Assessing risk and protective factors in clinical and judicial child-to-parent violence cases

Child-to-parent violence takes different forms (physical, psychological or economic) and can be addressed in the judicial system or in clinical practice. The current paper compares 61 clinical and 30 judicialized cases that were evaluated using the Child-to-Parent Violence Risk assessment tool (CPVR). Results showed a higher prevalence of risk factors in the judicialsample. This group of aggressors had worse profiles of violence (bidirectionality of the parent/child violence, violenceother than CPV, and more CPV complaints), more psychological issues (low frustration tolerance, little anger management, narcissism, and violent attitudes) and, most notably, more dysfunctional families (violence between parents, cohabitationproblems, inversion of the hierarchy, non-violent conflicts, and even criminal history of the parents). Logistic regressionshowed that narcissism, attitudes justifying violence, violence between parents, and problems of parents themselves(such mental disorders or drug abuse) allowed for correct classification of 89.4% of cases. Total CPVR scores differedbetween groups (25.8 vs. 14.2), and classification was good for both type of group (AUC = .830) and injuries to mother (AUC= .764). A cut-off score between 22 and 23 showed the best results in prediction of group and injuries to mother. Utility ofthe CPVR, and next steps in its development are discussed

Dirac fields in the background of a magnetic flux string and spectral boundary conditions

We study the problem of a Dirac field in the background of an Aharonov-Bohm flux string. We exclude the origin by imposing spectral boundary conditions at a finite radius then shrinked to zero. Thus, we obtain a behaviour of eigenfunctions which is compatible with the self-adjointness of the radial Hamiltonian and the invariance under integer translations of the reduced flux. After confining the theory to a finite region, we check the consistency with the index theorem, and evaluate its vacuum fermionic number and Casimir energy.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure Two references added To be published in International Journal of Modern Physics

Mentalizing in an economic games context is associated with enhanced activation and connectivity in the left temporoparietal junction.

Prior studies in Social Neuroeconomics have consistently reported activation in social cognition regions during interactive economic games, suggesting mentalizing during economic choice. Such mentalizing occurs during active participation in the game, as well as during passive observation of others' interactions. We designed a novel version of the classic false-belief task (FBT) in which participants read vignettes about interactions between agents in the ultimatum and trust games and were subsequently asked to infer the agents' beliefs. We compared activation patterns during the economic games FBT to those during the classic FBT using conjunction analyses. We find significant overlap in the left temporoparietal junction (TPJ) and dorsal medial prefrontal cortex, as well as the temporal pole (TP) during two task phases: belief formation and belief inference. Moreover, generalized Psychophysiological Interaction (gPPI) analyses show that during belief formation, the right TPJ is a target of both the left TPJ and the right TP seed regions, whereas during belief inferences all seed regions show interconnectivity with each other. These results indicate that across different task types and phases, mentalizing is associated with activation and connectivity across central nodes of the social cognition network. Importantly, this is the case for both the novel economic games and the classic FBTs

Total synthesis of the potent immunosuppressant (-)-Pironetin

A convergent and efficient total synthesis of (-)-pironetin, a compound that shows plant growth regulatory activity, and is immunosuppressive as well as having remarkable antitumoral activity, is described. The synthesis required 19 steps from N-propionyl oxazolidinone (S)-9 and produced the desired product in 11% overall yield.6628

Concentration-dependent diffusivity and anomalous diffusion: A magnetic resonance imaging study of water ingress in porous zeolite

Magnetic resonance imaging is employed to study water ingress in fine zeolite powders compacted by high pressure. The experimental conditions are chosen such that the applicability of Boltzmann's transformation of the one-dimensional diffusion equation is approximately satisfied. The measured moisture profiles indicate subdiffusive behavior with a spatiotemporal scaling variable eta=x/t(gamma/2) (0 <gamma < 1). A time-fractional diffusion equation model of anomalous diffusion is adopted to analyze the data, and an expression that yields the moisture dependence of the generalized diffusivity is derived and applied to our measured profiles. In spite of the differences between systems exhibiting different values of gamma a striking similarity in the moisture dependence of the diffusivity is apparent. This suggests that the model addresses the underlying physical processes involved in water transport.731

Diversity in oat potential immunogenicity: basis for the selection of oat varieties with no toxicity in coeliac disease

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial License, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non commercial and is otherwise in compliance with the license. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/ and http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/legalcode.[Background and aims] Coeliac disease (CD) is triggered by an abnormal reaction to gluten. Peptides resulting from partially digested gluten of wheat, barley or rye cause inflammation of the small intestinal mucosa. Previous contradictory studies suggest that oats may trigger the abnormal immunological response in patients with CD. Monoclonal antibodies (moAbs) against the main immunotoxic 33-mer peptide (A1 and G12) react strongly against wheat, barley and rye but have less reactivity against oats. The stated aim of this study is to test whether this observed reactivity could be related to the potential toxicity of oats for patients with CD.[Methods] In the present study, different oat varieties, controlled for their purity and by their distinct protein pattern, were used to examine differences in moAb G12 recognition by ELISA and western blot. Immunogenicity of oat varieties was determined by 33-mer concentration, T cell proliferation and interferon γ production.[Results] Three groups of oat cultivars reacting differently against moAb G12 could be distinguished: a group with considerable affinity, a group showing slight reactivity and a third with no detectable reactivity. The immunogenicity of the three types of oats as well as that of a positive and negative control was determined with isolated peripheral blood mononuclear T cells from patients with CD by measurement of cell proliferation and interferon γ release. A direct correlation of the reactivity with G12 and the immunogenicity of the different prolamins was observed.[Conclusions] The results showed that the reactivity of the moAb G12 is proportional to the potential immunotoxicity of the cereal cultivar. These differences may explain the different clinical responses observed in patients suffering from CD and open up a means to identify immunologically safe oat cultivars, which could be used to enrich a gluten-free dietThis work was supported by Asociacio´n de Celı ´acos de Madrid (to SC) by grants PET2008_0055 from VI Plan Nacional de Investigacio´n Cientı ´fica, Desarrollo e Innovacio´n Tecnolo´gica (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacio´n), IAB (Instituto Andaluz de Biotecnologı ´a) (to SC) and by AGR2009-4966M (Proyecto de Excelencia, Junta de Andalucı ´a) (to TM). Biomedal thanks Corporacio´n Tecnolo´gica de Andalucı ´a and Agencia IDEA for co-founding this study (to CA).Peer reviewe

Casimir energy of massive MIT fermions in a Bohm-Aharonov background

We study the effect of a background flux string on the vacuum energy of massive Dirac fermions in 2+1 dimensions confined to a finite spatial region through MIT boundary conditions. We treat two admissible self-adjoint extensions of the Hamiltonian and compare the results. In particular, for one of these extensions, the Casimir energy turns out to be discontinuous at integer values of the flux.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figure

Adaptive Immunity against Leishmania Nucleoside Hydrolase Maps Its C-Terminal Domain as the Target of the CD4+ T Cell–Driven Protective Response

Nucleoside hydrolases (NHs) show homology among parasite protozoa, fungi and bacteria. They are vital protagonists in the establishment of early infection and, therefore, are excellent candidates for the pathogen recognition by adaptive immune responses. Immune protection against NHs would prevent disease at the early infection of several pathogens. We have identified the domain of the NH of L. donovani (NH36) responsible for its immunogenicity and protective efficacy against murine visceral leishmaniasis (VL). Using recombinant generated peptides covering the whole NH36 sequence and saponin we demonstrate that protection against L. chagasi is related to its C-terminal domain (amino-acids 199–314) and is mediated mainly by a CD4+ T cell driven response with a lower contribution of CD8+ T cells. Immunization with this peptide exceeds in 36.73±12.33% the protective response induced by the cognate NH36 protein. Increases in IgM, IgG2a, IgG1 and IgG2b antibodies, CD4+ T cell proportions, IFN-γ secretion, ratios of IFN-γ/IL-10 producing CD4+ and CD8+ T cells and percents of antibody binding inhibition by synthetic predicted epitopes were detected in F3 vaccinated mice. The increases in DTH and in ratios of TNFα/IL-10 CD4+ producing cells were however the strong correlates of protection which was confirmed by in vivo depletion with monoclonal antibodies, algorithm predicted CD4 and CD8 epitopes and a pronounced decrease in parasite load (90.5–88.23%; p = 0.011) that was long-lasting. No decrease in parasite load was detected after vaccination with the N-domain of NH36, in spite of the induction of IFN-γ/IL-10 expression by CD4+ T cells after challenge. Both peptides reduced the size of footpad lesions, but only the C-domain reduced the parasite load of mice challenged with L. amazonensis. The identification of the target of the immune response to NH36 represents a basis for the rationale development of a bivalent vaccine against leishmaniasis and for multivalent vaccines against NHs-dependent pathogens