Making sense of self in Alzheimer's disease: reflective function and memory.

OBJECTIVE: The current investigation examined the relationship between cognitive impairment and sense of self in Alzheimer's disease (AD). METHOD: Forty-nine participants with dementia associated with AD were recruited through memory clinics in Victoria, Australia. The 26 participants of the healthy control sample were recruited from a retirement village. Self was measured via the Reflective Self-Function Scale - a theory of mind indicator that provides personal and social self-reflection scores. Cognitive assessment included measures of new learning, executive function, and speed of information processing. RESULTS: A reduction in sense of self in mild AD was demonstrated in both personal and social domains, as compared to healthy adults of a similar age. With a focus on specific cognitive impairment relationships, new learning was found to predict personal self-reflection, whereas speed of information processing predicted social self-reflection capacity. CONCLUSION: Findings suggest that deficits in new learning ability contribute to a reduced ability of people with early AD to understand their mental world and interpret thoughts, feelings, and beliefs about themselves. This impaired capacity to self-reflect will be intrusive in daily activities that require monitoring of current self-performance. Furthermore, with reduced speed of information processing found to impact on ability to reflect on social relations, individuals with AD are placed at risk of reduced ability to understand their social world, including communicating and interacting with others. Notwithstanding the overall group findings, individual variability was evident which reinforces the need for person-centred care in dementia.

Repeated pulses of volcanism drove the end-Permian terrestrial crisis in northwest China.

The Permo-Triassic mass extinction was linked to catastrophic environmental changes and large igneous province (LIP) volcanism. In addition to the widespread marine losses, the Permo-Triassic event was the most severe terrestrial ecological crisis in Earth's history and the only known mass extinction among insects, but the cause of extinction on land remains unclear. In this study, high-resolution Hg concentration records and multiple-archive S-isotope analyses of sediments from the Junggar Basin (China) provide evidence of repeated pulses of volcanic-S (acid rain) and increased Hg loading culminating in a crisis of terrestrial biota in the Junggar Basin coeval with the interval of LIP emplacement. Minor S-isotope analyses are, however, inconsistent with total ozone layer collapse. Our data suggest that LIP volcanism repeatedly stressed end-Permian terrestrial environments in the ~300 kyr preceding the marine extinction locally via S-driven acidification and deposition of Hg, and globally via pulsed addition of CO2.

Electrophysiological Characterization of Subclinical and Overt Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy by Magnetic Resonance Imaging-Guided Electrocardiography.

BACKGROUND: Ventricular arrhythmia in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) relates to adverse structural change and genetic status. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR)-guided electrocardiographic imaging (ECGI) noninvasively maps cardiac structural and electrophysiological (EP) properties. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to establish whether in subclinical HCM (genotype [G]+ left ventricular hypertrophy [LVH]-), ECGI detects early EP abnormality, and in overt HCM, whether the EP substrate relates to genetic status (G+/G-LVH+) and structural phenotype. METHODS: This was a prospective 211-participant CMR-ECGI multicenter study of 70 G+LVH-, 104 LVH+ (51 G+/53 G-), and 37 healthy volunteers (HVs). Local activation time (AT), corrected repolarization time, corrected activation-recovery interval, spatial gradients (GAT/GRTc), and signal fractionation were derived from 1,000 epicardial sites per participant. Maximal wall thickness and scar burden were derived from CMR. A support vector machine was built to discriminate G+LVH- from HV and low-risk HCM from those with intermediate/high-risk score or nonsustained ventricular tachycardia. RESULTS: Compared with HV, subclinical HCM showed mean AT prolongation (P = 0.008) even with normal 12-lead electrocardiograms (ECGs) (P = 0.009), and repolarization was more spatially heterogenous (GRTc: P = 0.005) (23% had normal ECGs). Corrected activation-recovery interval was prolonged in overt vs subclinical HCM (P < 0.001). Mean AT was associated with maximal wall thickness; spatial conduction heterogeneity (GAT) and fractionation were associated with scar (all P < 0.05), and G+LVH+ had more fractionation than G-LVH+ (P = 0.002). The support vector machine discriminated subclinical HCM from HV (10-fold cross-validation accuracy 80% [95% CI: 73%-85%]) and identified patients at higher risk of sudden cardiac death (accuracy 82% [95% CI: 78%-86%]). CONCLUSIONS: In the absence of LVH or 12-lead ECG abnormalities, HCM sarcomere gene mutation carriers express an aberrant EP phenotype detected by ECGI. In overt HCM, abnormalities occur more severely with adverse structural change and positive genetic status.

An enormous sulfur isotope excursion indicates marine anoxia during the end-Triassic mass extinction.

The role of ocean anoxia as a cause of the end-Triassic marine mass extinction is widely debated. Here, we present carbonate-associated sulfate δ34S data from sections spanning the Late Triassic-Early Jurassic transition, which document synchronous large positive excursions on a global scale occurring in ~50 thousand years. Biogeochemical modeling demonstrates that this S isotope perturbation is best explained by a fivefold increase in global pyrite burial, consistent with large-scale development of marine anoxia on the Panthalassa margin and northwest European shelf. This pyrite burial event coincides with the loss of Triassic taxa seen in the studied sections. Modeling results also indicate that the pre-event ocean sulfate concentration was low (<1 millimolar), a common feature of many Phanerozoic deoxygenation events. We propose that sulfate scarcity preconditions oceans for the development of anoxia during rapid warming events by increasing the benthic methane flux and the resulting bottom-water oxygen demand.

Hematological and serum biochemical values in free-ranging Macaca fascicularis of mauritius: Possible diabetes mellitus and correlation with nutrition.

Obtained values are presented from a study of blood biochemistry and hematology of free-ranging crab-eating macaques (Macaca fascicularis) in Mauritius. Normal values are generally comparable to those previously obtained from laboratory populations of this species. Abnormal values included elevated serum glucose and triglycerides in certain individuals that suggested glucose intolerance and diabetes mellitus. A high-carbohydrate diet consisting of large proportions of sugar cane and molasses may have unmasked a genetic predisposition to diabetes in these animals.