Long-Term Efficacy of Prism Adaptation on Spatial Neglect: Preliminary Results on Different Spatial Components

This study describes the long-term effectiveness on spatial neglect recovery of a 2-week treatment based on prism adaptation (PA). Seven right-brain-damaged patients affected by chronic neglect were evaluated before, after two weeks of the PA treatment and at a follow-up (variable between 8 and 30 months after the end of PA). Neglect evaluation was performed by means of BIT (conventional and behavioral), Fluff Test, and Comb and Razor Test. The results highlight an improvement, after the PA training, in both tasks performed using the hand trained in PA treatment and in behavioral tasks not requiring a manual motor response. Such effects extend, even if not significantly, to all BIT subtests. These results support previous findings, showing that PA improves neglect also on imagery tasks with no manual component, and provide further evidence for long-lasting efficacy of PA training. Dissociations have been found with regard to PA efficacy on peripersonal, personal, and representational neglect, visuospatial agraphia and neglect dyslexia. In particular, we found no significant differences between the pre-training and post-training PA session in personal neglect measures, and a poor recovery of neglect dyslexia after PA treatment. The recruitment of a larger sample could help to confirm the effectiveness of the prismatic lenses with regard to the different clinical manifestations of spatial neglect

COMT Val158Met polymorphism and socioeconomic status interact to predict attention deficit/hyperactivity problems in children aged 10–14

The functional Val158Met COMT polymorphism appears to affect a host of behaviours mediated by the pre-frontal cortex, and has been found associated to the risk for disruptive behaviours including ADHD. Parental socioeconomic status (SES) has also been reported as a predictor for the same childhood disorders. In a general population sample of 575 Italian pre-adolescents aged 10–14, we examined the association of the functional Val158Met COMT polymorphism and SES—both as linear and interactive effects—with oppositional defiant problems, conduct problems, and attention deficit/hyperactivity problems, as defined by the newly established Child Behaviour Check-List/6-18 DSM oriented scales. Multivariate- and subsequent univariate-analysis of covariance showed a significant association of COMT × SES interaction with CBCL 6/18 DOS attention deficit/hyperactivity problems (p = 0.004), and revealed higher scores among those children with Val/Val COMT genotype who belonged to low-SES families. We also found a significant association of SES with attention deficit/hyperactivity problems and conduct problems DOS (p = 0.04 and 0.01, respectively). Our data are consistent with a bulk of recent literature suggesting a role of environmental factors in moderating the contribution of specific genetic polymorphisms to human variability in ADHD. While future investigations will refine and better clarify which specific environmental and genetic mechanisms are at work in influencing the individual risk to ADHD in pre-adolescence, these data may contribute to identify/prevent the risk for ADHD problems in childhood

Prenatal paracetamol exposure and wheezing in childhood: Causation or confounding?

Several studies have reported an increased risk of wheezing in the children of mothers who used paracetamol during pregnancy. We evaluated to what extent this association is explained by confounding.We investigated the association between maternal paracetamol use in the first and third trimester of pregnancy and ever wheezing or recurrent wheezing/asthma in infants in the NINFEA cohort study. Risks ratios (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated after adjustment for confounders, including maternal infections and antibiotic use during pregnancy.The prevalence of maternal paracetamol use was 30.6% during the first and 36.7% during the third trimester of pregnancy. The prevalence of ever wheezing and recurrent wheezing/asthma was 16.9% and 5.6%, respectively. After full adjustment, the RR for ever wheezing decreased from 1.25 [1.07-1.47] to 1.10 [0.94-1.30] in the first, and from 1.26 [1.08-1.47] to 1.10 [0.93-1.29] in the third trimester. A similar pattern was observed for recurrent wheezing/asthma. Duration of maternal paracetamol use was not associated with either outcome. Further analyses on paracetamol use for three non-infectious disorders (sciatica, migraine, and headache) revealed no increased risk of wheezing in children.The association between maternal paracetamol use during pregnancy and infant wheezing is mainly, if not completely explained by confounding

Divergent thinking abilities in frontotemporal dementia: A mini-review

A large number of studies, including single case and case series studies, have shown that patients with different types of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) are characterized by the emergence of artistic abilities. This led to the hypothesis of enhanced creative thinking skills as a function of these pathological conditions. However, in the last years, it has been argued that these brain pathologies lead only to an augmented \u201cdrive to produce\u201d rather than to the emergence of creativity. Moreover, only a few studies analyzed specific creative skills, such as divergent thinking (DT), by standardized tests. This Mini-Review aimed to examine the extent to which DT abilities are preserved in patients affected by FTD. Results showed that DT abilities (both verbal and figural) are altered in different ways according to the specific anatomical and functional changes associated with the diverse forms of FTD. On the one hand, patients affected by the behavioral form of FTD can produce many ideas because of unimpaired access to memory stores (i.e., episodic and semantic), but are not able to recombine flexibly the information to produce original ideas because of damages in the pre-frontal cortex. On the other hand, patients affected by the semantic variant are impaired also in terms of fluency because of the degradation of their semantic memory store. Potential implications, limitations, and future research directions are discussed

Action of Silybum marianum (L.) Gaertn Peptidases on bovine caseins

Las caseinas (CN) constituyen el 80% de las proteinas totales de la leche, siendo alfas1, alfas2, beta y kappa las cuatro fracciones mayoritarias. La función principal de las CN es nutritiva y los peptidos derivados de las mismas tienen interesantes aplicaciones como suplementos dietarios y en preparaciones farmaceuticas. Las CN totales fueron obtenidas a partir de leche bovina comercial por precipitacion isoeletrica y purificadas mediante cromatografia de intercambio anionico (FPLC) utilizando DEAE-Sepharose FF a pH 7,0. Las fracciones alfa y beta CN purificadas fueron hidrolizadas empleando aspartilendopeptidasas de flores de Silybum marianum y con cuajo bovino comercial. Tanto las CN como los peptidos obtenidos fueron analizados por electroforesis SDS Tricina PAGE y densitograma. Los perfiles hidroliticos mostraron una actividad diferencial y especifica con la preparacion enzimatica de S. marianum, sin proteolisis excesiva. En base a estos resultados, esta preparacion enzimatica podria ser empleada para la obtencion de nutraceuticos o como sustituto de rennet comercial.Bovine milk contains four main types of casein (CN), αs1, αs2, β, and κ, constituting 80% of total protein milk. The main function of CN is nutritious and peptides derived from them have interesting applications as dietary supplements and pharmaceutical preparations. In the present work whole CN were obtaining from commercial bovine milk by isoelectric precipitation and were subsequently purified by anion exchange chromatography (FPLC) with DEAE Sepharose FF media, pH 7.0. α and β CN fractions purified were hydrolysed with aspartylendopeptidases from flowers of Silybum marianum and with commercial rennet. Both the CN as the peptides obtained were analyzed by electrophoresis (Tricine SDS PAGE) and densitograms. Hydrolytic profiles showed a differential and specific activity for the S. marianum enzymatic preparation without excessive proteolysis. Based on these results the enzymatic preparation could be advantageously for obtaining nutraceuticals or as a substitute for commercial rennet.Fil: Rusconi, Maria Elina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas. Laboratorio de Investigación de Proteínas Vegetales; ArgentinaFil: Priolo, Nora Silvia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas. Laboratorio de Investigación de Proteínas Vegetales; ArgentinaFil: Lopez, Laura Maria Isabel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas. Laboratorio de Investigación de Proteínas Vegetales; ArgentinaFil: Vairo Cavalli, Sandra Elizabeth. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas. Laboratorio de Investigación de Proteínas Vegetales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; Argentin

Atazanavir/ritonavir monotherapy as maintenance strategy in HIV-1 treated subjects with viral suppression: 96-week analysis results of the MODAT study

The 48-week interim analysis of the MODAT study showed that confirmed virologic failure (CVF) was more frequent in patients simplifying to ATV/r monotherapy compared to maintaining ATV/r-based triple therapy. The DSMB recommended stopping study enrollment but continuing follow-up of enrolled patients. We present the 96-week efficacy analysis

The CUORE Cryostat: A 1-Ton Scale Setup for Bolometric Detectors

The cryogenic underground observatory for rare events (CUORE) is a 1-ton scale bolometric experiment whose detector consists of an array of 988 TeO2 crystals arranged in a cylindrical compact structure of 19 towers. This will be the largest bolometric mass ever operated. The experiment will work at a temperature around or below 10 mK. CUORE cryostat consists of a cryogen-free system based on pulse tubes and a custom high power dilution refrigerator, designed to match these specifications. The cryostat has been commissioned in 2014 at the Gran Sasso National Laboratories and reached a record temperature of 6 mK on a cubic meter scale. In this paper, we present results of CUORE commissioning runs. Details on the thermal characteristics and cryogenic performances of the system will be also given.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, LTD16 conference proceedin

A Comparison of Divergent Thinking Abilities Between Healthy Elderly Subjects and MCI Patients: Preliminary Findings and Implications

Objective: Divergent thinking (DT) has attracted research interest because of its potential role in early diagnosis and rehabilitation programs for patients affected by neurodegenerative diseases. Recently, DT has received even more attention because of its proven relationship with cognitive reserve (CR) and the possibility of a standardized assessment. However, few studies have investigated this ability in dementia patients, and even less is known about patients affected by Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). Thus, this study aims to investigate DT abilities in MCI patients. Methods: A total of 25 MCI patients and 25 healthy controls subjects (HC; from a random selection of 50) matched for age, gender, and educational level were enrolled. General cognitive functioning was measured by the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), while the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults (ATTA) was selected to measure DT. Results: MANOVA analysis did not reveal any significant differences in DT abilities between MCI patients and HC except for the figural indicator score. A logistic hierarchical regression analysis revealed that the figural indicator score added an 8% of accuracy in the prediction of the group variable over the general cognition measure (MoCA). Conclusion: MCI patients seem to perform significantly worse than HC only in the figural DT score and this evidence has significant practical implications. First, that figural DT seemed to decrease even earlier than verbal DT and could therefore be taken into account for early diagnosis of MCI patients. On the contrary, the sparing of all the other DT skills (such as verbal DT skills, fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration) may suggest that, given its relationship with CR, verbal DT could instead be considered a possible target for prevention or early cognitive stimulation interventions

Reduced probability of improving viro-immunological state in subjects with vertical transmission of HIV reaching adult age: A multicenter retrospective cohort study

Introduction: Young adults with vertical transmission (VT) of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) represent a fragile population. This study evaluates factors associated with viro-immunological outcome of these patients. Methods: We performed a multicenter study including HIV-infected subjects with VT ≥ 18 years old from six Italian clinics. Subjects were observed from birth to death, lost to follow-up, or last visit until December 31, 2019. Condition of "optimal viro-immunological status" (OS) was defined as the simultaneous presence of HIV ribonucleic acid (RNA) < 50 copies/mL, CD4+ > 500 cells/mm3 , and CD4+/CD8+ ratio ≥ 1. Results: A total of 126 subjects were enrolled. At 18 years of age, 52/126 (44.4%) had HIV-RNA > 50 copies/mL, 47/126 (38.2%) had CD4+ < 500/mm3 , and 78/126 (67.2%) had CD4+/CD8+ < 1; 28 subjects (23.7%) presented in the condition of OS. Having a CD4+/CD8+ ratio ≥ 1 at 18 years of age was related with an increased probability of shift from suboptimal viro-immunological status (SOS) to OS (HR: 7.7, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 4.23-14.04), and a reduced risk of shift from the OS to the SOS (HR: 0.49, 95% CI: 0.26-0.92). Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) diagnosis significantly reduced the probability of shift from a viro-immunological SOS to OS (HR: 0.09, 95% CI: 0.03-0.30). Subjects who had not achieved an OS at 18 years of age had an increased risk of discontinuation of combination antiretroviral therapy (cART, p = .019). Conclusions: Only a small proportion of subjects with VT of HIV reached the adult age with "OS". Transition to the adult care with a compromised viro-immunological condition represents a negative driver for future optimal infection control, with a higher risk of discontinuation of cART and a reduced probability to improve the immunological status later in the years