ABSTRACT. The MoCA is a brief useful test to diagnose mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and mild dementia (MD). To date, no Argentine cross-cultural adapted validations of the Spanish version have been reported. Objective: To validate the MoCA in the elderly and study its usefulness in MCI and MD. Methods: This study included 399 individuals over 60 years old evaluated in the Cognitive-Behavioral Department (2017-2018). Patients with<3 years of education, sensory disturbances, psychiatric disorders, or moderate-severe dementia were excluded. The control group comprised cognitively normal subjects. Participants were classified according to neuropsychological assessment and clinical standard criteria into Control, MCI or MD groups. A locally adapted MoCA (MOCA-A) was administered to the patients and controls. Results: Mean educational level was 10.34 years (SD 3.5 years). MoCA-A score differed significantly among groups (p<0.0001). MoCA-A performance correlated with educational level (r: 0.406 p<0.00001). Adopting a cut-off score ≥25 (YI=0.55), the sensitivity for MCI was 84.8% and for MD 100%, with specificity of 69.7%. When adding a single point to the score in patients with ≤12 years of education, the specificity of the test reached 81%. Conclusion: The MoCA-A is an accurate reliable screening test for MCI and MD in Argentina.

Introduction Health systems in numerous countries around the world are suffering a serious burden as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of this situation, the follow-up of such chronic diseases as dementia may be at risk. Similarly, neuropsychiatric complications related to lockdown measures may also be neglected; Argentina’s lockdown has been the longest implemented in Latin America. This study aims to determine the frequency of the different types of medical consultations for neurocognitive disorders and the predictors for requiring consultation since the beginning of the lockdown. Methods We performed a descriptive, observational, cross-sectional study based on data collected through an online survey. Results Data were collected on 324 participants, with 165 (50.9%) having had at least one medical consultation. Consultations were held by telephone in 109 cases (33.6%), by e-mail in 62 (19.1%), by video conference in 30 (9.3%), and at the emergency department in 23 (7.1%). Predictors of requiring consultation were Clinical Dementia Rating scores ≥1 ( P < .001) and diagnosis of Alzheimer disease ( P = .017). Higher Neuropsychiatric Inventory scores were found in the group of respondents who did require medical consultation ( P < .001), but no significant differences were found between groups for Zarit Burden Interview scores. Conclusion We identified a high prevalence of behavioural disorders and caregiver burden during lockdown. Nevertheless, only 50% of respondents had sought medical consultation (by telephone or email in 52.7% of cases). Care of people with dementia must be emphasised, guaranteeing follow-up of these patients.

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Onion agronomy continues to pose problems for scientists, but increasingly these problems concern finding methods of economizing on costs and making the best use of scarce resources, including water. The rapid take-up of fertigation delivered by drip pipes in regions where the terrain permits their use shows that growers are alert to improvements that give economies of labour and inputs, and are ready to put them into practice. Professional advisers are increasingly being used by growers to keep technically up-to-date and to make use of predictions for timing the spraying of crops and also for the scheduling of irrigation through direct field measurements of plant demand. At the same time, older technologies are being revived to tackle problems such as thrips on onions through cultural methods rather than by chemical sprays. Emphasis is placed on the need to regard onion growing as part of the farming system, to include the aspect of rotations in particular, and to suggest that the underground parts of the onion and its co-workers, the mycorrhizas and other soil-living organisms, which may have a protective action against root disease, are still comparatively neglected at the present time and merit greater scientific attention.

The essential component in transmission system is synchronizer. Synchronizer developed to obtain gear changing smoothly. Reducing the transmission time will increase the efficiency of the transmission system and minimize the energy loss during the shifting process. In order to achieve the optimized design, the time estimation for synchronizing process is necessary. In this present study, the multi body dynamic model is proposed to predict the synchronization time. For validation of the results two different synchronizer types, single cone and double cone were used in the test rig machine under different loading conditions. The results of multi body dynamic analysis were compared to experimental and analytical results and show that there is a good agreement between simulation and experimental results. Using the multi body dynamic analysis makes more accurate result to predict the synchronization dynamic behavior, especially synchronization time.  Index Terms-transmission system, synchronizer modeling, multi body dynamic, time estimation, rigid body motion Ali Farokhi Nejad received the B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Iran and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, respectively. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Department of Mechanical and Aerospace engineering, Politecnico di Torino. Giorgio Chiandussi received the B.S. and M.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Politecnico di Torino, Italy. He is currently a Professor in the Faculty of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Politecnico di Torino. Vincenzo Soilimine received the B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Università degli Studi di Napoli. Currently he is a Research engineer in Department of Design and virtual validation, Oerlikon Graziano, Torino, Italy Andrea Serra was graduated from in Department of Mechanical and Aerospace engineering, Politecnico di Torino.Currently he is the head of the Department of Design and virtual validation, Oerlikon Graziano,