Psychological and social consequences among mothers suffering from perinatal loss: perspective from a low income country

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In developed countries, perinatal death is known to cause major emotional and social effects on mothers. However, little is known about these effects in low income countries which bear the brunt of perinatal mortality burden. This paper reports the impact of perinatal death on psychological status and social consequences among mothers in a rural area of Bangladesh.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A total of 476 women including 122 women with perinatal deaths were assessed with the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS-B) at 6 weeks and 6 months postpartum, and followed up for negative social consequences at 6 months postpartum. Trained female interviewers carried out structured interviews at women's home.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Overall 43% (95% CI: 33.7-51.8%) of women with a perinatal loss at 6 weeks postpartum were depressed compared to 17% (95% CI: 13.7-21.9%) with healthy babies (p = < 0.001). Depression status were significantly associated with women reporting negative life changes such as worse relationships with their husband (adjusted OR = 3.89, 95% CI: 1.37-11.04) and feeling guilty (adjusted OR = 2.61, 95% CI: 1.22-5.63) following the results of their last pregnancy outcome after 6 months of childbirth.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study highlights the greatly increased vulnerability of women with perinatal death to experience negative psychological and social consequences. There is an urgent need to develop appropriate mental health care services for mothers with perinatal deaths in Bangladesh, including interventions to develop positive family support.</p

The Effect Of Breastfeeding On Child Development At 5 Years: A Cohort Study

Objective It is uncertain to what degree the relationship between breastfeeding and later cognitive development is a true biological effect, or is confounded by psychosocial factors. The study aim was to further investigate this relationship and the effect of duration of breast feeding on cognitive development. Methods A total of 3880 children were followed from birth. Breastfeeding duration was measured by questionnaire at 6 months of age and a Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test Revised (PPVT-R) was administered at 5 years. PPVT-R scores were adjusted for the effects of a large array of biological and psychosocial confounders. The relationship between breastfeeding and the mean PPVT-R scores were examined using analysis of variance and multiple linear regression. Results A strong positive relationship was demonstrated between breastfeeding and the PPVT-R scores with increasing scores with increased duration of breastfeeding. After adjusting for a wide range of biological and social factors, the adjusted mean for those breastfed for 6 months or more was 8.2 points higher for females and 5.8 points for males when compared to those never breastfed. Conclusion These findings suggest a significant benefit to child development is conferred by breastfeeding and is related independently to longer periods of breastfeeding

How Do Honeybees Attract Nestmates Using Waggle Dances in Dark and Noisy Hives?

It is well known that honeybees share information related to food sources with nestmates using a dance language that is representative of symbolic communication among non-primates. Some honeybee species engage in visually apparent behavior, walking in a figure-eight pattern inside their dark hives. It has been suggested that sounds play an important role in this dance language, even though a variety of wing vibration sounds are produced by honeybee behaviors in hives. It has been shown that dances emit sounds primarily at about 250–300 Hz, which is in the same frequency range as honeybees' flight sounds. Thus the exact mechanism whereby honeybees attract nestmates using waggle dances in such a dark and noisy hive is as yet unclear. In this study, we used a flight simulator in which honeybees were attached to a torque meter in order to analyze the component of bees' orienting response caused only by sounds, and not by odor or by vibrations sensed by their legs. We showed using single sound localization that honeybees preferred sounds around 265 Hz. Furthermore, according to sound discrimination tests using sounds of the same frequency, honeybees preferred rhythmic sounds. Our results demonstrate that frequency and rhythmic components play a complementary role in localizing dance sounds. Dance sounds were presumably developed to share information in a dark and noisy environment

Frequency of ubiquitin and FUS-positive, TDP-43-negative frontotemporal lobar degeneration

Frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) is a clinically, genetically and pathologically heterogeneous disorder. Within FTLD with ubiquitin-positive inclusions (FTLD-U), a new pathological subtype named FTLD-FUS was recently found with fused in sarcoma (FUS) positive, TDP-43-negative inclusions, and striking atrophy of the caudate nucleus. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of FTLD-FUS in our pathological FTLD series, and to describe the clinical, neuroimaging and neuropathological features of FTLD-FUS, especially caudate atrophy. Demographic and clinical data collected prospectively from 387 patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) yielded 74 brain specimens. Immunostaining was carried out using a panel of antibodies, including AT-8, ubiquitin, p62, FUS, and TDP-43. Cortical and caudate atrophy on MRI (n = 136) was rated as normal, mild-moderate or severe. Of the 37 FTLD-U cases, 33 were reclassified as FTLD-TDP and four (0.11, 95%: 0.00–0.21) as FTLD-FUS, with ubiquitin and FUS-positive, p62 and TDP-43-negative neuronal intranuclear inclusions (NII). All four FTLD-FUS cases had a negative family history, behavioural variant FTD (bvFTD), and three had an age at onset ≤40 years. MRI revealed mild-moderate or severe caudate atrophy in all, with a mean duration from onset till MRI of 63 months (range 16–119 months). In our total clinical FTD cohort, we found 11 patients (0.03; 95% CI: 0.01–0.05) with bvFTD, negative family history, and age at onset ≤40 years. Caudate atrophy was present in 10 out of 136 MRIs, and included all four FUS-cases. The newly identified FTLD-FUS has a frequency of 11% in FTLD-U, and an estimated frequency of three percent in our clinical FTD cohort. The existence of this pathological subtype can be predicted with reasonable certainty by age at onset ≤40 years, negative family history, bvFTD and caudate atrophy on MRI

Role of mitochondrial raft-like microdomains in the regulation of cell apoptosis

Lipid rafts are envisaged as lateral assemblies of specific lipids and proteins that dissociate and associate rapidly and form functional clusters in cell membranes. These structural platforms are not confined to the plasma membrane; indeed lipid microdomains are similarly formed at subcellular organelles, which include endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi and mitochondria, named raft-like microdomains. In addition, some components of raft-like microdomains are present within ER-mitochondria associated membranes. This review is focused on the role of mitochondrial raft-like microdomains in the regulation of cell apoptosis, since these microdomains may represent preferential sites where key reactions take place, regulating mitochondria hyperpolarization, fission-associated changes, megapore formation and release of apoptogenic factors. These structural platforms appear to modulate cytoplasmic pathways switching cell fate towards cell survival or death. Main insights on this issue derive from some pathological conditions in which alterations of microdomains structure or function can lead to severe alterations of cell activity and life span. In the light of the role played by raft-like microdomains to integrate apoptotic signals and in regulating mitochondrial dynamics, it is conceivable that these membrane structures may play a role in the mitochondrial alterations observed in some of the most common human neurodegenerative diseases, such as Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Huntington's chorea and prion-related diseases. These findings introduce an additional task for identifying new molecular target(s) of pharmacological agents in these pathologies

TMEM106B a Novel Risk Factor for Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration

Recently, the first genome-wide association (GWA) study in frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) identified common genetic variability at the TMEM106B gene on chromosome 7p21.3 as a potential important risk-modifying factor for FTLD with pathologic inclusions of TAR DNA-binding protein (FTLD-TDP), the most common pathological subtype in FTLD. To gather additional evidence for the implication of TMEM106B in FTLD risk, multiple replication studies in geographically distinct populations were set up. In this review, we revise all recent replication and follow-up studies of the FTLD-TDP GWA study and summarize the growing body of evidence that establish TMEM106B as a bona fide risk factor for FTLD. With the TMEM106B gene, a new player has been identified in the pathogenic cascade of FTLD which could hold important implications for the future development of disease-modifying therapies

Measuring health-related quality of life in young adolescents: Reliability and validity in the Norwegian version of the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory™ 4.0 (PedsQL) generic core scales

BACKGROUND: Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) studies concerning children and adolescents are a growing field of research. The Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL™) is considered as a promising HRQOL instrument with the availability of age appropriate versions and parallel forms for both child and parents. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Norwegian translation of the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL™) 4.0 generic core scale in a sample of healthy young adolescents. METHODS: A cross-sectional study of 425 healthy young adolescents and 237 of their caregivers participating as a proxy. Reliability was assessed by Cronbach's alpha. Construct validity was assessed using exploratory factor analysis and by exploring the intercorrelations between and among the four PedsQL subscales for adolescents and their parents. RESULTS: All the self-report scales and proxy-report scales showed satisfactory reliability with Cronbach's alpha varying between 0.77 and 0.88. Factor analysis showed results comparable with the original version, except for the Physical Health scale. On average, monotrait-multimethod correlations were higher than multitrait-multimethod correlations. Sex differences were noted on the emotional functioning subscale, girls reported lower HRQOL than boys. CONCLUSION: The Norwegian PedsQL is a valid and reliable generic pediatric health-related Quality of Life measurement that can be recommended for self-reports and proxy-reports for children in the age groups ranging from 13–15 years

Can the understory affect the Hymenoptera parasitoids in a Eucalyptus plantation?

The understory in forest plantations can increase richness and diversity of natural enemies due to greater plant species richness. The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that the presence of the understory and climatic season in the region (wet or dry) can increase the richness and abundance of Hymenoptera parasitoids in Eucalyptus plantations, in the municipality of Belo Oriente, Minas Gerais State, Brazil. In each eucalyptus cultivation (five areas of cultivation) ten Malaise traps were installed, five with the understory and five without it. A total of 9,639 individuals from 30 families of the Hymenoptera parasitoids were collected, with Mymaridae, Scelionidae, Encyrtidae and Braconidae being the most collected ones with 4,934, 1,212, 619 and 612 individuals, respectively. The eucalyptus stands with and without the understory showed percentage of individuals 45.65% and 54.35% collected, respectively. The understory did not represent a positive effect on the overall abundance of the individuals Hymenoptera in the E. grandis stands, but rather exerted a positive effect on the specific families of the parasitoids of this order