Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Special issue on ecological validity and cognitive assessment

While each passing year brings new discoveries aimed at more efficiently, and accurately, diagnosing neurological conditions and a growing appreciation of the value of early initiation of treatments for such conditions, a fundamental question for patients, families, and caregivers, remains – is this person able independently to perform daily activities and, if not, can anything be done to improve his/her functioning? The goal of this special issue is to highlight current research, from multi-disciplinary perspectives, regarding methods and approaches for assessing everyday functioning. The articles in this volume address ecological validity, various methodological approaches to ecologically valid assessment and the application of these to various populations. The issue of ecological validity is highly relevant to researchers, clinicians, funders and consumers, as virtually every form of brain damage or disease affects everyday life. A core goal of all neuropsychological rehabilitation is to positively benefit quality of life. The term ecological validity is used here to refer to generalisability (veridicality, or the extent to which assessment results relate to and/or predict behaviours outside the test environment) and representativeness (verisimilitude, or the degree to which assessments resemble everyday life contexts in which the behaviours will be needed). While not the original meaning of the term (see Burgess et al., 2006 for discussion and Baum et al., 2017), it is the meaning that is now in general use. Traditional cognitive assessments typically require discrete responses to single events, and are conducted in carefully controlled environments. Performance in the real world, however, often involves a serial, or occasionally parallel, stream of tasks, frequently in disordered environs. This juxtaposition of how/when we assess patients, versus the real-world context, may significantly limit the ecological validity of our measures. This problem gives rise to the question of whether “better” assessments are possible. We hope to address this through the series of papers in the current volume. These papers represent a variety of theoretical and disciplinary perspectives and in aggregate provide a comprehensive picture of the current state of research on ecologically valid assessment. The papers in this issue extend our knowledge of assessments that use everyday life tasks and activities to understand the effect of cognitive impairments, particularly executive dysfunction, on real-world functioning. One group of papers focuses on performance-based measures. The scoping review by Poncet, Swaine, Dutil, Chevignard, and Pradat-Diehl (2017), via their in-depth comparison of 12 performance-based measures, provides an excellent
Major pediatric ocular trauma in Taiwan.

PURPOSE To investigate major pediatric ocular trauma in Taiwan. METHODS Retrospective review of medical records of all patients 15 years and younger who were hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of eye injury at National Cheng Kung University Hospital, Taiwan, between June 1988 and May 2006. RESULTS There were 156 children (156 eyes) 1.1 to 15.0 years (mean+/-standard deviation, 7.1+/-0.3 years; boy: girl ratio: 2.1:1). Objects most often causing penetrating injury were scissors (13.5%), pencils/pens (12.2%), broken eyeglasses/spectacles (7.7%), and knives (6.4%). Most blunt trauma occurred in traffic accidents (5.8%). Most injuries occurred at home, followed by on the street, at school, and at sports venues. Injuries were classified as open globe (71.2%), adnexal only (18.6%), or closed globe (10.3%), and included corneal laceration (40.4%), lens damage (27.6%), hyphema (25.6%), and eyelid laceration (23.7%). Most surgical procedures were primary repair (88.5%) or removal of a damaged lens (22.4%). Additional surgery was performed in 19.9% of cases. After treatment, 56.4% of eyes had corneal opacity/scar and 7.1% became phthitic; 52.6% had good visual outcome, whereas 23.1% had poor final vision. Compared with visual acuity measured on admission, final visual acuity was improved in 76.1%, unchanged in 19.7%, and worse in 4.3%. Predictors of worse outcome were open-globe injury and larger wound size, posterior segment involvement, and presence of an intraocular foreign body. CONCLUSIONS Most of the children hospitalized for major ocular trauma are younger boys with penetrating injuries suffered at home. Most injuries could have been prevented by increased awareness and reduction of risk factors, and the authors urge better public education for improved safety.
Self-Rated Attentiveness Interacts with Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation and Noise Stimulation in Reaction Time in a Go/No-Go Task

Previous research has found that stimulating inattentive people with auditory white noise induces enhancement in cognitive performance. This enhancement is believed to occur due to a statistical phenomenon called stochastic resonance, where noise increases the probability of a signal passing the firing threshold in the neural cells. Here we investigate whether people with low attentiveness benefit to a larger extent than attentive people from stimulation by auditory white noise and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). The results show, for both auditory noise and tDCS stimulation, that the changes in performance relative to nonstimulation correlate with the degree of attentiveness in a Go/No-Go task, but not in a N-back task. These results suggest that the benefit of tDCS may interact with inattentiveness.
Ethanol reduces metabolic uncoupling following experimental head injury.

Previous investigations have shown that ethanol is neuroprotective following experimental traumatic brain injury (TBI). This study sought to determine if the neuroprotective effects of ethanol in a controlled cortical impact (CCI) injury model are related to its effects on cerebral glucose metabolism and blood flow. Adult rats were given ethanol (1.0 g/kg) or saline by intraperitoneal injection followed 40 min later by injury. Regional cerebral blood flow (CBF) and cerebral metabolic rates of glucose (CMRglc) were determined immediately, and at 3, 6, 12, 24, and 72 h postinjury using quantitative autoradiography. Immediately after injury, CMRglc in the contusion core and penumbra was reduced in the ethanol group compared to the saline group: (core CMRglc: 52.2 +/- 16.0 versus 94.2 +/- 14.1 micromol/100 g/min, respectively,p < 0.001; penumbral CMRglc: 58.2 +/- 12.8 versus 82.8 +/-19.7 micromol/100 g/min, respectively; p < 0.05) However, at 24 and 72 h postinjury, penumbral CMRglc in the ethanol group was increased compared to the saline group (p < 0.05 and p < 0.001, respectively). Regarding CBF, contusion core values in the ethanol group were elevated compared to the saline group immediately postinjury, (70.4 +/- 17.1 versus 31.5 +/- 27.8 mL/100 g/min, respectively (p < .05), and at 6, 12, and 24 h postinjury (p < 0.05). Penumbral CBF was also higher at 6 and 72 h in the ethanol group compared to the saline group (p < 0.05). These results indicate that low-dose ethanol is associated with a marked attenuation of immediate postinjury hyperglycolysis and with more normal glucose metabolism in the injury penumbra over the ensuing 3 days. Simultaneously, the reduction in CBF typically seen within the contusion core and penumbra after CCI is less severe when ethanol is present. The net effect of these changes is a decreased degree of uncoupling between glucose metabolism and CBF that otherwise occurs in the absence of ethanol. These changes may likely explain the neuroprotective effect of ethanol.
Ovulatory response to treatment of polycystic ovary syndrome is associated with a polymorphism in the STK11 gene.

CONTEXT Clomiphene and insulin sensitizers such as metformin are used to induce ovulation in polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), but the ovulatory response is variable, and the causes of this variation are poorly understood. OBJECTIVE Our objective was to identify predictive genetic polymorphisms and other determinants of ovulatory response. DESIGN This was a substudy of a multicenter randomized clinical trial. SETTING This study was performed at academic medical centers and their affiliates. PARTICIPANTS A total of 312 women with PCOS were included in the study. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Historical, biometric, biochemical, and genetic parameters were performed. RESULTS We found that the C allele of a single nucleotide polymorphism in the STK11 gene (expressed in liver; also known as LKB1) was associated with a significantly decreased chance of ovulation in PCOS women treated with metformin. In an analysis of ovulation per cycle, the adjusted odds ratio (OR) comparing the C/C genotype to the G/G genotype was 0.30 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.14, 0.66], and the OR for the C/G genotype vs. the G/G genotype was also 0.30 (95% CI 0.14, 0.66). In an analysis of metformin-treated subjects, we found that the percentage of women who ovulated increased with the number of G alleles present: 48% (10 of 21) of C/C women, 67% (32 of 48) of C/G women, and 79% (15 of 19) of G/G women ovulated. We also found that increased frequency of ovulation was associated with lower body mass index (BMI) [adjusted OR of 2.36 (95% CI 1.65, 3.36) and 2.05 (95% CI 1.46, 2.88), respectively, for comparisons of BMI less than 30 vs. BMI equal to or more than 35, BMI 30-34 vs. BMI equal to or more than 35, in the analysis of ovulation per cycle], a lower free androgen index (FAI) [adjusted OR of 1.59 (95% CI 1.17, 2.18) for FAI<10 vs. FAI>or=10], and a shorter duration of attempting conception [adjusted OR of 1.63 (95% CI 1.20, 2.21) for<1.5 vs.>or=1.5 yr]. CONCLUSIONS We have demonstrated that a polymorphism in STK11, a kinase gene expressed in liver and implicated in metformin action, is associated with ovulatory response to treatment with metformin alone in a prospective randomized trial. The interaction with the effects of changes in modifiable factors (e.g. BMI or FAI) requires further study.
REM sleep behaviour disorder in Parkinson’s disease is associated with specific motor features

Background: Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behaviour disorder (RBD) is commonly associated with Parkinson’s disease (PD), and recent studies have suggested that RBD in PD is associated with increased cognitive impairment, waking EEG slowing, autonomic impairment and lower quality of life on mental health components. However, it is unclear whether the association of RBD in PD has implications for motor manifestations of the disease. Methods: The study evaluated 36 patients with PD for the presence of RBD by polysomnography. Patients underwent an extensive evaluation on and off medication by a movement disorders specialist blinded to the polysomnography results. Measures of disease severity, quantitative motor indices, motor subtypes, complications of therapy and response to therapy were assessed and compared using regression analysis that adjusted for disease duration and age. Results: Patients with PD and RBD were less likely to be tremor predominant (14% vs 53%; p<0.02) and had a lower proportion of their Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) score accounted for by tremor (8.2% vs 19.0%; p<0.01). An increased frequency of falls was noted among patients with RBD (38% vs 7%; p = 0.04). Patients with RBD demonstrated a lower amplitude response to their medication (UPDRS improvement 16.2% vs 34.8%; p = 0.049). Markers of overall disease severity, quantitative motor testing and motor complications did not differ between groups. Conclusions: The presence of altered motor subtypes in PD with RBD suggests that patients with PD and RBD may have a different underlying pattern of neurodegeneration than PD patients without RBD.
The effect of physical training in children with asthma on pulmonary function, aerobic capacity and health-related quality of life: a systematic review of randomized control trials.

OBJECTIVE Asthma is a leading cause of chronic illness in children, impacting heavily on their daily life and participation in physical activity. The purpose of this systematic review was to investigate the evidence for the use of physical therapy to improve pulmonary function and aerobic capacity in children with asthma. Furthermore, the review aims to update previous literature on the effect of exercise on health related quality of life. METHODS A search was conducted for randomized control trials (RCTs) using the electronic databases Medline, Embase, SPORTDiscus, AMED, CINAHL, and The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. Studies were included if the participants were asthmatic children aged 6-18 years participating in any mode of physical exercise. Studies were reviewed for study quality, participant details, exercise intervention details, and intervention outcomes. RESULTS A total of 16 studies and 516 subjects met inclusion criteria for review. Severity of asthma ranged from mild to severe. No improvement in pulmonary function was observed. Physical training led to an increase in aerobic capacity as measured by VO(2max) (mL/kg/min). CONCLUSIONS Findings suggest that physical training does not improve pulmonary function in children with asthma, but does increase aerobic capacity. The small number of studies investigating quality of life suggests that physical training does improve health related quality of life; however further well designed randomized control trials are needed to verify these findings.
HIV disease and the gastroenterologist.

Editorial. Problemes lies au HIV pouvant concerner le gastroenterologue: lesions buccales, perte de poids, symptomes œsophagiens, diarrhee, cryptosporidiose, infection par Isosporidia belli, herpes, cytomegalovirus, Mycobacterium avium, microsporidies, infections bacteriennes et par protozoaires, sarcome de Kaposi. Roles de l'endoscopie et de la radiologie
The impact of managerialism on the strategy work of university middle managers

In an attempt to understand the effects of managerialism on university managers in a developing country, we set out to gather rich data on the strategy work of middle managers through a single case study at a South African university. Managerialism has the potential to solve inefficiencies in university systems and processes, as it could help to simplify the complex university management environment. Yet, our findings show that middle managers at the chosen institution are constrained by the effects of managerialism. Managerialism has resulted in a tyranny of bureaucracy which translates into disempowered middle managers, a culture of conformance over collegiality, control at the cost of innovation and experimentation and an over-articulation of strategy which devalues the strategy. To cope with the identified negative effects of managerialism, middle managers create their own systems outside the bureaucracy and provide more support to peers and subordinates.
Therapeutic Potential of Targeting the Ghrelin Pathway

Ghrelin was discovered in 1999 as the endogenous ligand of the growth-hormone secretagogue receptor 1a (GHSR1a). Since then, ghrelin has been found to exert a plethora of physiological effects that go far beyond its initial characterization as a growth hormone (GH) secretagogue. Among the numerous well-established effects of ghrelin are the stimulation of appetite and lipid accumulation, the modulation of immunity and inflammation, the stimulation of gastric motility, the improvement of cardiac performance, the modulation of stress, anxiety, taste sensation and reward-seeking behavior, as well as the regulation of glucose metabolism and thermogenesis. Due to a variety of beneficial effects on systems’ metabolism, pharmacological targeting of the endogenous ghrelin system is widely considered a valuable approach to treat metabolic complications, such as chronic inflammation, gastroparesis or cancer-associated anorexia and cachexia. The aim of this review is to discuss and highlight the broad pharmacological potential of ghrelin pathway modulation for the treatment of anorexia, cachexia, sarcopenia, cardiopathy, neurodegenerative disorders, renal and pulmonary disease, gastrointestinal (GI) disorders, inflammatory disorders and metabolic syndrome.
Land Degradation, Community Perceptions and Environmental Management Implications in the Drylands of Central Tanzania

Land degradation particularly through soil erosion is an important concern in many parts of the world including semiarid areas of central Tanzania. One of the issues that have gained importance is the concern on implications of local perceptions in resource management. The Irangi Hills (Figure 1) are severely affected by soil degradation; hence they provide a vivid example for studying environmental degradation, local perceptions, and land-management strategies that the local population use to cope with the degradation problems [1]. The Irangi Hills have been influenced by various land management interventions, for example, the implementation of various soil-conservation measures that have contributed to considerable changes in the spatial and temporal land-use patterns during the 20th century, and particularly over the last four decades. The Irangi Hills, located in Kondoa District in semiarid, central Tanzania (Figure 1), constitute about 10% (c. 1256 km2) of the District area that has been particularly affected by sheet and gully soil erosion [2, 3,4, 5, 6,7]. In many places soil erosion has reduced the agricultural potential of the land by the physical removal of topsoil, sand deposition on lower slopes and valley floors, and gullying and incipient badlands development [7]. The sub-humid, north-eastern parts of the Irangi Hills are more severely degraded than the semiarid south and south-west.
Matrilocality, Corporate Strategy, and the Organization of Production in the Chacoan World

Kinship is central to an understanding of sociopolitical organization and the organization of production in Chaco Canyon. Between A.D. 700 and 900, lifeways in the Chacoan world underwent a transformation that reflects the evolution of matrilocal residence. Matrilocal groups became the foundation of a polity based on a corporate political strategy. Matrilocality provided the peoples of the Chaco region a social structure in which women were able to form stable agricultural communities while men were freed to take part in long-distance resource procurement and trade. Leaders mobilized goods from across the polity for corporate-affirming activities, such as construction of great houses. This corporate strategy is evident in an examination of turquoise production. The production of turquoise ornaments was diffuse and uncontrolled, but the consumption of turquoise, at least in Chaco Canyon, was highly centralized. This is what we would expect to see in a polity operating within a corporate strategy.
Growth decline and divergent tree ring isotopic composition (δ13C and δ18O) contradict predictions of CO2 stimulation in high altitudinal forests

Human‐induced changes in atmospheric composition are expected to affect primary productivity across terrestrial biomes. Recent changes in productivity have been observed in many forest ecosystems, but low‐latitude upper tree line forests remain to be investigated. Here, we use dendrochronological methods and isotopic analysis to examine changes in productivity, and their physiological basis, in Abies religiosa (Ar) and Pinus hartwegii (Ph) trees growing in high‐elevation forests of central Mexico. Six sites were selected across a longitudinal transect (Transverse Volcanic Axis), from the Pacific Ocean toward the Gulf of Mexico, where mature dominant trees were sampled at altitudes ranging from 3200 to 4000 m asl. A total of 60 Ar and 84 Ph trees were analyzed to describe changes in growth (annual‐resolution) and isotopic composition (decadal‐resolution) since the early 1900s. Our results show an initial widespread increase in basal area increment (BAI) during the first half of the past century. However, BAI has decreased significantly since the 1950s with accentuated decline after the 1980s in both species and across sites. We found a consistent reduction in atmosphere to wood 13C discrimination, resulting from increasing water use efficiency (20–60%), coinciding with rising atmospheric CO2. Changes in 13C discrimination were not followed, however, by shifts in tree ring δ18O, indicating site‐ and species‐specific differences in water source or uptake strategy. Our results indicate that CO2 stimulation has not been enough to counteract warming‐induced drought stress, but other stressors, such as progressive nutrient limitation, could also have contributed to growth decline. Future studies should explore the distinct role of resource limitation (water vs. nutrients) in modulating the response of high‐elevation ecosystems to atmospheric change.
Transplantability and presence of virus in spontaneous sarcomas and fibromas of chickens in relation to the age of the tumor-bearing animal.

A main interest of avian cancer lies in the fact that in a single species, the chicken, one "finds tumors with differing transplantability. On the one hand, tumors such as some sarcomas, endotheliomas, leukotic and lymphoid neoplasms are found that are easily transplantable and undoubtedly induced by viruses; and on the other, tumors, the transplantation of which is either very irregular or very difficult, such as some other lymphoid neoplasms and the mixed embryonal and epithelial tumors are found. A thi[d group comprises tumors which can be transplanted but in which no virus can regularly be demonstrated, such as the sarcomlas induced by chemical carcinogens. This situation may lead the investigator to two radically different points of view: (a) assuming that other agents than viruses can induce cancer even of the same type in the same animal species; (b) assuming that viruses are the cause of all chicken tumors although they cannot be demonstrated in some tumors because of influences still to be determined. The latter supposition could also be applied to all or a part of mammalian neoplasia. During the last 5 years we have collected about 50 spontaneous chicken tumors and tried to relate their behavior on transplantation and the presence of viruses in them with other characteristics not only of the neoplasms but also of the hosts that had developed them. In the present publication we report results of a study of 14 sarcomas and 7 fibromas. It will be seen that the age of the host may be a factor conditioning the transplantability of the sarcomas. The incidence of cancer in chickens is very high, perhaps the highest in any species under natural con-
JlpA, a novel surface‐exposed lipoprotein specific to Campylobacter jejuni, mediates adherence to host epithelial cells

A 1116 bp open reading frame (ORF), designated jlpA, encoding a novel species‐specific lipoprotein of Campylobacter jejuni TGH9011, was identified from recombinant plasmid pHIP‐O. The jlpA gene encodes a polypeptide (JlpA) of 372 amino acid residues with a molecular mass of 42.3 kDa. JlpA contains a typical signal peptide and lipoprotein processing site at the N‐terminus. The presence of a lipid moiety on the JlpA molecule was confirmed by the incorporation of [3H]‐palmitic acid. Immunoblotting analysis of cell surface extracts prepared using glycine–acid buffer (pH 2.2) and proteinase K digestion of whole cells indicated that JlpA is a surface‐exposed lipoprotein in C. jejuni. JlpA is loosely associated with the cell surface, as it is easily extracted from the C. jejuni outer membrane by detergents, such as sarcosyl and Triton X‐100. JlpA is released to the culture medium, and its concentration increases in a time‐dependent fashion. The adherence of both insertion and deletion mutants of jlpA to HEp‐2 epithelial cells was reduced compared with that of parental C. jejuni TGH9011. Adherence of C. jejuni to HEp‐2 cells was inhibited in a dose‐dependent manner when the bacterium was preincubated with anti‐GST–JlpA antibodies or when HEp‐2 cells were preincubated with JlpA protein. A ligand‐binding immunoblotting assay showed that JlpA binds to HEp‐2 cells, which suggests that JlpA is C. jejuni adhesin.