The phonological-similarity effect differentiates between two working memory tasks.

Working memory is a set of interactive cognitive processes that maintain information on-line and available for analysis. Part of the system is specialized for maintaining verbal information, a core component of which is thought to be a phonological store. On the basis of the study of patients with acquired brain lesions, this store has been localized to the supramarginal and angular gyri of the speech-dominant hemisphere, and some functional neuroimaging studies support this localization. However, other imaging studies localize the phonological store in a more dorsal region of the parietal lobe. To reconcile these findings, we examined the phonological-similarity effect in two different tasks. A phonological-similarity effect was observed only in the task that involved sequential presentation and explicit verbal rehearsal. We conclude that at least one possible source of the differences in brain activation between different working memory tasks may be differences in phonological processing.</p

Prevalence and correlates of marijuana use among HIV-seropositive and seronegative men in the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS), 1984–2013

<p><i>Background</i>: Marijuana use is common among HIV+ individuals, but few studies have examined long-term trends in prevalence and correlates of use. <i>Methods</i>: We evaluated trends (1984–2013) in the annual prevalence of current (past 6-month use) and daily (among current users) marijuana use and determined correlates of use among 2742 HIV-seropositive (HIV+) and 3172 HIV-seronegative (HIV−) men who have sex with men in the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS). Poisson regression models were used to estimate prevalence ratios of marijuana use separately for the men who were enrolled before 2001 (early-cohort) and after 2001 (late-cohort). <i>Results</i>: Over the 29 years of the study, the prevalence of current marijuana use declined significantly, whereas daily use among users increased among all men in the early and late-cohorts. A HIV+ status was associated with higher prevalence of marijuana use among the men in the early-cohort (adjusted prevalence ratio [aPR] = 1.53, 95% confidence interval [CI]:1.42, 1.64, <i>p</i> = <0.0001), but not in the men in the late-cohort (aPR = 0.90, 95% CI: 0.79, 1.03, <i>p</i> = 0.1424). Alcohol use and cigarette smoking were being positively associated with marijuana use. <i>Conclusions</i>: Although the annual prevalence of current marijuana use decreased significantly over time in the MACS, daily use among users increased significantly. Further, among the HIV+ men, our study did not show clinically significant adverse effects of marijuana use on highly active antiretroviral therapy use, CD4⁺ count, or HIV viral load.</p

Advanced Surveillance Technologies: Privacy and Evidentiary Issues

Surveillance technology, which encompasses a large array of technologies used to observe individuals’ activities and communications, has advanced at a rapid pace and is becoming more widely available in the general marketplace. This trend is potentially caused by increasing fears of terrorism following the September 11 attacks as well the ability of surveillance technology manufacturers to produce the technology at lower costs. Although surveillance technology has long been used by the military and government intelligence agencies, the use of this technology by law enforcement and now private individuals in areas not of national security concern is new and raises privacy and evidentiary issues yet to be settled by U.S. courts

Characteristics of participants.

<p>HS: healthy subjects; MDS: mild dementia syndrome; MMSE: Mini-Mental State Examination.</p>1<p>Cohens’ d for t-tests in age and MMSE, and ²Phi for Chi square in education and gender.</p>*<p>p<0.05,</p>**<p>p<0.005.</p

Cut-off scores for 6 conditions (3 age ranges by 2 educational levels), including sensitivity (SE) and specificity (SP) values.

<p>WAIS-III: Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, Third edition.</p

Cut-off scores in both languages (Spanish and Catalan).

<p>SE: sensitivity; SP: specificity; WMS-III: Wechsler Memory Scale, Third Edition; WAIS-III: Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, Third edition; 15-BNT: the abbreviated Boston Naming Test with 15 items; 15-OT: The 15-Objects test; SKT: Syndrom Kurtz Test; s: time in seconds;</p>#<p>Verbal learning WMS-III = 1^st+2^nd+3^rd+4^th trial scores.</p

NBACE score descriptives and area under the curve values for the whole sample.

<p>HS: healthy subjects; MDS: mild dementia syndrome; SD: standard deviation; AUC: area under the curve; CI: Confidence Interval; WMS-III: Wechsler Memory Scale, Third Edition; WAIS-III: Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, Third edition; 15-BNT: the abbreviated Boston Naming Test with 15 items; 15-OT: The 15-Objects test; SKT: Syndrom Kurtz Test; s: time in seconds;</p>#<p>Verbal learning WMS-III = 1^st+2^nd+3^rd+4^th trial scores.</p>‡<p>In a subsample of 246 HS and 271 MDS.</p

Cut-off scores for 6 conditions (3 age ranges by 2 educational levels), including sensitivity (SE) and specificity (SP) values.

<p>WMS-III: Wechsler Memory Scale, Third Edition.</p

Global cut-off scores.

<p>SE: sensitivity; SP: specificity; WAIS-III: Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, Third edition; 15-OT: The 15-Objects test; SKT: Syndrom Kurtz Test.</p

Sample sizes of each of the 6 conditions (3 age ranges by 2 educational levels).

<p>HS: healthy subjects; MDS: mild dementia syndrome.</p