A Comprehensive Assessment of Qualitative and Quantitative Prodromal Parkinsonian Features in Carriers of Gaucher Disease—Identifying Those at the Greatest Risk

Carriers of GBA1 gene variants have a significant risk of developing Parkinson’s disease (PD). A cohort study of GBA carriers between 40–75 years of age was initiated to study the presence of prodromal PD features. Participants underwent non-invasive tests to assess different domains of PD. Ninety-eight unrelated GBA carriers were enrolled (43 males) at a median age (range) of 51 (40–74) years; 71 carried the N370S variant (c.1226A > G) and 25 had a positive family history of PD. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) was the most frequently abnormal (23.7%, 95% CI 15.7–33.4%), followed by the ultrasound hyperechogenicity (22%, 95% CI 14–32%), Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale part III (UPDRS-III) (17.2%, 95% CI 10.2–26.4%), smell assessment (12.4%, 95% CI 6.6–20.6%) and abnormalities in sleep questionnaires (11%, 95% CI 5.7–19.4%). Significant correlations were found between tests from different domains. To define the risk for PD, we assessed the bottom 10th percentile of each prodromal test, defining this level as “abnormal”. Then we calculated the percentage of “abnormal” tests for each subject; the median (range) was 4.55 (0–43.5%). Twenty-two subjects had more than 15% “abnormal” tests. The limitations of the study included ascertainment bias of individuals with GBA-related PD in relatives, some incomplete data due to technical issues, and a lack of well-characterized normal value ranges in some tests. We plan to enroll additional participants and conduct longitudinal follow-up assessments to build a model for identifying individuals at risk for PD and investigate interventions aiming to delay the onset or perhaps to prevent full-blown PD.     

Treating phobic children: Effects of EMDR versus exposure.

This study examined the efficacy of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) and exposure in the treatment of a specific phobia. Twenty-six spider phobic children were treated during 2 treatment phases. During the first phase, which lasted 2.5 hr, children were randomly assigned to either (a) an EMDR group (n?=?9), (b) an exposure in vivo group (n?=?9), or (c) a computerized exposure (control) group (n?=?8). During the 2nd phase, all groups received a 1.5-hr session of exposure in vivo. Therapy outcome measures (i.e., self-reported fear and behavioral avoidance) were obtained before treatment, after Treatment Phase 1, and after Treatment Phase 2. Results showed that the 2.5-hr exposure in vivo session produced significant improvement on all outcome measures. In contrast, EMDR yielded a significant improvement on only self-reported spider fear. Computerized exposure produced nonsignificant improvement. Furthermore, no evidence was found to suggest that EMDR potentiates the efficacy of a subsequent exposure in vivo treatment. Exposure in vivo remains the treatment of choice for childhood spider phobia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Changes in chemical constituents during the maturation and ripening of two commercially important pomegranate accessions

Pomegranate juice is well known for its health beneficial compounds. This study was undertaken to investigate changes in the major chemical composition in arils and peels during fruit maturation in two Israeli commercial accessions, ‘Wonderful’ and ‘Rosh-Hapered.’ In both accessions, the levels of total phenolic, antioxidant activity and hydrolysable tannins were reduced in the peels during maturation, while the anthocyanin level increased. The results show that the sugar content in the aril juice increased in both accessions while the levels of acidity and of citric acid decreased. However, these two accessions differed in other parameters in the aril juice, i.e., while the antioxidant and total phenolic contents significantly decreased in ‘Rosh-Hapered’, these changes were not observed in ‘Wonderful’. The anthocyanin level, however, increased in ‘Wonderful’ but did not change in ‘Rosh-Hapered.’ This knowledge could help establish the optimum harvest date ensuring the maximum nutritional properties of pomegranates.     

Multiconsistency and Robustness with Global Constraints

We propose a natural generalization of arc-consistency, which we call multiconsistency: a value v in the domain of a variable x is k-multiconsistent with respect to a constraint C if there are at least k solutions to C in which x is assigned the value v. We present algorithms that determine which variable-value pairs are k-multiconsistent with respect to several well known global constraints. In addition, we show that finding super solutions is sometimes strictly harder than finding arbitrary solutions for these constraints and suggest multiconsistency as an alternative way to search for robust solutions.Supported by the Danish Research Agency (grant # 272-05-0081).Basic Research in Computer Science, funded by the Danish National Research Foundation.     

Using Modeling Tasks to Facilitate the Development of Percentages

This study analyzes the development of percentages knowledge by seventh graders given a sequence of activities starting with a realistic modeling task, in which students were expected to create a model that would facilitate the reinvention of percentages. In the first two activities, students constructed their own pricing model using fractions and then extended the model while experiencing reinvention and extension of their knowledge of percentages. In the last two activities, they coped with a realistic changing reference situation. A control group used a traditional instructional unit. A pretest and two posttests showed between-group differences.     

Understanding Declare models: strategies,pitfalls, empirical results

Declarative approaches to business process modeling are regarded as well suited for highly volatile environments, as they enable a high degree of flexibility. However, problems in understanding and maintaining declarative process models often impede their adoption. Likewise, little research has been conducted into the understanding of declarative process models. This paper takes a first step toward addressing this fundamental question and reports on an empirical investigation consisting of an exploratory study and a follow-up study focusing on the system analysts’ sense-making of declarative process models that are specified in Declare. For this purpose, we distributed real-world Declare models to the participating subjects and asked them to describe the illustrated process and to perform a series of sense-making tasks. The results of our studies indicate that two main strategies for reading Declare models exist: either considering the execution order of the activities in the process model, or orienting by the layout of the process model. In addition, the results indicate that single constraints can be handled well by most subjects, while combinations of constraints pose significant challenges. Moreover, the study revealed that aspects that are similar in both imperative and declarative process modeling languages at a graphical level, while having different semantics, cause considerable troubles. This research not only helps guiding the future development of tools for supporting system analysts, but also gives advice on the design of declarative process modeling notations and points out typical pitfalls to teachers and educators of future systems analysts.     

Complete Bound Consistency for the Global Cardinality Constraint

We show an algorithm for bound consistency of global cardinality constraints, which runs in time O(n + n′) plus the time required to sort the assignment variables by range endpoints, where n is the number of assignment variables and n′ is the number of values in the union of their domains. It is the first efficient algorithm that achieves bound consistency for all variables, and not only the assignment variables.Partially supported by DFG grant SA 933/1-1.Partially supported by the EU IST Programme, IST-1999-14186 (ALCOM-FT).