavioral buffer and allowed them to sit in that buffer for 24 hours. The Tetrahymena were centrifuged out of the buffer, and the supernatant, containing the proteins which the Tetrahymena had secreted, was kept for ELISA assay. An ELISA, using a polyclonal anti netrin-1 antibody, was run on the whole cell extract and the secreted proteins against a netrin-1 standard curve. Both the secreted proteins and the whole cell extract tested positive for netrin-1 in the ELISA. Further experimentation will allow us to determine the nature of these netrin-like peptides

Protected Planet Report 2018

In 2010, Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) adopted a Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, including its 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets, in order to address biodiversity loss, ensure the sustainable use of natural resources, and equitable sharing of benefits. The Protected Planet Report 2018 provides an update of progress towards Aichi Biodiversity Target 11 at the global scale. Each chapter of the report examines a specific element of Target 11. The findings in the report are based on data held in the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) as of July 2018. For the first time, the printed Protected Planet Report is complemented by an online version, regularly updated with all the latest data, which can be explored at the following address: www.livereport.protectedplanet.net. Since the Strategic Plan was adopted, there has been significant progress towards achieving elements of Aichi Target 11, particularly in terms of land and sea coverage. However, significant efforts are needed to achieve other elements of the target

Digital phenotyping by wearable-driven artificial intelligence in older adults and people with Parkinson's disease: Protocol of the mixed method, cyclic ActiveAgeing study

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Background: Active ageing is described as the process of optimizing health, empowerment, and security to enhance the quality of life in the rapidly growing population of older adults. Meanwhile, multimorbidity and neurological disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease (PD), lead to global public health and resource limitations. We introduce a novel user-centered paradigm of ageing based on wearable-driven artificial intelligence (AI) that may harness the autonomy and independence that accompany functional limitation or disability, and possibly elevate life expectancy in older adults and people with PD. Methods: ActiveAgeing is a 4-year, multicentre, mixed method, cyclic study that combines digital phenotyping via commercial devices (Empatica E4, Fitbit Sense, and Oura Ring) with traditional evaluation (clinical assessment scales, in-depth interviews, and clinical consultations) and includes four types of participants: (1) people with PD and (2) their informal caregiver; (3) healthy older adults from the Helgetun living environment in Norway, and (4) people on the Helgetun waiting list. For the first study, each group will be represented by N = 15 participants to test the data acquisition and to determine the sample size for the second study. To suggest lifestyle changes, modules for human expert-based advice, machine-generated advice, and self-generated advice from accessible data visualization will be designed. Quantitative analysis of physiological data will rely on digital signal processing (DSP) and AI techniques. The clinical assessment scales are the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), Geriatric Anxiety Inventory (GAI), Apathy Evaluation Scale (AES), and the REM Sleep Behaviour Disorder Screening Questionnaire (RBDSQ). A qualitative inquiry will be carried out with individual and focus group interviews and analysed using a hermeneutic approach including narrative and thematic analysis techniques. Discussion: We hypothesise that digital phenotyping is feasible to explore the ageing process from clinical and lifestyle perspectives including older adults and people with PD. Data is used for clinical decision-making by symptom tracking, predicting symptom evolution, and discovering new outcome measures for clinical trials.publishedVersio

A third of systematic reviews changed or did not specify the primary outcome : A PROSPERO register study

OBJECTIVES: To examine outcome reporting bias of systematic reviews registered in PROSPERO. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: Retrospective cohort study. The primary outcomes from systematic review publications were compared with those reported in the corresponding PROSPERO records; discrepancies in the primary outcomes were assessed as upgrades, additions, omissions or downgrades. Relative risks (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated to determine the likelihood of having a change in primary outcome when the meta-analysis result was favourable and statistically significant. RESULTS: 96 systematic reviews were published. A discrepancy in the primary outcome occurred in 32% of the included reviews and 39% of the reviews did not explicitly specify a primary outcome(s); 6% of the primary outcomes were omitted. There was no significant increased risk of adding/upgrading (RR 2.14, 95% CI 0.53 to 8.63) or decreased risk of downgrading (RR 0.76, 0.27-2.17) an outcome when the meta-analysis result was favourable and statistically significant. As well, there was no significant increased risk of adding/upgrading (RR 0.89, 0.31-2.53) or decreased risk of downgrading (RR 0.56, 0.29-1.08) an outcome when the conclusion was positive. CONCLUSIONS: We recommend review authors carefully consider primary outcome selection and journals are encouraged to focus acceptance on registered systematic reviews