Health care providers’ awareness on medical management of children with autism spectrum disorder: cross-sectional study in Russia

Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex developmental range of conditions that involves difficulties with social interaction and restricted/repetitive behaviors. Unfortunately, health care providers often experience difficulties in diagnosis and management of individuals with ASD, and may have no knowledge about possible ways to overcome barriers in ASD patient interactions in healthcare settings. At the same time, the provision of appropriate medical services can have positive effects on habilitative progress, functional outcome, life expectancy and quality of life for individuals with ASD. Methods: This online survey research study evaluated the awareness and experience of students/residents (n = 247) and physicians (n = 100) in the medical management of children with ASD. It also gathered the views and experiences of caregivers to children with ASD (n = 158), all based in Russia. Results: We have established that the Russian medical community has limited ASD knowledge among providers, and have suggested possible reasons for this. Based on results from online surveys completed by students/residents, non-psychiatric physicians, and caregivers of children diagnosed with ASD, the main problems pertaining to medical management of individuals with ASD were identified. Possible problem solving solutions within medical practice were proposed. Conclusions: The results from this study should be considered when implementing measures to improve healthcare practices, and when developing models for effective medical management, due to start not only in Russia but also in a number of other countries

ЕМЕРДЖЕНТНІ І РЕ-ЕМЕРДЖЕНТНІ ВІРУСНІ ІНФЕКЦІЇ: ГЛОБАЛЬНА ПРОБЛЕМА XXI СТОЛІТТЯ

SUMMARY. Currently, three main factors of occurrence and spreading of emergent infections are considered:            1. Factors of biological nature – genetic variability of viruses (mutation), which is fundamental property of viral pathogens. As is generally known, it helps agent to avoid pathogen responses of the host immune system, increasing its virulence and induce resistance to antiviral medicines.             2. Zoogeographical factors – increasing quantity of human contacts with birds and animals create optimal conditions for virus evolution, unpredictable passaging in their organism with possibility of intensification their virulence and also genetic recombination both between genes of viruses and between the genes of viruses and host cells.            3. Socio-economic factors are essentially important reason for occurrence and spread of emergent and re-emergent diseases. It is noted that the epidemiological risk in many respects is connected to the level of socio-economic situation in the country. The most dangerous and severe infectious diseases usually occur in countries with a high concentration and low living standards.            The article presents the summary of the most important emergent and re-emergent infection of viral nature, created exceptional epidemiological situation in the world with a high morbidity and mortality. To fight them, you need to create effective monitoring system identifying pathogens that are new or returning again into the human population. The problem of emergent and re-emergent infection is of global importance, and therefore for its prompt and effective solving we also need international cooperation.            Key words: emergent and re-emergent viral pathogens, epidemics and pandemics, system for monitoring and control of especially dangerous infections.У даний час розглядається три основних чинники виникнення і розповсюдження емерджентних інфекцій: 1. Фактори біологічної природи - генетична мінливість вірусів (мутація), яка є фундаментальною властивістю вірусних патогенів, вона допомагає збудникові уникати відповіді імунної системи хазяїна, збільшувати свою вірулентність таі індукувати резистентність до антивірусних препаратів.2. Зоогеографічні фактори – почастішання контактів людини з птахами і тваринами створюють оптимальні умови для еволюції вірусів, непередбачуваного пасирування в їх організмі з можливістю посилення їх вірулентності, а також генетичних рекомбінацій як між генами самих вірусів, так і між генами вірусів і клітин хазяїна. 3. Соціально-економічні чинники є значущою причиною виникнення і розповсюдження емерджентних і ре-емерджентних захворювань. Відмічено, що епідеміологічний ризик захворювань багато в чому пов’язаний з рівнем соціально-економічного становища в країні. Найбільш небезпечні і тяжкі інфекційні захворювання, як правило, частіше виникають в країнах з високою щільністю і низьким рівнем життя населення. Наведені короткі дані про найбільш важливі емерджентні і ре-емерджентні інфекції вірусної природи, що створили надзвичайні епідемічні ситуації в світі з високою захворюваністю і смертністю. Для успішної боротьби з ними необхідне створення ефективної системи моніторингу, спрямованої на виявлення нових збудників, що знову повертаються в людську популяцію. Проблема емерджентних і ре-емерджентних інфекцій має глобальне значення, у зв’язку з чим для її оперативного і результативного вирішення необхідна також міжнародна співпраця. Ключові слова: емерджентні і ре-емерджентні вірусні збудники, епідемії і пандемії, система моніторингу і боротьби з особливо небезпечними інфекціями.

Modeling of COMPASS tokamak divertor liquid metal experiments

Two small liquid metal targets based on the capillary porous structure were exposed to the divertor plasma of the tokamak COMPASS. The first target was wetted by pure lithium and the second one by a lithium-tin alloy, both releasing mainly lithium atoms (sputtering and evaporation) when exposed to plasma. Due to poorly conductive target material and steep surface inclination (implying the surface-perpendicular plasma heat flux 12-17 MW/m(2)) for 0.1-0.2 s, the LiSn target has reached 900 degrees C under ELMy H-mode. A model of heat conduction is developed and serves to evaluate the lithium sputtering and evaporation and, thus, the surface cooling by the released lithium and consequent radiative shielding. In these conditions, cooling of the surface by the latent heat of vapor did not exceed 1 MW/m(2). About 10(19) lithium atoms were evaporated (comparable to the COMPASS 1 m(3) plasma deuterium content), local Li pressure exceeded the deuterium plasma pressure. Since the radiating Li vapor cloud spreads over a sphere much larger than the hot spot, its cooling effect is negligible (0.2 MW/m(2)). We also predict zero lithium prompt redeposition, consistent with our observation.

НАРУШЕНИЕ МИКРОБИОЦЕНОЗА КИШЕЧНИКА И ЕГО КОРРЕКЦИЯ НА ЭТАПЕ РЕАБИЛИТАЦИИ У БОЛЬНЫХ С ОСТРЫМИ ОТРАВЛЕНИЯМИ ПСИХОФАРМАКОЛОГИЧЕСКИМИ СРЕДСТВАМИ

Colon dysbacteriosis was revealed in 40 patients with acute poisoning caused by psychopharmacological agents at the stage of rehabilitation which waы confirmed by clinical symptoms and bacteriological tests in 21 cases (10 — control group, and 11 — study group) as well. We demonstrated an adequacy of Pectovit prebiotic for management of colon microbiocenosis violations.У 40 пациентов с острыми отравлениями психофармакологическими средствами на этапе реабилитации выявлено наличие дисбактериоза толстой кишки, подтвержденное клиническими симптомами, а в 21 случае — также бактериологическими исследованиями (10 — группа сравнения и 11 — исследуемая группа). Показана целесообразность применения пребиотика — пектовита для коррекции нарушений микробиоценоза толстой кишки

Directional Sensitivity of the NEWSdm Experiment to Cosmic Ray Boosted Dark Matter

We present a study of a directional search for Dark Matter boosted forward when scattered by cosmic-ray nuclei, using a module of the NEWSdm experiment. The boosted Dark Matter flux at the edge of the Earth's atmosphere is expected to be pointing to the Galactic Center, with a flux 15 to 20 times larger than in the transverse direction. The module of the NEWSdm experiment consists of a 10 kg stack of Nano Imaging Trackers, i.e.~newly developed nuclear emulsions with AgBr crystal sizes down to a few tens of nanometers. The module is installed on an equatorial telescope. The relatively long recoil tracks induced by boosted Dark Matter, combined with the nanometric granularity of the emulsion, result in an extremely low background. This makes an installation at the INFN Gran Sasso laboratory, both on the surface and underground, viable. A comparison between the two locations is made. The angular distribution of nuclear recoils induced by boosted Dark Matter in the emulsion films at the surface laboratory is expected to show an excess with a factor of 3.5 in the direction of the Galactic Center. This excess allows for a Dark Matter search with directional sensitivity. The surface laboratory configuration prevents the deterioration of the signal in the rock overburden and it emerges as the most powerful approach for a directional observation of boosted Dark Matter with high sensitivity. We show that, with this approach, a 10 kg module of the NEWSdm experiment exposed for one year at the Gran Sasso surface laboratory can probe Dark Matter masses between 1 keV/c$^2$ and 1 GeV/c$^2$ and cross-section values down to $10^{-30}$~cm$^2$ with a directional sensitive search.Comment: 15 pages, 14 figures, updated references, clarified discussion in intro section. Submitted to JCA

NEWSdm Collaboration

Direct Dark Matter searches are nowadays one of the most fervid research topics with many experimental efforts devoted to the search for nuclear recoils induced by the scattering of Weakly Interactive Massive Particles (WIMPs). Detectors able to reconstruct the direction of the nucleus recoiling against the scattering WIMP are opening a new frontier to possibly extend Dark Matter searches beyond the neutrino background. Exploiting directionality would also prove the galactic origin of Dark Matter with an unambiguous signal-to-background separation. Indeed, the angular distribution of recoiled nuclei is centered around the direction of the Cygnus constellation, while the background distribution is expected to be isotropic. Current directional experiments are based on gas TPC whose sensitivity is limited by the small achievable detector mass. In this paper we present the discovery potential of a directional experiment based on the use of a solid target made of newly developed nuclear emulsions and of optical read-out systems reaching unprecedented nanometric resolution

Manganese Enhances Prion Protein Survival in Model Soils and Increases Prion Infectivity to Cells

Prion diseases are considered to be transmissible. The existence of sporadic forms of prion diseases such as scrapie implies an environmental source for the infectious agent. This would suggest that under certain conditions the prion protein, the accepted agent of transmission, can survive in the environment. We have developed a novel technique to extract the prion protein from soil matrices. Previous studies have suggested that environmental manganese is a possible risk factor for prion diseases. We have shown that exposure to manganese is a soil matrix causes a dramatic increase in prion protein survival (∼10 fold) over a two year period. We have also shown that manganese increases infectivity of mouse passaged scrapie to culture cells by 2 logs. These results clearly verify that manganese is a risk factor for both the survival of the infectious agent in the environment and its transmissibility

Tissue functions mediated by β3-adrenoceptors—findings and challenges

As β3-adrenoceptor agonists metamorphose from experimental tools into therapeutic drugs, it is vital to obtain a comprehensive picture of the cell and tissue functions mediated by this receptor subtype in humans. Human tissues with proven functions and/or a high expression of β3-adrenoceptors include the urinary bladder, the gall bladder, and other parts of the gastrointestinal tract. While several other β3-adrenoceptor functions have been proposed based on results obtained in animals, their relevance to humans remains uncertain. For instance, β3-adrenoceptors perform an important role in thermogenesis and lipolysis in rodent brown and white adipose tissue, respectively, but their role in humans appears less significant. Moreover, the use of tools such as the agonist BRL 37344 and the antagonist SR59230A to demonstrate functional involvement of β3-adrenoceptors may lead in many cases to misleading conclusions as they can also interact with other β-adrenoceptor subtypes or even non-adrenoceptor targets. In conclusion, we propose that many responses attributed to β3-adrenoceptor stimulation may need re-evaluation in the light of the development of more selective tools. Moreover, findings in experimental animals need to be extended to humans in order to better understand the potential additional indications and side effects of the β3-adrenoceptor agonists that are beginning to enter clinical medicine

More results from the OPERA experiment

The OPERA experiment reached its main goal by proving the appearance of vτ in the CNGS vμ beam. Five vτ candidates were detected with a S/B ratio of ∼ 10, allowing to reject the null hypothesis at 5.1σ. The search has been extended by loosening the selection criteria in order to improve the statistical uncertainty. One of the vτ candidates selected with the new strategy shows a double vertex topology and, after a dedicated multivariate analysis, is compatible with being a vTτ interaction with charm production. Based on the enlarged data sample the estimation of Δm223 in appearance mode is being performed. The search for ve interactions has been extended over the full data set with a more than twofold increase in statistics: data are compatible with the non-oscillation hypothesis in the three-flavour mixing model. The implications of the electron neutrino sample in the framework of the 3+1 sterile mode will lead to exclusion limits on sin2 2θμe. Finally, the analysis of the annual modulation of cosmic muons is introduced