The impact of motor symptoms on self-reported anxiety in Parkinson's disease

OBJECTIVE: Anxiety is commonly endorsed in Parkinson's disease (PD) and significantly affects quality of life. The Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) is often used but contains items that overlap with common PD motor symptoms (e.g., “hands trembling”). Because of these overlapping items, we hypothesized that PD motor symptoms would significantly affect BAI scores. METHODS: One hundred non-demented individuals with PD and 74 healthy control participants completed the BAI. PD motor symptoms were assessed by the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS). Factor analysis of the BAI assessed for a PD motor factor, and further analyses assessed how this factor affected BAI scores. RESULTS: BAI scores were significantly higher for PD than NC. A five-item PD motor factor correlated with UPDRS observer-rated motor severity and mediated the PD-control difference on BAI total scores. An interaction occurred, whereby removal of the PD motor factor resulted in a significant reduction in BAI scores for PD relative to NC. The correlation between the BAI and UPDRS significantly declined when controlling for the PD motor factor. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that commonly endorsed BAI items may reflect motor symptoms such as tremor instead of, or in addition to, genuine mood symptoms. These findings highlight the importance of considering motor symptoms in the assessment of anxiety in PD and point to the need for selecting anxiety measures that are less subject to contamination by the motor effects of movement disorders.Published versio

Antimatter, Lorentz Symmetry, and Gravity

A brief introduction to the Standard-Model Extension (SME) approach to testing CPT and Lorentz symmetry is provided. Recent proposals for tests with antimatter are summarized, including gravitational and spectroscopic tests.Comment: Presented at the 12th International Conference on Low Energy Antiproton Physics, Kanazawa Japan, March 6-11, 2016, Accepted for publication in JPS Conference Proceeding

From Single to Multiple-Photon Decoherence in an Atom Interferometer

We measure the decoherence of a spatially separated atomic superposition due to spontaneous photon scattering. We observe a qualitative change in decoherence versus separation as the number of scattered photons increases, and verify quantitatively the decoherence rate constant in the many-photon limit. Our results illustrate an evolution of decoherence consistent with general models developed for a broad class of decoherence phenomenon

Gamma Protocadherin Expression in the Embryonic Chick Nervous System

Protocadherin γ (pcdh-γ) family expression was examined in the embryonic chick central nervous system by in situ hybridization. Transcripts were visualized in discrete regions of fore-, mid-, and hindbrain at stages 23 and 25 and in spinal cord and optic lobe at stages 27 and 43, respectively. Results suggest that pcdh-γ may function cooperatively with other cell adhesion molecules in neuronal differentiation and establishment of neural networks in several areas of the developing brain, particularly regions involved in visual processing

Cover slip external cavity diode laser

The design of a 671 nm diode laser with a mode-hop-free tuning range of 40 GHz is described. This long tuning range is achieved by simultaneously ramping the external cavity length with the laser injection current. The external cavity consists of a microscope cover slip mounted on piezoelectric actuators. In such a configuration the laser output pointing remains fixed, independent of its frequency. Using a diode with an output power of 5-7 mW, the laser linewidth was found to be smaller than 30 MHz. This cover slip cavity and feedforward laser current control system is simple, economical, robust, and easy to use for spectroscopy, as we demonstrate with lithium vapor and lithium atom beam experiments.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Review of Scientific Instruments 7/29/0

UK dental professionals’ knowledge, experience and confidence when treating patients on the autism spectrum

Background: Over 1% of the UK population have a diagnosis of autism, and yet there is minimal information regarding the experiences of dental professionals working with people on the autistic spectrum. The current study is the first to investigate UK dental professionals' knowledge of autism, their perceived confidence when treating autistic patients, and the factors that affect this. Methods: An online, self-report survey was completed by 482 UK dental professionals and included questions on participants' training, prior experiences and knowledge of autism, and confidence when treating autistic patients. Results: Over half the respondents reported having no formal autism training but average knowledge levels across the whole sample were good. Conversely, levels of confidence were only moderate. Respondents often cited conflict between understanding the additional needs for successful treatment of autistic patients and a lack of resources to implement support strategies. Despite this, the vast majority were positive about making the necessary modifications to support autistic patients. Conclusion: This study highlights ways in which UK dental professionals adapt their practices to meet the needs of their autistic patients, yet report only moderate confidence levels when doing so. Implications for future training initiatives are discussed

Spatial overlap of grey seals and fisheries in Irish waters, some new insights using telemetry technology and VMS

Seals and humans often target the same food resource, leading to competition. This is of mounting concern with fish stocks in global decline. Grey seals were tracked from southeast Ireland, an area of mixed demersal and pelagic fisheries, and overlap with fisheries on the Celtic Shelf and Irish Sea was assessed. Overall, there was low overlap between the tagged seals and fisheries. However, when we separate active (e.g. trawls) and passive gear (e.g. nets, lines) fisheries, a different picture emerged. Overlap with active fisheries was no different from that expected under a random distribution, but overlap with passive fisheries was significantly higher. This suggests that grey seals may be targeting the same areas as passive fisheries and/or specifically targeting passive gear. There was variation in foraging areas between individual seals suggesting habitat partitioning to reduce intra-specific competition or potential individual specialisation in foraging behaviour. Our findings support other recent assertions that seal/fisheries interactions in Irish waters are an issue in inshore passive fisheries, most likely at the operational and individual level. This suggests that seal population management measures would be unjustifiable, and mitigation is best focused on minimizing interactions at nets