Evaluating outcomes of the child and adolescent psychiatric unit: A prospective study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The aims of this prospective study are to clarify the outcomes of child psychiatric inpatient treatment and to identify factors associated with patient improvement.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The attending psychiatrist used the Children's Global Assessment Scale (CGAS) to assess youths at admission to and discharge from a child and adolescent psychiatric unit in Japan(N = 126, mean age = 12.8, SD = 1.9). Hospital records gathered sociodemographic and clinical variables. In addition, youths and their primary caregivers assessed themselves using the Youth Self Report (YSR) and the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), respectively. Longitudinal analyses compared each scales' baseline and discharge scores. We also examined factors associated with changes in functioning (CGAS).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Longitudinal comparisons revealed that CGAS, CBCL and YSR scores showed improvement over time (CGAS: t = -14.40, p = 0.00; CBCL: t = 3.80, p = 0.00; YSR: t = 2.40, p = 0.02). Linear regressions determined that the factors associated with improvement in CGAS included age, lower CGAS scores at admission, frequency of group therapy and psychiatric diagnosis.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This evaluation of children and adolescents in an inpatient unit demonstrated clinical improvement over time and identified factors associated with said improvement.</p

Diabetes-Mediated Exacerbation of Neuronal Damage and Inflammation After Cerebral Ischemia in Rat: Protective Effects of Water-Soluble Extract from Culture Medium of Ganoderma lucidum Mycelia

"Advances in the Preclinical Study of Ischemic Stroke, Chapter 11", Edited by Maurizio Balestrino, ISBN 978-953-51-0290-8, Published: March 16, 2012. Open Acess

Dysconnectivity of the Agency Network in Schizophrenia: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

Background: Self-disturbances in schizophrenia have recently been explained by an abnormality in the sense of agency (SoA). The cerebral structures of SoA in healthy people are considered to mainly include the insula and inferior parietal lobule. In contrast, the functional lesion of aberrant SoA in schizophrenia is not yet fully understood. Considering the recent explanation of establishing SoA from the standpoint of associative learning, the “agency network” may include not only the insula and inferior parietal lobule but also the striatum. We hypothesized that aberrant SoA in schizophrenia is based on a deficit in the “agency network.”Methods: Functional magnetic resonance imaging data were acquired while patients with schizophrenia (n = 15) and matched controls (n = 15) performed our adaptation method of agency attribution task on a trial-by-trial basis to assess participants' explicit experience of the temporal causal relationship between an action and an external event with temporal biases. Analysis of functional connectivity was done using the right supramarginal gyrus and the right middle frontal gyrus as seed regions.Results: In healthy controls, analyses revealed increased activation of the right inferior parietal lobule (mainly the supramarginal gyrus), right insula, and right middle frontal gyrus as an activation of the agency condition. We defined activated Brodmann areas shown in the agency condition of healthy controls as the seed region for connectivity analysis. The connectivity analysis revealed lower connectivity between the head of the left caudate nucleus and right supramarginal gyrus in the patients compared to healthy controls.Conclusions: This dysconnectivity of the agency network in schizophrenia may lead to self-disturbance through deficits in associative learning of SoA. These findings may explain why pathological function of the striatum in schizophrenia leads to self-disturbance

Results of the search for inspiraling compact star binaries from TAMA300's observation in 2000-2004

We analyze the data of TAMA300 detector to search for gravitational waves from inspiraling compact star binaries with masses of the component stars in the range 1-3Msolar. In this analysis, 2705 hours of data, taken during the years 2000-2004, are used for the event search. We combine the results of different observation runs, and obtained a single upper limit on the rate of the coalescence of compact binaries in our Galaxy of 20 per year at a 90% confidence level. In this upper limit, the effect of various systematic errors such like the uncertainty of the background estimation and the calibration of the detector's sensitivity are included.Comment: 8 pages, 4 Postscript figures, uses revtex4.sty The author list was correcte

A novel surgical treatment for labial adhesion – The combination of Z- and Y-V-plasty : A case report.

Labial adhesion is characterised by complete or partial fusion of the labia minora. It occurs rarely in postmenopausal women. Although various methods have been proposed, there is no established treatment for postmenopausal patients with labial adhesions due to its low prevalence in this age group. Severe cases require surgical intervention, and the postoperative recurrence rate is relatively high at 14–20%. In this study, a novel therapeutic method was designed to treat labial adhesions: a combination of Z- and Y-V-plasty. An 82-year-old woman was diagnosed with severe long labial adhesion during an episode of urinary tract infection. The labia could not be separated manually; hence, Z-plasty was performed on the ventral side and Y-V-plasty on the anal side under general anaesthesia. No recurrence was noted eight months postoperatively. This method is relatively easy and produced the desired therapeutic effect with decreased risk of recurrence. This is a novel approach for postmenopausal patients with severe labial adhesion

Current Overview of Osteogenesis Imperfecta.

Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), or brittle bone disease, is a heterogeneous disorder characterised by bone fragility, multiple fractures, bone deformity, and short stature. OI is a heterogeneous disorder primarily caused by mutations in the genes involved in the production of type 1 collagen. Severe OI is perinatally lethal, while mild OI can sometimes not be recognised until adulthood. Severe or lethal OI can usually be diagnosed using antenatal ultrasound and confirmed by various imaging modalities and genetic testing. The combination of imaging parameters obtained by ultrasound, computed tomography (CT), and magnetic resource imaging (MRI) can not only detect OI accurately but also predict lethality before birth. Moreover, genetic testing, either noninvasive or invasive, can further confirm the diagnosis prenatally. Early and precise diagnoses provide parents with more time to decide on reproductive options. The currently available postnatal treatments for OI are not curative, and individuals with severe OI suffer multiple fractures and bone deformities throughout their lives. In utero mesenchymal stem cell transplantation has been drawing attention as a promising therapy for severe OI, and a clinical trial to assess the safety and efficacy of cell therapy is currently ongoing. In the future, early diagnosis followed by in utero stem cell transplantation should be adopted as a new therapeutic option for severe OI

Chromosomal-level assembly of the Asian Seabass genome using long sequence reads and multi-layered scaffolding

We report here the ~670 Mb genome assembly of the Asian seabass (Lates calcarifer), a tropical marine teleost. We used long-read sequencing augmented by transcriptomics, optical and genetic mapping along with shared synteny from closely related fish species to derive a chromosome-level assembly with a contig N50 size over 1 Mb and scaffold N50 size over 25 Mb that span ~90% of the genome. The population structure of L. calcarifer species complex was analyzed by re-sequencing 61 individuals representing various regions across the species' native range. SNP analyses identified high levels of genetic diversity and confirmed earlier indications of a population stratification comprising three clades with signs of admixture apparent in the South-East Asian population. The quality of the Asian seabass genome assembly far exceeds that of any other fish species, and will serve as a new standard for fish genomics

Observation results by the TAMA300 detector on gravitational wave bursts from stellar-core collapses

We present data-analysis schemes and results of observations with the TAMA300 gravitational-wave detector, targeting burst signals from stellar-core collapse events. In analyses for burst gravitational waves, the detection and fake-reduction schemes are different from well-investigated ones for a chirp-wave analysis, because precise waveform templates are not available. We used an excess-power filter for the extraction of gravitational-wave candidates, and developed two methods for the reduction of fake events caused by non-stationary noises of the detector. These analysis schemes were applied to real data from the TAMA300 interferometric gravitational wave detector. As a result, fake events were reduced by a factor of about 1000 in the best cases. The resultant event candidates were interpreted from an astronomical viewpoint. We set an upper limit of 2.2x10^3 events/sec on the burst gravitational-wave event rate in our Galaxy with a confidence level of 90%. This work sets a milestone and prospects on the search for burst gravitational waves, by establishing an analysis scheme for the observation data from an interferometric gravitational wave detector

Consequences of Lineage-Specific Gene Loss on Functional Evolution of Surviving Paralogs: ALDH1A and Retinoic Acid Signaling in Vertebrate Genomes

Genome duplications increase genetic diversity and may facilitate the evolution of gene subfunctions. Little attention, however, has focused on the evolutionary impact of lineage-specific gene loss. Here, we show that identifying lineage-specific gene loss after genome duplication is important for understanding the evolution of gene subfunctions in surviving paralogs and for improving functional connectivity among human and model organism genomes. We examine the general principles of gene loss following duplication, coupled with expression analysis of the retinaldehyde dehydrogenase Aldh1a gene family during retinoic acid signaling in eye development as a case study. Humans have three ALDH1A genes, but teleosts have just one or two. We used comparative genomics and conserved syntenies to identify loss of ohnologs (paralogs derived from genome duplication) and to clarify uncertain phylogenies. Analysis showed that Aldh1a1 and Aldh1a2 form a clade that is sister to Aldh1a3-related genes. Genome comparisons showed secondarily loss of aldh1a1 in teleosts, revealing that Aldh1a1 is not a tetrapod innovation and that aldh1a3 was recently lost in medaka, making it the first known vertebrate with a single aldh1a gene. Interestingly, results revealed asymmetric distribution of surviving ohnologs between co-orthologous teleost chromosome segments, suggesting that local genome architecture can influence ohnolog survival. We propose a model that reconstructs the chromosomal history of the Aldh1a family in the ancestral vertebrate genome, coupled with the evolution of gene functions in surviving Aldh1a ohnologs after R1, R2, and R3 genome duplications. Results provide evidence for early subfunctionalization and late subfunction-partitioning and suggest a mechanistic model based on altered regulation leading to heterochronic gene expression to explain the acquisition or modification of subfunctions by surviving ohnologs that preserve unaltered ancestral developmental programs in the face of gene loss