Anticholinergic Medications and Cognition in Older Adults

A significant portion of the cognitive decline seen in older adults may be due to anticholinergic medications (i.e., muscarinic receptor antagonists) which are known to cause memory loss, confusion, and delirium. A competitive radioligand binding assay has been used in the research setting to measure the cumulative level of muscarinic receptor binding present in an individual's serum, referred to as serum anticholinergic activity (AA). Serum AA is the measure of binding of all compounds present in a person's serum (e.g., medications, metabolites, and possibly endogenous substances) to muscarinic receptors. Multiples studies have shown that even low serum AA levels are associated with impaired cognitive performance, impaired self-care capacity, and the presence of delirium in nondemented or mildly demented elderly. Serum AA has the potential to be a useful tool for clinicians. However, there are multiple items which first need to be addressed to enhance the reliability and clinical applicability of this assay. One concern is that the muscarinic receptor binding profiles of most medications and their metabolites have never been examined. Thus, even if a clinician decides that a patient is suffering from anticholinergic-induced toxicity, he/she has little guidance on which medication(s) to adjust. To address this issue, we investigated the in vitro AA of 106 commonly used medications and estimated the relationship between dose and AA in older adults. The change in serum AA over time in the absence of medication adjustments is not known. Another limitation is that serum AA is a peripheral measure, while the central anticholinergic effects of a medication are dependent on its distribution into the CNS. An optimal tool to predict medication-induced cognitive impairment would be one which better estimates drug distribution into the CNS. To address these issues, we conducted a pilot study investigating the utility of using centrally mediated pupillary oscillationsin conjunction with serum AA as a possible predictor of cognitive performance. Serum AA levels and ocular response were measured in a double-blind, cross-over study across an 8 hour time period following administration of placebo or the anticholinergic medication, oxybutynin

Forward

This special issue of Río Bravo: A Journal of the Borderlands highlights a series of essays and creative work presented at the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies (NACCS) Tejas Foco conference at the University of Texas, Pan American in the Río Grande Valley in South Texas in February 2013. We are excited by the quality of the essays in this special issue, and we encourage scholars and activists in the Chicana/o and Latina/o studies community to engage with the scholarship and creative work in this volume. A print copy will be available sometime this August. The Mexican American Studies Center at the at the University of Texas, Pan American is pleased to announce the adoption of Río Bravo amidst the historical transitioning of UTPA into UTRGV. Author Instructions and Manuscript submission guidelines will be available in Fall 2014 and we will begin to accept essay submissions in October 2014

Dolly Parton, gender, and country music

Book review of: Dolly Parton, Gender, and Country Music. Leigh H. Edwards. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2018, 265 pp., $21.00, 978-0-2530-3155-6 (paper)

The business of education: meeting the demands of a strong economy through educational change

Education

Status of the Pacific Mackerel resource during 1996 management recommendations for the fishery

The California fishery for Pacific mackerel (Scomber japonicus) has declined precipitously since 1990. Statewide landings during 1995 continued the downward trend, and totaled only 9,185 short tons. During the last few years, the principal cause of reduced catches has been low biomass and poor availability on the traditional fishing grounds in southern California waters. Cannery closures since 1993 may have also affected demand. Several sources of information are available on the status of the Pacific mackerel stock, all of which suggest a decline in stock biomass compared to the late 1970's and 1980's. Landing statistics, available since 1978 for both the U.S. and Mexican fisheries, show reduced catches during recent years. Catch rates for the southern California Commercial Passenger Fishing Vessel (CPFV) fleet have also shown declining trends since the 1970's. Other fishery- independent data from spotter pilot aerial observations and California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI) ichthyoplankton surveys indicate lower abundance compared to the early 1980's. We used a tuned virtual population analysis (VPA) model called ADEPT to estimate Pacific mackerel biomass. The model finds the best statistical fit between fishery-based, age-structured biomass estimates and other data from aerial observations, plankton surveys, CPFV catch data, and a spawner-recruit relation. Based on the estimated number of fish in each year class during the last quarter of 1995 (including the 1995 year class), and using certain assumptions for expected fishing mortality during the first half of 1996, we project that the Pacific mackerel biomass will be 52,000 tons at the beginning of the 1996/97 fishing season, on July 1,1996. There is a large degree of uncertainty in our 1996 biomass estimate because the 1995 year class (fish of age one) comprises most of the biomass. The Fish and Game Code specifies that when the biomass is between 20,000 and 150,000 tons, the season's quota shall be 30 percent of the total biomass in excess of 20,000 tons. Using that formula and our projection for July 1,1996, we recommend a commercial fishery quota of 9,600 tons for the 1996/97 fishing season. (26pp.

Status of the Pacific Mackerel resource during 1997 and management recommendations for the fishery

Based on a California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) projected biomass estimate of 91,200 metric tons for July 1, 1997, the recommended commercial fishery quota for the 1997/98 fishing season is 22,000 metric tons. Age-specific abundance for 1996 was estimated using output from a stock assessment model called ADEPT and certain assumptions about growth and fishing mortality during the first half of 1997. In this year's assessment, abundance estimates made by ADEPT were expanded back in time to cover the 68-year period of 1929 through 1996. The commercial fishery quota recommendation is based upon the prescribed harvest formula for Pacific mackerel that is specified in the California Fish and Game Code. Several sources of information are available for the Pacific mackerel stock, all of which suggest a smaller biomass than was present in the 1980's. Landings from both California and Ensenada, Mexico have sharply decreased and catch rates from the southern California Commercial Passenger Fishing Vessel (CPFV) fleet have declined. Fishery-independent indices of abundance from aerial spotter observations and California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI) ichthyoplankton surveys show similar trends. The 1997 biomass estimate is higher than last year's estimate of 47,160 metric tons because data added to the model this year increased abundance for fish of 1994 and older year classes (age 2+). This year's results indicate there were more fish in the older year classes than estimated in previous assessments. (27pp.

Framing the Foreign Feminine: Portrayals of Middle Eastern Women in American Television News

This study examines whether American television news coverage uses negative agenda-setting to depict Middle Eastern women. In approaching coverage of the Middle East, one of the key issues has been the plight of Middle Eastern women in their Islamic societies. Qualitative scholarship and limited quantitative analyses of print portrayals argue that Western media depict Muslim/Middle Eastern women negatively. However, there appears to be no research documenting how American television news, neither network nor cable, portrayed these women. I conducted a content analysis of 61 news packages from ABC, CBS, and NBC along with Fox News and CNN, aired between September 11, 2001, and December 31, 2008, to answer the questions I had concerning how television news portrayed these women. I was curious to see if television journalists fell into the habit of depicting Middle Eastern women as submissive, second-class citizens, which was the accusation leveled at the Western press in prior scholarship. In addition to a quantitative analysis to determine the actual elements of coverage (frequency of portrayals and prevalence of frames), a qualitative analysis of anchor lead-ins was also conducted. This study revealed that Middle Eastern/Muslim women were depicted more negatively than positively. They were often portrayed as submissive victims of their societies, an othered entity requiring rescue through Western intervention. Palestinian and Iraqi female suicide bombers were also portrayed as threats while being depicted simultaneously as victims. In short, this initial research analyzing American television media discovered networks and cable channels do practice negative agenda-setting in regard to portrayals of Muslim women and their societies. The following article is a synopsis of a longer work exploring the extensive literature on women in the Middle East

Digital learning objects: a local response to the California State University system initiative

The purpose of this paper is to present a virtual library plan created by library directors of the 23 California State University (CSU) system campuses. The information literacy portion of the project offers a repository of high quality interactive digital learning objects (DLOs) in the MERLOT repository. Therefore, DLOs created locally at the Dr Martin Luther King, Jr Library at San José State University (SJSU) focus on topics that supplement the “core” DLO collection

Status of the Pacific sardine (Sardinops sagax) resource and fishery

California Fish and Game Code states that the annual sardine quota can be set at a level greater than 1,000 tons, providing that the level of take allows for continued increase in the spawning population. The primary goal of management as directed by the Code is rehabilitation of the resource, with an added objective of maximizing the sustained harvest. We estimate the sardine population size to have been 353,000 short tons on July 1, 1995. Our estimate was based on output from an integrated stock assessment model called CANSAR (Deriso 1993). CANSAR is a forward-casting age-structured analysis using fishery-dependent and fishery-independent data to obtain annual estimates of sardine abundance, year-class strength and age specific fishing mortality for 1983 through the first semester of 1995. CANSAR couples a simulation model with sardine population dynamics. Non-linear least-squares criteria are used to tune the model to match catch-at-age data and other indices of sardine abundance. To calculate the 1996 fishery quota, we used the harvest formula selected as the preferred option in the draft Coastal Pelagic Species-Fishery Management Plan (CPS-FMP). That formula has undergone extensive scientific and user-group review as part of the Pacific Fishery Management Council's (PFMC) CPS-FMP adoption process and has the endorsement of the fishing industry and the scientific community. Use of this formula will result in a reduced fishing mortality rate compared to the formula used to calculate the quota in 1995. We conclude that it is particularly important to reduce fishing mortality for 1996 because the rates may have been excessive in recent years, especially for older aged sardines. Accordingly, we recommend a 1996 sardine harvest quota of 35,000 short tons. (21pp.