18 research outputs found
Legal medical consideration of alzheimer’s disease patients’ dysgraphia and cognitive dysfunction: a 6 month follow up
Background: The purpose of this study was to investigate the ability of Alzheimer’s disease
(AD) patients to express intentions and desires, and their decision-making capacity. This study
examines the findings from a 6-month follow-up of our previous results in which 30 patients
participated.
Materials and methods: The patient’s cognition was examined by conducting the tests of 14
questions and letter-writing ability over a period of 19 days, and it was repeated after 6 months.
The difference between these two cognitive measures (PQ1 before–PQ2 before), tested previously
and later the writing test, was designated DΔ before. The test was repeated after 6 months,
and PQ1 after–PQ2 after was designated DΔ after.
Results: Several markedly strong relationships between dysgraphia and other measures of
cognitive performance in AD patients were observed. The most aged patients (over 86 years),
despite less frequency, maintain the cognitive capacity manifested in the graphic expressions.
A document, written by an AD patient presents an honest expression of the patient’s intention
if that document is legible, clear, and comprehensive.
Conclusion: The identification of impairment/deficits in writing and cognition during different
phases of AD may facilitate the understanding of disease progression and identify the occasions
during which the patient may be considered sufficiently lucid to make decisions.
Keywords: cognition, intentions, unfit to plead, consen
Heavy Quarkonium Physics
This report is the result of the collaboration and research effort of the
Quarkonium Working Group over the last three years. It provides a comprehensive
overview of the state of the art in heavy-quarkonium theory and experiment,
covering quarkonium spectroscopy, decay, and production, the determination of
QCD parameters from quarkonium observables, quarkonia in media, and the effects
on quarkonia of physics beyond the Standard Model. An introduction to common
theoretical and experimental tools is included. Future opportunities for
research in quarkonium physics are also discussed.Comment: xviii + 487 pages, 260 figures. The full text is also available at
the Quarkonium Working Group web page: http://www.qwg.to.infn.i
QCD and strongly coupled gauge theories : challenges and perspectives
We highlight the progress, current status, and open challenges of QCD-driven physics, in theory and in experiment. We discuss how the strong interaction is intimately connected to a broad sweep of physical problems, in settings ranging from astrophysics and cosmology to strongly coupled, complex systems in particle and condensed-matter physics, as well as to searches for physics beyond the Standard Model. We also discuss how success in describing the strong interaction impacts other fields, and, in turn, how such subjects can impact studies of the strong interaction. In the course of the work we offer a perspective on the many research streams which flow into and out of QCD, as well as a vision for future developments.Peer reviewe
Pharmacogenomics and Personalized Medicine in Mood Disorders
Pharmacogenomics and the search for personalized medicine focus on the attainment of
individualized pharmacotherapies that cover genetic variation and target groups of patients that
present neurodevelopmental aspects of symptom profiles and biomarkers underlying the
pathophysiology of mood disorders. The identification of genetic biomarkers facilitates choice of
treatment, prediction of response, and prognosis of outcome over a wide spectrum of symptoms
associated with affective states thereby optimizing clinical practice procedures. Several strategies,
under development and refinement, show the propensity for derivation of essential elements in the
etiopathogenesis of disorder affecting drug efficacy, drug metabolism, and drug adverse effects,
e.g., with regard to SSRIs; these include the following: transporter gene expression and genes
encoding receptor systems, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis factors, neurotrophic factors, and
inflammatory factors affecting neuroimmune function. Nevertheless, procedural considerations of
pharmacogenetics presume the parallel investment of policies and regulations to withstand
eventual attempts at misuse thereby ensuring patient integrity
Drug Abuse Neurotoxicity: Alcohol and Nicotine as Developmental Stressors.
Drugs of abuse have the property of inducing adverse health complications, not least neurotoxicity under conditions where both the environmental conditions and activity states associated with their intake may enhance strongly drug toxicity thereby causing life-threatening health complications and tragedy for relations and caregivers. While both chronic alcohol and/or nicotine abuse induce a variety of neuropathological effects, including damage to the brain, the extent of damage and disruption observed in the developing brain and CNS is a considerable affliction for the affected individuals. On the basis of laboratory and clinical studies, the potential of chemicals, including therapeutic and abused agents, to induce neurotoxic effects has been assessed; with considerations of abuse drugs neurotoxicity encompassing several factors that may acceleration and complicate prevailing conditions: the type and influence of environmental conditions, the presence of daily habits such as coffee-breaks/smoking breaks, nutritional status and neuroimmune system mobilization. Abuse neurotoxicity at several stages of early development, alcohol neurotoxicity, nicotine neurotoxicity and combinations of alcohol-nicotine neurotoxicity present a threatening scenario of two compounds, benefitting from legality and availability that nevertheless have such potential for destruction over multiple domains, particularly in the undeveloped brain
Neurodegenerative Aspects in Vulnerability to Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders
The neurodegenerative and neurotoxic aspects
of schizophrenia and/or psychosis involve genetic, epigenetic, and neurotoxic propensities that impinge upon both
the symptom domains and the biomarkers of the disorder,
involving cellular apoptosis/excitotoxicity, increased reactive oxygen species formation, viral and bacterial infections, anoxic birth injury, maternal starvation, drugs of
abuse, particularly cannabis, metabolic accidents, and other
chemical agents that disrupt normal brain development or
the integrity of brain tissues. Evidence for premorbid and
prodromal psychotic phases, aspects of neuroimaging,
dopamine, and psychosis vulnerability, and perinatal
aspects provide substance for neurodegenerative influences. Not least, the agencies of antipsychotic contribute to
the destructive spiral that disrupts normal structure and
function. The etiopathogenesis of psychosis is distinences. Not least, the agencies of antipsychotic contribute to
the destructive spiral that disrupts normal structure and
function. The etiopathogenesis of psychosis is distinguished also by disruptions of the normal functioning of
the neurotrophins, in particular brain-derived neurotrophic
factor, dyskinesic aspects, immune system disturbances,
and metabolic aspects. Whether detrimental to neurodevelopment or tissue-destructive, or an acceleration of
neurotoxic pathways, the notion of neurodegeneration in
the pathophysiology of schizophrenia spectrum and psychotic disorders continues to gather momentum
Legal medical consideration of Alzheimer’s disease patients’ dysgraphia and cognitive dysfunction a 6 month follow up
Emanuela Onofri,1 Marco Mercuri,1 Trevor Archer,2 Max Rapp-Ricciardi,2 Serafino Ricci1 1Department of Anatomy, Histology, Legal Medicine and Orthopaedics, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy; 2Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden Background: The purpose of this study was to investigate the ability of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients to express intentions and desires, and their decision-making capacity. This study examines the findings from a 6-month follow-up of our previous results in which 30 patients participated. Materials and methods: The patient’s cognition was examined by conducting the tests of 14 questions and letter-writing ability over a period of 19 days, and it was repeated after 6 months. The difference between these two cognitive measures (PQ1 before–PQ2 before), tested previously and later the writing test, was designated DΔ before. The test was repeated after 6 months, and PQ1 after–PQ2 after was designated DΔ after. Results: Several markedly strong relationships between dysgraphia and other measures of cognitive performance in AD patients were observed. The most aged patients (over 86 years), despite less frequency, maintain the cognitive capacity manifested in the graphic expressions. A document, written by an AD patient presents an honest expression of the patient’s intention if that document is legible, clear, and comprehensive. Conclusion: The identification of impairment/deficits in writing and cognition during different phases of AD may facilitate the understanding of disease progression and identify the occasions during which the patient may be considered sufficiently lucid to make decisions. Keywords: cognition, intentions, unfit to plead, consen
Gender and Entrepreneurship in Pandemic Time: What Demands and What Resources? An Exploratory Study
Due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic, global economies have suffered an exogenous shock never seen before with a strong economic and psychosocial impact on organizations. Italy, in the context of the research, has been severely affected. The economic crisis has mainly affected women. In this scenario, entrepreneurial perceived success (objective and subjective) is influenced by increasingly burdensome job demands that entrepreneurs have to face up. Using the job demand-resources model, the study aims to broaden the knowledge of the determinants of entrepreneurial perceived success in the current emergency moment. In particular, as regards of the demands, alongside the specific entrepreneurial demands (time demands, uncertainty and risk, and responsibility), we also decided to include the negative interface family–work in both directions from-family-to-work (NEGWIF) and from-work-to-family (NEGFIW). Regarding the resources, we considered entrepreneurial self-efficacy (researching, planning, marshaling, implementing people, and implementing financial), proactive and elaborate social strategies (SS), and both directions of the positive interface: from-family-to-work (POSWIF) and from-work-to-family (POSFIW). All participants are women entrepreneurs (N = 137) who have completed a self-report questionnaire. We explored the associations between demands, resources, and the dimensions of success through hierarchical regressions. As for the demands, time demands, uncertainty and risk, NEGWIF, and NEGFIW negatively influenced the perceived entrepreneurial success. Regarding resources, planning, implementing financial, proactive and elaborate SS positively influenced the perceived entrepreneurial success
Cognitive benefits of exercise intervention
Exercise, as a potent epigenetic regulator, implies the potential
to counteract pathophysiological processes and alterations in most
cardiovascular/respiratory cells and tissues not withstanding a paucity
of understanding the underlying molecular mechanisms and doseresponse
relationships. In the present account, the assets accruing
from physical exercise and its influence upon executive functioning
are examined. Under conditions of neuropsychiatric and neurologic
ill-health, age-related deterioration of functional and biomarker
indicators during healthy and disordered trajectories, neuroimmune
and affective unbalance, and epigenetic pressures, exercise offers a
large harvest of augmentations in health and well-being. Both animal
models and human studies support the premise of manifest gains from
regular exercise within several domains, besides cognitive function
and mood, notably as the agency of a noninvasive, readily available
therapeutic intervention