Emotion recognition of static and dynamic faces in autism spectrum disorder

There is substantial evidence for facial emotion recognition (FER) deficits in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The extent of this impairment, however, remains unclear, and there is some suggestion that clinical groups might benefit from the use of dynamic rather than static images. High-functioning individuals with ASD (n = 36) and typically developing controls (n = 36) completed a computerised FER task involving static and dynamic expressions of the six basic emotions. The ASD group showed poorer overall performance in identifying anger and disgust and were disadvantaged by dynamic (relative to static) stimuli when presented with sad expressions. Among both groups, however, dynamic stimuli appeared to improve recognition of anger. This research provides further evidence of specific impairment in the recognition of negative emotions in ASD, but argues against any broad advantages associated with the use of dynamic displays

Psychopathology in Young People With Intellectual Disability

Context Comorbid severe mental health problems complicating intellectual disability are a common and costly public health problem. Although these problems are known to begin in early childhood, little is known of how they evolve over time or whether they continue into adulthood. Objective To study the course of psychopathology in a representative population of children and adolescents with intellectual disability. Design, Setting, and Participants The participants of the Australian Child to Adult Development Study, an epidemiological cohort of 578 children and adolescents recruited in 1991 from health, education, and family agencies that provided services to children with intellectual disability aged 5 to 19.5 years in 6 rural and urban census regions in Australia, were followed up for 14 years with 4 time waves of data collection. Data were obtained from 507 participants, with 84% of wave 1 (1991-1992) participants being followed up at wave 4 (2002-2003). Main Outcome Measures The Developmental Behaviour Checklist (DBC), a validated measure of psychopathology in young people with intellectual disability, completed by parents or other caregivers. Changes over time in the Total Behaviour Problem Score and 5 subscale scores of the DBC scores were modeled using growth curve analysis. Results High initial levels of behavioral and emotional disturbance decreased only slowly over time, remaining high into young adulthood, declining by 1.05 per year on the DBC Total Behaviour Problem Score. Overall severity of psychopathology was similar across mild to severe ranges of intellectual disability (with mean Total Behavior Problem Scores of approximately 44). Psychopathology decreased more in boys than girls over time (boys starting with scores 2.61 points higher at baseline and ending with scores 2.57 points lower at wave 4), and more so in participants with mild intellectual disability compared with those with severe or profound intellectual disability who diverged from having scores 0.53 points lower at study commencement increasing to a difference of 6.98 points below severely affected children by wave 4. This trend was observed in each of the subscales, except the social-relating disturbance subscale, which increased over time. Prevalence of participants meeting criteria for major psychopathology or definite psychiatric disorder decreased from 41% at wave 1 to 31% at wave 4. Few of the participants (10%) with psychopathology received mental health interventions during the study period. Conclusion These results provide evidence that the problem of psychopathology comorbid with intellectual disability is both substantial and persistent and suggest the need for effective mental health interventions

Ability and disability in autism spectrum disorder:a systematic literature review employing the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health-Children and Youth version

Objective: This study is the first in a series of four empirical investigations to develop International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) Core Sets for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The objective was to use a systematic review approach to identify, number, and link functional ability and disability concepts used in the scientific ASD literature to the nomenclature of the ICF-CY (Children and Youth version of the ICF, covering the life span). Methods: Systematic searches on outcome studies of ASD were carried out in Medline/PubMed, PsycINFO, ERIC and Cinahl, and relevant functional ability and disability concepts extracted from the included studies. These concepts were then linked to the ICF-CY by two independent researchers using a standardized linking procedure. New concepts were extracted from the studies until saturation of identified ICF-CY categories was reached. Results: Seventy-one studies were included in the final analysis and 2475 meaningful concepts con tained in these studies were linked to 146 ICF-CY categories. Of these, 99 categories were considered most relevant to ASD (i.e., identified in at least 5% of the studies), of which 63 were related to Activities and Participation, 28 were related to Body functions, and 8 were related to Environmental factors. The five most frequently identified categories were basic interpersonal interactions (51%), emotional functions (49%), complex interpersonal interactions (48%), attention functions (44%), and mental functions of language (44%). Conclusion: The broad variety of ICF-CY categories identified in this study reflects the heterogeneity of functional differences found in ASD—both with respect to disability and exceptionality—and underlines the potential value of the ICF-CY as a framework to capture an individual's functioning in all dimensions of life. The current results in combination with three additional preparatory studies (expert survey, focus groups, and clinical study) will provide the scientific basis for defining the ICF Core Sets for ASD for multipurpose use in basic and applied research and every day clinical practice of ASD. Autism Res 2015, 8: 782–794. © 2015 The Authors Autism Research published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of International Society for Autism Research

The Melbourne Study of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy low‐cost clinic I: Implementation, mental health and life functioning gains

The Melbourne Study of Psychoanalytic Psychother-apy examined the implementation, lived experience, and perceived therapeutic gains of psychoanalytic psychother-apy in a low-cost, private-sector community clinic. A first in Australia, this 8-year demonstration project allowed natural-istic study of the impact and process of intensive, long-term, time-limited psychoanalytic psychotherapy delivered to self-referred adults by clinicians with a common theoretical frame of practice. Presented in three papers, the research employed the RE-AIM planning and evaluation framework, using complementary quantitative and qualitative methods, to study the psychotherapy service in terms of Reach, Effec-tiveness, Adoption, Implementation and Maintenance. This first paper reports the Reach of the program to be 67% for those presenting for assessment for psychoanalytic psycho-therapy, with Adoption of the full 2-year treatment program being 60%. Improvements in mental health and life function-ing provided quantitative evidence of Effectiveness for those completing the 2-year treatment program, with Maintenanceat 8-month follow-up. Patient age, gender and personality

The Cost-Effectiveness Of The Manchester ‘Lung Health Checks’, A Community-Based Lung Cancer Low-Dose CT Screening Pilot

Background: Previous evaluations of low-dose CT (LDCT) lung cancer screening programmes have taken very different approaches in the design of the informative trials and the methods applied to determine cost-effectiveness. Therefore, it has not been possible to determine if differences in cost-effectiveness are due to different screening approaches or the evaluation methodology. This study reports the findings of an evaluation of the first round of a community-based, LDCT screening pilot Manchester, applying previously published methodology to ensure consistency. Methods: Using the economic evaluation method reported in the UKLS trial, applying Manchester specific evidence where possible, we estimate the cost-effectiveness of LDCT for lung cancer. Estimates of the total costs and quality adjusted life years (QALYs) were calculated. Results: The Manchester programme cost £663,076, diagnosed 42 patients with lung cancer resulting in a gain in population health of 88.13 discounted life years, equivalent to 65.85 QALYs. This implied an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of £10,069/QALY. Conclusions: We found the Manchester programme to be a cost-effective use of limited NHS resources. The findings suggest that further research is now needed not as to whether LDCT screening is cost-effective but under what conditions can it improve patient health by the most while remaining cost-effective

Small RNA changes en route to distinct cellular states of induced pluripotency

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are critical to somatic cell reprogramming into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), however, exactly how miRNA expression changes support the transition to pluripotency requires further investigation. Here we use a murine secondary reprogramming system to sample cellular trajectories towards iPSCs or a novel pluripotent ‘F-class’ state and perform small RNA sequencing. We detect sweeping changes in an early and a late wave, revealing that distinct miRNA milieus characterize alternate states of pluripotency. miRNA isoform expression is common but surprisingly varies little between cell states. Referencing other omic data sets generated in parallel, we find that miRNA expression is changed through transcriptional and post-transcriptional mechanisms. miRNA transcription is commonly regulated by dynamic histone modification, while DNA methylation/demethylation consolidates these changes at multiple loci. Importantly, our results suggest that a novel subset of distinctly expressed miRNAs supports pluripotency in the F-class state, substituting for miRNAs that serve such roles in iPSCs

Expression of the myosin heavy chain IIB gene in porcine skeletal muscle: the role of the CArG-box promoter response element

Due to its similarity to humans, the pig is increasingly being considered as a good animal model for studying a range of human diseases. Despite their physiological similarities, differential expression of the myosin heavy chain (MyHC) IIB gene (MYH4) exists in the skeletal muscles of these species, which is associated with a different muscle phenotype. The expression of different MyHC isoforms is a critical determinant of the contractile and metabolic characteristics of the muscle fibre. We aimed to elucidate whether a genomic mechanism was responsible for the drastically different expression of MYH4 between pigs and humans, thus improving our understanding of the pig as a model for human skeletal muscle research. We utilized approximately 1 kb of the MYH4 promoter from a domestic pig and a human (which do and do not express MYH4, respectively) to elucidate the role of the promoter sequence in regulating the high expression of MYH4 in porcine skeletal muscle. We identified a 3 bp genomic difference within the proximal CArG and Ebox region of the MYH4 promoter of pigs and humans that dictates the differential activity of these promoters during myogenesis. Subtle species-specific genomic differences within the CArG-box region caused differential protein-DNA interactions at this site and is likely accountable for the differential MYH4 promoter activity between pigs and humans. We propose that the genomic differences identified herein explain the differential activity of the MYH4 promoter of pigs and humans, which may contribute to the differential expression patterns displayed in these otherwise physiologically similar mammals. Further, we report that both the pig and human MYH4 promoters can be induced by MyoD over- expression, but the capacity to activate the MYH4 promoter is largely influenced by the 3 bp difference located within the CArG-box region of the proximal MYH4 promoter

Proteomic DIGE analysis of the mitochondria-enriched fraction from aged rat skeletal muscle

Skeletal muscle aging is associated with a loss in tissue mass and contractile strength, as well as fiber type shifting and bioenergetic adaptation processes. Since mitochondria represent the primary site for energy generation via oxidative phosphorylation, we investigated potential changes in the expression pattern of the mitochondrial proteome using the highly sensitive DIGE approach. The comparative analysis of the mitochondria-enriched fraction from young adult versus aged muscle revealed an age-related change in abundance for 39 protein species. MS technology identified the majority of altered proteins as constituents of muscle mitochondria. An age-dependent increase was observed for NADH dehydrogenase, the mitochondrial inner membrane protein mitofilin, peroxiredoxin isoform PRX-III, ATPase synthase, succinate dehydrogenase, mitochondrial fission protein Fis1, succinate-coenzyme A ligase, acyl-coenzyme A dehydrogenase, porin isoform VDAC2, ubiquinol-cytochrome c reductase core I protein and prohibitin. Immunoblotting, enzyme testing and confocal microscopy were used to validate proteomic findings. The DIGE-identified increase in key mitochondrial elements during aging agrees with the concept that sarcopenia is associated with a shift to a slower contractile phenotype and more pronounced aerobic-oxidative metabolism. This suggests that mitochondrial markers are reliable candidates that should be included in the future establishment of a biomarker signature of skeletal muscle aging