Separaxion anxiety in pediatric migraine without aura: A pilot study

Background: Separation anxiety (SA) can be defined as the fear reaction and protest manifested by children when the main caregivers move away from him/her or in front of unfamiliar person. SA near eight months may be considered as an important and normal phase of the correct and typical social neurodevelopment. Aims of the present pilot study is assessing the prevalence of separation anxiety in a population of patients with migraine without aura (MwA). Materials and methods: 119 children (69 males) suffering from MwA (mean age 1.78 ± 7:59) were consecutively recruited. The control population consisted of 231 (114 males) healthy subjects similar for age (7.64 ± 1:34; p = 0.768) and gender (p=0.987) The Screen for child anxiety related emotional disorders (SCARED) test was used to assess the prevalence of separation anxiety among MwA children. Results: Healthy individuals are on average less affected (mean 4.72 ± 0:32) of the Separation Anxiety Disorder respect of MwA children (mean 6.83 ± 0.97; p < 0.001) (Figure 1). Conclusion. MwA presents many psychiatric comorbidities and among ones separation anxiety may be considered in the clinical and therapeutic management of pediatric primary headache

A sensitive survey for 13CO, CN, H2CO and SO in the disks of T Tauri and Herbig Ae stars

We use the IRAM 30-m telescope to perform a sensitive search for CN N=2-1 in 42 T Tauri or Herbig Ae systems located mostly in the Taurus-Auriga region. $^{13}$CO J=2-1 is observed simultaneously to indicate the level of confusion with the surrounding molecular cloud. The bandpass also contains two transitions of ortho-H$_2$CO, one of SO and the C$^{17}$O J=2-1 line which provide complementary information on the nature of the emission. While $^{13}$CO is in general dominated by residual emission from the cloud, CN exhibits a high disk detection rate $> 50$% in our sample. We even report CN detection in stars for which interferometric searches failed to detect $^{12}$CO, presumably because of obscuration by a foreground, optically thick, cloud. Comparison between CN and o-H$_2$CO or SO line profiles and intensities divide the sample in two main categories. Sources with SO emission are bright and have strong H$_2$CO emission, leading in general to [H$_2$CO/CN]$> 0.5$. Furthermore, their line profiles, combined with a priori information on the objects, suggest that the emission is coming from outflows or envelopes rather than from a circumstellar disk. On the other hand, most sources have [H$_2$CO/CN]$< 0.3$, no SO emission, and some of them exhibit clear double-peaked profiles characteristics of rotating disks. In this second category, CN is likely tracing the proto-planetary disks. From the line flux and opacity derived from the hyperfine ratios, we constrain the outer radii of the disks, which range from 300 to 600 AU. The overall gas disk detection rate (including all molecular tracers) is $\sim 68$, and decreases for fainter continuum sources. This study shows that gas disks, like dust disks, are ubiquitous around young PMS stars in regions of isolated star formation, and that a large fraction of them have $R > 300$ AU.Comment: 31 pages (including 59 figures

Attribute Regularized Soft Introspective VAE: Towards Cardiac Attribute Regularization Through MRI Domains

Deep generative models have emerged as influential instruments for data generation and manipulation. Enhancing the controllability of these models by selectively modifying data attributes has been a recent focus. Variational Autoencoders (VAEs) have shown promise in capturing hidden attributes but often produce blurry reconstructions. Controlling these attributes through different imaging domains is difficult in medical imaging. Recently, Soft Introspective VAE leverage the benefits of both VAEs and Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), which have demonstrated impressive image synthesis capabilities, by incorporating an adversarial loss into VAE training. In this work, we propose the Attributed Soft Introspective VAE (Attri-SIVAE) by incorporating an attribute regularized loss, into the Soft-Intro VAE framework. We evaluate experimentally the proposed method on cardiac MRI data from different domains, such as various scanner vendors and acquisition centers. The proposed method achieves similar performance in terms of reconstruction and regularization compared to the state-of-the-art Attributed regularized VAE but additionally also succeeds in keeping the same regularization level when tested on a different dataset, unlike the compared method

Sensitive survey for 13CO, CN, H2CO, and SO in the disks of T Tauri and Herbig Ae stars II: Stars in ρ\rho Oph and upper Scorpius

We attempt to determine the molecular composition of disks around young low-mass stars in the $\rho$ Oph region and to compare our results with a similar study performed in the Taurus-Auriga region. We used the IRAM 30 m telescope to perform a sensitive search for CN N=2-1 in 29 T Tauri stars located in the $\rho$ Oph and upper Scorpius regions. $^{13}$CO J=2-1 is observed simultaneously to provide an indication of the level of confusion with the surrounding molecular cloud. The bandpass also contains two transitions of ortho-H$_2$CO, one of SO, and the C$^{17}$O J=2-1 line, which provides complementary information on the nature of the emission. Contamination by molecular cloud in $^{13}$CO and even C$^{17}$O is ubiquitous. The CN detection rate appears to be lower than for the Taurus region, with only four sources being detected (three are attributable to disks). H$_2$CO emission is found more frequently, but appears in general to be due to the surrounding cloud. The weaker emission than in Taurus may suggest that the average disk size in the $\rho$ Oph region is smaller than in the Taurus cloud. Chemical modeling shows that the somewhat higher expected disk temperatures in $\rho$ Oph play a direct role in decreasing the CN abundance. Warmer dust temperatures contribute to convert CN into less volatile forms. In such a young region, CN is no longer a simple, sensitive tracer of disks, and observations with other tracers and at high enough resolution with ALMA are required to probe the gas disk population.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Sensory perception in preschool children affected by autism spectrum disorder: A pilot study

Introduction: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a behavioral syndrome caused by a developmental disorder, biologically determined, with onset in the first three years of life. The areas concerned are mainly those related to social communication, social interaction and mutual functional and symbolic play. In the last decades, different conceptions of autism have taken, also emphasizing different sensory-perceptual abnormalities as the basis of the central features of disorder. This pilot study intends to address the issue of sensory perception in preschool children affected by ASD. Material and methods: 11 ASD children were enrolled (7 males, 4 female) aged between 2.3 years and 4.6 years, (mean age 3.29 \ub1 0.72). The control group consisted of 24 typical developing children (15 males, 9 females) (mean age 3.08 \ub1 0.87). All subjects underwent assessment of sensory perceptual abilities according to the Bogdashina's Sensory Profile Checklist Revised (SPCR) evaluation (43). Results: The two groups are comparable for age (p = 0.491) and sex distribution (p = 0.755). Table 1 shows the comparison between the two groups results in the SPCR, specifically, individuals with ASD, showed significantly higher scores on near all perception areas evaluated than healthy controls, suggesting a clear perceptual impairment in ASD subjects. Only for olfactory perception two groups were comparable. Conclusions: no significant differences in behavioral reaction to smell stimulation between ASD and typical developing children, and this result could be explained according to the early age of our sample that could cause high reactivity to smell stimulation also in typical developing examined children

The behavioral parenting interventions (BPT) for support and mandatory integrative therapy for children and adolescents affected by disruptive behavioural disorders: A brief review

The behavioral parenting interventions (BPT), commonly abbreviated as parent training, is a program conducted by an expert with the specific purpose of improving or modifying parental practices in order to promote the child's well-being, increasing parenting skills in the daily management of the child, problem solving and reducing the level of parenting and family stress. BPT presents many positive effects on children or adolescents affected by neurodevelopmental disorder such as ADHD, autism and cognitive dysfunction but BPT appears to improve also other proximal outcomes such as parenting competence and parenting stress

Paternal shift-working and sleep disorders in children affected by primary nocturnal enuresis

Objectives: Primary monosymptomatic nocturnal enuresis (PMNE) is a common problem in childhood and studies about the sleep habits of affected children are not conclusive. Work-family conflict (WFC) results from the incompatibility between family demands and business/workplace needs. WFC can impact parental quality with many consequences on children health. Aim of study is assessing the prevalence of sleep disturbances in enuretic children, sons of work-shifters. Materials and methods: 80 children (67 males) aged 5-13 years (mean 10,43; SD \ub1 1,99), were consecutively referred for PMNE. Sleep habits were investigated with Sleep Disturbances Scale for Children (SDSC) and the results were compared with a control group of 255 (190 males) typical developing children (TDC) sons of no shift-workers, matched for age (mean 10.57 SD \ub1 1,89; p = 0.569) and sex distribution (Chi-square= 2.416; p = 0.120). Results: To evaluate statically differences among mean values of two samples, the Chi-square test was performed. Logistic regression was assessed to verify the role of paternal shift-working as risk factor for sleep disorders. p=0.05. All sleep disturbances categories were more prevalent in PMNE children sons of shift-workers than control group (Chi-square= 43.926; p<0.001); particularly 82.5% of PMNE vs. 11.76% of TDC show pathological scores for SBD category (Chi-square = 145.592; p<0.001; OR = 35,35; IC95% = 17.71-70.57); 61.25% vs 9.41% for SWTD (Chi-square = 93; p < 0.001; OR = 15.213; IC95% = 8.21-28.15); 57.5% vs 9.41% for DA (Chi-square = 82.31; p < 0.001; OR = 13.02; IC95% = 7.06-23.98); 37.5% vs 6.67% for DIMS (Chi-square = 45.476; p < 0.001; OR = 8,4; IC95% = 4.3-16.39); 26.25% vs 5.88% for SHY (Chi-square = 24.257; p < 0.001; OR = 5.69; IC95% = 2,76-11,71) and 25%c vs 5.49% for DOES (Chi-square = 23.323; p < 0.001; OR = 5,73; IC95% = 2,73-12,01). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that paternal shif-working plus PMNE children may be a relevant factor affecting sleep quality in affected children

Anxiety levels in mothers of children affected by x-fragile syndrome

Introduction: Anxiety is the psychological process by which the individual reacts to dangerous external stimuli, triggering responses (mediated by norepinephrine, GABA and serotonin) involving physiological reactions and cognitive strategies. Anxiety can be differentiated in state anxiety and trait anxiety. Fragile X Syndrome (FXS) is a disorder most commonly caused by a triplet repeat expansion of > 200 cytosine-guanine-guanine (CGG) repeats in the 50 untranslated region of the Fragile X mental retardation 1 (FMR1) gene. Aim of the present study is investigating the state or trait anxiety in a sample of mothers of children affected by X-fragile. Materials and methods: 84 mothers (mean age 48.36 \ub1 7.11) of children affected by FXS were recruited and compared with mother of 171 typical developing children (mean age 46.18 \ub1 9.53). The Scale State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Adults (STAI) was used in order to assess the anxiety levels. Results: All mothers of children affected by FXS showed high score of anxiety levels at the STAI evaluation (Table 1), with no differences were found between mothers of males and females children affected. Conclusions: Mothers of children with FXS appear to be in a state of anxiety effects and suddenly even higher than those found later in mothers of children with other chronic diseases

Autonomic Regulation In Autism Spectrum Disorders

Introduction: The sinactive developmental model provides suggests a different way for the brain study by observing the children behavior. In all neurodevelopmental disorders, we can observe autonomic alteration comprising sleep disorders, meal behaviour alteration and self-regulatory impairment. These alterations/impairment are very frequent in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) (1-12). Aim of the present preliminary study is the assessment of metabolic rate in children affected by ASD. Material s and methods. 5 males affected by ASD aged 7-10 years (mean age 6.73\ub13:39), were recruited. The average score at the ADOS scale was 12.24 (SD\ub1 3.29). The control group consisted of 5 males typically developing children (TDC) aged 7 to 11 years (mean age 7.92 \ub1 3.23). Autonomic/Metabolic evaluation: Free-living daily physical activity was measured using either the SenseWear Armband in order to calculate the total energy expenditure (TEE), baseline (REE) and the metabolic physical activity for prolonged periods of time. In general, the SenseWear Armband allows objective monitoring of the lifestyle including duration and sleep efficiency. Results: ASD subjects show values of total energy expenditure (p = 0.0047) and active energy expenditure (p = 0.044) significantly higher compared to control subjects (Table 1). In addition, ASD children have a metabolic intermediate significantly higher than healthy subjects (p=0.015). (Table 1). Finally, the ASD children show a significant reduction of sleep time (p = 0.027) (Table 1). Conclusion: ASD can represents a very significant risk factor for developing sleep disorders and to high energy expenditure, although further studies are needed in this respect

Dynamical Masses of Low Mass Stars in the Taurus and Ophiuchus Star Forming Regions

We report new dynamical masses for 5 pre-main sequence (PMS) stars in the L1495 region of the Taurus star-forming region (SFR) and 6 in the L1688 region of the Ophiuchus SFR. Since these regions have VLBA parallaxes these are absolute measurements of the stars' masses and are independent of their effective temperatures and luminosities. Seven of the stars have masses $<0.6$ solar masses, thus providing data in a mass range with little data, and of these, 6 are measured to precision $< 5 \%$. We find 8 stars with masses in the range 0.09 to 1.1 solar mass that agree well with the current generation of PMS evolutionary models. The ages of the stars we measured in the Taurus SFR are in the range 1-3 MY, and $<1$ MY for those in L1688. We also measured the dynamical masses of 14 stars in the ALMA archival data for Akeson~\&~Jensen's Cycle 0 project on binaries in the Taurus SFR. We find that the masses of 7 of the targets are so large that they cannot be reconciled with reported values of their luminosity and effective temperature. We suggest that these targets are themselves binaries or triples.Comment: 20 page