Development and Validation of a Brief Assessment of Social Cognitive Abilities

It has been consistently found that individuals with schizophrenia exhibit impairments across various social cognitive domains, including emotion processing, social perception, and theory of mind. These deficits have been found across illness stages and cannot be accounted for by clinical symptomatology or neurocognitive skills. Further, while it has been well established that there is a link between cognition and functional outcome, social cognition has been found to be uniquely related to functional impairment in the disorder. Despite this evidence, the field is currently lacking efficient ways to identify and characterize these deficits in clinical settings. The Brief Test of Social Cognitive Abilities (BTSCA) was developed in the current study in order to provide a quick, easy to administer test to assess social cognitive abilities in clinical settings. Following the development of the BTSCA from archival item-level data of NCs and individuals with schizophrenia on established social cognitive measures, psychometric properties of the scale and sensitivity of the scale to social cognitive deficits in schizophrenia were examined in a large sample of normal controls and individuals with schizophrenia. Finally, the relationship between the BTSCA, clinical symptomatology, and functional capacity were examined in order to establish clinical utility of the scale. Overall, study findings demonstrate that the BTSCA shows promising psychometric properties and clinical utility as a brief screening measure of social cognitive abilities in individuals with schizophrenia

Evidence-based Education Methods: Dementia and Exercise, What Health Professionals Need to Know

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Imaging Exocytosis in Retinal Bipolar Cells with TIRF Microscopy

Total internal reflectance fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy is a technique that allows the study of events happening at the cell membrane, by selective imaging of fluorescent molecules that are closest to a high refractive index substance such as glass1. In this article, we apply this technique to image exocytosis of synaptic vesicles in retinal bipolar cells isolated from the goldfish retina. These neurons are very suitable for this kind of study due to their large axon terminals. By simultaneously patch clamping the bipolar cells, it is possible to investigate the relationship between pre-synaptic voltage and synaptic release2,3. Synaptic vesicles inside the bipolar cell terminals are loaded with a fluorescent dye (FM 1-43®) by co-puffing the dye and a ringer solution containing a high K+ concentration onto the synaptic terminals. This depolarizes the cells and stimulates endocytosis and consequent dye uptake into the glutamatergic vesicles. After washing the excess dye away for around 30 minutes, cells are ready for being patch clamped and imaged simultaneously with a 488 nm laser. The patch pipette solution contains a rhodamine-based peptide that binds selectively to the synaptic ribbon protein RIBEYE4, thereby labeling ribbons specifically when terminals are imaged with a 561 nm laser. This allows the precise localization of active zones and the separation of synaptic from extra-synaptic events

SHOULDER DEEP

This body of work reexamining my relationship to home-past, present, and future- involves seeing beyond the untarnished façade of memory to the unflattering reality, whose rough edges have been smoothed. With the realization that home no longer feels like home and carrying with me the guilt of abandoning my family heritage, I’ve embarked on a search for a new place to dwell. To help with this, I’m creating an obscure pseudoscience to extract information from the land. Coaxing out those indescribable, nearly incomprehensible elements of a place, tapping into what we don’t know and can’t see to guide me towards home, wherever that may be

The Increase of Epidermal Imidazoleacrylic Acid Following Insolation

It has been confirmed, by electron microscopy, that suction blisters detach the epidermis at the dermo-epidermal junction. Inter- and intracellular vacuolization was observed in some of the specimens. On the basis of a study comprising 15 subjects (12 males and 3 females), it was concluded that urocanic acid in the epidermis (suction blister skin) of the upper arm increased 9–11 days following insolation in comparison with specimens situated at an exactly symmetrical site of the control (non-irradiated) arm. This difference was significant in terms of μg urocanic acid per mg dry weight at a 95% level of probability and in terms of μg per cm2 of blister base at a 99% level (t-test for paired values). In two of the subjects other time intervals after insolation were also studied and an increase of epidermal urocanic acid level was noted. Dry weights of epidermis (mg per cm2) on the irradiated and control side (9–11 days following insolation) did not differ significantly in the group of 15 subjects. Significant increase due to insolation was only demonstrated when the values were divided by control values obtained for the respective arms 2 months before the experiment. Histidine ammonia-lyase activity was estimated in 8 subjects. The increase on the irradiated side on the 9–11th day after unilateral insolation was not significant

Properties of ribbon and non-ribbon release from rod photoreceptors revealed by visualizing individual synaptic vesicles.

Vesicle release from rod photoreceptors is regulated by Ca(2+) entry through L-type channels located near synaptic ribbons. We characterized sites and kinetics of vesicle release in salamander rods by using total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy to visualize fusion of individual synaptic vesicles. A small number of vesicles were loaded by brief incubation with FM1-43 or a dextran-conjugated, pH-sensitive form of rhodamine, pHrodo. Labeled organelles matched the diffraction-limited size of fluorescent microspheres and disappeared rapidly during stimulation. Consistent with fusion, depolarization-evoked vesicle disappearance paralleled electrophysiological release kinetics and was blocked by inhibiting Ca(2+) influx. Rods maintained tonic release at resting membrane potentials near those in darkness, causing depletion of membrane-associated vesicles unless Ca(2+) entry was inhibited. This depletion of release sites implies that sustained release may be rate limited by vesicle delivery. During depolarizing stimulation, newly appearing vesicles approached the membrane at ∼800 nm/s, where they paused for ∼60 ms before fusion. With fusion, vesicles advanced ∼18 nm closer to the membrane. Release events were concentrated near ribbons, but lengthy depolarization also triggered release from more distant non-ribbon sites. Consistent with greater contributions from non-ribbon sites during lengthier depolarization, damaging the ribbon by fluorophore-assisted laser inactivation (FALI) of Ribeye caused only weak inhibition of exocytotic capacitance increases evoked by 200-ms depolarizing test steps, whereas FALI more strongly inhibited capacitance increases evoked by 25 ms steps. Amplifying release by use of non-ribbon sites when rods are depolarized in darkness may improve detection of decrements in release when they hyperpolarize to light

Corporate social responsibility in developing country multinationals: identifying company and country-level influences

The extant literature on cross-national differences in approaches to corporate social responsibility (CSR) has mostly focused on developed countries. Instead, we offer two inter-related studies into corporate codes of conduct issued by developing country multinational enterprises (DMNEs). First, we analyse code adoption rates and code content through a mixed methods design. Second, we use multilevel analyses to examine country-level drivers of differences in code content-specifically, elements of a country's National Business System (NBS). We find that DMNEs are much more likely to adopt a code of conduct than their domestic counterparts; however, this does not translate into greater code comprehensiveness. We also find support for the 'substitute view' of CSR in developing countries, i.e. that MNEs from poorer countries and from countries with lower governance effectiveness tend to express more comprehensive commitments. However, this dynamic does not extend to a country's labour system; instead, CSR appears here to match the efficiency of a country's labour market, thus reflecting the 'mirror view' of CSR

Trauma Experiences and Perspectives: An Evidence-Based Practice Project

This Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) project examined the following questions: How do individuals who have experienced trauma or adverse childhood experiences describe their experiences and the impact trauma has had on their life? How do healthcare professionals describe their experiences of working with individuals who have experienced trauma or adverse childhood experiences and their perspectives on trauma-informed training and approaches

Selection for Replicases in Protocells

PMCID: PMC3649988This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited