The Form and Function of Self-Disclosure in Depressed Adolescents

Adolescent depression is a major public health concern, prevalence estimates of which indicate that from 9.5% (Costello, Mustillo, Erkanli, Keeler, & Angold, 2003) to 11.7% (Merikangas et al., 2010) of adolescents may experience at some point; these depressive episodes have been linked to numerous physiological, psychological, educational and general functioning deficits. Although children and adolescents are known to be the subject of harsh stigmatizing beliefs (Perry, Pescosolido, Martin, McLeod, & Jensen, 2007), little research has been conducted on adolescents’ perceptions of mental health focused stigma experiences and coping mechanisms. Stigma experiences such as those experienced by persons with Mental Health (MH) concerns can lead many to manage the disclosure of their potentially stigmatizing feature, often choosing to conceal those features which can be concealed (Wahl, 1999b). The Visibility Management (VM) concept seeks to explain some of the underlying processes in how individuals cope with stigma through the manipulation of disclosure, allowing them to decide who in their lives is emotionally “safe” to disclose to, versus who may react negatively to such disclosure (e.g., stigma), resulting in concealment. This project sought to explore the processes by which depressed adolescents engaged in VM within the relationships of those other persons whom they consider important. This study of seven female adolescents with depression employed a multi-modal data gathering technique consisting primarily of qualitative interviews and utilized an innovative hand-on activity focused on the perceived strengths and weaknesses of the adolescent’s individualized social network. As a part of this process, I paid special attention to any reported incidences of the concept of a strategizing partner (Safe Other), reflecting a potential socially-based resource to depressed adolescents as originally described in the popular culture literature of the Autism Spectrum Disorder community. Subsequent between- and within-case analyses revealed that participants engaged in a complex decision-making process aimed at balancing their daily needs with the perceived burden their disclosure placed on others in their lives. This process often resulted in partial disclosure of their depression status. Finally, this work identified trends regarding the designation, utilization, and evaluation of a Safe Other indicating relevant directions for future research

Constitutive Presentation of a Natural Tissue Autoantigen Exclusively by Dendritic Cells in the Draining Lymph Node

The major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-dependent presentation of processed tissue-specific self-antigens can contribute to either peripheral (extrathymic) tolerance or the differentiation of autoreactive T cells. Here, we have studied the MHC class II molecule presentation of gastric parietal cell (PC)-specific H+/K+-ATPase, which induces a destructive autoimmune gastritis in BALB/c mice lacking CD4+ CD25+ regulatory T cells. Immunofluorescence microscopy showed physical association of CD11c+ dendritic cells (DCs) with PCs in the gastric mucosa. H+/K+-ATPase protein was found within vesicular compartments of a few CD11c+ DCs only in the draining gastric lymph node (LN) and these antigen-containing DCs increased markedly in number with the onset of tissue destruction in autoimmune animals. Both CD8αhi and CD8αlo gastric DCs, but not peripheral or mesenteric DCs, showed evidence of constitutive in vivo processing and presentation of H+/K+-ATPase. These data provide direct support for a widely held model of local tissue antigen uptake and trafficking by DCs in normal animals and demonstrate that DCs in the draining LN can present a tissue-specific self-antigen under noninflammatory conditions without fully deleting autoreactive T cells or inducing active autoimmunity

Does team reflexivity impact teamwork and communication in interprofessional hospital-based healthcare teams? : A systematic review and narrative synthesis

BACKGROUND: Teamwork and communication are recognised as key contributors to safe and high-quality patient care. Interventions targeting process and relational aspects of care may therefore provide patient safety solutions that reflect the complex nature of healthcare. Team reflexivity is one such approach with the potential to support improvements in communication and teamwork, where reflexivity is defined as the ability to pay critical attention to individual and team practices with reference to social and contextual information. OBJECTIVE: To systematically review articles that describe the use of team reflexivity in interprofessional hospital-based healthcare teams. METHODS: Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, six electronic databases were searched to identify literature investigating the use of team reflexivity in interprofessional hospital-based healthcare teams.The review includes articles investigating the use of team reflexivity to improve teamwork and communication in any naturally occurring hospital-based healthcare teams. Articles' eligibility was validated by two second reviewers (5%). RESULTS: Fifteen empirical articles were included in the review. Simulation training and video-reflexive ethnography (VRE) were the most commonly used forms of team reflexivity. Included articles focused on the use of reflexive interventions to improve teamwork and communication within interprofessional healthcare teams. Communication during interprofessional teamworking was the most prominent focus of improvement methods. The nature of this review only allows assessment of team reflexivity as an activity embedded within specific methods. Poorly defined methodological information relating to reflexivity in the reviewed studies made it difficult to draw conclusive evidence about the impact of reflexivity alone. CONCLUSION: The reviewed literature suggests that VRE is well placed to provide more locally appropriate solutions to contributory patient safety factors, ranging from individual and social learning to improvements in practices and systems. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42017055602

Lower Postsurgical Mortality for Individuals with Dementia with Better-Educated Hospital Workforce

Surgical patients age 65 and over with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) were more likely to die within 30 days of admission and to die after a complication than those without ADRD. Having better-educated nurses in the hospital improved the likelihood of good outcomes for all surgical patients, but had a much greater effect in individuals with ADRD. Specifically, a 10% increase in the proportion of nurses with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree or higher was associated with 10% lower odds of death and 10% lower odds of dying after a complication for surgical patients with ADRD

Characterisation of the mode of action of Aurodox, a Type III secretion system inhibitor from Streptomyces goldiniensis

Recent work has demonstrated that the polyketide natural product Aurodox, from Streptomyces goldiniensis is able to block the pathogenesis of the murine pathogen Citrobacter rodentium. In this work we aimed to aimed gain a better understanding of the mechanism of action of the compound. We show that Aurodox downregulates the expression of the Type Three Secretion Systems of enteropathogenic and enterohaemorhagic Escherichia coli. Furthermore, we have used transcriptomic analysis to show that Aurodox inhibits the expression at the transcriptional level by repressing the master regulator, ler. Our data support a model in which Aurodox acts upstream of ler and not directly on the secretion system itself. Finally, we have shown that Aurodox, unlike some traditional antibiotics, does not induce expression of RecA, which is essential for the production of Shiga toxin. We propose that these properties nominate Aurodox as a promising anti-virulence therapy for the treatment of these infections

Identification of 2-Aminothiazole-4-Carboxylate Derivatives Active against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv and the β-Ketoacyl-ACP Synthase mtFabH

Background Tuberculosis (TB) is a disease which kills two million people every year and infects approximately over one-third of the world's population. The difficulty in managing tuberculosis is the prolonged treatment duration, the emergence of drug resistance and co-infection with HIV/AIDS. Tuberculosis control requires new drugs that act at novel drug targets to help combat resistant forms of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and reduce treatment duration. Methodology/Principal Findings Our approach was to modify the naturally occurring and synthetically challenging antibiotic thiolactomycin (TLM) to the more tractable 2-aminothiazole-4-carboxylate scaffold to generate compounds that mimic TLM's novel mode of action. We report here the identification of a series of compounds possessing excellent activity against M. tuberculosis H37Rv and, dissociatively, against the β-ketoacyl synthase enzyme mtFabH which is targeted by TLM. Specifically, methyl 2-amino-5-benzylthiazole-4-carboxylate was found to inhibit M. tuberculosis H37Rv with an MIC of 0.06 µg/ml (240 nM), but showed no activity against mtFabH, whereas methyl 2-(2-bromoacetamido)-5-(3-chlorophenyl)t​hiazole-4-carboxylateinhibited mtFabH with an IC50 of 0.95±0.05 µg/ml (2.43±0.13 µM) but was not active against the whole cell organism. Conclusions/Significance These findings clearly identify the 2-aminothiazole-4-carboxylate scaffold as a promising new template towards the discovery of a new class of anti-tubercular agents

Changes in PTSD, depression, and generalized anxiety before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ireland

Background: : In this study, we compared the prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) before and during the COVID-19 pandemic across nationally representative samples of Irish adults. Methods: : Participants were sampled in February 2019 (N = 1,020), April 2020 (N = 1,041), May 2020 (N = 1,032), and December 2020 (N = 1,100) using the same self-report measures. Results: : The prevalence of PTSD significantly increased from 12.5% in 2019 to 18.0% in April 2020, to 22.0% in May, and returning to 17.6% in December 2020. PTSD increases were most consistently observed in males, those aged 18–34 years, those without a university qualification, and those living in the Leinster region of Ireland, where the capital city of Dublin is located. There were no significant changes in the prevalence of depression or GAD. Limitations: : The 2020 samples were not completely independent of one another and while the analysis took this into account, this bias cannot be completely removed. Conclusions: : These findings show an increase in PTSD during the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the pre-pandemic period and suggest specificity in mental health responses to the COVID-19 pandemic

Whole genome sequencing and molecular epidemiology of clinical isolates of Staphylococcus aureus from Algeria

Funding: This research was funded by the Algerian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (DGRSDT/MESRS), and by grants from the Wellcome Trust (098731/z/11/z to St Andrews University Bioinformatics Unit) and to the Chief Scientists Office (SIRN10 to M.T.G.H.), and the National Institute for Health Research, Medical Research Council and the Department of Health and Social Care (MR/S004785/1 to M.T.G.H.); this award is also part of the EDCTP2 program supported by the European Union.Staphylococcus aureus is an important pathogen responsible for various healthcare- and community-acquired infections. In this study, whole genome sequencing (WGS) was used to genotype S. aureus clinical isolates from two hospitals in Algeria and to characterize their genetic determinants of antimicrobial resistance. Seventeen S. aureus isolates were included in this study. WGS, single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based phylogenetic analysis, in silico multilocus sequence typing (MLST), spa and staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec) typing and in silico antimicrobial resistance profiling were performed. Phenotypic antibiotic susceptibility testing was performed using the Vitek 2 system and the disk diffusion method. The isolates were separated into sequence types (STs), with ST80 being predominant; five clonal complexes (CCs); four spa types (t044, t127, t368, t386); and two SCCmec types (IVc and IVa). Whole genome analysis revealed the presence of the resistance genes mecA, blaZ, ermC, fusB, fusC, tetK, aph(3′)-IIIa and aad(6) and mutations conferring resistance in the genes parC and fusA. The rate of multidrug resistance (MDR) was 64%. This work provides a high-resolution characterization of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) and methicillin-susceptible S. aureus (MSSA) isolates and emphasizes the importance of continuous surveillance to monitor the spread of S. aureus in healthcare settings in the country.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Conditioned Arc expression in CA1 of the rat hippocampus supports long-term memory for temporal events

The hippocampus is important for the acquisition, storage, and retrieval of memories. It has been largely examined for its role in spatial and contextual memory, but the mechanisms of encoding temporal cues are not well understood. The present work explores the expression of an immediate early gene which contributes to synaptic changes associated with long-term plasticity, Arc, as a temporally-specific marker of hippocampal memory to a time-of-day cue in a novel conditioning procedure in rats. We video-recorded locomotor activity and delivered a clock time-specific, multimodal alarm signal to cage-paired rats for 14 days, and quantified Arc mRNA expression at conditioned and unconditioned times. We predicted that neural activity associated with a temporally-conditioned response to a time-of-day cue would include expression of Arc genes in the hippocampus and interactions with circadian cycles of sleep-wake behaviour