The University of California San Diego performance-based skills assessment: a useful tool to detect mild everyday functioning difficulties in HIV-infected patients with very good immunological condition

Everyday functioning (EF) impairment is frequent in people living with HIV (PLWH). Our aim was to better explore EF and its association with PLWH cognition, by administering both the IADL scale, the most common functional scale, and a new and ecologic multi-domain (communication and financial skills) tool to measure EF as the University of California San Diego (UCSD) Performance-Based Skills Assessment-Brief Version (UPSA-B). Eighty-five PLWH on cART with very good immunological condition and 23 age- and education-matched healthy controls (HC) were enrolled. PLWH underwent a standardized neuropsychological battery plus IADL, and cognitive impairment was defined according to Frascati criteria. Both groups underwent the UPSA-B. Only 6 subjects (7%) were affected by cognitive impairment (asymptomatic profile). While IADL score was at ceiling for all patients, the UPSA-B total score was significantly worse in PLWH when compared with HC [mean 82.1 (SD 9.3) vs 89.2 (SD 6.2); p < 0.001]. At communication subtest, PLWH group and HC were significantly different (p = 0.002), while no difference emerged at financial skills (p = 0.096). Higher score at UPSA-B was independently associated with better global cognitive performance (composite Z-score) (\u3b2 7.79; p < 0.001). Also considering each single cognitive domain, UPSA-B performance (both total and at subtests) confirmed the association with neurocognitive performance. In conclusion, UPSA-B seems to better discriminate EF impairment than IADL in PLWH, and it was associated with cognitive functions, also in the absence of symptomatic cognitive impairment. Thus, it appears a promising tool in the context of HIV infection to avoid misdiagnosis and to better detect also mild EF

Using the Light Microscopy Module (LMM) on the International Space Station (ISS), The Advanced Colloids Experiment (ACE) and MacroMolecular Biophysics (MMB)

The Light Microscopy Module (LMM) was launched to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2009 and began science operations in 2010. It continues to support Physical and Biological scientific research on ISS. During 2016, if all goes as planned, three experiments will be completed: [1] Advanced Colloids Experiments with Heated base-2 (ACE-H2) and [2] Advanced Colloids Experiments with Temperature control (ACE-T1). Preliminary results, along with an overview of present and future LMM capabilities will be presented; this includes details on the planned data imaging processing and storage system, along with the confocal upgrade to the core microscope. [1] a consortium of universities from the State of Kentucky working through the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR): Stuart Williams, Gerold Willing, Hemali Rathnayake, et al. and [2] from Chungnam National University, Daejeon, S. Korea: Chang-Soo Lee, et al

Guide to Observing Deep-Sky Objects: A Complete Global Resource for Astronomers

Guide to Observing Deep-Sky Objects is an invaluable reference for all amateur astronomers. The book contains, for each constellation, (1) a star chart showing the Bayer labels, (2) a table for many of the stars in the constellation, along with their positions and magnitudes, and (3) a table of the major deep-sky objects in the constellation, with relevant observational data. Facing pages provide unique year-long graphs that show when the constellation is visible in the sky, which allows the user to quickly determine whether a given constellation can be seen, and when the best time to see it will be