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The aim of this study was to determine whether there was a significant change in cardiac [123I]-metaiodobenzylguanidine uptake between baseline and follow-up in individuals with mild cognitive impairment with Lewy bodies (MCI-LB) who had normal baseline scans. Eight participants with a diagnosis of probable MCI-LB and a normal baseline scan consented to a follow-up scan between 2 and 4 years after baseline. All eight repeat scans remained normal; however, in three cases uptake decreased by more than 10%. The mean change in uptake between baseline and repeat was −5.2% (range: −23.8% to +7.0%). The interpolated mean annual change in uptake was −1.6%.
OBJECTIVES/GOALS: Maternal opioid use disorder (OUD) is linked to poor fetal outcomes. While it has been established that opioids can cross from maternal to fetal circulation, the mechanisms underlying these adverse outcomes remain poorly defined. This study aims to uncover OUD-associated immunological changes in maternal and fetal circulation. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: To study the effect of maternal OUD on the maternal immune system at delivery, we collected maternal blood samples at delivery from healthy pregnant women (controls) and pregnant women with a diagnosis of severe OUD. To study the impact of maternal OUD on newborn immunity, we also collected umbilical cord blood (UCB) at delivery. Flow cytometry was used to determine the frequency and phenotype of circulating immune cell subsets and responses to stimulation. Isolated monocytes were stimulated with bacterial/viral agonist cocktails, while T and NK cells were stimulated with PMA/ionomycin. The impact of maternal OUD on circulating immune mediators was determined by Luminex and on monocyte activation markers sCD14 and CRP by ELISA. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: In maternal circulation, OUD was associated with a significant decrease in markers of inflammation, cell proliferation, and activation. Frequencies of immune cell subsets were impacted by OUD, shown by an expansion of CD8+ EMRA T cells, marginal-zone B cells, mDCs, non-classical monocytes, and CD16low NK cells. While no differences were seen in T and NK cell responses to stimulation, monocytes and pDCs had significantly lower responses to bacterial and viral agonist stimulation. Analysis of UCB revealed increased levels of pro-apoptotic/T cell exhaustion mediators and pro-inflammatory cytokines, albeit decreased levels of several chemokines and growth factors. The UCB immune landscape is altered with maternal OUD, as demonstrated by a shift from naive to memory CD8+ T cells and a decrease in pDC frequency. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE: OUD dampens maternal peripheral immunity, possibly contributing to poor placental function or premature/delayed labor. Monocytes and pDCs lack antimicrobial functionality, suggesting increased infection susceptibility with OUD. Finally, these implications extend to the fetal compartment, shown by heightened immune activation in UCB.
Attentional impairments are common in dementia with Lewy bodies and its prodromal stage of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) with Lewy bodies (MCI-LB). People with MCI may be capable of compensating for subtle attentional deficits in most circumstances, and so these may present as occasional lapses of attention. We aimed to assess the utility of a continuous performance task (CPT), which requires sustained attention for several minutes, for measuring attentional performance in MCI-LB in comparison to Alzheimer’s disease (MCI-AD), and any performance deficits which emerged with sustained effort.
Method:
We included longitudinal data on a CPT sustained attention task for 89 participants with MCI-LB or MCI-AD and 31 healthy controls, estimating ex-Gaussian response time parameters, omission and commission errors. Performance trajectories were estimated both cross-sectionally (intra-task progress from start to end) and longitudinally (change in performance over years).
Results:
While response times in successful trials were broadly similar, with slight slowing associated with clinical parkinsonism, those with MCI-LB made considerably more errors. Omission errors were more common throughout the task in MCI-LB than MCI-AD (OR 2.3, 95% CI: 1.1–4.7), while commission errors became more common after several minutes of sustained attention. Within MCI-LB, omission errors were more common in those with clinical parkinsonism (OR 1.9, 95% CI: 1.3–2.9) or cognitive fluctuations (OR 4.3, 95% CI: 2.2–8.8).
Conclusions:
Sustained attention deficits in MCI-LB may emerge in the form of attentional lapses leading to omissions, and a breakdown in inhibitory control leading to commission errors.
Blood biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease (AD) may allow for the early detection of AD pathology in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) due to AD (MCI-AD) and as a co-pathology in MCI with Lewy bodies (MCI-LB). However not all cases of MCI-LB will feature AD pathology. Disease-general biomarkers of neurodegeneration, such as glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) or neurofilament light (NfL), may therefore provide a useful supplement to AD biomarkers. We aimed to compare the relative utility of plasma Aβ42/40, p-tau181, GFAP and NfL in differentiating MCI-AD and MCI-LB from cognitively healthy older adults, and from one another.
Methods
Plasma samples were analysed for 172 participants (31 healthy controls, 48 MCI-AD, 28 possible MCI-LB and 65 probable MCI-LB) at baseline, and a subset (n = 55) who provided repeated samples after ≥1 year. Samples were analysed with a Simoa 4-plex assay for Aβ42, Aβ40, GFAP and NfL, and incorporated previously-collected p-tau181 from this same cohort.
Results
Probable MCI-LB had elevated GFAP (p < 0.001) and NfL (p = 0.012) relative to controls, but not significantly lower Aβ42/40 (p = 0.06). GFAP and p-tau181 were higher in MCI-AD than MCI-LB. GFAP discriminated all MCI subgroups, from controls (AUC of 0.75), but no plasma-based marker effectively differentiated MCI-AD from MCI-LB. NfL correlated with disease severity and increased with MCI progression over time (p = 0.011).
Conclusion
Markers of AD and astrocytosis/neurodegeneration are elevated in MCI-LB. GFAP offered similar utility to p-tau181 in distinguishing MCI overall, and its subgroups, from healthy controls.
This article traces the transformation of the Australian federal public service from an administrative towards a more managerial model of the state. The paper will argue that the process has been uneven and, at times, contested. A particular feature of the paper will be a discussion of the role of organised labour in the process. The paper outlines the central features of the administrative state model and the emerging features of the managerial model of the state. The focus of the paper is on the employment and industrial relations characteristics of public service employment. Comparison will be made between the different paths taken by the Labor government from 1983 and the Coalition government since 1996.
The present-day boundaries of Guatemala and nearby areas, including the Yucatan, encompass the Maya, whose presence can be traced to 2,500 B.C. (Coe: 1966). The Maya have experienced a great part of general evolution, passing from the hunter and gatherer to agricultural/technological levels; they have organized as bands, tribes, and chiefdoms and now live within a modern nation state. Throughout this progression they have had to contend with forces in the natural environment and still continue to adapt to it with many of the techniques assumed to have been part of their cultural repertoire during the phase of sedentary village life in the area. The lack of settlement pattern studies in the Peten region has produced a situation in which the localized definition of tribal society is not yet complete (Sanders and Price: 1968), and until archaeology unearths the remnants and reflections of their struggle, we will be unable to do more than make broad assumptions about Mayan society and culture in the middle Formative period.
A presentation of the defining characteristics of Platonic love, bringing in to focus those features which were most influential in subsequent ages. Of particular interest is the distinction between higher (‘ouranic’) and lower (‘pandemic’) love, as well as the notion of love as a mechanism for striving after the divine. The overarching narrative in which the development of Platonic love unfolds from the theological speculations of the Middle Ages to guides for the etiquette of conducting heteroerotic relationships during the Renaissance is presented.