Exploration of the Problematic Twitter, Facebook Uses and Their Relationships with Psychopathological Symptoms Among Facebook Users

International audienceBackground: Problematic Internet Use (PIU), as well as Problematic Facebook Use (PFU), is a growing concern worldwide. Like Facebook, Twitter is a widely used social networking site. Yet, no study has been conducted on the specific problematic Twitter use (PTU). Objectives: The main goal of this study was to explore the rate of problematic Twitter and Facebook uses, their relationships and differences in terms of psychopathological and internet-related variables. Patients and Methods: A sample of 822 Facebook users (55% women) aged from 18 to 29 (Mean = 21.6; SD = 2.8) completed a set of questionnaires assessing Twitter, Facebook, and the internet use characteristics and problematic uses, as well as psychopathological symptoms. Results: Among the total sample, approximately 18% of the participants had a PIU. Besides, more than 4% (n = 34) had a PFU with a significantly higher rate of women (P < 0.01). Twitter users were represented by approximately 32% (n = 259) of the sample. 21% (n = 55) reported a PIU, 3.1% (n = 8) a PTU (n = 8), and 3.9% (n = 10) a PFU with a significant majority of women (P < 0.05). Multiple-regression analysis revealed significant differences between PTU and PFU, particularly in terms of time spent on Facebook and psychopathological symptoms. Conclusions: PFU was particularly related to depression and anxiety symptoms while PTU was not. Moreover, our results suggest further exploring the specificity of specific Social Networking Site (SNS) instead of encompassing them into a general problematic use of the internet or SNS. This exploratory study had limitations and needs to be completed by research focusing on relationships and differences between these uses. Future studies need to focus on the relationship between problematic SNS uses, taken separately, with psychopathology, and especially pathological personality traits, by taking gender into account

Two novel epilepsy-linked mutations leading to a loss of function of LGI1.

International audienceBACKGROUND: Mutations in the leucine-rich, glioma-inactivated 1 (LGI1) gene have been implicated in autosomal dominant lateral temporal epilepsy. OBJECTIVE: To describe the clinical and genetic findings in 2 families with autosomal dominant lateral temporal epilepsy and the functional consequences of 2 novel mutations in LGI1. DESIGN: Clinical, genetic, and functional investigations. SETTING: University hospital. Patients Two French families with autosomal dominant lateral temporal epilepsy. Main Outcome Measure Mutation analysis. RESULTS: Two novel disease-linked mutations, p.Leu232Pro and c.431 + 1G>A, were identified in LGI1. We demonstrated that the c.431 + 1G>A mutation causes the deletion of exons 3 and 4 of the LGI1 transcript and showed that the p.Leu232Pro mutation dramatically decreases secretion of the mutant protein by mammalian cells. CONCLUSION: Our data indicate that LGI1 is a secreted protein and suggest that LGI1-related epilepsy results from a loss of function

Differential expression of the bone and the liver tissue non-specific alkaline phosphatase isoforms in brain tissues.

International audienceThe enzyme tissue non-specific alkaline phosphatase (TNAP) belongs to the ectophosphatase family. It is present in large amounts in bone in which it plays a role in mineralization but little is known about its function in other tissues. Arguments are accumulating for its involvement in the brain, in particular in view of the neurological symptoms accompanying human TNAP deficiencies. We have previously shown, by histochemistry, alkaline phosphatase (AP) activity in monkey brain vessels and parenchyma in which AP exhibits specific patterns. Here, we clearly attribute this activity to TNAP expression rather than to other APs in primates (human and marmoset) and in rodents (rat and mouse). We have not found any brain-specific transcripts but our data demonstrate that neuronal and endothelial cells exclusively express the bone TNAP transcript in all species tested, except in mouse neurons in which liver TNAP transcripts have also been detected. Moreover, we highlight the developmental regulation of TNAP expression; this also acts during neuronal differentiation. Our study should help to characterize the regulation of the expression of this ectophosphatase in various cell types of the central nervous system

Absence of mutations in the LGI1 receptor <i>ADAM22</i> gene in autosomal dominant lateral temporal epilepsy

Mutations in the LGI1 (leucine-rich, glioma inactivated 1) gene are found in less than a half of the families with autosomal dominant lateral temporal epilepsy (ADLTE), suggesting that ADLTE is a genetically heterogeneous disorder. Recently, it was shown that LGI1 is released by neurons and becomes part of a protein complex at the neuronal postsynaptic density where it is implicated in the regulation of glutamate-AMPA neurotransmission. Within this complex, LGI1 binds selectively to a neuronal specific membrane protein, ADAM22 (a disintegrin and metalloprotease). Since ADAM22 serves as a neuronal receptor for LGI1, the ADAM22 gene was considered a good candidate gene for ADLTE. We have therefore sequenced all coding exons and exon-intron flanking sites in the ADAM22 gene in the probands of 18 ADLTE families negative for LGI1 mutations. Although, we identified several synonymous and non-synonymous polymorphisms, we failed to identify disease-causing mutations, indicating that ADAM22 gene is probably not a major gene for this epilepsy syndrome

L'hôpital

L’hôpital est devenu depuis une vingtaine d’années un terrain privilégié des chercheurs en anthropologie de la santé. Mais qu’est-ce qu’un hôpital ? Est-ce seulement une réalisation architecturale qui permet l’exercice de la médecine contemporaine ? Espace à la fois perméable et délimité, ordonné et ouvert, imprévisible et opaque, médical et non-médical, l’hôpital moderne est sujet à des changements technologiques et économiques rapides. Il contient aussi les traces de la médecine d’autrefois et évoque des souvenirs et des émotions pour celles et ceux qui y ont séjourné, travaillé ou soutenu des proches. Ce dossier aborde l’objet « hôpital » en reliant le lieu hospitalier aux pratiques – médicales, infirmières, bureaucratiques et comptables – exercées en son sein. Ensemble, les contributions incitent à étudier l’hôpital non seulement comme terrain ethnographique mais aussi comme lieu anthropologique, pour aborder la manière dont chaque hôpital existe dans sa singularité – pour les patients, les professionnels et les familles – et agence la médecine et le soin. A mesure que le regard ethnographique s’éloigne des seules problématiques propres à la médecine hospitalière, l’on réussit à appréhender les productions et les propriétés de l’hôpital en tant que tel. In the past 20 years, the hospital has become a privileged field site for medical anthropologists. But what is a hospital? Is it only an architectural formation that allows for the practice of contemporary biomedicine? A space permeable and clearly delimited, structured and open, unpredictable and opaque, medical and non-medical, the modern hospital constantly undergoes rapid technological and economic change. It harbours the traces of past medicines and produces memories and emotions for those who have resided, worked there or supported close ones undergoing treatment and care. This special issue approaches the research object « hospital » by linking specific hospital places to the professional practices exercised in its realms, be they medical, nursing, bureaucratic or managerial. Taken together, the contributions incite to study hospitals not only as ethnographic field sites, but also as singular anthropological locations, in order to understand how each hospital exists in its particularity – for patients, professionals and families – and how it arranges medicine and care. In the degree that we detach our ethnographic view from the problems specific to hospital medicine, it becomes possible to apprehend the productions and proprieties of hospitals as such

Sex determination diversity in fish

International audienc