Retrieval practice improves memory in patients with schizophrenia: new perspectives for cognitive remediation.

Schizophrenia is associated with severe cognitive deficits, particularly episodic memory deficits, that interfere with patients' socio-professional functioning. Retrieval practice (also known as testing effect) is a well-established episodic memory strategy that involves taking an initial memory test on a previously learned material. Testing later produces robust long-term memory improvements in comparison to the restudy of the same material both in healthy subjects and in some clinical populations with memory deficits. While retrieval practice might represent a relevant cognitive remediation strategy in patients with schizophrenia, studies using optimal procedures to explore the benefits of retrieval practice in this population are still lacking. Therefore, the purpose of our study was to investigate the benefits of retrieval practice in patients with schizophrenia. Nineteen stabilised outpatients with schizophrenia (DSM-5 criteria) and 20 healthy controls first studied a list of 60 word-pairs (30 pairs with weak semantic association and 30 non associated pairs). Half the pairs were studied again (restudy condition), while only the first word of the pair was presented and the subject had to recall the second word for the other half (retrieval practice condition). The final memory test consisted in a cued-recall which took place 2 days later. Statistical analyses were performed using Bayesian methods. Cognitive performances were globally altered in patients. However, in both groups, memory performances for word-pairs were significantly better after retrieval practice than after restudy (56.1% vs 35.7%, respectively, Pr(RP > RS) > 0.999), and when a weak semantic association was present (64.7% vs 27.1%, respectively; Pr(weak > no) > 0.999). Moreover, the positive effect of RP was observed in all patients but one. Our study is the first to demonstrate that retrieval practice efficiently improves episodic memory in comparison to restudy in patients with schizophrenia. This learning strategy should therefore be considered as a useful tool for cognitive remediation programs. In this perspective, future studies might explore retrieval practice using more ecological material

A high-frequency, long-term data set of hydrology and sediment yield: the alpine badland catchments of Draix-Bléone Observatory

Draix-Bléone critical zone observatory was created in 1983 to study erosion processes in a mountainous badland region of the French Southern Alps. Six catchments of varying size (0.001 to 22 km2) and vegetation cover are equipped to measure water and sediment fluxes, both as bedload and suspended load. This paper presents the core dataset of the observatory, including rainfall and meteorology, high-frequency discharge and suspended-sediment concentration, and event-scale bedload volumes. The longest records span almost 40 years. Measurement and data-processing methods are presented, as well as data quality assessment procedures and examples of results. All the data presented in this paper are available on the open repository https://doi.org/10.17180/obs.draix (Draix-Bleone Observatory, 2015), and a 5-year snapshot is available for review at https://doi.org/10.57745/BEYQFQ (Klotz et al., 2023).</p

Dietary intake of xylose impacts the transcriptome and proteome of tissues involved in xylose metabolism in swine

Xylose is a primary component of arabinoxylan in swine diets. As arabinoxylan is a significant component of fiber, and fiber is generally rising in practical pig diets globally, the study of arabinoxylan and xylose is of increasing interest. However, the mechanisms by which free xylose may be absorbed and the pathways impacted by xylose have yet to be elucidated in pigs. The objective of this study was to determine the impact of xylose supplementation on gene expression and protein abundance in jejunum, kidney, liver, and muscle tissues which have previously been identified as possible sites of xylose absorption or metabolism. This study aimed to expand the preliminary understanding of dietary xylose metabolism and utilization in pigs. One study, replicated twice with 24 crossbred gilts, was used to assess two dietary treatments: a xylose-free (0%) control and 8% D-xylose. The impact of xylose on growth was monitored by measuring initial and final body weight, serum IGF-1, and liver glycogen concentrations. The rate and efficiency of weight gain were reduced on the xylose diet but not to a level that would occur if xylose was not used at all; the detection of xylose systemically further supports this conclusion. This study confirmed that pigs can utilize dietary xylose. To determine the impact of xylose on tissue metabolism, samples were collected from all four tissues for gene expression analysis by RNA-sequencing, and kidney and liver samples were subjected to proteomic analysis using 2D-DIGE and mass spectrometry. The majority of differentially expressed (DE) genes were identified in the kidney samples (n = 157), with a few identified in the jejunum (n = 16), liver (n = 1), and muscle (n = 20) samples. The DE genes in the kidney were mainly identified as being involved in lipid biosynthesis and fatty acid metabolism. Proteomic results corroborated these findings. Although the inclusion of xylose in a diet at practical levels is shown to impact energy metabolic processes, it has been confirmed that this five-carbon sugar can support levels of growth only slightly below those of glucose, a six-carbon sugar that is more commonly utilized as an energy source in pig diets

Peaceful protest, political regimes, and the social media challenge

Information and communication technologies (ICT) have transformed with the advent of the Internet and the diffusion of cellular-based communications. Previous research has examined the effects of horizontal ICT on collective violence, but the effects on non-violent expressions are not well understood. Using social conflict data from Africa and Latin America between 1990 and 2011, this study employs negative binomial regression models to explore the distinct effects of the spread of social media on peaceful protests within democratic, anocratic, and autocratic regimes. Multiple regression models find strong statistical evidence in support of a positive relationship between social media and peaceful protest in anocratic regimes. Autocratic and anocratic states will thus increasingly find themselves in a social media challenge--repress horizontal ICT or embrace it and its effects--as their populations seek democratization.http://archive.org/details/peacefulprotestp1094549431Major, United States ArmyMajor, United States ArmyApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Transformational leadership effects on teachers' commitment and effort toward school reform

Item does not contain fulltextThis article examines the effects of transformational school leadership on the commitment of teachers to school reform, and the effort they are willing to devote to such reform. It does so by building on the knowledge from both educational and non-educational research into such effects. A model of such effects is tested using two approximately comparable sets of data collected from samples of Canadian and Dutch teachers. Structural equation modeling is applied to test the model within each data set. Results of the Canadian and Dutch studies are then compared. The findings show transformational leadership dimensions to affect both teachers' commitment and extra effort. The effects of the dimension's vision building and intellectual stimulation appear to be significant in particular. Overall, the findings clearly indicate the importance of analyzing dimensions of transformational leadership for their separate effects on teacher commitment and extra effort within the context of educational reform

Viral-mediated Inhibition of Antioxidant Enzymes Contributes to the Pathogenesis of Severe Respiratory Syncytial Virus Bronchiolitis

Rationale: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a major cause of lower respiratory tract infections in children, for which no specific treatment or vaccine is currently available. We have previously shown that RSV induces reactive oxygen species in cultured cells and oxidative injury in the lungs of experimentally infected mice. The mechanism(s) of RSV-induced oxidative stress in vivo is not known

Comparative analysis of major erosive events in a set of small Mediterranean research catchments

Soil erosion is one of the environmental problems of main concern in Mediterranean areas because of significant both on- and off-site issues such as soil loss, land degradation, reservoir siltation, water quality and ecological impacts. Even if it has longly been observed that major erosive events are almost always associated to extremely large or intense rainfall events, little is known on the exact nature of these events at the small catchment scale. One of the main reasons for this is that, frequently, the investigation of variables influencing sediment yield is done through the analysis of erosive events of highly variable magnitude, with the objective of deriving general log-relationships between sediment yield and hydrological variables. With such approach, the specificity of the most erosive events is often lost in the analysis where large events act as a single cluster at one extreme of the events distribution and their real magnitude is masked by the log scale.With the objective of determining the specific characteristics of the most erosive events, and to infer some of the key processes acting during them, this study presents an analysis of the 10 most erosive events recorded for a set of 10 small research catchments located in the Mediterranean region. The different catchments, grouped in the R-OSMed Network, are located in France (4), Spain (3), Italy (1), Portugal (1) and Tunisia (1); the catchments have areas ranging from 0.018 to 1.32 km2, mean annual precipitation from 236 to 1303 mmyear-1 and mean annual sediment yield between 7.5 and 6900 Mgkm-2year-1. In total more than 120 years of hydrological and sediment data (series between 3 and 29 years long) have been analysed to select the 10 most erosive events for each catchment. The study is based on the analysis of the relationship existing between a series of meteorological, hydrological and sediment related variables. First results show that the cumulated sediment yield of these 10 most erosive events represented a variable proportion (from 150 to 1500%) of the mean annual suspended sediment yield. The size of the catchments, their relative area with intense erosion and the mean annual rainfall were identified as the main causes of the differences between the catchments responses. For major erosive events, runoff depth was more dependent on rainfall depth than on rainfall intensity, whereas peakflow was not clearly related to any specific variable. Suspended sediment load during major erosive events was most often related to runoff depth and to peakflow discharge, but considering all catchments, no general relationship could be observed between suspended sediment concentration (maximum and mean) and rainfall or runoff variables. Results also show that the return periods associated to rainfall and flood characteristics may be used as a measure of the singularity of the diverse variables, allowing a better characterisation of major erosive events. Finally, the comparison between the responses of the different catchments helps to improve the knowledge of the hydrological and geomorphological functioning of each of them