Artificial neural networks reveal individual differences in metacognitive monitoring of memory.

Previous work supports an age-specific impairment for recognition memory of pairs of words and other stimuli. The present study tested the generalization of an associative deficit across word, name, and nonword stimulus types in younger and older adults. Participants completed associative and item memory tests in one of three stimulus conditions and made metacognitive ratings of perceptions of self-efficacy, task success ("postdictions"), strategy success, task effort, difficulty, fatigue, and stamina. Surprisingly, no support was found for an age-related associative deficit on any of the stimulus types. We analyzed our data further using a multilayer perceptron artificial neural network. The network was trained to classify individuals as younger or older and its hidden unit activities were examined to identify data patterns that distinguished younger from older participants. Analysis of hidden unit activities revealed that the network was able to correctly classify by identifying three different clusters of participants, with two qualitatively different groups of older individuals. One cluster of older individuals found the tasks to be relatively easy, they believed they had performed well, and their beliefs were accurate. The other cluster of older individuals found the tasks to be difficult, believed they were performing relatively poorly, yet their beliefs did not map accurately onto their performance. Crucially, data from the associative task were more useful for neural networks to discriminate between younger and older adults than data from the item task. This work underscores the importance of considering both individual and age differences as well as metacognitive responses in the context of associative memory paradigms

The 2020 special report of the MJA–Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: lessons learnt from Australia's "Black Summer"

The MJA-Lancet Countdown on health and climate change was established in 2017, and produced its first Australian national assessment in 2018 and its first annual update in 2019. It examines indicators across five broad domains: climate change impacts, exposures and vulnerability; adaptation, planning and resilience for health; mitigation actions and health co-benefits; economics and finance; and public and political engagement. In the wake of the unprecedented and catastrophic 2019-20 Australian bushfire season, in this special report we present the 2020 update, with a focus on the relationship between health, climate change and bushfires, highlighting indicators that explore these linkages. In an environment of continuing increases in summer maximum temperatures and heatwave intensity, substantial increases in both fire risk and population exposure to bushfires are having an impact on Australia's health and economy. As a result of the "Black Summer" bushfires, the monthly airborne particulate matter less than 2.5 μm in diameter (PM2.5 ) concentrations in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory in December 2019 were the highest of any month in any state or territory over the period 2000-2019 at 26.0 μg/m3 and 71.6 μg/m3 respectively, and insured economic losses were $2.2 billion. We also found growing awareness of and engagement with the links between health and climate change, with a 50% increase in scientific publications and a doubling of newspaper articles on the topic in Australia in 2019 compared with 2018. However, despite clear and present need, Australia still lacks a nationwide adaptation plan for health. As Australia recovers from the compounded effects of the bushfires and the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the health profession has a pivotal role to play. It is uniquely suited to integrate the response to these short term threats with the longer term public health implications of climate change, and to argue for the economic recovery from COVID-19 to align with and strengthen Australia's commitments under the Paris Agreement

A qualitative exploration of memory cuing by personal items in the home

© The Author(s) 2017. We are surrounded by personal items that can trigger memories, such as photos, souvenirs and heirlooms. Also during holidays, we collect items to remind us of the events, but not all bring back memories to the same extent. Therefore, we explored peoples’ responses to personal items related to a holiday, using the home tour interviewing method. In total, 63 accounts of cuing responses from nine home tours were analysed using thematic analysis. This resulted in four types of cuing responses: (a) ‘no-memory’ responses, (b) ‘know’ responses, (c) ‘memory evoked think or feel’ responses and (d) ‘remember’ responses. For each of these cuing response categories, we looked into the types of items and their characteristics. Furthermore, we found that some items can evoke multiple memories. The majority of the memories’ content refers to events close to the moment of acquiring the item

Using fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) to diagnose steroid-responsive disease and guide asthma management in routine care

Acknowledgements We thank Robin Taylor for his informative thinking and publications on FeNO, which have helped to influence and direct the thinking of the authors. Funding Extraction of the real-life dataset was funded by Research in Real Life Limited, the analysis of the dataset and the writing of this manuscript were co-funded (50:50) by Research in Real Life Limited and Aerocrine.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

A comprehensive evaluation of colonic mucosal isolates of Sutterella wadsworthensis from inflammatory bowel disease

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Analytic Continuation of Liouville Theory

Correlation functions in Liouville theory are meromorphic functions of the Liouville momenta, as is shown explicitly by the DOZZ formula for the three-point function on the sphere. In a certain physical region, where a real classical solution exists, the semiclassical limit of the DOZZ formula is known to agree with what one would expect from the action of the classical solution. In this paper, we ask what happens outside of this physical region. Perhaps surprisingly we find that, while in some range of the Liouville momenta the semiclassical limit is associated to complex saddle points, in general Liouville's equations do not have enough complex-valued solutions to account for the semiclassical behavior. For a full picture, we either must include "solutions" of Liouville's equations in which the Liouville field is multivalued (as well as being complex-valued), or else we can reformulate Liouville theory as a Chern-Simons theory in three dimensions, in which the requisite solutions exist in a more conventional sense. We also study the case of "timelike" Liouville theory, where we show that a proposal of Al. B. Zamolodchikov for the exact three-point function on the sphere can be computed by the original Liouville path integral evaluated on a new integration cycle.Comment: 86 pages plus appendices, 9 figures, minor typos fixed, references added, more discussion of the literature adde

Bisphosphonate Modulates Cementoblast Behavior In Vitro

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142297/1/jper1890.pd

Pathological or physiological erosion—is there a relationship to age?

This conventional literature review discusses whether pathological tooth wear is age dependant. It briefly reviews the components of tooth wear and the prevalence of tooth wear in children, adolescents and adults. The emphasis on terminology relating to tooth wear varies. In some countries, the role of erosion is considered the most important, whereas others consider the process to be a combination of erosion, attrition and abrasion often with one being more dominant. The importance of tooth wear or erosion indices in the assessment and the evidence for progression within subject and within lesions is described. The data from the few studies reporting pathological levels of wear reported in children and adults are discussed, in particular its relationship with age. There is little evidence to support the concept that pathological levels of erosion or wear are age dependant. There is, however, some evidence to suggest that normal levels of erosion or wear are age dependant

The association between overall health, psychological distress, and occupational heat stress among a large national cohort of 40,913 Thai workers

Background: Occupational heat stress is a well-known problem, particularly in tropical countries, affecting workers, health and well-being. There are very few recent studies that have reported on the effect of heat stress on mental health, or overall health in workers, although socioeconomic development and rapid urbanization in tropical developing countries like Thailand create working conditions in which heat stress is likely. Objective: This study is aimed at identifying the relationship between self-reported heat stress and psychological distress, and overall health status in Thai workers. Results: 18% of our large national cohort (>40,000 subjects) often works under heat stress conditions and males are exposed to heat stress more often than females. Furthermore, working under heat stress conditions is associated with both worse overall health and psychological distress (adjusted odds ratios ranging from 1.49 to 1.84). Conclusions: This association between occupational heat stress and worse health needs more public health attention and further development on occupational health interventions as climate change increases Thailand's temperatures

Therapeutic DNA vaccine induces broad T cell responses in the gut and sustained protection from viral rebound and AIDS in SIV-infected rhesus macaques.

Immunotherapies that induce durable immune control of chronic HIV infection may eliminate the need for life-long dependence on drugs. We investigated a DNA vaccine formulated with a novel genetic adjuvant that stimulates immune responses in the blood and gut for the ability to improve therapy in rhesus macaques chronically infected with SIV. Using the SIV-macaque model for AIDS, we show that epidermal co-delivery of plasmids expressing SIV Gag, RT, Nef and Env, and the mucosal adjuvant, heat-labile E. coli enterotoxin (LT), during antiretroviral therapy (ART) induced a substantial 2-4-log fold reduction in mean virus burden in both the gut and blood when compared to unvaccinated controls and provided durable protection from viral rebound and disease progression after the drug was discontinued. This effect was associated with significant increases in IFN-γ T cell responses in both the blood and gut and SIV-specific CD8+ T cells with dual TNF-α and cytolytic effector functions in the blood. Importantly, a broader specificity in the T cell response seen in the gut, but not the blood, significantly correlated with a reduction in virus production in mucosal tissues and a lower virus burden in plasma. We conclude that immunizing with vaccines that induce immune responses in mucosal gut tissue could reduce residual viral reservoirs during drug therapy and improve long-term treatment of HIV infection in humans