The differentiation potential of stem cells in tissues of the adult has been thought to be limited to cell lineages present in the organ from which they were derived, but there is evidence that some stem cells may have a broader differentiation repertoire. We show here that neural stem cells from the adult mouse brain can contribute to the formation of chimeric chick and mouse embryos and give rise to cells of all germ layers. This demonstrates that an adult neural stem cell has a very broad developmental capacity and may potentially be used to generate a variety of cell types for transplantation in different diseases.

Background:The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) has a high sensitivity for detecting cognitive dysfunction. Swedish normative data does not exist and international norms are often derived from populations where cognitive impairment has not been screened for and not been thoroughly assessed to exclude subjects with dementia or mild cognitive impairment.Objective:To establish norms for MoCA and develop a regression-based norm calculator based on a large, well-examined cohort.Methods:MoCA was administered on 860 randomly selected elderly people from a population-based cohort from the EPIC study. Cognitive dysfunction was screened for and further assessed at a memory clinic. After excluding cognitively impaired participants, normative data was derived from 758 people, aged 65–85.Results:MoCA cut-offs (–1 to –2 standard deviations) for cognitive impairment ranged from <25 to <21 for the lowest educated and <26 to <24 for the highest educated, depending on age group. Significant predictors for MoCA score were age, sex and level of education.Conclusion:We present detailed normative MoCA data and cut-offs according to the DSM-5 criteria for cognitive impairment based on a large population-based cohort of elderly individuals, screened and thoroughly investigated to rule out cognitive impairment. Level of education, sex, and age should be taken in account when evaluating MoCA score, which is facilitated by our online regression-based calculator that provide percentile and z-score for a subject’s MoCA score.

Hypo- and hyperkalemia are common in healthcare. Optimal RAASi and diuretics use and careful potassium monitoring in the presence of certain comorbidities, especially lower eGFR, is advocated.

There is a growing concern among health authorities that an increasing number of people in the Western world become overweight and even obese. It is well known that obesity is related to several diseases (e.g., diabetes, stroke, and high blood pressure) and that such diseases related to obesity lead to early death. It has also been discussed whether overweight and obesity in themselves or in relation to such diseases lead to cognitive decline. On the basis of data from a large, population-based, prospective study we examined three cognitive domains: episodic memory, semantic memory, and spatial ability. Two body measures were used to define normal weight and overweight, body-mass index and waist/hip ratio. Although these two body measures reveal quite different prevalence data of overweight, the associations between overweight and cognition are similar. For episodic memory, overweight interacts with age, but when controlling for hypertension, stroke and diabetes, this interaction disappears. For semantic memory, normal weight participants outperform overweight participants even after controlling for these diseases. For spatial ability, the well-established advantage for men holds for young-old and old-old normal-weight participants. For overweight participants, this advantage holds for middle-age participants only. We conclude that there is a weight-cognition relationship even after controlling for obesity-related diseases. The results are discussed in terms of possible biological mechanisms.

Atmospheric and surface wave data from several oceanic experiments carried out on the Floating Instrument Platform (FLIP) and the Air–Sea Interaction Spar (ASIS) have been analyzed with the purpose of identifying swell-related effects on the surface momentum exchange during near-neutral atmospheric conditions and wind-following or crosswind seas. All data have a pronounced negative maximum in uw cospectra centered at the frequency of the dominant swell np, meaning a positive contribution to the stress. A similar contribution at this frequency is also obtained for the corresponding crosswind cospectrum. The magnitude of the cospectral maximum is shown to be linearly related to the square of the orbital motion, being equal to , where Hsd is the swell-significant wave height, the effect tentatively being due to strong correlation between the surface component of the orbital motion and the pattern of capillary waves over long swell waves. A model for prediction of the friction velocity from measurements of Hsd, np, and the 10-m wind speed U10 is formulated and tested against an independent dataset of ~400 half-hour measurements during swell, giving good result. The model predicts that the drag coefficient CD, which is traditionally modeled as a function of U10 alone (e.g., the COARE algorithm), becomes strongly dependent on the magnitude of the swell factor and that CD can attain values several times larger than predicted by wind speed–only models. According to maps of the global wave climate, conditions leading to large effects are likely to be widespread over the World Ocean.