Retirement Age Modifies the Association Between Education/Occupation and Cognition

Introduction According to the cognitive reserve and use-it-or-lose-it hypotheses, engagement in stimulating activities seems to benefit cognition, with engagement often associated with more education or higher occupational position. However, whether retirement may modify the association between education/occupation and cognition is unclear. We aimed to assess how age at retirement may modify the relationship between education/occupation and cognition. Methods Older adults (n=360) from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative who were cognitively normal and retired at baseline participated. Linear regression was used to assess how educational attainment (high/low) or occupational position (managerial, intermediate/clerical, routine/manual) related to executive functioning (EF) or memory, controlling for age, sex, depressive symptoms, and health status. Effect modification by retirement (early, on-time, late). Results High education (EF: b=0.37, SE=0.08, p<.001; memory: b=0.22, SE=0.05, p<.001), intermediate (EF: b=0.26, SE=0.11, p=.019; memory: b=0.18, SE=0.08, p=.018) and managerial (EF: b=0.23, SE=0.12, p=.045; memory: b=0.16, SE=0.08, p=.045) occupations (compared to routine/manual occupations) were associated with better EF and memory performance. High education was significantly associated with better EF and memory for participants who retired early (EF: b=0.43, SE=0.12, p<.001; memory: b=0.29, SE=0.10, p=.004) or on-time (EF: b=0.51, SE=0.15, p=.001; memory: b=0.24, SE=0.10, p=.014), but not for participants who retired late (EF: b=0.19, SE=0.15, p=.200; memory: b=0.09, SE=0.09, p=.334). Intermediate occupations were associated with EF only for participants who retired on-time (b=0.58, SE=0.21, p=.007). Conclusion Education and occupational position may influence cognition after retirement differently based on retirement timing, with effects most apparent for on-time retirement and substantially reduced for late retirement.

Insurance Status Effect on Laryngeal Cancer Survival: A Population Based Study

Objective: To analyze insurance status effect on overall survival (OS) and disease-specific survival (DSS) in laryngeal cancer. Study Design: Cross-sectional population analysis. Setting: Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. Participants: Laryngeal cancer patients from 2007 to 2016. Main Outcome Measures: Kaplan-Meier method with log-rank statistic analyzed OS and DSS by insurance status. Multivariable cox proportional hazard modeling generated survival prognostic factors. Results: Of 19 667 laryngeal cancer cases, initial disease presentation was stage I: 7770 patients (39.5%), stage II: 3337 patients (17.0%), stage III: 3289 patients (16.7%), and stage IV: 5226 patients (26.6%). Patients had non-Medicaid insurance (15 523, 78.9%), had Medicaid (3306, 16.8%), or were uninsured (891, 4.5%). Mean and median OS for insured, Medicaid, and uninsured patients were 60.5, 49.6, and 56.6 and 74.0, 40.0, and 65.0 months, respectively. Following multivariable analysis, OS for insured, Medicaid, and uninsured patients was stage I: 87.9, 82.8, and 88.4 ( P < .001), stage II: 79.1, 75.1, and 78.3 ( P = .12), stage III: 68.7, 66.1, and 72.1 ( P = .11), and stage IV: 57.1, 51.7, and 50.3 ( P < .001) months. DSS mean survival times were 77.0, 65.8, and 67.7 months ( P < .001) for insured, Medicaid, and uninsured patients. Age (HR: 1.02/year, P < .001) and black (HR: 1.15, P = .001) compared to white race predicted worse survival. Compared to insured status, Medicaid insurance carried a death hazard ratio of 1.40 ( P < .001) and uninsured status had a death hazard ratio of 1.40 ( P < .001). Conclusion: Insured laryngeal cancer patients had prolonged OS and DSS compared to Medicaid and uninsured patients. Medicaid patients had equivalent survival outcomes to uninsured patients. Level of Evidence: 2c.

Endangered Medicinal Plants Used in Traditional Herbal Medicines in The South-East Rajasthan (Hadoti Region)

The present study was carried out to gather information about Ethno-botanical knowledge of tribal people and ethnic races those are residing in forests of south-east Rajasthan since ages. A large number of wild and cultivated plants are being used by them to treat various ailments due to limited access to modern health care services. The study was carried out in an unexplored remote tribal area of South east region of Rajasthan to investigate and document the existing ethno-medicinal knowledge on local flora which is rich and diversified in important medicinal plants.. The ethno-medicinal knowledge in the study area is gradually heading towards extinction because the old age community members being the main bearer of this knowledge are passing away and younger generation is not interested to take it. Herbal practitioners in the area have sufficient traditional knowledge, but mostly, they are reluctant to disclose it to other community members. Hence, the current study was planned with the objectives to record the traditional knowledge of study area mainly pertaining to endangered Ethno-medicinal plants of the proposed area of study. The study was conducted through direct interviews with 35 Herbal practitioners and 240 informants from the study area. Data was collected through semi-structured questionnaires from the community members and local herbal. We presented thirty most used species by ancestral healers of Hadoti to cure different ailments and their medicinal uses. This study also provide details regarding Habitat, Mode of transfer, Abundance Status, Effect and popularity and Cultivation practices (status of plant)of selected 30 plants.

Specific Activities and the Trajectories of Cognitive Decline Among Middle-Aged and Older Adults: A Five-Year Longitudinal Cohort Study

Background: How specific activities influence cognitive decline among different age groups, especially the late middle-aged and the early old, remains inadequately studied. Objective: To examine the association between specific activities with trajectories of cognitive functions in different age groups in China. Methods: A longitudinal cohort study was conducted based on data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). Mixed effects growth models were applied to analyze the association between specific activities and cognitive functions. Results: Interacting with friends (infrequent: β= 0.13, confidence interval [CI] = 0.03 to 0.22; daily: β= 0.19, CI = 0.09 to 0.28), playing Mah-jong or other games (infrequent: β= 0.12, CI = 0.02 to 0.22; daily:β= 0.26, CI = 0.10 to 0.42), infrequent providing help to others (β= 0.24, CI = 0.11 to 0.37), and going to a sport (infrequent: β= 0.31, CI = 0.08 to 0.54); daily: β= 0.22, CI = 0.05 to 0.38) are significantly associated with participants’ memory. Infrequently playing Mah-jong or other games (β= 0.30, CI = 0.17 to 0.43) and daily sports (β= 0.24, CI = 0.03 to 0.45) are significantly associated with better mental status. Effect of each activity varies among population of different age, education level, gender, and residence. Conclusion: This study identifies four social activities that are associated with better cognitive functions, and provides a comprehensive, in-depth understanding on the specific protective effect of each activity among different subgroups.

Thalamic encoding of lexical status is lateralized during reading aloud

To explore whether the thalamus participates in lexical status encoding, local field potentials were recorded in patients undergoing deep brain stimulation lead implantation while they read aloud single-syllable words and nonwords. Bilateral decreases in thalamic beta (12-30Hz) activity were preferentially locked to stimulus presentation, and these decreases were greater when nonwords were read. Increased broadband gamma (70-150Hz) activity also was locked preferentially to speech onset bilaterally, but greater nonword-related increases in this activity were observed only on the left, demonstrating lateralization of thalamic gamma selectivity for lexical status. In addition, this lexical status effect was strongest in more anterior thalamic locations, regions which are more likely to receive pallidal than cerebellar afferents. These results provide evidence from intracranial thalamic recordings for the lateralization and topography of subcortical lexical status processing.

Examining the Effect of Reviewer Socioeconomic Status Disclosure on Customers' Purchase Intention

Image reviews can directly indicate socioeconomic status (SES) of reviewers, which is completely different from text reviews. However, image reviews are under the way to be deeply explored the effect of reviewers' SES disclosures on customer purchase intention. This research uses experimental method to examine social status effect of reviewers in different consumption settings and the underlying mechanism. The findings demonstrate that SES disclosure of reviewers has a significant influence on customers' purchase intentions, indicating that participants have higher purchase intention when they perceive that the products are recommended by high SES reviewers than by low SES reviewers. However, the social status effect occurs when the product is consumed in public but does not occur when the product is consumed in private. This research also finds that participants with high self-presentation concerns would be significantly influenced by reviewers' SES when a product is consumed in public, but participants with low self-presentation concern would not be influenced.

Inferential Internalism and the Causal Status Effect

To justify inductive inference and vanquish classical skepticisms about human memory, external world realism, etc., Richard Fumerton proposes his “inferential internalism,” an epistemology whereby humans ‘see’ by Russellian acquaintance Keynesian probable relations (PRs) between propositions. PRs are a priori necessary relations of logical probability, akin to but not reducible to logical entailments, such that perceiving a PR between one’s evidence E and proposition P of unknown truth value justifies rational belief in P to an objective degree. A recent critic of inferential internalism is Alan Rhoda, who questions its psychological plausibility. Rhoda argues that in order to see necessary relations between propositions E and P, one would need acquaintance with too many propositions at once, since our evidence E is often complex. In this paper, I criticize Rhoda’s implausibility objection as too quick. Referencing the causal status effect (CSE) from psychology, I argue that some of the complex features of evidence E contribute to our type-categorizing it as E-type, and thus we do not need to ‘see’ all of the complex features when we see the PR between E and P. My argument leaves unchanged Fumerton’s justificatory role for the PR, but enhances its psychological plausibility.

The Halo Effect and Social Evaluation: How Organizational Status Shapes Audience Perceptions on Corporate Environmental Reputation

Although firms generally strive to enhance social evaluations, scholars have noted that such evaluations may not completely reflect actual performance of the firms. Extending this approach to the domain of environmental sustainability, we focus on the importance of social evaluation heuristics and explore how a firm’s status, or generalized evaluation not directly linked to environmental performance, plays a key role in shaping audience perceptions on its environmental reputation. Using multiple sources of data on 178 global companies’ green reputation, status, and environmental performance, our study shows that a firm’s status significantly enhances its environmental reputation assessed by general consumers and that the status effect varies significantly according to media frames. These findings illuminate the richness and complexity in the relations between status, reputation, and media-provided information in the area of environmental sustainability.