Word frequency influences on the list length effect and associative memory in young and older adults

Many studies show that age deficits in memory are smaller for information supported by preexperimental experience. Many studies also find dissociations in memory tasks between words that occur with high and low frequencies in language, but the literature is mixed regarding the extent of word frequency effects in normal ageing. We examined whether age deficits in episodic memory could be influenced by manipulations of word frequency. In Experiment 1, young and older adults studied short and long lists of high- and low-frequency words for free recall. The list length effect (the drop in proportion recalled for longer lists) was larger in young compared to older adults and for high- compared to low-frequency words. In Experiment 2, young and older adults completed item and associative recognition memory tests with high- and low-frequency words. Age deficits were greater for associative memory than for item memory, demonstrating an age-related associative deficit. High-frequency words led to better associative memory performance whilst low-frequency words resulted in better item memory performance. In neither experiment was there any evidence for age deficits to be smaller for high- relative to low-frequency words, suggesting that word frequency effects on memory operate independently from effects due to cognitive ageing

Levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system vs. usual medical treatment for menorrhagia: An economic evaluation alongside a randomised controlled trial

Objective: To undertake an economic evaluation alongside the largest randomised controlled trial comparing Levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine device ('LNG-IUS') and usual medical treatment for women with menorrhagia in primary care; and compare the cost-effectiveness findings using two alternative measures of quality of life. Methods: 571 women with menorrhagia from 63 UK centres were randomised between February 2005 and July 2009. Women were randomised to having a LNG-IUS fitted, or usual medical treatment, after discussing with their general practitioner their contraceptive needs or desire to avoid hormonal treatment. The treatment was specified prior to randomisation. For the economic evaluation we developed a state transition (Markov) model with a 24 month follow-up. The model structure was informed by the trial women's pathway and clinical experts. The economic evaluation adopted a UK National Health Service perspective and was based on an outcome of incremental cost per Quality Adjusted Life Year (QALY) estimated using both EQ-5D and SF-6D. Results: Using EQ-5D, LNG-IUS was the most cost-effective treatment for menorrhagia. LNG-IUS costs £100 more than usual medical treatment but generated 0.07 more QALYs. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio for LNG-IUS compared to usual medical treatment was £1600 per additional QALY. Using SF-6D, usual medical treatment was the most cost-effective treatment. Usual medical treatment was both less costly (£100) and generated 0.002 more QALYs. Conclusion: Impact on quality of life is the primary indicator of treatment success in menorrhagia. However, the most costeffective treatment differs depending on the quality of life measure used to estimate the QALY. Under UK guidelines LNG-IUS would be the recommended treatment for menorrhagia. This study demonstrates that the appropriate valuation of outcomes in menorrhagia is crucial. Copyright: © 2014 Sanghera et al

Examining the effectiveness of technology use in classrooms: A tertiary meta-analysis

Identifying effective literacy instruction programs has been a focal point for governments, educators and parents over the last few decades (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2004, 2006; Council of Ontario Directors of Education, 2011). Given the increasing use of computer technologies in the classroom and in the home, a variety of information communication technology (ICT) interventions for learning have been introduced. Meta-analyses comparing the impact of these programs on learning, however, have yielded inconsistent findings (Andrews, Freeman, Hou, McGuinn, Robinson, & Zhu, 2007; Slavin, Cheung, Groff, & Lake, 2008; Slavin, Lake, Chambers, Cheung, & Davis, 2009; Torgerson & Zhu, 2003). The present tertiary meta-analytic review re-assesses outcomes presented in three previous meta-analyses. Four moderator variables assessed the impact of the systematic review from which they were retrieved, training and support, implementation fidelity and who delivered the intervention (teacher versus researcher). Significant results were found when training and support was entered as a moderator variable with the small overall effectiveness of the ICTs (ES = 0.18), similar to those found in previous research, increasing significantly (ES = 0.57). These findings indicate the importance of including implementation factors such as training and support, when considering the relative effectiveness of ICT interventions

Properdin: A Novel Target for Neuroprotection in Neonatal Hypoxic-Ischemic Brain Injury

Background: Hypoxic-ischemic (HI) encephalopathy is a major cause of neonatal mortality and morbidity, with a global incidence of 3 per 1,000 live births. Intrauterine or perinatal complications, including maternal infection, constitute a major risk for the development of neonatal HI brain damage. During HI, inflammatory response and oxidative stress occur, causing subsequent cell death. The presence of an infection sensitizes the neonatal brain, making it more vulnerable to the HI damage. Currently, therapeutic hypothermia is the only clinically approved treatment available for HI encephalopathy, however it is only partially effective in HI alone and its application in infection-sensitized HI is debatable. Therefore, there is an unmet clinical need for the development of novel therapeutic interventions for the treatment of HI. Such an alternative is targeting the complement system. Properdin, which is involved in stabilization of the alternative pathway convertases, is the only known positive regulator of alternative complement activation. Absence of the classical pathway in the neonatal HI brain is neuroprotective. However, there is a paucity of data on the participation of the alternative pathway and in particular the role of properdin in HI brain damage. / Objectives: Our study aimed to validate the effect of global properdin deletion in two mouse models: HI alone and LPS-sensitized HI, thus addressing two different clinical scenarios. / Results: Our results indicate that global properdin deletion in a Rice-Vannucci model of neonatal HI and LPS-sensitized HI brain damage, in the short term, clearly reduced forebrain cell death and microglial activation, as well as tissue loss. In HI alone, deletion of properdin reduced TUNEL+ cell death and microglial post-HI response at 48 h post insult. Under the conditions of LPS-sensitized HI, properdin deletion diminished TUNEL+ cell death, tissue loss and microglial activation at 48 h post-HI. / Conclusion: Overall, our data suggests a critical role for properdin, and possibly also a contribution in neonatal HI alone and in infection-sensitized HI brain damage. Thus, properdin can be considered a novel target for treatment of neonatal HI brain damage

General Practice in the Time of COVID-19: A Mixed-Methods Service Evaluation of a Primary Care COVID-19 Service

Primary care coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) clinics were rapidly introduced across the UK to review potentially infectious patients. Evaluation of these services is needed to guide future implementation. This mixed-methods study evaluates patient demographics, clinical presentation, co-morbidities, service usage, and outcomes for the Islington COVID-19 service (London, UK) and from April to May 2020 and thematically analyses survey responses from 29 service clinicians and 41 GP referrers on their service experience. Of the 237 patients booked into the service, a significant number of referrals (n = 91; 38.6%) were made after the presumed infectious period of 14 days. Almost half of all adult referrals (49%) were dealt with remotely (via telephone/video consultation +/− remote oxygen saturation monitoring). The service was perceived to provide a safe way to see patients; it developed local expertise, learning, and empowerment; and it was a positive teamworking experience. These findings suggest that the management of many patients with COVID-19 symptoms is possible in routine general practice with minimal risk through the implementation of remote consultation methods and in patients who present after the post-infectious period. Additionally, the use of remote saturation monitoring and local GP COVID-19 “experts” can support practices to manage COVID-19 patients. Future primary care COVID-19 services should act as empowerment tools to assist GPs to safely manage their own patients and provide support for GPs in this process

Data for 'Something in the way she moves': the functional significance of flexibility in the multiple roles of protein disulfide isomerase (PDI)

Protein disulfide isomerase (PDI) has diverse functions in the endoplasmic reticulum as catalyst of redox transfer, disulfide isomerization and oxidative protein folding, as molecular chaperone and in multi-subunit complexes. It interacts with an extraordinarily wide range of substrate and partner proteins, but there is only limited structural information on these interactions. Extensive evidence on the flexibility of PDI in solution is not matched by any detailed picture of the scope of its motion. A new rapid method for simulating the motion of large proteins provides detailed molecular trajectories for PDI demonstrating extensive changes in the relative orientation of its four domains, great variation in the distances between key sites and internal motion within the core ligand-binding domain. The review shows that these simulations are consistent with experimental evidence and provide insight into the functional capabilities conferred by the extensive flexible motion of PDI

FIRST-based survey of Compact Steep Spectrum sources I. MERLIN images of arc-second scale objects

Compact Steep Spectrum (CSS) sources are powerful extragalactic radio sources with angular dimensions of the order of a few arcseconds or less. Such a compactness is apparently linked to the youth of these objects. The majority of CSSs investigated so far have been known since the early 1980s. This paper is the first in a series where we report the results of an observational campaign targeted on a completely new sample of CSSs which are significantly weaker than those investigated before. The ultimate goal of that campaign is to find out how ``weak'' CSSs compare to ``strong'', classical ones, especially with regard to the morphologies. Here we present an analysis of morphological and physical properties of five relatively large sources based on MERLIN observations at 1.6 and 5 GHz.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, A&A in pres