WATER QUALITY DURING TWO HIGH-FLOW YEARS ON THE LOWER MISSOURI RIVER: THE EFFECTS OF RESERVOIR AND TRIBUTARY CONTRIBUTIONS

Complex socioeconomic and ecological issues, ranging from impaired streams to Gulf of Mexico hypoxia, have made nutrient management an increasingly important issue across the USA. High flows during 2010 and 2011 provided a unique opportunity to investigate trends in discharge, total nitrogen, nitrate/nitrite, total phosphorus, orthophosphorus, suspended sediment and total suspended solids during two distinct high-flow years on the Missouri River. We compared collections taken during 2010 and 2011 at 12 lower Missouri River locations (river kilometers 1212 to 71) and 22 Missouri River tributary locations. During 2011, average concentrations for all sampled parameters were significantly lower, despite significantly higher total discharge, than 2010 concentrations. Differences in water chemistry between years are likely attributed to the primary source of water. Tributary inflow created high flows during 2010, whereas record releases from Gavin’s Point Dam created high flows during 2011. Analysis of flow estimated the contribution of these releases at each site and revealed strong positive relationships between the percentage of estimated tributary flow at each site and the concentrations of total nitrogen, total phosphorus and total suspended solids. These monitoring efforts underline the contrasting impacts that tributary streams and reservoir releases have on nutrient export of the Missouri River during high-flow events and reveal a larger trend of increased nutrient concentrations as the proportion of Missouri River tributary flow increased

Temporal trends in the management of severe hyperglycemia among patients hospitalized with acute myocardial infarction [abstract]

Poster sesssionBackground: Elevated blood glucose (BG) is associated with an adverse prognosis in acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients. While guidelines recommend insulin therapy to lower markedly elevated BG in AMI patients, it is unknown whether these recommendations have impacted BG management over time. Methods: We studied 39,775 AMI patients hospitalized from 2000 to 2008 in 55 US medical centers contributing to Health Facts, a national database with extensive data on in-hospital BG and insulin use. Using all available BG measures during the hospital stay, we restricted our analysis to patients with a mean BG ≥200mg/dl and examined temporal trends in insulin use with hierarchical logistic regression models. Results: Overall, 4330 patients (11% of the entire cohort) had mean hospitalization BG ≥ 200 mg/dL and this proportion decreased from 2000 to 2008 (12% to 8%, p for trend<0.001); 75% of these patients had diabetes. In total, 61% of AMI patients with mean BG ≥ 200 received any insulin and only 16% received intravenous (IV) insulin during hospitalization. Hierarchical multivariable models showed an increased likelihood of insulin use over time (Figure). However, about one in three patients continued to receive no treatment for markedly elevated BG. Conclusions: Despite some improvement over time, insulin treatment rates among hospitalized AMI patients with severe, sustained hyperglycemia remain low. These findings likely reflect continuing uncertainty regarding optimal BG management during AMI

Visuo-spatial cognition in Williams syndrome: Reviewing and accounting for the strengths and weaknesses in performance

Individuals with Williams syndrome typically show relatively poor visuo-spatial abilities in comparison to stronger verbal skills. However, individuals' level of performance is not consistent across all visuo-spatial tasks. The studies assessing visuo-spatial functioning in Williams syndrome are critically reviewed, in order to provide a clear pattern of the relative difficulty of these tasks. This prompts a possible explanation of the variability in performance seen which focuses on the processing demands of some of these tasks. Individuals with Williams syndrome show an atypical processing style on tests of construction, which does not affect tests of perception

Help-seeking behaviour for pelvic floor dysfunction in women over 55: drivers and barriers

Objective: Our aim was to identify drivers of and barriers to help-seeking behaviour of older women with pelvic floor dysfunction (PFD) living independently in Australia . Methods: Women aged =55 years were recruited to this cross-sectional study during July and August 2016. Bladder, bowel, pelvic organ prolapse (POP) and sexual dysfunction were assessed with the Australian Pelvic Floor Questionnaire (APFQ). Drivers and barriers were based on the Barriers to Incontinence Care Seeking Questionnaire. Univariate analyses were used to assess any significant relationships between PFD, age, education level, self-reported PFD, barriers and drivers. Results: Of the 376 study participants [mean, standard deviation (SD) age 68.6 (10.5) years], 67% reported symptoms of PFD and 98.7% scored &gt; 0 on the APFQ. Women were more likely to seek help if they scored higher on the APFQ (p &lt; 0.001). The main barrier to seeking help was the perception that PFD was a normal part of ageing (22.4%). Of those who did seek help (50%), the main factor was increased level of symptom bother (51.4%). There was no difference in age or education level between women who did and did not seek help. Conclusion: Women are more likely to seek help for PFD if scoring higher on the APFQ or symptoms are becoming more bothersome. They are less likely to seek help if they view their symptoms as normal. Future direction should be taken to raise awareness of normal pelvic floor function as well as the availability of help for PFD

A multimeasure approach to investigating affective appraisal of social information in Williams syndrome

People with Williams syndrome (WS) have been consistently described as showing heightened sociability, gregariousness, and interest in people, in conjunction with an uneven cognitive profile and mild to moderate intellectual or learning disability. To explore the mechanisms underlying this unusual social–behavioral phenotype, we investigated whether individuals with WS show an atypical appraisal style and autonomic responsiveness to emotionally laden images with social or nonsocial content. Adolescents and adults with WS were compared to chronological age-matched and nonverbal mental age-matched groups in their responses to positive and negative images with or without social content, using measures of self-selected viewing time (SSVT), autonomic arousal reflected in pupil dilation measures, and likeability ratings. The participants with WS looked significantly longer at the social images compared to images without social content and had reduced arousal to the negative social images compared to the control groups. In contrast to the comparison groups, the explicit ratings of likeability in the WS group did not correlate with their SSVT; instead, they reflected an appraisal style of more extreme ratings. This distinctive pattern of viewing interest, likeability ratings, and autonomic arousal to images with social content in the WS group suggests that their heightened social drive may be related to atypical functioning of reward-related brain systems reflected in SSVT and autonomic reactivity measures, but not in explicit ratings

Do faces capture the attention of individuals with Williams syndrome or Autism? Evidence from tracking eye movements

The neuro-developmental disorders of Williams syndrome (WS) and autism can reveal key components of social cognition. Eye‐tracking techniques were applied in two tasks exploring attention to pictures containing faces. Images were i) scrambled pictures containing faces or ii) pictures of scenes with embedded faces. Compared to individuals who were developing typically, participants with WS and autism showed atypicalities of gaze behaviour. Individuals with WS showed prolonged face gaze across tasks, relating to the typical WS social phenotype. Participants with autism exhibited reduced face gaze, linking to a lack of interest in socially relevant information. The findings are interpreted in terms of wider issues regarding socio‐cognition and attention mechanisms

Neurobiology of social behavior abnormalities in autism and Williams syndrome

Social behavior is a basic behavior mediated by multiple brain regions and neural circuits, and is crucial for the survival and development of animals and humans. Two neuropsychiatric disorders that have prominent social behavior abnormalities are autism spectrum disorders (ASD), which is characterized mainly by hyposociability, and Williams syndrome (WS), whose subjects exhibit hypersociability. Here we review the unique properties of social behavior in ASD and WS, and discuss the major theories in social behavior in the context of these disorders. We conclude with a discussion of the research questions needing further exploration to enhance our understanding of social behavior abnormalities

Clinical assessment of DSM-IV anxiety disorders in fragile X syndrome: prevalence and characterization

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is the most common form of inherited intellectual disability (ID). Anxiety and social withdrawal are considered core features of the FXS phenotype, yet there is limited diagnostic evidence of the prevalence of formal anxiety disorders in FXS. This study assessed the prevalence of anxiety disorders in a sample of 58 males and 39 females with FXS (ages 5.0–33.3 years). Participants’ parents completed the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule (ADIS-IV), a clinical interview based on DSM-IV criteria, and the Anxiety Depression and Mood Scale (ADAMS), a psychiatric disorders screening instrument normed in ID. We conducted cognitive (IQ) and autism (AUT) assessments and surveyed medication use. Despite a high rate of psychopharmacological treatment, 86.2% of males and 76.9% of females met criteria for an anxiety disorder, with social phobia and specific phobia the most commonly diagnosed. Proband status, gender, and IQ were not significantly related to any anxiety disorders, however significantly higher rates of a few anxiety disorders were found in older age and AUT groups. Significant correlations between ADIS diagnoses and ADAMS scores provided cross-validation of instruments, indicating that the ADIS is suitable for use in FXS. A greater percentage of our sample met criteria for most anxiety disorders than has been reported in other ID groups or the general population. The rate of anxiety compared to general ID suggests that the FMR1 full mutation confers an especially high risk for these disorders, regardless of factors commonly associated with FXS clinical involvement. A thorough clinical assessment and treatment of anxiety should be included in the FXS standard of care

Anxiety disorders in children with Williams syndrome, their mothers, and their siblings: Implications for the etiology of anxiety disorders

This study examines the prevalence of anxiety disorders in children with Williams syndrome (WS), their sibling closest in age, and their mothers as well as the predictors of anxiety in these groups. The prevalence of anxiety disorders was assessed and compared to that in the general population. Children with WS had a significantly higher prevalence of specific phobia, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and separation anxiety in comparison to children in the general population. While mothers had a higher prevalence of GAD than population controls, the excess was accounted for by mothers who had onset after the birth of their WS child. The siblings had rates similar to the general population. This pattern of findings suggests the presence of a gene in the WS region whose deletion predisposes to anxiety disorders. It is also worthwhile to investigate relations between genes deleted in WS and genes previously implicated in anxiety disorders