Norms and screening utility of the Dutch version of the children's depression inventory in clinical and nonclinical youths

This study aimed to (a) assess relationships between the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) and DSM-oriented depression and anxiety scales of the Youth Self Report, (b) develop reliable norms for the CDI, and (c) determine CDI cutoff scores for selecting youngsters at risk for depression and anxiety. A total of 3,073 nonclinical and 511 clinically referred children and adolescents from The Netherlands and Belgium were included. Results showed that CDI scores were significantly related to DSM-oriented symptoms of both depression and anxiety. CDI scores correlated highly with depression symptoms and moderately with anxiety symptoms. Norms for the CDI were determined by means of multiple regression analysis and depended on sex, age, and country. CDI cutoff scores for selecting individuals at risk for depression and anxiety as measured by the DSM-oriented depression and anxiety scales of the Youth Self Report were determined by means of multiple regression analysis and receiver operating characteristic analysis. A CDI score of 16 was found to have the most optimal balance between sensitivity and specificity for depression, whereas a score of 21 provided the best sensitivity and specificity for anxiety in a subsample of children. We conclude that the CDI is an effective instrument for screening depression and to a lesser extent anxiety in primary and secondary care centers, before applying further assessment of high-risk individuals

Rethinking our understanding of the pathogenesis of necrotic enteritis in chickens

For decades, low doses of antibiotics have been used widely in animal production to promote growth. However, there is a trend to reduce this use of antibiotics in feedstuffs, and legislation is now in place in Europe to prohibit their use in this way. As a consequence, economically important diseases, such as necrotic enteritis (NE) of chickens, that are caused by Clostridium perfringens have become more prevalent. Recent research is creating a paradigm shift in our understanding of the pathogenesis of NE and is now providing information that will be necessary to monitor and control the incidence of NE in poultry

Чи легко палац зруйнувати?

Digital games have been used as stressors in a range of disciplines for decades. Nonetheless, the underlying characteristics of these stressors and the study in which the stressor was applied are generally not recognized for their moderating effect on the measured physiological stress responses. We have therefore conducted a meta-analysis that analyzes the effects of characteristics of digital game stressors and study design on heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, in studies carried out from 1976 to 2012. In order to assess the differing quality between study designs, a new scale is developed and presented, coined reliability of effect size. The results show specific and consistent moderating functions of both game and study characteristics, on average accounting for around 43%, and in certain cases up to 57% of the variance found in physiological stress responses. Possible cognitive and physiological processes underlying these moderating functions are discussed, and a new model integrating these processes with the moderating functions is presented. These findings indicate that a digital game stressor does not act as a stressor by virtue of being a game, but rather derives its stressor function from its characteristics and the methodology in which it is used. This finding, together with the size of the associated moderations, indicates the need for a standardization of digital game stressors

Leucocyte grouping : a method and its application

This study describes the development of a method for the recognition and definition of leucocyte group Four. The method can also be applied to the detection of other leucocyte groups. Essential factors in the method were: a) the use of leucocyte agglutinins formed during pregnancy; b) an insight into the shortcomings of the agglutination test; c) the use of statistical methods to overcome these shortcomings; and d) the use of a panel consisting of the leucocytes of the women who had formed the agglutinins, and of those of their husbands.                                                      This study describes the development of a method for the recognition and definition of leucocyte group Four. The method can also be applied to the detection of other leucocyte groups. Essential factors in the method were: a) the use of leucocyte agglutinins formed during pregnancy; b) an insight into the shortcomings of the agglutination test; c) the use of statistical methods to overcome these shortcomings; and d) the use of a panel consisting of the leucocytes of the women who had formed the agglutinins, and of those of their husbands.      LUMC / Geneeskund

The protein puzzle : the consumption and production of meat, dairy and fish in the European Union

In het rapport 'The protein puzzle. The consumption and production of meat, dairy and fish in the European Union' brengen onderzoekers van het Planbureau voor de Leefomgeving (PBL) in kaart wat de gevolgen van de productie en consumptie van dierlijke eiwitten zijn voor milieu, natuur en gezondheid. Vervolgens schetst het PBL welke opties er in Europees verband zijn om de negatieve effecten te verminderen. Met deze studie verschaft het PBL relevante feiten en cijfers ten behoeve van het debat over eiwitconsumptie, inclusief een indicatie van de onzekerheden daarbij

Necrotic Enteritis-Derived Clostridium perfringens Strain with Three Closely Related Independently Conjugative Toxin and Antibiotic Resistance Plasmids

The pathogenesis of avian necrotic enteritis involves NetB, a pore-forming toxin produced by virulent avian isolates of Clostridium perfringens type A. To determine the location and mobility of the netB structural gene, we examined a derivative of the tetracycline-resistant necrotic enteritis strain EHE-NE18, in which netB was insertionally inactivated by the chloramphenicol and thiamphenicol resistance gene catP. Both tetracycline and thiamphenicol resistance could be transferred either together or separately to a recipient strain in plate matings. The separate transconjugants could act as donors in subsequent matings, which demonstrated that the tetracycline resistance determinant and the netB gene were present on different conjugative elements. Large plasmids were isolated from the transconjugants and analyzed by high-throughput sequencing. Analysis of the resultant data indicated that there were actually three large conjugative plasmids present in the original strain, each with its own toxin or antibiotic resistance locus. Each plasmid contained a highly conserved 40-kb region that included plasmid replication and transfer regions that were closely related to the 47-kb conjugative tetracycline resistance plasmid pCW3 from C. perfringens. The plasmids were as follows: (i) a conjugative 49-kb tetracycline resistance plasmid that was very similar to pCW3, (ii) a conjugative 82-kb plasmid that contained the netB gene and other potential virulence genes, and (iii) a 70-kb plasmid that carried the cpb2 gene, which encodes a different pore-forming toxin, beta2 toxin

"Month related variability in immunological test results; implications for immunological follow-up studies."

This longitudinal study was originally designed to detect changes in the in vitro immune response of healthy subjects as a result of a psychological intervention. In this study a significant proportion, about 70%, of the immunological variability in the test results was accounted for by the differences in immunological response levels of the subjects. Apart from this between-subject-effect, a significant proportion of the variability in test results was related to the month of data sampling. The month-effect was computed in such a way that the between-subject variation was taken into account. This resulted in a more accurate estimation of the month-effect. Even after correction for the intervention, i.e. the defence of the PhD thesis, the effect of month of data sampling remains significant for mean corpuscular haemoglobin, mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration, percentage of CD4 and CD8 cells, and for the response to the mitogens phytohaemagglutinin, pokeweed mitogen and concanavalin A as well as the results for the mixed lymphocyte culture for one pool out of three. In contrast, no significant month-effect was observed for the whole blood cell counts, for the differential white blood cell counts as determined by monoclonal antibody staining for cell surface markers CD3, CD16, TAC and OKM1, nor for the immunoglobulin IgM and IgG serum levels. Likewise the cell-mediated lympholysis activities measured against three pools of stimulator cells remained unaltered. We discuss the implications for future immunological follow-up studies of the observation that a significant proportion of the variability in immunological test results is related to differences between subjects and to the month of data sampling

Historic landmarks in clinical transplantation: Conclusions from the consensus conference at the University of California, Los Angeles

The transplantation of organs, cells, and tissues has burgeoned during the last quarter century, with the development of multiple new specialty fields. However, the basic principles that made this possible were established over a three-decade period, beginning during World War II and ending in 1974. At the historical consensus conference held at UCLA in March 1999, 11 early workers in the basic science or clinical practice of transplantation (or both) reached agreement on the most significant contribution of this era that ultimately made transplantation the robust clinical discipline it is today. These discoveries and achievements are summarized here is six tables and annotated with references