China bears a heavy burden of AD costs, which greatly change the estimates of AD cost worldwide.

IntroductionNo licensed medications are available to treat vascular dementia (VaD).MethodsPatients were randomly assigned to experimental groups (SaiLuoTong [SLT] 360 or 240 mg for groups A and B for 52 weeks, respectively) or placebo group (SLT 360 mg and 240 mg for group C only from weeks 27 to 52, respectively).ResultsThree hundred twenty-five patients were included in final analysis. At week 26, the difference in VaD Assessment Scale–cognitive subscale scores was 2.67 (95% confidence interval, 1.54 to 3.81) for groups A versus C, and 2.48 (1.34 to 3.62) for groups B versus C (both P < .0001). However, at week 52, no difference was observed among the groups on the VaD Assessment Scale–cognitive subscale (P = .062) because of the emerging efficacy of SLT in placebo beginning at week 27.DiscussionThis study suggests that SLT is effective for treatment of VaD, and this compound Chinese medicine may represent a better choice to treat VaD.

Use of animal manure is a main source of veterinary pharmaceuticals (VPs) in soil and groundwater through a series of migration processes. The sorption-desorption and transport of four commonly used VPs including trimethoprim (TMP), sulfapyridine, sulfameter, and sulfadimethoxine were investigated in three soil layers taken from an agricultural field in Chongming Island China and two types of aqueous solution (0.01 M CaCl2 solution and wastewater treatment plant effluent). Results from sorption-desorption experiments showed that the sorption behavior of selected VPs conformed to the Freundlich isotherm equation. TMP exhibited higher distribution coefficients (K d = 6.73-9.21) than other sulfonamides (K d = 0.03-0.47), indicating a much stronger adsorption capacity of TMP. The percentage of desorption for TMP in a range of 8-12 % is not so high to be considered significant. Low pH (

Background Investigations into drivers and barriers to the uptake of learner-centered instructional practices in STEM courses have identified the climate within a department as a potential influential factor. However, few studies have explored the relationship between adoption of learner-centered instructional practices and departmental climate around teaching. Moreover, surveys that have been designed to measure climate around teaching have been focused on measuring individual faculty member’s description of their colleagues’ perceptions of the climate within their department (psychological collective climate) and ignored whether there was a consensus among respondents within the same department on these descriptions. This latter measure (departmental collective climate) is best aligned with the definition of organizational climate. There is thus a need to explore whether departmental climate measured at the individual or collective level relate to the use of learner-centered instructional practices. Results This study demonstrates that the Departmental Climate around Teaching (DCaT) survey provides valid and reliable data that can be used to measure psychological collective climate within a STEM department. Analysis of the 166 faculty members who responded to the survey indicated that (1) four different types of psychological collective climate existed among our population and (2) multiple types could be present within the same STEM department. Moreover, it showed that measuring departmental collective climate is challenging as few constructs measured by the DCaT survey reached high level of consensus within faculty members from the same department. Finally, the analysis found no relationship between psychological collective climate and the level of use of learner-centered instructional practices. Conclusions Results from the validation studies conducted on the DCaT survey that most elements that define a climate (e.g., policies, practices, expectations) are lacking when it comes to teaching. These findings could explain the challenges experienced in this study in measuring departmental collective climate. Without these climate elements, faculty members are left to work autonomously with little expectations for growth in their instructional practices. Establishing policies, practices, and expectations with respect to teaching is thus an essential step toward instructional change at a departmental level.