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Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is associated with neurophysiologic changes, including cortical hyperexcitability and reduced long‐term potentiation (LTP)‐like plasticity, that can be investigated using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). AD is preceded by a preclinical phase of beta‐amyloid accumulation without clinical or cognitive symptoms. Our goal is to test the relationship of TMS‐based neurophysiologic markers against established cognitive and MRI‐based measures of preclinical AD. If neurophysiologic changes precede the clinical manifestation of AD, they could serve as prognostic markers and targets for therapeutic interventions to slow its progression. Method: Data was acquired from eight cognitively unimpaired older adults (three females, ages 65‐78 years) as part of an ongoing study (BrightFocus™ Foundation‐A2021288S, IRB#‐2020P000889). Cognition was evaluated with the 5‐item Preclinical Alzheimer's Cognitive Composite (PACC5), which is sensitive to early AD‐associated decline. Global cortical atrophy was assessed from MRI as the mean thickness across the AD Cortical Signature Network (ACSN)—regions showing morphologic changes that precede the clinical manifestation of AD. Cortical excitability was assessed as the average amplitude of TMS‐evoked EEG potentials (TEPs) elicited from TMS to motor cortex, while LTP‐like cortical plasticity was assessed as the change in TEPs following intermittent theta‐burst stimulation (iTBS). The strength of associations between the neurophysiologic, imaging, and cognitive measures were performed using non‐parametric Spearman Rho coefficients. Result: Spearman coefficients revealed a large association between reduced cortical thickness (more atrophy) and worse cognition (Rho=0.71), as expected. Higher excitability (larger TEPs) showed a large association with worse cognition (Rho=‐0.54) and a small association with reduced cortical thickness (Rho=‐0.29). Lower cortical plasticity (smaller change in TEPs post‐iTBS) showed a medium association with worse cognition (Rho=0.46) and a large association with reduced cortical thickness (Rho=0.86). Conclusion: In cognitively unimpaired older adults, TMS‐EEG measures of cortical excitability and LTP‐like plasticity are strongly correlated, respectively, with cognitive and MRI‐based markers of Preclinical AD. These finding suggest cortical hyperexcitability and reduced LTP‐like plasticity, which are present in AD, may occur before its clinical manifestation. If these results are confirmed in a larger cohort with biomarker testing, these markers could help prognosticate the development of AD symptoms and serve as targets for therapeutic intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Despite a recognized need for more robust metrics, caregiver‐reported outcome measures have not been developed for care partners of persons living with cognitive impairment (PLWCI) navigating emergency department (ED)‐to‐community care transitions. Our objective was to develop the Caregiver‐reported Outcome Measure for Emergency care Transitions (COMET) tool through a 5‐phase process. Methods: The study was conducted in four EDs and included care partners of PLWCI discharged from the ED identified by validated screening tools. In Phase 1, 25 participants completed semi‐structured interviews to identify barriers experienced during ED‐to‐community care transitions. In Phase 2, research team members performed item generation, in which candidate items were developed through findings from Phase 1 qualitative interviews and adaptation of items on existing outcome measures. In Phase 3, we utilized member checking, in which 27 new participants ranked candidate items they felt important for inclusion within the final COMET tool. Phase 4 included 10 cognitive debriefing interviews, in which participants assessed candidate items for comprehensiveness, content validity, and comprehension. In Phase 5, 19 multidisciplinary stakeholders participated in a modified Delphi approach to generate the COMET tool. Results: Phase 1 identified four major barriers experienced by care partners of PLWCI during ED‐to‐community care transitions: 1) unique care considerations while in the ED setting impact the perceived success of the care transition, 2) poor communication and lack of care partner engagement was a commonplace during the ED discharge process, 3) care partners experienced challenges and additional responsibilities when aiding during acute illness and recovery phases, and 4) navigating the health care system after an ED encounter was perceived as difficult by care partners. Phase 2 generated 50 candidate items grouped into 3 domains: discharge process, care transition, and impact on the caregiver. Phase 3 quantitatively identified high‐ and low‐scoring candidate items for inclusion in the final COMET tool. Phase 4 resulted in revisions to the wording of several candidate items. Phase 5 resulted in the 19‐item COMET tool. Conclusions: Development of the COMET tool will provide a means for caregiver‐centric outcome assessment of interventions targeting ED‐to‐community care transitions among PLWCI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is associated with increased cortical excitability, including an elevated risk of seizures. Transcranial magnetic stimulation with electromyography (TMS‐EMG‐EEG) can be used to index intracortical excitability. Prior work has shown that TMS‐based excitability measures are altered in AD and are related to disease severity. However, it is not yet known how TMS‐EMG measures are related to neurodegeneration within brain regions affected by AD. Method: TMS‐EMG was applied to left motor cortex (M1) in 22 participants with biomarker‐confirmed mild cognitive impairment due to AD (early AD, aged 70.5±8.4, 11 females). Single pulse TMS was preformed to measure resting motor threshold (RMT) and motor evoked potential amplitude (MEP Amplitude). Paired‐pulse TMS was preformed to measure short interval intracortical inhibition (SICI, GABA‐ergic) and intracortical facilitation (ICF, glutamatergic). In 5 participants, TMS‐evoked responses on EEG were also obtained during single‐pulse stimulation to M1 and the inferior parietal lobe (IPL), and the local mean field amplitude (LMFA) was computed from 15 to 40 msec after the TMS pulse. Structural MRI scans for each participant were processed using Freesurfer to obtain cortical thickness measurements within the distributed Alzheimer‐signature brain regions (AD‐signature atrophy). The primary analyses tested the relationship between each TMS measure and AD‐signature atrophy using separate linear models, controlling for age. For TMS‐EEG analysis, effect sizes were reported in lieu of p‐values given the small sample sizes. Result: In early AD, SICI was related to AD‐signature atrophy (R2adj = 0.40, B = ‐0.13, p = 0.018; Fig1), with less intracortical inhibition related to greater atrophy. RMT, MEP Amplitude, and ICF were not related to AD‐signature atrophy (p‐values>0.105). There was a large effect size of IPL LMFA on AD‐signature atrophy (R2adj = 0.70), while the effect size of M1 was small (R2adj = ‐0.19). Conclusion: Decreased intracortical inhibition is related to increased AD‐signature atrophy in early AD. Decreased function of GABA‐A circuitry related to cortical atrophy may play a role in the development of cortical hyperexcitability in AD. Our preliminary results further suggests that TEPs from stimulation of IPL, a node of the default mode network and an area commonly showing AD pathology, may also be related to AD‐signature atrophy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) has a relatively well‐characterized pathology of amyloid‐β and tau accumulation. Yet, disease progression from preclinical to clinical stage remains largely unpredictable at the individual level. Growing evidence shows disrupted synaptic signaling in functionally connected brain networks early in the preclinical stage, and suggests impaired network integrity, assessed with functional connectivity measures, as potential markers for disease symptomatology in AD. Method: Here propose a novel TMS‐induced causal connectivity measure reflecting integrity of multi‐synaptic signaling within the stimulated brain networks. In a preliminary sample of 9 cognitively normal older adults (Healthy Controls: HCs) and 11 patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia (early AD), we applied 150 single pulses of TMS to inferior parietal lobule (IPL), a distinct brain region within the default mode network (DMN) showing decreased metabolism in early AD and recorded TMS evoked neural responses with simultaneous electroencephalography (TMS‐EEG). We also characterized spontaneous brain activity with resting‐state EEG (rsEEG) measurements. We performed source space spectral power analyses and seed‐based power envelope correlations (PEC) to estimate cortical distribution of relative alpha power and spontaneous IPL connectivity as rsEEG measurements. Network integrity was defined as the ratio of significantly activated vertices to the total number of vertices within the DMN following TMS of IPL. Result: Although relative alpha power (8‐12 Hz) was slightly lower and seed based connectivity was slightly higher within the IPL node in AD participants, no network specific differences was observed across the cortex for both rsEEG measures. On the other hand, DMN integrity was substantially lower in AD participants with an average ratio of 0.53 (0.79 in HC) indicating that almost half of the vertices within the DMN were not activated by TMS. Conclusion: Overall, these preliminary analyses suggest that perturbation‐based (TMS‐EEG) measures may reveal neurophysiological signatures of brain network dysfunction that are not observable in spontaneous brain oscillations, and thus may characterize defining features of network failure in preclinical and mild AD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Markers sensitive to brain changes at the transition from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to dementia due to Alzheimer's disease (AD) are needed for aiding prognosis and the selection of potential responders to novel interventional therapies. EEG markers may be advantageous due to their accessibility. Prior research suggests that AD is associated with a shift in the brain's oscillatory activity from higher to lower frequencies which can be captured as changes in the EEG spectral power ratio (SPR: α + β /δ + θ), a measurement associated with executive function1. The aim of the present study is to extend these findings to the prodromal stage of AD, and test the association of the SPR with amyloid burden. Method: Data was obtained from 31 participants, including 23 aMCI (17 amyloid positive: Aβ+aMCI) and 14 CU individuals. We compared the SPRs between Aβ+aMCI and CU individuals, and tested its correlation with composite scores of executive functions, learning and memory, dementia severity, as well as amyloid load in the Aβ+aMCI group. Test‐retest reliability of the SPR was also inspected and the SPR of MCI individuals with different amyloid status was explored in hypothesis generating analyses. Result: The SPR was significantly lower in the Aβ+aMCI group compared to the CU group (p = 0.0271) and was significantly correlated with Executive Function scores (r = 0.5634). The SPR showed excellent test‐retest reliability (rAβ+aMCI = 0.8629 and rCU = 0.9786). Logistic regression suggested that aMCI participants with a lower SPR had an increased probability of a positive amyloid PET. Conclusion: Our results extended previous findings in AD and suggested that the SPR may be sensitive to pathophysiological changes in aMCI individuals in a cognitively meaningful manner. Further research may confirm these findings and may explore the potential of this measure to aid in the classification of aMCI individuals according to their amyloid status. 1. Benwell CSY, Davila‐Pérez P, Fried PJ, Jones RN, Travison TG, Santarnecchi E, Pascual‐Leone A, Shafi MM (2020) EEG spectral power abnormalities and their relationship with cognitive dysfunction in patients with Alzheimer's disease and type 2 diabetes. Neurobiol Aging85, 83‐95. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Phase 1 of the "Advancing Dental Education in the 21st Century" project, research was conducted and published on a number of serious challenges facing dental and allied dental education, both presently and projected to 2040. Those findings informed the strategic analysis and recommendations developed in Phase 2 of the project. This report provides an overview of the Phase 2 conclusions and presents recommendations to address the challenges identified. The recommendations propose ways to educate a workforce prepared to meet the oral health needs of the population; develop a sustainable economic model that allows schools to meet their education, research, and service missions; make dental and allied dental education and practice an integral part of the larger health education and delivery systems; and keep dentistry advancing as a "learned" profession. This report begins with an Executive Summary and then presents the strategic analysis of challenges facing dental schools and allied dental programs and provides a brief explanation of the rationale for each recommendation. Two appendices are included with the report: the first summarizes discussions held at the national conference to consider the recommendations; and the second provides additional documentation of calculations used to estimate the number of new dental graduates needed in 2040. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The piscicide rotenone is an important and widely used management tool for native fish conservation; however, long‐term empirical field studies investigating potential effects on nontarget species are lacking. We tested for effects of rotenone on four native amphibian species inhabiting 10 fish‐bearing alpine lakes in northwest Montana. Visual encounter amphibian surveys were conducted for 2–4 years to establish baseline species‐specific detection frequencies prior to piscicide treatment to eradicate nonnative trout. Species diversity and detection frequencies varied considerably among lakes, presumably due to differences in the amount of emergent vegetation. Comparisons between baseline detection frequencies and those established from posttreatment surveys consistently revealed no significant changes in amphibian detection frequency, suggesting resiliency of amphibian populations to these piscicide treatments. These results may be explained by one or more of the following: (1) timing the rotenone application when many amphibians had metamorphosed beyond the gill‐breathing life stage; (2) application of rotenone at a concentration that was sublethal to amphibians; and (3) posttreatment immigration of adults from habitats not treated with rotenone. This study provides insight into the factors that contribute to amphibian population resiliency to alpine lake rotenone treatments within the context of a watershed‐scale native trout restoration program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the health care delivery system in transition, the way in which oral health care services are delivered in 2040 will inevitably change. To achieve the aims of reduced cost, improved access, and higher quality and to advance population wellness, oral health care will likely become a more integrated part of medical care. An integrated primary care system would better meet the needs of an increasingly diverse and aging U.S. population with uneven access to health care services. By 2040, trends suggest that a smaller proportion of dental hygienists will work in traditional solo dental offices; many more will practice with multidisciplinary health care teams in large-group dental and medical practices and in a variety of non-traditional community settings. This integration will require changes in how dental hygienists are educated. To shape the skill sets, clinical judgment, and knowledge of future practitioners, current dental hygiene curricula must be reexamined, redirected, and enhanced. This article examines some of the factors that are likely to shape the future of dental hygiene practice, considers the strengths and weaknesses of current curricula, and proposes educational changes to prepare dental hygienists for practice in 2040. This article was written as part of the project "Advancing Dental Education in the 21st Century." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This executive summary for Section 5 of the "Advancing Dental Education in the 21st Century" project addresses the current and future educational systems for dental assisting, dental hygiene, dental therapy, and dental laboratory technology. Nineteen experts prepared six background articles on the educational changes necessary for future roles and practices. The key issues addressed relate to delivery system changes, educational curricula, scopes of practice, regulatory measures, and the public's oral health. The major finding is that substantial reforms will be needed to adequately prepare allied oral health professionals for the changes anticipated in 2040. A reconsideration of current accreditation guidelines, more flexibility with scopes of practice, and an adherence to rigorous academic programs are essential elements for the future of these professions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction There is a substantial interest in identifying interventions that can protect and buffer older adults from atrophy in the cortex and particularly, the hippocampus, a region important to memory. We report the 2-year effects of a randomized controlled trial of an intergenerational social health promotion program on older men's and women's brain volumes. Methods The Brain Health Study simultaneously enrolled, evaluated, and randomized 111 men and women (58 interventions; 53 controls) within the Baltimore Experience Corps Trial to evaluate the intervention impact on biomarkers of brain health at baseline and annual follow-ups during the 2-year trial exposure. Results Intention-to-treat analyses on cortical and hippocampal volumes for full and sex-stratified samples revealed program-specific increases in volumes that reached significance in men only ( P 's ≤ .04). Although men in the control arm exhibited age-related declines for 2 years, men in the Experience Corps arm showed a 0.7% to 1.6% increase in brain volumes. Women also exhibited modest intervention-specific gains of 0.3% to 0.54% by the second year of exposure that contrasted with declines of about 1% among women in the control group. Discussion These findings showed that purposeful activity embedded within a social health promotion program halted and, in men, reversed declines in brain volume in regions vulnerable to dementia. Clinical Trial Registration: NCT0038 . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act added a new Medicare benefit, the Annual Wellness Visit (AWV), effective January 1, 2011. The AWV requires an assessment to detect cognitive impairment. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) elected not to recommend a specific assessment tool because there is no single, universally accepted screen that satisfies all needs in the detection of cognitive impairment. To provide primary care physicians with guidance on cognitive assessment during the AWV, and when referral or further testing is needed, the Alzheimer''s Association convened a group of experts to develop recommendations. The resulting Alzheimer''s Association Medicare Annual Wellness Visit Algorithm for Assessment of Cognition includes review of patient Health Risk Assessment (HRA) information, patient observation, unstructured queries during the AWV, and use of structured cognitive assessment tools for both patients and informants. Widespread implementation of this algorithm could be the first step in reducing the prevalence of missed or delayed dementia diagnosis, thus allowing for better healthcare management and more favorable outcomes for affected patients and their families and caregivers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Background: To investigate the association between diuretics, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACE-I), angiotensin II receptor blockers (AT2RB), and cognitive function. Methods: This post hoc analysis of the randomized controlled Ginkgo Evaluation of Memory Study trial focuses on 3069 nondemented community-dwelling participants aged >75 years. At baseline visit, detailed information about medication use was collected and five cognitive domains were assessed. Multivariate linear regression analyses were used to assess cross-sectional associations between medication use and cognitive function. Results: In all, 36% of participants reported history of hypertension and 53% reported antihypertensive medication use, with 17% reporting diuretic, 11% ACE-I, and 2% AT2RB use. Potassium-sparing diuretic use (N = 192) was associated with better verbal learning and memory measured by California Verbal Learning Test as compared with no antihypertensive medication users (β = 0.068, P = .01; β = 0.094, P < .001) and other antihypertensive medication users (β = 0.080, P = .03; β = 0.153, P < .001). Use of ACE-I or AT2RB was not associated with better cognitive function. Conclusion: Results warrant further investigation into possible protective effects of potassium-sparing diuretics and the role of potassium in mitigating cognitive decline. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Periodontics has experienced several important conceptual changes in the last few decades. As such, it is important to have a periodontics curriculum built upon the expertise of specialists in that discipline and reflecting those changes. The main goal of this study was to attain a consensus, through the use of the Delphi technique, on the topics that should be included in a periodontics curriculum for undergraduate dental students. A sample of periodontics lecturers from nine dental schools in two Brazilian cities was used, and a Delphi technique approach was followed to investigate sample member perceptions on the subject. Participants received four postal mail questionnaires asking them to rate and rerate eighty-nine topics for possible inclusion in the curriculum. A descriptive analysis was conducted, and topic frequencies were calculated. Topics rated as highly important for inclusion were the following: health, ailment, prevention, etiology, epidemiology, diagnosis, and treatment. The Delphi technique approach proved successful in involving periodontics lecturers in the design of a periodontics curriculum for undergraduate dental students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is associated with increased cortical excitability, including a risk of seizures and epileptiform discharges. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) can be used to index cortical excitability non‐invasively, and previous studies have revealed increased TMS excitability measures in AD. However, it is not yet known if TMS shows increased cortical excitability in amyloid‐β positive mild cognitive impairment (Aβ+ MCI), how TMS excitability relates to other AD biomarkers, or the extent to which cortical excitability may predict disease progression. Method: TMS was applied to left motor cortex in 18 participants with Aβ+ MCI (aged 70±8.9, 9 females). Resting motor threshold (RMT) was measured as the minimum TMS intensity required to elicit a motor evoked potential on 5/10 trials. The primary analyses tested if RMT differed between Aβ+ MCI participants and a cohort of 36 older healthy controls (OHC; aged 63±9.7, 17 females). Separate linear models in Aβ+ MCI tested the relationship of RMT with hippocampal volume, Aβ burden on [18F]Florbetapir PET, and the Clinical Dementia Rating – Sum of Boxes (CDR‐SB). CDR‐SB was reassessed after 1‐2 years follow‐up, and a CDR‐SB Change Score was calculated to measure cognitive decline. The relationship with RMT and CDR‐SB Change Score was tested using a simple linear regression. Result: The primary linear model controlling for age, gender, and scalp‐to‐cortex distance (SCD) showed a between‐group difference in RMT (B=3.62, p=0.023, Figure 1), with Aβ+ MCI showing lower RMT reflecting higher levels of cortical excitability. The covariate of SCD (B=1.92, p<0.001) was also significant. Secondary models with the same covariates showed that lower RMT was related to greater Aβ burden (B=‐0.43, p=0.016), but not hippocampal volume or CDR‐SB. In the subgroup of 10 Aβ+ MCI participants with longitudinal follow‐up, lower RMT predicted of worsening cognition on CDR‐SB Change Score (R=0.74, p=0.015, Figure 2). Conclusion: Increased cortical excitability is found in Aβ+ MCI, is related to amyloid burden, and appears to predict greater longitudinal cognitive decline. TMS measures of cortical excitability may be useful as measures of target engagement for future therapies aimed at delaying disease progression in the early symptomatic stages of AD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on wildlife habitats and urbanization in the United States. Urban and suburban development in or near wild-land vegetation poses a major threat to the environment. Housing development causes habitat loss and fragmentation, threatens wildlife populations, and results in bio-diversity declines. It has been estimated that greater than 50% of all federally listed threatened and endangered species in the United States are in peril due to urbanization. These problems are of particular concern in the wild-land-urban interface (WUI), where homes and associated structures are built among forests, shrubs, or grasslands. The WUI has received considerable attention because of recent increases in both the number of structures destroyed and the area burned annually by wild-land fire. It is in the WUI where protection of structures from wild-land fires is most challenging. Despite the significance of the WUI both in the current debate on fire policy and fuel treatment, and for environmental quality in general, empirical data on its extent and location are lacking.

Influences of lifestyle habits on cardiovascular disease risk among older adults are not well established. The authors present evidence from the Cardiovascular Health Study that dietary,physical activity, and smoking habits assessed late in life are associated with cardiovascular disease risk among adults aged 65 years or older. Persons consuming fatty fish twice per week had a 47% lower risk of coronary death compared with those who consumed fatty fish less than once per month, while cereal fiber intake (about two whole-grain bread slices per day) was associated with a 14% lower risk of myocardial infarction or stroke. Modest alcohol intake (1-6 drinks per week) predicted the fewest subclinical cerebrovascular abnormalities. Compared with little activity, moderate and high leisure-time activity predicted 28% and 44% lower mortality, respectively, while compared with nonexercisers, low, moderate, and high exercise intensity predicted 30%, 37%, and 53% more years of healthy life, respectively. Former and current smokers had 25% and 44% fewer years of healthy life than those who never smoked; lifetime smoking (pack-years) predicted higher mortality. Clinical practice and public health implications, gaps in knowledge, and future research directions are summarized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Cardiovascular Health Study, the authors sought to evaluate the impact of chronic renal insufficiency (CRI) on cardiovascular risk status and outcomes in a representative sample of community-dwelling elderly adults. Defined as a serum creatinine level ≥1.3 mg/dL in women and ≥1.5 mg/dL in men, CRI was present in 647 (11%) of 5808 participants. At baseline, the prevalence of clinical or sub-clinical cardiovascular disease was 64% in participants with CRI and 43% in those without CRI (odds ratio, 2.34; 95% confidence interval, 1.96-2.80). The incidence of cardiovascular disease events during follow-up was 3%per year in participants with creatinine levels <1.10 mg/dL and increased steadily to reach 7%per year in those with creatinine ≥1.70 mg/dL.Among the possible mediators for the association between CRI and cardiovascular morbidity are inflammatory (C-reactive protein, fibrinogen, and interleukin-6)and hemostatic (factor VII,factor VIII, plasmin-antiplasmin product, and D-dimer) biomarkers, all of which were significantly elevated in Cardiovascular Health Study participants with CRI. Future studies should evaluate the contribution of novel and traditional cardiovascular risk factors to the cardiovascular risk of elderly persons with CRI. The identification of CRI in the elderly and the use of cardiovascular prevention therapies represent a major opportunity to reduce their burden of cardiovascular morbidity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health care providers who feel prepared are more apt to assume tobacco interventionist roles; therefore, educational preparation is critical. A nonprobability sample of health professions students at an urban academic health center were asked to respond to a twenty-two-item survey eliciting demographic, behavioral, and tobacco-related attitudinal information. Frequency distributions were assessed with Pearson chi-square statistics. The overall response rate was 76.7 percent, and final sample size was 319. Current use of spit tobacco (ST) was 2.5 percent and current smoking 5.6 percent. In comparing current smokers to nonsmokers and current ST users to nonusers, we found that no differences in proportion agreeing with any of the five questions about attitudes and opinions were statistically significant at p-value 0.05. At least 70 percent of students from each of six health professions programs agreed it was their professional responsibility to help smokers quit, and at least 65 percent agreed to the same responsibility for helping ST users quit. The proportion agreeing that their programs had course content describing their role in helping patients quit tobacco use varied widely by program from 100 percent agreement among dental hygiene and pharmacy students to 14.6 percent of physical therapy students (p-value <0.001). When asked whether their program adequately prepared them to help smokers quit, agreement ranged from 100 percent among dental hygiene students to only 5.5 percent among physical therapy students (p-value <0.001). Almost 90 percent of dental hygiene students agreed that they were adequately trained to help ST users quit, but no other program had a percentage of agreement above 34 percent (p-value <0.001). Consistent and comprehensive multidisciplinary tobacco-related curricula could offer desirable standardization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, growing interest in the development of passive optical elements based upon electrochemically etched porous silicon multilayer (PSM) stacks raised the need for efficient control of the preparation. Optimisation of PSM structures experimentally by try and error is, however, troublesome and time consuming. In the present study we demonstrate that spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) with appropriate optical models can provide the missing feedback for the process engineer for exact design of structural parameters, thereby reducing the efforts for an optimisation cycle. The capabilities of the suggested methodology were experimentally verified on Bragg reflectors and Fabry–Perot interference filters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Isolate-specific resistance of 71 cultivars and breeding lines of wheat (Triticum aestivum) to septoria tritici blotch was evaluated in six field trials in the Netherlands, Switzerland and the UK between 1995 and 1997. Each plot was inoculated with one of six single-pycnidium isolates of the pathogen Mycosphaerella graminicola. There were strong interactions between wheat lines and M. graminicola and the line-by-isolate interactions were stable over the six trials. Lines with specific resistance or specific susceptibility to each of the isolates were identified. Specific resistance to isolate IPO323 was especially common, being carried by 22 lines from 10 countries. The results confirm that line-by-isolate interactions in septoria tritici blotch of wheat are effective in adult plants in field conditions, and are not simply confined to seedlings. Wheat lines with good, quantitative resistance to all or most isolates were identified, including lines from Brazil, the USA and seven European countries. These may be useful as sources of resistance in wheat breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following inoculation of pods of several cultivars of French bean (Red Kidney Selections W 243, 244, 245), with Colletotrichum lindemuthianum (Sacc. & Magn.) Bri. and Cav. ANZ races 1 and 2, phaseollin, phaseollidin and 6-α-hydroxyphaseollin were estimated in infection-droplets and tissue extracts by u.v. spectrophotometry and HPLC. The examples represented both compatible and incompatible cultivar-race interactions and confirmed a positive correlation between degree of incompatibility and phaseollin concentration or content. The data supported the concept that a phytoalexin index may be of value in selecting for disease resistance or studying the quantitative inheritance of phaseollin in studies of anthracnose resistance in French beans. Concentrations of phaseollidin and 6-α-hydroxyphaseollin were low and were not correlated with degree of compatibility of cultivar-race interactions. The evidence did not support the putative role of 6-α-hydroxyphaseollin as an in planta degradative phaseollin metabolite associated with French bean - C. lindemuthianum compatible interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conjugate gradient method holds great appeal for the solution of the stiffness equation set up with finite elements. Inexpensive, low-order finite-element discretization solutions are suggested as initial guesses for higher-order, more accurate, discretizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information on a study which focuses on the diagnosis of Down syndrome in newborn infants. The study presents a simplified score based on eight of the ten signs of this syndrome. The material consists of all cases in the neonatal department of Asaf Harofe Hospital in Zerifin, Israel, who were initially diagnosed as having Down syndrome or suspected of Down syndrome during the period January 01, 1973, to December 31, 1977. The possibility of confirming the diagnosis of Down syndrome in about 70 per cent of the suspected cases without having to wait for the results of the cytogenetic investigation is of great practical value.

Copyright of Journal of Phytopathology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In order to examine the effects of cannabinoids, malnutrition, and their possible interaction upon the developing rat fetus, female Wistar rats were exposed to cannabis smoke, placebo smoke, or no smoke while concurrently consuming 1 of 3 diets differing in protein concentration (8%, 24%, 64%). Both the diet and drug treatments were administered 20 days prior to and throughout gestation. Of the 12 variables affected by the low-protein diet, 8 were significantly potentiated when undernutrition was combined with cannabis treatment. Some dependent variables that were not altered either by the low-protein diet or by cannabis inhalation were affected by the combination of treatments. These included a lengthened gestation period, an increase in occurrence of stillbirths and litter destruction, and decreased activity in the rat pups. Cannabis coupled with a standard protein diet resulted in a number of developmental indices being delayed but combining the drug with an enriched protein diet ameliorated these effects. The evidence also suggests that the administration of cannabis both before and during gestation resulted in a degree of tolerance to some aspects of the drug effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a case of a syndrome of mental deficiency in an adult. The syndrome was first reported by medical researchers D.W. Smith, L. Lemli and M.M. Opitz. The patient was born on after an uneventful full-term pregnancy with a vertex delivery. There were several ear infections during early childhood of the patient, but there was no tendency for other infections. Language development of the child was that of a two-and-a-half-year-old.

Rats with lesions in either the dorsal hippocampus, ventral hippocampus or both regions were tested in a passive avoidance paradigm with surgery occurring either before or after the acquisition of the response to be punished. An inter-trial interval (ITI) of either 10 sec. or 24 hr. was used. In contrast to previous studies using a 10 min ITI, the timing of surgery had no effect under either ITT in those animals with combined dorsal and ventral hippocampal lesions as they all ran significantly faster than appropriate control groups. Animals with lesions restricted to either the dorsal or ventral hippocampus were quite similar to control animals under massed conditions, but showed significantly less avoidance under distributed conditions if surgery occurred after acquisition training. The results are compared to previous findings and are discussed in terms of an incubation of fear phenomena and memory consolidation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rats with septal, dorsal hippocampal or ventral hippocampal lesions were observed during the development of approach behaviour followed by the introduction of an approach--avoidance (food--shock) conflict which was eventually resolved in favour of approach. Surgery was performed either prior to or after the acquisition of the initial approach response. Septal lesions made before approach training resulted in a loss of inhibition during the early stages of conflict, whereas lesions made just prior to the conflict resulted in increased inhibition. Irrespective of the timing of surgery, rats with dorsal hippocampal lesions demonstrated 'normal' avoidance behaviour on the trials immediately after shock, but overcame the fear sooner than the control subjects. Ventral hippocampal lesions produced less avoidance behaviour when made before approach training than when made just prior to the conflict. Possible functions of the various structures are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Measurements of several short-lived photochemical species (e.g., OH, HO2, and CH2O) were obtained from the DC-8 and P3-B aircraft during the NASA Transport and Chemical Evolution over the Pacific (TRACE-P) campaign. To assess fast photochemical theory over the east Asian coast and western Pacific, these measurements are compared to predictions using a photochemical time-dependent box model constrained by coincident measurements of long-lived tracers and physical parameters. Both OH and HO2 are generally overpredicted by the model throughout the troposphere, which is a different result from previous field campaigns. The calculated-to-observed ratio of OH shows an altitude trend, with OH overpredicted by 80% in the upper troposphere and by 40–60% in the middle troposphere. Boundary layer and lower tropospheric OH ratios decrease from middle tropospheric values to 1.07 for the DC-8 and to 0.70 for the P3-B. HO2 measured on the DC-8 is overpredicted by a median of 23% and shows no trend in the agreement with altitude. Three subsets of data which compose 12% of the HO2 measurements represent outliers with respect to calculated-to-observed ratios: stratospherically influenced air, upper tropospheric data with NO > 135 pptv, and data from within clouds. Pronounced underpredictions of both HO2 and OH were found for stratospherically influenced air, which is in contrast to previous studies showing good agreement of predicted and observed HOx in the stratosphere. Observational evidence of heterogeneous uptake of HO2 within low and middle tropospheric clouds is presented, though there is no indication of significant HO2 uptake within higher-altitude clouds. Model predictions of CH2O are in good agreement with observations in the median for background concentrations, but a large scatter exists. Factors contributing to this scatter are examined, including the limited availability of some important constraining measurements, particularly CH3OOH. Some high concentrations of CH2O near the coast are underpredicted by the box model as a result of the inherent neglect of transport effects of CH2O and its precursors via the steady state assumption; however, these occurrences are limited to ∼1% of the data. For the vast majority of the atmosphere, transport is unimportant in the budget of CH2O, which may be considered to be in steady state., Engineering and Applied Sciences

We compare tropospheric measurements of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and formaldehyde (HCHO) from the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) satellite instrument with in situ measurements over eastern Texas and the southeast United States. On average, the GOME and in situ measurements of tropospheric NO2 and HCHO columns are consistent despite pronounced sampling differences. The geometric mean in situ to GOME ratios over the campaign are 1.08 for NO2 and 0.84 for HCHO, with corresponding geometric standard deviations of 1.27 and 1.38. The correlation of the observed column spatial variability between the two NO2 measurement sets is encouraging before (r2 = 0.54, n = 18) and after (r2 = 0.67, n = 18) correcting for a sampling bias. Mean relative vertical profiles of HCHO and NO2 calculated with a global three-dimensional model (GEOS-CHEM) and used in the GOME retrieval are highly consistent with in situ measurements; differences would affect the retrieved NO2 and HCHO columns by a few percent. GOME HCHO columns over eastern Texas include contributions from anthropogenic volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions but are dominated by biogenic VOC emissions at the regional scale in August–September when HCHO columns are within 20% of those over the southeastern United States. In situ measurements show that during summer the lowest 1500 m (the lower mixed layer) contains 75% of the tropospheric NO2 column over Houston and Nashville, and 60% of the HCHO column over Houston. Future validation of space-based measurements of tropospheric NO2 and HCHO columns over polluted regions should include coincident in situ measurements that span the entire satellite footprint, especially in the heterogeneous mixed layer., Engineering and Applied Sciences

Extensive chemical characterization of ozone (O3) depletion events in the Arctic boundary layer during the TOPSE aircraft mission in March–May 2000 enables analysis of the coupled chemical evolution of bromine (BrOx), chlorine (ClOx), hydrogen oxide (HOx) and nitrogen oxide (NOx) radicals during these events. We project the TOPSE observations onto an O3 chemical coordinate to construct a chronology of radical chemistry during O3 depletion events, and we compare this chronology to results from a photochemical model simulation. Comparison of observed trends in ethyne (oxidized by Br) and ethane (oxidized by Cl) indicates that ClOx chemistry is only active during the early stage of O3 depletion (O3 > 10 ppbv). We attribute this result to the suppression of BrCl regeneration as O3 decreases. Formaldehyde and peroxy radical concentrations decline by factors of 4 and 2 respectively during O3 depletion and we explain both trends on the basis of the reaction of CH2O with Br. Observed NOx concentrations decline abruptly in the early stages of O3 depletion and recover as O3 drops below 10 ppbv. We attribute the initial decline to BrNO3 hydrolysis in aerosol, and the subsequent recovery to suppression of BrNO3 formation as O3 drops. Under halogen-free conditions we find that HNO4 heterogeneous chemistry could provide a major NOx sink not included in standard models. Halogen radical chemistry in the model can produce under realistic conditions an oscillatory system with a period of 3 days, which we believe is the fastest oscillation ever reported for a chemical system in the atmosphere., Engineering and Applied Sciences