Learning and memory deficits upon TAU accumulation in Drosophila mushroom body neurons

Mutations in the neuronal-specific microtubule-binding protein TAU are associated with several dementias and neurodegenerative diseases. However, the effects of elevated TAU accumulation on behavioral plasticity are unknown. We report that directed expression of wild-type vertebrate and Drosophila TAU in adult mushroom body neurons, centers for olfactory learning and memory in Drosophila, strongly compromised associative olfactory learning and memory, but olfactory conditioning-relevant osmotactic and mechanosensory responses remained intact. In addition, TAU accumulation in mushroom body neurons did not result in detectable neurodegeneration or premature death. Therefore, TAU-mediated structural or functional perturbation of the microtubular cytoskeleton in mushroom body neurons is likely causal of the behavioral deficit. These results indicate that behavioral plasticity decrements may be the earliest detectable manifestations of tauopathies.     

End-of-life care in nursing homes: the interface of policy,research, and practice

Much attention has begun to focus on the quality of care for persons near the end of life. Palliative care, especially through hospice, has generated much discussion as possibly the most holistic care available. Consideration of how chronically ill older adults receive such care as a result of public policy can benefit from adopting a multidimensional perspective. This paper adopts Bronfenbrenner's ecological model to understand current end-of-life care for nursing home residents, followed by consideration of how each of these dimensions or levels of influence can be used to foster both research agendas and policy reforms to improve end-of-life care of nursing home residents. Specifically, the benefits of considering the influence of such policy initiatives as the Medicare hospice benefit and the Patient Self-Determination Act (PSDA) on end-of-life care in nursing homes and the means through which policy can be informed by clinical research is emphasized.     

Eye preferences in captive chimpanzees

Over the last century, the issue of brain lateralization in primates has been extensively investigated and debated, yet no previous study has reported eye preference in great apes. This study examined eye preference in 45 captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) in response to various stimuli. Eye preference was assessed when animals looked through a hole that only accommodated one eye at an empty box, a mirror, a picture of a dog, a rubber snake, food biscuits, bananas, a rubber duck, and a video camera. Main effects of stimulus type were found for direction of eye preference, number of looks, and looking duration, but not for strength of eye preference. A left-eye bias was found for viewing the rubber snake and a right-eye bias was found for viewing the bananas, supporting theories that emotional valence may affect lateralized behaviors. In addition, a significant shift in eye preference took place from the initial look to subsequent looks when viewing the snake. These results are not consistent with previous reports of human eye preference and may reflect lateralization differences for emotional processing. No relationship between eye preference and previously recorded hand preference was found.     

Aging Artists on the Creativity of Their Old Age

Eighty-eight graphic artists in their 60s, 70s, and 80s, nominated as creative by 154 prominent artists, completed an open-ended questionnaire about aging and its effect on their work. Four questions referred to changes in creativity in terms of the quality and quantity of work, sources of new ideas (originality), and approaches to art (style). The artists also were asked about the impact of physical and sensory losses on their work, and on their differences from younger artists. The artists also rated the quality and quantity of their past, present, and anticipated work. A content analysis of the artists' written comments to the 6 questions, and the ratings, gave a highly positive picture of aging's influence on art. Quality and quantity were reported as improving with age, as were the artists' ideas about, and approaches to, art. The presumed handicaps of aging largely were irrelevant or overcome. Few differences were reported with younger artists. Positive views of aging held equally for both men and women, and across the 3 age groups. The optimistic portrait of aging reflected by this sample of visual artists is discussed in terms of its relevance to other kinds of artists and nonartists; the consequences of early retirement; and the place of active older persons, especially artists, in studies of cognitive development.     

Religions in the modern world: Traditions and transformations

The global trafficking in women and children (primarily girls) for prostitution and sex work has become a multi-billion dollar industry in recent decades, especially in parts of South and Southeast Asia. Despite their common goal to eliminate or diminish the sex trafficking industry and assist the victims, the various entities engaged in anti-sex trafficking efforts have sharply disagreed about a variety of issues, including a basic definition of sex trafficking and the appropriate strategies for combating it. In this article, I examine one central area of disagreement, which revolves around the issue of the morality of prostitution and other forms of commercial sex work. This issue brings with it divergent, even antithetical, views regarding women's gender roles, self-identity and moral agency in relation to sex work. I show how the religious dimensions of this issue have been inadequately attended to by demonstrating how anti-trafficking discourse is devoid of non-Western religious perspectives. Since Thailand has been the centre for sex trafficking and the commercial sex industry in the Asia-Pacific region, where the greatest percentage of sex trafficking takes place, this article will discuss Thai Buddhist perspectives to illustrate how the anti-sex trafficking discourse has ignored cultural differences in its analysis.