How to approach and take care of minor adolescents whose situations raise ethical dilemmas? a position paper of the European academy of pediatrics

In the care of adolescents, health care providers often face situations raising ethical concerns or dilemmas, such as refusal of a treatment or hospitalization, or request of confidentiality while engaging in risky behaviors or facing unplanned pregnancy. This position paper provides concrete avenues as how to assess the adolescent's capacity for autonomous decision making, e.g. the patient's competence in a specific situation, and how to elicit informed choice or consent. To do so, professionals need to be sensitized and trained as how to assess the cognitive and socio-psychological development of the young patient. Another challenge for the health professionals is to balance the needs to support patient's autonomy while offering secure guidance and protection if needed. To optimize such a process, they establish a climate of trust and empathy that will allow the patient to participate freely in the decision. In addition, especially when the decisions have potentially important consequences on the health and life, the professionals include, with the adolescent's permission, parents, caregivers or other significant adults, as well as they may request the opinion of other members of the health care team or expert colleagues such as ethicists

Complete intersections: Moduli, Torelli, and good reduction

We study the arithmetic of complete intersections in projective space over number fields. Our main results include arithmetic Torelli theorems and versions of the Shafarevich conjecture, as proved for curves and abelian varieties by Faltings. For example, we prove an analogue of the Shafarevich conjecture for cubic and quartic threefolds and intersections of two quadrics.Comment: 37 pages. Typo's fixed. Expanded Section 2.

Eisenstein Series of Weight One, q-Averages of the 0-Logarithm and Periods of Elliptic Curves

For any elliptic curve E over k ⊂ R with E(C) = C^×/q^Z, q = e^(2πiz),Im(z) >, we study the q-average D_(0,q), defined on E(C), of the function D_0(z) = Im(z/(1−z)). Let Ω+(E) denote the real period of E. We show that there is a rational function R ∈ Q(X_1(N)) such that for any non-cuspidal real point s ∈ X_1(N) (which defines an elliptic curve E(s) over R together with a point P(s) of order N), πD_(0,q)(P(s)) equals Ω+(E(s))R(s). In particular, if s is Q-rational point of X_1(N), a rare occurrence according to Mazur, R(s) is a rational number

Nested-multiplex PCR detection of Orthopoxvirus and Parapoxvirus directly from exanthematic clinical samples

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licens

Análise quantitativa e qualitativa da neuroinflamação pela toxina beta amilóide 1-42 após tratamento com nanopartículas de resveratrol

Introdução: Este estudo avaliou os efeitos das nanopartículas de zeína com resveratrol na neuroinflamação causada pela doença de Alzheimer. Método: A amostra consistiu em 30 animais divididos em grupos de controle (C), controle positivo (CP), nanopartículas brancas (NB), nanopartículas de resveratrol (NR) e resveratrol (R). Os animaisreceberam 10 mg/kg de resveratrol ou nanopartículas de acordo com o grupo, diariamente, por 15 dias, por via oral. Em seguida, foram submetidos a análises imuno-histoquímicas (IHC). Resultados: A IHC mostrou que não houve alteração na composição morfológica do cérebro nos grupos NR e C. Por outro lado, nos grupos CP, NB e R, foram observadas alterações na deposição de Anti Tau. O grupo NR mostrou uma projeção normal de taurinano axônio, que não se apresentou da mesma forma nos outros grupos. O marcador CD68 não mostrou ativação microglial nos grupos R e C. As análises quantitativas do antibeta-amiloide no grupo NR mostraram uma diferença estatística quando comparadas aos grupos CP, NB e R, enquanto a análise do antitau mostrou uma diferença significativa entre os grupos CP e NR. O marcador CD68 mostrou uma diferença significativa entre os grupos C e NR. A análise das citocinas mostrou uma diferença significativa no TNF-α entre os grupos C e CP, C e NB, CP e NR, e NB e NR. IL-6 e InF-δ não apresentaram diferença significativa entre todos os grupos. A IL-10 apresentou diferenças significativas entre os grupos C e NR, C e R, e CP e NR. Conclusão: A NR impediu a evolução da neuroinflamação.Background: This study evaluated the effects of zein nanoparticles with resveratrol on neuroinflammation caused by Alzheimer’s disease. Method: The sample consisted of 30 animals divided into control (C), positive control (CP), white nanoparticles (NB), resveratrol nanoparticles (NR) and resveratrol (R) groups. The animals received 10 mg/kg of resveratrol or nanoparticles according to the group, daily, for 15 days, oral administration. Afterward, they weresubmitted to immunohistochemical (IHC) analyses. Results: the IHC showed that there was no change in the morphological brain composition in the NR and C groups. Conversely, in the CP, NB, and R groups, changes in the deposition of Anti Tau were observed. The NR group showed a normal projection of taurine in the axon, which was not presented in the same way in the other groups. The CD68 marker showed no microglial activation in the R and C groups. Quantitative analyses of Anti Beta-Amyloid in the NR group showed a statistical difference comparedto the CP, NB, and R groups, whereas the Anti Tau analysis showed a significant difference between the CP and NR groups. The CD68 marker showed a significant difference between the C and NR groups. The analysis of cytokines showed a significant difference in TNF-α between the C and CP groups, C and NB groups, CP and NR groups, and NB and NR groups. IL-6 and InF-δ showed no significant difference between all groups. IL-10 showed significant differences between the C and NR groups, C and R groups, and CP and NR groups. Conclusion: NR prevented the evolution of neuroinflammation

Haplotype reference consortium panel: Practical implications of imputations with large reference panels

Recently, the Haplotype Reference Consortium (HRC) released a large imputation panel that allows more accurate imputation of genetic variants. In this study, we compared a set of directly assayed common and rare variants from an exome array to imputed genotypes, that is, 1000 genomes project (1000GP) and HRC. We showed that imputation using the HRC panel improved the concordance between assayed and imputed genotypes at common, and especially, low-frequency variants. Furthermore, we performed a genome-wide association meta-analysis of vertical cup-disc ratio, a highly heritable endophenotype of glaucoma, in four cohorts using 1000GP and HRC imputations. We compared the results of the meta-analysis using 1000GP to the meta-analysis results using HRC. Overall, we found that using HRC imputation significantly improved P values (P = 3.07 × 10-61), particularly for suggestive variants. Both meta-analyses were performed in the same sample size, yet we found eight genome-wide significant loci in the HRC-based meta-analysis versus seven genome-wide significant loci in the 1000GP-based meta-analysis. This study provides supporting evidence of the new avenues for gene discovery and fine mapping that the HRC imputation panel offers

A genomic and transcriptomic approach for a differential diagnosis between primary and secondary ovarian carcinomas in patients with a previous history of breast cancer

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The distinction between primary and secondary ovarian tumors may be challenging for pathologists. The purpose of the present work was to develop genomic and transcriptomic tools to further refine the pathological diagnosis of ovarian tumors after a previous history of breast cancer.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Sixteen paired breast-ovary tumors from patients with a former diagnosis of breast cancer were collected. The genomic profiles of paired tumors were analyzed using the Affymetrix GeneChip^®Mapping 50 K Xba Array or Genome-Wide Human SNP Array 6.0 (for one pair), and the data were normalized with ITALICS (ITerative and Alternative normaLIzation and Copy number calling for affymetrix Snp arrays) algorithm or Partek Genomic Suite, respectively. The transcriptome of paired samples was analyzed using Affymetrix GeneChip^®Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 Arrays, and the data were normalized with gc-Robust Multi-array Average (gcRMA) algorithm. A hierarchical clustering of these samples was performed, combined with a dataset of well-identified primary and secondary ovarian tumors.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In 12 of the 16 paired tumors analyzed, the comparison of genomic profiles confirmed the pathological diagnosis of primary ovarian tumor (n = 5) or metastasis of breast cancer (n = 7). Among four cases with uncertain pathological diagnosis, genomic profiles were clearly distinct between the ovarian and breast tumors in two pairs, thus indicating primary ovarian carcinomas, and showed common patterns in the two others, indicating metastases from breast cancer. In all pairs, the result of the transcriptomic analysis was concordant with that of the genomic analysis.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In patients with ovarian carcinoma and a previous history of breast cancer, SNP array analysis can be used to distinguish primary and secondary ovarian tumors. Transcriptomic analysis may be used when primary breast tissue specimen is not available.</p

Sex Differences in Neural Activation to Facial Expressions Denoting Contempt and Disgust

The facial expression of contempt has been regarded to communicate feelings of moral superiority. Contempt is an emotion that is closely related to disgust, but in contrast to disgust, contempt is inherently interpersonal and hierarchical. The aim of this study was twofold. First, to investigate the hypothesis of preferential amygdala responses to contempt expressions versus disgust. Second, to investigate whether, at a neural level, men would respond stronger to biological signals of interpersonal superiority (e.g., contempt) than women. We performed an experiment using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), in which participants watched facial expressions of contempt and disgust in addition to neutral expressions. The faces were presented as distractors in an oddball task in which participants had to react to one target face. Facial expressions of contempt and disgust activated a network of brain regions, including prefrontal areas (superior, middle and medial prefrontal gyrus), anterior cingulate, insula, amygdala, parietal cortex, fusiform gyrus, occipital cortex, putamen and thalamus. Contemptuous faces did not elicit stronger amygdala activation than did disgusted expressions. To limit the number of statistical comparisons, we confined our analyses of sex differences to the frontal and temporal lobes. Men displayed stronger brain activation than women to facial expressions of contempt in the medial frontal gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus, and superior temporal gyrus. Conversely, women showed stronger neural responses than men to facial expressions of disgust. In addition, the effect of stimulus sex differed for men versus women. Specifically, women showed stronger responses to male contemptuous faces (as compared to female expressions), in the insula and middle frontal gyrus. Contempt has been conceptualized as signaling perceived moral violations of social hierarchy, whereas disgust would signal violations of physical purity. Thus, our results suggest a neural basis for sex differences in moral sensitivity regarding hierarchy on the one hand and physical purity on the other