Time of day effects on language discourse in healthy aging and dementia

This study’s purpose was to investigate whether language discourse follows a diurnal pattern across one 10-hour day in normal healthy aging individuals (NHA) and individuals with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease. Ten healthy older adults; and ten older adults clinically labeled with probable Alzheimer’s disease were recruited for this study. Measurements of procedural language, narrative language, and cognition, the Benton Judgment of Line Orientation (BJLO), were collected across one day at 9:00am, 12:00pm, 3:00 pm, and 6:00pm. Language samples were evaluated for linguistic variables to evaluate the quantity and quality of the discourse samples. Results indicated that the two groups differed significantly on their cognitive performance across the day, but cognitive performance was not correlated with any of the linguistic measures. Measures of narrative quality were significantly different between the groups. Group differences in procedural quality and quantity were non-significant. Some linguistic variables were susceptible to changes in diurnal patterns, while others were not. Diurnal effects appeared most prevalent in those with a higher cognitive status, with individuals with Alzheimer’s disease showing less variation in linguistic measures across the day. Clinically, these results could impact the timing and administration of cognitive exams and therapies, as to account for changes in arousal patterns. Future studies should include examinations of other linguistic variables to evaluate their susceptibility to diurnal patterns. Physiological measures should be included to provide a more objective measure of circadian rhythms

Bristol Deaf Memories: archives, nostalgia and the loss of community space in the deaf community in Bristol

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Taylor & Francis via the DOI in this record.The deaf community in the UK has undergone major changes in recent years, which has uprooted it from its traditional foundations, the deaf club and deaf residential school. This article examines the effect of the closure of the deaf club in Bristol, a city in the South West of England, which resulted in the loss of an important community place and spaces for deaf people in the city. We discuss, with a strong focus on methodology, a community event celebrating Bristol’s deaf heritage organised by the research team which utilised archive materials, including archived actuality footage, this article draws on interview data elicited from participants in that event to explore the meanings connected to space and place in both past and present by the deaf community in Bristol. Concepts of the rhizome and the smooth and striated spaces of Deleuze and Guattari were found to be useful models with which to engage with the contemporary struggles of the deaf community for community recognition and organisation. We also suggest an online mapping application which enables the practice of rhizomatic cartography could be a way forward in preserving the deaf heritage and history of the city.This research was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, grant number AH/M009203/

THE INFLUENCE OF SLOPE DAMAGE ON THE KINEMATICS OF LANDSLIDES

The stability of large rock slopes is controlled by geological, structural, geomorphic, and environmental factors, which define the location, size, and failure mechanism of landslides. However, the stability of a slope can change with time, as a result of the formation and accumulation of slope damage, which weakens the rock mass forming the slope or the rupture surface of the incipient landslide. In this paper, we review three landslide sites, analysing the characteristics of the slope damage, and highlighting its effects on the kinematics of the slope and the evolution of the landslide. We note that, despite the importance of slope damage in controlling the timing and evolution of a slope failure, no frameworks or guidelines currently exist for performing a consistent and systematic analysis. We also emphasize that interdisciplinary approaches should be developed to assist in the quantification and characterization of rock slope damage

Validation of the Childhood Career Development Scale Among Italian Middle School Students

During early adolescence, individuals engage in exploring educational opportunities, beginning to develop a career identity, contemplate future careers, and make tentative career decisions. Choices made during this period may have a strong effect on one\u2019s academic and career future, and in many countries, young adolescents must make important and sometimes final academic and career choices that impact the rest of their lives. Despite this, research on early adolescence is severely lacking. To address this gap, a validation study of the Childhood Career Development Scale (CCDS) was conducted with a young adolescent Italian sample. Consistent with previous research with younger samples, support was found for an eight-factor structure of the CCDS. Convergent validity was supported by positive associations with exploration, students\u2019 ideas, attitudes, and behaviors regarding their academic and career future and career self-efficacy. These findings support Super\u2019s dimensional model of childhood career development through early adolescence as originally theorized

The RMS Survey: Far-Infrared Photometry of Young Massive Stars

Context: The Red MSX Source (RMS) survey is a multi-wavelength campaign of follow-up observations of a colour-selected sample of candidate massive young stellar objects (MYSOs) in the galactic plane. This survey is returning the largest well-selected sample of MYSOs to date, while identifying other dust contaminant sources with similar mid-infrared colours including a large number of new ultra-compact (UC)HII regions. Aims:To measure the far-infrared (IR) flux, which lies near the peak of the spectral energy distribution (SED) of MYSOs and UCHII regions, so that, together with distance information, the luminosity of these sources can be obtained. Methods:Less than 50% of RMS sources are associated with IRAS point sources with detections at 60 micron and 100 micron, though the vast majority are visible in Spitzer MIPSGAL or IRAS Galaxy Atlas (IGA) images. However, standard aperture photometry is not appropriate for these data due to crowding of sources and strong spatially variable far-IR background emission in the galactic plane. A new technique using a 2-dimensional fit to the background in an annulus around each source is therefore used to obtain far-IR photometry for young RMS sources. Results:Far-IR fluxes are obtained for a total of 1113 RMS candidates identified as young sources. Of these 734 have flux measurements using IGA 60 micron and 100 micron images and 724 using MIPSGAL 70 micron images, with 345 having measurements in both data sets.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures, 2 Tables, accepted to A&A. A full version of table 1 is available from the lead author or at the CDS upon publicatio

Enhanced smoking cessation support for newly abstinent smokers discharged from hospital (The Hospital to Home trial): A randomised controlled trial

Background and aimsThe United Kingdom's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance (NICE PH48) recommends that pharmacotherapy combined with behavioural support be provided for all smokers admitted to hospital; however, relapse to smoking after discharge remains common. This study aimed to assess the effect of adding home support for newly?abstinent smokers to conventional NICE?recommended support in smokers discharged from hospital.Designindividually?randomised parallel group trial.SettingOne UK acute hospital.Participants404 smokers aged >18 admitted to acute medical wards between June 2016 and July 2017 were randomised in equal numbers to each treatment group.Interventions and comparatorsThe intervention provided 12 weeks of at?home cessation support which included help in maintaining a smoke?free home, help in accessing and using medication, further behavioural support and personalised feedback on home air quality. The comparator was NICE PH48 care as usual.MeasuresThe primary outcome was self?reported continuous abstinence from smoking validated by an exhaled carbon monoxide level ?6ppm four?weeks after discharge from hospital.FindingsIn an intention?to?treat analysis at the four?week primary endpoint, 38 participants (18.8%) in the usual care group and 43 (21.3%) in the intervention group reported continuous abstinence from smoking (odds ratio 1.17, 95% confidence interval 0.72 to 1.90, Bayes factor 0.33). There were no significant differences in any secondary outcomes, including self?reported cessation at 3 months, having a smoke?free home, or number of cigarettes smoked per day in those who did not quit.ConclusionsProvision of a home visit and continued support to prevent relapse to smoking after hospital discharge did not appear to increase subsequent abstinence rate above usual care in accordance with UK guidance from the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence

Redox Regulation, Rather than Stress-Induced Phosphorylation, of a Hog1 Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Modulates Its Nitrosative-Stress-Specific Outputs

Data availability. The RNA sequencing dataset is available at EBI (www.ebi.ac.uk/arrayexpress/) under accession number E-MTAB-5990. Other data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We thank Debbie Smith for constructing the strains JC41 and JC310, Arnab Pradhan for help with DHE control experiments, and our colleagues in the Aberdeen Fungal Group and Newcastle Yeast Group for insightful discussions. We are also grateful to Mike Gustin for his advice. We are grateful to the Centre for Genome Enabled Biology and Medicine, Aberdeen Proteomics, the Iain Fraser Cytometry Centre, the Microscopy and Histology Facility, and the qPCR facility at the University of Aberdeen for their help, advice, and support. This work was funded by the UK Biotechnology and Biological Research Council (http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk) (grants BB/K017365/1 and BB/F00513X/1 to A.J.P.B. and grant BB/K016393/1 to J.Q.). This work was also supported by the European Research Council (http://erc.europa.eu/) (STRIFE advanced grant C-2009-AdG-249793 to A.J.P.B.), the UK Medical Research Council (http://www.mrc.ac.uk) (grant MR/M026663/1 to A.J.P.B. and grant MR/M000923/1 to P.S.S.), the Wellcome Trust (https://wellcome.ac.uk) (grant 097377 to A.J.P.B. and J.Q.), the MRC Centre for Medical Mycology and the University of Aberdeen (grant MR/M026663/1 to A.J.P.B.). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The RMS Survey: The Bolometric Fluxes and Luminosity Distributions of Young Massive Stars

Context: The Red MSX Source (RMS) survey is returning a large sample of massive young stellar objects (MYSOs) and ultra-compact (UC) \HII{} regions using follow-up observations of colour-selected candidates from the MSX point source catalogue. Aims: To obtain the bolometric fluxes and, using kinematic distance information, the luminosities for young RMS sources with far-infrared fluxes. Methods: We use a model spectral energy distribution (SED) fitter to obtain the bolometric flux for our sources, given flux data from our work and the literature. The inputs to the model fitter were optimised by a series of investigations designed to reveal the effect varying these inputs had on the resulting bolometric flux. Kinematic distances derived from molecular line observations were then used to calculate the luminosity of each source. Results: Bolometric fluxes are obtained for 1173 young RMS sources, of which 1069 have uniquely constrained kinematic distances and good SED fits. A comparison of the bolometric fluxes obtained using SED fitting with trapezium rule integration and two component greybody fits was also undertaken, and showed that both produce considerable scatter compared to the method used here. Conclusions: The bolometric flux results allowed us to obtain the luminosity distributions of YSOs and UC\HII{} regions in the RMS sample, which we find to be different. We also find that there are few MYSOs with L $\geq$ 10$^{5}$\lsol{}, despite finding many MYSOs with 10$^{4}$\lsol{} $\geq$ L $\geq$ 10$^{5}$\lsol{}.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figures, 3 tables, accepted to A&A. The full versions of tables 1 and 2 will be available via the CDS upon publicatio

Cross-platform analysis of global microRNA expression technologies

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Although analysis of microRNAs (miRNAs) by DNA microarrays is gaining in popularity, these new technologies have not been adequately validated. We examined within and between platform reproducibility of four miRNA array technologies alongside TaqMan PCR arrays.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Two distinct pools of reference materials were selected in order to maximize differences in miRNA content. Filtering for miRNA that yielded signal above background revealed 54 miRNA probes (matched by sequence) across all platforms. Using this probeset as well as all probes that were present on an individual platform, within-platform analyses revealed Spearman correlations of >0.9 for most platforms. Comparing between platforms, rank analysis of the log ratios of the two reference pools also revealed high correlation (range 0.663-0.949). Spearman rank correlation and concordance correlation coefficients for miRNA arrays against TaqMan qRT-PCR arrays were similar for all of the technologies. Platform performances were similar to those of previous cross-platform exercises on mRNA and miRNA microarray technologies.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These data indicate that miRNA microarray platforms generated highly reproducible data and can be recommended for the study of changes in miRNA expression.</p