ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: To study the determinants and factors influencing the development of cognition and perception using the Mann-Zeichen Test in preschool children. METHODS: Data were obtained from the Ulm Birth Cohort Study (UBCS) including newborns and their mothers recruited in Ulm between 2000-2001. Data were collected using self-administered parental questionnaires following delivery (baseline examination) and at 2, 3, 4, and 6 years of children's age. Cognitive development was tested using drawings of n=298 children at a school entrance examination (mean age=5.8 years, SD=0.4). Bi- und multivariable linear regression analyses were conducted. RESULTS: In boys, we observed statistically significant positive associations between high paternal education and the children's cognitive development (regression coefficient b, p-value: 6.65, p=0.018). There was a trend towards negative association between institutional care during the first 3 years of life (b=- 0.18/months of institutional care, p=0.074), as well as allergic diseases (b=- 6.02, p=0.075) and cognitive development. More than 30 min. spent on watching television (TV) or video at children's age of 4 years was significantly associated with reduced cognitive abilities at 6 years of age (b=- 9.37, p=0.005). In girls, there was a trend towards negative association between maternal education (b=- 4.43, p=0.091) and a positive association between allergic diseases and the cognitive development (b=6.42, p=0.075). Mutually adjusted, the effects were attenuated in boys and girls. However, a negative association between paternal education and time spent watching TV with children's cognitive ability was observed. CONCLUSION: The study shows modifiable factors associated with the cognitive abilities at age 6 years, especially early TV consumption in boys.
Subject(s)
Mothers , Television , Child , Child, Preschool , Cognition , Cohort Studies , Female , Germany/epidemiology , Humans , Infant, Newborn , MaleABSTRACT
We present the edition of 12 cookery recipes which are found in the manuscript Man. cart. 81 of the monastery of Michaelbeuern near Salzburg (Austria). The manuscript dates from the middle of the 15th century and contains mostly religious texts; some medical texts as well as texts belonging to the liberal arts indicate that it may have been used as a school book for the monks. The dialect of the recipes shows upper German and Bavarian peculiarities, according to the place the manuscript is preserved. The edition of the recipes is followed by a commentary and a glossary. Eight of the recipes concern lenten meals, which means that they were probably collected especially for the religious community of the monks.
Subject(s)
Cooking/history , Manuscripts as Topic/history , Austria , Germany , History, 15th CenturyABSTRACT
Brevican is a neural-specific proteoglycan of the brain extracellular matrix, which is particularly abundant in the terminally differentiated CNS. It is expressed by neuronal and glial cells, and as a component of the perineuronal nets it decorates the surface of large neuronal somata and primary dendrites. One brevican isoform harbors a glycosylphosphatidylinositol anchor attachment site and, as shown by ethanolamine incorporation studies, is indeed glypiated in stably transfected HEK293 cells as well as in oligodendrocyte precursor Oli-neu cells. The major isoform is secreted into the extracellular space, although a significant amount appears to be tightly attached to the cell membrane, as it floats up in sucrose gradients. Flotation is sensitive to detergent treatment. Brevican is most prominent in the microsomal, light membrane and synaptosomal fractions of rat brain membrane preparations. The association with the particulate fraction is in part sensitive to chondroitinase ABC and phosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase C treatment. Furthermore, brevican staining on the surface of hippocampal neurons in culture is diminished after hyaluronidase or chondroitinase ABC treatment. Taken together, this could provide a mechanism by which perineuronal nets are anchored on neuronal surfaces.
