Subacute Sclerosing Panencephalitis in Papua New Guinean Children: The Cost of Continuing Inadequate Measles Vaccine Coverage

Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) is a disabling and usually fatal brain disorder that typically occurs 3–10 years after acute measles infection. Papua New Guinea (PNG) has particularly high rates of SSPE. We report 22 cases of PNG children presenting to the provincial referral hospital in Madang Province who probably contracted acute measles when <12 months of age during a national epidemic in 2002 and who developed SSPE 5–7 years later. Based on these cases, the estimated annual SSPE incidence in Madang province in 2007–2009 was 54/million population aged <20 years. Four sub-districts had an annual incidence >100/million population aged <20 years, the highest rates ever reported. Young PNG children do not respond well to measles vaccine. Because of this, efforts such as supplementary measles immunisation programs should continue in order to reduce the pool of non-immune older people surrounding the youngest and most vulnerable members of PNG communities

Determination of nutrient salts by automatic methods both in seawater and brackish water: the phosphate blank

9 páginas, 2 tablas, 2 figurasThe main inconvenience in determining nutrients in seawater by automatic methods is simply solved: the preparation of a suitable blank which corrects the effect of the refractive index change on the recorded signal. Two procedures are proposed, one physical (a simple equation to estimate the effect) and the other chemical (removal of the dissolved phosphorus with ferric hydroxide).Support for this work came from CICYT (MAR88-0245 project) and Conselleria de Pesca de la Xunta de GaliciaPeer reviewe

Investigating the Impact of a Genome-Wide Supported Bipolar Risk Variant of MAD1L1 on the Human Reward System

Recent genome-wide association studies have identified MAD1L1 (mitotic arrest deficient-like I) as a susceptibility gene for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. The minor allele of the single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs11764590 in MAD1L1 was associated with bipolar disorder. Both diseases, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, are linked to functional alterations in the reward system. We aimed at investigating possible effects of the MAD1L1 rs11764590 risk allele on reward systems functioning in healthy adults. A large homogenous sample of 224 young (aged 18-31 years) participants was genotyped and underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMR1). All participants performed the 'Desire-Reason Dilemma' paradigm investigating the neural correlates that underlie reward processing and active reward dismissal in favor of a long-term goal. We found significant hypoactivations of the ventral tegmental area (VTA), the bilateral striatum and bilateral frontal and parietal cortices in response to conditioned reward stimuli in the risk allele carriers compared with major allele carriers. In the dilemma situation, functional connectivity between prefrontal brain regions and the ventral striatum was significantly diminished in the risk allele carriers. Healthy risk allele carriers showed a significant deficit of their bottom-up response to conditioned reward stimuli in the bilateral VTA and striatum. Furthermore, functional connectivity between the ventral striatum and prefrontal areas exerting top-down control on the mesolimbic reward system was reduced in this group. Similar alterations in reward processing and disturbances of prefrontal control mechanisms on mesolimbic brain circuits have also been reported in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Together, these findings suggest the existence of an intermediate phenotype associated with MAD1L1

CREB1 Genotype Modulates Adaptive Reward-Based Decisions in Humans

Cyclic AMP response element-binding protein (CREB) contributes to adaptation of mesocorticolimbic networks by modulating activity-regulated transcription and plasticity in neurons. Activity or expression changes of CREB in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and orbital frontal cortex (OFC) interact with behavioral changes during reward-motivated learning. However, these findings from animal models have not been evaluated in humans. We tested whether CREB1 genotypes affect reward-motivated decisions and related brain activation, using BOLD fMRI in 224 young and healthy participants. More specifically, participants needed to adapt their decision to either pursue or resist immediate rewards to optimize the reward outcome. We found significant CREB1 genotype effects on choices to pursue increases of the reward outcome and on BOLD signal in the NAc, OFC, insula cortex, cingulate gyrus, hippocampus, amygdala, and precuneus during these decisions in comparison with those decisions avoiding total reward loss. Our results suggest that CREB1 genotype effects in these regions could contribute to individual differences in reward-and associative memory-based decision-making

Fabrication of nanopores in 1 nm thick carbon nanomembranes with slow highly charged ions

Ritter R, Wilhelm RA, Stöger-Pollach M, et al. Fabrication of nanopores in 1 nm thick carbon nanomembranes with slow highly charged ions. Appl. Phys. Lett. 2013;102(6): 63112

Fabrication of carbon nanotube nanogap electrodes by helium ion sputtering for molecular contacts

Thiele C, Vieker H, Beyer A, et al. Fabrication of carbon nanotube nanogap electrodes by helium ion sputtering for molecular contacts. Applied Physics Letters. 2014;104(10): 103102.Carbon nanotube nanogaps have been used to contact individual organic molecules. However, the reliable fabrication of a truly nanometer-sized gap remains a challenge. We use helium ion beam lithography to sputter nanogaps of only (2.8 +/- 0.6) nm size into single metallic carbon nanotubes embedded in a device geometry. The high reproducibility of the gap size formation provides a reliable nanogap electrode testbed for contacting small organic molecules. To demonstrate the functionality of these nanogap electrodes, we integrate oligo(phenylene ethynylene) molecular rods, and measure resistance before and after gap formation and with and without contacted molecules. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC

Enhanced Infrared LSPR Sensitivity of Cap-Shaped Gold Nanoparticles Coupled to a Metallic Film

Takei H, Bessho N, Ishii A, et al. Enhanced Infrared LSPR Sensitivity of Cap-Shaped Gold Nanoparticles Coupled to a Metallic Film. Langmuir. 2014;30(8):2297-2305.We report on optical properties of gold deposited on SiO2 nanospheres randomly adsorbed on a thin gold layer. Extinction peaks with optical density of more than 2 are observed in the visible as well as near-IR regimes. The peak wavelength of the latter was affected exquisitely by the thickness of the top layer. A helium ion microscope (HIM) was used for careful observation of morphological transformation accompanying the change in the deposition thickness. Growth of grain structures into a capped-dimer structure was accompanied by slight blue-shift of the visible peak and significantly greater red-shift of the near-IR peak. Our finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) calculations show that these peaks in the visible and near-IR can be respectively attributed to dipole modes associated with transverse and longitudinal oscillations of free electrons in the gold-capped dimer. To investigate the refractive index sensitivity of these peaks, we used two approaches: immersion in solutions of varying refractive index and coating with an organic layer. With the first approach that characterizes the bulk sensitivity, the visible peak shows sensitivity of 122 nm/RIU, while the near-I peak shifts at the rate of 506 nm/RIU. With the second approach that reflects the local sensitivity, the surface was saturated with alkaline phosphatase (ALP), whose subsequent reaction led to formation of a thin insoluble organic layer, causing a relatively small blue-shift, under 7 nm, of the visible peak and much larger red-shift, over 50 nm, of the near-IR peak when measured in buffer. When the same reaction was measured at end points in the air, the shift was as large as 444 nm for the near-IR peak

A Universal Scheme to Convert Aromatic Molecular Monolayers into Functional Carbon Nanomembranes

Angelova P, Vieker H, Weber N-E, et al. A Universal Scheme to Convert Aromatic Molecular Monolayers into Functional Carbon Nanomembranes. Acs Nano. 2013;7(8):6489-6497.Free-standing nanomembranes with molecular or atomic thickness are currently explored for separation technologies, electronics, and sensing. Their engineering with well-defined structural and functional properties is a challenge for materials research. Here we present a broadly applicable scheme to create mechanically stable carbon nanomembranes (CNMs) with a thickness of similar to 0.5 to similar to 3 nm. Monolayers of polyaromatic molecules (oligophenyls, hexaphenylbenzene, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) were assembled and exposed to electrons that cross-link them into CNMs; subsequent pyrolysis converts the CNMs into graphene sheets. In this transformation the thickness, porosity, and surface functionality of the nanomembranes are determined by the monolayers, and structural and functional features are passed on from the molecules through their monolayers to the CNMs and finally on to the graphene. Our procedure is scalable to large areas and allows the engineering of ultrathin nanomembranes by controlling the composition and structure of precursor molecules and their monolayers

Comparison of the real-world effectiveness of vertical versus lateral functional hemispherotomy techniques for pediatric drug-resistant epilepsy: A post hoc analysis of the HOPS study

Objective: This study was undertaken to determine whether the vertical parasagittal approach or the lateral peri-insular/peri-Sylvian approach to hemispheric surgery is the superior technique in achieving long-term seizure freedom. Methods: We conducted a post hoc subgroup analysis of the HOPS (Hemispheric Surgery Outcome Prediction Scale) study, an international, multicenter, retrospective cohort study that identified predictors of seizure freedom through logistic regression modeling. Only patients undergoing vertical parasagittal, lateral peri-insular/peri-Sylvian, or lateral trans-Sylvian hemispherotomy were included in this post hoc analysis. Differences in seizure freedom rates were assessed using a time-to-event\ua0method and\ua0calculated using the Kaplan\u2013Meier survival method. Results: Data for 672 participants across 23 centers were collected on the specific hemispherotomy approach. Of these, 72 (10.7%) underwent vertical parasagittal\ua0hemispherotomy and 600 (89.3%) underwent lateral peri-insular/peri-Sylvian or trans-Sylvian hemispherotomy. Seizure freedom was obtained in 62.4% (95% confidence interval [CI]\ua0=\ua053.5%\u201370.2%) of the entire cohort at 10-year follow-up. Seizure freedom was 88.8% (95% CI\ua0=\ua078.9%\u201394.3%) at 1-year follow-up and persisted at 85.5% (95% CI\ua0=\ua074.7%\u201392.0%) across 5- and 10-year follow-up in the vertical subgroup. In contrast, seizure freedom decreased from 89.2% (95% CI\ua0=\ua086.3%\u201391.5%) at 1-year to 72.1% (95% CI\ua0=\ua066.9%\u201376.7%) at 5-year to 57.2% (95% CI\ua0=\ua046.6%\u201366.4%) at 10-year follow-up for the lateral subgroup. Log-rank test found that vertical hemispherotomy was associated with durable seizure-free progression compared to the lateral approach (p\ua0=.01). Patients undergoing the lateral hemispherotomy technique had a shorter time-to-seizure recurrence (hazard ratio\ua0=\ua02.56, 95% CI\ua0=\ua01.08\u20136.04, p\ua0=.03) and increased seizure recurrence odds (odds ratio\ua0=\ua03.67, 95% CI\ua0=\ua01.05\u201312.86, p\ua0=.04) compared to those undergoing the vertical hemispherotomy technique. Significance: This pilot study demonstrated more durable seizure freedom of the vertical technique compared to lateral hemispherotomy techniques. Further studies, such as prospective expertise-based observational studies or a\ua0randomized clinical trial, are required to determine whether a vertical approach to hemispheric surgery provides superior long-term seizure outcomes