The Influence of Age-Related Differences in Prior Knowledge and Attentional Refreshing Opportunities on Episodic Memory

Objectives. The assumption that working memory (WM) is embedded within long-term memory suggests that the effectiveness of switching information between activated states in WM (i.e., attentional refreshing) may depend on whether that information is semantically relevant. Given that older adults often have greater general knowledge than younger adults, age-related deficits in episodic memory (EM) could be ameliorated by studying information that has existing semantic representations compared with unknown information. Method. Younger and older adults completed a modified operation span task that varied the number of refreshing opportunities. The memoranda used were equally known to younger and older adults (neutral words; e.g., father), better known to older adults than younger adults (dated words; e.g., mirth), or unknown to both groups (unknown words; e.g., cobot). Results. Results for immediate and delayed recall indicated an age-related improvement for dated memoranda and no age difference for unknown memoranda. Furthermore, refreshing opportunities predicted delayed recall of neutral memoranda more strongly for younger adults than older adults, whereas older adults' recall advantage for dated memoranda was explained by their prior knowledge and not refreshing opportunities. Discussion. The results suggest that older adults' EM deficits could potentially be ameliorated by incorporating their superior knowledge to supplement relatively ineffective attentional refreshing in W

The Influence of Age-Related Differences in Prior Knowledge and Attentional Refreshing Opportunities on Episodic Memory

Objectives. The assumption that working memory (WM) is embedded within long-term memory suggests that the effectiveness of switching information between activated states in WM (i.e., attentional refreshing) may depend on whether that information is semantically relevant. Given that older adults often have greater general knowledge than younger adults, age-related deficits in episodic memory (EM) could be ameliorated by studying information that has existing semantic representations compared with unknown information. Method. Younger and older adults completed a modified operation span task that varied the number of refreshing opportunities. The memoranda used were equally known to younger and older adults (neutral words; e.g., father), better known to older adults than younger adults (dated words; e.g., mirth), or unknown to both groups (unknown words; e.g., cobot). Results. Results for immediate and delayed recall indicated an age-related improvement for dated memoranda and no age difference for unknown memoranda. Furthermore, refreshing opportunities predicted delayed recall of neutral memoranda more strongly for younger adults than older adults, whereas older adults' recall advantage for dated memoranda was explained by their prior knowledge and not refreshing opportunities. Discussion. The results suggest that older adults' EM deficits could potentially be ameliorated by incorporating their superior knowledge to supplement relatively ineffective attentional refreshing in WM

The Innocent Bystander: A Scenario Based Study on the Impact of Leadership Gossip

The purpose of this study was to understand how witnessing workplace gossip between a supervisor and an employee in a hypothetical scenario impacts ratings of acceptability of gossip behavior, leader quality ratings, relationship quality, and future comfort with the leader. Data were gathered from 207 college students who read a scenario involving gossip, which varied in the target (about oneself or another) and the domain (about work or personal matters) and then responded to a series of questions about the scenario. Across all four scenarios, leaders received fairly unfavorable ratings for participating in gossip behavior. However, we did not find consistent main effects based on the target or domain and there were no significant interactions between domain and target. Limitations and practical implications are further discussed

Chaos, decoherence and quantum cosmology

In this topical review we discuss the connections between chaos, decoherence and quantum cosmology. We understand chaos as classical chaos in systems with a finite number of degrees of freedom, decoherence as environment induced decoherence and quantum cosmology as the theory of the Wheeler - DeWitt equation or else the consistent history formulation thereof, first in mini super spaces and later through its extension to midi super spaces. The overall conclusion is that consideration of decoherence is necessary (and probably sufficient) to sustain an interpretation of quantum cosmology based on the Wave function of the Universe adopting a Wentzel - Kramers - Brillouin form for large Universes, but a definitive account of the semiclassical transition in classically chaotic cosmological models is not available in the literature yet.Comment: 40 page

Semi-automated Robust Quantification of Lesions (SRQL) Toolbox

Quantifying lesions in a robust manner is fundamental for studying the effects of neuroanatomical changes in the post-stroke brain on recovery. However, the wide variability in lesion characteristics across individuals makes manual lesion segmentation a challenging and often subjective process. This makes it difficult to combine stroke lesion data across multiple research sites, due to subjective differences in how lesions may be defined. We developed the Semi-automated Robust Quantification of Lesions (SRQL; https://github.com/npnl/SRQL; DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.267213) Toolbox that performs several analysis steps: 1) a white matter intensity correction that removes healthy white matter voxels from the lesion mask, thereby making lesions slightly more robust to subjective errors; 2) an automated report of descriptive statistics on lesions for simplified comparison between or across groups, and 3) an option to perform analyses in both native and standard space to facilitate analyses in either space, or comparisons between spaces. Here, we describe the methods implemented in the toolbox and demonstrate the outputs of the SRQL toolbox

Semi-automated Robust Quantification of Lesions (SRQL) Toolbox

Quantifying lesions in a reliable manner is fundamental for studying the effects of neuroanatomical changes related to recovery in the post-stroke brain. However, the wide variability in lesion characteristics across individuals makes manual lesion segmentation a challenging and often subjective process. This often makes it difficult to combine stroke lesion data across multiple research sites, due to subjective differences in how lesions may be defined. Thus, we developed the Semi-automated Robust Quantification of Lesions (SRQL; https://github.com/npnl/SRQL; DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.557114) Toolbox that performs several analysis steps: 1) a white matter intensity correction that removes healthy white matter voxels from the lesion mask, thereby making lesions slightly more robust to subjective errors; 2) an automated report of descriptive statistics on lesions for simplified comparison between or across groups, and 3) an option to perform analyses in both native and standard space to facilitate analyses in either space. Here, we describe the methods implemented in the toolbox

Estimating the Associated Burden of Illness and Healthcare Utilization of Newly Diagnosed Patients Aged ≥65 with Mantle Cell Lymphoma (MCL) in Ontario, Canada

Background: With the emergence of therapies for mantle cell lymphoma (MCL), understanding the treatment patterns and burden of illness among older patients with MCL in Canada is essential to inform decision making. Methods: A retrospective study using administrative data matched individuals aged ≥65 who were newly diagnosed with MCL between 1 January 2013 and 31 December 2016 with general population controls. Cases were followed for up to 3 years in order to assess healthcare resource utilization (HCRU), healthcare costs, time to next treatment or death (TTNTD), and overall survival (OS); all were stratified according to first-line treatment. Results: This study matched 159 MCL patients to 636 controls. Direct healthcare costs were highest among MCL patients in the first year following diagnosis (Y1: CAD 77,555 ± 40,789), decreased subsequently (Y2: CAD 40,093 ± 28,720; Y3: CAD 36,059 ± 36,303), and were consistently higher than the costs for controls. The 3-year OS after MCL diagnosis was 68.6%, with patients receiving bendamustine + rituximab (BR) experiencing a significantly higher OS compared to patients treated with other regimens (72.4% vs. 55.6%, p = 0.041). Approximately 40.9% of MCL patients initiated a second-line therapy or died within 3 years. Conclusion: Newly diagnosed MCL presents a substantial burden to the healthcare system, with almost half of all patients progressing to a second-line therapy or death within 3 years

TENB2, a proteoglycan identified in prostate cancer that is associated with disease progression and androgen independence

TENB2 encodes a putative transmembrane proteoglycan, related to the EGF/heregulin family of growth factors and follistatin, which has been identified through the application of a differential display technique to a xenograft model of prostate cancer. Northern analysis and competitive PCR were used to demonstrate significantly increased TENB2 expression (p = 0.0003) on the acquisition of androgen independence in the model system. TENB2 is also overexpressed in clinical prostate carcinoma vs. its benign counterpart (p < 0.0001), with particular prominence in high-grade tumours, and shows a high degree of tissue specificity, being detected on a multitissue Northern array exclusively in brain and prostate material. Studies of recombinant protein expression demonstrate that TENB2 is a chondroitin sulphate proteoglycan. The presence of an EGF and 2 follistatin domains suggests a role in the regulation of growth factor signalling either as a ligand precursor, a membrane-bound receptor or as a binding protein for growth factors. These data are indicative of a significant role for TENB2 in the progression of poorly differentiated tumour types, with implications for prostate cancer detection, prognosis and therapy

Strategies to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on child and youth well-being: a scoping review protocol

Introduction Children and youth are often more vulnerable than adults to emotional impacts of trauma. Wide-ranging negative effects (eg, social isolation, lack of physical activity) of the COVID-19 pandemic on children and youth are well established. This scoping review will identify, describe and categorise strategies taken to mitigate potentially deleterious impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on children, youth and their families.Methods and analysis We will conduct a scoping review following the Arksey-O’Malley five-stage scoping review method and the Scoping Review Methods Manual by the Joanna Briggs Institute. Well-being will be operationalised according to pre-established domains (health and nutrition, connectedness, safety and support, learning and competence, and agency and resilience). Articles in all languages for this review will be identified in CINAHL, Cochrane CENTRAL Register of Controlled Trials, EMBASE, ERIC, Education Research Complete, MEDLINE and APA PsycINFO. The search strategy will be restricted to articles published on or after 1 December 2019. We will include primary empirical and non-empirical methodologies, excluding protocols, reports, opinions and editorials, to identify new data for a broad range of strategies to mitigate potentially deleterious impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on child and youth well-being. Two reviewers will calibrate screening criteria and the data abstraction form and will independently screen records and abstract data. Data synthesis will be performed according to the convergent integrated approach described by the Joanna Briggs Institute.Ethics and dissemination Ethical approval is not applicable as this review will be conducted on published data. Findings of this study will be disseminated at national and international conferences and will inform our pan-Canadian multidisciplinary team of researchers, public, health professionals and knowledge users to codesign and pilot test a digital psychoeducational health tool—an interactive, web-based tool to help Canadian youth and their families address poor mental well-being resulting from and persisting beyond the COVID-19 pandemic