The Assessment of Situational Judgement Questionnaire: A Novel Instrument to Detect Susceptibility to Financial Scamming.

Background: Existing measures of scam susceptibility lack ecological validity and situational variability. Evidence suggests that all adults may be susceptible to scams, though a comprehensive fraud victimization theory remains to be explored.

Objective: To identify cognitive and sociodemographic variables that differentiate individuals with high scam susceptibility from those less susceptible.

Biomarker disclosure protocols in prodromal Alzheimer's disease clinical trials.

Introduction: The development of biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease (AD) has allowed researchers to increase sample homogeneity and test candidate treatments earlier in the disease. The integration of biomarker "screening" criteria should be met with a parallel implementation of standardized methods to disclose biomarker testing results to research participants; however, the extent to which protocolized disclosure occurs in trials is unknown.

Methods: We reviewed the literature to identify prodromal AD trials published in the past 10 years.

Disruption of mTORC1 rescues neuronal overgrowth and synapse function dysregulated by Pten loss.

Phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome 10 (PTEN) is a negative regulator of AKT/mTOR signaling pathway. Mutations in PTEN are found in patients with autism, epilepsy, or macrocephaly. In mouse models, Pten loss results in neuronal hypertrophy, hyperexcitability, seizures, and ASD-like behaviors.

Measuring the Frailty Phenotype and its Association with Cognition in Mid-Life and Older Age.

Background: Frailty is directly linked to physical robustness and cognitive decline in older age. The Fried Frailty phenotype (FP) is a construct composed of five core symptoms that has been studied predominately in older age. There is little research contrasting the psychometric properties of the FP in mid-life versus older age.

PTEN Regulates Dendritic Arborization by Decreasing Microtubule Polymerization Rate.

Phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) is a major negative regulator of the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt/mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway. Loss-of-function mutations in have been found in a subset of patients with macrocephaly and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). PTEN loss in neurons leads to somal hypertrophy, aberrant migration, dendritic overgrowth, increased spine density, and hyperactivity of neuronal circuits.

Dual in Utero Electroporation in Mice to Manipulate Two Specific Neuronal Populations in the Developing Cortex.

Precise regulation of gene expression during development in cortical neurons is essential for the establishment and maintenance of neuronal connectivity and higher-order cognition. Dual in utero electroporation provides a precise and effective tool to label and manipulate gene expression in multiple neuronal populations within a circuit in a spatially and temporally regulated manner. In addition, this technique allows for morphophysiological investigations into neuronal development and connectivity following cell-specific gene manipulations.

Is This Phishing? Older Age Is Associated With Greater Difficulty Discriminating Between Safe and Malicious Emails.

Objectives: As our social worlds become increasingly digitally connected, so too has concern about older adults falling victim to "phishing" emails, which attempt to deceive a person into identity theft and fraud. In the present study, we investigated whether older age is associated with differences in perceived suspiciousness of phishing emails.

Methods: Sixty-five cognitively normal middle-aged to older adults rated a series of genuine and phishing emails on a scale from definitely safe to definitely suspicious.

Ectopic HCN4 expression drives mTOR-dependent epilepsy in mice.

The causative link between focal cortical malformations (FCMs) and epilepsy is well accepted, especially among patients with focal cortical dysplasia type II (FCDII) and tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC). However, the mechanisms underlying seizures remain unclear. Using a mouse model of TSC- and FCDII-associated FCM, we showed that FCM neurons were responsible for seizure activity via their unexpected abnormal expression of the hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated potassium channel isoform 4 (HCN4), which is normally not present in cortical pyramidal neurons after birth.

Selective mortality in middle-aged American women with Diffuse Idiopathic Skeletal Hyperostosis (DISH).

Objective: A mortality sample of white American male and female skeletons was examined to illustrate a simple means of identifying skeletal conditions associated with an increased risk of dying relatively early in adulthood and to determine if males and females with Diffuse Idiopathic Skeletal Hyperostosis (DISH) displayed the same general age-specific pattern of mortality.

Methods: Age-specific probability distributions for DISH were generated from 416 white Americans who died from the 1980s to the present, and whose remains were donated to the University of Tennessee Forensic Anthropology Center. The age-specific frequency of DISH is analyzed using an empirical smoothing algorithm.

Nuclear Excluded Autism-Associated Phosphatase and Tensin Homolog Mutations Dysregulate Neuronal Growth.

Background: Phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) negatively regulates downstream protein kinase B signaling, resulting in decreased cellular growth and proliferation. PTEN is mutated in a subset of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD); however, the mechanism by which specific point mutations alter PTEN function is largely unknown. Here, we assessed how ASD-associated single-nucleotide variations in PTEN (ASD-PTEN) affect function.

Cognitive and Neuropsychiatric Features of Early Parkinson's Disease.

The clinical definition of Parkinson's disease (PD) is based on cardinal motor features including bradykinesia as well as an additional symptom of tremor, postural instability, or rigidity. Evidence from neuropathological, imaging, and clinical research suggests a premotor, early phase of PD pathology. Further understanding of the earliest biomarkers of PD is crucial for the development of neuroprotective, disease modifying, cognitive, and psychiatric interventions.

A Retroviral CRISPR-Cas9 System for Cellular Autism-Associated Phenotype Discovery in Developing Neurons.

Retroviruses expressing a fluorescent protein, Cas9, and a small guide RNA are used to mimic nonsense PTEN mutations from autism patients in developing mouse neurons. We compare the cellular phenotype elicited by CRISPR-Cas9 to those elicited using shRNA or Cre/Lox technologies and find that knockdown or knockout (KO) produced a corresponding moderate or severe neuronal hypertrophy in all cells. In contrast, the Cas9 approach produced missense and nonsense Pten mutations, resulting in a mix of KO-equivalent hypertrophic and wild type-like phenotypes.

A prospective randomized double-blinded controlled trial evaluating indocyanine green fluorescence angiography on reducing wound complications in complex abdominal wall reconstruction.

Background: The purpose of this prospective, randomized, double-blinded controlled trial was to investigate the utility of indocyanine green fluorescence angiography (ICG-FA) in reducing wound complications in complex abdominal wall reconstruction.

Materials And Methods: All consented patients underwent ICG-FA with SPY Elite after hernia repair and before flap closure. They were randomized into the control group, in which the surgical team was blinded to ICG-FA images and performed surgery as they normally would, or the experimental group, in which the surgery team viewed the images and could modify tissue flaps according to their findings.

Rapamycin prevents, but does not reverse, aberrant migration in Pten knockout neurons.

Unlabelled: Phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) is a major negative regulator of the Akt/mammalian target of rapamycin (MTOR) pathway. Mutations in PTEN have been found in a subset of individuals with autism and macrocephaly. Further, focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) has been observed in patients with PTEN mutations prompting us to examine the role of Pten in neuronal migration.

Intraoperative indocyanine green fluorescence angiography to predict wound complications in complex ventral hernia repair.

Introduction: Complex ventral hernia repair (VHR) is associated with a greater than 30% wound complication rate. Perfusion mapping using indocyanine green fluorescence angiography (ICG-FA) has been demonstrated to predict skin and soft tissue necrosis in many reconstructive procedures; however, it has yet to be evaluated in VHR.

Methods: Patients undergoing complex VHR involving component separation and/or extensive subcutaneous advancement flaps were included in a prospective, blinded study.

Increased Cost of Negative Pressure Dressings Is Not Justified for Split-Thickness Skin Grafting of Low-Risk Wounds.

Objectives: (1) To determine whether negative pressure dressings (NPDs) are superior to conventional compressive dressings (CDs) for split-thickness skin grafts (STSGs) placed on healthy, low-risk wounds, (2) To determine the cost difference of NPDs versus that of CDs.

Design: Retrospective.

Setting: Level I Trauma Center.

The Rpe65 rd12 allele exerts a semidominant negative effect on vision in mice.

Purpose: The rd12 mouse was reported as a recessively inherited Rpe65 mutation. We asked if the rd12 mutation resides in Rpe65 and how the mutation manifests itself.

Methods: A complementation test was performed by mating Rpe65(KO) (KO/KO) and rd12 mice together to determine if the rd12 mutation is in the Rpe65 gene.

DNA delivery in adult mouse eyes: an update with corneal outcomes.

Ocular injection (intravitreal, subretinal, or into the anterior space) is an efficient approach to deliver many classes of drugs, cells, and other treatments to various cell types of the eye. In particular, subretinal injection is efficient since delivered agents accumulate as there is no dilution due to transport processes or diffusion and the volume of the interphotoreceptor space (IPS) is minimal (10-20 μl in the human eye, less than 1 μl in the mouse eye). We previously reported methods using subretinal injection and electroporation to deliver DNA to photoreceptor and retinal pigment epithelium cells in retinas of live mice (Johnson et al.

Neural representation of reward probability: evidence from the illusion of control.

To support reward-based decision-making, the brain must encode potential outcomes both in terms of their incentive value and their probability of occurrence. Recent research has made it clear that the brain bears multiple representations of reward magnitude, meaning that a single choice option may be represented differently-and even inconsistently-in different brain areas. There are some hints that the same may be true for reward probability.

Comparative study of wound complications: isolated panniculectomy versus panniculectomy combined with ventral hernia repair.

Background: The resection of an abdominal pannus carries the risk of wound-related morbidity in obese patients. Surgeons often perform a panniculectomy (PAN) to gain better access to the abdomen to perform other operations. We evaluated the incidence of wound complications after PAN with and without a concomitant procedure (i.

Application of subcutaneous talc after axillary dissection in a porcine model safely reduces drain duration and prevents seromas.

Background: Talc, the most common pleurodesis agent, has recently been shown to prevent seromas and decrease drain duration when placed subcutaneously after large subcutaneous dissection accompanying open ventral hernia repair. We hypothesized that talc would decrease drain duration and prevent seromas after axillary dissection without local or systemic side effects.

Study Design: Six pigs underwent full, bilateral axillary dissection (n 12 dissections).

Application of subcutaneous talc in hernia repair and wide subcutaneous dissection dramatically reduces seroma formation and postoperative wound complications.

Wound complications after large ventral hernia repairs when combined with wide subcutaneous dissection (OVHR/WSD) are common (33 to 66%). We evaluate a novel technique of applying talc to wound subcutaneous tissues to decrease wound complications. We accessed our prospectively collected surgical outcomes database for OVHR/WSD procedures performed.

Cognitive ability: does working memory training enhance intelligence?

Recent experiments in both humans and mice suggest that working memory training improves general cognitive ability. While the prospect of enhancing human and animal intelligence is enticing, several questions remain.