Factors invoved in onset and recovery from postnatal depression

Background: A wide variety of psychosocial variables have been implicated in the onset and recovery from postnatal depression. A number of these factors were examined on a representative sample of pregnant Maltese women attending St Luke's Hospital. Method: A random sample of 239 pregnant women were interviewed at booking using a detailed sociodemographic history, the Revised Version of the Clinical Interview Schedule (CIS-R) and Maltese translation of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). The CIS-R was again administered over the phone at 36 weeks and the EPDS sent by post. At eight weeks postpartum, the CIS-R, modified version of the Social Maladjustment Schedule and the EPDS were again administered to 95.8% of women. Results: Onset of depression in the postpartum was not predicted by depressive symptomatology during pregnancy, marital status, level of education, planning of pregnancy, woman's, partner's or family's reaction to pregnancy and marital adjustment. However being primiparous and employed during pregnancy were significantly associated with postnatal depression. In contrast, depressed women who remained depressed postnatally had a past personal psychiatry history and significantly higher scores on the CISR recorded at 36 weeks gestation. Limitation: The number of women examined in the study yielded a small number of depressed women, for which the results are limited in value. The sample is that of Maltese women booking in at the antenatal clinic, thus excluding women who present late, close to delivery date. The follow up period was limited to eight weeks postpartum only, excluding those who develop depressive episodes after 8 weeks. Conclusions: Some cases of postpartum depression may be traced back to pregnancy while others do not seem to be predictable during pregnancy further contributing evidence to the view that the prenatal period may be a separate entity from the postnatal period with regards to depressive illness.peer-reviewe

Cation Alloying as a Pathway to Reproducible olution Based Preparation of Efficient Metal Halide Perovskites Solar Cells with Increased Stability

With a certain amount of serendipity, research on dye sensitized solar cells led to the discovery of metal halide perovskite semiconductors as a solar energy conversion material1,2 that has inspired world wide research activities leading to efficiency increases from about 10 in 20123,4 to now 22 .5 8 Apart from their use as a single junction solar cell technology, metal halide perovskites can be processed as an add on layer onto other solar cells to realize efficient and low cost tandem architectures. The perovskite band gap can be tuned continuously from 1.1 to 3.0 eV by chemical engineering which makes them particularly relevant for multi junction devices.9 12 Experimental demonstrations of efficient tandem devices comprising metal halide perovskites as one13 15 or both10,16 components in a tandem stack highlight the potential for scalable and low cost multi junction devices17 with efficiencies approaching 30 is considered feasible.18,12,19,20 To reach this performance in a perovskite silicon tandem, the ideal band gap of the absorber material in top device should be about 1.7 eV18,12,21 sine silicon has a band gap of 1.1 eV .11,22,23 In this review, we dedicate section I to the discussion of the chemical tunability of metal halide perovskite with a particular focus on absorber materials with absorption onsets around 1.6 eV. Section II reflects on the benefit and role of including cesium Cs highlighting the work by Saliba et al.5,6 as this approach demonstrates a reliable pathway to obtain efficient solution processed metal halide perovskite absorbers with high reproducibility and extended operational device stability. Section III focuses on the state of the art of perovskite photovoltaics as a function of the absorption onset of the absorber layer highlighting materials with band gaps between 1.6 eV 1.75 eV as these are of great importance to the development of efficient tandem solar cells.12,18 20 In the conclusion section IV, we reflect on more general trends in metal halide alloys partially iscussed elsewhere23 highlighting cation alloying as an approach to obtain highly efficient devices in the band gap range between 1.6 and 1.7 eV. The data shown and discussed here is dominantly based on three of our recent publications and the interested reader is kindly referred to Unger et al.23 and Saliba et al.5,6 for more in depth discussions and experimental details

Subjective wellbeing in the Indian general population: a validation study of the Personal Wellbeing Index

© 2019, Springer Nature Switzerland AG. Purpose: The Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI) is a commonly used measure of life satisfaction that reflects a person’s level of subjective wellbeing (SWB). The present study aimed to establish the validity and reliability of the PWI in a large sample of Indian adults and describe their SWB. Methods: 2004 Indian adults completed a cross-sectional online survey, which was presented in English and included the PWI and demographic questions. The sample was split to assess the psychometric properties of the 7-item (n = 981) and 8-item (n = 937) versions of the PWI. Results: Both the 7- and 8-item versions of the PWI demonstrated adequate internal consistency (α =.89 and.88, respectively). The global means for both versions of the PWI (7-item = 74.43, 8-item = 73.82) were within the normative range for Western countries. Achieving in life had the lowest domain scores for both the 7-item (M = 70.51) and 8-item (M = 68.37) versions; the spirituality or religion domain had the highest domain score in the 8-item version (M = 78.84). Conclusion: The findings suggest that both the 7- and 8-item versions of the PWI are valid and reliable measures of life satisfaction for use in India. The global mean scores for both versions of the PWI were within the normative range for Western countries. In this study, Indians reported high levels of satisfaction with their spirituality or religion, suggesting this domain may be an important contributor of SWB; however, more research is needed to determine this

Herbal medicine use behaviour in Australian adults who experience anxiety: a descriptive study.

BackgroundAnxiety disorders are the most prevalent mental health condition in Australia. In addition, there are many people who experience problematic anxiety symptoms who do not receive an anxiety disorder diagnosis but require treatment. As herbal medicine use is popular in Australia, and little is known about how adults experiencing anxiety are using these medicines, this study aimed to identify how Australian adults who experience anxiety are using herbal medicines.MethodsAn online cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted using purposive convenience sampling to recruit Australian adults who have experienced anxiety symptoms and have used herbal medicines (N = 400). Descriptive statistics, chi-square test of contingency, analysis of variance, and simple logistic regression was used to analyse the data.ResultsEighty two percent of participants experienced anxiety symptoms in the previous 12 months, with 47% reporting having previously been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. In addition, 72.8% had used herbal medicines specifically for anxiety symptoms in their lifetime, while 55.3% had used prescribed pharmaceuticals, with 27.5% having used herbal medicines concurrently with prescribed pharmaceuticals. The Internet and family and friends were the most frequently used sources of information about herbal medicines. Forty eight percent of participants did not disclose their herbal medicine use to their doctor.ConclusionsHerbal medicines are being used by adults with anxiety and are commonly self-prescribed for anxiety symptoms. Health practitioners who are experts in herbal medicine prescribing are consulted infrequently. In addition, herbal medicine use is often not disclosed to health practitioners. These behaviours are concerning as people may not be receiving the most suitable treatments, and their use of herbal medicines may even be dangerous. It is critical we develop a better understanding of why people are using these medicines, and how we can develop improved health literacy to help with treatment decision making to ensure people receive optimal care

Seroprevalence of West Nile, Rift Valley, and sandfly arboviruses in Hashimiah, Jordan.

We conducted a serosurvey among patients of a health center in Hashimiah, a Jordanian town of 30,000 inhabitants located near a wastewater treatment plant and its effluent channel. Serum samples from 261 patients >/=5 years of age were assessed for immunoglobulin G (IgG) and IgM antibodies against West Nile, sandfly Sicilian, sandfly Naples, and Rift Valley viruses; the seroprevalence of IgG antibodies was 8%, 47%, 30%, and 0%, respectively. Female participants were more likely to have been infected than male. Persons living within 2 km of the treatment plant were more likely to have been infected with West Nile (p=0.016) and sandfly Sicilian (p=0.010) viruses. Raising domestic animals within the house was a risk factor for sandfly Sicilian (p=0.003) but not for sandfly Naples virus (p=0.148). All serum samples were negative for IgM antibodies against the tested viruses. Our study is the first documentation of West Nile and sandfly viruses in Jordan and calls attention to the possible health hazards of living close to wastewater treatment plants and their effluent channels

Obras nacionalistas brasileiras para violoncelo e piano

Mestrado em MúsicaEste trabalho tem por finalidade complementar o projeto de performance musical que se baseia em três obras para violoncelo e piano de distintos compositores brasileiros, compostas no período em que estes compartilhavam os mesmos ideais nacionalistas, porém expressados de formas diferentes. Francisco Mignone, José Guerra Vicente e Camargo Guarnieri, contemporâneos e que figuram entre os grandes compositores brasileiros do séc. XX, fazem parte do hall de compositores nacionais, a que se soma Heitor Villa-Lobos, que muito contribuíram para a consolidação do repertório brasileiro para violoncelo. As obras abordadas neste documento serão a Sonata nº1 para violoncelo e piano (1931) de Camargo Guarnieri, a Modinha (1939) de Francisco Mignone e as Cenas Cariocas (1961) de José Guerra Vicente, as quais apresento uma explanação histórica e sobre seus conteúdos nacionalistas. O movimento nacionalista brasileiro surgiu no início do século XX, com a intenção de se criar uma verdadeira “identidade” nacional, e romper com os dogmas do romantismo tardio europeu que comandava toda a produção musical brasileira de até então. Dentre todos os nacionalistas, se destacou a figura do poeta, ensaísta e musicólogo Mário de Andrade, que através de seus textos e publicações comandou todo movimento, exercendo influências diretas sobre vários compositores. Além dos enfoques voltados às obras, apresento uma visão do Nacionalismo enquanto movimento histórico, intelectual e cultural do Brasil, e os aspectos biográficos do trio de compositores.This study aims to complement the project on musical performance that was based on three musical works for cello and piano by Brazilian the composers Francisco Mignone, José Guerra Vicente and Camargo Guarnieri. These composers and performers shared the same nationalistic ideals, but expressed it in different ways. They belong to a historical generation of composers to which we can add Heitor Villa-Lobos, who greatly contributed to the growth of the Brazilian repertoire for cello. The musical works covered in this document are the Sonata nº1 for cello and piano (1931) of Camargo Guarnieri, the Modinha (1939) of Francisco Mignone and Cenas Cariocas (1961) of José Guerra Vicente, which represent very important examples of the nationalistic aesthetic movement. The Brazilian nationalist movement emerged in the early twentieth century, with the intention of creating a “true national identity”, and breaking with the tenets of European late Romanticism that commanded the whole Brazilian musical production until then. Among intellectual nationalists stood the figure of the poet, essayist and musicologist Mário de Andrade, who, through his writings and speeches, exerted direct influence on many composers. In this dissertation I will present both the contextualization of the nationalistic movement in Brazil, especially related to music, and biographic aspects and analyses of the composers represented

Transcriptional and pathway analysis in the hypothalamus of newly hatched chicks during fasting and delayed feeding

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The hypothalamus plays a central role in regulating appetite and metabolism. However, the gene networks within the hypothalamus that regulate feed intake and metabolism, and the effects of fasting on those pathways are not completely understood in any species. The present experiment evaluated global hypothalamic gene expression in newly hatched chicks using microarray analysis to elucidate genes and pathways regulated by feeding, fasting, and delayed feeding. Ten groups of chicks were sampled over four days post-hatch, including fed, fasted, and 48 h fasted followed by access to feed for 4 h, 24 h, and 48 h. Hypothalamic samples were collected for microarray analysis (n = 4). Expression patterns of selected genes were confirmed by quantitative real-time PCR. Pathway analysis of the microarray results predicted a network of genes involved in neuropeptide or neurotransmitter signaling. To confirm the functionality of this predicted gene network, hypothalamic neurons from fed and fasted chicks were isolated and cultured in the presence of neuropeptide Y, somatostatin, α-melanocyte stimulating hormone, norepinephrine, and L-phospho-serine. Results confirmed functional relationships among members of the predicted gene network. Moreover, the effects observed were dependant upon the nutritional state of the animals (fed <it>vs</it>. fasted).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Differences in gene expression (≥ 1.6 fold) were detected in 1,272 genes between treatments, and of those, 119 genes were significantly (P < 0.05) different. Pathway Miner analysis revealed that six genes (<it>SSTR5</it>, <it>NPY5R</it>, <it>POMC</it>, <it>ADRB2</it>, <it>GRM8</it>, and <it>RLN3</it>) were associated within a gene network. <it>In vitro </it>experiments with primary hypothalamic neurons confirmed that receptor agonists involved in this network regulated expression of other genes in the predicted network, and this regulation within the network was influenced by the nutritional status and age of the chick.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Microarray analysis of the hypothalamus during different nutritional states revealed that many genes are differentially regulated. We found that functional interactions exist among six differentially regulated genes associated within a putative gene network from this experiment. Considering that <it>POMC</it>, an important gene in controlling metabolism, was central to this network, this gene network may play an important role in regulation of feeding and metabolism in birds.</p