Predictive validity of the HKT-R risk assessment tool::Two and 5-year violent recidivism in a nationwide sample of Dutch forensic psychiatric patients

This study has examined the predictive validity of the Historical Clinical Future [Historisch Klinisch Toekomst] Revised risk assessment scheme in a cohort of 347 forensic psychiatric patients, which were discharged between 2004 and 2008 from any of 12 highly secure forensic centers in the Netherlands. Predictive validity was measured 2 and 5 years after release. Official reconviction data obtained from the Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice were used as outcome measures. Violent reoffending within 2 and 5 years after discharge was assessed. With regard to violent reoffending, results indicated that the predictive validity of the Historical domain was modest for 2 (area under the curve [AUC] = .75) and 5 (AUC = .74) years. The predictive validity of the Clinical domain was marginal for 2 (admission: AUC = .62; discharge: AUC = .63) and 5 (admission: AUC = .69; discharge: AUC = .62) years after release. The predictive validity of the Future domain was modest (AUC = .71) for 2 years and low for 5 (AUC = .58) years. The total score of the instrument was modest for 2 years (AUC = .78) and marginal for 5 (AUC = .68) years. Finally, the Final Risk Judgment was modest for 2 years (AUC = .78) and marginal for 5 (AUC = .63) years time at risk. It is concluded that this risk assessment instrument appears to be a satisfactory instrument for risk assessment

Influence of Repressive Coping Style on Cortical Activation during Encoding of Angry Faces

Background: Coping plays an important role for emotion regulation in threatening situations. The model of coping modes designates repression and sensitization as two independent coping styles. Repression consists of strategies that shield the individual from arousal. Sensitization indicates increased analysis of the environment in order to reduce uncertainty. According to the discontinuity hypothesis, repressors are sensitive to threat in the early stages of information processing. While repressors do not exhibit memory disturbances early on, they manifest weak memory for these stimuli later. This study investigates the discontinuity hypothesis using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Methods: Healthy volunteers (20 repressors and 20 sensitizers) were selected from a sample of 150 students on the basis of the Mainz Coping Inventory. During the fMRI experiment, subjects evaluated and memorized emotional and neutral faces. Subjects performed two sessions of face recognition: immediately after the fMRI session and three days later. Results: Repressors exhibited greater activation of frontal, parietal and temporal areas during encoding of angry faces compared to sensitizers. There were no differences in recognition of facial emotions between groups neither immediately after exposure nor after three days. Conclusions: The fMRI findings suggest that repressors manifest an enhanced neural processing of directly threatening facial expression which confirms the assumption of hyper-responsivity to threatening information in repression in an early processing stage. A discrepancy was observed between high neural activation in encoding-relevant brain areas in response to angry faces in repressors and no advantage in subsequent memory for these faces compared to sensitizers

Screening approach for identifying cocrystal types and resolution opportunities in complex chiral multicomponent systems

Cocrystallization of racemic-compound-forming chiral molecules can result in conglomerate cocrystals or diastereomerically related cocrystals, which enable the application of chiral separation techniques such as preferential crystallization and classic resolution. Here, a systematic method to identify the types and phase diagrams of cocrystals formed by chiral target compounds and candidate coformers in a particular solvent system is presented, which allows the design of suitable chiral resolution processes. The method is based on saturation temperature measurements of specific solution compositions containing both enantiomers of chiral molecules and a coformer. This method is applied to analyze three different systems. For racemic phenylalanine (Phe) in water/ethanol mixtures one of the enantiomers selectively cocrystallizes with the opposite enantiomer of valine (Val), forming the more stable diastereomerically related cocrystal. The racemic compound ibuprofen crystallizes with the nonchiral coformer 1,2-bis(4-pyridyl)ethane (BPN) as racemic compound cocrystals. More interestingly, when it is combined with trans-1-(2-pyridyl)-2-(4-pyridyl)ethylene (BPE), the racemic compound ibuprofen cocrystallizes as a conglomerate, which in principle enables the application of preferential crystallization of this racemic compound. The systematic method shows the benefit of using pseudo-binary phase diagrams. Such pseudo-binary phase diagrams depict the saturation temperature on a very specific route through the quaternary phase diagram, allowing the identification of various cocrystal types as well as the corresponding cocrystallization conditions. The systematic method can be used to identify a suitable solid phase for chiral separation, and the obtained phase diagram information enables the performance of a crystallization-mediated chiral resolution process design. Such a guideline for a chiral resolution process design has never been reported for conglomerate cocrystal systems such as IBU:BPE, presented in this study

Joint Entity Recognition and Linking in Technical Domains Using Undirected Probabilistic Graphical Models

ter Horst H, Hartung M, Cimiano P. Joint Entity Recognition and Linking in Technical Domains Using Undirected Probabilistic Graphical Models. In: Gracia J, Bond F, McCrae JP, Buitelaar P, Chiarcos C, Hellmann S, eds. Language, Data, and Knowledge (Proceedings of the 1st International LDK Conference). Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence. Vol 10318. Springer; 2017: 166-180.The problems of recognizing mentions of entities in texts and linking them to unique knowledge base identifiers have received considerable attention in recent years. In this paper we present a probabilistic system based on undirected graphical models that jointly addresses both the entity recognition and the linking task. Our framework considers the span of mentions of entities as well as the corresponding knowledge base identifier as random variables and models the joint assignment using a factorized distribution. We show that our approach can be easily applied to different technical domains by merely exchanging the underlying ontology. On the task of recognizing and linking disease names, we show that our approach outperforms the state-of-the-art systems DNorm and TaggerOne, as well as two strong lexicon-based baselines. On the task of recognizing and linking chemical names, our system achieves comparable performance to the state-of-the-art

Combining incompatible processes for deracemization of Praziquantel derivative under flow conditions

An efficient deracemization method for conversion of the racemate to the desirable (R)-enantiomer of Praziquantel has been developed by coupling incompatible racemization and crystallization processes. By a library approach, a derivative that crystallizes as a conglomerate has been identified. Racemization occurs via reversible hydrogenation over a palladium on carbon (Pd/C) packed column at 130 °C, whereas deracemization is achieved by alternating crystal growth/dissolution steps with temperature cycling between 5–15 °C. These incompatible processes are combined by means of a flow system resulting in complete deracemization of the solid phase to the desired (R)-enantiomer (98 % ee). Such an unprecedented deracemization by a decoupled crystallization/racemization approach can readily be turned into a practical process and opens new opportunities for the development of essential enantiomerically pure building blocks that require harsh methods for racemization

Language and memory for object location

In three experiments, we investigated the influence of two types of language on memory for object location: demonstratives (this, that) and possessives (my, your). Participants first read instructions containing demonstratives/possessives to place objects at different locations, and then had to recall those object locations (following object removal). Experiments 1 and 2 tested contrasting predictions of two possible accounts of language on object location memory: the Expectation Model (Coventry, Griffiths, & Hamilton, 2014) and the congruence account (Bonfiglioli, Finocchiaro, Gesierich, Rositani, & Vescovi, 2009). In Experiment 3, the role of attention allocation as a possible mechanism was investigated. Results across all three experiments show striking effects of language on object location memory, with the pattern of data supporting the Expectation Model. In this model, the expected location cued by language and the actual location are concatenated leading to (mis)memory for object location, consistent with models of predictive coding (Bar, 2009; Friston, 2003)

Chronic HIV infection induces transcriptional and functional reprogramming of innate immune cells

Chronic inflammation and immune dysfunction play a key role in the development of non-AIDS-related comorbidities. The aim of our study was to characterize the functional phenotype of immune cells in people living with HIV (PLHIV). We enrolled a cross-sectional cohort study of PLHIV on stable antiretroviral therapy and healthy controls. We assessed ex vivo cytokine production capacity and transcriptomics of monocytes and T cells upon bacterial, fungal, and viral stimulation. PLHIV exhibited an exacerbated proinflammatory profile in monocyte-derived cytokines, but not in lymphocyte-derived cytokines. Particularly, the production of the IL-1 beta to imiquimod, E. coli LPS, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis was increased, and this production correlated with plasma concentrations of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein and soluble CD14. This increase in monocyte responsiveness remained stable over time in subsequent blood sampling after more than 1 year. Transcriptome analyses confirmed priming of the monocyte IL-1 beta pathway, consistent with a monocyte-trained immunity phenotype. Increased plasma concentrations of beta-glucan, a well-known inducer of trained immunity, were associated with increased innate cytokine responses. Monocytes of PLHIV exhibited a sustained proinflammatory immune phenotype with priming of the IL-1 beta pathway. Training of the innate immune system in PLHIV likely plays a role in long-term HIV complications and provides a promising therapeutic target for inflammation-related comorbidities

The prognostic value of multivoxel magnetic resonance spectroscopy determined metabolite levels in white and grey matter brain tissue for adverse outcome in term newborns following perinatal asphyxia

Magnetic resonance spectroscopy can identify brain metabolic changes in perinatal asphyxia by providing ratios of metabolites, such as choline (Cho), creatine (Cr), N-acetyl aspartate (NAA) and lactate (Lact) [Cho/Cr, Lact/NAA, etc.]. The purpose of this study was to quantify the separate white and grey matter metabolites in a slab cranial to the ventricles and relate these to the outcome. A standard 2D-chemical shift imaging protocol was used for measuring a transverse volume of interest located cranial to the ventricles allowing for direct comparison of the metabolites in white and grey matter brain tissue in 24 term asphyxiated newborns aged 3 to 16 days. Cho, NAA and Lact showed significant differences between four subgroups of asphyxiated infants with more and less favourable outcomes. High levels of Cho and Lact in the grey matter differentiated non-survivors from survivors (P = 0.003 and P = 0.017, respectively). In perinatal asphyxia the levels of Cho, NAA and Lact in both white and grey matter brain tissue are affected. The levels of Cho and Lact measured in the grey matter are the most indicative of survival. It is therefore advised to include grey matter brain tissue in the region of interest examined by multivoxel MR spectroscopy. aEuro cent Magnetic resonance spectroscopy can identify brain metabolic changes in perinatal asphyxia. aEuro cent Choline and lactate levels in grey matter seem the best indicators of survival. aEuro cent Both grey and white matter should be examined during spectroscopy for perinatal asphyxia

Phagosomal removal of fungal melanin reprograms macrophage metabolism to promote antifungal immunity

Acknowledgements This work was supported by the Northern Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) (NORTE-01- 0145-FEDER-000013), the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) (SFRH/BD/136814/2018 to S.M.G., SFRH/BD/141127/2018 to C.D.O., PD/BD/137680/2018 to D.A., IF/00474/2014 to N.S.O., IF/01390/2014 to E.T., IF/00959/2014 to S.C., IF/00021/2014 to R.S., PTDC/SAU-SER/29635/2017 and CEECIND/04601/2017 to C.C., and CEECIND/03628/2017 to A.C.), the Institut Mérieux (Mérieux Research Grant 2017 to C.C.), and the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID Research Grant 2017 to A.C.). M.G.N. was supported by a Spinoza grant of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research. A.A.B. was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Collaborative Research Center/Transregio TR124 FungiNet (project A1). G.D.B. was funded by the Wellcome Trust (102705), the MRC Centre for Medical Mycology and the University of Aberdeen (MR/N006364/1).Peer reviewedPublisher PD