Background: Eye movements reveal neurodegenerative disease processes due to overlap between oculomotor circuitry and disease-affected areas. Characterizing oculomotor behaviour in context of cognitive function may enhance disease diagnosis and monitoring. We therefore aimed to quantify cognitive impairment in neurodegenerative disease using saccade behaviour and neuropsychology. Methods: The Ontario Neurodegenerative Disease Research Initiative recruited individuals with neurodegenerative disease: one of Alzheimer’s disease, mild cognitive impairment, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, frontotemporal dementia, Parkinson’s disease, or cerebrovascular disease. Patients (n=450, age 40-87) and healthy controls (n=149, age 42-87) completed a randomly interleaved pro- and anti-saccade task (IPAST) while their eyes were tracked. We explored the relationships of saccade parameters (e.g. task errors, reaction times) to one another and to cognitive domain-specific neuropsychological test scores (e.g. executive function, memory). Results: Task performance worsened with cognitive impairment across multiple diseases. Subsets of saccade parameters were interrelated and also differentially related to neuropsychology-based cognitive domain scores (e.g. antisaccade errors and reaction time associated with executive function). Conclusions: IPAST detects global cognitive impairment across neurodegenerative diseases. Subsets of parameters associate with one another, suggesting disparate underlying circuitry, and with different cognitive domains. This may have implications for use of IPAST as a cognitive screening tool in neurodegenerative disease.

Chemical, optical, and X-ray data are presented for pyroxenes from a representative selection of chondrites. The Mg-Fe pyroxenes originally crystallized above 1000-1200 °C as the protoenstatite-protohypersthene polymorph, and inverted on cooling to the polysynthetically twinned clinoenstatite-clinohypersthene polymorph. In most chondrites the latter became converted to orthopyroxene during recrystallization at temperatures ranging up to 900 to 950 °C. The contents of certain minor elements changed during the clino-ortho inversion. Ancestral protoenstatiteprotohypersthene may have been slightly non-stoichiometric. Accessory Ca-rich pyroxenes are discussed briefly.

Diet has been shown to have an effect on both inflammation and oesophageal cancer. This study investigated the association between the dietary inflammatory index (DII®) and the risk of oesophageal cancer in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China. A case–control study was conducted during 2008–2009 in Urumqi and Shihezi. DII scores were calculated based on dietary intake assessed by a validated FFQ administered to 359 incident oesophageal cancer patients and 380 hospital-based controls. Higher DII scores indicate more pro-inflammatory diets. Logistic regression analyses were performed to assess the association between DII scores and oesophageal cancer risk. Oesophageal cancer patients had a significantly higher median DII score (−0·35; interquartile range (IQR)=−2·25, 1·86) than that of controls (−1·41; IQR −3·07, 0·40). Multivariable logistic analysis revealed a positive association between higher DII scores and oesophageal cancer risk (ORQuartile 4 v. 1 2·55; 95 % CI 1·61, 4·06; Ptrend<0·001). A pro-inflammatory diet appears to be associated with an increased risk of oesophageal cancer in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Specific carcinogenic mechanisms are discussed. Accumulating evidence, to which the study contributes, indicates that encouraging the intake of more anti-inflammatory foods may be a strategy to protect against oesophageal cancer in this high-risk area of China.

Fifteen life tables were compiled from population and mortality data collected in the Quinte area of eastern Ontario during the 5-year period, 1972–76, that spanned the rise and fall of an outbreak of the alfalfa weevil, Hypera postica (Gyll.).

Components analysis of the data showed that a disease of the feeding larvae caused by Entomophthora phytonomi Arthur, a fungus new to the insect in North America, was the principal determinant of intrageneration survival. Multivariate analysis of the separate mortalities, expressed as k-values, confirmed that this agent was the key factor governing population trends of the weevil and was mainly responsible for its population decline.

Examination of the properties of the various mortality factors showed that E. phytonomi was density dependent but overcompensating. Other agents, including the parasitoids Bathyplectes curculionis (Thom.) and Tetrastichus incertus (Ratz.) acted in a density independent manner and contributed little to population trend.

In Quebec commercial apple orchards, spider populations are shown to have been depressed numerically by current pest management practices. Hunting species appeared to be more sensitive to insecticides than web-building species. There were large differences in spider distribution among orchards and years, although some consistent patterns were observed. Specimens from the following families were captured: Theridiidae, Linyphiidae, Lycosidae, Araneidae, Erigonidae, Clubionidae, Tetragnathidae, Dictynidae, Salticidae, Philodromidae, and Thomisidae. In orchards treated only for scab control or with only a single insecticide application for apple maggot control, spiders attained their maximal numbers in August. With two treatments for apple maggot control, spiders attained their maximal numbers towards the end of September.

During 1977, a detailed study was undertaken to develop efficient sampling procedures for estimating egg and larval populations of the alfalfa blotch leafminer, Agromyza frontella (Rond.), in Vernal alfalfa. Distributions of the stages within and between stems were contagious and stem totals tended to follow negative binomial distributions. Within stems, the density of eggs and larval mines increased exponentially from base to tip. Taking these patterns and the costs of sampling into account, and using the relevant components of variance, four leaves taken systematically from a single stem is proposed as the appropriate sample unit for both eggs and mines. On this basis, 200 stems per field will give adequate precision (less than 10% of the mean with confidence probability 90%) for population estimates. However, the propensity of the leafminer to prefer the middle leaflet to the basal leaflets in the approximate ratio 3:4:3 suggests that sampling costs may be further reduced by restricting counts to the middle leaflet and raising them by a factor of 2.5.

Short-term randomised, controlled trials have found that dietary protein relative to carbohydrate can reduce blood pressure. Our objective was to investigate the effects on blood pressure of an increase in protein intake from whey over 2 years in women aged over 70 years. From the general population, 219 women aged between 70 and 80 years were recruited to a 2-year randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled parallel-design trial: 181 women completed the trial to the end of year 2. Participants were randomly assigned to consume a daily whey protein-based beverage (protein) or an energy-matched low-protein high-carbohydrate beverage (control). Blood pressure measurements were performed at baseline, year 1 and year 2. For protein relative to control, the estimated mean net differences in protein and carbohydrate intakes were 18 (95 % CI 13, 23) and − 22 (95 % CI − 9, − 35) g/d at year 1, and 22 (95 % CI 17, 28) and − 18 (95 % CI − 6, − 31) g/d at year 2. Intention-to-treat analysis found no overall differences between groups in blood pressure (P>0·5). Net differences in systolic and diastolic blood pressure were − 2·3 (95 % CI − 5·3, 0·7) and − 1·5 (95 % CI − 3·6, 0·6) mmHg at year 1, and 1·6 (95 % CI − 1·5, 4·7) and 0·3 (95 % CI − 1·9, 2·4) mmHg at year 2. Similar differences in systolic and diastolic blood pressure at years 1 and 2 were observed with per-protocol analysis. Therefore, the present study did not provide evidence that a higher whey protein intake in older women can have prolonged effects on blood pressure.

Working rules for determining plot size and number of plots within a block in field experiments are proposed based on the value of the intrablock correlation (ρ), which can be obtained from the analysis of variance of a randomized-block experiment. The method uses Binns' (1982) equation to relate this correlation to Smith's (1938) empirical law. The rules are: (1) if ρ is greater than 0·5, use an incomplete block design or reduce the plot size in order to increase the number of replications; (2) if ρ is less than 0·1, an increase in plot size is effective; (3) if ρ is between 0·1 and 0·5, an increase in plot size and a decrease in the number of plots per block may be helpful in combination.

Good control of steel flow through the submerged entry nozzle (SEN) during the continuous casting process is essential for improving surface quality and reducing cleanliness defects. Argon bubbles, biased flow and alumina deposits may all contribute to actual flow differing from the ideal case. The steel flow visualization project aims to penetrate the “black box”, which is the SEN, using electromagnetic techniques. A sensor array consisting of transmitter and receiver coils is positioned around an SEN and the resultant signals are compared to those from pilot plant measurements designed to simulate known continuous casting conditions.

A collection (164) of isolates of Bordetella bronchiseptica made predominantly from cats (132) but also from dogs (15), pigs (12) and other species was examined by pulsed field gel electrophoresis following macrorestriction digestion with XbaI. Each isolate was analysed twice and the patterns were entirely reproducible. The isolates fell into 17 different strains (>3 bands different) and within strains there were numerous subtypes. Feline isolates fell into 12 of the 17 strains. In general, cats housed together had similar or identical strains and subtypes of B. bronchiseptica. There was no difference in the PFGE patterns of isolates made from carrier cats and those from cats with respiratory disease. Isolates from pigs and dogs were in general similar to the feline isolates and there was no great evidence for species specificity. The PFGE pattern of feline and canine isolates were more related to whether the animals were housed together rather than whether they came from dogs or cats.

The third High Energy Astronomical Observatory, HEAO-3 was launched on the 20th Sept., 1979 into a 496 km, 43.6° orbit, and has since been successfully returning data from all three experiments on board. One of these experiments, that intended to study the heavy and ultra heavy nuclei in the cosmic radiation, is described here.

The discovery of the Sutton Hoo ship-burial in the summer of 1939 opened a window on the early Anglo-Saxon world through which we have all since been looking. But the view has inevitably been blurred until now, lacking the precise definition which only the publication of the definitive study could provide. The first of the four volumes of this most eagerly awaited and often anticipated account has now appeared: it is an offering worthy of its subject, comprehensive, generous in detail, splendidly produced.

Petrological and chemical analyses of stone, bronze and iron implements are playing an increasingly important role in the study of prehistoric economies. Their contributions, long familiar to students of European prehistory, were recently discussed in a paper which also reviewed the evidence from Polynesia, Melanesia and Australia (Clark, 1965). Apart from some studies limited to stone artefacts from individual archaeological sites, these techniques have not previously been applied to material from Australian prehistory (Gutsche in McBryde, 1966; Branagan and Megaw, 1969). In this brief communication we present some of the results of a petrological analysis of ground-edge artefacts from north-eastern New South Wales.

The widespread dispersal of stone for axe-making based on organized exploitation of definite quarry sites is well documented in the historical and anthropological literature for eastern Australia at the time of European settlement. Unfortunately few of these historical records are sufficiently detailed, so even for the recent past as well as for prehistory, techniques of petrological analysis may make vital contributions to our knowledge both of quarry sites in eastern Australia and of the distribution of their products. Our preliminary discussion here is based on an investigation of some 200 axes mainly taken from the archaeological collections in the History Department of the University of New England and various local museum and private collections, but also including axes from northern New South Wales in the Australian collections of the British Museum, the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, and the Anthropological Museum of Aberdeen University.

Section 54 of the Mental Health (Scotland) Act, 1960, enables a court to remand to hospital for psychiatric examination and report persons charged with an offence who also appear to be mentally disordered. This article reviews this section of the Act in its practical aspects as experienced by the consultant staff of one Scottish mental hospital during the two-year period 1965–6.

The following review deals with all persons remanded for trial or sentence in 1965 and 1966 on whom psychiatric reports were furnished by senior psychiatric staff of Leverndale Hospital, excluding those remanded directly to hospital under Section 54 of the Mental Health (Scotland) Act, 1960, this latter group having been the subject of a previous article by ourselves.