Psychometric evaluation of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale in a large community sample of adolescents in Hong Kong

Purpose: The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) is widely used in adult populations; however, its usefulness with adolescents has been explored less. This study sought to evaluate the reliability, validity, and factor structure of the Chinese version of HADS in a community sample of adolescents residing in Hong Kong. Methods: A prospective cohort of 5,857 students recruited from 17 secondary schools completed the HADS. Internal consistency and concurrent validity were examined. Confirmatory factor analysis was applied to test the relative fits of six factor structures of the HADS. The best fitting model was further cross-validated by male, female, splithalf samples, and age subgroups. Results: The HADS possessed adequate internal consistency, especially for the anxiety subscale. Significant concurrent intercorrelations with self-reported suicidal thoughts and the Youth Self Report Anxious/Depressed subscale were discovered and found to be stronger for females. The cross-validation supported a two-factor model, where anxiety item 7, "I can sit at ease and feel relaxed", was placed in the depression subscale. Conclusions: The HADS showed satisfactory psychometric properties as a screening instrument in assessing anxious and depressive states as two correlated but distinct factors in adolescents. Study implications and recommendations for future research were discussed.published_or_final_versionSpringer Open Choice, 21 Feb 201

A westward extension of the warm pool leads to a westward extension of the Walker circulation, drying eastern Africa

Observations and simulations link anthropogenic greenhouse and aerosol emissions with rapidly increasing Indian Ocean sea surface temperatures (SSTs). Over the past 60 years, the Indian Ocean warmed two to three times faster than the central tropical Pacific, extending the tropical warm pool to the west by ~40° longitude (><4,000 km). This propensity toward rapid warming in the Indian Ocean has been the dominant mode of interannual variability among SSTs throughout the tropical Indian and Pacific Oceans (55°E–140°W) since at least 1948, explaining more variance than anomalies associated with the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). In the atmosphere, the primary mode of variability has been a corresponding trend toward greatly increased convection and precipitation over the tropical Indian Ocean. The temperature and rainfall increases in this region have produced a westward extension of the western, ascending branch of the atmospheric Walker circulation. Diabatic heating due to increased mid-tropospheric water vapor condensation elicits a westward atmospheric response that sends an easterly flow of dry air aloft toward eastern Africa. In recent decades (1980–2009), this response has suppressed convection over tropical eastern Africa, decreasing precipitation during the ‘long-rains’ season of March–June. This trend toward drought contrasts with projections of increased rainfall in eastern Africa and more ‘El Niño-like’ conditions globally by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Increased Indian Ocean SSTs appear likely to continue to strongly modulate the Warm Pool circulation, reducing precipitation in eastern Africa, regardless of whether the projected trend in ENSO is realized. These results have important food security implications, informing agricultural development, environmental conservation, and water resource planning

Global molecular diversity of RSV - the "INFORM RSV" study

Background: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a global cause of severe respiratory morbidity and mortality in infants. While preventive and therapeutic interventions are being developed, including antivirals, vaccines and monoclonal antibodies, little is known about the global molecular epidemiology of RSV. INFORM is a prospective, multicenter, global clinical study performed by ReSViNET to investigate the worldwide molecular diversity of RSV isolates collected from children less than 5 years of age. Methods: The INFORM study is performed in 17 countries spanning all inhabited continents and will provide insight into the molecular epidemiology of circulating RSV strains worldwide. Sequencing of > 4000 RSV-positive respiratory samples is planned to detect temporal and geographical molecular patterns on a molecular level over five consecutive years. Additionally, RSV will be cultured from a subset of samples to study the functional implications of specific mutations in the viral genome including viral fitness and susceptibility to different monoclonal antibodies. Discussion: The sequencing and functional results will be used to investigate susceptibility and resistance to novel RSV preventive or therapeutic interventions. Finally, a repository of globally collected RSV strains and a database of RSV sequences will be created.</div

Meta-omics approaches to understand and improve wastewater treatment systems

Biological treatment of wastewaters depends on microbial processes, usually carried out by mixed microbial communities. Environmental and operational factors can affect microorganisms and/or impact microbial community function, and this has repercussion in bioreactor performance. Novel high-throughput molecular methods (metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, metaproteomics, metabolomics) are providing detailed knowledge on the microorganisms governing wastewater treatment systems and on their metabolic capabilities. The genomes of uncultured microbes with key roles in wastewater treatment plants (WWTP), such as the polyphosphate-accumulating microorganism Candidatus Accumulibacter phosphatis, the nitrite oxidizer Candidatus Nitrospira defluvii or the anammox bacterium Candidatus Kuenenia stuttgartiensis are now available through metagenomic studies. Metagenomics allows to genetically characterize full-scale WWTP and provides information on the lifestyles and physiology of key microorganisms for wastewater treatment. Integrating metagenomic data of microorganisms with metatranscriptomic, metaproteomic and metabolomic information provides a better understanding of the microbial responses to perturbations or environmental variations. Data integration may allow the creation of predictive behavior models of wastewater ecosystems, which could help in an improved exploitation of microbial processes. This review discusses the impact of meta-omic approaches on the understanding of wastewater treatment processes, and the implications of these methods for the optimization and design of wastewater treatment bioreactors.Research was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (Contract Project CTQ2007-64324 and CONSOLIDER-CSD 2007-00055) and the Regional Government of Castilla y Leon (Ref. VA038A07). Research of AJMS is supported by the European Research Council (Grant 323009

Physicochemical Characterization of Passive Films and Corrosion Layers by Differential Admittance and Photocurrent Spectroscopy

Two different electrochemical techniques, differential admittance and photocurrent spectroscopy, for the characterization of electronic and solid state properties of passive films and corrosion layers are described and critically evaluated. In order to get information on the electronic properties of passive film and corrosion layers as well as the necessary information to locate the characteristic energy levels of the passive film/electrolyte junction like: flat band potential (Ufb), conduction band edge (EC) or valence band edge (EV), a wide use of Mott-Schottky plots is usually reported in corrosion science and passivity studies. It has been shown, in several papers, that the use of simple M-S theory to get information on the electronic properties and energy levels location at the film/electrolyte interface can be seriously misleading and/or conflicting with the physical basis underlying the M-S theory. A critical appraisal of this approach to the study of very thin and thick anodic passive film grown on base-metals (Cr, Ni, Fe, SS etc..) or on valve metals (Ta, Nb, W etc..) is reported in this work, together with possible alternative approach to overcome some of the mentioned inconsistencies. At this aim the theory of amorphous semiconductor Schottky barrier, introduced several years ago in the study of passive film/electrolyte junction, is reviewed by taking into account some of the more recent results obtained by the present authors. Future developments of the theory appears necessary to get more exact quantitative information on the electronic properties of passive films, specially in the case of very thin film like those formed on base metals and their alloys. The second technique described in this chapter, devoted to the physico-chemical characterization of passive film and corrosion layers, is a more recent technique based on the analysis of the photo-electrochemical answer of passive film/electrolyte junction under illumination with photons having suitable energy. Such a technique usually referred to as Photocurrent Spectroscopy (PCS) has been developed on the basis of the large research effort carried out by several groups in the 1970’s and aimed to investigate the possible conversion of solar energy by means of electrochemical cells. In this work the fundamentals of semiconductor/electrolyte junctions under illumination will be highlighted both for crystalline and amorphous materials. The role of amorphous nature and film thickness on the photo-electrochemical answer of passive film/solution interface is reviewed as well the use of PCS for quantitative analysis of the film composition based on a semi-empirical correlation between optical band gap and difference of electronegativity of film constituents previously suggested by the present authors. In this frame the results of PCS studies on valve metal oxides and valve metal mixed oxides will be discussed in order to show the validity of the proposed method. The results of PCS studies aimed to get information on passive film composition and carried out by different authors on base metals (Fe, Cr, Ni) and their alloys, including stainless steel, will be also compared with compositional analysis carried out by well-established surface analysis techniques