Crisis Visits and Psychiatric Hospitalizations Among Patients Attending a Community Clinic in Rural Southern California

Ethnic minorities from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds report increased utilization of mental health emergency services; however findings have been inconsistent across ethnic/racial groups. In this study we describe patients who present to a rural crisis unit in Southern California, examine rates of psychiatric hospitalizations across ethnic/racial groups, and investigate factors that are associated with increased psychiatric hospitalizations in this sample. This is a retrospective study of 451 racially and ethnically diverse patients attending a crisis unit in Imperial County, California. Chart review and data abstraction methods were used to characterize the sample and identify factors associated with psychiatric crises and subsequent hospitalizations. The sample was predominantly Latino/Hispanic (58.5%). Based on chart review, common psychosocial stressors which prompted a crisis center visit were: (a) financial problems; (b) homelessness; (c) partner or family conflict; (d) physical and health problems; (e) problems at school/work; (f) medication compliance; (g) aggressive behavior; (h) delusional behavior; (i) addiction and (j) anxiety/depression. Bivariate analyses revealed that Hispanics had a disproportionately lower rate of psychiatric hospitalizations while African Americans had a higher rate. Multivariate analyses which included demographic, clinical and psychosocial stressor variables revealed that being African American, having a psychotic disorder, and presenting as gravely disabled were associated with a higher likelihood of hospitalization while partner/family conflict was associated with a lesser likelihood in this rural community. These data elucidate the need for longitudinal studies to understand the interactions between psychosocial stressors, ethnicity and social support as determinants of psychiatric hospitalizations

Functional Analysis of the Two Brassica AP3 Genes Involved in Apetalous and Stamen Carpelloid Phenotypes

The Arabidopsis homeotic genes APETALA3 (AP3) and PISTILLATA (PI) are B genes which encode MADS-box transcription factors and specify petal and stamen identities. In the current study, the stamen carpelloid (SC) mutants, HGMS and AMS, of B. rapa and B. napus were investigated and two types of AP3 genes, B.AP3.a and B.AP3.b, were functional characterized. B.AP3.a and B.AP3.b share high similarity in amino acid sequences except for 8 residues difference located at the C-terminus. Loss of this 8 residues in B.AP3.b led to the change of PI-derived motifs. Meanwhile, B.AP3.a specified petal and stamen development, whereas B.AP3.b only specified stamen development. In B. rapa, the mutations of both genes generated the SC mutant HGMS. In B. napus that contained two B.AP3.a and two B.AP3.b, loss of the two B.AP3.a functions was the key reason for the apetalous mutation, however, the loss-of-function in all four AP3 was related to the SC mutant AMS. We inferred that the 8 residues or the PI-derived motif in AP3 gene probably relates to petal formation

Evidence for plunging river plume deposits in the Pahrump Hills member of the Murray formation, Gale crater, Mars

Recent robotic missions to Mars have offered new insights into the extent, diversity and habitability of the Martian sedimentary rock record. Since the Curiosity rover landed in Gale crater in August 2012, the Mars Science Laboratory Science Team has explored the origins and habitability of ancient fluvial, deltaic, lacustrine and aeolian deposits preserved within the crater. This study describes the sedimentology of a ca 13 m thick succession named the Pahrump Hills member of the Murray formation, the first thick fine‐grained deposit discovered in situ on Mars. This work evaluates the depositional processes responsible for its formation and reconstructs its palaeoenvironmental setting. The Pahrump Hills succession can be sub‐divided into four distinct sedimentary facies: (i) thinly laminated mudstone; (ii) low‐angle cross‐stratified mudstone; (iii) cross‐stratified sandstone; and (iv) thickly laminated mudstone–sandstone. The very fine grain size of the mudstone facies and abundant millimetre‐scale and sub‐millimetre‐scale laminations exhibiting quasi‐uniform thickness throughout the Pahrump Hills succession are most consistent with lacustrine deposition. Low‐angle geometric discordances in the mudstone facies are interpreted as ‘scour and drape’ structures and suggest the action of currents, such as those associated with hyperpycnal river‐generated plumes plunging into a lake. Observation of an overall upward coarsening in grain size and thickening of laminae throughout the Pahrump Hills succession is consistent with deposition from basinward progradation of a fluvial‐deltaic system derived from the northern crater rim into the Gale crater lake. Palaeohydraulic modelling constrains the salinity of the ancient lake in Gale crater: assuming river sediment concentrations typical of floods on Earth, plunging river plumes and sedimentary structures like those observed at Pahrump Hills would have required lake densities near freshwater to form. The depositional model for the Pahrump Hills member presented here implies the presence of an ancient sustained, habitable freshwater lake in Gale crater for at least ca 103 to 107 Earth years

The Formation of the First Massive Black Holes

Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) are common in local galactic nuclei, and SMBHs as massive as several billion solar masses already exist at redshift z=6. These earliest SMBHs may grow by the combination of radiation-pressure-limited accretion and mergers of stellar-mass seed BHs, left behind by the first generation of metal-free stars, or may be formed by more rapid direct collapse of gas in rare special environments where dense gas can accumulate without first fragmenting into stars. This chapter offers a review of these two competing scenarios, as well as some more exotic alternative ideas. It also briefly discusses how the different models may be distinguished in the future by observations with JWST, (e)LISA and other instruments.Comment: 47 pages with 306 references; this review is a chapter in "The First Galaxies - Theoretical Predictions and Observational Clues", Springer Astrophysics and Space Science Library, Eds. T. Wiklind, V. Bromm & B. Mobasher, in pres

Deoxygedunin, a Natural Product with Potent Neurotrophic Activity in Mice

Gedunin, a family of natural products from the Indian neem tree, possess a variety of biological activities. Here we report the discovery of deoxygedunin, which activates the mouse TrkB receptor and its downstream signaling cascades. Deoxygedunin is orally available and activates TrkB in mouse brain in a BDNF-independent way. Strikingly, it prevents the degeneration of vestibular ganglion in BDNF −/− pups. Moreover, deoxygedunin robustly protects rat neurons from cell death in a TrkB-dependent manner. Further, administration of deoxygedunin into mice displays potent neuroprotective, anti-depressant and learning enhancement effects, all of which are mediated by the TrkB receptor. Hence, deoxygedunin imitates BDNF's biological activities through activating TrkB, providing a powerful therapeutic tool for treatment of various neurological diseases

Dementia as a determinant of social and health service use in the last two years of life 1996-2003

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Dementia is one of the most common causes of death among old people in Finland and other countries with high life expectancies. Dementing illnesses are the most important disease group behind the need for long-term care and therefore place a considerable burden on the health and social care system. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of dementia and year of death (1998-2003) on health and social service use in the last two years of life among old people.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The data were derived from multiple national registers in Finland and comprise all those who died in 1998, 2002 or 2003 and 40% of those who died in 1999-2001 at the age of 70 or over (n = 145 944). We studied the use of hospitals, long-term care and home care in the last two years of life. Statistics were performed using binary logistic regression analyses and negative binomial regression analyses, adjusting for age, gender and comorbidity.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The proportion of study participants with a dementia diagnosis was 23.5%. People with dementia diagnosis used long-term care more often (OR 9.30, 95% CI 8.60, 10.06) but hospital (OR 0.33, 95% CI 0.31, 0.35) and home care (OR 0.50, 95% CI 0.46, 0.54) less often than people without dementia. The likelihood of using university hospital and long-term care increased during the eight-year study period, while the number of days spent in university and general hospital among the users decreased. Differences in service use between people with and without dementia decreased during the study period.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Old people with dementia used long-term care to a much greater extent and hospital and home care to a lesser extent than those without dementia. This difference persisted even when controlling for age, gender and comorbidity. It is important that greater attention is paid to ensuring that old people with dementia have equitable access to care.</p

Island Invasion by a Threatened Tree Species: Evidence for Natural Enemy Release of Mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) on Dominica, Lesser Antilles

Despite its appeal to explain plant invasions, the enemy release hypothesis (ERH) remains largely unexplored for tropical forest trees. Even scarcer are ERH studies conducted on the same host species at both the community and biogeographical scale, irrespective of the system or plant life form. In Cabrits National Park, Dominica, we observed patterns consistent with enemy release of two introduced, congeneric mahogany species, Swietenia macrophylla and S. mahagoni, planted almost 50 years ago. Swietenia populations at Cabrits have reproduced, with S. macrophylla juveniles established in and out of plantation areas at densities much higher than observed in its native range. Swietenia macrophylla juveniles also experienced significantly lower leaf-level herbivory (∼3.0%) than nine co-occurring species native to Dominica (8.4–21.8%), and far lower than conspecific herbivory observed in its native range (11%–43%, on average). These complimentary findings at multiple scales support ERH, and confirm that Swietenia has naturalized at Cabrits. However, Swietenia abundance was positively correlated with native plant diversity at the seedling stage, and only marginally negatively correlated with native plant abundance for stems ≥1-cm dbh. Taken together, these descriptive patterns point to relaxed enemy pressure from specialized enemies, specifically the defoliator Steniscadia poliophaea and the shoot-borer Hypsipyla grandella, as a leading explanation for the enhanced recruitment of Swietenia trees documented at Cabrits

Enhanced Botrytis cinerea resistance of Arabidopsis plants grown in compost may be explained by increased expression of defense-related genes, as revealed by microarray analysis

Composts are the products obtained after the aerobic degradation of different types of organic matter waste and can be used as substrates or substrate/soil amendments for plant cultivation. There is a small but increasing number of reports that suggest that foliar diseases may be reduced when using compost, rather than standard substrates, as growing medium. The purpose of this study was to examine the gene expression alteration produced by the compost to gain knowledge of the mechanisms involved in compost-induced systemic resistance. A compost from olive marc and olive tree leaves was able to induce resistance against Botrytis cinerea in Arabidopsis, unlike the standard substrate, perlite. Microarray analyses revealed that 178 genes were differently expressed, with a fold change cut-off of 1, of which 155 were up-regulated and 23 were down-regulated in compost-grown, as against perlite-grown plants. A functional enrichment study of up-regulated genes revealed that 38 Gene Ontology terms were significantly enriched. Response to stress, biotic stimulus, other organism, bacterium, fungus, chemical and abiotic stimulus, SA and ABA stimulus, oxidative stress, water, temperature and cold were significantly enriched, as were immune and defense responses, systemic acquired resistance, secondary metabolic process and oxireductase activity. Interestingly, PR1 expression, which was equally enhanced by growing the plants in compost and by B. cinerea inoculation, was further boosted in compost-grown pathogen-inoculated plants. Compost triggered a plant response that shares similarities with both systemic acquired resistance and ABA-dependent/independent abiotic stress responses