J Community Health

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the fourth leading cause of death in Puerto Rico. Using multi-media resources and in-person education may be an effective approach to improve knowledge and awareness of AD. The Un Caf\uc3\ua9 por el Alzheimer program in Puerto Rico incorporates an education component at coffee shops and a social media campaign using Facebook. The current study evaluates this initiative through an analysis of pre/post education survey results and social media content and use. Surveys contained close-ended and open-ended questions to understand participants' perceptions and knowledge about AD. Post-education surveys also included questions related to program satisfaction. Social media analysis of the Facebook community page examined posts from March 1 to September 30, 2015. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze survey and Facebook data. Four education sessions were conducted with a total of 212 participants. Fifty-one of the participants completed both pre- and post-surveys. Following the education program participants reported improved knowledge of risk and protective factors. All participants reported learning new information from the program. There were a total of 250 posts on the Un Caf\uc3\ua9 por el Alzheimer community Facebook page; 168 posts related to AD. The Facebook page reached 294,109 people, with 9963 page likes, 610 comments, 17,780 post clicks, and 3632 shares. There was an average increase of 64.8\uc2\ua0% in number of people reached by the Facebook page following the education sessions. The approach of combining social media resources and in-person education is beneficial to increase public awareness of AD and disseminate health information.U48 DP005000/DP/NCCDPHP CDC HHS/United States2016-10-01T00:00:00Z26983930PMC501143

State based model of long-term potentiation and synaptic tagging and capture

Recent data indicate that plasticity protocols have not only synapse-specific but also more widespread effects. In particular, in synaptic tagging and capture (STC), tagged synapses can capture plasticity-related proteins, synthesized in response to strong stimulation of other synapses. This leads to long-lasting modification of only weakly stimulated synapses. Here we present a biophysical model of synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus that incorporates several key results from experiments on STC. The model specifies a set of physical states in which a synapse can exist, together with transition rates that are affected by high- and low-frequency stimulation protocols. In contrast to most standard plasticity models, the model exhibits both early- and late-phase LTP/D, de-potentiation, and STC. As such, it provides a useful starting point for further theoretical work on the role of STC in learning and memory

2015 ACVIM Small Animal Consensus Statement on Seizure Management in Dogs

This report represents a scientific and working clinical consensus statement on seizure management in dogs based on current literature and clinical expertise. The goal was to establish guidelines for a predetermined, concise, and logical sequential approach to chronic seizure management starting with seizure identification and diagnosis (not included in this report), reviewing decision‐making, treatment strategies, focusing on issues related to chronic antiepileptic drug treatment response and monitoring, and guidelines to enhance patient response and quality of life. Ultimately, we hope to provide a foundation for ongoing and future clinical epilepsy research in veterinary medicine

Sequential schemes for frequentist estimation of properties in statistical model checking

National Research Foundation (NRF) Singapor

Transient disruption of M1 during response planning impairs subsequent offline consolidation

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was used to probe the involvement of the left primary motor cortex (M1) in the consolidation of a sequencing skill. In particular we asked: (1) if M1 is involved in consolidation of planning processes prior to response execution (2) whether movement preparation and movement execution can undergo consolidation independently and (3) whether sequence consolidation can occur in a stimulus specific manner. TMS was applied to left M1 while subjects prepared left hand sequential finger responses for three different movement sequences, presented in an interleaved fashion. Subjects also trained on three control sequences, where no TMS was applied. Disruption of subsequent consolidation was observed, but only for sequences where subjects had been exposed to TMS during training. Further, reduced consolidation was only observed for movement preparation, not movement execution. We conclude that left M1 is causally involved in the consolidation of effective response planning for left hand movements prior to response execution, and mediates consolidation in a sequence specific manner. These results provide important new insights into the role of M1 in sequential memory consolidation and sequence response planning

Synesthesia and Migraine: Case Report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Synesthesia is, as visual migraine aura, a common and fascinating perceptual phenomenon. Here we present a unique case with synesthesias exclusively during visual migraine auras.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>A 40-year-old woman with a cyclic mood disorder had suffered from migraine with visual aura for several years. On several occasions she had experienced "mixing of senses" during the aura phase. Staring at strong bright light she could experience intense taste of lemon with flow from the salivary glands.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Acquired synesthesia, exclusively coincident with migraine aura, gives support to the idea of an anomalous cortical processing underlying the phenomenon.</p

CAR-T cell. the long and winding road to solid tumors

Adoptive cell therapy of solid tumors with reprogrammed T cells can be considered the "next generation" of cancer hallmarks. CAR-T cells fail to be as effective as in liquid tumors for the inability to reach and survive in the microenvironment surrounding the neoplastic foci. The intricate net of cross-interactions occurring between tumor components, stromal and immune cells leads to an ineffective anergic status favoring the evasion from the host's defenses. Our goal is hereby to trace the road imposed by solid tumors to CAR-T cells, highlighting pitfalls and strategies to be developed and refined to possibly overcome these hurdles

Retrograde Interference in Perceptual Learning of a Peripheral Hyperacuity Task

Consolidation, a process that stabilizes memory trace after initial acquisition, has been studied for over a century. A number of studies have shown that a skill or memory must be consolidated after acquisition so that it becomes resistant to interference from new information. Previous research found that training on a peripheral 3-dot hyperacuity task could retrogradely interfere with earlier training on the same task but with a mirrored stimulus configuration. However, a recent study failed to replicate this finding. Here we address the controversy by replicating both patterns of results, however, under different experimental settings. We find that retrograde interference occurs when eye-movements are tightly controlled, using a gaze-contingent display, where the peripheral stimuli were only presented when subjects maintained fixation. On the other hand, no retrograde interference was found in a group of subjects who performed the task without this fixation control. Our results provide a plausible explanation of why divergent results were found for retrograde interference in perceptual learning on the 3-dot hyperacuity task and confirm that retrograde interference can occur in this type of low-level perceptual learning. Furthermore, our results demonstrate the importance of eye-movement controls in studies of perceptual learning in the peripheral visual field

Finland

Peer reviewe

Domain analysis of lipoprotein LppQ in Mycoplasma mycoides subsp. mycoides SC

The lipoprotein LppQ is the most prominent antigen of Mycoplasma mycoides subsp. mycoides small colony type (SC) during infection of cattle. This pathogen causes contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP), a devastating disease of considerable socio-economic importance in many countries worldwide. The dominant antigenicity and high specificity for M. mycoides subsp. mycoides SC of lipoprotein LppQ have been exploited for serological diagnosis and for epidemiological investigations of CBPP. Scanning electron microscopy and immunogold labelling were used to provide ultrastructural evidence that LppQ is located to the cell membrane at the outer surface of M. mycoides subsp. mycoides SC. The selectivity and specificity of this method were demonstrated through discriminating localization of extracellular (i.e., in the zone of contact with host cells) vs. integral membrane domains of LppQ. Thus, our findings support the suggestion that the accessible N-terminal domain of LppQ is surface exposed and such surface localization may be implicated in the pathogenesis of CBPP