Neuropsychologische Frühzeichen der häufigsten Demenzformen

Die häufigsten Demenzformen zeichnen sich durch charakteristische neuropsychologische Störungsmuster in der präklinischen und frühen klinischen Phase aus. Eine die wichtigsten kognitiven Bereiche mit sorgfältig normierten Tests prüfende neuropsychologische Untersuchung kann zur frühen Differentialdiagnose und zur Identifikation von Vorläufersyndromen beitragen

Entwicklung und Validierung des Bedürfnisinventars bei Gedächtnisstörungen (BIG-65): Krankheitskorrelierte Bedürfnisse bei Menschen mit Hirnleistungsstörungen und Demenz

Zusammenfassung: Hintergrund: Der Bedarf an einer systematischen Erfassung krankheitskorrelierter Patientenbedürfnisse bei Hirnleistungsstörungen und Demenz zur Auswahl optimaler Behandlungsoptionen steigt zunehmend. Es fehlt jedoch an validen Messinstrumenten, die zur Erfassung krankheitskorrelierter Bedürfnisse auch bei Menschen mit Demenz eingesetzt werden können. Methode: Die Studie umfasst die Konstruktion und Validierung des Bedürfnisinventars bei Gedächtnisstörungen (BIG-65) zur Erfassung krankheitskorrelierter Bedürfnisse. Der BIG-65 wurde theoriegeleitet entwickelt und basiert auf einer systematischen Literaturrecherche. Er wurde in einer Abklärungsstation, nach umfassender Untersuchung und Diagnosestellung, hinsichtlich seiner psychometrischen Eigenschaften an einer Gelegenheitsstichprobe (n = 83) validiert. Ergebnisse: Der BIG-65 hat 66Items und bietet neben einer breiten Auswahl an biopsychosozialen und umweltbezogenen Bedürfnissen eine geeignete Struktur zur Erfassung krankheitskorrelierter Bedürfnisse bei Menschen mit Hirnleistungsstörungen. Er verfügt über eine besonders hohe Augenscheinvalidität und eine sehr hohe Test-Retest-Reliabilität (rtt = 0,916). Im Mittel wurden 3,5 (SD = 3,7) unabgedeckte Bedürfnisse angegeben. Am häufigsten genannt wurden: "weniger vergessen" (50%), "bessere Konzentration" (23,2%), "Informationen zur Krankheit" (20,7%), "Informationen über Behandlungen" (17,1%) sowie "sich weniger Sorgen machen", "weniger gereizt sein", "Verbesserung der Stimmung", "Verbesserung der Orientierung" (alle 13,4%). Bedürfnisprofile unterscheiden sich zwischen verschiedenen Patientengruppen mit präklinischen (subjektive und milde kognitive Beeinträchtigung) und klinischen (Demenz) Hirnleistungsstörungen. Schlussfolgerungen: Krankheitskorrelierte Bedürfnisse können mit dem BIG-65 bis zu einer mittelschweren Demenz reliabel erfasst werden. Mit zunehmendem Demenzschweregrad oder einem Mini-Mental-Status <20Punkten sollte die Erfassung, z.B. mit zusätzlichen Beobachtungsmethoden des emotionalen Ausdrucks, ergänzt werden. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Menschen mit Hirnleistungsstörungen individuelle Strategien zur Stabilisierung von Lebensqualität verfolgen. Neben einem objektiven Assessment von Krankheitssymptomen kann die Priorisierung optimaler Behandlungsmaßnahmen von der systematischen Erfassung krankheitskorrelierter Patientenbedürfnisse profitiere

Prospective and Retrospective Memory Complaints in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Mild Alzheimer's Disease

Current management attempts for Alzheimer's disease (AD) focus on the identification of individuals in the preclinical stage. This has led to the development of the diagnostic concept of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), which applies to individuals with declining cognitive abilities but largely preserved everyday functioning. Previous findings indicate that prospective memory deficits are a sensitive marker of preclinical AD and that awareness of prospective memory failures is particularly high, based on its dependence on executive functions. Thus, the goal of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of subjective prospective versus retrospective memory complaints for an initial screening for MCI and their respective associations with executive functions. 71 healthy older adults, 27 MCI patients, and 9 patients with mild AD completed the Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire (PRMQ) and three executive functions tests. The healthy and the MCI group could not be distinguished by their level of subjective prospective or retrospective memory complaints, but the mild AD patients differed from the other groups by complaining more about retrospective than prospective memory failures. For the healthy older adults, the prospective memory complaints were correlated to an inhibition test, whereas they did not correlate with any of the executive function tests in the MCI patients. In contrast, in both groups the retrospective memory complaints were related to a task switching test. The findings are discussed with respect to differences between the three groups in cognitive abilities, attention to failures of, use of mnemonic aids for, and everyday demands of prospective and retrospective memor

Transfer after process-based object-location memory training in healthy older adults

A substantial part of age-related episodic memory decline has been attributed to the decreasing ability of older adults to encode and retrieve associations among simultaneously processed information units from long-term memory. In addition, this ability seems to share unique variance with reasoning. In this study, we therefore examined whether process-based training of the ability to learn and remember associations has the potential to induce transfer effects to untrained episodic memory and reasoning tasks in healthy older adults (60-75 years). For this purpose, the experimental group (n = 36) completed 30 sessions of process-based objectlocation memory training, while the active control group (n = 31) practiced visual perception on the same material. Near (spatial episodic memory), intermediate (verbal episodic memory), and far transfer effects (reasoning) were each assessed with multiple tasks at four measurements (before, midway through, immediately after, and 4 months after training). Linear mixed-effects models revealed transfer effects on spatial episodic memory and reasoning that were still observed 4 months after training. These results provide first empirical evidence that process-based training can enhance healthy older adults' associative memory performance and positively affect untrained episodic memory and reasoning abilities

TO BE (IN GOVERNMENT) OR NOT TO BE?

Dette studie tager sit udgangspunkt i Dansk Folkepartis snarlige mulighed for at stå med valget, om partiet vil indgå i regering eller vælge at stå udenfor, som støtteparti til en borgerlig regering. Casestudiet kortlægger Dansk Folkepartis policy indflydelse, som fast støtteparti til VK-regeringen gennem 00’erne. Med studiet bevises det, at Dansk Folkeparti anvendte sig af studehandelsstrategien, hvorved partiet fik indrømmelser på udlændinge- og asylpolitik ved at støtte VK-regeringens økonomiske politik. Det diskuteres endvidere om muligheder og konsekvenser ved at indgå i en regering for partier med antiimmigrations-holdninger

Multi-domain training enhances attentional control

Multi-domain cognitive training potentially increases the likelihood for an overlap in processing component with transfer tasks and everyday life, and hence is a promising training approach for older adults. To empirically test this, 84 healthy older adults aged 65 to 75 years were randomly assigned to one of three single-domain training conditions (inhibition, visuomotor function, spatial navigation) or to the simultaneous training of all three cognitive functions (multi-domain training condition). All participants trained on an iPad at home for 50 training sessions. Before and after the training, and at a six-month follow-up measurement, cognitive functioning and training transfer were assessed with a neuropsychological test battery including tests targeting the trained functions (near transfer) and transfer to executive functions (far transfer: attentional control, working memory, speed). Participants in all four training groups showed a linear increase in training performance over the 50 training sessions. Using a latent difference score model, the multi-domain training group, compared to the single-domain training groups, showed more improvement on the far transfer, executive attentional control composite. Individuals with initially lower baseline performance showed higher training-related improvements, indicating that training compensated for lower initial cognitive performance. At the six-month follow-up, performance on the cognitive test battery remained stable. This is one of the first studies that systematically investigated multi-domain training including comparable single-domain training conditions. Our findings suggest that multi-domain training enhances executive attentional control involved in handling several different tasks at the same time, an aspect in everyday life that is particularly challenging for older people

Coherent Coupling of a Diamond Tin-Vacancy Center to a Tunable Open Microcavity

Efficient coupling of optically active qubits to optical cavities is a key challenge for solid-state-based quantum optics experiments and future quantum technologies. Here we present a quantum photonic interface based on a single Tin-Vacancy center in a micrometer-thin diamond membrane coupled to a tunable open microcavity. We use the full tunability of the microcavity to selectively address individual Tin-Vacancy centers within the cavity mode volume. Purcell enhancement of the Tin-Vacancy center optical transition is evidenced both by optical excited state lifetime reduction and by optical linewidth broadening. As the emitter selectively reflects the single-photon component of the incident light, the coupled emitter-cavity system exhibits strong quantum nonlinear behavior. On resonance, we observe a transmission dip of 50 % for low incident photon number per Purcell-reduced excited state lifetime, while the dip disappears as the emitter is saturated with higher photon number. Moreover, we demonstrate that the emitter strongly modifies the photon statistics of the transmitted light by observing photon bunching. This work establishes a versatile and tunable platform for advanced quantum optics experiments and proof-of-principle demonstrations towards quantum networking with solid-state qubits.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figure

Infection by a foliar endophyte elicits novel arabidopside-based plant defence reactions in its host, Cirsium arvense

Endophytic fungi live asymptomatically within plants. They are usually regarded as non-pathogenic or even mutualistic, but whether plants respond antagonistically to their presence remains unclear, particularly in the little-studied associations between endophytes and nong-raminoid herbaceous plants. We investigated the effects of the endophyte Chaetomium cochlioides on leaf chemistry in Cirsium arvense. Plants were sprayed with spores; leaf material from both subsequent new growth and the sprayed leaves was analysed 2 wk later. Infection frequency was 91% and63% for sprayed and new growth, respectively, indicating that C. cochlioides rapidly infects new foliage. Metabolomic analyses revealed marked changes in leaf chemistry with infection, especially in new growth. Changes in several novel oxylipin metabolites were detected, including arabi-dopsides reported here for the first time in a plant species other than Arabidopsis thaliana,and a jasmonate-containing galactolipid. The production of these metabolites in response to endophyte presence, particularly in newly infected foliage, suggests that endophytes elicit similar chemical responses in plants to those usually produced following wounding, herbivory and pathogen invasion. Whether en-dophytes benefit their hosts may depend on a complex series of chemically mediated interactions between the plant, the endophyte, other microbial colonists and natural enemies

Assessing the ecological risk posed by a recently established invasive alien predator: Harmonia axyridis as a case study

Invasive alien predators are a serious threat to biodiversity worldwide. However, there is no generic method for assessing which local species are most at risk following the invasion of a new predator. The harlequin ladybird, Harmonia axyridis (Pallas) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae), is an alien in Europe and many other parts of the world where it affects other species of ladybirds through competition for food and intra-guild predation (IGP). Here, we describe a method developed to assess which European ladybird species are most at risk following the invasion of H. axyridis. The three components of the risk assessment are: the likelihood that the assessed native species encounters H. axyridis in the field, the hazard of competition for food, and the IGP hazard. Thirty native European ladybird species were assessed through data obtained from field observations, laboratory experiments and literature reviews. The species that are considered most at risk are found on deciduous trees, have immature stages which are highly vulnerable to IGP by H. axyridis, and are primarily aphidophagous. These species should be the focus of specific studies and possibly conservation actions. The risk assessment method proposed here could be applied to other alien predators which are considered a threat to native species through competition and predation

Development and Characterization of Synthetic Glucopyranosyl Lipid Adjuvant System as a Vaccine Adjuvant

Innate immune responses to vaccine adjuvants based on lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a component of Gram-negative bacterial cell walls, are driven by Toll-like receptor (TLR) 4 and adaptor proteins including MyD88 and TRIF, leading to the production of inflammatory cytokines, type I interferons, and chemokines. We report here on the characterization of a synthetic hexaacylated lipid A derivative, denoted as glucopyranosyl lipid adjuvant (GLA). We assessed the effects of GLA on murine and human dendritic cells (DC) by combining microarray, mRNA and protein multiplex assays and flow cytometry analyses. We demonstrate that GLA has multifunctional immunomodulatory activity similar to naturally-derived monophosphory lipid A (MPL) on murine DC, including the production of inflammatory cytokines, chemokines, DC maturation and antigen-presenting functions. In contrast, hexaacylated GLA was overall more potent on a molar basis than heterogeneous MPL when tested on human DC and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). When administered in vivo, GLA enhanced the immunogenicity of co-administered recombinant antigens, producing strong cell-mediated immunity and a qualitative TH1 response. We conclude that the GLA adjuvant stimulates and directs innate and adaptive immune responses by inducing DC maturation and the concomitant release of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines associated with immune cell trafficking, activities which have important implications for the development of future vaccine adjuvants