Cambridge, England – Stroke patients frequently contend with “invisible impairments” that make keeping a job difficult, but employers can help, according to a study from the University of Cambridge and Queen Mary University of London.

Toronto — Middle-aged and older adults who have worked the night shift or rotating shifts are significantly more likely to experience cognitive impairment, results of a recent study suggest.

In Episode 30, the S+H editorial team dives into the August issue’s feature story on effective incident investigations, and discusses the legal issues surrounding impairment in the workplace.

Washington — Legislation recently introduced in the House would direct NIOSH to create a national workplace training program aimed at helping employers recognize, respond to and prevent on-the-job impairment.

Druid is designed to assess performance impairment resulting from the use of marijuana, prescription medicines, alcohol and more.

Silver Spring, MD — A recent study of older and retired construction trade workers shows that more than half experience hearing impairment – and the risk increases with age.

Impairment at work, whether from alcohol, marijuana or opioid use, is “a major roadblock to workplace safety, and the effects are more common than you think,” the National Safety Council says.

Alcohol, cannabis, prescription drugs, fatigue and mental distress can all cause impairment in the workplace. “Impairment risks are everyone’s responsibility,” the National Safety Council says.

Can I use earbud-type devices as hearing protection in industrial settings?

When it comes to the legal use of marijuana, how do we balance safety and worker rights?

Despite the importance of eyesight, millions of people grapple with undiagnosed or untreated vision impairments — ranging from mild conditions to total blindness — and eye and vision health remain relatively absent from national health priority lists, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Study Links Altered Brain Chemistry, Behavioral Impairments in Fish Exposed to Elevated CO2 Research team studied damselfish behavior and physiology under ocean acidification conditions predicted for year 2300

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The National Council on Compensation Insurance said its analysis of impairment ratings in 33 states plus the District of Columbia found that the average whole-body impairment rating for permanently disabled…

The West Virginia Supreme Court clarified the proper method for apportioning preexisting impairments that have been definitely ascertained and impact multiple body parts. Case: Logan-Mingo Area Mental Health Inc. v. Lester,…

West Virginia’s Intermediate Court of Appeals upheld a determination that a worker had a 0% impairment despite his many years of occupational exposure to coal dust. Case: Jarrell v. Blackhawk Mining…

West Virginia’s Intermediate Court of Appeals overturned an award of permanent partial disability benefits to an injured mine worker, finding that neither doctor who provided impairment ratings had performed valid…

This course is essential for any professional in workers’ compensation who creates, reviews or processes PR-4 Reports or QME/AME Reports. In this informative webinar, the attendee will learn how to…

Master an understanding of CA Work Comp impairment rating. Join Dr. John Alchemy, MD, QME, CIME, founder and CEO of RateFast (www.Rate-Fast.com) and Impairment Rating Specialists (www.pr4report.com), for an exclusive…

If you work with impairment assessments, you must understand the correct use of the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment. This is the solution to help you master…

This program will enhance each student's ability to identify poor quality evaluations and erroneous ratings. Dr. Chris Brigham will provide an insider's perspective and practical guidance.

Statement Highlights: Previous studies have found that 14-81% of patients with heart failure experience some degree of cognitive impairment affecting language, memory or executive function. Evidence also indicates that people with atrial fibrillation...

Quality and impairment assessment

FSTP-CONF-F921 - Compliance of audio-based navigation system for persons with vision impairment

New Appendix V - Provisional planning values for the fullband equipment impairment factor and the fullband packet loss robustness factor

Location: Electronic Resource- 

Manchester : Manchester University Press, [2018]

Manchester : Manchester University Press, [2020]

Despite the importance of eyesight, millions of people grapple with undiagnosed or untreated vision impairments — ranging from mild conditions to total blindness — and eye and vision health remain relatively absent from national health priority lists, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

A recent study suggests that exposure to aircraft noise during the day has a greater impact on cognitive ability in children than sleep-disruption caused by exposure to aircraft noise during the night. Protective policy is therefore likely to be most effective if focused at the school level.

Macular degeneration is an eye disease that most often affects people over the age of 60. Studies have shown that vitamin supplements and preventative care can slow the disease.

Queenslanders who are visually impaired say they're at risk of serious injury in busy carparks and on roads because they don't have the right to use disability parking spaces.

Visually impaired children at a surfing event in the NSW Hunter region are encouraged to get into sports and not let their disability hold them back.

John Zrebiec
Oct 1, 2006; 19:212-215
Clinical Decision Making

The present study examined the predictive values of amyloid PET, ¹⁸F-FDG PET, and nonimaging predictors (alone and in combination) for development of Alzheimer dementia (AD) in a large population of patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Methods: The study included 319 patients with MCI from the Alzheimer Disease Neuroimaging Initiative database. In a derivation dataset (n = 159), the following Cox proportional-hazards models were constructed, each adjusted for age and sex: amyloid PET using ¹⁸F-florbetapir (pattern expression score of an amyloid-β AD conversion–related pattern, constructed by principle-components analysis); ¹⁸F-FDG PET (pattern expression score of a previously defined ¹⁸F-FDG–based AD conversion–related pattern, constructed by principle-components analysis); nonimaging (functional activities questionnaire, apolipoprotein E, and mini-mental state examination score); ¹⁸F-FDG PET + amyloid PET; amyloid PET + nonimaging; ¹⁸F-FDG PET + nonimaging; and amyloid PET + ¹⁸F-FDG PET + nonimaging. In a second step, the results of Cox regressions were applied to a validation dataset (n = 160) to stratify subjects according to the predicted conversion risk. Results: On the basis of the independent validation dataset, the ¹⁸F-FDG PET model yielded a significantly higher predictive value than the amyloid PET model. However, both were inferior to the nonimaging model and were significantly improved by the addition of nonimaging variables. The best prediction accuracy was reached by combining ¹⁸F-FDG PET, amyloid PET, and nonimaging variables. The combined model yielded 5-y free-of-conversion rates of 100%, 64%, and 24% for the low-, medium- and high-risk groups, respectively. Conclusion: ¹⁸F-FDG PET, amyloid PET, and nonimaging variables represent complementary predictors of conversion from MCI to AD. Especially in combination, they enable an accurate stratification of patients according to their conversion risks, which is of great interest for patient care and clinical trials.

Masaki Yamamoto
May 22, 2019; 39:4179-4192
Neurobiology of Disease

WT Newsome
Jun 1, 1988; 8:2201-2211
Articles

Theoretical models and experimental evidence have suggested that connections from the dentate gyrus (DG) to CA3 play important roles in representing orthogonal information (i.e., pattern separation) in the hippocampus. However, the effects of eliminating the DG on neural firing patterns in the CA3 have rarely been tested in a goal-directed memory task that requires both the DG and CA3. In this study, selective lesions in the DG were made using colchicine in male Long–Evans rats, and single units from the CA3 were recorded as the rats performed visual scene memory tasks. The original scenes used in training were altered during testing by blurring to varying degrees or by using visual masks, resulting in maximal recruitment of the DG–CA3 circuits. Compared with controls, the performance of rats with DG lesions was particularly impaired when blurred scenes were used in the task. In addition, the firing rate modulation associated with visual scenes in these rats was significantly reduced in the single units recorded from the CA3 when ambiguous scenes were presented, largely because DG-deprived CA3 cells did not show stepwise, categorical rate changes across varying degrees of scene ambiguity compared with controls. These findings suggest that the DG plays key roles not only during the acquisition of scene memories but also during retrieval when modified visual scenes are processed in conjunction with the CA3 by making the CA3 network respond orthogonally to ambiguous scenes.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Despite the behavioral evidence supporting the role of the dentate gyrus in pattern separation in the hippocampus, the underlying neural mechanisms are largely unknown. By recording single units from the CA3 in DG-lesioned rats performing a visual scene memory task, we report that the scene-related modulation of neural firing was significantly reduced in the DG-lesion rats compared with controls, especially when the original scene stimuli were ambiguously altered. Our findings suggest that the dentate gyrus plays an essential role during memory retrieval and performs a critical computation to make categorical rate modulation occur in the CA3 between different scenes, especially when ambiguity is present in the environment.

Among extremely premature infants, survival has improved, but the rate of cognitive impairment has not. Impaired cognition is the most frequent developmental problem identified in survivors. Several antenatal factors have been associated with cognitive impairment, mostly related to social disadvantage.

In addition to social disadvantage, antenatal characteristics associated with cognitive impairment include maternal obesity and thrombosis of fetal stem vessels. Prenatal infection and inflammation were not associated with impaired early cognitive function among extremely preterm infants. (Read the full article)

Children with specific language impairment are at risk for social difficulties. However, whether this occurs adaptively as a result of language impairment or occurs as a result of an underlying deficit in social cognition remains unclear.

We used eye tracking to explore how children with specific language impairment view social scenes. The overall gaze behavior resembled that of typically developing children. Significant attention to the speaker’s mouth may result in receiving less social-emotional information from the eyes. (Read the full article)

Despite the dramatic rise in prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) among children and adolescents, and that MetS is associated with cognitive and brain impairments among adults, no data on the impact of MetS on the brain exist in children.

It provides the first data on the impact of MetS on brain in adolescence. We show reductions in cognitive function and brain structural integrity in nondiabetic adolescents with MetS, thus suggesting that even pre-clinical metabolic illness may give rise to brain complications. (Read the full article)

Previous research on potential deleterious effects of typically developing children growing up in households with children with disability has produced mixed results. Research methods have been cited as a problem in many studies.

This is the largest known empirical study comparing functional impairment in siblings living with a child with disability and siblings residing with children who are typically developing. This study also follows the trajectory of functional impairment across 2 measurement periods. (Read the full article)

Dyslexia has a lifelong impact on learning. The consensus in the literature from clinical studies is that dyslexia is not caused by vision abnormalities. However, interventions and therapies directed at eye-related functions are still available.

In this cohort the majority of dyslexic children had normal results for all ophthalmic tests. These population-based data support the consensus that dyslexia is not primarily a vision problem and that vision-based therapies are not justified or likely to help. (Read the full article)

Gastrostomy tube placement is a difficult decision for families of children with neurologic impairment. Better understanding the impact of these tubes on the lives of children and families will help improve decision-making and support from health care providers.

Gastrostomy tube placement has broad-reaching implications for children and their families. There are physical, emotional, and relational challenges and benefits for the child, the parents, and the family unit. Exploring potential outcomes with families may improve decision-making conversations and support. (Read the full article)

Selective eating is a common, burdensome eating pattern in young children. A significant subset remain selective eaters at least until adolescence and, for some, adulthood. The question is whether selective eating is a serious enough developmental pattern to warrant intervention.

This study examines whether selective eating, at 2 levels of severity, is associated with current and future psychological problems. Because moderate levels of selective eating were associated with impairment, selective eating falls within the diagnosis of avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder. (Read the full article)

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:

Children born very preterm (VPT) are at high risk of cognitive impairment that impacts their educational and social opportunities. This study examined the predictive accuracy of assessments at 2, 4, 6, and 9 years in identifying preterm children with cognitive impairment by 12 years.

The total balance sheet size as on March 31, 2020 was Rs 25,303 crore, up 25.6% from Rs 20,146 crore on March 31, 2019.