Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a detrimental neurodegenerative disease, and early diagnosis appears to be the key to successful treatment. Acrolein, a byproduct of lipid peroxidation, has been shown to contribute to the pathological process of AD. This study recruited 118 elderly subjects consisting of 58 non-demented control subjects and 62 AD patients. We analyzed the acrolein-related metabolites in the plasma, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and urine of all subjects. We found that the levels of acrolein-conjugated protein (Acr-PC) in the plasma (p = 0.00012) and CSF (p = 0.00161) of AD patients were significantly higher than those of control subjects, whereas the levels of a urinary acrolein metabolite, 3-hydroxypropyl mercapturic acid (3-HPMA), were markedly decreased (p = 0.00882) in AD patients. These data suggest that deregulated acrolein metabolism may be correlated with neuronal damage in AD patients, which might provide further insights into the disease progression and early diagnosis of AD.
this research identifies the characteristics of calls made to NHS Direct relating to older people and how they use the service. This will help with the planning and development of services to meet the needs of the older population.
Virtual reality presents exciting new opportunities for e-commerce with regard to the development of innovative shopping services. This article reports on an experimental investigation into the coordinated use of two human-computer interfaces (HCIs) for online shopping: virtual reality (VR) and webpages. We adopted the uses and gratification theory and technology acceptance model to determine how these HCIs affect online shopping intentions. Data from 98 participants revealed that entertainment value, informativeness, perceived ease-of-use, and perceived usefulness are the primary factors influencing the intention to use the VR HCI for online shopping (p < 0.05). Informativeness, perceived ease-of-use, and perceived usefulness are the main factors influencing the intention to use the webpage HCI for online shopping (p < 0.05). This study provides insights for businesses how to develop innovative shopping services using VR.
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