Implementing psychiatric day treatment for infants, toddlers, preschoolers and their families: a study from a clinical and organizational perspective

Background: An increasing number of empirical studies indicate that infants, toddlers and preschoolers may suffer from non-transient mental illnesses featuring developmental psychopathology. A few innovative child psychiatric approaches have been developed to treat infants, toddlers and preschoolers and their families, but have not yet been conceptually presented and discussed in the framework of different healthcare systems. The organizational and clinical experience gained while developing specific approaches may be important across disciplines and guide future developments in psychiatric treatment of infants, toddlers, preschoolers and their families. Results: This article introduces the Preschool Family Day Hospital for Infants, Toddlers and Preschoolers and their Families at Münster University Hospital, Germany. This hospital is unique in the German healthcare system with regard to its social-service institution division of labor. Specifically, it uses an intermittent treatment approach and an integrated interactional family psychiatric approach to treat children and their parents as separate patients. This multidisciplinary, developmentally and family-oriented approach includes components of group treatments with children and separate treatments with parents. Specific techniques include video-assisted treatments of the parent–child interaction, psychiatric and psychotherapeutic treatments for parents, and conjoint family therapies that include both parents and siblings. Conclusions: The Family Day Hospital for infants, toddlers and preschoolers and their families offers innovative family-oriented treatments for those who suffer from a wide range of severe child psychiatric disorders that cannot be sufficiently treated in outpatient settings. Treatment is based on the need for family-oriented approaches to the early psychiatric treatment of infants, toddlers and preschoolers. Family day hospitals are an innovative approach to preschool child psychiatry that requires further evaluation.<br

Non-invasive detection of animal nerve impulses with an atomic magnetometer operating near quantum limited sensitivity

Magnetic fields generated by human and animal organs, such as the heart, brain and nervous system carry information useful for biological and medical purposes. These magnetic fields are most commonly detected using cryogenically-cooled superconducting magnetometers. Here we present the frst detection of action potentials from an animal nerve using an optical atomic magnetometer. Using an optimal design we are able to achieve the sensitivity dominated by the quantum shot noise of light and quantum projection noise of atomic spins. Such sensitivity allows us to measure the nerve impulse with a miniature room-temperature sensor which is a critical advantage for biomedical applications. Positioning the sensor at a distance of a few millimeters from the nerve, corresponding to the distance between the skin and nerves in biological studies, we detect the magnetic field generated by an action potential of a frog sciatic nerve. From the magnetic field measurements we determine the activity of the nerve and the temporal shape of the nerve impulse. This work opens new ways towards implementing optical magnetometers as practical devices for medical diagnostics.Comment: Main text with figures, and methods and supplementary informatio

Multi Mode Interferometer for Guided Matter Waves

We describe the fundamental features of an interferometer for guided matter waves based on Y-beam splitters and show that, in a quasi two-dimensional regime, such a device exhibits high contrast fringes even in a multi mode regime and fed from a thermal source.Comment: Final version (accepted to PRL

Experimental Demonstration of ML-Based DWDM System Margin Estimation

SNR margins between partially and fully loaded DWDM systems are estimated without detailed knowledge of the network. The ML model, trained on simulation data, achieves accurate predictions on experimental data with an RMSE of 0.16 dB.Comment: This work has been partially funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research in the CELTIC-NEXT project AI-NET-PROTECT (#16KIS1279K) and in the programme of "Souver\"an. Digital. Vernetzt." joint project 6G-life (#16KISK002). Work was also funded by Science Foundation Ireland projects OpenIreland (18/RI/5721) and 13/RC/2077 p

Pharmacokinetics and biodistribution of Erufosine in nude mice - implications for combination with radiotherapy

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Alkylphosphocholines represent promising antineoplastic drugs that induce cell death in tumor cells by primary interaction with the cell membrane. Recently we could show that a combination of radiotherapy with Erufosine, a paradigmatic intravenously applicable alkylphosphocholine, <it>in vitro </it>leads to a clear increase of irradiation-induced cell death. In view of a possible combination of Erufosine and radiotherapy <it>in vivo </it>we determined the pharmacokinetics and bioavailability as well as the tolerability of Erufosine in nude mice.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>NMRI (nu/nu) nude mice were treated by intraperitoneal or subcutaneous injections of 5 to 40 mg/kg body weight Erufosine every 48 h for one to three weeks. Erufosine-concentrations were measured in brain, lungs, liver, small intestine, colon, spleen, kidney, stomach, adipoid tissue, and muscle by tandem-mass spectroscopy. Weight course, blood cell count and clinical chemistry were analyzed to evaluate general toxicity.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Intraperitoneal injections were generally well tolerated in all dose groups but led to a transient loss of the bodyweight (<10%) in a dose dependent manner. Subcutaneous injections of high-dose Erufosine caused local reactions at the injection site. Therefore, this regimen at 40 mg/kg body weight Erufosine was stopped after 14 days. No gross changes were observed in organ weight, clinical chemistry and white blood cell count in treated compared to untreated controls except for a moderate increase in lactate dehydrogenase and aspartate-aminotransferase after intensive treatment. Repeated Erufosine injections resulted in drug-accumulation in different organs with maximum concentrations of about 1000 nmol/g in spleen, kidney and lungs.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Erufosine was well tolerated and organ-concentrations surpassed the cytotoxic drug concentrations <it>in vitro</it>. Our investigations establish the basis for a future efficacy testing of Erufosine in xenograft tumor models in nude mice alone and in combination with chemo- or radiotherapy.</p

Inter-rater reliability and aspects of validity of the parent-infant relationship global assessment scale (PIR-GAS)

Background: The Parent-Infant Relationship Global Assessment Scale (PIR-GAS) signifies a conceptually relevant development in the multi-axial, developmentally sensitive classification system DC:0-3R for preschool children. However, information about the reliability and validity of the PIR-GAS is rare. A review of the available empirical studies suggests that in research, PIR-GAS ratings can be based on a ten-minute videotaped interaction sequence. The qualification of raters may be very heterogeneous across studies. Methods: To test whether the use of the PIR-GAS still allows for a reliable assessment of the parent-infant relationship, our study compared a PIR-GAS ratings based on a full-information procedure across multiple settings with ratings based on a ten-minute video by two doctoral candidates of medicine. For each mother-child dyad at a family day hospital (N = 48), we obtained two video ratings and one full-information rating at admission to therapy and at discharge. This pre-post design allowed for a replication of our findings across the two measurement points. We focused on the inter-rater reliability between the video coders, as well as between the video and full-information procedure, including mean differences and correlations between the raters. Additionally, we examined aspects of the validity of video and full-information ratings based on their correlation with measures of child and maternal psychopathology. Results: Our results showed that a ten-minute video and full-information PIR-GAS ratings were not interchangeable. Most results at admission could be replicated by the data obtained at discharge. We concluded that a higher degree of standardization of the assessment procedure should increase the reliability of the PIR-GAS, and a more thorough theoretical foundation of the manual should increase its validity. <br

Statistical Physics and Light-Front Quantization

Light-front quantization has important advantages for describing relativistic statistical systems, particularly systems for which boost invariance is essential, such as the fireball created in a heavy ion collisions. In this paper we develop light-front field theory at finite temperature and density with special attention to quantum chromodynamics. We construct the most general form of the statistical operator allowed by the Poincare algebra and show that there are no zero-mode related problems when describing phase transitions. We then demonstrate a direct connection between densities in light-front thermal field theory and the parton distributions measured in hard scattering experiments. Our approach thus generalizes the concept of a parton distribution to finite temperature. In light-front quantization, the gauge-invariant Green's functions of a quark in a medium can be defined in terms of just 2-component spinors and have a much simpler spinor structure than the equal-time fermion propagator. From the Green's function, we introduce the new concept of a light-front density matrix, whose matrix elements are related to forward and to off-diagonal parton distributions. Furthermore, we explain how thermodynamic quantities can be calculated in discretized light-cone quantization, which is applicable at high chemical potential and is not plagued by the fermion-doubling problem.Comment: 30 pages, 3 figures; v2: Refs. added, minor changes, accepted for publication in PR

A genetic validation study reveals a role of vitamin D metabolism in the response to interferon-alfa-based therapy of chronic hepatitis C

Background: To perform a comprehensive study on the relationship between vitamin D metabolism and the response to interferon-α-based therapy of chronic hepatitis C. Methodology/Principal Findings: Associations between a functionally relevant polymorphism in the gene encoding the vitamin D 1α-hydroxylase (CYP27B1-1260 rs10877012) and the response to treatment with pegylated interferon-α (PEG-IFN-α) and ribavirin were determined in 701 patients with chronic hepatitis C. In addition, associations between serum concentrations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 (25[OH]D3) and treatment outcome were analysed. CYP27B1-1260 rs10877012 was found to be an independent predictor of sustained virologic response (SVR) in patients with poor-response IL28B genotypes (15% difference in SVR for rs10877012 genotype AA vs. CC, p = 0.02, OR = 1.52, 95% CI = 1.061–2.188), but not in patients with favourable IL28B genotype. Patients with chronic hepatitis C showed a high prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency (25[OH]D3<20 ng/mL) during all seasons, but 25(OH)D3 serum levels were not associated with treatment outcome. Conclusions/Significance: Our study suggests a role of bioactive vitamin D (1,25[OH]2D3, calcitriol) in the response to treatment of chronic hepatitis C. However, serum concentration of the calcitriol precursor 25(OH)D3 is not a suitable predictor of treatment outcome

Dispersal ability, trophic position and body size mediate species turnover processes: Insights from a multi‐taxa and multi‐scale approach

Aim: Despite increasing interest in β-diversity, that is the spatial and temporal turno-ver of species, the mechanisms underlying species turnover at different spatial scales are not fully understood, although they likely differ among different functional groups. We investigated the relative importance of dispersal limitations and the en-vironmental filtering caused by vegetation for local, multi-taxa forest communities differing in their dispersal ability, trophic position and body size.Location: Temperate forests in five regions across Germany.Methods: In the inter-region analysis, the independent and shared effects of the re-gional spatial structure (regional species pool), landscape spatial structure (dispersal limitation) and environmental factors on species turnover were quantified with a 1-ha grain across 11 functional groups in up to 495 plots by variation partitioning. In the intra-region analysis, the relative importance of three environmental factors related to vegetation (herb and tree layer composition and forest physiognomy) and spatial structure for species turnover was determined.Results: In the inter-region analysis, over half of the explained variation in community composition (23% of the total explained 35%) was explained by the shared effects of several factors, indicative of spatially structured environmental filtering. Among the independent effects, environmental factors were the strongest on average over 11 groups, but the importance of landscape spatial structure increased for less disper-sive functional groups. In the intra-region analysis, the independent effect of plant species composition had a stronger influence on species turnover than forest physi-ognomy, but the relative importance of the latter increased with increasing trophic position and body size.Main conclusions: Our study revealed that the mechanisms structuring assemblage composition are associated with the traits of functional groups. Hence, conserva-tion frameworks targeting biodiversity of multiple groups should cover both envi-ronmental and biogeographical gradients. Within regions, forest management can enhance β-diversity particularly by diversifying tree species composition and forest physiognomy