A new rating scale for adult ADHD based on the Symptom Checklist 90 (SCL-90-R)

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in adults is increasingly recognized as a clinically important syndrome. The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychometric performance of a new scale for adult ADHD based on the widely used Symptom Checklist 90 Revised (SCL-90-R). Scale performance was assessed in a clinical study including 100 ADHD patients and 65 opiate-dependent patient controls, and in the Zurich study, an epidemiological age cohort followed over 30years of adult life. Assessments included a ROC analysis of sensitivity and specificity, internal consistency, test-retest reliability, external validity and measurement invariance over nine testing occasions. The new scale showed a sensitivity and specificity of 75 and 54%, respectively, internal consistency over 0.8 (McDonald's omega, Cronbach's alpha), one-year test-retest reliabilities over 0.7, statistically significant and substantial correlations with two other validated self-rating scales of adult ADHD (R=0.5 and 0.66, respectively), and an acceptable degree of longitudinal stability (i.e., measurement invariance). The proposed scale must be further evaluated, but these preliminary results indicate it could be a useful rating instrument for adult ADHD in situations where SCL-90-R data, but no specific ADHD assessment, are available, such as in retrospective data analysis or in prospective studies with limited methodical resource

The need for genetic variant naming standards in published abstracts of human genetic association studies

We analyzed the use of RefSNP (rs) numbers to identify genetic variants in abstracts of human genetic association studies published from 2001 through 2007. The proportion of abstracts reporting rs numbers increased rapidly but was still only 15% in 2007. We developed a web-based tool called Variant Name Mapper to assist in mapping historical genetic variant names to rs numbers. The consistent use of rs numbers in abstracts that report genetic associations would enhance knowledge synthesis and translation in this field

Microplastic fiber and drought effects on plants and soil are only slightly modified by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi

Microplastics are increasingly recognized as a factor of global change. By altering soil inherent properties and processes, ripple-on effects on plants and their symbionts can be expected. Additionally, interactions with other factors of global change, such as drought, can influence the effect of microplastics. We designed a greenhouse study to examine effects of polyester microfibers, arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi and drought on plant, microbial and soil responses. We found that polyester microfibers increased the aboveground biomass of Allium cepa under well-watered and drought conditions, but under drought conditions the AM fungal-only treatment reached the highest biomass. Colonization with AM fungi increased under microfiber contamination, however, plant biomass did not increase when both AM fungi and fibers were present. The mean weight diameter of soil aggregates increased with AM fungal inoculation overall but decreased when the system was contaminated with microfibers or drought stressed. Our study adds additional support to the mounting evidence that microplastic fibers in soil can affect the plant-soil system by promoting plant growth, and favoring key root symbionts, AM fungi. Although soil aggregation is usually positively influenced by plant roots and AM fungi, and microplastic promotes both, our results show that plastic still had a negative effect on soil aggregates. Even though there are concerns that microplastic might interact with other factors of global change, our study revealed no such effect for drought

Effects of microplastics on crop nutrition in fertile soils and interaction with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi

Introduction Soil microplastic (MP) pollution has emerged as a main factor of global change, but its effects on soil nutrient availability and uptake by crops (macro and micronutrients) are largely unknown. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are regulators of nutrient availability and uptake and can interact with soil MP. Materials and Methods Building on previous studies, here we explored in a 50-days pot experiment the influence and interaction of MP fibres (0.4%) and commercial AMF in soil and onion chemistry, that is, in elemental composition of onion shoots and soils (C, N, Ca, Mg, K, P, S, Cu, Fe, Mn and Zn) and micronutrient soil availability (Cu, Fe, Mn and Zn). Results MP had detrimental effects on K, Mg and S, but increased the soil availability of Zn and shoot uptake. AMF inoculation buffered the effects of MP by balancing/enhancing nutrient availability and plant uptake. Particularly, the commercial AMF inoculum remarkably enhanced Mn uptake by onion. Conclusion Our results support the use of AMF to sustainably manage agricultural ecosystems contaminated with MP, buffering and counteracting the effects of MP by balancing nutrient availability and plant uptake

Risk factors for stuttering: a secondary analysis of a large data base

The spectrum of risk and concomitant factors in stuttering is generally thought to be wide and heterogeneous. However, only a few studies have examined these factors using information from large databases. We examined the data on 11,905 Swiss conscripts from 2003. All cases with high psychiatric screening scores indicating "caseness” for a psychiatric disorder were excluded, among them potential malingerers, so that 9,814 records remained. The analyses rely on self-reported information about stuttering in childhood, problems at birth, problems in school, mental disorders of parents and relatives, childhood adversity and socio-demographic information. Statistical modelling was done using logistic regression and path analysis models. Risk factors determined in the logistic regression include premature birth, probable attention deficit hyperactive disorder, alcohol abuse of the parents, obsessive-compulsive disorder in parents and relatives, having a disabled mother and having a parent from a foreign country. There is no overwhelmingly strong risk factor; all odds ratios are about 2 or below. In conclusion, large databases are helpful in revealing less obvious and less frequent risk factors for heterogeneous disorders such as stuttering. Obviously, not only secondary analyses, but also systematical large scale studies would be required to complete the complex epidemiological puzzle in stuttering. An extensive examination of young adults who were initially assessed in childhood might provide the most promising desig

Dirty hands: photodynamic killing of human pathogens like EHEC, MRSA and Candida within seconds

Hand hygiene is one of the most important interventions for reducing transmission of nosocomial life-threatening microorganisms, like methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) or Candida albicans. All three pathogens have become a leading cause of infections in hospitals. Especially EHEC is causing severe diarrhoea and, in a small percentage of cases, haemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS) as reported for E. coli 104:H4 in Germany 2011. We revealed the possibility to inactivate very fast and efficiently MRSA, EHEC and C. albicans using the photodynamic approach. MRSA, EHEC and C. albicans were incubated in vitro with different concentrations of TMPyP for 10 s and illuminated with visible light (50 mW cm−2) for 10 and 60 s. 1 μmol l−1 of TMPyP and an applied radiant exposure of 0.5 J cm−2 achieved a photodynamic killing of ≥99.9% of MRSA and EHEC. Incubation with higher concentrations (up to 100 μmol l−1) of TMPyP caused bacteria killing of >5 log10 (≥99.999%) after illumination. Efficient Candida killing (≥99.999%) was achieved first at a higher light dose of 12 J cm−2. Different rise and decay times of singlet oxygen luminescence signals could be detected in Candida cell suspensions for the first time, indicating different oxygen concentrations in the surrounding for the photosensitizer and singlet oxygen, respectively. This confirms that TMPyP is not only found in the water-dominated cell surrounding, but also within the C. albicans cells. Applying a water–ethanol solution of TMPyP on ex vivo porcine skin, fluorescence microscopy of histology showed that the photosensitizer was exclusively localized in the stratum corneum regardless of the incubation time. TMPyP exhibited a fast and very effective killing rate of life-threatening pathogens within a couple of seconds that encourages further testing in an in vivo setting. Being fast and effective, antimicrobial photodynamic applications might become acceptable as a tool for hand hygiene procedures and also in other skin areas

Roles for ADAM17 in TNF-R1 Mediated Cell Death and Survival in Human U937 and Jurkat Cells

Signaling via death receptor family members such as TNF-R1 mediates pleiotropic biological outcomes ranging from inflammation and proliferation to cell death. Pro-survival signaling is mediated via TNF-R1 complex I at the cellular plasma membrane. Cell death induction requires complex IIa/b or necrosome formation, which occurs in the cytoplasm. In many cell types, full apoptotic or necroptotic cell death induction requires the internalization of TNF-R1 and receptosome formation to properly relay the signal inside the cell. We interrogated the role of the enzyme A disintegrin and metalloprotease 17 (ADAM17)/TACE (TNF-α converting enzyme) in death receptor signaling in human hematopoietic cells, using pharmacological inhibition and genetic ablation. We show that in U937 and Jurkat cells the absence of ADAM17 does not abrogate, but rather increases TNF mediated cell death. Likewise, cell death triggered via DR3 is enhanced in U937 cells lacking ADAM17. We identified ADAM17 as the key molecule that fine-tunes death receptor signaling. A better understanding of cell fate decisions made via the receptors of the TNF-R1 superfamily may enable us, in the future, to more efficiently treat infectious and inflammatory diseases or cancer

An automatic method to generate domain-specific investigator networks using PubMed abstracts

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Collaboration among investigators has become critical to scientific research. This includes ad hoc collaboration established through personal contacts as well as formal consortia established by funding agencies. Continued growth in online resources for scientific research and communication has promoted the development of highly networked research communities. Extending these networks globally requires identifying additional investigators in a given domain, profiling their research interests, and collecting current contact information. We present a novel strategy for building investigator networks dynamically and producing detailed investigator profiles using data available in PubMed abstracts.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We developed a novel strategy to obtain detailed investigator information by automatically parsing the affiliation string in PubMed records. We illustrated the results by using a published literature database in human genome epidemiology (HuGE Pub Lit) as a test case. Our parsing strategy extracted country information from 92.1% of the affiliation strings in a random sample of PubMed records and in 97.0% of HuGE records, with accuracies of 94.0% and 91.0%, respectively. Institution information was parsed from 91.3% of the general PubMed records (accuracy 86.8%) and from 94.2% of HuGE PubMed records (accuracy 87.0). We demonstrated the application of our approach to dynamic creation of investigator networks by creating a prototype information system containing a large database of PubMed abstracts relevant to human genome epidemiology (HuGE Pub Lit), indexed using PubMed medical subject headings converted to Unified Medical Language System concepts. Our method was able to identify 70–90% of the investigators/collaborators in three different human genetics fields; it also successfully identified 9 of 10 genetics investigators within the PREBIC network, an existing preterm birth research network.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We successfully created a web-based prototype capable of creating domain-specific investigator networks based on an application that accurately generates detailed investigator profiles from PubMed abstracts combined with robust standard vocabularies. This approach could be used for other biomedical fields to efficiently establish domain-specific investigator networks.</p

Retrospective genome-oriented analysis reveals low transmission rate of multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa from contaminated toilets at a bone marrow transplant unit

Background Prevention of toilet-to-patient transmission of multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (MDR PA) poses management-related challenges at many bone marrow transplant units (BMTUs). Aim To conduct a longitudinal retrospective analysis of the toilet-to-patient transmission rate for MDR PA under existing infection control (IC) measures at a BMTU with persistent MDR PA toilet colonization. Methods The local IC bundle comprised: (1) patient education regarding IC; (2) routine patient screening; (3) toilet flushing volume of 9 L; (4) bromination of toilet water tanks, and (5) toilet decontamination using hydrogen peroxide. Toilet water was sampled periodically between 2016 and 2021 (minimum every three months: 26 intervals). Upon MDR PA detection, disinfection and re-sampling were repeated until ≤3 cfu/100 mL was reached. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) was performed retrospectively on all available MDR PA isolates (90 out of 117 positive environmental samples, 10 out of 14 patients, including nine nosocomial). Findings WGS of patient isolates identified six sequence types (STs), with ST235/CT1352/FIM-1 and ST309/CT3049/no-carbapenemase being predominant (three isolates each). Environmental sampling consistently identified MDR PA ST235 (65.5% ST235/CT1352/FIM-1), showing low genetic diversity (difference of ≤29 alleles by core-genome multi-locus sequence typing (cgMLST)). This indicates that direct toilet-to-patient transmission was infrequent although MDR PA was widespread (detection on 79 occasions, detection in every toilet). Only three MDR PA patient isolates can be attributed to the ST235/CT1352/FIM-1 toilet MRD PA population over six years. Conclusion Stringent targeted toilet disinfection can reduce the potential risk for MDR PA acquisition by patients

An open source infrastructure for managing knowledge and finding potential collaborators in a domain-specific subset of PubMed, with an example from human genome epidemiology

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Identifying relevant research in an ever-growing body of published literature is becoming increasingly difficult. Establishing domain-specific knowledge bases may be a more effective and efficient way to manage and query information within specific biomedical fields. Adopting controlled vocabulary is a critical step toward data integration and interoperability in any information system. We present an open source infrastructure that provides a powerful capacity for managing and mining data within a domain-specific knowledge base. As a practical application of our infrastructure, we presented two applications – Literature Finder and Investigator Browser – as well as a tool set for automating the data curating process for the human genome published literature database. The design of this infrastructure makes the system potentially extensible to other data sources.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Information retrieval and usability tests demonstrated that the system had high rates of recall and precision, 90% and 93% respectively. The system was easy to learn, easy to use, reasonably speedy and effective.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The open source system infrastructure presented in this paper provides a novel approach to managing and querying information and knowledge from domain-specific PubMed data. Using the controlled vocabulary UMLS enhanced data integration and interoperability and the extensibility of the system. In addition, by using MVC-based design and Java as a platform-independent programming language, this system provides a potential infrastructure for any domain-specific knowledge base in the biomedical field.</p