Standardized on-road tests assessing fitness-to-drive in people with cognitive impairments: A systematic review.

The on-road assessment is the gold standard because of its ecological validity. Yet existing instruments are heterogeneous and little is known about their psychometric properties. This study identified existing on-road assessment instruments and extracted data on psychometric properties and usability in clinical settings. A systematic review identified studies evaluating standardized on-road evaluation instruments adapted for people with cognitive impairment. Published articles were searched on PubMed, CINHAL, PsycINFO, Web of Science, and ScienceDirect. Study quality and the level of evidence were assessed using the COSMIN checklist. The collected data were synthetized using a narrative approach. Usability was subjectively assessed for each instrument by extracting information on acceptability, access, cost, and training. The review identified 18 published studies between 1994 and 2016 that investigated 12 different on-road evaluation instruments: the Performance-Based Driving Evaluation, the Washington University Road Test, the New Haven, the Test Ride for Practical Fitness to Drive, the Rhode Island Road Test, the Sum of Manoeuvres Score, the Performance Analysis of Driving Ability, the Composite Driving Assessment Scale, the Nottingham Neurological Driving Assessment, the Driving Observation Schedule, the Record of Driving Errors, and the Western University's On-road Assessment. Participants were mainly male (64%), between 48 and 80 years old, and had a broad variety of cognitive disorders. Most instruments showed reasonable psychometric values for internal consistency, criterion validity, and reliability. However, the level of evidence was poor to support any of the instruments given the low number of studies for each. Despite the social and health consequences of decisions taken using these instruments, little is known about the value of a single evaluation and the ability of instruments to identify expected changes. None of the identified on-road evaluation instruments seem currently adapted for clinical settings targeting rehabilitation and occupational priorities rather than road security alone. PROSPERO registration number CRD42018103276

Migration drivers and migration choice: interrogating responses to migration and development interventions in West Africa

The notion of migration as being at least partly about ‘choice’ is deeply rooted in both academic thought and public policy. Recent contributions have considered migration choice as step-wise in nature, involving a separation between ‘aspiration’ and ‘ability’ to migrate, whilst stressing a range of non-economic factors that influence migration choices. But such nuances have not prevented the emergence of a significant area of public policy that seeks to influence choices to migrate from Africa through ‘irregular’ channels, or at all, through a range of development interventions. This paper explores evidence from West Africa on how young people formulate the boundaries of such choice. Drawing on approaches in anthropology and elsewhere that stress the value of a ‘future-orientated’ lens, we show how present uncertainty is a central framing that fundamentally limits the value of thinking about migration as a choice. This has important implications for policy on ‘migration and development’

Nutritional properties of fillets from tra catfish (Pangasius Hypophthalmus)imported into EU

Pangasius (Pangasius hypophthalmus) is a catfish farmed in the Mekong delta region and commercialized in more than 70 countries as frozen or thawed fillet. The EU is the main market for pangasius from Vietnam, with about one third of imports in quantity and 40 per cent in value terms (225.000 tons in 2008). Within the EU, Spain is the biggest market. Pangasius has good marketing value also in Italy and it is rather appreciated by consumers due to its low price and low lipid content. Beside these benefits, few information about the real conditions of farming and the nutritional properties of its meat is available. The aim of the present work was to investigate the chemical and nutritional properties of pangasius fillets in order to provide a better information to the consumer. For this aim 83 samples of fillets were collected from the international fish market of Milan and from local retailers and were analyzed for their proximate composition, fatty acid profile, total phosphorus and additives content. Results showed that fillets were characterized by a high moisture (84.5\ub12.2%) and a low protein (12.6\ub12.2%) and lipid (1.4\ub10.7%) content. Moreover, the intramuscular lipids were characterized by a high percentage of saturated (43.0\ub12.1%) and monounsaturated (38.8\ub13.4%) fatty acids, and by a low percentage of polyunsaturated (18.2\ub14.5%) fatty acids. Among polyunsaturated, linoleic acid (18:2n-6) was the most representative fatty acid with a percentage of 8.9\ub11.6%. The chemical and nutritional properties of pangasius fillets differed from those of other farmed fish species, especially for their low content in n-3 fatty acids (4.0\ub11.8%)

Minimum black hole mass from colliding Gaussian packets

We study the formation of a black hole in the collision of two Gaussian packets. Rather than following their dynamical evolution in details, we assume a horizon forms when the mass function for the two packets becomes larger than half the flat areal radius, as it would occur in a spherically symmetric geometry. This simple approximation allows us to determine the existence of a minimum black hole mass solely related to the width of the packets. We then comment on the possible physical implications, both in classical and quantum physics, and models with extra spatial dimensions.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

Multijet production in neutral current deep inelastic scattering at HERA and determination of α_{s}

Multijet production rates in neutral current deep inelastic scattering have been measured in the range of exchanged boson virtualities 10 5 GeV and –1 < η_{LAB}^{jet} < 2.5. Next-to-leading-order QCD calculations describe the data well. The value of the strong coupling constant α_{s} (M_{z}), determined from the ratio of the trijet to dijet cross sections, is α_{s} (M_{z}) = 0.1179 ± 0.0013 (stat.)_{-0.0046}^{+0.0028}(exp.)_{-0.0046}^{+0.0028}(th.)

A very low geno2pheno false positive rate is associated with poor viro-immunological response in drug-naïve patients starting a first-line HAART.

Background: We previously found that a very low geno2pheno false positive rate (FPR ≤2%) defines a viral population associated with low CD4 cell count and the highest amount of X4-quasispecies. In this study, we aimed at evaluating whether FPR ≤2% might impact on the viro-immunological response in HIV-1 infected patients starting a first-line HAART. Methods: The analysis was performed on 305 HIV-1 B subtype infected drug-naı¨ve patients who started their first-line HAART. Baseline FPR (%) values were stratified according to the following ranges: ≤2; 2–5; 5–10; 10–20; 20–60; >60. The impact of genotypically-inferred tropism on the time to achieve immunological reconstitution (a CD4 cell count gain from HAART initiation ≥150 cells/mm3) and on the time to achieve virological success (the first HIV-RNA measurement <50 copies/mL from HAART initiation) was evaluated by survival analyses. Results: Overall, at therapy start, 27% of patients had FPR ≤10 (6%, FPR ≤2; 7%, FPR 2–5; 14%, FPR 5–10). By 12 months of therapy the rate of immunological reconstitution was overall 75.5%, and it was significantly lower for FPR ≤2 (54.1%) in comparison to other FPR ranks (78.8%, FPR 2–5; 77.5%, FPR 5–10; 71.7%, FPR 10–20; 81.8%, FPR 20–60; 75.1%, FPR >60; p = 0.008). The overall proportion of patients achieving virological success was 95.5% by 12 months of therapy. Multivariable Cox analyses showed that patients having pre-HAART FPR ≤2% had a significant lower relative adjusted hazard [95% C.I.] both to achieve immunological reconstitution (0.37 [0.20–0.71], p = 0.003) and to achieve virological success (0.50 [0.26–0.94], p = 0.031) than those with pre-HAART FPR >60%. Conclusions: Beyond the genotypically-inferred tropism determination, FPR ≤2% predicts both a poor immunological reconstitution and a lower virological response in drug-naı¨ve patients who started their first-line therapy. This parameter could be useful to identify patients potentially with less chance of achieving adequate immunological reconstitution and virological undetectability

Jet production in charged current deep inelastic e⁺p scatteringat HERA

The production rates and substructure of jets have been studied in charged current deep inelastic e⁺p scattering for Q² > 200 GeV² with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 110.5 pb⁻¹. Inclusive jet cross sections are presented for jets with transverse energies E_{T}^{jet} > 5 GeV. Measurements of the mean subjet multiplicity, 〈n_{sbj}〉, of the inclusive jet sample are presented. Predictions based on parton-shower Monte Carlo models and next-to-leading-order QCD calculations are compared to the measurements. The value of α_{s} (M_{z}), determined from 〈n_{sbj}〉 at y_{cut} = 10⁻² for jets with 25 < E_{T}^{jet} < 119 GeV, is α_{s} (M_{z}) = 0.1202 ± 0.0052 (stat.)_{-0.0019}^{+0.0060} (syst.)_{-0.0053}^{+0.0065} (th.). The mean subjet multiplicity as a function of Q² is found to be consistent with that measured in NC DIS

GEANT4 : a simulation toolkit

Abstract Geant4 is a toolkit for simulating the passage of particles through matter. It includes a complete range of functionality including tracking, geometry, physics models and hits. The physics processes offered cover a comprehensive range, including electromagnetic, hadronic and optical processes, a large set of long-lived particles, materials and elements, over a wide energy range starting, in some cases, from 250 eV and extending in others to the TeV energy range. It has been designed and constructed to expose the physics models utilised, to handle complex geometries, and to enable its easy adaptation for optimal use in different sets of applications. The toolkit is the result of a worldwide collaboration of physicists and software engineers. It has been created exploiting software engineering and object-oriented technology and implemented in the C++ programming language. It has been used in applications in particle physics, nuclear physics, accelerator design, space engineering and medical physics. PACS: 07.05.Tp; 13; 2

Minimum length effects in black hole physics

We review the main consequences of the possible existence of a minimum measurable length, of the order of the Planck scale, on quantum effects occurring in black hole physics. In particular, we focus on the ensuing minimum mass for black holes and how modified dispersion relations affect the Hawking decay, both in four space-time dimensions and in models with extra spatial dimensions. In the latter case, we briefly discuss possible phenomenological signatures.Comment: 29 pages, 12 figures. To be published in "Quantum Aspects of Black Holes", ed. X. Calmet (Springer, 2014

Colostrum, n-3 FA status and immune response of newborn kids as influenced by maternal lipid supplementation

Long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC n-3 PUFA), mainly EPA (C20:5 n-3) and DHA (C22:6 n-3) play a crucial role during pregnancy and peri-natal growth. In particular, for DHA, a specific role during fetal and neonatal development has been recognized, but DHA status of the mother and the new-born may be sub-optimal if maternal intake is insufficient. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of supplementing saturated fatty acids (FA) or LC n-3 PUFA to the diets of late gestating dairy goats on FA profile of colostrum and plasma of newborn suckling kids and on their immune response. The saturated FA supplement (calcium stearate, ST) was rich in 16:0 (26 %) and 18:0 (69.4 %) and the LC n-3 PUFA supplement (fish oil, FO) was rich in EPA (10.4 %) and DHA (7.8 %). Starting from the last wk of gestation until 3 wk after kidding, 23 multiparous Alpine dairy goats were divided into 3 groups: C (control diet), FO and ST. FO and ST diets were formulated to administer 30 and 50 g/head/d of FA during pre- and post- kidding. Newborn kids were fed colostrum from their own dam within 2 h of birth. Individual colostrum was sampled within the first 24 h postpartum for FA determination. Neonatal blood samples were collected weekly from birth until 21 d of life for evaluation of FA profile and immune response. The source of maternal lipid supplement did change the FA profile of colostrum and the n-3 FA status of newborn kids. Maternal FO supplementation enhanced total n-3 PUFA in colostrum (1.78 vs 0.72 and 0.76 g/100g FA, P&lt; 0.01) and in plasma of suckling kids during the first 3 wk postnatally (5.27 vs 2.32 and 3.27 g/100g FA, P&lt; 0.01, in FO, C and ST respectively). IgA at 2 d after birth was higher in the plasma of kids born from ST dams (0.54 vs. 0.20 and 0.14 mg/ml, P 640.01) and also the overall mean was higher (0.18 vs. 0.07 and 0.07 mg/ml, P 640.01 in ST, FO and C respectively). Circulating concentrations of IgG were higher for the whole experimental period in plasma of kids born from ST vs FO (17.14 vs 9.80 mg/ml, P&lt;0.01) and C dams (11.43 mg/ml, P&lt;0.05). In conclusion, the n-3 FA status of newborn kids can be improved by supplementing the maternal diet with n-3 PUFA and is associated to the increased supply of EPA and DHA from maternal circulation during fetal development and from colostrum during early neonatal period. Unexpectedly, in the present trial, kids from mother fed ST showed the most significant variations in immune response