1,494 research outputs found
Changes in parents' and self-reports of behavioral problems in Brazilian adolescents after behavioral treatment with urine alarm for nocturnal enuresis
PURPOSE: Compare parents' reports of youth problems (PRYP) with adolescent problems self-reports (APSR) pre/post behavioral treatment of nocturnal enuresis (NE) based on the use of a urine alarm. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Adolescents (N = 19) with mono-symptomatic (primary or secondary) nocturnal enuresis group treatment for 40 weeks. Discharge criterion was established as 8 weeks with consecutive dry nights. PRYP and APSR were scored by the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and Youth Self-Report (YSR). RESULTS: Pre-treatment data: 1) Higher number of clinical cases based on parent report than on self-report for Internalizing Problems (IP) (13/19 vs. 4/19), Externalizing Problems (EP) (7/19 vs. 5/19) and Total Problem (TP) (11/19 vs. 5/19); 2) Mean PRYP scores for IP (60.8) and TP (61) were within the deviant range (T score ≥ 60); while mean PRYP scores for EP (57.4) and mean APSR scores (IP = 52.4, EP = 49.5, TP = 52.4) were within the normal range. Difference between PRYP' and APSR' scores was significant. Post treatment data: 1) Discharge for majority of the participants (16/19); 2) Reduction in the number of clinical cases on parental evaluation: 9/19 adolescents remained within clinical range for IP, 2/19 for EP, and 7/19 for TP. 3) All post-treatment mean scores were within the normal range; the difference between pre and post evaluation scores was significant for PRYP. CONCLUSIONS: The behavioral treatment based on the use of urine alarm is effective for adolescents with mono-symptomatic (primary and secondary) nocturnal enuresis. The study favors the hypothesis that enuresis is a cause, not a consequence, of other behavioral problems.FAPESPCNPqUS
Renewed global partnerships and redesigned roadmaps for rabies prevention and control
Canine rabies, responsible for most human rabies deaths, is a serious global public health concern. This zoonosis is entirely preventable, but by focusing solely upon rabies prevention in humans, this "incurable wound" persists at high costs. Although preventing human deaths through canine rabies elimination is feasible, dog rabies control is often neglected, because dogs are not considered typical economic commodities by the animal health sector. Here, we demonstrate that the responsibility of managing rabies falls upon multiple sectors, that a truly integrated approach is the key to rabies elimination, and that considerable progress has been made to this effect. Achievements include the construction of global rabies networks and organizational partnerships; development of road maps, operational toolkits, and a blueprint for rabies prevention and control; and opportunities for scaling up and replication of successful programs. Progress must continue towards overcoming the remaining challenges preventing the ultimate goal of rabies elimination
An HST Study of the Supernovae Accompanying GRB 040924 and GRB 041006
We present the results from a {\it Hubble Space Telescope/ACS} study of the
supernovae associated with gamma-ray bursts 040924 () and 041006
(). We find evidence that both GRBs were associated with a SN
1998bw-like supernova dimmed by and magnitudes,
respectively, making GRB 040924 the faintest GRB-associated SN ever detected.
We study the luminosity dispersion in GRB/XRF-associated SNe and compare to
local Type Ibc supernovae from the literature. We find significant overlap
between the two samples, suggesting that GRB/XRF-associated SNe are not
necessarily more luminous nor produce more Ni than local SNe. Based on
the current (limited) datasets, we find that the two samples may share a
similar Ni production mechanism.Comment: ApJ accepted (in press). Revised version. High-resolution figures
available at http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~ams/GRB-SNe.htm
A Risk Score to Predict Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in an Elderly Spanish Mediterranean Population at High Cardiovascular Risk
Abstract
Introduction: To develop and test a diabetes risk score to predict incident diabetes in an elderly Spanish Mediterranean
population at high cardiovascular risk.
Materials and Methods: A diabetes risk score was derived from a subset of 1381 nondiabetic individuals from three centres
of the PREDIMED study (derivation sample). Multivariate Cox regression model ß-coefficients were used to weigh each risk
factor. PREDIMED-personal Score included body-mass-index, smoking status, family history of type 2 diabetes, alcohol
consumption and hypertension as categorical variables; PREDIMED-clinical Score included also high blood glucose. We
tested the predictive capability of these scores in the DE-PLAN-CAT cohort (validation sample). The discrimination of Finnish
Diabetes Risk Score (FINDRISC), German Diabetes Risk Score (GDRS) and our scores was assessed with the area under curve
(AUC).
Results: The PREDIMED-clinical Score varied from 0 to 14 points. In the subset of the PREDIMED study, 155 individuals
developed diabetes during the 4.75-years follow-up. The PREDIMED-clinical score at a cutoff of $6 had sensitivity of 72.2%,
and specificity of 72.5%, whereas AUC was 0.78. The AUC of the PREDIMED-clinical Score was 0.66 in the validation sample
(sensitivity = 85.4%; specificity = 26.6%), and was significantly higher than the FINDRISC and the GDRS in both the derivation
and validation samples.
Discussion: We identified classical risk factors for diabetes and developed the PREDIMED-clinical Score to determine those
individuals at high risk of developing diabetes in elderly individuals at high cardiovascular risk. The predictive capability of
the PREDIMED-clinical Score was significantly higher than the FINDRISC and GDRS, and also used fewer items in the
questionnaire
Initialisation Strategies for Decadal Hindcasts for the 1960-2005 Period Within the ENSEMBLES Project
Cyclic game dynamics driven by iterated reasoning
Recent theories from complexity science argue that complex dynamics are
ubiquitous in social and economic systems. These claims emerge from the
analysis of individually simple agents whose collective behavior is
surprisingly complicated. However, economists have argued that iterated
reasoning--what you think I think you think--will suppress complex dynamics by
stabilizing or accelerating convergence to Nash equilibrium. We report stable
and efficient periodic behavior in human groups playing the Mod Game, a
multi-player game similar to Rock-Paper-Scissors. The game rewards subjects for
thinking exactly one step ahead of others in their group. Groups that play this
game exhibit cycles that are inconsistent with any fixed-point solution
concept. These cycles are driven by a "hopping" behavior that is consistent
with other accounts of iterated reasoning: agents are constrained to about two
steps of iterated reasoning and learn an additional one-half step with each
session. If higher-order reasoning can be complicit in complex emergent
dynamics, then cyclic and chaotic patterns may be endogenous features of
real-world social and economic systems.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, and supplementary informatio
Progression in MCF-7 Breast Cancer Cell Tumorigenicity: Compared Effect of FGF-3 and FGF-4.
The transforming properties of fibroblast growth factor 3 (FGF-3) were investigated in MCF7 breast cancer cells and compared to those of FGF-4, a known oncogenic product. The short form of fgf-3 and the fgf-4 sequences were each introduced with retroviral vectors and the proteins were only detected in the cytoplasm of the infected cells, as expected. In vitro, cells producing FGF-3 (MCF7.fgf-3) and FGF-4 (MCF7.fgf-4) displayed an amount of estrogen receptors decreased to around 45% of the control value. However, MCF7.fgf-3 cell proliferation remained responsive to estradiol supply. The sensitivity of the MCF7.fgf-4 cells, if existant, was masked by the important mitogenic action exerted by FGF-4. In vivo, the MCF7.fgf-3 and MCF7.fgf-4 cells gave rise to tumors under conditions in which the control cells were not tumorigenic. Supplementing the mice with estrogen had the paradoxical effect of totally suppressing the start of the FGF-3 as well as the FGF-4 tumors. Tumorigenicity in the presence of matrigel was similar for MCF7.fgf-3 and control cells and was increased by estrogen supplementation. Once started, the MCF7.fgf-4 tumors grew with a characteristic high rate. Remarkably, FGF-4 but not FGF-3, stimulated the secretion of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF165) without altering the steady-state level of its mRNA, suggesting a possible regulation of VEGF synthesis at the translational level in MCF7 cells. The increased VEGF secretion is probably involved in the more aggressive phenotype of the MCF7.fgf-4 cells while a decreased dependence upon micro-environmental factors might be part of the increased tumorigenic potential of the MCF7.fgf-3 cells.Peer reviewe
Protection from Experimental Cerebral Malaria with a Single Dose of Radiation-Attenuated, Blood-Stage Plasmodium berghei Parasites
BACKGROUND: Whole malaria parasites are highly effective in inducing immunity against malaria. Due to the limited success of subunit based vaccines in clinical studies, there has been a renewed interest in whole parasite-based malaria vaccines. Apart from attenuated sporozoites, there have also been efforts to use live asexual stage parasites as vaccine immunogens. METHODOLOGY AND RESULTS: We used radiation exposure to attenuate the highly virulent asexual blood stages of the murine malaria parasite P. berghei to a non-replicable, avirulent form. We tested the ability of the attenuated blood stage parasites to induce immunity to parasitemia and the symptoms of severe malaria disease. Depending on the mouse genetic background, a single high dose immunization without adjuvant protected mice from parasitemia and severe disease (CD1 mice) or from experimental cerebral malaria (ECM) (C57BL/6 mice). A low dose immunization did not protect against parasitemia or severe disease in either model after one or two immunizations. The protection from ECM was associated with a parasite specific antibody response and also with a lower level of splenic parasite-specific IFN-γ production, which is a mediator of ECM pathology in C57BL/6 mice. Surprisingly, there was no difference in the sequestration of CD8+ T cells and CD45+ CD11b+ macrophages in the brains of immunized, ECM-protected mice. CONCLUSIONS: This report further demonstrates the effectiveness of a whole parasite blood-stage vaccine in inducing immunity to malaria and explicitly demonstrates its effectiveness against ECM, the most pathogenic consequence of malaria infection. This experimental model will be important to explore the formulation of whole parasite blood-stage vaccines against malaria and to investigate the immune mechanisms that mediate protection against parasitemia and cerebral malaria
Analysis of the P. lividus sea urchin genome highlights contrasting trends of genomic and regulatory evolution in deuterostomes
Sea urchins are emblematic models in developmental biology and display several characteristics that set them apart from other deuterostomes. To uncover the genomic cues that may underlie these specificities, we generated a chromosome-scale genome assembly for the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus and an extensive gene expression and epigenetic profiles of its embryonic development. We found that, unlike vertebrates, sea urchins retained ancestral chromosomal linkages but underwent very fast intrachromosomal gene order mixing. We identified a burst of gene duplication in the echinoid lineage and showed that some of these expanded genes have been recruited in novel structures (water vascular system, Aristotle's lantern, and skeletogenic micromere lineage). Finally, we identified gene-regulatory modules conserved between sea urchins and chordates. Our results suggest that gene-regulatory networks controlling development can be conserved despite extensive gene order rearrangement
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