Comparison of maternal beliefs about causes of autism spectrum disorder and association with utilization of services and treatments

Background: This study aimed to describe parental perceptions of the causes of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in an ethnically diverse sample and explore whether these perceptions relate to treatment choices. Methods: The sample consisted of White (n=224), Hispanic (n=85) and Asian (n=21) mothers of a child with ASD. A mixed methods approach was used in this secondary analysis focusing on parental perceptions about the causes of ASD and the relationship of these to utilization of services and treatment. Results: Environmental and genetic factors were most often believed to be the cause or one of the causes of ASD by mothers across all ethnic groups studied. Asian mothers were more likely to cite multiple causes. Environmental causes were associated with receiving 20 or more hours of autism related services per week; while belief in environmental exposures and vaccines and medications as causes were associated with complementary-alternative medicine (CAM) use. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that ethnic differences in autism causal beliefs and treatment choices may exist. Future research should be conducted to specifically confirm the findings, to understand parental motivation behind their service and treatment choices; and to gain more insight into the types, usage and sources of CAM treatments. Clinicians can use parental autism causal beliefs in discussions about treatment recommendations

Seelsorge in einer sich verändernden polnischen Gesellschaft

polska wersja artykułu opublikowanego po niemieckuProwadzone od wieków przez zakony, stowarzyszenia i fundacje chrześcijańskie szpitale, domy pomocy, ośrodki Caritasu i ochronki zostały znacjonalizowane w Polsce i Europie Wschodniej po 1945 roku. Jednocześnie z oddaleniem związków wyznaniowych od opieki medycznej i pomocy społecznej malał prestiż zawodów medycznych i pomocowych oraz marksistowska ideologizacja środowiska. Opór integrował w Polsce te środowiska e z Kościołem katolickim, przypominającymi o etyce chrześcijańskiej i deontologii opartej na chrześcijańskim personalizmie. Solidarność Służby Zdrowia i postulaty dotyczące powrotu do etyki zawodów medycznych oraz przywrócenia funkcji kapelanów szpitali i instytucji pomocy społecznej znalazły się w Rozporządzeniu Ministra Zdrowia z 1981 roku. Do 1989 roku w Polsce obszarem, w którym na styku ochrony zdrowia, pomocy społecznej, wolontariatu i związków wyznaniowych, rozwijała się opieka duchowo-religijna, były wolontaryjne zespoły domowej opieki hospicyjnej. Ich przykład pomógł w procesie odbudowy opieki duchowo-religijnej w ochronie zdrowia i pomocy społecznej, a także w nowych inicjatywach zespołowej opieki duszpasterskiej. Współczesne polskie społeczeństwo jest jednym z najbardziej religijnych w Europie, a dominującą religią jest katolicyzm. Wobec zmian społecznych i kulturowych ważna jest wrażliwość wobec zmieniających się potrzeb duchowo-religijnych i różny stopień przynależności pacjentów do wspólnot wiary. Świdomość różnorodności wyznaniowej i kulturowej, rozróżnienie potrzeb duchowych, uznawanych za jedną z powszechnych potrzeb każdej osoby, od potrzeb religijnych, związanych z przynależnością do danej wspólnoty wiary jest wyzwaniem w pastoralnej opiece w warunkach instytucjonalnych i domowych.Charitable institutions, carried out for centuries by religious orders, associations and foundations Christian hospitals, nursing homes, Caritas centers were nationalized in Poland and Eastern Europe after 1945. Simultaneously with the remoteness of religious associations of medical care and social assistance diminish the prestige of the medical profession and Marxist ideologisation of caring environment. Resistance integrated those careers in Poland with the Catholic Church, reminiscent of Christian ethics and professional conduct based on Christian personalism. Solidarity demanded return to ethics of the medical profession and to restore the chaplains of hospitals and social assistance institutions. It was included in the Regulation of the Minister of Health in 1981. Until 1989 in Poland, an area in which to contact the health, social welfare, voluntary and religious organizations, developed health spiritual-religious, volunteer teams were home hospice care. Their example helped in the reconstruction process of spiritual and religious care in health care and social assistance, as well as new initiatives in the pastoral care teams. The contemporary Polish society is one of the most religious in Europe, and the dominant religion is Catholicism. To change the social and cultural importance of sensitivity to the changing needs of the spiritual-religious and different degree of membership subjects to the faith communities. Awareness of diversity of religious and cultural distinction spiritual needs, recognized as one of the common needs of each person, from religious needs, relating to participation in the faith community is a challenge in pastoral care in institutional settings and home care

Occupational asthma caused by cobalt chloride in a diamond polisher after cessation of occupational exposure: a case report

Objectives: The inspiration of cobalt containing dust leads to various respiratory symptoms, including asthma and interstitial lung disease. Occupational asthma caused by cobalt chloride has been diagnosed in a 35-year-old patient, who worked as a diamond polishing disc former. The patient presented a 2-year history of dyspnea, cough and symptoms of rhinitis. Materials and Methods: The patient underwent a medical history interview, skin prick tests with common and occupational allergens (cobalt and nickel chloride), and pulmonary function testing both before and after the nasal provocation with 0.05% cobalt chloride. Additionally, the authors analyzed morphological and biochemical changes before and after the specific nasal challenge test. Cell proliferation analysis was also carried out. Results: Skin prick tests (SPTs) with common environmental allergens were found to be negative, while SPTs with cobalt chloride were positive for all applied solutions. The provocation with cobalt chloride caused a significant increase in the proportion of eosinophils, basophils and albumin during the late allergic reaction. The positive lymphocyte transformation caused by cobalt was also observed. Conclusions: Cobalt salts may induce occupational asthma. The mechanism of this asthma may be IgE-mediated. The cobalt-sensitized lymphocytes may play an important role in this disease

Functional Annotation and Identification of Candidate Disease Genes by Computational Analysis of Normal Tissue Gene Expression Data

Background: High-throughput gene expression data can predict gene function through the ‘‘guilt by association’ ’ principle: coexpressed genes are likely to be functionally associated. Methodology/Principal Findings: We analyzed publicly available expression data on normal human tissues. The analysis is based on the integration of data obtained with two experimental platforms (microarrays and SAGE) and of various measures of dissimilarity between expression profiles. The building blocks of the procedure are the Ranked Coexpression Groups (RCG), small sets of tightly coexpressed genes which are analyzed in terms of functional annotation. Functionally characterized RCGs are selected by means of the majority rule and used to predict new functional annotations. Functionally characterized RCGs are enriched in groups of genes associated to similar phenotypes. We exploit this fact to find new candidate disease genes for many OMIM phenotypes of unknown molecular origin. Conclusions/Significance: We predict new functional annotations for many human genes, showing that the integration of different data sets and coexpression measures significantly improves the scope of the results. Combining gene expression data, functional annotation and known phenotype-gene associations we provide candidate genes for several geneti

Cholesterol Metabolism Is Required for Intracellular Hedgehog Signal Transduction In Vivo

We describe the rudolph mouse, a mutant with striking defects in both central nervous system and skeletal development. Rudolph is an allele of the cholesterol biosynthetic enzyme, hydroxysteroid (17-beta) dehydrogenase 7, which is an intriguing finding given the recent implication of oxysterols in mediating intracellular Hedgehog (Hh) signaling. We see an abnormal sterol profile and decreased Hh target gene induction in the rudolph mutant, both in vivo and in vitro. Reduced Hh signaling has been proposed to contribute to the phenotypes of congenital diseases of cholesterol metabolism. Recent in vitro and pharmacological data also indicate a requirement for intracellular cholesterol synthesis for proper regulation of Hh activity via Smoothened. The data presented here are the first in vivo genetic evidence supporting both of these hypotheses, revealing a role for embryonic cholesterol metabolism in both CNS development and normal Hh signaling

Competitive Interactions between Invasive Nile Tilapia and Native Fish: The Potential for Altered Trophic Exchange and Modification of Food Webs

Recent studies have highlighted both the positive and negative impacts of species invasions. Most of these studies have been conducted on either immobile invasive plants or sessile fauna found at the base of food webs. Fewer studies have examined the impacts of vagile invasive consumers on native competitors. This is an issue of some importance given the controlling influence that consumers have on lower order plants and animals. Here, we present results of laboratory experiments designed to assess the impacts of unintended aquaculture releases of the Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus), in estuaries of the Gulf of Mexico, on the functionally similar redspotted sunfish (Lepomis miniatus). Laboratory choice tests showed that tilapia prefer the same structured habitat that native sunfish prefer. In subsequent interspecific competition experiments, agonistic tilapia displaced sunfish from their preferred structured habitats. When a piscivore (largemouth bass) was present in the tank with both species, the survival of sunfish decreased. Based on these findings, if left unchecked, we predict that the proliferation of tilapia (and perhaps other aggressive aquaculture fishes) will have important detrimental effects on the structure of native food webs in shallow, structured coastal habitats. While it is likely that the impacts of higher trophic level invasive competitors will vary among species, these results show that consequences of unintended releases of invasive higher order consumers can be important

Correlations of Gene Expression with Blood Lead Levels in Children with Autism Compared to Typically Developing Controls

The objective of this study was to examine the correlation between gene expression and lead (Pb) levels in blood in children with autism (AU, n = 37) compared to typically developing controls (TD, n = 15). We postulated that, though lead levels did not differ between the groups, AU children might metabolize lead differently compared to TD children. RNA was isolated from blood and processed on Affymetrix microarrays. Separate analyses of covariance (ANCOVA) corrected for age and gender were performed for TD, AU, and all subjects (AU + TD). To reduce false positives, only genes that overlapped these three ANCOVAs were considered. Thus, 48 probe sets correlated with lead levels in both AU and TD subjects and were significantly different between the groups (p(Diagnosis × log2 Pb) < 0.05). These genes were related mainly to immune and inflammatory processes, including MHC Class II family members and CD74. A large number (n = 791) of probe sets correlated (P ≤ 0.05) with lead levels in TD but not in AU subjects; and many probe sets (n = 162) correlated (P ≤ 0.05) with lead levels in AU but not in TD subjects. Only 30 probe sets correlated (P ≤ 0.05) with lead levels in a similar manner in the AU and TD groups. These data show that AU and TD children display different associations between transcript levels and low levels of lead. We postulate that this may relate to the underlying genetic differences between the two groups, though other explanations cannot be excluded

EAACI position paper on occupational rhinitis

The present document is the result of a consensus reached by a panel of experts from European and non-European countries on Occupational Rhinitis (OR), a disease of emerging relevance which has received little attention in comparison to occupational asthma. The document covers the main items of OR including epidemiology, diagnosis, management, socio-economic impact, preventive strategies and medicolegal issues. An operational definition and classification of OR tailored on that of occupational asthma, as well as a diagnostic algorithm based on steps allowing for different levels of diagnostic evidence are proposed. The needs for future research are pointed out. Key messages are issued for each item