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Therapy to halt or slow down the progression of neurodegeneration in Parkinson's disease (PD) is urgently demand. Disease modification therapy can modify the natural history of the disease and show neuroprotective effect in PD. Currently, many potential neuroprotective therapies are emerging. The review aims to summarize the new advances for disease modification therapies in PD including targeting drugs α-synuclein, LRRK2 gene, GBA gene, mitochondrial function, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), neuroinflammation, calcium antagonist and iron chelating agent.

Objective To explore the associated factors for quality of life in patients with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). Methods A total of 218 PSP patients were included from January 2012 to December 2019. Demographic and clinical data were collected. The quality of life was evaluated by the 39⁃Item Parkinson's disease Questionnaire (PDQ⁃39). The Progressive Supranuclear Palsy Rating Scale (PSPRS) was used to assess the severity of PSP related motor and non⁃motor symptoms, while the Non⁃Motor Symptoms Scale (NMSS) was used to elevate the non⁃motor symptoms, Hamilton Depression Rating Scale⁃24 (HAMD⁃24), Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAMA), Lille Apathy Rating Scale (LARS), Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB), and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) were used. The Pearson and partial correlation followed by the multiple linear regression were used to explore the correlates of the PDQ⁃39 score. Results Correlation analysis indicated that the PDQ⁃39 score was positively correlated with disease duration (r=0.301, P=0.000), Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI; r=0.147, P=0.031), levodopa equivalent daily dose (LEDD; r=0.225, P=0.001), and scores for the PSPRS (r=0.551, P=0.000), NMSS (r=0.484, P=0.000), HAMD⁃24 (r=0.515, P=0.000), HAMA (r=0.439, P=0.000) and LARS (r=0.476, P=0.000), but was negatively correlated with scores of FAB (r=⁃0.325, P=0.000) and MoCA (r=⁃0.355, P=0.000). Multiple linear stepwise regression model indicated that the PDQ⁃39 score was significantly associated with female (P=0.021), longer disease duration (P=0.026), higher LEDD (P=0.008), higher PSPRS score (P=0.000), higher NMSS score (P=0.002), higher HAMD⁃24 score (P=0.004), and higher LARS score (P=0.000). Conclusions Female, longer disease duration, higher LEDD, and more severe motor and non⁃motor symptoms contribute to the reduced quality of life in patients with PSP. Our study is beneficial to the clinical management of patients with PSP.

With the rapid advancement of technology, integration of computer-mediated communication (CMC) has been widely used in recent English as a foreign language teaching and learning. Despite the prevalence of online CMC discussions, previous studies have not drawn conclusive results, and empirical evidence on how online discussions affect student reading comprehension is limited. Thus, the purpose of this study was to conduct a quasi-experimental research to investigate how asynchronous and synchronous discussions influenced the reading comprehension of 50 university students in a Taiwanese collaborative learning context. A quasi-experimental design was conducted with multiple observations before and after the intervention. Research instruments included reading comprehension tests, a questionnaire survey, and a semi-structured interview. Major findings suggested that most of the participants used the synchronous discussion mode more frequently than the asynchronous mode when performing online reading tasks. Nevertheless, with increased asynchronous discussions, students' reading comprehension scores and satisfaction increased as well. Although the learners generally accepted both online discussion modes, the interview results revealed several drawbacks as well as advantages of the online discussion environments. Limitations of the study and implications for instructional pedagogy and future research were presented and discussed.

With the rapid growth of technology, many language acquisition approaches have been added to computer-assisted language learning applications. Thus, this study investigated the impact of online autonomous learning on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students' reading ability. Sixty-five students from two reading classes at One University in Southern Taiwan were divided into an experimental group (integration of online reading and teacher-guided intervention) and a control group (teacher-guided intervention). The results demonstrated that there was a significant difference in the reading scores between the experimental and control groups. A significant difference was also found between the pre- and post-test scores in the experimental group; however, this pre- and post-test difference was not observed in the control group. Students in the experimental group also noted an obvious enhancement to their reading due to the requisite planning, monitoring, and evaluating activities practiced during online learning. Based on the research results, suggestions for future study are discussed.

This study examined the effect of online metacognitive strategies, hypermedia annotations, and motivation on reading comprehension in a Taiwanese hypertext environment. A path analysis model was proposed based on the assumption that if English as a foreign language learners frequently use online metacognitive strategies and hypermedia annotations, then they would increase their learning motivation, which, in turn, would enhance their hypertext comprehension performance. Participants consisted of 37 English majors enrolled at a private university in southern Taiwan. The results revealed that online metacognitive strategies most significantly predicted learning motivation and motivation directly affected hypertext comprehension. However, metacognitive strategies and hypermedia annotations did not directly affect hypertext comprehension. Consistent with expectations, motivation was found to mediate the relation between online metacognitive strategies and hypertext comprehension. On the other hand, the relation between hypermedia annotations and hypertext comprehension mediated by motivation was not obvious. Finally, the implications of these findings for future research are discussed and presented.

With the rapid growth of computer technology, some printed texts are designed as hypertexts to help EFL (English as a foreign language) learners search for and process multiple resources in a timely manner for autonomous learning. The purpose of this study was to design a hypertext system and examine if a 14-week teacher-guided print-based and hypertext reading intervention might benefit non-traditional EFL students' reading comprehension. Non-traditional EFL students are older students with greater work experience. The primary investigation finding revealed no significant difference in comprehension between the teacher-guided print-based and hypertext intervention conditions, though a significant mean improvement was found after hypertext learning. EFL learners' attitudes also supported that both teacher-guided print-based and hypertext interventions merit reading comprehension performance. In addition, there appears to be a significantly strong and positive relationship between the perceived usefulness of hypertext reading and attempt of future hypertext use, suggesting that the majority of non-traditional EFL learners made a positive willingness and prediction to use the hypertext system in their future reading, but that the degree of usefulness of hypertext reading was not reliably predicted by their hypertext comprehension scores. Based on the investigation results, limitations and future research are discussed and presented.

Considering that I GBA i , I TMEM175 i , and I SNCA i are risk genes for both LBD and PD, it is noteworthy to investigate whether I BIN1 i and I APOE i are also associated with the risk of PD. Keywords: APOE; BIN1; Parkinson's disease; rare variant EN APOE BIN1 Parkinson's disease rare variant 698 701 4 04/15/22 20220501 NES 220501 Abbreviations GWAS genome-wide association study LBD Lewy body dementia PD Parkinson's disease Dear Editor, Recently, Chia et al. identified five risk genes for Lewy body dementia (LBD) in a genome-wide association study (GWAS) [1]. Similarly, a previous study identified that the I BIN1 i variant rs13403026 was associated with later AAO in I GBA i -associated PD [4], suggesting the potential role of I BIN1 i in regulating AAO in PD. [Extracted from the article]

Byline: Wei. Song, Yong. Chen, Rui. Huang, Ke. Chen, Ping. Pan, Jianpeng. Li, Yuan. Yang, Hui-Fang. Shang Numerous Single-Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) of the Diacylglycerol Kinase Delta (DGKD) isoform 1 gene [...]

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease. Although dopamine replacement therapy is the golden standard of PD treatment, there are limitations due to drug-related motor complications and loss of long - term efficacy. In the recent two decades, rapid advances in the genetics of PD have made it possible to develop disease - modifying therapies. The development of targeted drugs blocking involved pathogenic pathways has become a hot research area in PD. This review summarizes the recent advances in targeted therapies based on three genetic mutations of SNCA, GBA and LRRK2 for PD and involved pathways to improve clinicians' understanding on the precision treatment in PD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]