Is patient acceptance of the diagnosis of psychogenic nonepileptic seizures linked to symptomatology?

peerreview_statement: The publishing and review policy for this title is described in its Aims & Scope. aims_and_scope_url: http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=ncen2

Practitioner Perspectives on Child Sexual Exploitation: Rapport Building With Young People.

Young people suspected of being sexually exploited are unlikely to have made prior disclosures before being approached by authorities, and this can make them especially uncomfortable when involved in investigations. Semistructured interviews were conducted with frontline social workers and law enforcement practitioners about their experiences interacting with youth during child sexual exploitation investigations. The findings provided some tentative insights into the processes by which practitioners sought to establish rapport with young people who have been exploited and establish themselves as trustworthy abuse disclosure recipients. Practitioners reported that rapport building in child sexual exploitation cases not only occurred over lengthy periods of time (e.g., months or years) but also required repeated contacts between the practitioners and young people, during which practitioners minimized their roles as authorities and maximized their authenticity as caring people. Practitioners mentioned the importance of dependability, lightheartedness, and having a casual demeanor. Findings have implications for managing reluctance and understanding rapport building when working with possible victims.This study was funded by the BASPCAN, the Jacobs Foundation and the Nuffield Foundation

Garden and landscape-scale correlates of moths of differing conservation status: significant effects of urbanization and habitat diversity

Moths are abundant and ubiquitous in vegetated terrestrial environments and are pollinators, important herbivores of wild plants, and food for birds, bats and rodents. In recent years, many once abundant and widespread species have shown sharp declines that have been cited by some as indicative of a widespread insect biodiversity crisis. Likely causes of these declines include agricultural intensification, light pollution, climate change, and urbanization; however, the real underlying cause(s) is still open to conjecture. We used data collected from the citizen science Garden Moth Scheme (GMS) to explore the spatial association between the abundance of 195 widespread British species of moth, and garden habitat and landscape features, to see if spatial habitat and landscape associations varied for species of differing conservation status. We found that associations with habitat and landscape composition were species-specific, but that there were consistent trends in species richness and total moth abundance. Gardens with more diverse and extensive microhabitats were associated with higher species richness and moth abundance; gardens near to the coast were associated with higher richness and moth abundance; and gardens in more urbanized locations were associated with lower species richness and moth abundance. The same trends were also found for species classified as increasing, declining and vulnerable under IUCN (World Conservation Union) criteria

Elevated Plasma Von Willebrand Factor and Propeptide Levels in Malawian Children with Malaria

In children with malaria plasma VWF and propeptide levels are markedly elevated in both cerebral and mild paediatric malaria, with levels matching disease severity, and these normalize upon recovery. High levels of both markers also occur in retinopathy-negative 'cerebral malaria' cases, many of whom are thought to be suffering from diseases other than malaria, indicating that further studies of these markers will be required to determine their sensitivity and specificity

Severe Plasmodium falciparum Malaria Is Associated with Circulating Ultra-Large von Willebrand Multimers and ADAMTS13 Inhibition

Plasmodium falciparum infection results in adhesion of infected erythrocytes to blood vessel endothelium, and acute endothelial cell activation, together with sequestration of platelets and leucocytes. We have previously shown that patients with severe infection or fulminant cerebral malaria have significantly increased circulatory levels of the adhesive glycoprotein von Willebrand factor (VWF) and its propeptide, both of which are indices of endothelial cell activation. In this prospective study of patients from Ghana with severe (n = 20) and cerebral (n = 13) P. falciparum malaria, we demonstrate that increased plasma VWF antigen (VWF∶Ag) level is associated with disproportionately increased VWF function. VWF collagen binding (VWF∶CB) was significantly increased in patients with cerebral malaria and severe malaria (medians 7.6 and 7.0 IU/ml versus 1.9 IU/ml; p<0.005). This increased VWF∶CB correlated with the presence of abnormal ultra-large VWF multimers in patient rather than control plasmas. Concomitant with the increase in VWF∶Ag and VWF∶CB was a significant persistent reduction in the activity of the VWF-specific cleaving protease ADAMTS13 (∼55% of normal; p<0.005). Mixing studies were performed using P. falciparum patient plasma and normal pooled plasma, in the presence or absence of exogenous recombinant ADAMTS13. These studies demonstrated that in malarial plasma, ADAMTS13 function was persistently inhibited in a time-dependent manner. Furthermore, this inhibitory effect was not associated with the presence of known inhibitors of ADAMTS13 enzymatic function (interleukin-6, free haemoglobin, factor VIII or thrombospondin-1). These novel findings suggest that severe P. falciparum infection is associated with acute endothelial cell activation, abnormal circulating ULVWF multimers, and a significant reduction in plasma ADAMTS13 function which is mediated at least in part by an unidentified inhibitor

Challenges for IT-Enabled Formative Assessment of Complex 21st Century Skills

In this article, we identify and examine opportunities for formative assessment provided by information technologies (IT) and the challenges which these opportunities present. We address some of these challenges by examining key aspects of assessment processes that can be facilitated by IT: datafication of learning; feedback and scaffolding; peer assessment and peer feedback. We then consider how these processes may be applied in relation to the assessment of horizontal, general complex 21st century skills (21st CS), which are still proving challenging to incorporate into curricula as well as to assess. 21st CS such as creativity, complex problem solving, communication, collaboration and self-regulated learning contain complex constructs incorporating motivational and affective components. Our analysis has enabled us to make recommendations for policy, practice and further research. While there is currently much interest in and some progress towards the development of learning/assessment analytics for assessing 21st CS, the complexity of assessing such skills, together with the need to include affective aspects means that using IT-enabled techniques will need to be combined with more traditional methods of teacher assessment as well as peer assessment for some time to come. Therefore learners, teachers and school leaders must learn how to manage the greater variety of sorts and sources of feedback including resolving tensions of inconsistent feedback from different sources

Production of phi mesons at mid-rapidity in sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV Au+Au collisions at RHIC

We present the first results of meson production in the K^+K^- decay channel from Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV as measured at mid-rapidity by the PHENIX detector at RHIC. Precision resonance centroid and width values are extracted as a function of collision centrality. No significant variation from the PDG accepted values is observed. The transverse mass spectra are fitted with a linear exponential function for which the derived inverse slope parameter is seen to be constant as a function of centrality. These data are also fitted by a hydrodynamic model with the result that the freeze-out temperature and the expansion velocity values are consistent with the values previously derived from fitting single hadron inclusive data. As a function of transverse momentum the collisions scaled peripheral.to.central yield ratio RCP for the is comparable to that of pions rather than that of protons. This result lends support to theoretical models which distinguish between baryons and mesons instead of particle mass for explaining the anomalous proton yield.Comment: 326 authors, 24 pages text, 23 figures, 6 tables, RevTeX 4. To be submitted to Physical Review C as a regular article. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be) publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm

LPS-induced NF??B enhanceosome requires TonEBP/NFAT5 without DNA binding

NF??B is a central mediator of inflammation. Present inhibitors of NF??B are mostly based on inhibition of essential machinery such as proteasome and protein kinases, or activation of nuclear receptors; as such, they are of limited therapeutic use due to severe toxicity. Here we report an LPS-induced NF??B enhanceosome in which TonEBP is required for the recruitment of p300. Increased expression of TonEBP enhances the NF??B activity and reduced TonEBP expression lowers it. Recombinant TonEBP molecules incapable of recruiting p300 do not stimulate NF??B. Myeloid-specific deletion of TonEBP results in milder inflammation and sepsis. We discover that a natural small molecule cerulenin specifically disrupts the enhanceosome without affecting the activation of NF??B itself. Cerulenin suppresses the pro-inflammatory activation of macrophages and sepsis without detectable toxicity. Thus, the NF??B enhanceosome offers a promising target for useful anti-inflammatory agents.ope

The Murchison Widefield Array Transients Survey (MWATS). A search for low-frequency variability in a bright Southern hemisphere sample

We report on a search for low-frequency radio variability in 944 bright (>4 Jy at 154 MHz) unresolved, extragalactic radio sources monitored monthly for several years with the Murchison Widefield Array. In the majority of sources, we find very low levels of variability with typical modulation indices 2.8 yr) with time-averaged modulation indices M¯¯¯¯¯=3.1−7.1M¯=3.1−7.1 per cent. With 7/15 of these variable sources having peaked spectral energy distributions, and only 5.7 per cent of the overall sample having peaked spectra, we find an increase in the prevalence of variability in this spectral class. We conclude that the variability seen in this survey is most probably a consequence of refractive interstellar scintillation and that these objects must have the majority of their flux density contained within angular diameters less than 50 milliarcsec (which we support with multiwavelength data). At 154 MHz, we demonstrate that interstellar scintillation time-scales become long (∼decades) and have low modulation indices, while synchrotron-driven variability can only produce dynamic changes on time-scales of hundreds of years, with flux density changes less than one milli-jansky (without relativistic boosting). From this work, we infer that the low-frequency extragalactic southern sky, as seen by SKA-Low, will be non-variable on time-scales shorter than 1 yr

Nf2/Merlin: a coordinator of receptor signalling and intercellular contact

This review explores possible mechanisms by which the neurofibromatosis type-2 tumour suppressor Merlin regulates contact-dependent inhibition of proliferation. Starting from an evolutionary perspective, the concurrent emergence of intercellular contacts and proliferation control in multicellular organisms is first considered. Following a brief survey of the molecular and subcellular milieus in which merlin performs its function, the importance of different cellular and biological contexts in defining the function of merlin is discussed. Finally, an integrated model for merlin and the Ezrin, Radixin, and Moesin (ERM) proteins functioning in the regulation of cellular interfaces is proposed