The clinical utility of the continuous performance test and objective measures of activity for diagnosing and monitoring ADHD in children: a systematic review

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is typically diagnosed using clinical observation and subjective informant reports. Once children commence ADHD medication, robust monitoring is required to detect partial or non-responses. The extent to which neuropsychological continuous performance tests (CPTs) and objective measures of activity can clinically aid the assessment and titration process in ADHD is not fully understood. This review describes the current evidence base for the use of CPTs and objectively measured activity to support the diagnostic procedure and medication management for children with ADHD. Four databases (PsycINFO, Medline, Allied and Complementary Medicine (AMED) and PsycARTICLES) were systematically searched to understand the current evidence base for: (1) the use of CPTs to aid clinical assessment of ADHD; (2) the use of CPTs to aid medication management; (3) the clinical utility of objective measures of activity in ADHD. Sixty relevant articles were identified. The search revealed six commercially available CPTs that had been reported on for their clinical use. There were mixed findings with regard to the use of CPTs to assess and manage medication, with contrasting evidence on their ability to support clinical decision making. There was a strong evidence base for the use of objective measures of activity to aid ADHD/non-ADHD group differentiation, which appears sensitive to medication effects and would also benefit from further research on their clinical utility. The findings suggest that combining CPTs and an objective measure of activity may be particularly useful as a clinical tool and worthy of further pursuit

Hatching out goldfish from common carp eggs: interspecific androgenesis between two cyprinid species

We have successfully performed interspecific androgenesis between two cyprinid species. Gamma-ray irradiated eggs of common carp were fertilized with fresh and cryopreserved sperm of three different goldfish varieties and the haploid embryos were then heat-shocked to restore diploidy and to produce viable offspring. Androgenic diploid goldfish progenies from over a dozen different experiments were screened for four phenotypic markers several times. Color and other phenotypic markers characteristic of goldfish were found exclusively among androgenetic goldfish progenies; no markers originating from common carp were detected in over 1500 individuals investigated visually.RAPD assay was used to compare the parents and the offspring at the genomic level. The RAPD pattern of the androgenetic goldfish contained exclusively paternal bands, thereby confirming the results of the phenotypic analysis. According to our knowledge, this is the first successful interspecific androgenesis performed with two different species resulting in viable offspring.Key words: RAPD, whole genome manipulation, nuclear-mitochondrial incompatibility

Advantages and Applications of Cryopreservation in Fisheries Science

Cryopreservation is a long-term storage technique to preserve the biological material without deterioration for extended period of time at least several thousands of years. The ability to preserve and store both maternal and paternal gametes provides a reliable source of fish genetic material for scientific and aquaculture purposes as well as for conservation of biodiversity. Successful cryopreservation of fish sperm have been achieved for more than 200 fish species and many fish species have been adequated for the purpose of cryobanking. Cryopreservation of fish embryo is not viable, mainly because of the same limitations as in fish oocytes, i.e., high chilling sensitivity and low membrane permeability. However, cryopreservation of isolated embryonic cells is another option for preserving both maternal and paternal genome. In this paper, an overview of the current state of aquatic species is followed by a discussion on the sperm, embryos, oocytes and embryonic cells - blastomeres