Preliminary Evidence That CD38 Moderates the Association of Neuroticism on Amygdala-Subgenual Cingulate Connectivity.

CD38 genetic variation has been associated with autism spectrum disorders and social anxiety disorder, which may result from CD38's regulation of oxytocin secretion. Converging evidence has found that the rs3796863 A-allele contributes to increased social sensitivity compared to the CC genotype. The current study examined the moderating role of CD38 genetic variants (rs3796863 and rs6449182) that have been associated with enhanced (or reduced) social sensitivity on neural activation related to neuroticism, which is commonly elevated in individuals with social anxiety and depression. Adults (n = 72) with varying levels of social anxiety and depression provided biological samples for DNA extraction, completed a measure of neuroticism, and participated in a standardized emotion processing task (affect matching) while undergoing fMRI. A significant interaction effect was found for rs3796863 x neuroticism that predicted right amygdala-subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) functional connectivity. Simple slopes analyses showed a positive association between neuroticism and right amygdala-sgACC connectivity among rs3796863 A-allele carriers. Findings suggest that the more socially sensitive rs3796863 A-allele may partially explain the relationship between a known risk factor (i.e. neuroticism) and promising biomarker (i.e. amygdala-sgACC connectivity) in the development and maintenance of social anxiety and depression

Needs, expectations and consequences for the child growing up in a family with a parent with mental illness

Parental mental illness is considered one of the strongest risk-factors for development of offspring psychopathology. The lack of pan-European guidelines for empowering children of parents with mental illness led to EU project CAMILLE - Empowerment of Children and Adolescents of Mentally Ill Parents through Training of Professionals working with children and adolescents. The first task in this project, was to analyse needs, expectations and consequences for children, with respect to living with a parent with mental illness. The aim this paper is to report results of these analyses. The qualitative research was conducted in England, Finland, Germany, Italy, Norway, Poland and Scotland (N=96). There were 3 types of focus groups: (1) professionals (doctors, nurses, psychologists, social workers), (2) adult children and partners of a person with mental illness, (3) parents who have experienced mental illness during their parenthood. Framework analysis method was used. Results of the study highlighted that the main consequences for children of parental mental illness were role reversal, emotional and behavioural problems, lack of parent’s attention and stigma. The main needs of these children were emotional support, security and multidisciplinary help. Implications for practice are: (1) professionals working with parents with mental illness should be aware of the specific consequences for the children; (2) to empower children they should focus on them, but not excluding parents from the parental roles; (3) the multi-agency collaboration is necessary; (4) schools should provide counselling and teach staff and students about mental health problems to reduce stigm

Phylogeography of Rattus norvegicus in the South Atlantic Ocean

Acknowledgments Funding for sample collection was provided by the Shackleton Scholarship Fund, Antarctic Research Trust, the Wyoming Biodiversity Institute, PVE/CAPES (Proposal 235453) and Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (SFRH/BPD/88854/2012). Thanks to Martin Collins, Andy Black, Darren Christie and the Government of South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands for the provision of samples from South Georgia, Annalea Beard for providing the rat sample from St Helena Island, Joaquim Tapisso, Rita Monarca and Ana Cerveira for samples from Portugal, and Emily Puckett for help validating South American SNP haplotypes. Funding for DNA sequencing was provided by Island LandCare, the University of Auckland. Thanks to two anonymous reviewers for the constructive comments.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Health promotion and prevention from modern-age diseases as assessed by nurses

Wstęp. Promocja zdrowia jest sposobem na utrzymanie zdrowia i jego rozwijanie. Zadaniem promocji zdrowia jest wyposażenie społeczeństwa w wiedzę oraz w umiejętności podnoszenia stanu zdrowia i jego kontroli. Chcąc sprawdzić jak mechanizmy prozdrowotne funkcjonują w Polsce podjęto badania w grupie pielęgniarek, których celem była: ocena działalności instytucji medycznych w promowaniu zdrowia i prewencji chorób wśród pacjentów, ocena zaangażowana personelu medycznego w promowanie zdrowia i profilaktykę chorób cywilizacyjnych w placówce medycznej, ustalenie zagadnień priorytetowych związanych promocją i prewencją zdrowia, wytypowanie zmian w ochronie zdrowia służących polepszeniu sytuacji zdrowotnej pacjentów. Materiał i metoda. Metodą wykorzystaną w pracy był sondaż diagnostyczny, natomiast narzędziem badawczym kwestionariusz ankiety autorstwa własnego. Kwestionariusz zawierał 30 pytań. Badanie przeprowadzono wśród 50 losowo wybranych pielęgniarek, pracujących w jednym ze szpitali województwa mazowieckiego. Badanie zostało przeprowadzone w terminie od 1 do 31 lipca 2011r. Wyniki i wnioski. Według respondentów instytucje medyczne w niewystarczający sposób działają w kierunku promowania zdrowia oraz profilaktyki chorób cywilizacyjnych. Przeprowadzone przez nas badania wykazały, że w przeważającej większości personel pielęgniarski jest zaangażowany w szerzenie promocji i profilaktyki cho-rób cywilizacyjnych wśród pacjentów przebywających w szpitalu. Jednocześnie pielęgniarki wskazały na następujące zagadnienia mogące podwyższyć skuteczność działań prozdrowotnych, jest to: zwiększenie wiedzy społecznej na temat zdrowego stylu życia (30%), profilaktyki zdrowia, walki z istniejącymi chorobami i rozpowszechnienia badań okresowych ( na trzy ostatnie oddało głos po 22% ankietowanych). Respondenci podkreślają jednocześnie, że dla polepszenia sytuacji pacjenta należałoby zmienić sposób finansowania w NFZ, zwiększyć budżet na ochronę zdrowia oraz dostępność do specjalistów oraz diagnostyki.Introduction. Health promotion is a way to maintain a healthy condition and develop it further. The objective of health promotion is ensuring that society has the knowledge on improving their condition in terms of health as well as skills sufficient to put it to use. In order to investigate how the health promotion mechanisms work in Poland, a research in the group of nurses was taken up. Its purpose was: to assess the medical institution activity related to health promotion and prevention from patients’ illnesses; to assess the medical staff’s involvement in health promotion and the prevention form modernage diseases in a medical facility; to settle on priorities related to health promotion; to propose changes to be made in the health defence system that could lead to increasing patients’ quality of life. The material and the method. The method utilized in this work was diagnostic poll, while the research instrument was a survey prepared by the author. It contained 30 questions. The research was run on 50 randomly chosen nurses working in one of the hospitals in the Ma-zowieckie province. The research time was July 1st to July 31st, 2011. The results and conclusions. According to the responders, medical institutions’ actions for the sake of health promotion and prevention of modernage diseases are insufficient. Our research has indicated that the straight majority of nursing staff is involved in the promotion of health and prevention of modernage diseases among the hospital patients. At the same time the nurses indicated several improvements that could increase the effectiveness of health promotion. These are: increasing the knowledge on healthy lifestyle (30%), health-oriented prevention measures, the fight against existing illness and popularizing periodical medical tests (22% of responders voted for the three latter ones in each case). The responders have at the same time underlined that in order to help improve a patient’s situation, the National Health Fund (NFZ) financing system should change, the health protection budget should be increases and so should be the availability of diagnostic resources and experts.

The role of a nurse in the prevention of HIV infection

Zadania stawiane przed pielęgniarkami w zakresie profilaktyki HIV skłaniają do zastanowienia się, w jakim stopniu partnerami w tych działaniach mogą być sami nosiciele wirusa HIV, a także młodzież. Dla wyjaśnienia tych wątpliwości autorzy podjęli badania własne, których celem było określenie stanu wiedzy grup badanych nosicieli wirusa HIV oraz młodzieży gimnazjalnej na temat zakażenia wirusem HIV. Materiał i metody. W badaniach udział wzięło 31 nosicieli wirusa HIV hospitalizowanych w jednym z warszawskich szpitali oraz 58 uczniów I klasy jednego z warszawskich gimnazjów. W badaniu posłużono się metodą sondażu diagnostycznego, techniką była autor-ska ankieta służąca ocenie stanu wiedzy na temat HIV. Wyniki i wnioski. Stan wiedzy na temat zakażenia HIV w grupie nosicieli wirusa jest wysoki, mimo to wymaga jeszcze uzupełnienia wiedzy. Wśród młodzieży natomiast wiedza jest obarczona wieloma mitami i negatywnymi stereotypami, co oznacza, że młodzież wymaga stałej edukacji w kierunku profilaktyki HIV/AIDS.The tasks that are expected of nurses as far as HIV prevention is concerned make one wonder to what degree HIV carriers and youth can partner those tasks. In order to clear those doubts the authors undertaken their self-developed research whose objective was to evaluate the state of knowledge on HIV infection among the interviewed HIV carriers and junior high school students. Materials and methods. 31 HIV carriers hospitalized in one of the hospitals in Warsaw and 58 1st grade students in one of the junior schools in Warsaw took part in the research. The diagnostic poll method was used, the research tool being a self-developed question-naire whose purpose was to assess the level of knowledge on HIV. Results and conclusion. The level of knowledge on HIV infection is high among HIV carriers; nevertheless, their knowledge still needs to be broadened. Among the youth there are many myths and negative stereotypes incorporated in the knowledge, which means that there is a need for constant education of youth on HIV/AIDS prevention

The Bubble regime of laser-plasma acceleration: monoenergetic electrons and the scalability

The Bubble regime of electron acceleration in ultra-relativistic laser plasma is considered. It has been shown that the bubble can produce ultra-short dense bunches of electrons with quasi-monoenergetic energy spectra. The first experiment in this regime done at LOA has confirmed the peaked electron spectrum (J. Faure, et al., {\it submitted}, 2004). The generated electron bunch may have density an order of magnitude higher than that of the background plasma. The bubble is able to guide the laser pulse over many Rayleigh lengths, thus no preformed plasma channel is needed for high-energy particle acceleration in the bubble regime. In the present work we discuss a simple analytical model for the bubble fields as well as the scaling laws.Comment: accepted for publication in Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, 200

Diagnostic value of combined serum biomarkers for the evaluation of liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis C infection: A multicenter, noninterventional, observational study

Background/Aims: The hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is important cause of chronic hepatitis. Liver biopsy is considered the gold standard for assessment of fibrosis but this procedure is an invasive procedure. We aimed to evaluate the diagnostic efficiency of non-invasive serum biomarkers, separately and in combinations, on liver fibrosis in treatment-naive chronic hepatitis C (CHC) patients. Materials and Methods: Two hundred and sixteen treatment-naive CHC patients were enrolled from 32 locations across Turkey in this open-labelled, non-interventional prospective observational study. FibroTest®, aspartate aminotransferase-to-platelet ratio index(APRI), aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase ratio (AAR), fibrosis index based on four factors (FIB-4), Age-platelet(AP) index and Forns index were measured and compared with Metavir scores got from liver biopsies. Results: Data from 182 patients with baseline liver biopsy were suitable for analysis. One hundred and twenty patients (65.9%) had F0-F1 fibrosis and 62 patients (34.1%) had F2-F4 fibrosis. APRI 0.732 area under the curve(AUC) indicated advanced fibrosis with 69% sensitivity and 77% specificity. FIB-4 0.732 AUC and FibroTest 0.715 AUC indicated advanced fibrosis with 69% and 78.4% sensitivity, and 75% and 71.4% specificity, respectively. The combined use of tests also led to an increase in AUC and specificity. Combinations of FibroTest with APRI and/or FIB-4, and FIB-4 with APRI were optimal for the evaluation of liver fibrosis. Conclusion: Fibrotest, FIB-4, APRI, AP index and Forns index exhibit good diagnostic performance for determining liver fibrosis in CHC patients, and the use of at least two tests together will increase their diagnostic value still further. © Copyright 2018 by The Turkish Society of Gastroenterology

Zettawatt-Exawatt Lasers and Their Applications in Ultrastrong-Field Physics: High Energy Front

Since its birth, the laser has been extraordinarily effective in the study and applications of laser-matter interaction at the atomic and molecular level and in the nonlinear optics of the bound electron. In its early life, the laser was associated with the physics of electron volts and of the chemical bond. Over the past fifteen years, however, we have seen a surge in our ability to produce high intensities, five to six orders of magnitude higher than was possible before. At these intensities, particles, electrons and protons, acquire kinetic energy in the mega-electron-volt range through interaction with intense laser fields. This opens a new age for the laser, the age of nonlinear relativistic optics coupling even with nuclear physics. We suggest a path to reach an extremely high-intensity level $10^{26-28}$W/cm$^2$ in the coming decade, much beyond the current and near future intensity regime $10^{23}$W/cm$^2$, taking advantage of the megajoule laser facilities. Such a laser at extreme high intensity could accelerate particles to frontiers of high energy, tera-electron-volt and peta-electron-volt, and would become a tool of fundamental physics encompassing particle physics, gravitational physics, nonlinear field theory, ultrahigh-pressure physics, astrophysics, and cosmology. We focus our attention on high-energy applications in particular and the possibility of merged reinforcement of high-energy physics and ultraintense laser.Comment: 25 pages. 1 figur

Electromagnetic energy penetration in the self-induced transparency regime of relativistic laser-plasma interactions

Two scenarios for the penetration of relativistically intense laser radiation into an overdense plasma, accessible by self-induced transparency, are presented. For supercritical densities less than 1.5 times the critical one, penetration of laser energy occurs by soliton-like structures moving into the plasma. At higher background densities laser light penetrates over a finite length only, that increases with the incident intensity. In this regime plasma-field structures represent alternating electron layers separated by about half a wavelength by depleted regions.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, submitted for publication to PR

Collaboration scripts - a conceptual analysis

This article presents a conceptual analysis of collaboration scripts used in face-to-face and computer-mediated collaborative learning. Collaboration scripts are scaffolds that aim to improve collaboration through structuring the interactive processes between two or more learning partners. Collaboration scripts consist of at least five components: (a) learning objectives, (b) type of activities, (c) sequencing, (d) role distribution, and (e) type of representation. These components serve as a basis for comparing prototypical collaboration script approaches for face-to-face vs. computer-mediated learning. As our analysis reveals, collaboration scripts for face-to-face learning often focus on supporting collaborators in engaging in activities that are specifically related to individual knowledge acquisition. Scripts for computer-mediated collaboration are typically concerned with facilitating communicative-coordinative processes that occur among group members. The two lines of research can be consolidated to facilitate the design of collaboration scripts, which both support participation and coordination, as well as induce learning activities closely related to individual knowledge acquisition and metacognition. In addition, research on collaboration scripts needs to consider the learners’ internal collaboration scripts as a further determinant of collaboration behavior. The article closes with the presentation of a conceptual framework incorporating both external and internal collaboration scripts