Activity

In cultures isolated from the ventral tegmental area, another DA rich area, a higher dose of MPP+ (1 mM) was required to produce an EC50 in TH-positive cells but, as in the substantia nigra, only the combination of CDNF and N4 (100 ng/ml each) was successful at increasing the survival of these cells compared to MPP+ alone (by 22.5 ± 3.5%). These data support previous findings that CDNF and N4 may be of therapeutic value for treatment of PD, but suggest that they may need to be administered together.

Choir singing has been associated with better mood and quality of life (QOL) in healthy older adults, but little is known about its potential cognitive benefits in aging. In this study, our aim was to compare the subjective (self-reported) and objective (test-based) cognitive functioning of senior choir singers and matched control subjects, coupled with assessment of mood, QOL, and social functioning.

We performed a cross-sectional questionnaire study in 162 healthy older (age ≥ 60 years) adults (106 choir singers, 56 controls), including measures of cognition, mood, social engagement, QOL, and role of music in daily life. The choir singers were divided to low (1-10 years, N = 58) and high (>10 years, N = 48) activity groups based on years of choir singing experience throughout their life span. A subcohort of 74 participants (39 choir singers, 35 controls) were assessed also with a neuropsychological testing battery.

In the neuropsychological testing, choir singers performed better than controls on the verbal flexibility domain of executive function, but not on other cognitive domains. In questionnaires, high activity choir singers showed better social integration than controls and low activity choir singers. In contrast, low activity choir singers had better general health than controls and high activity choir singers.

In healthy older adults, regular choir singing is associated with better verbal flexibility. Long-standing choir activity is linked to better social engagement and more recently commenced choir activity to better general health.

In healthy older adults, regular choir singing is associated with better verbal flexibility. Long-standing choir activity is linked to better social engagement and more recently commenced choir activity to better general health.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Mellow Babies (MB) in the UK. MB is a 14-week early parenting intervention program that is delivered in groups and is targeted at ‘at-risk’ parents (both mothers and fathers) and their babies up to 18 months old.

The study used a pragmatic pre-post intervention design. Outcomes were parental mental health, parenting confidence, quality of life, socio-emotional development of children, and perceived parent-child relationship. Fifteen groups representing n = 91 parent-baby dyads were recruited across the UK between 2017-2018. The sample consisted of 10 Mellow Mums groups (70 mother-baby dyads) and 5 Mellow Dads groups (21 father-baby dyads). Intention-to-treat and ‘completer’ analyses were performed.

Findings suggest short-term positive outcomes for parents attending MB. Completion of the program was associated with significant improvements in anxiety and overall wellbeing, parenting confidence, and perceived closeness of the parent-child reents experiencing psychosocial difficulties. Replication by studies using a contrast or control group also incorporating follow-up data would further improve the evidence base for MB.

The effects of multiple meteorological factors on influenza activity remain unclear in Chongqing, the largest municipality in China. We aimed to fix this gap in this study.

Weekly meteorological data and influenza surveillance data in Chongqing were collected from 2012 to 2019. Distributed lag nonlinear models (DLNMs) were conducted to estimate the effects of multiple meteorological factors on influenza activity.

Inverted J-shaped nonlinear associations between mean temperature, absolute humidity, wind speed, sunshine and influenza activity were found. The relative risks (RRs) of influenza activity increased as weekly average mean temperature fell below 18.18°C, average absolute humidity fell below 12.66 g/m3, average wind speed fell below 1.55 m/s and average sunshine fell below 2.36 hours. Taking the median values as the references, lower temperature, lower absolute humidity and windless could significantly increase the risks of influenza activity and last for 4 weeks. A J-shaped nonlinear associationza activity.Governments around the globe have started to develop and deploy digital contact tracing apps to gain control over the spread of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19). The appropriateness and usefulness of these technologies as a containment measure have since sparked political and academic discussions globally. The present paper contributes to this debate through an exploration of how the national daily newspapers in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland reported on the development and adoption of digital contact-tracing apps during early and after stages of the lockdown. These countries were among the first in Europe to develop apps and were critical voices in the debate of decentralized vs. centralized data processing. We conducted thematic analysis on news coverage published between January and May 2020 in high-circulation national daily newspapers from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. A total of 148 articles from nine newspaper companies were included in the final analysis. From our analysis emerged six core themes of the development and adoption of digital contact tracing apps 1) data governance; 2) role of IT giants; 3) scientific rigor; 4) voluntariness; 5) functional efficacy; 6) role of the app. These results shed light on the different facets of discussion regarding digital contact tracing as portrayed in German-speaking media. This study complements emerging survey data on public perceptions of digital contact tracing apps by providing a better understanding of the ideas circulating in the media ecosystem.Re-opening of communities in the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has ignited new waves of infections in many places around the world. Mitigating the risk of reopening will require widespread SARS-CoV-2 testing, which would be greatly facilitated by simple, rapid, and inexpensive testing methods. This study evaluates several protocols for RNA extraction and RT-qPCR that are simpler and less expensive than prevailing methods. First, isopropanol precipitation is shown to provide an effective means of RNA extraction from nasopharyngeal (NP) swab samples. H-His-OH.HCl.H2O Second, direct addition of NP swab samples to RT-qPCRs is evaluated without an RNA extraction step. A simple, inexpensive swab collection solution suitable for direct addition is validated using contrived swab samples. Third, an open-source master mix for RT-qPCR is described that permits detection of viral RNA in NP swab samples with a limit of detection of approximately 50 RNA copies per reaction. Quantification cycle (Cq) values for purified RNA from 30 known positive clinical samples showed a strong correlation (r2 = 0.