14,173 research outputs found
Mild cognitive impairment and Parkinson's disease--something to remember.
Cognitive impairment is common in Parkinson's disease (PD), and many patients will eventually develop a dementia, which has a devastating impact on the patient and their family. As such, there has been much interest in identifying a prodromal state to inform prognosis and facilitate earlier management, similar to the concept of 'MCI' in the Alzheimer's field. However, grouping the early cognitive deficits of PD together as 'PD-MCI' may not be the best way forward as it implies a single aetiological basis with one clinical consequence. In this review, we argue that cognitive deficits in PD arise from a number of different pathological pathways, only some of which herald a dementing process. This has important implications both for treatment of individual patients, and for the design of future disease-modifying therapy trials.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from IOS Press via http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/JPD-14042
Review of Indigenous Oral Health
Indigenous Australians1 have poorer oral health than other Australians [1, 2]. Indigenous people suffer from more caries, periodontal diseases, and tooth loss than non-Indigenous people [3]. Tooth decay among the Indigenous population more commonly goes untreated, leading to more extractions. This discrepancy is attributed in part to the fact that access to culturally appropriate and timely dental care is often not available to Indigenous people, especially in rural and remote areas. Other information on oral health such as culturally appropriate resources about maintaining healthy teeth and mouths, and nutritional guidance on how much sugar is contained in certain foods and drinks, is also less available for the Indigenous Australian population. If Indigenous oral health is to be ameliorated, access to dental care must be improved, and an integrated holistic approach to oral health, which includes preventative measures, needs to be established
A simple method to identify kinases that regulate embryonic stem cell pluripotency by high-throughput inhibitor screening
Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) can self-renew or differentiate into all cell types, a phenomenon known as pluripotency. Distinct pluripotent states have been described, termed "naĂŻve" and "primed" pluripotency. The mechanisms that control naĂŻve-primed transition are poorly understood. In particular, we remain poorly informed about protein kinases that specify naĂŻve and primed pluripotent states, despite increasing availability of high-quality tool compounds to probe kinase function. Here, we describe a scalable platform to perform targeted small molecule screens for kinase regulators of the naĂŻve-primed pluripotent transition in mouse ESCs. This approach utilizes simple cell culture conditions and standard reagents, materials and equipment to uncover and validate kinase inhibitors with hitherto unappreciated effects on pluripotency. We discuss potential applications for this technology, including screening of other small molecule collections such as increasingly sophisticated kinase inhibitors and emerging libraries of epigenetic tool compounds
The Common Assessment Framework (CAF) and the evaluation of Quality in a Public Service: Case Study of Academic Services of the University of Ăvora, Portugal
Society is more and more
demanding on professional terms.
Therefore, in order to achieve Excellence
we need to go though processes of
continuous improvement and we need to
measure and to evaluate Quality which is
increasingly seen as a competitive and
distinguishing factor between institutions.
And institutions from Public Sector like
Universities are no exception. Itâs urgent to
evaluate their quality. But a question
remains: how do we evaluate them? Why is
it important? Should we evaluate the
graduate and post-graduate degrees, the
services that support all the
University,âŠWhat?
In Portugal it is compulsory to
evaluate the quality of the degrees taught on
a Higher Education Institution. For that
purpose a set of legislation has been
approved: Law n.Âș38/94 of 21st November,
Decree-law n.Âș205/98 of 11th July and Law
n.Âș1/2003 of 6th January.
But if this is a compulsory
procedure, shouldnât the structures that
support all the life of a Higher Education
Institution also be evaluated? What happens
if, for instance, the Academic Services
donât work properly or collapse? This
service is considered as essential and
fundamental on Higher Education
Institutions
An integrated approach to infer the mechanisms of mate choice for size
Size-assortative mating and sexual selection on size are common across species. Since both may be a
result of mate choice, mate choice based on size should also be a widespread process. This behaviour is,
however, rarely studied directly and thus the biological causes that determine size-based mate choice are
poorly understood. To address this, we studied the size-based mate choice in an intertidal snail, Echinolittorina
malaccana, that has been used as a model to understand this process. Previous studies,
assuming a quantitative Gaussian mating preference function, have inferred that mate choice in this snail
is caused by a size similarity mechanism (males prefer to mate with females slightly larger than
themselves). To further test and quantify this proposed mechanism, we conducted mate choice experiments
with alternative designs (single, male and multiple choice) in the laboratory and compared the
results to mate choice data observed in natural populations. This integrated approach allowed us to
elucidate the mechanism of mate choice by evaluating alternative mating models that best fitted the
observed data of various designs. Results confirmed the similarity-based mechanism but showed deviations
at extreme size classes. The single choice design indicated that mate choice was exercised during
one-on-one maleefemale interactions, but the strength of mate choice increased with the presence of
additional individuals (males in the male choice design, and both males and females in the multiplechoice
design). Multiple-choice experiments are, therefore, the most valuable and useful design to
infer how males choose mates in the wild, as they best mimic the natural scenario and the results are the
most similar to those observed in natural populations. To elucidate the mechanisms causing this male
choice for particular female sizes, the next steps are to identify the genetic basis as well as potential
physiological benefits associated with choosing slightly larger females.Xunta de Galicia | Ref. ED431C 2020-05Ministerio de EconomĂa, Industria y Competitividad | Ref. CGL2016-75482-
Neural responses to facial and vocal expressions of fear and disgust
Neuropsychological studies report more impaired responses to facial expressions of fear than disgust in people with amygdala lesions, and vice versa in people with Huntington's disease. Experiments using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have confirmed the role of the amygdala in the response to fearful faces and have implicated the anterior insula in the response to facial expressions of disgust. We used fMRI to extend these studies to the perception of fear and disgust from both facial and vocal expressions. Consistent with neuropsychological findings, both types of fearful stimuli activated the amygdala. Facial expressions of disgust activated the anterior insula and the caudate-putamen; vocal expressions of disgust did not significantly activate either of these regions. All four types of stimuli activated the superior temporal gyrus. Our findings therefore (i) support the differential localization of the neural substrates of fear and disgust; (ii) confirm the involvement of the amygdala in the emotion of fear, whether evoked by facial or vocal expressions; (iii) confirm the involvement of the anterior insula and the striatum in reactions to facial expressions of disgust; and (iv) suggest a possible general role for the perception of emotional expressions for the superior temporal gyrus
A model to estimate the lifetime health outcomes of patients with Type 2 diabetes: the United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS) Outcomes Model (UKPDS no. 68)
<i>Aims/hypothesis</i> The aim of this study was to develop a simulation model for Type 2 diabetes that can be used to estimate the likely occurrence of major diabetes-related complications over a lifetime, in order to calculate health economic outcomes such as quality-adjusted life expectancy.
<i>Methods</i> Equations for forecasting the occurrence of seven diabetes-related complications and death were estimated using data on 3642 patients from the United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS). After examining the internal validity, the UKPDS Outcomes Model was used to simulate the mean difference in expected quality-adjusted life years between the UKPDS regimens of intensive and conventional blood glucose control.
<i>Results</i> The models forecasts fell within the 95% confidence interval for the occurrence of observed events during the UKPDS follow-up period. When the model was used to simulate event history over patients lifetimes, those treated with a regimen of conventional glucose control could expect 16.35 undiscounted quality-adjusted life years, and those receiving treatment with intensive glucose control could expect 16.62 quality-adjusted life years, a difference of 0.27 (95% CI: â0.48 to 1.03).
<i>Conclusions/interpretations</i> The UKPDS Outcomes Model is able to simulate event histories that closely match observed outcomes in the UKPDS and that can be extrapolated over patients lifetimes. Its validity in estimating outcomes in other groups of patients, however, remains to be evaluated. The model allows simulation of a range of long-term outcomes, which should assist in informing future economic evaluations of interventions in Type 2 diabetes
U Sco 2010 outburst: a new understanding of the binary accretion disk and the secondary star
We present optical and NIR spectroscopic observations of U Sco 2010 outburst.
From the analysis of lines profiles we identify a broad and a narrow component
and show that the latter originates from the reforming accretion disk. We show
that the accretion resumes shortly after the outburst, on day +8, roughly when
the super-soft (SSS) X-ray phase starts. Consequently U Sco SSS phase is fueled
(in part or fully) by accretion and should not be used to estimate
, the mass of accreted material which has not been ejected
during the outburst. In addition, most of the He emission lines, and the HeII
lies in particular, form in the accretion flow/disk within the binary and are
optically thick, thus preventing an accurate abundance determination.
A late spectrum taken in quiescence and during eclipse shows CaII H&K, the
G-band and MgI b absorption from the secondary star. However, no other
significant secondary star features have been observed at longer wavelengths
and in the NIR band.Comment: Accepted for publication on A&A. 12 pages and 12 figures (a few are
multiple figures
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