Depression, Anxiety, and Symptom Profiles Among Female and Male Victims of Sexual Violence

Sexual violence is a serious public health problem that has been associated with negative mental and physical health outcomes. Few existing studies have examined the prevalence and patterns of adverse mental health among victims of sexual violence using data from nationally representative samples of U.S. adults. The main objectives of this study were to identify patterns in the associations between sexual violence victimization and depression and anxiety (DA) symptoms using data from the sexual violence and DA Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) modules. Stratified multivariate logistic regression models were conducted to test the associations between sexual violence victimization and DA controlling for demographic characteristics. Multiple stratified MANOVA models were used to detect the effect of sexual violence victimization on DA symptoms while controlling for key demographic characteristics. Among all 61,187 participants, more than 5% ( n = 3,240) were victims of sexual violence, out of which 18.82% reported being diagnosed with depression, 8.37% reported an anxiety disorder, and 28.28% reported being diagnosed with DA disorder. Victims of sexual violence reported significantly higher number of days when they had trouble concentrating, sleep difficulties, poor appetite, little interest or pleasure in activities, blamed themselves for personal failure, felt depressed, and had little energy. The present study highlights the importance of collecting nationally representative data from victims of sexual violence and extends previous findings from clinically based studies. This study also serves as an example of an analytic approach that addresses a public health priority area by drawing on data from multiple topic-specific BRFSS modules. </jats:p

Participatory varietal selection of potato using the mother & baby trial design: A gender-responsive trainer’s guide.

This guide aims to provide step-by-step guidance on facilitating and documenting the PVS dynamics using the MBT design to select, and eventually release, potato varieties preferred by end-users that suit male and female farmers ’different needs, diverse agro-systems, and management practices, as well as traders ’and consumers’ preferences

Alpha B-crystallin protects retinal tissue during Staphylococcus aureus-induced endophthalmitis

Bacterial infections of the eye highlight a dilemma that is central to all immune-privileged sites. On the one hand, immune privilege limits inflammation to prevent bystander destruction of normal tissue and loss of vision. On the other hand, bacterial infections require a robust inflammatory response for rapid clearance of the pathogen. We demonstrate that the retina handles this dilemma, in part, by activation of a protective heat shock protein. During Staphylococcus aureus-induced endophthalmitis, the small heat shock protein αB-crystallin is upregulated in the retina and prevents apoptosis during immune clearance of the bacteria. In the absence of αB-crystallin, mice display increased retinal apoptosis and retinal damage. We found that S. aureus produces a protease capable of cleaving αB-crystallin to a form that coincides with increased retinal apoptosis and tissue destruction. We conclude that αB-crystallin is important in protecting sensitive retinal tissue during destructive inflammation that occurs during bacterial endophthalmitis

Importance of molecular cell biology investigations in human medicine in the story of the Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome

Ranged among laminopathies, Hutchinson–Gilford progeria syndrome is a syndrome that involves premature aging, leading usually to death at the age between 10 to 14 years predominatly due to a myocardial infarction or a stroke. In the lecture I shall overview the importance of molecular cell biology investigations that led to the discovery of the basic mechanism standing behind this rare syndrome. The genetic basis in most cases is a mutation at the nucleotide position 1824 of the lamin A gene. At this position, cytosine is substituted for thymine so that a cryptic splice site within the precursor mRNA for lamin A is generated. This results in a production of abnormal lamin A, termed progerin, its presence in cells having a deleterious dominant effect. Depending on the cell type and tissue, progerin induces a pleiotropy of defects that vary in different tissues. The present endeavour how to challenge this terrible disease will be also mentioned

Atlas-Guided Segmentation of Vervet Monkey Brain MRI

The vervet monkey is an important nonhuman primate model that allows the study of isolated environmental factors in a controlled environment. Analysis of monkey MRI often suffers from lower quality images compared with human MRI because clinical equipment is typically used to image the smaller monkey brain and higher spatial resolution is required. This, together with the anatomical differences of the monkey brains, complicates the use of neuroimage analysis pipelines tuned for human MRI analysis. In this paper we developed an open source image analysis framework based on the tools available within the 3D Slicer software to support a biological study that investigates the effect of chronic ethanol exposure on brain morphometry in a longitudinally followed population of male vervets. We first developed a computerized atlas of vervet monkey brain MRI, which was used to encode the typical appearance of the individual brain structures in MRI and their spatial distribution. The atlas was then used as a spatial prior during automatic segmentation to process two longitudinal scans per subject. Our evaluation confirms the consistency and reliability of the automatic segmentation. The comparison of atlas construction strategies reveals that the use of a population-specific atlas leads to improved accuracy of the segmentation for subcortical brain structures. The contribution of this work is twofold. First, we describe an image processing workflow specifically tuned towards the analysis of vervet MRI that consists solely of the open source software tools. Second, we develop a digital atlas of vervet monkey brain MRIs to enable similar studies that rely on the vervet model

Hypoparathyroidism in an Egyptian child with Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome is a rare genetic disorder. It is reported to be present in one in eight million and is characterized by severe growth failure, early loss of hair, lipodystrophy, scleroderma, decreased joint mobility, osteolysis, early atherosclerosis and facial features that resemble those of an aged person. Apart from diabetes mellitus, there are no reported abnormalities of thyroid, parathyroid, pituitary or adrenal function. Here, we report the case of a 10-year-old Egyptian child with Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome and hypoparathyroidism.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>A 10-year-old Egyptian boy was referred to our institution for an evaluation of recurrent attacks of muscle cramps, paresthesia of his fingertips and perioral numbness of two months duration. On examination, we found dilated veins present over his scalp with alopecia and frontal bossing, a beaked nose, thin lips, protruding ears, a high pitched voice with sparse hair over his eyebrows and eyelashes and micrognathia but normal dentition. His eyes appeared prominent and our patient appeared to have poor sexual development. A provisional diagnosis of progeria was made, which was confirmed by molecular genetics study. Chvostek's and Trousseau's signs were positive. He had low total calcium (5.4 mg/dL), low ionized calcium (2.3 mg/dL), raised serum phosphate (7.2 mg/dL), raised alkaline phosphatase (118 U/L) and low intact parathyroid hormone (1.2 pg/mL) levels. He was started on oral calcium salt and vitamin D; his symptoms improved with the treatment and his serum calcium, urinary calcium and alkaline phosphates level were monitored every three months to ensure adequacy of therapy and to avoid hypercalcemia.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Routine checking of serum calcium, phosphorus and parathyroid hormone will help in the early detection of hypoparathyrodism among children with progeria.</p

Yield Evaluation of Nutrient-rich Potato Clones in High Hill of Nepal

A study was conducted to evaluate the yield of nutrient-rich potato clones in high-hill districts: Dolakha and Jumla of Nepal during the years 2013 and 2014, respectively. Fourteen potato clones were tested as on-station and on-farm experiments at both districts, and those fourteen clones were compared to ‘Lady Rosita' and ‘Jumli Local' respectively as the check varieties in the first year experiment, 2013. Eight promising clones were selected from the first year experiment, and were evaluated and compared with same local varieties in the consecutive year, 2014. Two clones namely; CIP 395112.32 (19.3 tha-1) and CIP 393073.179 (17.8 tha-1) exhibited superior marketable tuber yield than that of ‘Lady Rosita'(14.2 tha-1) in Dolakha and five CIP clones namely; 395112.32 (25.5 tha-1), 393073.179 (22.5 tha-1), 394611.112 (20.9 tha-1), 390478.9 (19.9 tha-1) and 395017.229 (17.0 tha-1) showed higher marketable tuber yield than ‘Jumli Local'(14.5 tha-1). Based on two years' phenotypic and tuber yield result, clones CIP 395112.32 and CIP 393073.179 are recommended to potato growers at high hills of Nepal for commercial cultivation.Journal of Nepal Agricultural Research Council Vol.3 2017: 6-1

La explotación tartésica de la casiterita entre los ríos Tajo y Guadiana: San Cristóbal de Logrosán (Cáceres)

The objective of this work is to offer a synthesis of the archaeological and archaeo-mining investigation carried out in recent years (1998 and 2000-2002) in the Cerro de San Cristobal site, Logrosán (Cáceres). The results allow us to propose a chaîne opératoire for the cassiterite treatment and use in Cerro de San Cristóbal during the transition from the Late Bronze Age to the Orientalizing period. The management and role of this mineral in the Tajo-Guadiana relations and in the Atlantic- Mediterranean circuits meeting in the Southwest of the Iberian Peninsula, together with other factors, seems to justify the early integration of the territory of Extremadura in Tartessos. The investigation in Logrosán and the archaeology of tin were suddenly interrupted by the unexpected death of its main promoter, Dr. Craig Merideth. The continuation of this project is now to be channelled through the recent declaration of the Cerro de San Cristobal as a ‘geosite’ in the ‘Ibores-Villuercas- Jara Geopark’ and through the National Research, Development and Innovation Scheme’s project El tiempo del tesoro de Aliseda, among whose actions is the archaeomining survey from the West of the peneplain of Cáceres made in 2011.El objetivo de este trabajo es ofrecer una síntesis de la investigación arqueológica y arqueominera realizada entre 1998 y 2000-2002 en el Cerro de San Cristóbal de Logrosán (Cáceres). Esta permite proponer una probable ‘cadena operativa’ del beneficio de la casiterita en este lugar durante el tránsito Bronce Final-Periodo Orientalizante. La gestión e imbricación del mineral en las relaciones Tajo-Guadiana y en los circuitos atlántico-mediterráneos confluyentes en el Suroeste de la Península Ibérica parecen justificar, entre otras razones, la temprana integración del actual territorio extremeño en Tartessos. La investigación en Logrosán y la arqueología del estaño se vieron bruscamente interrumpidas por el inesperado fallecimiento de su principal impulsor, Craig Merideth. Su continuidad pretende canalizarse a través de la reciente declaración del Cerro de San Cristóbal como “geositio” del Geoparque “Ibores-Villuercas-Jara” y del proyecto del Plan Nacional I+D+i El tiempo del tesoro de Aliseda, entre cuyas acciones se encuentra la prospección arqueominera del oeste de la penillanura cacereña realizada en 2011

Coarctation of the aorta and mild to moderate developmental delay in a child with a de novo deletion of chromosome 15(q21.1q22.2)

BACKGROUND: Deletion of 15q21q22 is a rare chromosomal anomaly. To date, there have been nine reports describing ten individuals with different segmental losses involving 15q21 and 15q22. Many of these individuals have common features of growth retardation, hypotonia and moderate to severe mental retardation. Congenital heart disease has been described in three individuals with interstitial deletion involving this region of chromosome 15. CASE PRESENTATION: We report a child with coarctation of the aorta, partial agenesis of corpus callosum and mild to moderate developmental delay, with a de novo deletion of 15q21.1q22.2, detected by the array Comparative Genomic Hybridization (CGH). We utilized chromosome 15-specific microarray-based CGH to define the chromosomal breakpoints in this patient. CONCLUSION: This is the first description of mapping of an interstitial deletion involving the chromosome 15q21q22 segment using the chromosome 15-specific array-CGH. The report also expands the spectrum of clinical phenotype associated with 15q21q22 deletion

Cognition, Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor Repressor Methylation, and Abstinence Duration-Associated Multimodal Brain Networks in Smoking and Long-Term Smoking Cessation

Cigarette smoking and smoking cessation are associated with changes in cognition and DNA methylation; however, the neurobiological correlates of these effects have not been fully elucidated, especially in long-term cessation. Cognitive performance, percent methylation of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor repressor (AHRR) gene, and abstinence duration were used as references to supervise a multimodal fusion analysis of functional, structural, and diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data, in order to identify associated brain networks in smokers and ex-smokers. Correlations among these networks and with smoking-related measures were performed. Cognition-, methylation-, and abstinence duration-associated networks discriminated between smokers and ex-smokers and correlated with differences in fractional amplitude of low frequency fluctuations (fALFF) values, gray matter volume (GMV), and fractional anisotropy (FA) values. Long-term smoking cessation was associated with more accurate cognitive performance, as well as lower fALFF and more GMV in the hippocampus complex. The methylation- and abstinence duration-associated networks positively correlated with smoking-related measures of abstinence duration and percent methylation, respectively, suggesting they are complementary measures. This analysis revealed structural and functional co-alterations linked to smoking abstinence and cognitive performance in brain regions including the insula, frontal gyri, and lingual gyri. Furthermore, AHRR methylation, a promising epigenetic biomarker of smoking recency, may provide an important complement to self-reported abstinence duration