Physicians' views and knowledge on the antibiotic treatment of pneumonia in advanced dementia.

Background: Antibiotic treatment (AT) for patients with advanced dementia and pneumonia is a complex issue. AT can prolong life, but it can also prolong suffering for the patient and the family. In this study we evaluated physicians' attitudes to this issue.

ApoE4 attenuates cortical neuronal activity in young behaving apoE4 rats.

The E4 allele of apolipoprotein E (apoE4) is the strongest genetic risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, apoE4 may cause innate brain abnormalities before the appearance of AD-related neuropathology. Understanding these primary dysfunctions is vital for the early detection of AD and the development of therapeutic strategies.

Extra-Hippocampal Learning Deficits in Young Apolipoprotein E4 Mice and Their Synaptic Underpinning.

The E4 allele of apolipoprotein (apoE4) is the primary genetic risk factor for late onset Alzheimer's disease (AD), yet the exact manner in which apoE4 leads to the development of AD is undetermined. Human and animal studies report that apoE4-related memory deficits appear earlier than the AD clinical manifestation, thus suggesting the existence of early, pre-pathological, apoE4 impairments that may later lead to AD onset. While current research regards the hippocampus as the initial and primary effected locus by apoE4, we presently investigate the possibility that apoE4 innately impairs any brain area that requires synaptic plasticity.

Atherosclerotic carotid plaque on panoramic radiographs: neural network detection.

Aim: Atherosclerotic carotid plaques (ACPs) constitute the main etiological factor in about 15% of strokes. ACPs can be detected on routine dental panoramic radiographs. As these are one of the most commonly performed dental images, they can be used as a source of available data for computerized methods of automatic detection of ACPs in order to significantly increase their timely diagnosis.

CD4 T cells in immunity and immunotherapy of Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia, with prevalence progressively increasing with aging. Pathological hallmarks of the disease include accumulation of amyloid β-protein (Aβ) peptides and neurofibrillary tangles in the brain associated with glial activation and synaptotoxicity. In addition, AD involves peripheral and brain endogenous inflammatory processes that appear to enhance disease progression.

Chronic exposure to stress predisposes to higher autoimmune susceptibility in C57BL/6 mice: glucocorticoids as a double-edged sword.

Stress activates the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis to promote the release of corticosterone (CORT), which consequently suppresses pathogenic stimulation of the immune system. Paradoxically, however, stress often promotes autoimmunity through yet unknown mechanisms. Here we investigated how chronic variable stress (CVS), and the associated alterations in CORT levels, affect the susceptibility to experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) in female and male C57BL/6 mice.

IFN-gamma enhances neurogenesis in wild-type mice and in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease.

The generation of new neurons and glia from a precursor stem cell appears to take place in the adult brain. However, new neurons generated in the dentate gyrus decline sharply with age and to an even greater extent in neurodegenerative diseases. Here we raise the question whether peripheral immune mechanisms can generate immunity to such deficits in neuronal repair.

Immunity and neuronal repair in the progression of Alzheimer's disease: a brief overview.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an age-related progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by memory loss and severe cognitive decline. The etiology of the disease has not been explored, although a significant body of evidence suggests that neuronal dysfunction is caused by hyperphosphorylation and intracellular accumulation of the Tau protein, extracellular accumulation of the amyloid beta-peptide (Abeta), and the associated chronic activation of glial cells. Clearance of toxic Abeta, apoptotic cells and debris from the brain together with induction of neuronal repair mechanisms may all take place partially throughout the progression of AD, but therapeutic approaches based on knowledge of these processes have been unsuccessfully developed.

Test-retest reliability of the relative work centrality measure.

The Meaning of Work International Research Team in 1987 developed the Relative Work Centrality measure, on which individuals divide 100 points among five major domains (work, leisure, community, religion, and family) in their lives, based on their relative centrality. The present study examined the test-retest reliability of this measure in a convenience sample of 96 Israeli full-time workers over a 4-wk. period.

Work centrality and post-award work behavior of lottery winners.

Individuals who had won the lottery responded to a survey concerning whether they had continued to work after winning. They were also asked to indicate how important work was in their life using items and scales commonly used to measure work centrality. The authors predicted that whether lottery winners would continue to work would be related to their level of work centrality as well as to the amount of their winnings.

Concept mapping: an educational strategy for advancing nursing education.

Topic: Application of concept mapping as a tool in nursing education.

Purpose: To highlight the use of concept mapping as a method for advanced learning in nursing education.

Sources Of Information: Literature from nursing and general education, instructor and student experiences, and opinions from using concept maps as a method of teaching/learning.

To work or not to work: nonfinancial employment commitment and the social desirability bias.

The so-called "lottery question," which asks whether individuals would stop or continue working if there were no economic reasons to do so, was used to evaluate non-financial employment commitment. Data were collected through a survey conducted among a representative sample of the adult population in Israel. The sample included 501 respondents, who were interviewed via telephone in their homes by professional interviewers from a national survey agency.

Identification of sex pheromone components from pheromone gland volatiles of the tomato looper,Plusia chalcites (Esp.).

The sex pheromone glands ofPlusia chalcites release, dodecyl acetate, (Z)-7-dodecenyl acetate, (Z)-9-dodecenyl acetate, 11-dodecenyl acetate, (Z)-8-tridecenyl acetate, and (Z)-9-tetradecenyl acetate. A combination of capillary GC, GC-MS, and dimethyl disulfide derivatization enabled a rigorous identification of all these compounds, some of which were previously found in gland extracts. Bioassays in a flight tunnel showed that a ternary blend of (Z)-7-dodecenyl acetate, (Z)-9-dodecenyl acetate, and (Z)-9-tetradecenyl acetate elicited directed flights from 85 to 100% of the males tested and elicited copulation attempts, at the end of the flights, from 44 to 74% of the males tested.

Further studies on the biology of an antiviral factor (AVF) from virus-infected plants and its association with the N-gene of Nicotiana species.

The antiviral factor (AVF) from virus-infected plants, purified on polyacrylamide gels, could be labelled with radioactive phosphorus and its activity could be eluted from the gels. The radioactivity and the antiviral activity were co-purified and thus co-electrophoresed; hence, the previously reported radioactive zone (Antignus, Sela & Harpaz, 1975) can be regarded as AVF. The production of AVF requires both the presence of the N-gene in the plant as well as virus infection.