Prolonged cholinergic enrichment influences regional cortical activation in early Alzheimer's disease

Neuroimaging studies of cholinesterase inhibitor (ChEI) treatment in Alzheimer's disease (AD) indicate that the short and long term actions of ChEIs are dissimilar. fMRI studies of the ChEI rivastigmine have focused on its short term action. In this exploratory study the effect of prolonged (20 weeks) rivastigmine treatment on regional brain activity was measured with fMRI in patients with mild AD. Eleven patients with probable AD and nine age-matched controls were assessed with a Pyramids and Palm Trees semantic association and an n-back working memory fMRI paradigm. In the patient group only, the assessment was repeated after 20 weeks of treatment. There was an increase in task-related brain activity after treatment with activations more like those of normal healthy elderly. Behaviorally, however, there were no significant differences between baseline and retest scores, with a range of performance probably reflecting variation in drug efficacy across patients. Variable patient response and drug dynamic/kinetic factors in small patient groups will inevitably bias (either way) the effect size of any relevant drug related changes in activation. Future studies should take drug response into account to provide more insight into the benefits of ChEI drugs at the individual level

Fighting Mortality: Acts of Performance in the Communal Meal and War Scroll

Since their initial discovery in the late 1940s, the Dead Sea Scrolls continue to ignite the imaginations of scholars and generate an extensive, and ever growing, amount of scholarship. While scholars have examined different components of both the site of Qumran and the scrolls in reference to purity, it is on the communal meal and the War Scroll that this article focuses. This article proposes a connection between the sectarian communal meal and their eschatology, based not upon previously established similar purity laws, but rather the parallel desire to combat mortality evident in the purity laws of the communal meal and the End of Days narrative in the War Scroll. It is through the lens of performance and the performative that this articles locates the desire to combat mortality in both the communal meal and the War Scroll

An empirical study of electricity and gas demand drivers in large food retail buildings of a national organisation

AbstractFood retail buildings account for a measurable proportion of a country's energy consumption and resultant carbon emissions so energy-operating costs are key business considerations. Increased understanding of end-use energy demands in this sector can enable development of effective benchmarking systems to underpin energy management tools. This could aid identification and evaluation of interventions to reduce operational energy demand. Whilst there are a number of theoretical and semi-empirical benchmarking and thermal modelling tools that can be used for food retail building stocks, these do not readily account for the variance of technical and non-technical factors that can influence end-use demands.This paper discusses the various drivers of energy end-uses of typical UK food retail stores. It reports on an empirical study of one organisation's hypermarket stock to evaluate the influence of various factors on annual store electricity and gas demands. Multiple regression models are discussed in the context of the development and application of a methodology for estimating annual energy end-use demand in food retail buildings. The established models account for 75% of the variation in electricity demand, 50% of the variation in gas demand in stores without CHP and 77% of the variation in gas demand in stores with CHP

2dF QSO Redshift Survey

With approximately 6000 QSO redshifts,the 2dF QSO redshift survey is already the biggest complete QSO survey. The aim for the survey is to have 25000 QSO redshifts, providing an order of magnitude increase in QSO clustering statistics. We first describe the observational parameters of the 2dF QSO survey. We then describe several highlights of the survey so far, including new estimates of the QSO luminosity function and its evolution. We also review the current status of QSO clustering analyses from the 2dF data. Finally, we discuss how the complete QSO survey will be able to constrain the value of Omega_o by measuring the evolution of QSO clustering, place limits on the cosmological constant via a direct geometrical test and determine the form of the fluctuation power-spectrum out to the approximately 1000 Mpc scales only previously probed by COBE.Comment: 6 pages; to be published in Clustering at High Redshift, Marseille, June 1999, eds. A. Mazure, O. LeFevre, V. Lebru

A cost comparison of traditional drainage and SUDS in Scotland

The Dunfermline Eastern Expansion (DEX) is a 350 ha mixed development which commenced in 1996. Downstream water quality and flooding issues necessitated a holistic approach to drainage planning and the site has become a European showcase for the application of Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS). However, there is minimal data available regarding the real costs of operating and maintaining SUDS to ensure they continue to perform as per their design function. This remains one of the primary barriers to the uptake and adoption of SUDS. This paper reports on what is understood to be the only study in the UK where actual costs of constructing and maintaining SUDS have been compared to an equivalent traditional drainage solution. To compare SUDS costs with traditional drainage, capital and maintenance costs of underground storage chambers of analogous storage volumes were estimated. A whole life costing methodology was then applied to data gathered. The main objective was to produce a reliable and robust cost comparison between SUDS and traditional drainage. The cost analysis is supportive of SUDS and indicates that well designed and maintained SUDS are more cost effective to construct, and cost less to maintain than traditional drainage solutions which are unable to meet the environmental requirements of current legislation

The effectiveness of Lee Silverman Voice Treatment therapy issued interactively through an iPad device: a non-inferiority study.

Introduction This study compared the differences in recorded speech variables between people treated with conventional 'in person' Lee Silverman Voice Treatment (LSVT) and those treated remotely via iPad-based 'Facetime'. Method Eight participants were selected for the iPad LSVT, and 21 similarly matched subjects were selected from existing data to form the 'in person' group. Participants in both groups had diagnosed idiopathic Parkinson's disease and moderate hypokinetic dysarthria. Eighteen sessions of prescribed LSVT comprising a pre-treatment assessment, 16 treatment sessions, and a six months' post-treatment assessment were administered for each person. In both groups, pre- and post-treatment assessments were conducted face-to-face. Performance measures were recorded during assessment and treatment. Average measures were determined for all tasks at all time points and a summary outcome variable was composed from across-task performance. Results Non-inferiority testing confirmed that iPad LSVT was non-inferior in treating all LSVT task 3 variables except generating words, with the 90% upper confidence intervals (CI) lying between the non-inferiority margin of ± 2.25 and zero. The iPad was superior in treating the task 3 rainbow reading passage and describing motor task variables with upper and lower 90% CI values being negative. The improvement in the summary outcome variable score was also superior in the iPad group. Discussion Non-inferiority testing implies that the iPad LSVT is non-inferior in treating task three variables when compared to traditional LSVT. The study supports further development of remote delivery solutions involving the Apple iPad and 'Facetime' system as a means of improving access to services and the participant's experience

Positional Coincidence between the High-latitude Steady Unidentified Gamma-ray Sources and Possibly Merging Clusters of Galaxies

We report an evidence for the first time that merging clusters of galaxies are a promising candidate for the origin of high galactic-latitude, steady unidentified EGRET gamma-ray sources. Instead of using past optical catalogs of eye-selected clusters, we made a matched-filter survey of galaxy clusters over 4\arcdeg \times 4\arcdeg areas around seven steady unidentified EGRET sources at |b|>45\arcdeg together with a 100 \sq \arcdeg area near the South Galactic Pole as a control field. In total, 154 Abell-like cluster candidates and 18 close pairs/groups of these clusters, expected to be possibly merging clusters, were identified within estimated redshift $z_{est}\leq 0.15$. Five among the seven EGRET sources have one or two cluster pairs/groups (CPGs) within 1\arcdeg from them. We assess the statistical significance of this result by several methods, and the confidence level of the real excess is maximally 99.8% and 97.8% in a conservative method. In contrast, we found no significant correlation with single clusters. In addition to the spatial correlation, we also found that the richness of CPGs associated with EGRET sources is considerably larger than those of CPGs in the control field. These results imply that a part of the steady unidentified EGRET sources at high-latitude are physically associated with close CPGs, not with single clusters. We also discuss possible interpretations of these results. We argue that, if these associations are real, they are difficult to explain by hadronic processes, but best explained by the inverse-Compton scattering by high energy electrons accelerated in shocks of cluster formation, as recently proposed.Comment: 9 pages, 2 PostScript figures, uses emulateapj5.sty, added new analysis and discussion, ApJ accepte

The 2dF QSO Redshift Survey

We present preliminary results from the 2-degree Field (2dF) QSO Redshift Survey currently under way at the Anglo-Australian Telescope. This survey aims to determine the redshifts of >25000 QSOs over a redshift range of 0.3<z<3.0 with the primary goal of investigating large-scale structure in the Universe to high redshift and at very large scales (~1000h-1Mpc). We describe the photometric procedure used to select QSO candidates for spectroscopic observation. We then describe results from our first 2dF observations, which have so far measured the redshifts for over 1000 QSOs. We already find a significant detection of clustering and have also found one close pair of QSOs (separation 17'') which are gravitational lens candidates. To keep up to date with the current progress of the survey see: http://msowww.anu.edu.au/~rsmith/QSO_Survey/qso_surv.htmlComment: 5 pages Latex including 6 figures, To appear in the proceedings of "Evolution of Large Scale Structure: From Recombination to Garching", held August 199