Aspects of interpretation of multilingual acquis communautaire

EU legislation is enacted in twenty different, equally authentic, language versions. As from the 1st of May 2004 Maltese has become an official language of the EU this meaning, inter alia, that the acquis communautaire is available in an authentic Maltese version which can be used by Maltese courts in their application and interpretation of EU law. In this paper we shall look at the implications of the Union's multilingual regime as arising from the interpretations of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and how this affects national jurisdictions in their interpretation and application of EU and national law.peer-reviewe

PSYCHOPHARMACOTHERAPY PRESCRIPTION AND SUICIDAL BEHAVIOUR

Suicidal behaviour has multiple causes. Psychiatric disorder is a major contributing factor. Consecutively, diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders has an impact on suicide rate. The studies that investigated the possible impact of psychopharmacotherapy prescription practise on suicide rate have been gathered in the present article. Ongoing discussion of potential benefits and risks of antidepressant treatment with respect to suicidal behaviours includes many ecological, or population- based, correlational studies of temporal or regional trends in suicide rates and rates of usage of modern antidepressants including SSRIs. A number of studies have found a relationship between increase in national antidepressant prescribing and declining suicide rates, with general agreement but some exceptions. In general, studies showed that increased prescribing of antidepressants may indicate improved diagnosis and treatment of depression. On the other hand, studies that investigated the impact of prescription of anxyolitics on suicide rate were scarce, although the ratio of anxiolytics to antidepressants has been described as a quality indicator regarding treatment of depression, which is in most cases combined with anxiety and increased suicide risk. Importantly, sedatives and hypnotics are widely prescribed to elderly persons with symptoms of depression, anxiety, and sleep disturbance, but studies demonstrated that sedatives and hypnotics were both associated with increased risk for suicide in the elderly. Finally, studies on antipsychotic prescription demonstrated that particularly treatment with clozapine decreased suicide mortality among individuals with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders and on the other hand lithium reduced suicide rate among individuals with mood disorders

PSYCHOPHARMACOTHERAPY PRESCRIPTION AND SUICIDAL BEHAVIOUR

Suicidal behaviour has multiple causes. Psychiatric disorder is a major contributing factor. Consecutively, diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders has an impact on suicide rate. The studies that investigated the possible impact of psychopharmacotherapy prescription practise on suicide rate have been gathered in the present article. Ongoing discussion of potential benefits and risks of antidepressant treatment with respect to suicidal behaviours includes many ecological, or population- based, correlational studies of temporal or regional trends in suicide rates and rates of usage of modern antidepressants including SSRIs. A number of studies have found a relationship between increase in national antidepressant prescribing and declining suicide rates, with general agreement but some exceptions. In general, studies showed that increased prescribing of antidepressants may indicate improved diagnosis and treatment of depression. On the other hand, studies that investigated the impact of prescription of anxyolitics on suicide rate were scarce, although the ratio of anxiolytics to antidepressants has been described as a quality indicator regarding treatment of depression, which is in most cases combined with anxiety and increased suicide risk. Importantly, sedatives and hypnotics are widely prescribed to elderly persons with symptoms of depression, anxiety, and sleep disturbance, but studies demonstrated that sedatives and hypnotics were both associated with increased risk for suicide in the elderly. Finally, studies on antipsychotic prescription demonstrated that particularly treatment with clozapine decreased suicide mortality among individuals with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders and on the other hand lithium reduced suicide rate among individuals with mood disorders

Antibodies to rubella virus in Maltese women of child bearing age

Circulating antibody to Rubella virus is present in about 85% of women of child bearing age in England (PHLS, 1970) and in most large developed countries (Rawls et al., 1967). However, the population of Jamaica and Trinidad show much lower protection rates. This may be inherent in island populations or may be a chance finding. With this in mind sera from women in Malta were examined for evidence of previous exposure to Rubella virus. Four hundred and six sera were tested and the results show that antibody to rubella was present in 369 (91%). With a total population of about 300,000 the degree of protection demonstrated in this study can be accepted within the range plus or minus 3%.peer-reviewe

Acceptability and feasibility of point-of-care CD4 testing on HIV continuum of care in low and middle income countries: a systematic review

Background: CD4 testing is, and will remain an important part of HIV treatment and care in low and middle income countries (LMICs). We report the findings of a systematic review assessing acceptability and feasibility of POC CD4 testing in field settings. Methods: Electronic databases were searched for studies published in English between 2005 and 2015 that describe POC CD4 platforms. Studies conducted in LMICs and under field conditions outside a laboratory environment were eligible. Qualitative and descriptive data analysis was used to present the findings. Results: Twelve studies were included, 11 of which were conducted in sub-Saharan countries and used one POC CD4 test (The Alere Pima CD4). Patients reported positively regarding the implementation of POC CD4 testing at primary health care and community level with ≥90 % of patients accepting the test across various study settings. Health service providers expressed preference toward POC CD4 testing as it is easy-to-use, efficient and satisfied patients\u27 needs to a greater extent as compared to conventional methods. However, operational challenges including preference toward venous blood rather than finger-prick sampling, frequent device failures and operator errors, quality of training for test operators and supervisors, and increased staff workload were also identified. Conclusions: POC CD4 testing seems acceptable and feasible in LIMCs under field conditions. Further studies using different POC CD4 tests available on the market are required to provide critical data to support countries in selection and implementation of appropriate POC CD4 technologies

Availability of mental health service providers and suicide rates in Slovenia: a nationwide ecological study

Aim To investigate the influence of socioeconomic factors, mental health service availability, and prevalence of mental disorders on regional differences in the suicide rate in Slovenia. Methods The effects of different socioeconomic factors, mental health service availability, and mental disorders factors on suicide rates from 2000-2009 were analyzed using a general linear mixed model (GLMM). Pearson correlations were used to explore the direction and magnitude of associations. Results Among socioeconomic factors, unemployment rate ranked as the most powerful predictor of suicide and an increase of one unit in the unemployment rate increased regional suicide rate by 2.21 (β = 2.21, 95% confidence intervals [CI] = 1.87-2.54, P < 0.001). On the other hand, higher marriage/divorce ratio was negatively related to the suicide rate and an increase of one unit in marriage/divorce ratio reduced regional suicide rate by 1.16 (β = -1.16, 95% CI = -2.20 to -0.13, P < 0.031). The most influential mental health service availability parameter was higher psychiatrist availability (4 psychiatrists and more working at outpatient clinics per 100 000 inhabitants), which was negatively correlated with the suicide rate and reduced regional suicide rate by 2.95 (β = -2.95, 95% CI = -4.60 to -1.31, P = 0.002). Another negatively correlated factor was the antidepressant/ anxiolytic ratio higher than 0.5, which reduced the regional suicide rate by 2.32 (β = -2.32, 95% CI = -3.75 to -0.89, P = 0.003). Among mental health disorders, only the prevalence of alcohol use disorders was significantly related to the regional suicide rates and an increase of one unit in the prevalence of alcohol use disorders per 1000 inhabitants increased the regional suicide rate by 0.02 (β = 0.02, 95% CI = 0.01- 0.03, P = 0.008). Conclusions Besides unemployment, which was a very strong predictor of suicide rates, unequal availability of mental health services and quality of depressive disorder treatment may contribute to variations in suicide rates in different regions

Can partial reduction of shoot biomass during early vegetative phase of chickpea save subsoil water for reproductive and pod filling?

The present study investigated if partial reduction of shoot dry matter during early vegetative growth phase of chickpea crop (cv. PBA Seamer) saves sub-soil water for reproductive growth and grain filling of the crop grown at 9 diverse environments. The environments were created by a combination of 3 sites (Emerald, Hermitage and Kingaroy), 3 planting windows (environments 1, 2, 3 at each site) with and without supplementary irrigation. The effects of environments on canopy management (partial reduction in shoot dry matter vs control) and irrigation treatments on the water uptake by roots, crop growth and yield performance and yield components were investigated. Crops in the planting windows (EN 1, 2, 3) experienced variable environments at each site. Days to 50% flowering and crop maturity reduced progressively from EN 1 to EN 3 at the three sites. The environment had significant effect on shoot biomass, yield and HI at the three sites (P  0.5 in EN 2 at Emerald. There was a trend for an increase in HI from EN 1 to EN 3 at all sites. The response to Irr, computed as the difference in peak shoot biomass and yield between the Irr and RF treatments, was the highest at Hermitage and the least at Emerald site. Vapour pressure deficit during reproductive phase accounted for the majority of variation in shoot biomass response to irrigation (r2 =0.66, P < 0.001) for total dry matter and (r2 =0.46, P < 0.01) for yield. The environments had a significant effect on radiation use efficiency and water use efficiency and the yield components including hundred seed weight

H-ATLAS/GAMA and HeViCS - dusty early-type galaxies in different environments

NKA acknowledges the support of the Science and Technology Facilities Council. LD, RJI and SJM acknowledge support from the European Research Council Advanced Grant COSMICISM. IDL gratefully acknowledges the support of the Flemish Fund for Scientific Research (FWO-Vlaanderen). KR acknowledges support from the European Research Council Starting Grant SEDmorph (P.I. V. Wild). Date of acceptance: 22/05/2015The Herschel Space Observatory has had a tremendous impact on the study of extragalactic dust. Specifically, early-type galaxies (ETG) have been the focus of several studies. In this paper, we combine results from two Herschel studies -a Virgo cluster study Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey (HeViCS) and a broader, low-redshift Herschel-Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey (H-ATLAS)/Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) study -and contrast the dust and associated properties for similar mass galaxies. This comparison is motivated by differences in results exhibited between multiple Herschel studies of ETG. A comparison between consistent modified blackbody derived dust mass is carried out, revealing strong differences between the two samples in both dust mass and dust-to-stellar mass ratio. In particular, the HeViCS sample lacks massive ETG with as high a specific dust content as found in H-ATLAS. This is most likely connected with the difference in environment for the two samples. We calculate nearest neighbour environment densities in a consistent way, showing that H-ATLAS ETG occupy sparser regions of the local Universe, whereas HeViCS ETG occupy dense regions. This is also true for ETG that are not Herschel-detected but are in the Virgo and GAMA parent samples. Spectral energy distributions are fit to the panchromatic data. From these, we find that in H-ATLAS the specific star formation rate anticorrelates with stellar mass and reaches values as high as in our Galaxy. On the other hand HeViCS ETG appear to have little star formation. Based on the trends found here, H-ATLAS ETG are thought to have more extended star formation histories and a younger stellar population than HeViCS ETG.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Pro-organic radical contrast agents (“pro-ORCAs”) for real-time MRI of pro-drug activation in biological systems

Nitroxide-based organic-radical contrast agents (ORCAs) are promising as safe next-generation magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) tools. Nevertheless, stimuli-responsive ORCAs that enable MRI monitoring of prodrug activation have not been reported; such systems could open new avenues for prodrug validation and image-guided drug delivery. Here, we introduce a novel “pro-ORCA” concept that addresses this challenge. By covalent conjugation of nitroxides and drug molecules (doxorubicin, DOX) to the same brush-arm star polymer (BASP) through chemically identical cleavable linkers, we demonstrate that pro-ORCA and prodrug activation, i.e., ORCA and DOX release, leads to significant changes in MRI contrast that correlate with cytotoxicity. This approach is shown to be general for a range of commonly used linker cleavage mechanisms (e.g., photolysis and hydrolysis) and release rates. Pro-ORCAs could find applications as research tools or clinically viable “reporter theranostics” for in vitro and in vivo MRI-correlated prodrug activation