The Flexibility of Physio-Cognitive Decline Syndrome: A Longitudinal Cohort Study.

The mutual presence of impairments in physical and cognitive functions in older adults has been reported to predict incident disability, dementia, and mortality. The longitudinal transitions of phenotypes between these functional impairments, either individually or in combination, remain unclear. To investigate the natural course and prevalence of physical and/or cognitive impairments (CIs), we enrolled participants from a community-based population.

The Clinical Course of Early and Late Mild Cognitive Impairment.

Introduction: Amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI) can be classified as either early MCI (EMCI) or late MCI (LMCI) according to the severity of memory impairment. The aim of this study was to compare the prognosis and clinical course between EMCI and LMCI.

Methods: Between January 2009 and December 2017, a total of 418 patients with MCI and 146 subjects with normal cognition were recruited from a memory clinic.

Prediction of Cerebral Amyloid Pathology Based on Plasma Amyloid and Tau Related Markers.

Pyroglutamate-modified β-amyloid peptide (Aβ) is crucial for AD pathophysiological process. The potential associations of plasma Aβ and total tau (t-tau) with brain Aβ burden and cognitive performance remain to be clarified. Forty-six subjects with unimpaired cognition, mild cognitive impairment, or very mild dementia were enrolled.

Changes in Plasma Amyloid and Tau in a Longitudinal Study of Normal Aging, Mild Cognitive Impairment, and Alzheimer's Disease.

Background: Changes in cerebrospinal fluid, neuroimaging, and cognitive functions have been used as diagnostic biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease (AD). This study aimed to investigate the temporal trajectories of plasma biomarkers in subjects with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and patients with AD relative to healthy controls (HCs).

Methods: In this longitudinal study, 82 participants (31 HCs, 33 MCI patients, and 18 AD patients) were enrolled.

Plasma amyloid assay as a pre-screening tool for amyloid positron emission tomography imaging in early stage Alzheimer's disease.

Introduction: Due to the high cost and high failure rate of ascertaining amyloid positron emission tomography positivity (PET+) in patients with earlier stage Alzheimer's disease (AD), an effective pre-screening tool for amyloid PET scans is needed.

Methods: Patients with mild cognitive impairment (n = 33, 24.2% PET+, 42% females, age 74.

Plasma Aβ42 and Total Tau Predict Cognitive Decline in Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment.

Levels of amyloid-β (Aβ) and tau peptides in brain have been associated with Alzheimer disease (AD). The current study investigated the abilities of plasma Aβ42 and total-tau (t-tau) levels in predicting cognitive decline in subjects with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Plasma Aβ42 and t-tau levels were quantified in 22 participants with amnestic MCI through immunomagnetic reduction (IMR) assay at baseline.

Interspecific comparison of traffic noise effects on dove coo transmission in urban environments.

Most previous studies concerning avian adaptation to anthropogenic noise have focused on songbirds, but few have focused on non-songbirds commonly found in urban environments such as doves. We conducted field playback-recording experiments on the perch-coos of five dove species, including four native Taiwan species (the spotted dove, Spilopelia chinensis, the oriental turtle-dove, Streptopelia orientalis, the red collared-dove, Streptopelia tranquebarica, and the emerald dove, Chalcophaps indica) and one species not native to Taiwan (the zebra dove, Geopelia striata) to evaluate the detection and recognition of dove coos in habitats with differing levels of traffic noise. Our results suggest that traffic noise has selected dominant urban species such as the spotted dove to temporally and spatially adjust cooing to reduce the masking effects of traffic noise and rare urban species such as the emerald dove to avoid areas of high traffic noise.

Removal of bioaerosols by the combination of a photocatalytic filter and negative air ions.

This study focused on the investigation of the effectiveness of negative air ionization (NAI), photocatalytic oxidation (PCO), and the combination of NAI and PCO on the removal of aerosolized , , and vir phage under different relative humidity. The experiments were conducted with a stainless steel reactor equipped with a negative air ion generator, a photocatalytic filter, and two ultraviolet lamps with 365 nm wavelength. The removal efficiency , defined as one minus the ratio of the outlet concentration to the inlet concentration of the appropriate bioaerosol, was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the removal methods.