Prevention of childhood drowning on a Greek island in the 19th century: literal testimonies by two native writers

Background: To present literal texts of two native writers about drowning during childhood, along witha successful simple preventive measure implemented by the community of a small Greek island.Materials and methods: Review of the older Greek literal production as well as of the contemporary literatureon childhood drowning and related preventive measures.Results: Alexander Papadiamandis (1851–1911) from the island of Skiathos is a writer, who described,with intellectual language, the microcosm of his place of birth, which he always remembered with nostalgia.Alexander Moraitidis (1850–1929), his cousin, also from the same island, used a different style to describelife events in the small society. Both refer to tragic intentional and unintentional drowning events in wellsand the sea, which took place in their times or before and survived as local legends in their narrations.Both describe effective initiatives undertaken by families themselves to prevent childhood drowning byhiring, during the summer months, a guardian with a specific duty to closely supervise the children andenforce guidelines for swimming in the sea. Papadiamantis goes one step further to describe the dismalconsequences when the rules were not respected.Conclusions: The literal testimonies of two Greek islander writers present the range of childhood drowningoccurring on the island and a primitive yet effective community initiative for accident and drowningprevention pertaining to better supervision by an ad hoc employed guardian; this sets the example of thesocial responsibility ethos on the part of local communities to safeguard children from drowning that couldserve as a good practice even in modern times

The Theory of Mind in caregivers spouses of people with dementia

Όσον αφορά τους περιθάλποντες συζύγους ατόμων με άνοια, έχει βρεθεί ότι παρουσιάζουν γνωστικά ελλείμματα και ότι η επικοινωνία τους με τον / την ασθενή σύζυγο πλήττεται. Ωστόσο, η Θεωρία του Νου (ΘτΝ) τους δεν έχει μελετηθεί επαρκώς. Η παρούσα έρευνα επιχειρεί να διερευνήσει πτυχές της ΘτΝ σε περιθάλποντες συζύγους ατόμων με άνοια, σε σύγκριση με τη ΘτΝ μη περιθαλπόντων συζύγων. Καθεμία από τις δύο ομάδες (περιθαλπόντων και μη) αποτελούνταν από 23 άτομα, ηλικίας 56 έως 85 ετών, εξισωμένα ως προς την ηλικία, το φύλο, το εκπαιδευτικό επίπεδο, τo επίπεδο καταθλιπτικής συμπτωματολογίας και τη γνωστική κατάσταση. Στους συμμετέχοντες χορηγήθηκε το PART I: Emotion Evaluation Test (EET) και το PART 2: Social Inference–Minimal (SI-M) του The Awareness of Social Inference Test (TASIT; McDonald et al., 2002), δηλαδή έργα ΘτΝ που εκτιμούν την αναγνώριση (i) βασικών συναισθημάτων και (ii) κοινωνικού συμπερασμού/έμμεσου λόγου σε τρεις διαφορετικές περιπτώσεις (ειλικρινείς συνδιαλλαγές, απλός σαρκασμός, παράδοξος σαρκασμός). Οι περιθάλποντες αναγνώρισαν το συναίσθημα της λύπης, σε υψηλότερο βαθμό από τους μη περιθάλποντες.  Οι μη περιθάλποντες είχαν υψηλότερες επιδόσεις από τους περιθάλποντες, σε μία συνθήκη του απλού και του παράδοξου σαρκασμού. Επίσης, σε τρεις από τις συνθήκες του απλού σαρκασμού, οι μη περιθάλποντες βρέθηκαν να τα πηγαίνουν καλύτερα, όταν η επίδοσή τους στη δοκιμασία Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) ήταν φυσιολογική. Οι διαφορές που βρέθηκαν αποτελούν ένδειξη ότι οι περιθάλποντες σύζυγοι ατόμων με άνοια ίσως έχουν μειωμένη ΘτΝ, εύρημα, ωστόσο, που χρήζει περαιτέρω διερεύνησης.Caregivers spouses of people with dementia were found to present cognitive deficits and as regards their communication with the patient, it has been found to be impaired. However, the caregivers’ Theory of Mind (ToM) has not been yet studied adequately. The present study attempts to investigate aspects of ToM in caregivers spouses of dementia patients compared to ToM of non-caregivers. Each of the two groups (caregivers and non-caregivers) consisted of 23 people, aged between 56 and 85, who had been matched regarding age, gender, educational level, depression, and cognitive status. Participants were administered ToM tests: PART I: Emotion Evaluation Test (EET), and PART 2: Social Inference – Minimal (SI-M) of The Awareness of Social Inference Test (TASIT; McDonald et al., 2002), that assess recognition of (i) basic emotions, and (ii) social interference/indirect speech in three different conditions (sincere conciliations, simple sarcasm, paradoxical sarcasm). The caregivers recognized the emotion of sadness better than the non-caregivers. With regard to simple and paradoxical sarcasm, non-caregivers performed better than the caregivers in one condition. Furthermore, in three of the conditions in simple sarcasm, the non-caregivers perform better when their performance in Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) test was normal. The differences which were found indicate that the caregivers spouses of dementia patients may have reduced ToM. However, this finding needs further investigation

Jérôme Lejeune (1926.–1994.), otac moderne genetike

Jérôme Lejeune’s greatest achievement was the discovery of the genetic basis of down’s syndrome, which he named trisomy 21. His important research in human genetics, as well as his humanitarian spirit and fight against therapeutic abortion, rightly led to his recognition as the founder of modern genetics.Najveće postignuće Jérômea Lejeunea bilo je otkriće genetske osnove downova sindroma, koju je nazvao trisomija 21. Zahvaljujući važnim humanim genetičkim istraživanjima, humanitarnome duhu i borbi protiv terapijskoga pobačaja, s pravom je priznat kao ute¬meljitelj moderne genetike

Physical anhedonia in the acute phase of schizophrenia

BACKGROUND: The aim of the current study is to investigate the relationship between physical anhedonia and psychopathological parameters, pharmacological parameters or motor side-effects in a sample of inpatients with schizophrenia in an acute episode of their illness. METHOD: Eighty one patients with schizophrenia, consecutively admitted, with an acute episode of their illness, at the Eginition Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, University of Athens, during a one-year period were investigated regarding possible relationships between physical anhedonia, social-demographic data and clinical parameters as well as motor side-effects, induced by antipsychotic agents. All patients were assessed using the Chapman Revised Physical Anhedonia Scale (RPAS), the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), the Rating Scale for Extrapyramidal Side-Effects (EPSE), the Barnes Akathisia Rating Scale (BARS) and the Abnormal Involuntary Movement Scale (AIMS). Simple cross tabulations were initially employed. Subsequently, multiple regression analysis was performed. RESULTS: Both positive and negative symptoms were associated with physical anhedonia. A positive association between physical anhedonia and the non-paranoid sub-category of schizophrenia was also proved. CONCLUSION: According to these results, it seems that in the acute phase of schizophrenia, physical anhedonia may be a contributing factor to patient's psychopathology

Breastfeeding and risk of childhood brain tumors : a report from the Childhood Cancer and Leukemia International Consortium

PURPOSE: Studies report mixed findings regarding the association of breastfeeding with childhood brain tumors (CBT), the leading causes of cancer-related mortality in young people. Our objective was to determine whether breastfeeding is associated with CBT incidence. METHODS: We pooled data on N = 2610 cases with CBT (including 697 cases with astrocytoma, 447 cases with medulloblastoma/primitive neuroectodermal tumor [PNET], 167 cases with ependymoma) and N = 8128 age- and sex-matched controls in the Childhood Cancer and Leukemia International Consortium. We computed unconditional logistic regression models to estimate the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) of CBT, astrocytoma, medulloblastoma/PNET, and ependymoma according to breastfeeding status, adjusting for study, sex, mode of delivery, birthweight, age at diagnosis/interview, maternal age at delivery, maternal educational attainment, and maternal race/ethnicity. We evaluated any breastfeeding versus none and breastfeeding ≥ 6 months versus none. We subsequently performed random effects meta-analysis to confirm our findings, identify potential sources of heterogeneity, and evaluate for outliers or influential studies. RESULTS: Breastfeeding was reported by 64.8% of control mothers and 64.5% of case mothers and was not associated with CBT (OR 1.04, 95% CI 0.94-1.15), astrocytoma (OR 1.01, 95% CI 0.87-1.17), medulloblastoma/PNET (OR 1.11, 95% CI 0.93-1.32), or ependymoma (OR 1.06, 95% CI 0.81-1.40). Results were similar when we restricted to breastfeeding ≥ 6 months and in meta-analyses. CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that breastfeeding does not protect against CBT

Parental occupational exposure to low-frequency magnetic fields and risk of leukaemia in the offspring : findings from the Childhood Leukaemia International Consortium (CLIC)

OBJECTIVES: Previously published studies on parental occupational exposure to extremely low-frequency magnetic fields (ELF-MF) and risk of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) and acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) in their offspring were inconsistent. We therefore evaluated this question within the Childhood Leukemia International Consortium. METHODS: We pooled 11 case-control studies including 9723 childhood leukaemia cases and 17 099 controls. Parental occupational ELF-MF exposure was estimated by linking jobs to an ELF-MF job-exposure matrix (JEM). Logistic regression models were used to estimate ORs and 95% CIs in pooled analyses and meta-analyses. RESULTS: ORs from pooled analyses for paternal ELF-MF exposure >0.2 microtesla (µT) at conception were 1.04 (95% CI 0.95 to 1.13) for ALL and 1.06 (95% CI 0.87 to 1.29) for AML, compared with ≤0.2 µT. Corresponding ORs for maternal ELF-MF exposure during pregnancy were 1.00 (95% CI 0.89 to 1.12) for ALL and 0.85 (95% CI 0.61 to 1.16) for AML. No trends of increasing ORs with increasing exposure level were evident. Furthermore, no associations were observed in the meta-analyses. CONCLUSIONS: In this large international dataset applying a comprehensive quantitative JEM, we did not find any associations between parental occupational ELF-MF exposure and childhood leukaemia