Disparities in appendicitis rupture rate among mentally ill patients

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Many studies have been carried out that focus on mental patients' access to care for their mental illness, but very few pay attention on these same patients' access to care for their physical diseases. Acute appendicitis is a common surgical emergency. Our population-based study was to test for any possible association between mental illness and perforated appendicitis. We hypothesized that there are significant disparities in access to timely surgical care between appendicitis patients with and without mental illness, and more specifically, between patients with schizophrenia and those with another major mental illness.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Using the National Health Insurance (NHI) hospital-discharge data, we compared the likelihood of perforated appendix among 97,589 adults aged 15 and over who were hospitalized for acute appendicitis in Taiwan between the years 1997 to 2001. Among all the patients admitted for appendicitis, the outcome measure was the odds of appendiceal rupture vs. appendicitis that did not result in a ruptured appendix.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>After adjusting for age, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status (SES) and hospital characteristics, the presence of schizophrenia was associated with a 2.83 times higher risk of having a ruptured appendix (odds ratio [OR], 2.83; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.20–3.64). However, the presence of affective psychoses (OR, 1.15; 95% CI: 0.77–1.73) or other mental disorders (OR, 1.58; 95% CI: 0.89–2.81) was not a significant predictor for a ruptured appendix.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These findings suggest that given the fact that the NHI program reduces financial barriers to care for mentally ill patients, they are still at a disadvantage for obtaining timely treatment for their physical diseases. Of patients with a major mental illness, schizophrenic patients may be the most vulnerable ones for obtaining timely surgical care.</p

Crystallographic and electrophilic fragment screening of the SARS-CoV-2 main protease

COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2, lacks effective therapeutics. Additionally, no antiviral drugs or vaccines were developed against the closely related coronavirus, SARS-CoV-1 or MERS-CoV, despite previous zoonotic outbreaks. To identify starting points for such therapeutics, we performed a large-scale screen of electrophile and non-covalent fragments through a combined mass spectrometry and X-ray approach against the SARS-CoV-2 main protease, one of two cysteine viral proteases essential for viral replication. Our crystallographic screen identified 71 hits that span the entire active site, as well as 3 hits at the dimer interface. These structures reveal routes to rapidly develop more potent inhibitors through merging of covalent and non-covalent fragment hits; one series of low-reactivity, tractable covalent fragments were progressed to discover improved binders. These combined hits offer unprecedented structural and reactivity information for on-going structure-based drug design against SARS-CoV-2 main protease

Morphological study of the antennal sensilla in Gerromorpha (Insecta: Hemiptera: Heteroptera)

The external morphology and distribution of the antennal sensilla of 21 species from five families of semiaquatic bugs (Gerromorpha) were examined using scanning electron microscopy. Nine main types were distinguished based on their morphological structure: sensilla trichoidea, sensilla chaetica, sensilla leaflike, sensilla campaniformia, sensilla coeloconica, sensilla ampullacea, sensilla basiconica, sensilla placoidea and sensilla bell-mouthed. The specific morphological structure of one type of sensilla (bell-mouthed sensilla) was observed only in Aquarius paludum. Several subtypes of sensilla are described, differentiated by number, location and type of sensillum characteristic for each examined taxon. The present study provides new data about the morphology and distribution of the antennal sensilla in Gerromorpha

Stylized facts of money and credit over the business cycles

This article investigates the stylized facts of money and credit over the business cycles in nine Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries using quarterly data from 1960 to 2006, through the application of two main detrending methods. Our findings confirm the existence of substantive cyclical regularities across countries. In particular, money supply is procyclical and tends to move in advance of real output; velocity of money is procyclical; domestic credit and credit are procyclical and lag the cycle; deposits are procyclical and tend to lead the cycle; nominal interest rates are procyclical and short-term interest rates lag the cycle, while long-term interest rates lead the cycles, in the majority of countries; term spread is countercyclical and lags the cycle; prices are countercyclical; inflation is procyclical and lags the cycle and liquidity effect is confirmed in all countries.business cycles, stylized facts, detrending methods, money and credit,

Lanternfish (myctophidae) zoogeography off Eastern Australia: a comparison with physicochemical biogeography

In this first attempt to model the distributions of a mesopelagic fish family at this scale in the eastern Australian region (10°S to 57°S), lanternfish species occurrence data spanning a period from 1928 to 2010 were modelled against environmental covariates. This involved: (1) data collation and taxonomic quality checking, (2) classification of trawls into “horizontal” (presence-absence) and “oblique” (presence-only) types, and classification of vertical migration patterns using existing literature and the species occurrence database, (3) binomial GAMs using presence-absence data for representative temperate, subtropical and tropical species to examine depth interactions with environmental covariates and refine the selection of environmental layers for presence-only MAXENT models, (4) Presence-only MAXENT modelling using data from all trawls and the reduced environmental layers, and (5) Multivariate analysis (area-wise and species-wise) of the resulting matrix of logistic score by geographic pixel. We test the hypothesis that major fronts in the region (Tasman Front, Subtropical Convergence, Subantarctic Front) represent zoogeographic boundaries. A four-region zoogeographic scheme is hypothesised: Coral Sea region, Subtropical Lower Water region, Subtropical Convergence/South Tasman region and Subantarctic region. The Tasman Front, Subtropical Convergence and Subantarctic Front represented zoogeographic boundaries. An additional boundary at ~25°S (coined the ‘Capricorn’ boundary) was adopted to delineate the Coral Sea from Subtropical Lower Water regions. Lanternfish zoogeographic regions are congruent with some aspects of two prevailing physicochemical biogeographic schema in the region, but neither of these schema alone accurately predicts lanternfish distributions. As lanternfishes integrate vertical ocean processes, the hypothesised lanternfish zoogeography may represent a useful model for a generalised pelagic biogeography that should be tested for other oceanic groups