Longitudinal qualitative assessment of meaningful symptoms and relevance of WATCH-PD digital measures for people with early Parkinson's.

Background: Longitudinal qualitative data on what matters to people with Parkinson's disease are lacking and needed to guide patient-centered clinical care and development of outcome measures.

Objective: To evaluate change over time in symptoms, impacts, and relevance of digital measures to monitor disease progression in early Parkinson's.

Methods: In-depth, online symptom mapping interviews were conducted with 33 people with early Parkinson's at baseline and 1 year later to evaluate (A) symptoms, (B) impacts, and (C) relevance of digital measures to monitor personally relevant symptoms.

Alzheimer Disease Plasma Biomarkers in the Mid-Western Amish.

Introduction: Alzheimer disease (AD) plasma biomarkers are noninvasive measures of the key amyloid beta (Aβ) and tau pathologies. Validation and generalization studies are needed to fully understand their potential for AD prediction and diagnosis in the elderly population.

Methods: In 1,067 Amish individuals aged ≥ 65, we measured plasma Aβ and tau to assess their relationships with AD-related outcomes.

Fox Insight: Most Bothersome Symptoms in Early-Stage Parkinson's Disease.

Background: Limited evidence exists regarding the meaningfulness of symptoms experienced in early Parkinson's disease (PD).

Objectives: To identify the most bothersome symptoms experienced by people with early PD, leveraging data from the Parkinson's Disease Patient Report of Problems (PD-PROP) questionnaire within the Fox Insight Study.

Methods: Individuals with a self-reported diagnosis of PD completed the PD-PROP questionnaire, reporting up to five most bothersome symptoms.

Examination of MGMT as a risk gene for dementia in the Amish.

Introduction: Recently, the O-6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) locus was proposed as influencing the risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in women who did not carry the apolipoprotein E ε4 allele. We examined an Amish founder population for any influence of genetic variation in and around the MGMT locus on the risk for dementia.

Methods: Genetic association was performed for single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) surrounding the MGMT locus.

Effects of a pre-weaning socialization system on piglet livability, lifetime growth performance, and subsequent sow performance.

A total of 3,307 (PIC L 42) sows and 55,160 piglets were used to determine the effects of different farrowing systems on piglet livability and lifetime growth performance. Treatments were assigned to farrowing rooms and consisted of a conventional farrowing system (sows and piglets housed in individual farrowing stalls) or a pre-weaning socialization system (stall dividers removed between farrowing stalls and walkways within 6 to 24 h post-farrowing such that 12 to 32 litters of piglets were co-mingled). A total of 40 farrowing rooms with 80 stalls each were used with 20 rooms per treatment.