Search

Technology and computational advancements have caused us to rethink data collection and sampling methods that have been the standard for gathering information to guide policy decisions. The availability of new technology such as mobile apps has made using nonprobability samples more attractive because of the speed and low expense that are associated with this approach. We review how the use of nonprobability sampling using mobile apps affects the quality of inferences in fishing effort and catch surveys. We present an approach for evaluating the potential biases that arise from both probability and nonprobability sampling methods. The approach shows that well‐conducted probability samples have major advantages compared with nonprobability samples. We conclude that the application of nonprobability sampling for fishing surveys faces serious challenges and should prove that it is fit for use before being adopted more widely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) indicates a likelihood of the presence of cerebral beta‐amyloid burden associated with preclinical Alzheimer's disease (AD), future objective cognitive decline, and clinical progression to dementia. The applicability of SCD as a preclinical AD marker in diverse ethnoracial groups has not been validated. In the few studies with diverse samples, participants from under‐represented populations such as Latinx and Black, tend to endorse differing levels of SCD than Non‐Hispanic White (NHW) individuals. Better understanding of ethnoracial differences in SCD and addressing potential cultural biases in existing measures are critical to validate its use as a preclinical AD marker in diverse samples. In this study, we examined two SCD instruments to evaluate measurement invariance across ethnoracial groups. Method: 807 participants aged ≥55 who reside in the United States (298 Latinx, 270 Black, 239 NHW) were recruited through Amazon's Mechanical Turk and Qualtrics Panel. We examined the psychometric properties of the Cognitive Change Index (CCI) and Cognitive Function Index (CFI) across ethnoracial groups. First, we evaluated the factor structure of each measure using split‐half exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (EFA/CFA). Next, we used multiple‐group CFA to evaluate configural, metric, and scalar invariance via a step‐wise approach. Results: Participants (mean age of 65), were mostly women (63%) and received education beyond high school (83%). Split‐half EFA/CFA on the whole sample supported a one‐factor solution for both measures. Multiple‐group CFA revealed that when race/ethnicity was considered, model fit was negatively impacted. Neither measure achieved metric invariance, indicating that factor loadings were not equivalent across groups. For example, the CFI item "memory has declined substantially" had the highest loading for NHW and Latinx, but was low for the Black group. Conversely, "trouble following the news" loaded high for Latinx and Black, but low for NHW. Conclusion: Measurement invariance was not supported for either instrument, indicating that it cannot be assumed that the same construct is being measured across NHW, Latinx and Black individuals. Scale refinement, such as abbreviating SCD measures to include only items that perform well across all groups, may minimize biases and facilitate cross‐cultural comparison in preclinical AD research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Subtle cognitive decline represents a stage of subclinical cognitive deterioration in which pathological biomarkers, particularly for Alzheimer's disease may be present, including early cortical atrophy and amyloid deposition. Using individual items from the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and k‐modes cluster analysis, we previously identified three distinct cognitive clusters of individuals without overt cognitive impairment, which comprised a High Performing cluster (no deficits in performance), a Memory Deficits cluster (lower memory performance), and a Compound Deficits cluster (lower memory and executive function performance). In this study, we sought to understand the different relationships found in our clusters between cortical atrophy on MRI and B‐amyloid burden on PET. Methods: Data was derived from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative and comprised individuals with Clinical Dementia Rating of 0 with available MRI and 18‐Florbetapir B‐amyloid PET data (n = 272). Using multiple group structural equation modeling, we regressed amyloid standardized uptake value ratio (PET) on volumetric regions (MRI). Models were constrained to test significance of associations across groups defined by cognitive clusters. Results: In our Compound Deficits cluster, greater whole cerebral B‐amyloid burden was significantly related to atrophy of the right entorhinal cortex and left hippocampus, with regression coefficients of ‐0.412 (p = 0.005) and ‐0.304 (p = 0.049), respectively. Within this cluster, right entorhinal cortical atrophy was significantly related to greater amyloid burden within multiple frontal lobe regions. Conclusions: The Compound Deficits cluster, which represents a group at higher risk of decline with deficits in both memory and executive function, was observed to have significantly more cortical atrophy, particularly within the entorhinal cortex and hippocampus, associated with whole brain and frontal lobe B‐amyloid burden. These findings, which are consistent with the neuropsychological deficits observed on the MoCA in this cluster, point to a pattern of early pathological deterioration that may place these individuals at risk for future decline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dry beans are typically consumed as a whole food, and cooking time is one of the most important processing quality attributes. A panel of eight dry bean entries with variability in cooking time was established, grown in three locations, and used to test the hypothesis that carbohydrate components are major underlying contributors to genetic variability in cooking time. The cooking times ranged from 17 to 160 min. In general, faster cooking bean genotypes had higher levels of soluble dietary fiber in both the raw and cooked samples. Resistant starch levels in the raw beans, although not correlated with cooking time, were of interest because of the large genotypic variability, and they ranged from 1.5 to 35%. One genotype in particular, a yellow bean from Africa, Cebo Cela, had low resistant starch levels in the raw seeds of 1.5--2.5%, whereas average resistant starch levels in the entire panel were 26-30%. Resistant starch levels (3.9-4.2%) in the cooked seed of Cebo Cela were comparable to the other genotypes (3.4--4.3%). Based on light microscopy, the cell walls did not remain intact in the raw milled seed used for the analyses, but they did remain intact in the cooked samples, suggesting the differences in resistant starch in the raw seed are related to starch structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nuña bean is a special market class of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) indigenous to the Andean mountains of Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. Nuña bean is often referred to as "popping" or "pop" beans because the seed expands rapidly when heated in oil. South American nuña bean cultivars are not adapted to production in the United States because they are photoperiod sensitive and have an aggressive climbing, indeterminate growth habit. The popping characteristic from nuña bean was successfully introgressed into 10 dry bean lines with determinate growth habit and adaptation to the temperate climates of North America. The objective of this research was to evaluate the nuña breeding lines for yield, popping ability, and seed size at three locations in Colorado. Two lines, C049956 and C049957, had the highest popping frequency (70 and 68%, respectively) among the lines tested. Mean seed yield among lines varied from 1321 to 1794 kg ha-1 and mean seed size varied from 34 to 44 g 100 seeds-1. All lines had determinate growth habit with Type I architecture. Our findings indicate that four of the lines, C049956, C049957, C050004, and C049991, were the most productive and had the highest popping frequency. Nuña popping bean has potential for commercial on-farm production in suitable temperate locations and as a commercial product to the American consumer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Striped bass were exposed to exercise and handling stresses similar to those experienced during salvage operations in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, California, and several recovery environments to assess energetic costs and mortality. Young of the year (2.1-15.9 g wet weight) were exercised in a swim tunnel at a maximum speed of 94 cm/s (11.7-14.1 body lengths/s) for 5 min at 15°C and 25°C and yearlings (30.8-144.7 g) at the same maximum speed (5.5 body lengths/s) and for the same amount of time at 15°C. Using static respirometry, the preexercise and handling (in freshwater), 0-h postexercise and handling, and 2-h postexercise and handling oxygen consumption rates (mg/h) were measured in four recovery treatments: freshwater, brackish water (10‰ NaCl), salt water (30‰ NaCl), and buffered freshwater (10 mM NaHCO3). Significant increases in 0-h postexercise oxygen consumption rates (compared with the preexercise rates) were followed by significant decreases during recovery, but rates did not fully return to preexercise values within 2 h in young of the year at 25°C or yearlings. No significant differences in metabolism were seen among recovery environment treatments in the same sampling period. Therefore, recovery treatment groups were combined. In the same sampling periods, yearling fish consumed more oxygen than young of the year at the same temperature, with a mass coefficient of 0.72 ± 0.04 (mean ± SE) for young of the year and yearlings at 15°C during the preexercise period. Young of the year at 25°C (combined treatments) had higher metabolic rates than those at 15°C. Buoyancy difficulties and disorientation (which were more exaggerated at 15°C than at 25°C) were observed in young of the year in salt water for up to 2 h following exercise and handling stress, and 45% of the yearling fish in the saltwater treatment died over the subsequent 48 h, presumably from acid-base or ionoregulatory causes. Based on available studies, we recommend that salvaged striped bass be released into brackish water of 3-10‰ salinity to reduce losses that may be caused by screen salvage operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In each of three experiments, each subject in each condition received five successive short-term memory (STM) tests with phonemically similar consonant trigrams as the items to be remembered. The retention interval for tests 1–4 of all conditions in the three experiments was held constant at 16.5 sec. On test 5 the retention interval was varied across conditions with the three experiments exploring retention intervals in the range 1–21.5 sec. In all three experiments little, if any, forgetting was observed on test 1; in all three experiments proactive interference (PI) was observed to develop across tests. Analysis of the test 5 data indicated that the PI effect of prior test items upon the test 5 target item reached a maximum by 6.5 sec., with no further forgetting beyond this interval. The test 5 data also suggested a reminiscence effect at the longest retention interval of 21.5 sec. The implications of the data for a theory of PI in STM are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on research conducted to investigate whether perioperative glycemic control regimens are effective in preventing surgical site infections in adult patients. Researchers conducted a literature review of five randomized controlled trials with 773 participants. They found that because of a small number of studies which were evaluated and research methodology issues they were unable to find evidence to support the use of glycemic control to prevent surgical site infections.

The article discusses research in perioperative nursing, with a focus on a systematic review of randomized controlled trials documenting the effects of anxiolytic premedication on adult day surgery patients. Topics include patients' time of discharge following anesthesia, differences between intervention and placebo groups, and assessment of psychomotor function.

An excerpt from an article on the first organization of a blood bank in Australia, which appeared in the March 10, 1945 issue of the "Medical Journal of Australia" is presented.

The Kunitz-type soybean trypsin inhibitor (STI) has played a key role in the early study of proteinases, having been used as the main substrate in the biochemical and kinetic work that led to the definition of the standard mechanism of action of proteinase inhibitors. A partial structure of STI complexed with porcine trypsin has previously been reported, in which the first 93 residues of the inhibitor, including the region of contact with trypsin, were relatively well defined, whereas for the remaining part of the peptide chain only some Calpha atoms were located. The structure of the inhibitor in its free form has now been determined by molecular replacement to 2.5 A, using the coordinates of the homologous Erythrina trypsin inhibitor as a search model. When the refined atomic coordinates of STI are compared with the partial model previously available, the conformation of the reactive-site loop and its position with respect to the main body of the molecule does not change when the inhibitor interacts with trypsin. There are instead, despite the high similarity in the overall tertiary structure, significant differences between STI and Erythrina trypsin inhibitor (ETI) in the region which is in contact with the enzyme in the STI:trypsin crystal structure. Some of these differences can explain the unique specificity of ETI and its ability to inhibit the fibrinolytic enzyme tissue-type plasminogen activator.