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Introduction: Recent clinical trials are considering inclusion of more than just apolipoprotein E ( APOE ) ε4 genotype as a way of reducing variability in analysis of outcomes., Methods: Case-control data were used to compare the capacity of age, sex, and 58 Alzheimer's disease (AD)-associated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to predict AD status using several statistical models. Model performance was assessed with Brier scores and tenfold cross-validation. Genotype and sex × age estimates from the best performing model were combined with age and intercept estimates from the general population to develop a personalized genetic risk score, termed age, and sex-adjusted GenoRisk., Results: The elastic net model that included age, age x sex interaction, allelic APOE terms, and 29 additional SNPs performed the best. This model explained an additional 19% of the heritable risk compared to APOE genotype alone and achieved an area under the curve of 0.747., Discussion: GenoRisk could improve the risk assessment of individuals identified for prevention studies., Competing Interests: Suzanne Hendrix, as the owner of Pentara, received support from Affirmative Diagnostics for the manuscript and received contract work from AC Immmune, Acumen, ADCS, ADDF, Affirmativ Dignpostics, Alector, Alkahest, Allergan, Alzheon, Amylyx, Apodemus, Athira, Avanir, Banner, Biogen, Biohaven, Cadent, Capricor, Cerecin, Cognito, Cognoptix, Cortexyme, Elusis, Green Valley, Grifols, Ionis, Janssen, Kyowa‐Kirin, Lexeo, LuMind, Lundbeck, NCRI, Nilvad, NovoNordisk, Nutricia, Photopharmics, PTCBio, Regenera, Retrotope, Richard Isaacson, Samus, Soleno, Spaulding, Suven, Takeda, Telocyte, Tetra Discovery, Toyama, United Neuroscience, Vaccinex, Vacinity, vTv Therapeutics, and WGU. Suzanne Hendrix has also received royalties from Wiley in the last 36 months; received honoraria for lectures, presentations, etc. from Biogen; received support in the last 36 months from Grifols and Nutricia for presentations and conference attendance; claims one patent pending Brown BL, Hedges DW, Hendrix SB (2014) Extracting A periodic Components from a Time Series Wave Data Set—Patent Pending with a filing date of October 16, 2013, Application Number PCT/US2013/065327; and participated in Alzheon, Cortexyme, and Janssen DSMB or Advisory Board in the last 36 months. Samuel P. Dickson received support from Pentara, which in turn received support from Affirmativ Diagnostics for the manuscript. S. B. Booth received support from Affirmative Diagnostics for the manuscript; received travel support from her employer for work events; ADX provides profit sharing incentives with additional salary which were broadly applied to any work performed for the company (including manuscript generation). J. S. K. Kauwe received support for the manuscript from Brigham Young university and has received honoraria from UH Hilo. B. L. Brown received support through the following grants: Measuring the Interactive Effects of COVID‐19 and Latent Infections on Patterns of cognitive Timing: A Middle‐Aged to Elderly Sample from the Utah Valley Community. Translational Medicine Award from the BYU Simmons Research Endowment ($31,300). This is an intramural grant from a research endowment within our university to my departmental research fund. Brown also claims one patent pending Brown BL, Hedges DW, Hendrix SB (2014) Extracting A periodic Components from a Time Series Wave Data Set—Patent Pending with a filing date of October 16, 2013, Application Number PCT/US2013/065327. Data used in this manuscript is publically available. Participant consent is not needed, and was obtained from investigators who ran each study. M. L. Hardy has received paid consulting fees to the LLC solely owned by ML Hardy from ixLayer, NW Pathology & Labs, Mt. Baker Imaging, PlumCare, ADx Healthcare, Architectural Elements; received travel support from her employer for work events; and was the past Volunteer Secretary for the Lets Pool Together and Hope Philantropies non‐profit boards. P. G. Ridge had received honoraria from University of Kansas Alzheimer's Disease Center for a seminar presentation. R. R. Fortna is a board member of Northwest Pathology and ADx Healthcare and is co‐owner and holds stock for ADx healthcare. J. Nicodemus Johnson has nothing to disclose., (© 2021 The Authors. Alzheimer's & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring published by Wiley Periodicals, LLC on behalf of Alzheimer's Association.)

Objectives: To analyse the results of children and adults with cochlear implants (CIs) in pure tone audiometry (PTA) and speech perception tests. Tests were performed in two ways: using loudspeakers in the sound booth (SB) and with direct audio input (DAI) employing the Cochlear Latin America BOX (CLABOX). Methods: Fifty individuals (33 adults and 17 children) participated in the study, including children aged between 8 and 13 years; of these, 15 users had bilateral CIs, 35 had unilateral CIs, and all had severe to profound bilateral sensorineural hearing loss. All participants were evaluated in the SB with loudspeakers and the CLABOX with DAI. The following evaluations were conducted: PTA, speech recognition tests with the hearing in noise test (HINT). Results: The results for PTA and HINT conducted in SB and with CLABOX presented no significant difference between children and adults. Conclusion: The CLABOX tool presents a new possible method to evaluate PTA and speech recognition tests in adults and children, with results comparable to the conventional evaluation in the SB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sensory booths enhanced with VR technology have displayed promising potential for improving sensory evaluation, perception research, and educational experiences. However, there remains an insufficient of data on VR's utilization in sensory science. In our research, we designed a virtual sensory booth (SB) utilizing Virtual Reality (VR) to complement sensory analysis and foster applications in the field of sensory science. The experiment involved the utilization of diverse sensory methods and product samples for examination within the virtual SB, which was compared to the traditional SB. A total of forty-three participants took part in the study to scrutinize the implications of the virtual SB. The results of a post-VR questionnaire demonstrated the participants' positive reception of the virtual SB. The study's findings suggest that the virtual SB could serve as a valuable resource for sensory scientists and individuals keen on exploring the emerging opportunities offered by VR. Notably, the virtual SB has proven to have potential applications, particularly within the food industry, with a special focus on sensory science. • Virtualized SB incorporating VR technology is a promising sensory evaluation and perception studies approach. • Virtual SB intends to use various sensory methods in VR applications for sensory analysis. • The creation of new VR-based technological solutions for sensory analysis can serve as a supplement to traditional sensory analysis.

Objective: For patients who have received cochlear implants (CIs), speech-perception testing requires specialized equipment. This limits locations where these services can be provided, which can introduce barriers for provision of care. Providing speech test stimuli directly to the CI via wireless digital audio streaming (DAS) or wired direct audio input (DAI) allows for testing without the need for a sound booth (SB). A few studies have investigated the use of DAI for testing speech perception in CIs, but none have evaluated DAS. The goal of this study was to compare speech perception testing in CI users via DAS versus a traditional SB to determine if differences exist between the two presentation modes. We also sought to determine whether pre-processing the DAS signal with room acoustics (reverberation and noise floor) to emulate the SB environment would affect performance differences between the SB and DAS. Design: In Experiment 1, speech perception was measured for monosyllabic words in quiet and sentences in quiet and in noise. Scores were obtained in a SB and compared to those obtained via DAS with unprocessed speech (DAS-U) for 11 adult CI users (12 ears). In Experiment 2, speech perception was measured for sentences in noise, where both the speech and noise stimuli were pre-processed to emulate the SB environment. Scores were obtained for 11 adult CI users (12 ears) in the SB, via DAS-U, and via DAS with the processed speech (DAS-P). Results: For Experiment 1, there was no significant difference between SB and DAS-U conditions for words or sentences in quiet. However, DAS-U scores were significantly better than SB scores for sentences in noise. For Experiment 2, there was no significant difference between the SB and DAS-P conditions. Similar to Experiment 1, DAS-U scores were significantly better than SB or DAS-P scores. Conclusions: By pre-processing the test materials to emulate the noise and reverberation characteristics of a traditional SB, we can account for differences in speech-perception scores between those obtained via DAS and in a SB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Virtual reality (VR) technology has gained significant attention in various fields, including education for health professionals, sensory science, psychology, and consumer research. The first aim of the paper is to explore the self-assessed experience of emotional involvement in sensory analysis performed in VR. The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) is a widely used self-report measure that assesses positive and negative affective states. VR sensory analysis involves the use of immersive, interactive, and multi-sensory environments to evaluate sensory perception and emotional responses. By synthesizing relevant literature, this paper provides insights into the impact of VR on affective states, the effectiveness of VR in eliciting emotions, and the potential applications of the PANAS in VR sensory analysis. Furthermore, the second aim of the paper is to uncover the effect of VR sensory evaluation on the participant's emotional states, as it has a significant effect on their evaluations. The results suggest an increase in the sum of positive effects and a decrease in the negative ones. Although these results are promising, the relationship between the PANAS and VR sensory analysis is still underexplored, with limited research investigating the specific effects of VR on affective states measured using the PANAS. Further research is needed to better understand the potential of the PANAS in assessing emotional responses in VR environments and its implications for sensory analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Neuroinflammation and the activation of microglial cells are among the earliest events in Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, direct observation of microglia in living people is not currently possible. Here, we indexed the heritable propensity for neuroinflammation with polygenic risk scores (PRS), using results from a recent genome-wide analysis of a validated post-mortem measure of morphological microglial activation. Objective: We sought to determine whether a PRS for microglial activation (PRSmic) could augment the predictive performance of existing AD PRSs for late-life cognitive impairment. Methods: First, PRSmic were calculated and optimized in a calibration cohort (Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), n = 450), with resampling. Second, predictive performance of optimal PRSmic was assessed in two independent, population-based cohorts (total n = 212,237). Finally, we explored associations of PRSmic with a comprehensive set of imaging and fluid AD biomarkers in ADNI. Results: Our PRSmic showed no significant improvement in predictive power for either AD diagnosis or cognitive performance in either external cohort. Some nominal associations were found in ADNI, but with inconsistent effect directions. Conclusion: While genetic scores capable of indexing risk for neuroinflammatory processes in aging are highly desirable, more well-powered genome-wide studies of microglial activation are required. Further, biobank-scale studies would benefit from phenotyping of proximal neuroinflammatory processes to improve the PRS development phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past few decades, large food banks that collect, warehouse, and redistribute food have become institutionalized across Europe. Although food banks gained increased visibility as important food relief mechanisms during the covid pandemic in 2020 and 2021, the crisis also highlighted their structural weaknesses and the fragility of the charity-based emergency food system. In particular, many European food banks faced higher costs, lower food stocks, uneven food donations, and lower numbers of volunteers and personnel as demand for food relief increased sharply. Also, many food banks lacked personal health and safety equipment for front-line staff and volunteers, many of whom were vulnerable or aged, thus forcing the closure of some charities due to health concerns. Yet, the impact of the pandemic was uneven across the continent as the covid pandemic strengthened some food banks while others were weakened. To explore these dynamics in detail, this paper utilizes in-depth interviews and surveys of key food bank operators in the Netherlands, Norway, and Greece to analyze how and why European food bank systems fared so differently from the pandemic. In short, the findings in this paper reveal how the Norwegian food bank system leveraged its position to increase fundraising and visibility, while the Netherlands food bank system suffered from long-term structural weaknesses, and the Greek food bank system was further embroiled in government tensions that threatened its existence. The preexisting structure of food bank systems, broader political economy, and historical context significantly impacted how food relief networks fared during the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ObjectivesTo analyse the results of children and adults with cochlear implants (CIs) in pure tone audiometry (PTA) and speech perception tests. Tests were performed in two ways: using loudspeakers in the sound booth (SB) and with direct audio input (DAI) employing the Cochlear Latin America BOX (CLABOX).MethodsFifty individuals (33 adults and 17 children) participated in the study, including children aged between 8 and 13 years; of these, 15 users had bilateral CIs, 35 had unilateral CIs, and all had severe to profound bilateral sensorineural hearing loss. All participants were evaluated in the SB with loudspeakers and the CLABOX with DAI. The following evaluations were conducted: PTA, speech recognition tests with the hearing in noise test (HINT).ResultsThe results for PTA and HINT conducted in SB and with CLABOX presented no significant difference between children and adults.ConclusionThe CLABOX tool presents a new possible method to evaluate PTA and speech recognition tests in adults and children, with results comparable to the conventional evaluation in the SB.

The Covid-19 epidemic is a global challenge requiring adequate public and private responses to overcome the emergency, shape new development trajectories, and prepare for future outbreaks. As socioeconomic turning points, epidemics imply an entrepreneurial response in which not only managers and entrepreneurs, but also policymakers, health professionals, and civil society as a whole are active participants. Using the PRISMA methodology, we provide a comprehensive review of the complex interactions between entrepreneurship and epidemics over time. Applying a combined Kirznerian-Schumpeterian theoretical framework, we find that, in the short term, epidemics trigger a wave of Kirznerian entrepreneurship aimed at reducing the uncertainty generated directly and indirectly by the medical emergency. In the long term, as medical uncertainty abates, Schumpeterian entrepreneurship can contribute to transforming the post-crisis environment, either supporting or undermining the public reaction to the crisis and determining the path of institutionalization, in the process of defining a new normal. Thus, epidemics could lead to unpredictable socioeconomic and technological improvements, but also to highly undesirable outcomes. The construction of a satisfactory new normal requires the integration of entrepreneurial capabilities within the public sector and an explicit policy of cooperation with the private sector. Therefore, as the short-term phase of the Covid-19 pandemic draws to a close, policymakers must shift their focus away from restrictions and obligations towards a collaborative framework supportive of private entrepreneurial efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Augmented reality (AR) applications in the food industry are considered innovative to enrich the interactions among consumers, food products, and context. The study aimed to investigate the effects of AR environments on the sensory responses of consumers towards different yogurts. AR HoloLens headsets were used to set up two AR environments: (1) AR coconut view (ARC) and (2) AR dairy view (ARD). Hedonic ratings, just-about-right (JAR), check-all-that-apply (CATA) attribute terms, emotional responses, purchase intent, and consumer purchasing behaviors of three types of yogurts (dairy-free coconut, dairy, and mixed) were measured under ARC, ARD, and sensory booths (SB). The results showed that the liking scores of dairy and mixed yogurts were generally higher than the coconut yogurt regardless of the environment. The interaction effect of yogurts and environments was statistically significant in terms of appearance, taste/flavor, sweetness, mouthfeel, aftertaste, and overall liking. JAR and penalty analysis revealed that consumers penalized the coconut yogurt for being “too much” in sourness, “too little” in sweetness, and “too thin” in mouthfeel. For the CATA analysis, attribute terms positively associated with overall liking (such as “sweet”, “smooth”, and “creamy”) were selected for dairy and mixed yogurts, whereas the attribute terms negatively associated with overall liking (such as “firm”, “heavy”, and “astringent”) were only selected for coconut yogurts. Regarding yogurt-consumption behaviors, the purchase intent of dairy and mixed yogurts was higher than that of the coconut yogurt, and taste and health were considered to be the most critical factors for yogurt consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate and document the effects of breathlessness on the everyday lives of patients with cancer and COPD and their carers. This subject has been little researched, although dyspnoea is recognized as a disabling, distressing symptom. The number of breathless people is increasing as patients with all types of cardio-respiratory disease live longer.Methods: Patients with severe COPD and cancer and their carers were interviewed at home using a semistructured format to record their perceptions of the impact of breathlessness, the help they had received from medical and caring services, and their ideas on how these could be improved.Results: 10 patients with COPD (6 male) and 10 with cancer (6 male) and their spouses were interviewed. All patients found breathlessness frightening, disabling, and restricting. Patients developed a stoical, philosophical approach in order to live with dyspnoea and the difficulties it imposed: this was also an important way of reducing the emotional impact of breathlessness. Patients' spouses suffered significantly, experiencing severe anxiety and helplessness as they witnessed their partners' suffering and felt powerless to reduce it. The restrictions imposed by breathlessness affected their lives profoundly. Support of all kinds, practical, medical, and psychosocial was highly valued but was provided inconsistently and sporadically. Where help was given it came most frequently from general practitioners (GPs, family physicians) and specialist respiratory nurses.Significance Of Results: This study is the first to document the psychosocial needs of carers, which are not adequately recognized or addressed at present. Patients and carers may feel most isolated and need support outside the working hours of most services and future provision needs to reflect this. Patients with cancer experience a more rapid onset of breathlessness. More clinicians need to be educated in the management of chronic breathlessness so known helpful strategies are more widely employed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sensory booths enhanced with VR technology have displayed promising potential for improving sensory evaluation, perception research, and educational experiences. However, there remains an insufficient of data on VR's utilization in sensory science. In our research, we designed a virtual sensory booth (SB) utilizing Virtual Reality (VR) to complement sensory analysis and foster applications in the field of sensory science. The experiment involved the utilization of diverse sensory methods and product samples for examination within the virtual SB, which was compared to the traditional SB. A total of forty-three participants took part in the study to scrutinize the implications of the virtual SB. The results of a post-VR questionnaire demonstrated the participants' positive reception of the virtual SB. The study's findings suggest that the virtual SB could serve as a valuable resource for sensory scientists and individuals keen on exploring the emerging opportunities offered by VR. Notably, the virtual SB has proven to have potential applications, particularly within the food industry, with a special focus on sensory science. •Virtualized SB incorporating VR technology is a promising sensory evaluation and perception studies approach.•Virtual SB intends to use various sensory methods in VR applications for sensory analysis.•The creation of new VR-based technological solutions for sensory analysis can serve as a supplement to traditional sensory analysis., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2024 The Author(s).)