Active Self-Tracking of Subjective Experience with a One-Button Wearable: A Case Study in Military PTSD

We describe a case study with the participation of a Danish veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). As part of psychotherapeutic treatment the participant and therapist have used our novel technique for instrumenting self-tracking of select aspects of subjective experience using a one-button wearable device. The instrumentation system is described along with the specific self-track- ing protocol which defined the participant's self-tracking of a single symptom, namely the occurrences of a bodily experienced precursor to hyperarousal. Results from the case study demonstrate how self-tracking data on a single symptom collected by a patient can provide valuable input to the therapeutic process. Specifically, it facilitated identification of crucial details otherwise unavailable from the clinical assessment and even became decisive in disentangling different symptoms and their causes.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, 2nd Symposium Computing and Mental Health at ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 201

Assessing ADHD symptoms in children and adults:Evaluating the role of objective measures

Background: Diagnostic guidelines recommend using a variety of methods to assess and diagnose ADHD. Applying subjective measures always incorporates risks such as informant biases or large differences between ratings obtained from diverse sources. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that ratings and tests seem to assess somewhat different constructs. The use of objective measures might thus yield valuable information for diagnosing ADHD. This study aims at evaluating the role of objective measures when trying to distinguish between individuals with ADHD and controls. Our sample consisted of children (n = 60) and adults (n = 76) diagnosed with ADHD and matched controls who completed self- and observer ratings as well as objective tasks. Diagnosis was primarily based on clinical interviews. A popular pattern recognition approach, support vector machines, was used to predict the diagnosis. Results: We observed relatively high accuracy of 79% (adults) and 78% (children) applying solely objective measures. Predicting an ADHD diagnosis using both subjective and objective measures exceeded the accuracy of objective measures for both adults (89.5%) and children (86.7%), with the subjective variables proving to be the most relevant. Conclusions: We argue that objective measures are more robust against rater bias and errors inherent in subjective measures and may be more replicable. Considering the high accuracy of objective measures only, we found in our study, we think that they should be incorporated in diagnostic procedures for assessing ADHD

Is the Public willing to help the Nigerian Police during the Boko Haram crisis? A look at moderating factors.

This paper sought the opinion of 200 Nigerians on their willingness to cooperate with the Police during the Boko Haram crisis. Public perceptions of Police effectiveness during the crisis, residence location, gender and religious affiliation were used as moderators. Data was analysed using an explanatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling. Results indicated a strong association between perceived effectiveness and willingness to report to the Police with respondents who question the effectiveness of the Police being less likely to be willing to report criminal activity about Boko Haram. Further to this, the impact of religion on willingness to report was at least partially mediated by perceived effectiveness of the Police with the results showing that Christian respondents perceived the Police as less effective. Females and those living in the North were significantly less willing to report criminal activity to the Police The findings are then discussed in relation to the BH crises and directions for future research are given

Effective Rheology of Bubbles Moving in a Capillary Tube

We calculate the average volumetric flux versus pressure drop of bubbles moving in a single capillary tube with varying diameter, finding a square-root relation from mapping the flow equations onto that of a driven overdamped pendulum. The calculation is based on a derivation of the equation of motion of a bubble train from considering the capillary forces and the entropy production associated with the viscous flow. We also calculate the configurational probability of the positions of the bubbles.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

The many facets of the matricelluar protein periostin during cardiac development, remodeling, and pathophysiology

Periostin is a member of a growing family of matricellular proteins, defined by their ability to interact with components of the extracellular milieu, and with receptors at the cell surface. Through these interactions, periostin has been shown to play a crucial role as a profibrogenic molecule during tissue morphogenesis. Tissues destined to become fibrous structures are dependent on cooperative interactions between periostin and its binding partners, whereas in its absence, these structures either totally or partially fail to become mature fibrous entities. Within the heart, fibrogenic differentiation is required for normal tissue maturation, remodeling and function, as well as in response to a pathological myocardial insult. In this review, aspects related to the function of periostin during cardiac morphogenesis, remodeling and pathology are summarized

Genome-Wide Copy Number Variation in Epilepsy: Novel Susceptibility Loci in Idiopathic Generalized and Focal Epilepsies

Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological disorders in humans with a prevalence of 1% and a lifetime incidence of 3%. Several genes have been identified in rare autosomal dominant and severe sporadic forms of epilepsy, but the genetic cause is unknown in the vast majority of cases. Copy number variants (CNVs) are known to play an important role in the genetic etiology of many neurodevelopmental disorders, including intellectual disability (ID), autism, and schizophrenia. Genome-wide studies of copy number variation in epilepsy have not been performed. We have applied whole-genome oligonucleotide array comparative genomic hybridization to a cohort of 517 individuals with various idiopathic, non-lesional epilepsies. We detected one or more rare genic CNVs in 8.9% of affected individuals that are not present in 2,493 controls; five individuals had two rare CNVs. We identified CNVs in genes previously implicated in other neurodevelopmental disorders, including two deletions in AUTS2 and one deletion in CNTNAP2. Therefore, our findings indicate that rare CNVs are likely to contribute to a broad range of generalized and focal epilepsies. In addition, we find that 2.9% of patients carry deletions at 15q11.2, 15q13.3, or 16p13.11, genomic hotspots previously associated with ID, autism, or schizophrenia. In summary, our findings suggest common etiological factors for seemingly diverse diseases such as ID, autism, schizophrenia, and epilepsy

An international clinical study of ability and disability in ADHD using the WHO-ICF framework

This is the fourth and final study designed to develop International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF, and children and youth version, ICF-CY) core sets for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). To investigate aspects of functioning and environment of individuals with ADHD as documented by the ICF-CY in clinical practice settings. An international cross-sectional multi-centre study was applied, involving nine units from eight countries: Denmark, Germany, India, Italy, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Sweden and Taiwan. Clinicians and clinical researchers rated the functioning level of 112 children, adolescents and adults with ADHD using the extended ICF-CY checklist version 2.1a. The ratings were based on a variety of information sources, such as medical records, medical history, clinical observations, clinical questionnaires, psychometric tests and structured interviews with participants and family members. In total, 113 ICF-CY categories were identified, of which 50 were related to the activities and participation, 33 to environmental factors and 30 to body functions. The clinical study also yielded strengths related to ADHD, which included temperament and personality functions and recreation and leisure. The study findings endorse the complex nature of ADHD, as evidenced by the many functional and contextual domains impacted in ADHD. ICF-CY based tools can serve as foundation for capturing various functional profiles and environmental facilitators and barriers. The international nature of the ICF-CY makes it possible to develop user-friendly tools that can be applied globally and in multiple settings, ranging from clinical services and policy-making to education and research

The Staphylococcus aureus RNome and Its Commitment to Virulence

Staphylococcus aureus is a major human pathogen causing a wide spectrum of nosocomial and community-associated infections with high morbidity and mortality. S. aureus generates a large number of virulence factors whose timing and expression levels are precisely tuned by regulatory proteins and RNAs. The aptitude of bacteria to use RNAs to rapidly modify gene expression, including virulence factors in response to stress or environmental changes, and to survive in a host is an evolving concept. Here, we focus on the recently inventoried S. aureus regulatory RNAs, with emphasis on those with identified functions, two of which are directly involved in pathogenicity