Alzheimer's early detection in post-acute COVID-19 syndrome: a systematic review and expert consensus on preclinical assessments.

The risk of developing Alzheimer's disease (AD) in older adults increasingly is being discussed in the literature on Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome (PACS). Remote digital Assessments for Preclinical AD (RAPAs) are becoming more important in screening for early AD, and should always be available for PACS patients, especially for patients at risk of AD. This systematic review examines the potential for using RAPA to identify impairments in PACS patients, scrutinizes the supporting evidence, and describes the recommendations of experts regarding their use. We conducted a thorough search using the PubMed and Embase databases. Systematic reviews (with or without meta-analysis), narrative reviews, and observational studies that assessed patients with PACS on specific RAPAs were included. The RAPAs that were identified looked for impairments in olfactory, eye-tracking, graphical, speech and language, central auditory, or spatial navigation abilities. The recommendations' final grades were determined by evaluating the strength of the evidence and by having a consensus discussion about the results of the Delphi rounds among an international Delphi consensus panel called IMPACT, sponsored by the French National Research Agency. The consensus panel included 11 international experts from France, Switzerland, and Canada. Based on the available evidence, olfaction is the most long-lasting impairment found in PACS patients. However, while olfaction is the most prevalent impairment, expert consensus statements recommend that AD olfactory screening should not be used on patients with a history of PACS at this point in time. Experts recommend that olfactory screenings can only be recommended once those under study have reported full recovery. This is particularly important for the deployment of the olfactory identification subdimension. The expert assessment that more long-term studies are needed after a period of full recovery, suggests that this consensus statement requires an update in a few years. Based on available evidence, olfaction could be long-lasting in PACS patients. However, according to expert consensus statements, AD olfactory screening is not recommended for patients with a history of PACS until complete recovery has been confirmed in the literature, particularly for the identification sub-dimension. This consensus statement may require an update in a few years

Influence de différents niveaux de rayonnement UV sur la physiologie, le taux de pigments et la composition des baies, cépage Riesling

Changes in the stratospheric ozone concentration causes UV-radiation to increase. The response to UV-B radiation on the organ and cellular level is mainly an increase in the formation of UV-absorbing compounds meant to decrease UV-radiation penetration into the tissue. Some key enzymes involved in flavonoid biosynthesis and the phenyl-propanoid pathway have been shown to be up-regulated by UV-radiation, as are levels of key antioxidants glutathione and ascorbate, whereas carotenoid pigment formation and the incorporation of nitrogen into amino acids can be inhibited. Since components such as flavonoids, amino acids and carotenoids are important constituents of grapes with a marked effect on flavour development, some influence of altered UV-radiation can be expected. We investigated these possible effects under field conditions by selectively attenuating various portions of the light spectrum in the UV-part with polyester and di- and tri-acetate films and exposing the entire canopy or parts thereof to these conditions during berry development. We evaluated skin pigment composition using a non-destructive spectro-photometric technique. There was a strong UV-induced shift towards the formation of red and brown pigment components without affecting sugar levels. Chlorophyll degradation in the berry skin proceeded faster in the high UV-radiation treatments and this could be assessed for non-destructively by measuring berry fluorescence. Amino acid concentration was reduced under high levels of UV-B radiation and both the total bound glycosidic secondary metabolites and phenolics were increased. There were some effects noticeable on fermentation velocity and the retention of free and bound aromatic components in the wineinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Stress-driven instability in growing multilayer films

We investigate the stress-driven morphological instability of epitaxially growing multilayer films, which are coherent and dislocation-free. We construct a direct elastic analysis, from which we determine the elastic state of the system recursively in terms of that of the old states of the buried layers. In turn, we use the result for the elastic state to derive the morphological evolution equation of surface profile to first order of perturbations, with the solution explicitly expressed by the growth conditions and material parameters of all the deposited layers. We apply these results to two kinds of multilayer structures. One is the alternating tensile/compressive multilayer structure, for which we determine the effective stability properties, including the effect of varying surface mobility in different layers, its interplay with the global misfit of the multilayer film, and the influence of asymmetric structure of compressive and tensile layers on the system stability. The nature of the asymmetry properties found in stability diagrams is in agreement with experimental observations. The other multilayer structure that we study is one composed of stacked strained/spacer layers. We also calculate the kinetic critical thickness for the onset of morphological instability and obtain its reduction and saturation as number of deposited layers increases, which is consistent with recent experimental results. Compared to the single-layer film growth, the behavior of kinetic critical thickness shows deviations for upper strained layers.Comment: 27 pages, 11 figures; Phys. Rev. B, in pres

High-Field ESR Measurements of S=1/2 Kagome Lattice Antiferromagnet BaCu3_3V2_2O8_8(OH)2_2

High-field electron spin resonance (ESR) measurements have been performed on vesignieite BaCu$_3$V$_2$O$_8$(OH)$_2$, which is considered as a nearly ideal model substance of $S$=1/2 kagome antiferromagnet, in the temperature region from 1.9 to 265 K. The frequency region is from 60 to 360 GHz and the applied pulsed magnetic field is up to 16 T. Observed g-value and linewidth show the increase below 20 K, which suggest the development of the short range order. Moreover, a gapless spin liquid ground state is suggested from the frequency-field relation at 1.9 K.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, jpsj2 class file, to be published in J. Phys. Soc. Jp

Multilayer defects nucleated by substrate pits: a comparison of actinic inspection and non-actinic inspection techniques

The production of defect-free mask blanks remains a key challenge for EUV lithography. Mask-blank inspection tools must be able to accurately detect all critical defects while simultaneously having the minimum possible false-positive detection rate. We have recently observed and here report the identification of bump-type buried substrate defects, that were below the detection limit of a non-actinic (i.e. non-EUV) in inspection tool. Presently, the occurrence inspection of pit-type defects, their printability, and their detectability with actinic techniques and non-actinic commercial tools, has become a significant concern. We believe that the most successful strategy for the development of effective non-actinic mask inspection tools will involve the careful cross-correlation with actinic inspection and lithographic printing. In this way, the true efficacy of prototype inspection tools now under development can be studied quantitatively against relevant benchmarks. To this end we have developed a dual-mode actinic mask inspection system capable of scanning mask blanks for defects (with simultaneous EUV bright-field and dark-field detection) and imaging those same defects with a zoneplate microscope that matches or exceeds the resolution of EUV steppers

Guillain-Barré syndrome: a century of progress

In 1916, Guillain, Barré and Strohl reported on two cases of acute flaccid paralysis with high cerebrospinal fluid protein levels and normal cell counts — novel findings that identified the disease we now know as Guillain–Barré syndrome (GBS). 100 years on, we have made great progress with the clinical and pathological characterization of GBS. Early clinicopathological and animal studies indicated that GBS was an immune-mediated demyelinating disorder, and that severe GBS could result in secondary axonal injury; the current treatments of plasma exchange and intravenous immunoglobulin, which were developed in the 1980s, are based on this premise. Subsequent work has, however, shown that primary axonal injury can be the underlying disease. The association of Campylobacter jejuni strains has led to confirmation that anti-ganglioside antibodies are pathogenic and that axonal GBS involves an antibody and complement-mediated disruption of nodes of Ranvier, neuromuscular junctions and other neuronal and glial membranes. Now, ongoing clinical trials of the complement inhibitor eculizumab are the first targeted immunotherapy in GBS

Vertical integration, market foreclosure and quality investment

We study incentives to vertically integrate in an industry with verti- cally differentiated downstream firms. Vertical integration by one of the firms increases production costs for the rival. Increased production costs negatively affects quality investment both by the integrated firm and the unintegrated rival. Quality investment by both firms decreases under any (vertical inte- gration) scenario. The decrease in quality invesment by both firms softens competition among downstream firms. By integrating first, a firm always produces the high quality good and earns higher profits. A fully integrated industry, with increased product differentiation, is observed in equilibrium. Due to increase in firm profits, social welfare under this structure is greater than under no integration.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio