Surveillance at sea: The transactional politics of border control in the Aegean.

The relationship between vision and action is a key element of both practices and conceptualizations of border surveillance in Europe. This article engages with what we call the 'operative vision' of surveillance at sea, specifically as performed by the border control apparatus in the Aegean. We analyse the political consequences of this operative vision by elaborating on three examples of fieldwork conducted in the Aegean and on the islands of Chios and Lesbos.

Apathy: Why Care?

(Reprinted with permission from 2005; 17:7-19).

Discrepancies in Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia (CSDD) items between residents and caregivers, and the CSDD's factor structure.

Purpose: This validation study aims to examine Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia (CSDD) items in terms of the agreement found between residents and caregivers, and also to compare alternative models of the Thai version of the CSDD.

Patients And Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted of 84 elderly residents (46 women, 38 men, age range 60-94 years) in a long-term residential home setting in Thailand between March and June 2011. The selected residents went through a comprehensive geriatric assessment that included use of the Mini-Mental State Examination, Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview, and CSDD instruments.

The Use of GDS-15 in Detecting MDD: A Comparison Between Residents in a Thai Long-Term Care Home and Geriatric Outpatients.

Background: To assess the psychometric properties of the Thai version of the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale (TGDS-15) when screening for major depression (MDD) among geriatric outpatients (GOs) and long-term care (LTC) home residents in Thailand.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of 156 geriatric outpatients and 81 LTC home residents. All 237 participants were given a Mini-Mental State Examination, a MDD diagnosis according to the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview, and completed a TGDS-15 questionnaire.

Social inhibition as a mediator of neuroticism and depression in the elderly.

Background: A number of factors, such as demographics, cognitive function, personality and interpersonal relationship) play a role in late-life depression. This study investigates the influence of social inhibition on the inverse emotional stability (neuroticism) and depressive symptoms found in elderly Thai people.

Methods: In total, 123 elderly Thais aged 60 years of age or older were tested using the 64-item Inventory of Interpersonal Problems, Symptom Checklist-90, and the 16 Personality Factors Questionnaire.

Prediction of longitudinal functional outcomes in schizophrenia: the impact of baseline motivational deficits.

Emerging evidence suggests that motivational deficits are a central component of negative symptoms in schizophrenia, and linked to functional impairment characterizing this illness. This study extends previous cross-sectional findings by examining the concurrent contributions of baseline motivational deficits, other negative symptoms, and other symptom domains on longitudinal functional outcomes in schizophrenia. Results of this longitudinal examination of 18 patients from our previous pilot study reveal that amotivation accounts for 74% and 72% of the variance in functional outcomes at baseline and 6-month follow-up, respectively.

Are the available apathy measures reliable and valid? A review of the psychometric evidence.

Objective: Apathy is highly prevalent among neuropsychiatric populations and is associated with greater morbidity and worse functional outcomes. Despite this, it remains understudied and poorly understood, primarily due to lack of consensus definition and clear diagnostic criteria for apathy. Without a gold standard for defining and measuring apathy, the availability of empirically sound measures is imperative.

Efficacy of a cognitive training programme for mild cognitive impairment: results of a randomised controlled study.

This study aimed to determine the efficacy of cognitive training in a 10-week randomised controlled study involving 22 individuals presenting with mild cognitive impairment of the amnestic type (MCI-A). Participants in the experimental group (n = 11) learned face-name associations using a paradigm combining errorless (EL) learning and spaced retrieval (SR) whereas participants in the control group (n = 11) were trained using an errorful (EF) learning paradigm. Psycho-educational sessions on memory were also provided to all participants.

Motivational deficits as the central link to functioning in schizophrenia: a pilot study.

Negative symptoms have consistently been found to contribute to functional impairment in schizophrenia. In this pilot study, we sought to delineate the core negative symptoms that contribute to this functional impairment. Adult outpatients with schizophrenia were evaluated for the severity of positive, negative, cognitive, and depressive symptoms.

Apathy symptom profile and behavioral associations in frontotemporal dementia vs dementia of Alzheimer type.

Background: Apathy is a common and significant problem in patients with dementia, regardless of its cause. Observations about frontosubcortical circuit syndromes indicate that apathy may have affective, behavioral, or cognitive manifestations.

Objectives: To explore whether the apathy manifested in frontotemporal dementia (FTD), with its predominantly anterior brain neuropathologic features, differs from the apathy in dementia of Alzheimer type (DAT), with its predominantly hippocampal- and temporoparietal-based neuropathologic features, and to determine whether other behavioral disturbances reported in frontosubcortical circuit syndromes correlate with apathy.

Alzheimer's disease and infection: do infectious agents contribute to progression of Alzheimer's disease?

Infection with several important pathogens could constitute risk factors for cognitive impairment, dementia, and Alzheimer's disease (AD) in particular. This review summarizes the data related to infectious agents that appear to have a relationship with AD. Infections with herpes simplex virus type 1, picornavirus, Borna disease virus, Chlamydia pneumoniae, Helicobacter pylori, and spirochete were reported to contribute to the pathophysiology of AD or to cognitive changes.

Psychological distress and risk for dementia.

The concept of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) primarily emphasizes changes in individuals' mental abilities, but it has recently been suggested that neuropsychiatric symptoms should also be considered important factors in age-related neurodegeneration. Psychological distress, defined as a reaction of an individual to external and internal stresses, is characterized by a mixture of psychological symptoms. It also may be considered a neuropsychiatric symptom encompassing depression, anxiety, and apathy.

Smell test predicts performance on delayed recall memory test in elderly with depression.

Introduction: Elderly with depression are at increased risk for cognitive dysfunction and dementia. Smell tests are correlated with performance on cognitive tests in the elderly and therefore might serve as a screening test for cognitive impairment in depressed elderly.

Purpose: To assess the validity of the CC-SIT (Cross-Cultural Smell Identification Test) as a screening test for cognitive impairment in elderly with depression.

Apathy in dementia: clinical and sociodemographic correlates.

The authors examine prevalence and the sociodemographic and clinical correlates of apathy in dementia. Apathy was assessed in 121 outpatients in a behavioral neurology clinic using the Informant and Clinician versions of the Apathy Evaluation Scale (AES-I, AES-C). Apathy was found to be very prevalent across the dementias.

Validity of the clinical diagnostic criteria for vascular dementia: a critical review. Part II.

This review is the second of a two-part series focusing on the validity of eight clinical criteria for vascular dementia. Sixteen studies were selected according to their purposes and quality of experimental design. The analysis revealed that criteria for vascular dementia are not interchangeable; the eight criteria sets yielded different sensitivity and specificity results, as well as marked variability in incidence, prevalence, and frequency rates.

Comparability of the clinical diagnostic criteria for vascular dementia: a critical review. Part I.

This review is the first of a two-part series focusing on the comparability of eight clinical criteria used for the diagnosis of vascular dementia: the Hachinski Ischemic Scale; the Ischemic Scale of Rosen; the criteria proposed by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder-Third Edition (DSM-III), DSM-III-R, DSM-IV; International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10); State of California Alzheimer's Disease Diagnostic and Treatment Centers (ADDTC); and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke-Association Internationale pour la Recherche et l'Enseignement en Neurosciences (NINDS-AIREN). The authors discuss the critical issues related to the definition of the cognitive syndromes as well as the vascular causes and associated heterogeneity of symptomatology across these criteria.

Towards a cognitive stimulation program using an errorless learning paradigm in amnestic mild cognitive impairment.

Considering the high risk for amnestic mild cognitive impairment (A-MCI) individuals to progress towards dementia, it is crucial to study the efficacy of innovative treatment strategies such as cognitive stimulation techniques. The present study is a case report of two individuals presenting with A-MCI who were enrolled in a memory training program. After a broad neuropsychological assessment, the two participants were trained with an errorless (EL) learning paradigm on an individual basis, twice a week, over three weeks.

An appraisal of the psychometric properties of the Clinician version of the Apathy Evaluation Scale (AES-C).

This article examines the psychometric properties of the clinician version of the Apathy Evaluation Scale (AES-C) to determine its ability to characterize, quantify and differentiate apathy. Critical appraisals of the item-reduction processes, effectiveness of the administration, coding and scoring procedures, and the reliability and validity of the scale were carried out. For training, administration and rating of the AES-C, clearer guidelines, including a more standardized list of verbal and non-verbal apathetic cues, are needed.

A systematic review of the rehabilitation of moderate to severe acquired brain injuries.

Objective: To conduct a systematic review of the rehabilitation literature of moderate to severe acquired brain injuries (ABI) from traumatic and non-traumatic causes.

Methods: A review of the literature was conducted for studies looking at interventions in ABI rehabilitation. The methodological quality of each study was determined using the Downs and Black scale for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and non-RCTs as well as the Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) scale for RCTs only.

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor use associates with apathy among depressed elderly: a case-control study.

Background: It has been reported for over the past decade that the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI's) may associate with the emergence of apathy. The authors hypothesized that depressed patients treated with SSRI's would show more signs of apathy than patients treated with non-SSRI antidepressants. This case control study was conducted to investigate the possibility of the association between SSRI use and the occurrence of apathy.