Identification of healthy elderly fallers and non-fallers by gait analysis under dual-task conditions docx

... Identification of healthy elderly fallers and non -fallers by gait analysis under dual-task conditions C Toulotte Laboratoire d’Etudes de la Motricite´Humaine, ... the healthy elderly, gait patterns must be carefullyexamined in the healthy elderly fallers and non- fallers (autonomous subject).The Timed Up and Go Test9 and the single-tasktest described by ... eyes-closed test. Fallers placedtheir feet on the floor three times more often thanthe non -fallers under eyes-open conditions and twice as often under eyes-closed conditions. Gait parameters...

... Affinity of RGG3 for binding to a G-quadru-plex DNA and RNA.Fig. S2. CD spectra of DNAs and RNAs.Fig. S3. Binding affinity of EWS and RBD toHtelo.Fig. S4. In vitro arginine methylation of RGG3 by PRMT3.Fig. ... (lanes 2 and 4) and 32P-labeled Htelo (lanes 1 and 2) orrHtelo (lanes 3 and 4). (B) EMSA was performed with RGG3 (lanes2 and 4) and 32P-labeled rHtelo (lanes 1 and 2) or mut rHtelo (lanes3 and ... presence of various amounts of RGG3.The CD spectrum of Htelo, a hybrid (3 + 1) form,showed a strong positive band at 290 nm and a nega-tive band at around 235 nm, whereas the addition of 1ratio...

... Sequence analysis of scaffoldingprotein CipC and ORFXp, a new cohesin-containingprotein in Clostridium cellulolyticum: comparison of various cohesin domains and subcellular localization of ORFXp. ... enzymaticproperties. Identification of new cellulosomal componentsMS analysis was performed to identify the specificcomponents of fractions F1, F5 and F6 (Table 1).Complete MS data such as the spectra and the ... formost of the cellulosomes. No synergies were measuredwith the F3 ⁄ F5 pair (Fig. 5). However, the F5 ⁄ F6 and F3 ⁄ F6 pairs showed synergies of 1.2 and 1.3, respec-tively, and a synergy of 1.2...

... Forschungsgemeinschaft (Do270 ⁄ 10) and by theFifth Framework program (Quality of Life and Man-agement of Living Resources; Project EUROFUNG 2;QLK3-1999-00729) of the European Community. TheT. ... detection of hydropho-bins in various species and strains of Hypocrea ⁄ Trichoderma. In both myce-lia and spores, dominating peaks were identified as hydrophobins by detecting mass shifts of 8 Da of ... 2. Intact-cell MALDI-TOF mass spectra of mycelia and spores of Trichodermastrains. The masses 7347 and 7494 of T. atroviride spores correlate with two proc-essed products of the spore hydrophobinSRH1...

... collected and suspen-ded in 25 mL of 40% potassium hydroxide and 25 mL of methanol and refluxed for 2 h. Products were extractedwith 50 mL of hexane. The hexane layer was washed with25 mL of saturated ... range of structural diversity produced by asequence of biosynthetic reactions. Cyclization of oxidosqualene is the ini-tial origin of structural diversity of skeletons in their biosynthesis, and ... adetailed understanding of the biosynthesis of triterpenesaponins is required, including the enzymes catalyzingthe sequence of reactions and the genes encoding theseenzymes.The biosynthesis of triterpene...

... least one half of the family is formed by ORFs coding for putative proteins of uncharacterizedactivity and specificity. A s triking feature of GH-57 is thesequence and length diversity of the individual ... TIM barrel) and two acidic residues, Glu123 and Asp214, which appearto define the catalytic centre of the enzyme. Importantly, thedistance betw een the pair of oxygen atoms of Glu123 and Asp214 ... AL662. The analysis of this sequence revealed that the encoded enzyme i s amember of GH-57 [21,22]. The cloning and expression of apuin Escherichia c oli has led to the production of a C-terminallytruncated...

... 40 nucleotides upstream and downstream of POS5 was amplified by PCR fromplasmid pCgLEU2 by using primers pos5leu21.6f and pos5leu21.6r and was introduced into BY4 742 and MK933(utr1yef1 YCp-UTR1) ... disruption of each gene was confirmed by PCR [34].Construction of other plasmids and strainsUTR1, POS5 and YEF1 flanking 503 bp, 406 bp and 503 bp upstream of each gene were amplified by PCR fromthe ... not utilized, thereby indi-cating that Yef1p was an ATP-NAD kinase. KmforNAD and ATP were 1.9 mm and 0.17 mm, respectively.Properties of Yef1p and identification of Yef1p and Utr1p as ATP-NADH...

... hypothalamus and characterized by its ability to stimulate thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH)secretion [1,2]. Most of the effects of TRH on the pituitaryare mediated by activation of the phospholipase ... fragment wasFig. 1. Diagram of the xTRHR cDNA, PCR primers and PCR prod-ucts. (A) Amplification of the middle region of the xTRHR cDNA by nested PCR. The relative positions of the degenerated primersTRHR1, ... consists of a large, rapid and transient response that is typical of Ca2+-dependent Cl–channels activated after stimulation of PLC and thesubsequent InsP3-dependent mobilization of Ca2+fromintracellular...

... Identification of syntaxin-1A sites of phosphorylation by casein kinase I and casein kinase IIThierry Dubois1, Preeti Kerai2,*, Michele Learmonth1, Andy Cronshaw1 and Alastair ... in synaptic transmission and is the basis of intercellular communication in thenervous system. Synaptic vesicle exocytosis is regulated by Ca2+ and by a large number of proteins (reviewed in[17,18]). ... CKI and C KII. Reactions werestopped by the addition of electrophoresis sample buffer and analyzed on SDS/P AGE. Gels were stained withCoomassie Blue and autoradiographed.Tryptic digestion of...

... 2008;2(1):42-4542 Memory complaints and cognitive performance of healthy elderly Caramelli P, Beato RGSubjective memory complaints and cognitive performance in a sample of healthy elderly Paulo Caramelli, ... 2008;2(1):42-45Memory loss is one of the most common complaints arising in consultations with elderly people, being reported  by 25% to 50% of these individuals.1 However, whether these subjective memory complaints (SMC) are related to objective memory deficits or to subsequent development  of dementia, remains a matter of debate.A recent review found that SMCs are not consistently associated with current cognitive impairment, but rather are associated with a greater risk of future cognitive de-cline.2 Indeed, the diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), which entails an increased likelihood of conversion to dementia, demands the existence of SMCs, preferably confirmed by an informant.3High age, female gender and low educational level are generally associated with a higher prevalence of memory complaints.1 In an autopsy study, SMCs were found to be related to the presence of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathol-ogy in elderly with and without dementia, suggesting that memory complaints in older persons may be a sign of self awareness of a degenerative process.4However, SMCs might also be related to depression and some personality traits, such as neuroticism.2 It is also pos-sible that these complaints vary according to the culture of the people studied. In a recent Brazilian study, Minett et al. found that subjects with and without SMCs performed similarly in a series of cognitive tests, although the former had higher scores on the Geriatric Depression Scale.5The present study aimed to further investigate this topic in a group of cognitively healthy Brazilian elderly subjects which were divided into two subgroups according to the presence of SMCs and submitted to brief cognitive tests.MethodsSixty cognitively intact elderly individuals (39 females  and 21 males), aged 69.9±6.3 years (ranging from 60 to 91 years), and with mean educational level of 8.5±5.5 years (ranging from 1 to 20 years), were included in the study. These individuals were family caregivers of demented pa-tients followed at the Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology Unit of the Faculty of Medicine of the Federal University  of Minas Gerais, in Belo Horizonte (MG), Brazil, and also volunteers recruited from the community.Inclusion criteria were absence of neurological or psy-chiatric diseases according to a clinical interview, absence  of depression (see below), and no use of benzodiazepines, antidepressants or neuroleptics. All participants were submitted to the Mini-Mental State-Examination (MMSE)6,7 and to the Cornell scale of depression.8,9 Performance on the MMSE was adjusted for educational level and had to be greater than or equal to 21 for 1-3 years of schooling, greater than or equal to 24 for 4-7 years and greater than or equal to 26 for individuals with 8 or more years of schooling.10 Scores on the Cornell scale of depression had to be less than or equal to 7 points in order to rule out depression.8Cognitive evaluation was carried out with the follow-ing tests: the Brief Cognitive Screening Battery (BCSB)11,12, digit span forward and backward and the Frontal Assess-ment Battery (FAB).13,14 The BCSB includes a memory test  of 10 simple figures and yields different scores, namely: incidental and immediate memory, learning, delayed recall  and recognition.15,16 The battery also includes a category fluency test (animals per minute) and clock drawing and has proven very sensitive in the diagnosis of mild AD.12 The FAB is a brief diagnostic instrument for the assessment of executive functions in patients with suspected frontal lobe syndrome.13All individuals were given a structured self-report memory questionnaire, the MAC-Q.17 This questionnaire was devised to assess age-related memory decline. It is composed by six questions related to memory function-ing in everyday situations (e.g., to remember a telephone number that he/she uses at least once a week) in which the subject is asked to compare and rate his/her current ability to when he/she was 40 years’ old. The total score on the MAC-Q ranges from 7 to 35, where greater scores in-dicate subjective memory loss. Scores greater than or equal to 25 have been found to be suggestive of age-associated memory impairment. Accordingly, in the present study, the individuals were divided into two groups: absence of SMCs (MAC-Q scores <25) and presence of SMCs (MAC-Q scores ≥25). The performance of the two groups on the different cognitive tests was compared.One of the authors administered the MMSE, the Cor-nell scale and the MAC-Q. Subsequently, the other inves-tigator, blinded to the subjects’ results for these three mea-sures, administered the cognitive evaluation.Descriptive analysis of the data and statistical compari-sons between the performances of the two groups on the different cognitive tests were carried out with MedCalc software. Student’s t-test was used for comparison of age, educational level and MMSE scores, as well as for the results  of the other cognitive tests (digit span, BCSB and FAB). Chi-square was employed for comparing gender distribu-tion of the two groups. Level of significance was set at 0.05. The study was approved by the Research Ethics ... Memory complaints and cognitive performance of healthy elderly 43Dement Neuropsychol 2008;2(1):42-45Memory loss is one of the most common complaints arising in consultations with elderly people, being reported  by 25% to 50% of these individuals.1 However, whether these subjective memory complaints (SMC) are related to objective memory deficits or to subsequent development  of dementia, remains a matter of debate.A recent review found that SMCs are not consistently associated with current cognitive impairment, but rather are associated with a greater risk of future cognitive de-cline.2 Indeed, the diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), which entails an increased likelihood of conversion to dementia, demands the existence of SMCs, preferably confirmed by an informant.3High age, female gender and low educational level are generally associated with a higher prevalence of memory complaints.1 In an autopsy study, SMCs were found to be related to the presence of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathol-ogy in elderly with and without dementia, suggesting that memory complaints in older persons may be a sign of self awareness of a degenerative process.4However, SMCs might also be related to depression and some personality traits, such as neuroticism.2 It is also pos-sible that these complaints vary according to the culture of the people studied. In a recent Brazilian study, Minett et al. found that subjects with and without SMCs performed similarly in a series of cognitive tests, although the former had higher scores on the Geriatric Depression Scale.5The present study aimed to further investigate this topic in a group of cognitively healthy Brazilian elderly subjects which were divided into two subgroups according to the presence of SMCs and submitted to brief cognitive tests.MethodsSixty cognitively intact elderly individuals (39 females  and 21 males), aged 69.9±6.3 years (ranging from 60 to 91 years), and with mean educational level of 8.5±5.5 years (ranging from 1 to 20 years), were included in the study. These individuals were family caregivers of demented pa-tients followed at the Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology Unit of the Faculty of Medicine of the Federal University  of Minas Gerais, in Belo Horizonte (MG), Brazil, and also volunteers recruited from the community.Inclusion criteria were absence of neurological or psy-chiatric diseases according to a clinical interview, absence  of depression (see below), and no use of benzodiazepines, antidepressants or neuroleptics. All participants were submitted to the Mini-Mental State-Examination (MMSE)6,7 and to the Cornell scale of depression.8,9 Performance on the MMSE was adjusted for educational level and had to be greater than or equal to 21 for 1-3 years of schooling, greater than or equal to 24 for 4-7 years and greater than or equal to 26 for individuals with 8 or more years of schooling.10 Scores on the Cornell scale of depression had to be less than or equal to 7 points in order to rule out depression.8Cognitive evaluation was carried out with the follow-ing tests: the Brief Cognitive Screening Battery (BCSB)11,12, digit span forward and backward and the Frontal Assess-ment Battery (FAB).13,14 The BCSB includes a memory test  of 10 simple figures and yields different scores, namely: incidental and immediate memory, learning, delayed recall  and recognition.15,16 The battery also includes a category fluency test (animals per minute) and clock drawing and has proven very sensitive in the diagnosis of mild AD.12 The FAB is a brief diagnostic instrument for the assessment of executive functions in patients with suspected frontal lobe syndrome.13All individuals were given a structured self-report memory questionnaire, the MAC-Q.17 This questionnaire was devised to assess age-related memory decline. It is composed by six questions related to memory function-ing in everyday situations (e.g., to remember a telephone number that he/she uses at least once a week) in which the subject is asked to compare and rate his/her current ability to when he/she was 40 years’ old. The total score on the MAC-Q ranges from 7 to 35, where greater scores in-dicate subjective memory loss. Scores greater than or equal to 25 have been found to be suggestive of age-associated memory impairment. Accordingly, in the present study, the individuals were divided into two groups: absence of SMCs (MAC-Q scores <25) and presence of SMCs (MAC-Q scores ≥25). The performance of the two groups on the different cognitive tests was compared.One of the authors administered the MMSE, the Cor-nell scale and the MAC-Q. Subsequently, the other inves-tigator, blinded to the subjects’ results for these three mea-sures, administered the cognitive evaluation.Descriptive analysis of the data and statistical compari-sons between the performances of the two groups on the different cognitive tests were carried out with MedCalc software. Student’s t-test was used for comparison of age, educational level and MMSE scores, as well as for the results  of the other cognitive tests (digit span, BCSB and FAB). Chi-square was employed for comparing gender distribu-tion of the two groups. Level of significance was set at 0.05. The study was approved by the Research Ethics...