However, they still produce contradictory results. In the present study, a battery of cognitive measures was administered to examine global cognitive functioning, verbal learning, attention, executive function and motor performance. Analysis of partial scores in verbal learning and response fluency trials did not reveal fatigue www.selleckchem.com/products/nsc-23766.html effect in MG patients. It was shown that in tasks requiring motor, and particularly oculomotor,
involvement, the muscle fatigue could account for the deficits observed. Thus, impaired performance on some cognitive measures in MG should be interpreted as an effect of muscle fatigability rather than central nervous system involvement.”
“Background: The relative severity of the 11 DSM-IV alcohol use disorder (AUD) criteria are represented by their severity threshold scores, an item response theory (IRT) model parameter inversely proportional to their prevalence. These scores can be used to create a continuous severity measure comprising the total number of criteria endorsed, each weighted by its relative severity.
Methods: This paper assesses the validity of the severity ranking of the 11 see more criteria and the overall severity score with respect to known AUD correlates, including alcohol consumption, psychological functioning, family history, antisociality, and early initiation of
this website drinking, in a representative population sample of U.S. past-year drinkers (n=26,946).
Results: The unadjusted mean values for all validating measures increased steadily with the severity threshold score, except that legal problems, the criterion with the highest score, was associated with lower values than expected. After adjusting for the total number of criteria endorsed, this direct relationship was no longer evident. The overall severity score was no more highly correlated with the validating measures than a simple count of criteria endorsed, nor did the two measures yield different risk curves. This reflects both within-criterion variation in severity
and the fact that the number of criteria endorsed and their severity are so highly correlated that severity is essentially redundant.
Conclusions: Attempts to formulate a scalar measure of AUD will do as well by relying on simple Counts of criteria or symptom items as by using scales weighted by IRT measures of severity. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.”
“A novel gene coding for a LipA-like lipase with 283 amino acids and a molecular mass of 32 kDa was isolated and characterized from a metagenomic library prepared from mangrove sediment from the south Brazilian coast. LipA was 52% identical to a lipolytic enzyme from an uncultured bacterium and shared only low identities (<= 31%) with lipases/esterases from cultivable microorganisms.