Singapore Clinical Practice Guidelines For Sarcopenia: Screening, Diagnosis, Management and Prevention.

Objectives: To present the local evidence and final recommendations of the Clinical Practice Guidelines workgroup convened by the Chapter of Geriatricians and the Society for Geriatric Medicine Singapore. The aim is to develop contextualized evidence-based recommendations that facilitate adoption of the Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia (AWGS) 2019 consensus into current practice in Singapore.

Methods: The workgroup drew upon the AWGS'2019 consensus, updated literature review of Singapore studies till 31 Dec 2020, and evidence from recent systematic reviews.

Oral Tau Aggregation Inhibitor for Alzheimer's Disease: Design, Progress and Basis for Selection of the 16 mg/day Dose in a Phase 3, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial of Hydromethylthionine Mesylate.

Background: Hydromethylthionine mesylate is a tau aggregation inhibitor shown to have exposure-dependent pharmacological activity on cognitive decline and brain atrophy in two completed Phase 3 trials in mild/moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Objectives: The present report summarises the basis for selection of 16 mg/day as monotherapy as the optimal treatment regime and the design rationale of a confirmatory Phase 3 trial (LUCIDITY).

Design: The trial comprises a 12-month double-blind, placebo-controlled phase followed by a 12-month modified delayed-start open-label treatment phase.

Salivary Alpha-Amylase Activity and Mild Cognitive Impairment among Japanese Older Adults: The Toon Health Study.

Background: There is growing interest in examining objective markers for early identification and behavioral intervention to prevent dementia and mild cognitive impairment in clinical and community settings.

Objective: To investigate the association between salivary alpha-amylase as an objective measure of psychological stress response and mild cognitive impairment for the implication of psychological stress in the development of mild cognitive impairment.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This cross-sectional study involved 865 participants aged ≥ 65 years.

Sex-Driven Differences in the Effectiveness of Individualized Clinical Management of Alzheimer's Disease Risk.

Background: The Comparative Effectiveness Dementia and Alzheimer's Registry (CEDAR) trial demonstrated that individualized, multi-domain interventions improved cognition and reduced the risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD). As biological sex is a significant risk factor for AD, it is essential to explore the differential effectiveness of targeted clinical interventions in women vs. men.

Age, Sex, Hypertension and HDL-C Alter Serum BACE1 Activity in Cognitively Normal Subjects: Implications for Alzheimer's Disease.

Background: Increasing evidence indicates that β-secretase 1 (BACE1) activity and concentration in blood are candidate biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease (AD). Investigating potential demographic, biological, and clinical determinants of BACE1 in the blood matrix is the critical step to validate and qualify BACE1 bio-indicators for different contexts-of-use (CoU), such as risk assessment, early detection, diagnosis, prognosis, management of AD, and outcome of amyloid pathway targeted drugs.

Objectives: To evaluate the influence of age, sex, HDL-cholesterol and comorbidities (cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, diabetes) on circulating BACE-1 activity.

Obesity and Brain Health: The Impact of Metabolic Syndrome and Cardiorespiratory Fitness on Cognitive Performances in Middle-Aged Obese Women.

Background: Mid-life obesity has been reported to be a significant risk factor for later-life dementia and Alzheimer's disease. Metabolic syndrome (MetS) has been suggested to have an adverse effect while cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) has been suggested to have a protective effect on cognitive function of older adults. However, studies investigating such effects in middle-aged obese women are limited.

Delayed Decline of Cognitive Function by Antihypertensive Agents: A Cohort Study Linked with Genotype Data.

Background: Arterial hypertension is among factors with the potential for increasing the risk of cognitive impairment in elderly subjects. However, studies investigating the effects of antihypertensives on cognitive function have reported mixed results.

Methods: We have used the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center (NACC) Uniform Data Set (UDS) to investigate the effect of each class of antihypertensives, both as single and combined, in reducing the rate of conversion from normal to mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

Recruitment of Older African Americans in Alzheimer's Disease Clinical Trials Using a Community Education Approach.

Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) is two times more prevalent among compared to non-Hispanic Whites. Despite the higher prevalence of ADRD among older African Americans, recent estimates suggest research enrollment by those who identify as African American remains limited. The purpose of the study is to 1) explore how a culturally tailored community education program impacts clinical trial interest and enrollment in ADRD research studies and to 2) identify how applicable the African American community perceived the culturally tailored curriculum.

Association of a MIND Diet with Brain Structure and Dementia in a French Population.

Background: Adherence to the Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MIND) diet, which combines higher consumption of vegetables, berries, nuts, whole grains, olive oil, fish, beans and poultry, with lower consumption of meat, sugars and saturated fats, is a promising strategy to prevent dementia. However, evidence in populations with non-US food culture, especially from Europe, is limited.

Objectives: To evaluate the association of a French-adapted MIND diet score with gray matter volumes, white matter microstructure and incident dementia.

The role of Aβ in Alzheimer's Disease as an Evolutionary Outcome of Optimized Innate Immune Defense.

Alzheimer's Disease is a progressive manifestation of aging associated with accumulated Amyloid β. It remains frustratingly unclear why this protein accumulates and how it contributes to Alzheimer's Disease pathology. In one recent hypothesis, Amyloid β is suggested to function as an antimicrobial peptide in innate immune defense within the brain, where Amyloid β gains toxicity when it becomes abundant.

Systolic Blood Pressure and Mortality in Community-Dwelling Older Adults: The Role of Frailty.

Objectives: To investigate whether frailty modifies the association of systolic blood pressure (SBP) with cardiovascular mortality and all-cause mortality in community-dwelling older adults.

Design: A prospective cohort study.

Setting: A population-based study of nationally representative older Chinese adults in a community setting.

Intrinsic Capacity Impairment Patterns and their Associations with Unfavorable Medication Utilization: A Nationwide Population-Based Study of 37,993 Community-Dwelling Older Adults.

Objectives: Our aim was to explore the patterns of intrinsic capacity (IC) impairments among community-dwelling older adults and the associations of these different patterns with excessive polypharmacy, potentially inappropriate medications, and adverse drug reactions in a nationwide population-based study.

Design: A cross-sectional study included older adults from the Taiwan Integrated Care for Older People (ICOPE) program in 2020.

Setting And Participants: The study subjects comprised 38,308 adults aged 65 years and older who participated in the ICOPE Step 1 screening and assessed six domains of IC following the World Health Organization (WHO) ICOPE approach.

Online liquor gets audited: a review of regulatory controls and supply practices of online liquor retailers in NSW, Australia.

Objectives: In New South Wales (NSW), Australia, the number of 'online liquor licences' - packaged liquor licences with conditions restricting the sale of alcohol to online, phone or fax orders - increased from 101 in 2010 to 500 by May 2018. International and national evidence is emerging that this growth in online liquor licences has been accompanied by increased risk of supply to young and intoxicated people. This study aimed to determine the extent to which online liquor retailers in NSW have adopted safeguards to prevent people younger than 18 years purchasing alcohol online; and the supply of alcohol to intoxicated people.

De-identifying Australian hospital discharge summaries: An end-to-end framework using ensemble of deep learning models.

Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) contain clinical narrative text that is of great potential value to medical researchers. However, this information is mixed with Personally Identifiable Information (PII) that presents risks to patient and clinician confidentiality. This paper presents an end-to-end de-identification framework to automatically remove PII from Australian hospital discharge summaries.

Prevalence and Associates of Frailty Status in Different Stages of Chronic Kidney Disease: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Objectives: Frailty is a state of homeostenosis associated with adverse outcomes. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) increases considerably by aging and shares the common risk factors with frailty. We aimed to examine the prevalence and independent associates of frailty status in CKD patients.

Determinants of Resting Energy Expenditure in Very Old Nursing Home Residents.

Objectives: This study aimed to measure resting energy expenditure (REE) in institutionalized old persons and to determine factors possibly related to change in REE as a basis for estimating energy requirements.

Design And Settings: A monocentric cross-sectional study was conducted. Statistical approaches were conducted to determine independent factors associated with REE.

Association between the Lymphocyte-to-C-Reactive Protein Ratio and Survival Outcomes in Cancer Patients with GLIM-Defined Malnutrition: A Multicenter Study.

Background And Aims: This study assessed the prognostic value of LCR in patients with cancer-associated malnutrition (CAM). Systemic inflammatory markers, particularly the lymphocyte-to-C-reactive protein ratio (LCR), are related to the survival of patients with CAM. The present retrospective analysis based on a prospective multicenter cohort study, which involved 1,437 hospitalized patients with CAM.

Fatty acid export (FAX) proteins contribute to oil production in the green microalga .

In algae and land plants, transport of fatty acids (FAs) from their site of synthesis in the plastid stroma to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) for assembly into acyl lipids is crucial for cellular lipid homeostasis, including the biosynthesis of triacylglycerol (TAG) for energy storage. In the unicellular green alga , understanding and engineering of these processes is of particular interest for microalga-based biofuel and biomaterial production. Whereas in the model plant , FAX (fatty acid export) proteins have been associated with a function in plastid FA-export and hence TAG synthesis in the ER, the knowledge on the function and subcellular localization of this protein family in Chlamydomonas is still scarce.

Nurses' Perceptions of Medical Laboratory Scientists: Mistaken Identity and Misplaced Regard.

Introduction: The medical laboratory science (MLS) profession is an integral part of the healthcare team, providing diagnostic laboratory results used to determine directives in the treatment and management of disease processes. There is a scarcity of literature describing other healthcare professionals' perceptions of medical laboratory scientists. Research also suggests MLS professionals feel unrecognized for contributions to patient care.

Assessment of Academic Resilience as a Non-Cognitive Variable in Entry-Level Doctor of Physical Therapy Students.

The purposes of this study were to assess whether a correlation existed between academic resilience with success in the first semester of a Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) program, measured by grade point average (GPA), and to understand the lived experiences of first-semester DPT students when they transition to graduate school. This was a mixed methods study using a retrospective non-experimental correlational design and sequential-explanatory research. The non-cognitive construct of academic resilience was measured by the Academic Resilience Scale-30, delivered online pre-enrollment.

Patient Experience and Perceived Benefits of Physical Therapy after Lower Limb Amputation in Middle-Aged and Older Adults.

The current study aimed to investigate the long-term effects of receiving post-amputation physical therapy (PT) on individuals' self-reported functional outcomes and quality of life in middle-aged to older adults with lower limb amputation (LLA). Further, we qualitatively explored the patients' perception and experience of PT post-amputation. We assessed participants' functional outcomes using Short-Form Health Survey, Prosthetic Evaluation Questionnaire-Physical Mobility portion, and Fear of Falling Avoidance Behavior Questionnaire.